See:
Wikipedia.
Events:
January - Playboy magazine issue features Margie Harrison, the first playmate.
January 7 - The first public demonstration of a machine translation system was held in
New York at the head office of IBM.
January 14 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the
American Motors Corporation. Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio.
January 20 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member
radio stations.
January 21 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in
Groton, Connecticut, by Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
January 25 - The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet
Union meet at the Berlin Conference.
February 10 - President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention
in Vietnam.
February 23 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
February 25 - Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser is made premier of Egypt.
March 1 - Nuclear testing: Officials announce that an American hydrogen bomb test had
been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
March 1 - Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, injuring
five Representatives.
March 1 - the city Namerikawa, located in Toyama, Japan is founded.
March 4 - Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston announces the first successful
kidney transplant.
March 9 - McCarthyism: CBS broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on
Senator Joseph McCarthy," produced by Edward R. Murrow.
March 13 - Battle of Dien Bien Phu: Viet Minh forces attack French.
March 19 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square
Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
March 22 - The London gold market reopens (it was closed in 1939).
March 30 - Canada's first subway opens in Toronto.
April 1 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States
Air Force Academy in Colorado.
April 7 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his"domino theory" speech during a news conference.
April 22 - Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army
for being "soft" on Communism.
May 1 - Taku (city in Japan) founded.
May 6 - Roger Bannister runs the first four minute mile.
May 7 - Construction started on Michigan's Mackinac Bridge.
May 7 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the
battle began on March 13).
May 17 - US Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education
of Topeka, Kansas 347 US 483 1954.
May 20 - Chiang Kai-shek is reelected president of the Republic of China by the
National Assembly.
June 9 - McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army,
lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has
infiltrated the Army.
June 15 - UEFA (the Union des Associations Européennes de Football) is formed
in Basle, Switzerland.
June 19 - The last regular-service streetcar operated by Twin City Rapid Transit runs
in Minneapolis.
June 27 - Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán steps down in a CIA-sponsored
military coup-Operation PBSUCCESS-triggering a bloody civil war that would continue
for more than 35 years.
July 7 - In Memphis, Tennessee, WHBQ becomes the first radio station to air an
Elvis Presley record.
July 21 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North
Vietnam and South Vietnam.
July 28 - Foundation of the Situationist International.
July 31 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition.
August - First flight of a B-52 Stratofortress.
August 6 - Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets, dies of asphyxiation following
a epileptic seizure at Sainte Agathe, Quebec.
August 16 - Volume 1, Issue 1 of Sports Illustrated is published.
September 3 - The last new episode of the Lone Ranger is aired on radio after 2,956
episodes over a period of 21 years.
September 8 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.
September 11 - First Miss America Pageant broadcast on television.
September 14 - USSR Tests Nuclear Weapon.
September 30 - USS Nautilus, 1st atomic-powered vessel (submarine),
commissioned by the US Navy.
October 11 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.
October 31 - Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front
begins a revolt against French rule.
November 3 - The first in the Godzilla series of films is released in Japan.
November 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial
(Iwo Jima memorial} in Arlington National Cemetery.
November 29 - The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island
closes (the facility processed more than 20 million immigrants from 1892 to this day).
November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, an 8.5 pound sulfide meteorite crashes through
a roof and hits a Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio,
giving her a bad bruise (this is the first known modern case of a human being hit
by a space rock).
December 2 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 67 to 22 to condemn Joseph
McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
December 24 - Laos becomes independent.
Unknown date:
Battle of Dien Bien Phu between French and Viet Minh forces in Indochina.
Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race.
Stop signs are changed from black-on-yellow to white-on-red
Bold text.
Births:
January 6 -
Anthony Minghella, director.
January 12 -
Howard Stern, "shock-jock" radio host.
January 20 -
Lena van Zuidam.
January 22 -
Peter Pilz, Austrian politician.
January 29 -
Oprah Winfrey, actress, talk show host, producer, publisher.
February 1 -
Bill Mumy, actor, musician.
February 2 -
Christie Brinkley, model.
February 3 -
Anna Josephina van den Houten.
February 6 -
Argusto Emfazie, occultist, author.
February 12 -
Philip Zimmermann, American cryptographer.
February 15 -
Matt Groening, cartoonist.
February 18 -
John Travolta, actor.
February 19 -
Socrates, football player.
February 20 -
Anthony Stewart Head, actor.
February 20 -
Patty Hearst, socialite.
February 25 -
John Doe, musician.
February 26 -
Michael Bolton, singer.
March 1 -
Ron Howard, actor, director, producer.
March 4 -
Catherine O'Hara, actress.
March 13 -
Baroness Amos, British politician, first black woman in the UK Cabinet.
March 16 -
Nancy Wilson (guitarist), band founder, singer, actress.
March 17 -
Lesley-Anne Down, actress.
March 24 -
Robert Carradine, actor (Revenge of the Nerds, Lizzie McGuire).
March 29 -
Dirksje Adriana van den Houten.
April 1 -
Maria Cornelia van den Houten.
April 7 -
Jackie Chan, actor.
April 7 -
Tony Dorsett, American football star.
April 9 -
Dennis Quaid, actor (The Right Stuff, Any Given Sunday, Traffic).
April 10 -
Peter MacNicol, actor (Ghostbusters II, Ally McBeal).
April 17 -
Riccardo Patrese, Italian racing driver.
April 18 -
Rick Moranis, actor, comedian.
April 29 -
Jerry Seinfeld, comedian.
May 7 -
Amy Heckerling, director.
May 8 -
David Keith, actor.
June 5 -
Aleida Wilhelmina Catharina (Ada) Nijkamp.
June 22 -
Freddie Prinze, actor/comedian (d. 1977).
June 27 -
Ron Kirk, former mayor of Dallas, Texas.
July 1 -
Wendy Ressing, Trade Show Exhibit Sales Guru, Artist.
July 10 -
Neil Tennant, British musician.
August 11 -
Joe Jackson, British singer.
August 14 -
Mark Fidrych, baseball pitcher.
August 16 -
James Cameron, film director.
August 20 -
Al Roker, television broadcaster.
September 1 -
Johanna Cornelia van den Houten.
September 15 -
Jo-An Maclean, Building Aide/Westerly School Department, wife of
Westerly Fire Department Treasurer, Frank Pasetti.
September 23 -
Cherie Booth QC, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
September 30 -
Barry Williams, actor (The Brady Bunch).
October 1 -
Martin Strel, Slovene ultra marathon swimmer.
October 3 -
Dennis Eckersley, baseball pitcher.
October 9 -
Scott Bakula, American television actor (Quantum Leap, Star Trek: Enterprise).
October 13 -
Pieter Cornelis van den Houten.
November 14 -
Condoleezza Rice, US National Security Advisor (2001-present).
November 15 -
Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland.
December 2 -
Dan Butler, actor.
December 6 -
Maatje Jannetje Pieternella van den Houten.
December 14 -
Michiel Brandjes.
December 20 -
Michael Badalucco, actor (The Practice).
December 26 -
Susan Butcher, American dog-sled racing champion.
December 27 -
Robert Willem Geerlings.
December 29 -
Antonius Robertus van den Houten.
Deaths:
January 18 -
Sydney Greenstreet, actor.
February 12 -
Dziga Vertov, filmmaker.
March 15 -
Adriana van den Houten.
April 22 -
Jacob van den Houten.
May 6 -
B.C. Forbes, financial publisher.
May 19 -
Charles Ives, American composer.
June 7 -
Alan Turing, mathematician.
July 13 -
Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter.
July 29 -
Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater.
August 24 -
Getúlio Vargas, brazilian president.
September 1 -
Neeltje Johanna Janse.
September 21 -
Kokichi Mikimoto, pearl farm pioneer.
September 29 -
Elisabeth Ruit.
November 3 -
Henri Matisse, painter.
November 4 -
Elisabeth van den Houten.
November 29 -
Enrico Fermi, physicist.
November 29 -
Dink Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1892).
November 30 -
Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor.
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