# March 1954
## 1954

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    February
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    December
The following events occurred in March 1954:

## March 1, 1954 (Monday)

* U.S. officials announced that a hydrogen bomb nuclear test (Castle Bravo) had been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean as part of Operation Castle.
* U.S. Capitol shooting: Four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire in the United States House of Representatives chamber and wounded five; they were apprehended by security guards.
* Born:
** Catherine Bach, American actress
** Ron Howard, American film director, producer and actor

## March 2, 1954 (Tuesday)

* Born: Hunt Sales, musician

## March 3, 1954 (Wednesday)

* Born:
** Keith Fergus, American professional golfer
** Robert Gossett, American actor
** John Lilley, American musician

## March 4, 1954 (Thursday)

* Born:
** François Fillon, Prime Minister of France (2007-2012)
** Ricky Ford, American jazz musician
** Peter Jacobsen, American professional golfer
** Boris Moiseev, Russian singer (d. 2022)
** Ray Troll, American artist
** Anne Van Lancker, Belgian politician

## March 7, 1954 (Sunday)

* Born:
** Mike Armstrong (baseball), American baseball player
** Will Grant, American football player
** Nyls Nyman, American baseball player
** Carol M. Swain, American political scientist
** Jasmina Tešanović, Serbian author and political activist
* Died:
** Otto Diels, 78, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
** Will H. Hays, 74, namesake for the Hays Code

## March 8, 1954 (Monday)

* Born:
** Cheryl Baker, British singer and television presenter
** Karl Schnabl, Austrian Olympic ski jumper
** David Wilkie, Scottish Olympic swimmer
* Died:
** Lawrence Townsend, 93, American diplomat

## March 9, 1954 (Tuesday)

* American journalists Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produced a 30-minute See It Now documentary, entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy".
* Born:
** Bobby Sands, Irish republican hunger striker (d. 1981)
* Died:
** Vagn Walfrid Ekman, 79, Swedish oceanographer
** Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, 41, German astronomer

## March 12, 1954 (Friday)

* Finland and Germany officially ended their state of war.

## March 13, 1954 (Saturday)

* First Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu began, involving the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Việt Minh Communist fighters.
* Died: César Klein, 77, German Expressionist painter

## March 19, 1954 (Friday)

* Joey Giardello knocked out Willie Tory at Madison Square Garden, in the first televised boxing prize fight to be shown in color.

## March 23, 1954 (Tuesday)

* In Vietnam, the Viet Minh captured the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu. The remaining French Army units there were partially isolated.

## March 25, 1954 (Thursday)

* The 26th Academy Awards ceremony was held.
* RCA manufactured the first color television set (12-inch screen; price: $1,000).
* The Soviet Union recognised the sovereignty of East Germany. Soviet troops remained in the country.

## March 26, 1954 (Friday)

* Born: Kazuhiko Inoue, Japanese voice actor
* Died: Louis Silvers, 64, American film composer

## March 27, 1954 (Saturday)

* The Castle Romeo nuclear test explosion was executed.

## March 28, 1954 (Sunday)

* Puerto Rico's first television station, WKAQ-TV, commenced broadcasting.
* The trial of A. L. Zissu and 12 other Zionist leaders ended with harsh sentences in Communist Romania.
* The British troopship HMT Empire Windrush suffered an engine-room explosion and fire. Four crew were killed but 1494 crew and passengers were saved. The abandoned ship sank two days later.
* Egyptian protests in The Republic of Egypt against democracy.
* Born:
** Bill Bourne, Canadian musician (d. 2022)
** Arthur Frederick Goode III, American murderer (d. 1984)

## March 29, 1954 (Monday)

* A C-47 transport with French nurse Geneviève de Galard on board was wrecked on the runway at Dien Bien Phu.
* Born: Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (d. 1985)

## March 30, 1954 (Tuesday)

* Toronto subway: The first operational subway line in Canada.
* Died: Horatio Dresser, 88, American writer

## March 31, 1954 (Wednesday)

* Born: Tony Brock, British musician