* 1954 – Jon Krakauer, American author

* 1954 – Thom Bray, American actor

* 1954 – Paul Steigerwald, American sportscaster

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

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

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

* 2003 – Roger Voudouris, American singer-songwriter and guitarist ( b. 1954 )

* 1954 – Ellen Barkin, American actress

* 1954 – Mark Fidrych, American baseball player ( d. 2009 )

* 1954 – Stanley A. McChrystal, American general

* Adrian Zmed ( born 1954 ), American television personality and film actor

* 1954 – Mary Jo Salter, American poet

* 1954 – Sam J. Jones, American actor

* 1954 – Pat Metheny, American guitarist and composer ( Pat Metheny Group )

* 1954 – Chip Coffey, American psychic medium

* 1954 – Archie Griffin, American football player

* 1954 – Charles Busch, American actor and screenwriter

* 1954 – Gregory Abbott, American singer, musician and composer

* 1954 – Donald Petrie, American director

* 1954 – George Church, American biologist

* 1954 – Michael P. Kube-McDowell, American novelist

* 1954 – David Paymer, American actor

* 1954 – Bruce Sterling, American author

* 1954 – Michael Sembello, American musician and songwriter

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 ).

This was later shortened to "( We're Gonna ) Rock Around the Clock ", though this form is generally only used on releases of the 1954 Bill Haley Decca Records recording ; most other recordings of this song by Haley and others ( including Sonny Dae ) shorten this title further to " Rock Around the Clock ".

After leaving Essex Records in the spring of 1954, Bill Haley signed with the then-important Decca Records label, and the band's first recording session was set for April 12, 1954 at the Pythian Temple studios in New York City.

Although originally released to vinyl at a running time of 2 minutes and 8 seconds, most digital / CD releases of the original 1954 recording, starting with the " From The Original Master Tapes " compilation of Bill's work with Decca Records, mastered by Steve Hoffman and released in 1985, clock in at 2: 10.

The most notable of these compilations was the 1955 Decca Records album Rock Around the Clock ( Decca DL 8225 ) which contained most of the tracks Haley recorded as singles for the label in 1954 and 1955.

* Symphony No. 5: Erik Tuxen – 1950 ( EMI ); Thomas Jensen – 1954 ( Decca — first LP recording )

The British Decca recording engineers Arthur Haddy, Roy Wallace and Kenneth Wilkinson developed in 1954 the famous Decca tree, a stereo microphone recording system for big orchestras.

Decca started recording in stereo on 14 – 28 May 1954, in Victoria Hall in Geneva, the first European record company to do so, only three months after RCA Victor began recording in stereo in the U. S. Decca archives show that Ernest Ansermet and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande recorded Tamara by Mily Balakirev ; the overture to Benvenuto Cellini by Hector Berlioz ; Stenka Razin by Alexander Glazunov ; and Anatoly Liadov's Baba-Yaga, Eight Russian Folksongs, and Kikimora.

The first British recordings of skiffle were carried out by Colyer's new band in 1954, but it was the release by Decca of two skiffle tracks by Barber's Jazz Band under the name of " The Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group " in late 1955 that transformed the fortunes of skiffle.

In 1954 the first recording based on Handel's original scoring was conducted by Hermann Scherchen for Nixa ; it was quickly followed by another version, judged scholarly at the time, under Sir Adrian Boult for Decca.

* Coronation Concert ( 1954, Decca DL 8080, 12 inch, 33 rpm )

* Fall – Bill Haley & His Comets end their groundbreaking association with Decca Records, for whom they had recorded since 1954.

In 1976 the Decca Navigator Company of London sued the Unites States government over patent infringements, claiming that the Omega system was based on a proposed earlier Decca system known as DELRAC-Decca Long Range Area Coverage, that had been disclosed to the US in 1954.

( 1954 ) ( Decca Records ).

clarinet Concerto, Decca LXT-2979, Decca ACL-292, London LL-1142 © 1954, ( p ) 1954

In 1954 he released a more successful album, Al Hibbler Sings Duke Ellington, and in 1955, he started recording with Decca Records, with immediate success.

He was with the band when they recorded " Rock Around the Clock " in 1954, and Williamson had the distinction of being the only Comet allowed to record lead vocal tracks during Haley's tenure at Decca Records ( such as the song " Hide and Seek " on their 1956 album, Rock and Roll Stage Show.