1954 (MCMLIV) was .

Events
October 18 – Texas Instruments announces the worldwide first transistor radio.

Births
January 6 - Anthony Minghella, British movie director (d. 2008)
January 9 - Lance Hoppen, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans)
January 23 - Richard Finch, American bass guitarist (KC & the Sunshine Band)
January 29 – Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host
February 7 - Dieter Bohlen, German music mogul
February 15 - Matt Groening, American creator of The Simpsons and Futurama
February 16 - Iain Banks, Scottish writer
February 18 - John Travolta, American actor
February 20 - Patty Hearst, American heiress
February 21 - Ivo van Damme, Belgian athlete (d. 1976)
March 1 – Ron Howard, American actor, director
March 1 - Catherine Bach, American actress
March 25 - Miran Anes, Albanian politician and judge (d. 2012)
April 1 - Jeff Porcaro, American drummer (Toto) (d. 1992)
April 11 - Abdullah Atalar, Turkish academic
April 19 - Trevor Francis, English footballer
April 23 – Michael Moore, documentary movie maker
April 23 – Tony Atlas, American professional wrestler
April 28 - Mary Jo Randle, British actress
May 8 - Clive Wood, British actor
May 13 - Johnny Logan, Irish singer
May 17 - David Zippel, American lyricist
May 20 - David Paterson, former Governor of New York
May 21 - Janice Karman, American voice actress
June 20 - Michael Anthony, American bass guitarist (Van Halen)
June 25 - David Paich, American keyboardist (Toto)
June 30 - Serzh Sargsyan, President of Armenia
July 17 - Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
July 28 - Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela (d. 2013)
July 28 - Gerd Faltings, German mathematician
August 12 - Francois Hollande, President of France
August 15 - Stieg Larsson, Swedish writer (d. 2004)
August 16 - George Galloway, British politician
August 25 – Elvis Costello, British singer
September 21 - Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan
September 30 - Mitch Lewis, Canadian multi-instrumentalist
October 9 – Scott Bakula, actor
October 10 - David Lee Roth, American singer (Van Halen)
November 1 - László Kerekes, drijor and Hungarian composer
November 14 - Condoleezza Rice, former United States Secretary of State
December 15 - Zivko Jovanović, Serbian politician and judge
December 20 - László Levin, politician Hungarian (d. 2009)
December 25 - Annie Lennox, Scottish singer (Eurythmics)
December 28 - Denzel Washington, American actor
December 29 – Albrecht Böttcher, German mathematician
December 30 - Pnina Rosenblum, Israeli business woman and politician
December 31 - Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland
December 31 - Hermann Tilke, German racing circuit designer

Deaths
May 19 – Charles Ives, American composer
June 7 – Alan Turing, mathematician
 June 9 - Alain LeRoy Locke, American writer
July 13 – Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter
August 6 – Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets
November 3 – Henri Matisse, painter
November 29 – Enrico Fermi, physicist

Movies released
Devil Girl from Mars
On the Waterfront
Rear Window
The Seven Samurai
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 movie)
Godzilla

Hit songs
Sh-Boom – Crew Cuts

New books 
The Acrobats – Mordecai Richler
Benton's Row – Frank Yerby
The Bridge on the River Kwai (Le pont de la rivière Kwai) – Pierre Boulle
The Caves of Steel – Isaac Asimov
The Egyptian –  Mika Waltari
Explorers on the Moon- Hergé
Histoire d'O  (Story of O) – Pauline Réage
The Horse and His Boy – C. S. Lewis
I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
Ideas and Opinions – Albert Einstein
Katherine – Anya Seton
Live and Let Die – Ian Fleming
Lord of the Flies – William G. Golding
The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers – J. R. R. Tolkien
Love Is Eternal – Irving Stone
Lucky Jim – Kingsley Amis
Mandarins – Simone de Beauvoir
Mary Anne – Daphne du Maurier
Nectar in a Sieve – Kamala Markandaya
Never Victorious, Never Defeated – Taylor Caldwell
No Time for Sergeants – Mac Hyman
Not as a Stranger – Morton Thompson
The Royal Box – Frances Parkinson Keyes
Sayonara – James A. Michener
Sweet Thursday – John Steinbeck
Under Milk Wood (Poetry) – Dylan Thomas
Under the Net – Iris Murdoch
The View from Pompey's Head – Hamilton Basso

Related pages

1954 in association football