What Happened in 1954

Major Events

  • Jan 7 Georgetown-IBM experiment, first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held at IBM's head office in New York
  • Feb 23 First mass inoculation against polio with the Jonas Salk vaccine takes place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Mar 1 US explodes Castle Bravo, a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll, which accidentally became the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the US
  • Mar 22 Northland Center, the world's largest shopping mall at the time, opens in Oakpark, Michigan
  • Apr 7 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in news conference is first to voice fear of a "domino-effect" of communism in Indo-China
  • Apr 18 Egyptian Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power and appoints himself Prime Minister
  • Apr 25 Bell labs announces the 1st solar battery made from silicon. It has about 6% efficiency.
  • Jun 27 1st atomic power station opens - Obninsk, near Moscow in Russia
  • Jul 21 Geneva Accords for Indochina signed, dividing French colonial territories into the countries of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the State of Vietnam (South Vietnam), Cambodia, and Laos
  • Aug 11 Formal peace treaty ends over 7 yrs of fighting in Indochina between the French and the Communist Viet Minh
  • Oct 10 Ho Chi Minh enters Hanoi after withdrawal of French troops
  • Nov 24 France sends 20,000 soldiers to Algeria
  • Dec 23 The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts
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1954 in Film & TV

1954 in Music

1954 in Sport

  • May 6 English athlete Roger Bannister becomes first to run a sub-4 minute mile, recording 3:59:4 at Iffley Road Track, Oxford
  • Sep 29 Willie Mays famous over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz' 460' drive during Game One of the World Series

Did You Know?

USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, launched on the Thames River in Connecticut

January 21, 1954


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Famous Weddings in 1954

Famous Divorces in 1954

  • Aug 18 Oscar-winning actress Susan Hayward (37) divorces actor Jess Barker (42) after nine years of marriage
  • Nov 1 Actor John Wayne (47) divorces actress Esperanza Baur (34) due to drunken violence after 8 years of marriage

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