IN 1954!
The World Series is broadcast in color for the first time. NY Giants defeat Cleveland (4-0)
Robert Joffrey Ballet debuts.
IBM announces the development of an electronic brain for business use. Named it Bill Gates - nah, just kidding.
Sports Illustrated is born!
Another boon for sports fans - the first l6 oz beer can introduced by Schlitz, The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous!
"Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit" by Adele Davis, was an early entry into the health food movement.
A test program using sterilized males wipes out screwworm flies on the Caribbean island of Curacao in only 4 months.
(I swear, I found that item in my research.)
Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
French colonial rule in Vietnam weakens when Viet Minh rebels take Dien Bien Phu.
Vietnam is divided into northern and southern regions.
Brown v. Board of Education. Landmark school desegregation case.
On the Air! You'd find 2,487 AM radio, 560 FM radio and 349 TV Stations. (TV has doubled from 125 stations in 1953.)
Senator Joseph McCarthy accelerates his anti-Communist witch hunt with the nationally televised Army-McCarthy Hearings
and is formally censured by Congress.
Baseball legend Hank Aaron begins his career by joining the Milwaukee Braves.
Sun Myung Moon founds the Unification Church.
William Golding, who will proceed to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983, publishes his tale of the dark side
of human nature, The Lord of the Flies.
Ray Kroc gets his first look at the original McDonalds!
Hold the pickle! Hold the lettuce! The first Burger King opens.
Kraft introduces CRACKER BARREL® brand natural cheese.
Catholic Church declares watching Mass on TV does not fulfill obligations. Oh, pooh!
M&M's Peanut Chocolate Candies were introduced.Also, the universally loved M&M's Brand Characters and the famous
slogan, "The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand," slogan debuted.
The Butterball brand and the self-basting turkey are introduced. Through genetics, Swift develops a broad-breasted bird
without the tough tendons and uses a hot-water bath to remove feathers.
A 1953 incident where Eisenhower's aircraft was "Air Force 8610" and an Eastern Airlines plane was "8610" created the
need to devise a unique call sign. In 1954, the call sign "Air Force One" was classified to identify not only the president's
plane, but any plane when he was aboard.
J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is published.
Elvis Presley makes his first record.
Of the 94 million phones in the world, 52 million of them are in the US.
Chain supermarkets now account for two fifths of the food sold retail.
Iwo Jima Flag Raising memorial Statue is erected. Each figure is 32 feet high. The flagpole is 60 feet in length. It's
the world's tallest bronze statue. It's stands 78 feet high. A cloth flag flies from the pole. The inscription reads: "Uncommon
Valor was a Common Virtue."
Ellis Island, the immigration station in NY Harbor, is closed. Between 1892 and 1954, 12 million immigrants were processed
at Ellis Island.
Trix, 46.6 percent sugar, is introducd by General Mills.
The first nuclear submarine, The Nautilus, is launched.
Bazooka Joe comics were first introduced.
There is a 42% business failure rate.
A revolution in an aluminum tray! The TV Dinner.
Dr Sam Sheppard's wife Marilyn is murdered (he is accused of crime)
Play Doh.
Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson Motor Car Co. merge to form the American Motors Co.(AMC).
President Eisenhower introduces the phrase "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance, changing the phrase "one nation,
indivisible," to "one nation, under God, indivisible."
The first successful kidney transplant is performed in the U.S. by Harvard physicians. The patient will survive for seven
more years.
Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt April 17. On October 19, Nasser signs a treaty with the British under
which the British will withdraw from the Suez Canal Zone.
Canada and the United States agree to build a 3000-mile-long array of radar warning stations across northern Canada (the
DEW line - Distant Early Warning). The stations will warn the North American nations of airplanes or missiles approaching
over the Arctic.
Dr. Roger Bannister of England becomes the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes on May 6. His time is
3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.
General Electric introduces colored kitchen appliances. Bye, bye white!
A hydrogen (fusion) bomb is detonated March 1 on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
There are 35,586 motor vehicle related deaths. While in the air, there were 3 accidents resulting in 16 fatalities. A
good year to fly.
Unemployment is 5.6%.
U.S. GNP (Gross National Product) is $383.0 billion.
