April 1954 in History

Events in History

  • Apr 1 1st Dutch motorway, Amsterdam-Utrecht, opens
  • Apr 1 1st US Army helicopter battalion forms, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
  • Apr 1 Earthquake/tsunami ravage Aleutians, 200 killed
  • Apr 1 US Air Force Academy established
  • Apr 3 Don Perry climbs a 20' rope in under 2.8 seconds (AAU record)
  • Apr 6 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
  • Apr 7 German government refuses to recognize DDR

Conference of Interest

Apr 7 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in news conference is first to voice fear of a "domino-effect" of communism in Indo-China

  • Apr 12 Belgian Van Houtte government resigns
  • Apr 12 Joe Turner releases "Shake, Rattle & Roll"

Oppenheimer Security Hearing

Apr 13 Robert Oppenheimer accused of being a communist

  • Apr 14 Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov asks for politics asylum in Canberra

Event of Interest

Apr 18 Egyptian Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power and appoints himself Prime Minister

Event of Interest

Apr 21 Georgi Malenkov becomes premier of USSR

  • Apr 21 USAF flies French battalion to Vietnam
  • Apr 22 Achiel van Acker forms Belgian government
  • Apr 22 USSR joins UNESCO
  • Apr 24 1st American, civilian pilot, P.R. Holden, wounded in Indochina
  • Apr 24 Australia & USSR break diplomatic relations

First Solar Battery

Apr 25 Bell labs announces the 1st solar battery made from silicon. It has about 6% efficiency.

  • Apr 25 British raid Nairobi, Kenya (25,000 Mau Mau suspects arrested)
  • Apr 25 US performs atmospheric nuclear test above Bikini Island
  • Apr 26 Far Eastern Affairs conference opens in Geneva
  • Apr 26 USSR Supreme Soviet transfer the Crimean oblast from Russian SFSR to Ukrainian SSR

Birthdays in History

  • Apr 2 Donald Petrie, American film director (Mystic Pizza; Miss Congeniality), born in New York City
  • Apr 5 Michael W Butler, computer programmer (created TODAY program)
  • Apr 8 G.V. Loganathan, American professor (d. 2007)
  • Apr 9 Iain Duncan Smith, British politician, Leader of the Conservative Party (2001-03), born in Edinburgh, Scotland
  • Apr 13 Barbara Roche, British Labour Party politician
  • Apr 14 Bruce Sterling, American sci-fi author (Involution Ocean, Schismatrix)
  • Apr 24 Mumia Abu-Jamal, American journalist and political activist sentenced to death and then to life in prison, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Frank Bainimarama (69 years old)

Apr 27 Fijian naval officer and Prime Minister of Fiji (2007-22), born in Kiuva, Fiji

  • Apr 29 Bill Paxon, American politician (Rep-R-New York 1989-99), born in Arkon, New York

Deaths in History

  • Apr 4 Frederick Lonsdale, British playwright (Balkan Princess), dies at 73
  • Apr 10 Ludwig Curtius, German archaeologist (Die antike Kunst), dies at 79
  • Apr 13 Angus Lewis Macdonald, Canadian politician, dies at 63
  • Apr 17 Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, Romanian communist activist and sociologist, dies at 53
  • Apr 25 Joseph Hergesheimer, novelist (Java Head), dies
  • Apr 28 Léon Jouhaux, French socialist & co-founder UN's ILO (Nobel Peace Prize 1951), dies at 74
  • Apr 29 Ernst Heldring, Dutch ship owner and financier, dies at 82