May 1954

1954 January February March April May June July August September October November December

The following events occurred in May 1954:

May 1, 1954 (Saturday)

• The Unification Church is founded in South Korea.
• Died:Tom Tyler, American actor (b. 1903)

May 3, 1954 (Monday)

• Died:Józef Garbień, Polish footballer and physician (b. 1896)

May 4, 1954 (Tuesday)

• General Alfredo Stroessner deposes Federico Chávez in a coup d'état in Paraguay and rules until 1989.

May 6, 1954 (Thursday)

• Roger Bannister runs the first sub-four minute mile, in Oxford, England.
• Died:B. C. Forbes, Scottish-born publisher (b. 1880)

May 7, 1954 (Friday)

• Vietnam War (run-up): The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).

May 8, 1954 (Saturday)

• The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is formed in Manila, Philippines.

May 11, 1954 (Tuesday)

• U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declares that Indochina is important but not essential to the security of Southeast Asia, thus ending any prospect of American intervention on the side of France.

May 14, 1954 (Friday)

• The Boeing 707 is released after about two years of development.
• The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was adopted in The Hague, Netherlands.
• Died:Heinz Guderian, German World War II general (b. 1888)

May 15, 1954 (Saturday)

• The Latin Union (Unión Latina) is created by the Convention of Madrid. Its member countries use the five Romance languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. It will suspend operations in 2012.
• Died:William March, American writer and soldier (b. 1893)

May 17, 1954 (Monday)

• Brown v. Board of Education (347 US 483 1954): The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously that segregated schools are unconstitutional.
• The Royal Commission on the Petrov Affair in Australia begins its inquiry.
• Adnan Menderes of the Democrat Party forms the new (21st) government of Turkey.

May 19, 1954 (Wednesday)

• Died:Charles Ives, American composer (b. 1874)

May 20, 1954 (Thursday)

• Chiang Kai-shek is reelected as the president of the Republic of China by the National Assembly.

May 22, 1954 (Saturday)

• The common Nordic Labour Market act is signed.
• Died:Chief Bender, Native-American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1884)

May 25, 1954 (Tuesday)

• Died:Robert Capa, Hungarian-born photojournalist (b. 1913)

May 26, 1954 (Wednesday)

• A fire on board the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Bennington off Narragansett Bay, Massachusetts, kills 103 sailors.

May 29, 1954 (Saturday)

• Robert Menzies's government is reelected for a fourth term in Australia.
• Creation and first meeting of the Bilderberg Group.
• Diane Leather becomes the first woman to run a sub-five minute mile, in Birmingham, England.