* 1954 – Jon Krakauer, American author

* 1954 – Pat Travers, Canadian singer and musician

* 1954 – Thom Bray, American actor

* 1954 – Jane Campion, New Zealand director

* 1954 – Frank-Michael Marczewski, German footballer

* 1954 – John Lloyd, English tennis player

* 1954 – Derek Warwick, English race car driver

* 1954 – Paul Steigerwald, American sportscaster

* 1954 – Ray Jennings, South African cricketer and coach

* 1954 – Radio Pakistan broadcasts the " Qaumī Tarāna ", the national anthem of Pakistan for the first time.

* 1954 – Nico Assumpção, Brazilian bass player ( d. 2001 )

In 1954 – 55, Australia's batsmen had no answer to the pace of Frank Tyson and Statham.

* 1954 – James Charles Kopp, American murderer of Barnett Slepian

* 1954 – Sammy McIlroy, Irish footballer and manager

* 1993 – Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver ( b. 1954 )

After 1890 came philosopher Josiah Royce ( 1855 – 1916 ), botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey ( 1858 – 1954 ), the Southern Agrarians of the 1920s and 1930s, novelist John Steinbeck ( 1902 – 1968 ), historian A. Whitney Griswold ( 1906 – 1963 ), environmentalist Aldo Leopold ( 1887 – 1948 ), Ralph Borsodi ( 1886 – 1977 ), and present-day authors Wendell Berry ( b. 1934 ), Gene Logsdon ( b. 1932 ), Paul Thompson, and Allan C. Carlson ( b. 1949 ).

Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS ( ; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954 ), was a British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist.

* 1954 – James Gleick, American author, journalist, and biographer

* 1954 – Benno Möhlmann, German footballer

* 1954 – Gary Peters, English footballer

* 1954 – First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.

Armoured trains saw use during the 19th century in the American Civil War ( 1861 – 1865 ), the Franco-Prussian War ( 1870 – 1871 ), the First and Second Boer Wars ( 1880 – 81 and 1899 – 1902 ), the First ( 1914 – 1918 ) and Second World Wars ( 1939 – 1945 ) and the First Indochina War ( 1946 – 1954 ).

* Damon Runyon from First to Last ( 1954 )

From 1954 until 1959 he was the First Sea Lord, a position that had been held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, some forty years earlier.

* In Indochina the French government was facing the Viet Minh communist rebels and lost its Indochinese colonies during the First Indochina War in 1954 after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

* International Control Commission, which oversaw the 1954 Geneva Accords ending the First Indochina War

* 1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

* 1954 – First of the annual Bilderberg conferences.

More recent uses include: by France during the First Indochina War ( 1946 – 1954 ), the Algerian War ( 1954 – 1962 ), the Portuguese Colonial War ( 1961 – 1974 ) and the Western Sahara War ( 1975 – 1991 ), The Six-Day War by Israel ( 1967 ), in Nigeria ( 1969 ), India and Pakistan ( 1965 and 1971 ), Turkey during the invasion of Cyprus ( 1974 ), by Morocco during the Western Sahara War ( 1975 – 1991 ), Iran ( 1980 – 88 ), Brazil ( 1972 ), Egypt ( 1973 ), Iraq ( 1980 – 88, 1991, 2003 – 2011 ), Angola ( 1993 ), Yugoslavia ( 1991-1996 ), and by Argentina ( 1982 ).

* 1954 – First Indochina War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.

* 1954 – First ascent of Cho Oyu.

* 1954 – The People's Liberation Army begins shelling the Republic of China-controlled islands of Quemoy, starting the First Taiwan Strait Crisis.

First aired on radio in 1954 the jingle was transferred to television in 1956.

* 1954: First flight of the C-130 Hercules.

On September 3, 1954, the First Taiwan Strait Crisis began when the PLA started shelling Quemoy and threatened to take the Dachen Islands.

* A Baby's First Year ( 1954 )

Although the United States attended the Geneva Conference ( 1954 ), which was intended to end hostilities between France and the Vietnamese at the end of the First Indochina War, it refused to sign the Geneva Accords ( 1954 ).

* James Laver, The First Decadent: Being the Strange Life of J. K. Huysmans ( Faber, London, 1954 )

Following the defeat of Japan, nationalist forces fought French colonial forces in the First Indochina War that lasted from 1945 to 1954.

Later Liu became the First Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress, and held that position from 1954 – 59.

In August 1954, " Blues " leader LCDR Ray Hawkins became the first naval aviator to survive an ejection at supersonic speeds when his F9F-6 became uncontrollable on a cross-country flight.

Both experimental programs proceeded to flight status and completed test flights 1954 – 1955, when the contracts were cancelled.

* 1954: Maiden flight of the U-2.

In 1954 United Airlines bought four flight simulators at a cost of $ 3 million dollars from Curtiss-Wright that were similar to the earlier models, with the addition of visuals, sound and movement.

For flight simulators with heavier cockpits, the Link Division of General Precision Inc. ( later part of Singer Corporation and now part of L-3 Communications ) in 1954 developed a system where the cockpit was housed within a metal framework that provided three degrees of displacement in pitch, roll, and yaw.

The US Supreme Court 1954 school desegregation ruling and its impact in Kansas City, Missouri contributed to white flight throughout the region, resulting in increased migration from Kansas City, Missouri to the county and the furthering the county's reputation as a destination for quality public schools and as a good location for families.

In 1954, 22d Wing aircrews flew the longest non-stop mass flight in history: from England to California.

In the 1950s, turbine powered airliners were developing rapidly, and the Comet and the seriously delayed Bristol Britannia were rendered obsolescent by the flight of the swept-wing Boeing 367-80 ( 707 prototype ) in 1954.

On 3 June 1954, a Sabena-operated DC-3 on a cargo flight from the UK to Yugoslavia was strafed by a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, killing the radio operator and wounding both the captain and engineer.

While working at the CTA Focke also developed the BF-1 Beija-Flor ( hummingbird ) two-seater light helicopter from 1954, which made its first flight at Sao Jose dos Campos on 22 January 1959.

Most of the TDY personnel were quartered in tents near the flight line, at least until April 1954 when the first permanent barracks buildings were finished and air conditioned.

Madras ( Chennai ) had one of the first airports in India and was the final destination of Air India's first flight from Bombay ( Mumbai ) via Belgaum in 1954.

A Jersey-bound Pionair departing in October 1954 marked BEA's final flight from Northolt.

Following the departure of BEA's last flight from Northolt to Jersey in October 1954, the airline's London – Channel Islands flights served the British capital exclusively via Heathrow.

In July 1954, BEA operated a proving flight from the mainland to the island using a Vickers Viscount turboprop.

A memorial statue was erected at London Heathrow Airport in 1954 to celebrate their flight.

Demographic trends following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision revealed a pattern later characterized as white flight, the hypersegregation of African Americans and European Americans, as the latter moved to the suburbs.

In 1954 the fixed wing aircraft had been joined by a flight of Bristol Sycamore helicopters for Search and Rescue duties.

Hollywood star Gregory Peck was invited to be the guest of honour at the first ever awards on March 21, 1954 at the Metro theatre, Mumbai but couldn't make it to the function since his flight from Colombo got delayed.

* June 4, 1954: a Varig Curtiss C-46A-45-CU Commando registration PP-VBZ operating a cargo flight between São Paulo-Congonhas Airport and Porto Alegre crashed during take-off from São Paulo.

Following the war, RCAF Station Debert underwent some downsizing but continued to support active flight operations as a training, refueling, and maintenance base until 1954 even though no operational squadrons were stationed there.

The flight was re-formed on 14 September 1954, at RAF Abingdon, as 1312 ( Transport Support ) Flight operating the Handley Page Hastings and later the Vickers Valetta, disbanding on 1 April 1957.