January 1954

1954

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<<	January 1954					>>
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
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24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

January 12, 1954: Damage from the Blons avalanches in Austria.

The following events occurred in January 1954:

January 1, 1954 (Friday)

• The Soviet Union ceased to demand war reparations from Germany.^{[ citation needed ]}
• According to a 1953 press statement by Bolesław Bierut, General Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, Poland renounced all claims to war reparations from Germany as of January 1, 1954. As of 2022 ^[update] , however, the position of the Polish government is that Poland did not renounce its claim to reparations. ^[1]

January 3, 1954 (Sunday)

• The Italian broadcaster RAI officially began transmitting. ^[2]
• In the United States, the last steam-driven passenger train left Washington Union Station for Richmond, Virginia.^{[ citation needed ]}
• Born: Ned Lamont, American politician, Governor of Connecticut, in Washington, D.C. ^[3]

January 4, 1954 (Monday)

• Born: Tina Knowles, US fashion designer, in Galveston, Texas ^[4]

January 5, 1954 (Tuesday)

• Died:
  • Rabbit Maranville, 62, US baseball player (Boston Braves) ^[5]
  • Lillian Rich, 54, English actress ^[6]

January 6, 1954 (Wednesday)

• A Royal Air Force Vickers Valetta T3 training aircraft, carrying members of a rugby team, crashed at Albury, Hertfordshire, UK, in bad weather. Two of the 17 people on board were rescued, but only one survived. ^[7]

January 7, 1954 (Thursday)

• The Georgetown–IBM experiment, the first public demonstration of a machine translation system (from Russian to English), took place in New York. ^[8]

January 8, 1954 (Friday)

• Died: Eduard Wiiralt, 55, Estonian artist ^[9]

January 10, 1954 (Sunday)

The BOAC Flight 781 accident aircraft

• BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland Comet jet plane, disintegrated in mid-air due to metal fatigue and crashed in the Mediterranean near Elba, killing all 35 people on board. ^[10]

January 11, 1954 (Monday)

• Avalanches in Vorarlberg, Austria killed 125 people. The avalanches lasted 2 days. ^[11]
• Died:
  • John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, 80, British politician ^[12]
  • Oscar Straus, 83, Austrian composer ^[13]

January 12, 1954 (Tuesday)

• Died:
  • William H. P. Blandy, 63, American admiral ^[14]
  • Elmer H. Geran, 78, American politician ^[15]

January 14, 1954 (Thursday)

January 1954: Newlyweds Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe

• Marilyn Monroe married baseball player Joe DiMaggio. ^[16]
• Born: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, American professional wrestler, in Glens Falls, New York

January 15, 1954 (Friday)

• British troops captured Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote in Kenya. ^[17]
• Born: Rashad al-Alimi, Yemeni politician, Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, in Taiz Governorate, Yemen ^[18]

January 17, 1954 (Sunday)

• Milovan Djilas was removed from his position as President of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia after 22 days.^{[ citation needed ]}
• Born: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., American lawyer and activist, 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, in Washington, D.C.

January 18, 1954 (Monday)

• Died: Sydney Greenstreet, 74, English actor ^[19]

January 19, 1954 (Tuesday)

• A lunar eclipse occurred. ^[20]
• Born: Yumi Matsutōya, Japanese singer-songwriter, in Hachiōji, suburb of Tokyō^{[ citation needed ]}

January 20, 1954 (Wednesday)

Part of the opening ceremony for the Marunouchi Line at Ikebukuro Station

• The Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, the second line in the system and the first built after World War II, was opened between Ikebukuro and Ochanomizu stations.^{[ citation needed ]}
• Chicago businessman W. Leonard Evans Jr. established the US-based National Negro Network with forty-six member radio stations.^{[ citation needed ]}
• Died: Fred Root, 63, English cricketer ^[21]
• The coldest temperature recorded in the contiguous United States is recorded at Rogers Pass, Montana. The temperature officially reached -69.7 °F (-56.5 °C), but is often rounded to -70 °F (-56.7 °C).

January 21, 1954 (Thursday)

• The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), was launched in Groton, Connecticut, by First Lady of the United States Mamie Eisenhower. ^[22]

January 22, 1954 (Friday)

• Died: Princess Margaret of Prussia,81, granddaughter of Queen Victoria Who married Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and the King-elect of Finland. ^[23]

January 25, 1954 (Monday)

• The foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union met at the Berlin Conference, which would last until February 18. Its purpose was to discuss a settlement to the recent Korean War and the ongoing First Indochina War between France and the Viet Minh. ^[24]

January 28, 1954 (Thursday)

• Born:
  • Bruno Metsu, French football coach (d. 2013) ^[25]
  • Kaneto Shiozawa, Japanese voice actor (d. 2000) ^[26]

January 29, 1954 (Friday)

• Born:
  • Christian Bjelland IV, Norwegian businessman and art collector ^[27]
  • Terry Kinney, American actor and director ^[28]
  • Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, and producer, founded Harpo Productions ^[29]
  • Yukinobu Hoshino, Japanese cartoonist ^[30]

January 30, 1954 (Saturday)

• Died:
  • John Murray Anderson, 67, Canadian theater director and producer ^[31]
  • Dorothy Price, 63, Irish physician, stroke ^[32]

January 31, 1954 (Sunday)

• Died:
  • Florence Bates, 65, American actress ^[33]

References

1. Piątkowski, Mateusz (9 September 2022). "The legal questions behind Poland's claim for war reparations from Germany". Notes From Poland. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
2. "Il 1954 IN ITALIA" [1954 IN ITALY]. Ribolla 2004 (in Italian). 2004. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
3. Ahuja, Sunil; Dewhirst, Robert E. (2007). The Roads to Congress 2006. Nova Science. ISBN   9781600218323 – via Google Books.
4. "Person Details for Celestine Knowles, "United States Public Records, 1970-2009"". FamilySearch.org . Retrieved 27 August 2017.
5. "Rabbit Maranville Dies at 62; Sparkplug of '14 'Miracle' Braves". Brooklyn Eagle . Vol. 113, no. 5. 6 January 1954. pp. 1, 15.
6. "Lillian Rich". Turner Classic Movies, Inc. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
7. "The Navigation School Accident". Flight International : 83. 15 January 1954.
8. "701 Translator". 701 Reference room. IBM Archives. 8 January 1954. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
9. The Yale University Library Gazette. Yale University Library. 1978. p. 159 – via Google Books.
10. "de Havilland DH-106 Comet 1". Lessons Learned From Transport Airplane Accidents. Federal Aviation Administration. 27 January 2012. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
11. "BLONS IN VORARLBERG, AUSTRIA - 60 YEARS SUSTAINABLE AVALANCHE PROTECTION, EXPERIENCE, SETBACKS AND LESSONS LEARNED" (PDF). arc.lib.montana.edu. Retrieved 9 Oct 2025.
12. "Mr John Simon (Hansard)". UK Parliament . Retrieved 5 November 2022.
13. Notice de personne "Straus, Oscar (1870-1954)" [Person notice "Straus, Oscar (1870-1954)"] (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
14. "Blandy, William H. P." Naval History and Heritage Command . Retrieved 4 November 2022.
15. "GERAN, Elmer Hendrickson 1875 – 1954". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress . Retrieved 6 November 2022.
16. Spoto, Donald (2001). Marilyn Monroe: The Biography. Cooper Square Press. p. 260. ISBN   978-0-8154-1183-3 . Retrieved 4 November 2022– via Internet Archive.
17. "The Mau Mau general who stopped Amin in his tracks". Nation. Nation Media Group. 27 March 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
18. "السيرة الذاتية".
19. Donnelley, Paul (2003). Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries. Music Sales Group. p. 295. ISBN   9780711995123 . Retrieved 1 April 2017– via Google Books.
20. "Saros Series of Lunar Eclipses".
21. "Fred Root". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack . John Wisden & Co. 1955. Retrieved 4 November 2022– via ESPNcricinfo.
22. "Nautilus IV (SSN-571)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships . Naval History and Heritage Command. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
23. children of Empire p.36. ISBN   9781800460720.
24. van Dijk, Rund (2008). Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Taylor & Francis. p. 51. ISBN   978-0-415-97515-5.
25. "Fiche de Bruno Metsu (???), l'actu le palmares et les stats de Bruno Metsu". L'Équipe. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
26. "Shiozawa, Kaneto, 1954-2000". LC Name Authority File (LCNAF). Library of Congress . Retrieved 5 November 2022.
27. Bolstad, Erik, ed. (9 September 2021). "Christian Bjelland". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Retrieved 4 November 2022.
28. "Terry Kinney - Broadway Cast & Staff". Internet Broadway Database . The Broadway League . Retrieved 4 November 2022.
29. Notice de personne "Winfrey, Oprah (1954-....)" [Person notice "Winfrey, Oprah (1954-....)"] (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. 2 December 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
30. Clements, Jonathan (12 September 2022). "Hoshino Yukinobu". In Clute, John; Langford, David (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Web ed.). SFE Ltd/Ansible Editions . Retrieved 4 November 2022.
31. "John Murray Anderson - Broadway Cast & Staff". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
32. "The 1916 Diary of Dorothy Stopford Price". About Dorothy Price. Trinity College Dublin. Archived from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
33. Erickson, Hal. "Florence Bates | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie, Netaktion LLC. Retrieved 4 November 2022.