1954 in the United States - wikipedia 1954 in the United States This list is incomplete ; you can help by expanding it. 1954 in the United States Years 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 Flag 48 stars ( 1912 -- 59 ) Timeline of United States history History of the United States ( 1945 -- 64 ) Events from the year 1954 in the United States. Contents 1 Incumbents 1.1 Federal Government 1.2 Governors 1.3 Lieutenant Governors 2 Events 2.1 January 2.2 February 2.3 March 2.4 April 2.5 May 2.6 June 2.7 July 2.8 August 2.9 September 2.10 October 2.11 November 2.12 December 2.13 Undated 2.14 Ongoing 3 Births 3.1 January 3.2 February 3.3 March 3.4 April 3.5 May 3.6 June 3.7 July 3.8 August 3.9 September 3.10 October 3.11 November 3.12 December 4 Deaths 5 See also 6 References 7 External links Incumbents Federal Government President : Dwight D. Eisenhower ( R - Kansas / New York ) Vice President : Richard Nixon ( R - California ) Chief Justice : Earl Warren ( California ) Speaker of the House of Representatives : Joseph William Martin, Jr. ( R - Massachusetts ) Senate Majority Leader : William F. Knowland ( R - California ) Congress : 83rd Governors and Lieutenant Governors Governors Governor of Alabama : Gordon Persons ( Democratic ) Governor of Arizona : John Howard Pyle ( Republican ) Governor of Arkansas : Francis Cherry ( Democratic ) Governor of California : Goodwin Knight ( Republican ) Governor of Colorado : Daniel I.J. Thornton ( Republican ) Governor of Connecticut : John Davis Lodge ( Republican ) Governor of Delaware : J. Caleb Boggs ( Republican ) Governor of Florida : Charley Eugene Johns ( Democratic ) Governor of Georgia : Herman Talmadge ( Democratic ) Governor of Idaho : Leonard B. Jordan ( Republican ) Governor of Illinois : William G. Stratton ( Democratic ) Governor of Indiana : George N. Craig ( Republican ) Governor of Iowa : until November 21 : William S. Beardsley ( Republican ) November 21 - November 22 : vacant starting November 22 : Leo Elthon ( Republican ) Governor of Kansas : Edward F. Arn ( Republican ) Governor of Kentucky : Lawrence W. Wetherby ( Democratic ) Governor of Louisiana : Robert F. Kennon ( Democratic ) Governor of Maine : Burton M. Cross ( Republican ) Governor of Maryland : Theodore R. McKeldin ( Republican ) Governor of Massachusetts : Christian A. Herter ( Republican ) Governor of Michigan : G. Mennen Williams ( Democratic ) Governor of Minnesota : C. Elmer Anderson ( Republican ) Governor of Mississippi : Hugh L. White ( Democratic ) Governor of Missouri : Phil M. Donnelly ( Democratic ) Governor of Montana : J. Hugo Aronson ( Republican ) Governor of Nebraska : Robert B. Crosby ( Republican ) Governor of Nevada : Charles H. Russell ( Republican ) Governor of New Hampshire : Hugh Gregg ( Republican ) Governor of New Jersey : Alfred E. Driscoll ( Republican ) ( until January 19 ), Robert B. Meyner ( Democratic ) ( starting January 19 ) Governor of New Mexico : Edwin L. Mechem ( Republican ) Governor of New York : Thomas Dewey ( Republican ) ( until end of December 31 ) Governor of North Carolina : William B. Umstead ( Democratic ) ( until November 7 ), Luther H. Hodges ( Democratic ) ( starting November 7 ) Governor of North Dakota : Clarence Norman Brunsdale ( Republican ) Governor of Ohio : Frank J. Lausche ( Democratic ) Governor of Oklahoma : Johnston Murray ( Democratic ) Governor of Oregon : Paul L. Patterson ( Republican ) Governor of Pennsylvania : John S. Fine ( Republican ) Governor of Rhode Island : Dennis J. Roberts ( Democratic ) Governor of South Carolina : James Francis Byrnes ( Democratic ) Governor of South Dakota : Sigurd Anderson ( Republican ) Governor of Tennessee : Frank G. Clement ( Democratic ) Governor of Texas : Allan Shivers ( Democratic ) Governor of Utah : J. Bracken Lee ( Republican ) Governor of Vermont : Lee E. Emerson ( Republican ) Governor of Virginia : John S. Battle ( Democratic ) ( until January 20 ), Thomas Bahnson Stanley ( Democratic ) ( starting January 20 ) Governor of Washington : Arthur B. Langlie ( Republican ) Governor of West Virginia : William C. Marland ( Democratic ) Governor of Wisconsin : Walter J. Kohler, Jr. ( Republican ) Governor of Wyoming : Clifford Joy Rogers ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governors Lieutenant Governor of Alabama : James B. Allen ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas : Nathan Green Gordon ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of California : Harold J. Powers ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Colorado : Gordon L. Allott ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut : Edward N. Allen ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Delaware : John W. Rollins ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Georgia : Marvin Griffin ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Idaho : Edson H. Deal ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois : John William Chapman ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana : Harold W. Handley ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa : Leo Elthon ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Kansas : Fred Hall ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky : Emerson Beauchamp ( political party unknown ) Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana : C.E. `` Cap '' Barham ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts : Sumner G. Whittier ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan : Clarence A. Reid ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota : vacant ( until month and day unknown ), Donald O. Wright ( Republican ) ( starting month and day unknown ) Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi : Carroll Gartin ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri : James T. Blair, Jr. ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Montana : George M. Gosman ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska : Charles J. Warner ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Nevada : Clifford A. Jones ( Democratic ) ( until December ), vacant ( starting December ) Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico : Tibo J. Chavez ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of New York : vacant Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina : Luther H. Hodges ( Democratic ) ( until November 7 ), vacant ( starting November 7 ) Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota : Clarence P. Dahl ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio : John William Brown ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma : James E. Berry ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania : Lloyd H. Wood ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island : John S. McKiernan ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina : George Bell Timmerman, Jr. ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota : Rex A. Terry ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee : Jared Maddux ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Texas : Ben Ramsey ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont : Joseph B. Johnson ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia : Allie Edward Stokes Stephens ( Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Washington : Emmett T. Anderson ( Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin : George M. Smith ( Republican ) Events January January 21 : USS Nautilus, the first nuclear - powered submarine January 14 -- Marilyn Monroe marries baseball player Joe DiMaggio. January 20 The U.S. - based National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations. Rogers Pass, Montana records the coldest temperature in the contiguous United States of − 70 ° F ( − 56.7 ° C ). January 21 -- The first nuclear - powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut, by First Lady of the United States Mamie Eisenhower. January 25 -- The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meet at the Berlin Conference. February February 10 -- After authorizing $385,000,000 over the $400,000,000 already budgeted for military aid to Vietnam, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam. February 23 -- The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. March March 1 -- U.S. officials announce that a hydrogen bomb test has been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. March 1 -- U.S. Capitol shooting incident : Four Puerto Rican nationalists open fire in the United States House of Representatives chamber and wound five people ; they are apprehended by security guards. March 9 -- American journalists Edward Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produce a 30 - minute See It Now documentary, entitled A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy. March 16 -- The Army -- McCarthy hearings are convened. March 19 -- Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory at Madison Square Garden, in the first televised boxing prize fight to be shown in color. March 25 -- The 26th Academy Awards ceremony is held. March 28 -- Puerto Rico 's first television station, WKAQ - TV, goes on the air. April 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 16 -- Vice President Richard Nixon announces that the United States may be `` putting our own boys in Indochina regardless of Allied support. '' April 22 -- Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being `` soft '' on Communism. May May 14 -- The Boeing 707 is released after about two years of development. May 17 -- Brown v. Board of Education ( 347 US 483 1954 ) : The United States Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are unconstitutional. June 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, saying, ' Have you, at long last, no decency ? '. June 14 -- The words `` under God '' are added to the United States Pledge of Allegiance. June 17 -- A CIA - engineered military coup occurs in Guatemala. June 27 -- Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán steps down in a CIA - sponsored military coup, triggering a bloody civil war that continues for more than thirty - five years. July July 1 -- The United States officially begins using the international unit of the nautical mile, equal to 6,076.11549 ft. or 1,852 meters. July 15 -- The maiden flight of the Boeing 367 - 80 ( or Dash 80 ), a prototype of the Boeing 707 series. July 19 -- Release of Elvis Presley 's first single, `` That 's All Right '', by Sun Records ( recorded July 5 in Memphis, Tennessee ). August August 16 -- The first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine is published in the United States. September September 3 -- The last new episode of The Lone Ranger is aired on radio, after 2,956 episodes over a period of twenty - one years. September 11 -- The Miss America Pageant is broadcast on television for the first time. September 30 -- The USS Nautilus, the first nuclear - powered submarine, is commissioned by the US Navy. October October 15 -- Hurricane Hazel makes U.S. landfall ; it is the only recorded Category 4 hurricane to strike as far north as North Carolina. October 18 -- Texas Instruments announces the development of the first transistor radio. November November 10 -- U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial ( Iwo Jima memorial ) in Arlington National Cemetery. November 12 -- The main immigration port of entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes. November 23 -- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 3.27 points, or 0.86 %, closing at an all - time high of 382.74. More significantly, this is the first time the Dow has surpassed its peak level reached just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929. November 30 -- In Sylacauga, Alabama, a 4 kg piece of the Hodges Meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and badly bruises a napping woman, in the first documented case of an object from outer space hitting a person. December December 1 -- The first Hyatt Hotel, The Hyatt House Los Angeles, opens. It is the first hotel in the world built outside of an airport. December 2 Red Scare : The United States Senate votes 67 -- 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for `` conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute. '' The Sino - American Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and Republic of China is signed. December 4 -- The first branch of Burger King opens in Miami, Florida, USA. December 21 -- The 6.5 M Eureka earthquake affected the north coast of California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII ( Very strong ). Several people were injured and one was killed, with $2.1 million in damage. December 23 -- The first successful kidney transplant is performed by Joseph E. Murray, MD in Boston from one identical twin to his brother. Murray would later share the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his `` ( discovery ) concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease ''. Undated Gerbils ( Meriones unguiculatus ) are brought to the United States by Dr. Victor Schwentker. New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine 's production of The Nutcracker is staged for the first time in New York, becoming an annual tradition there, still being performed there as of 2008. The Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race. ( Source / citation needed -- no evidence for this statement found until 1974 ) The TV dinner is introduced by the American entrepreneur Gerry Thomas. Ongoing Cold War ( 1945 -- 1991 ) Second Red Scare ( 1947 -- 1957 ) Births This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( November 2011 ) January January 1 -- Bob Menendez, United States Senator from New Jersey since 2006. January 23 -- Richard Finch, bass player, songwriter, and producer ( KC and the Sunshine Band ) January 29 -- Bill Evers, baseball player, coach, and manager February February 15 -- Matt Groening, author, cartoonist, producer and screenwriter February 16 -- Margaux Hemingway, fashion model, actress, and sister of Mariel Hemingway ( d. 1996 ) March April April 10 -- Peter MacNicol, actor. April 23 -- Michael Moore, filmmaker, writer, social critic, and activist. May May 4 -- Doug Jones, U.S. Senator from Alabama since 2018 May 8 -- Pam Arciero, puppeteer and voice actress May 12 -- Rafael Yglesias, novelist and screenwriter May 21 -- Janice Karman, film producer, record producer, singer, voice artist and wife of Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. May 29 -- Jerry Moran, United States Senator from Kansas since 2011. June June 25 -- Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2009. July July 25 -- Walter Payton, football running back who played for the Chicago Bears ( d. 1999 ) August September September 6 -- Carly Fiorina, businesswoman, CEO of Hewlett - Packard September 24 -- Ash Carter, 25th United States Secretary of Defense October October 3 -- Joe Gates, American baseball player and coach ( d. 2010 ) November November 12 -- Rob Lytle, American football player ( d. 2010 ) November 14 Anson Funderburgh, guitarist and bandleader Condoleezza Rice, first female African - American Secretary of State, in office from 2005 - 2009 December December 2 -- Stone Phillips, journalist and educator December 10 -- Gavin Smith, businessman ( d. 2012 ) December 15 -- Mark Warner, United States Senator from Virginia since 2009. Deaths This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( June 2016 ) January 5 -- Rabbit Maranville, baseball player ( b. 1891 ) February 6 -- Maxwell Bodenheim, poet and novelist, murdered ( b. 1892 ) September 28 -- Pat McCarran, Democratic United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until 1954 ( born 1876 ) Jeremiah Dublanc, Philadelphia businessman See also List of American films of 1954 Timeline of United States history ( 1950 -- 1969 ) References ^ Jump up to : `` On This Day '', New York Times, retrieved 25 August 2016 Jump up ^ s : Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of China Jump up ^ Dente, Christopher J. ( March 2005 ). `` Joseph E. Murray ( 1919 -- ) ''. Archives of Surgery. American Medical Association. External links Media related to 1954 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons Years in the United States ( 1776 -- present ) 18th century 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 19th century 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 20th century 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1984 1985 1986 21st century 2017 2018 2019 2020 1954 in North America Sovereign states Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States Dependencies and other territories Anguilla Aruba Bermuda Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Greenland Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten Turks and Caicos Islands United States Virgin Islands Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1954_in_the_United_States&oldid=824665942 '' Categories : 1954 in the United States Hidden categories : Incomplete lists from July 2014 Pages using div col without cols and colwidth parameters Pages using Columns - list with deprecated parameters ML Articles to be expanded from November 2011 All articles to be expanded Articles using small message boxes Articles to be expanded from June 2016 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Bân - lâm - gú Français עברית Edit links This page was last edited on 8 February 2018, at 19 : 11. 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Question: who was the president of the united states in 1954
Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower