November 1954 in History

Events in History

Election of Interest

Nov 1 General Fulgencio Batista elected President of Cuba

Nov 1 India takes over administration of 4 French Indian settlements
Nov 1 The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence against France.

Event of Interest

Nov 1 US Senate admonishes Joseph McCarthy because of his slander campaigns

Nov 2 Charles Diggs Jr is elected Michigan's 1st black congressman to the House of Representatives

Election of Interest

Nov 2 Strom Thurmond is the 1st senator elected by write-in vote (South Carolina)

Nov 3 Nobel for physics awarded to Max Born & Walter Bothe
Nov 4 Philadelphia A's move to Kansas City
Nov 7 US spy plane shot down North of Japan
Nov 8 AL approves Philadelphia A's move to Kansas City

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima

Nov 10 "Marine Corps War Memorial" unveiled in Arlington County, Virginia, dedicated to US Marine Corps who died in defense of US since 1775 (inspired by 1945 Iwo Jima photo of servicemen raising US flag)

United States Marines raise the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, during the Battle of Iwo Jima

Nov 12 Ellis Island, immigration station in NY Harbor is closed

Event of Interest

Nov 12 Lee Kuan Yew and others form the People's Action Party (PAP) in Singapore to work towards self-rule in Singapore

Nov 14 Egyptian President Naguib resigns, state of emergency declared
Nov 15 1st regularly scheduled commercial flights over North Pole begin as SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) inaugurates DC-6B service between Los Angeles, California and Copenhagen, Denmark, via Greenland and Winnipeg, Manitoba
Nov 22 Humane Society (US) forms in Washington, D.C.
Nov 23 For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the peak it reached just before the 1929 crash
Nov 24 Air Force One, 1st US Presidential airplane, christened
Nov 24 France sends 20,000 soldiers to Algeria
Nov 27 Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury
Nov 28 1st pro football game in The Netherlands
Nov 30 Ann Hodges is bruised by a meteor at Sylacauga, Alabama in first modern instance of a meteorite striking a human
Nov 30 John Strydom succeeds D. F. Malan as premier of South Africa

Birthdays in History

Nov 3 Godzilla, Japanese monster (Godzilla)
Nov 3 Kevin P Chilton, American General, test pilot and NASA astronaut (STS 49, 59, 76), born in Los Angeles, California
Nov 6 Catherine Crier, American journalist and author (The Case Against Lawyers, A Deadly Game), born in Dallas, Texas
Nov 8 Kazuo Ishiguro, British author (An Artist of the Floating World, The Remains of the Day, When We Were Orphans), born in Nagasaki, Japan
Nov 8 Michael D. Brown, U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency director (2003-05), born in Guymon, Oklahoma
Nov 11 Mary Gaitskill, American writer, born in Lexington, Kentucky
Nov 13 Scott McNealy, American CEO of Sun Microsystems

Condoleezza Rice (68 years old)

Nov 14 1st female African-American U.S. Secretary of State (2005-09), born in Birmingham, Alabama

Nov 15 Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Polish, politician (President of Poland, 1995-2005), born in Białogard, Poland
Nov 16 Andrea Barrett, American novelist (Servants of the Map), born in Boston, Massachusetts
Nov 16 Dick Gross, Australian politician
Nov 17 Mark "Chopper" Read, Australian criminal and crime author (Chopper: From the Inside), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 2013)
Nov 19 Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egyptian politician, 6th President of Egypt (2014-), born in Zagazig, Cairo
Nov 20 Berit Andnor, Swedish politician, born in Gothenburg, Sweden
Nov 20 Steve Dahl, American radio host, Chicago's anti-disco DJ (WLS-FM), born in Pasadena, California
Nov 22 Paolo Gentiloni, Italian politician, Prime Minister (2016-2018), born in Rome, Italy
Nov 23 Ferry Hoogendijk, Dutch editor in chief (Elsevier Magazine)
Nov 26 Roz Chast, American cartoonist (Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?), born in Brooklyn, New York
Nov 26 Velupillai Prabhakaran, Sri Lankan founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, born in Valvettithurai, Dominion of Ceylon (d. 2009)

Deaths in History

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Nov 3 French painter and sculptor (Dance II), dies at 84

Nov 4 Stig Dagerman, Swedish author (Burned Child), dies at 31
Nov 10 Hussein Fatemi, Iran Foreign minister, executed
Nov 16 Albert Francis Blakeslee, American botanist, dies at 80
Nov 19 Walter Bartley Wilson, English founding member of Cardiff City F.C., dies at 84
Nov 20 Clyde Cessna, American aviator and airplane manufacturer, dies at 74
Nov 21 Werner Elert, German Lutheran theologian, dies at 69
Nov 22 Andrej J. Vysjinski, Russian lawyer and UN ambassador, dies at 70