• Politics: Brown v. Board of Education legally ended “separate but equal” school segregation in the US.
• The biggest Songs include Sh-boom by The Chords, Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes, and Oh! My Pa-Pa (O Mein Papa) by Eddie Fisher
• The Big Movies included Rear Window, White Christmas, and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
• Price of Living room set in 1954: $189.95
  Philco Air Conditioner: $199.00
• The World Population was ~ 2,772,000,000
• Sports: Roger Bannister becomes the first man to break the four-minute mile, at 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
• And… The 1954 book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson has had three movie adaptations. The Omega Man (1971), The Last Man on Earth (1964), and I Am Legend (2007).

“Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”
– M&Ms

“You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.”
– Marlon Brando, in ‘On The Waterfront.’

“Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.”
– Winston Cigarettes

April 11, 1954, may have been the most boring day in history. The most noteworthy events of that day included a general election in Belgium and the birth of a Turkish academic.

The phrase “under God” wasn’t part of the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954, and its adoption was largely due to pressure from the Knights of Colombus and nationwide concerns about ‘godless communism.’

Roger Bannister was the first human to run a mile in less than four minutes (3:59) on May 6th. Mr. Bannister stopped running shortly after that and became a neurologist. He was knighted (for his neurologist work) in 1975.

The Ivy League isn’t what it seems. It was created in 1954 for football, and people assume it is old because of the individual schools.

In 1660, a 70-year-old British man named William Harrison went missing. Three suspects were hanged for murder despite the lack of a body. The man arrived a year later, claiming to have been abducted by pirates. This judicial mistake led England to adopt the “no body, no murder” rule, which lasted up until 1954.

Philly-born pool player Willie Mosconi sunk 526 pool balls, without missing, in Springfield, Ohio. No one has come close to breaking that record.

The first 7 seasons of the Walt Disney anthology series (begun in 1954) were filmed in color so that when color TV became more common, they could air colored versions of earlier episodes for reruns.

Then Vice-President Richard Nixon broke the original ivory gavel that had been in use by the Senate since 1789. #oopsie

Paul Newman was so ashamed of his role in The Silver Chalice that when the movie was due to make its television debut, he bought a magazine ad to apologize for his performance and to warn people away from it. He later called it “the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s”.

Royal Crown Soda was the first company to sell soft drinks in a can, and later the first to sell a soft drink in an aluminum can.

Salt of the Earth was the US’s first/only film blacklisted in 1954.

John W. Backus created the FORTRAN computer language.

Before 1954, it was popular opinion that the human body could not run a mile in under 4 minutes.

The Fast and the Furious movie series is “loosely” based on a 1954 film called The Fast and the Furious.

In late 1954, and early 1955, Edgar Hetteen and David Johnson started making and selling their Polaris snowmobiles.

Although it started as a fruit-packing business in 1947, Tropicana owner Anthony Rossi developed a ‘flash pasteurization’ process that made OJ more easily transported fresh across the country.

Elvis Presley played his first and only show at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. Management subsequently kicked him out of the venue because they didn’t like how he played country music.

Before 1954, Thanksgiving turkeys were supplied by the local farmer or butcher, but Frank Swift’s well-bred, larger-than-typical Butterball turkeys changed everything.

The Piña Colada was invented in Puerto Rico in 1954 at the Caribe Hilton

Many of the world’s elite, from politicians to academia, industry, and the media, have met annually behind closed doors at Bilderberg Conferences since 1954.

Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke won his place in the Guinness Book of World Records for drinking 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds.

John Stapp strapped himself to a rocket sled, accelerated to 632 MPH in 5 seconds, and then decelerated to 0 MPH in 1.4 seconds. He experienced 46.2 G’s. He went temporarily blind and experienced two black eyes from his eyeballs, having been shot so far forward.

Archaeologists excavating an 8th-century Viking settlement in Sweden found a Buddha statuette from India.

The famous “rock” opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark was lifted from a 1954 Scrooge McDuck comic book.

American surgeon Joseph Murray completed the first successful organ transplant when he moved a living kidney from one identical twin to the other. The operation took about 4 hours.

The city of Bombay, India, had such a bad rat problem that they began accepting dead rats in place of taxes. Of course, this led to the mass breeding and killing of rats to use them for payment.

Lester Callaway Hunt, a US Senator, Sr. (D), committed suicide at his Capitol Hill desk after being blackmailed for his son’s homosexuality.

The FCC banned TV/radio media from releasing tornado warnings until 1954, when Harry Volkman broadcast the first televised tornado warning in Oklahoma City, due to his belief the ban was costing lives.

Ann Hodges is the only verified person in history who was hit by a meteorite and survived. The Sylacauga meteorite fell on November 30, 1954.

The flag of Bikini Atoll includes three black stars for the islands vaporized by the United States in 1954 during the Operation Castle nuclear tests. These tests may have been responsible for Godzilla‘s birth.

The first film to use the iconic shot of an army coming into view as they crest a hilltop was 1954’s Seven Samurai.

The CIA financed and re-wrote the animated film version of Animal Farm.

1954 Canadian Bank Notes Had a ‘Devil’s Face’ In the Queen’s Hair and Had to Be Discontinued Because of It

A Japanese trawler was caught in the fallout of the Castle Bravo nuclear test, killing its radioman, Aikichi Kuboyama. His last words were, “I pray that I am the last victim of an atomic or hydrogen bomb.”

Maurice Tillet, the inspiration for the character Shrek, was a successful wrestler who suffered from acromegaly. He was better known by his ring name, The French Angel, and was twice recognized world heavyweight champion by the American Wrestling Association (AWA). He died in 1954.

Paul Newman took an ad in Variety Magazine apologizing for his performance in The Silver Chalice.

The United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita), asked the US government to act militarily against the Guatemalan government when, under a new law, some of its unused farmland was going to be given to peasants. This led to the CIA assisting in deposing Guatemala’s president in 1954.

Economist Armen Alchian figured out the secret fuel for the newly developed hydrogen bomb just by looking at the share prices of chemical suppliers on the stock market.

Matchbox Cars, Yahtzee, Lincoln Logs, Scrabble, and thin wooden wiffle bats were invented to go with 1953’s wiffle ball

The sensory deprivation tank was invented in 1954.

Popular Electronics Magazine (1954-1999)

Sports Illustrated began publication

(Data is compiled from charts, including Billboard’s Pop, Rock, Airplay, R&B/Dance, and Singles Charts. The Hot 100 is the primary chart used for this list.)

January 2, 1954 – February 26, 1954: Eddie Fisher – Oh! My Pa-pa (O Mein Papa)

February 27, 1954 – March 12, 1954: Doris Day – Secret Love

March 13, 1954 – April 9, 1954: Jo Stafford – Make Love To Me!

April 10, 1954 – June 4, 1954: Perry Como – Wanted

June 5, 1954 – August 6, 1954: Kitty Kallen – Little Things Mean A Lot

August 7, 1954 – September 24, 1954: The Crew-Cuts – Sh-Boom

September 25, 1954 – November 5, 1954: Rosemary Clooney – Hey There

November 6, 1954 – November 12, 1954: Rosemary Clooney – This Ole House

November 13, 1954 – December 3, 1954: Eddie Fisher – I Need You Now

December 4, 1954 – January 21, 1955: The Chordettes – Mr. Sandman