In the News

The American Motors Corporation is formed; the first nuclear powered submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus, is launched; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon are in office; the first mass vaccination of children against polio takes place in Pittsburgh; a vaccine for measles is discovered; the first successful kidney transplant is performed; the US Supreme Court hands down the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483 1954; WHBQ in Memphis, Tennessee, becomes the first radio station to air an Elvis Presley record; President Eisenhower urges U.S. non-involvement in the French Indochina War raging in Vietnam; the first issue of Sports Illustrated is published; the immigration port-of-entry at Ellis Island in New York Harbor is closed after processing more than twenty million immigrants; the United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." essentially putting an end to the "Red Scare" and the communist witch hunt; the U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber makes its maiden voyage.

Born

Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, Christie Brinkley, Matt Groening, John Travolta, Patty Hearst, Michael Bolton, Ron Howard, Nancy Wilson, Jackie Chan and Joe Jackson.

Top 20 Music Hits

1. Little Things Mean a Lot, Kitty Kallen; 2. Wanted, Perry Como; 3. Hey There, Rosemary Clooney; 4. Sh-Boom, Crew Cuts; 5. Make Love to Me, Jo Stafford; 6. Oh! My Papa, Eddie Fisher; 7. I Get So Lonely, Four Knights; 8. Three Coins in the Fountain, Four Aces; 9. Secret Love, Doris Day; 10. Hernando's Hideaway, Archie Bleyer; 11. Young at Heart, Frank Sinatra; 12. This Ole House, Rosemary Clooney; 13. I Need You Now, Eddie Fisher; 14. Cross Over the Bridge, Patti Page; 15. The Little Shoemaker, Gaylords; 16. That's Amore, Dean Martin; 17. The Happy Wanderer, Frank Weir; 18. Answer Me My Love, Nat King Cole; 19. Stranger in Paradise, Tony Bennett; 20. If I Give My Heart to You, Doris Day.

At the Movies

On the Waterfront, Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint; The Caine Mutiny, Humphrey Bogart, Tom Tully, Fred MacMurray; The Country Girl, Bing Crosby, William Holden, Grace Kelly; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Jane Powell, Howard Keel; Three Coins in the Fountain, Maggie McNamara, Louis Jordan, Dorthy McGuire; Seven Samurai, Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba; Rear Window, James Stewart, Raymond Burr, Grace Kelly; La Strada, Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart; Dial M for Murder, Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings; Sabrina, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden; White Christmas, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Linkas; The Silver Chalice, Paul Newman; Them, James Arness, Edmund Gwenn, James Whitemore; Creature From the Black Lagoon, Richard Carlson, Richard Denning, Julia Adams; Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Raymond Burr.

Television

The first commercial color television was introduced by RCA. The "CT-100" retailed for $1,000; New Year's Day saw the first television broadcast of the California Rose Parade; the year marked the first showing of the Miss America Beauty Pageant; and, a television station in the United Kingdom aired the first weather forecast.

Television Programs of Note

The Tonight Show, debuts; Disneyland, debuts; The Ed Sullivan Show; Flash Gordon; The Jack Benny Show; Father Knows Best; The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet; Your Show of Shows; I Love Lucy; Mr. Peepers; My Little Margie; The Life of Riley; Burns and Allen Show.

Also...

A good hotel room in Hollywood would cost you $2.95 a night. Swanson TV Dinners were introduced. Ray Kroc moved to California, met the MacDonald brothers, and opened the first MacDonald's the following year. The first Burger King opened. Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature and William Golding's Lord of the Flies and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings were published. Elvis Presley recorded his first record. Bill Haley and the Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock. 1954-55, disc jockey Alan Freed coined the phrase, "rock 'n roll".

Some of the cars on the road in 1954: Chevrolet Corvette; Plymouth Belvedere; Chevrolet Bel Air; Mercury Lincoln Capri; Packard Cavalier; Pontiac Star Chief; Cadillac Series 62; and, the Ford Customline.

The average new car sold for $1,700. Other averages in 1954: income, $3,960 per year; a new house, $22,000; and, a loaf of bread, seventeen cents. The postage stamp used to mail the house payment ran three cents.

The newly introduced Fender Stratocaster retailed for $249.50, the equivalent of between $1,500 and $1,600 in today's currency adjusted for inflation.