The almanac
The 1954 Edition
Limited to about 100 million copies: the babies born worldwide in 1954. About 50 million are still in circulation.
Estimates from the UN World Population Prospects 2024. How we count
What happened in 1954
- Bell Labs showed a practical solar cellResearchers demonstrated a silicon cell that turned sunlight into useful electric power.April 25 · Source: American Physical Society, APS News
- First mile run under four minutesRoger Bannister ran 3 minutes 59.4 seconds at Oxford's Iffley Road track.May 6 · Source: Guinness World Records
- A total solar eclipse crossed three continentsThe Moon's shadow swept from North America through Europe and on to Asia.June 30 · Source: BBC On This Day
- K2 climbed for the first timeItalian climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli reached the top of the world's second-highest peak.July 31 · Source: EBSCO Research Starters
- Hitchcock's Rear Window openedJames Stewart played a laid-up photographer spying on his neighbors in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller.August 1 · Source: Box Office Mojo
- The Tonight Show premieredSteve Allen hosted the first night of NBC's long-running late-night show.September 27 · Source: EBSCO Research Starters
- Ellis Island closed its doorsNew York's famous immigration station shut down after 62 years.November 12 · Source: BBC On This Day
Famous people born in 1954
- Oprah WinfreyAmerican talk show host, actress, producer, and author · born January 29
- James CameronCanadian filmmaker and explorer · born August 16
- Kazuo IshiguroBritish novelist · born November 8
- John TravoltaAmerican actor · born February 18
- Denzel WashingtonAmerican actor · born December 28
- Ang LeeTaiwanese film director, screenwriter and producer · born October 23
- Kailash SatyarthiIndian Social Worker · born January 11
- John Michael TalbotAmerican Roman Catholic singer-songwriter · born May 8
From Wikidata, ranked by how many Wikipedia languages write about them. Spotted a mistake?
If you were born in 1954
- Older than DisneylandDisneyland opened in Anaheim, California on July 17, 1955.
- Older than Elvis on The Ed Sullivan ShowElvis Presley made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 9, 1956.
- Older than SputnikThe Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957.
- Older than the LEGO brickThe LEGO Group filed the patent for the modern interlocking LEGO brick on January 28, 1958.
- Younger than the first climb of EverestEdmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.
- Younger than the DNA double helixWatson and Crick's paper describing the double-helix structure of DNA was published in Nature on April 25, 1953.
- Younger than PeanutsThe Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz first appeared, in seven US newspapers on October 2, 1950.