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1954 in the United Kingdom

Other years

1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956

British and Irish current events

Sport and Music

1954 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1954 in British music

Events from the year 1954 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister - Winston Churchill (Conservative Party)

Events

• 10 January - A British European Airways de Havilland Comet jet airliner flying from Singapore to London crashes in the Mediterranean, killing 35 people.^[1]
• 25 January - First broadcast of Dylan Thomas's radio play Under Milk Wood, two months after its author's death.
• 12 February
  • United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority founded.^[2]
  • British Medical Committee report suggests the existence of a link between smoking and lung cancer.^[3]
• 3 April - Oxford wins the 100th Boat Race.^[4]
• 6 May - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to break the four-minute mile.^[5]
• 6 June
  • J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings first published.^[6]
  • First broadcast on the Eurovision Network founded by Britain, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland of a message from Pope Pius XII.^[7]
• 30 June - Britain witnesses its first eclipse since 1927 as the eclipse in America casts its shadow over Europe and Asia. [1]
• 4 July - fourteen years of rationing following World War II comes to an end.^[8]
• 15 July - Donald McGill, a publisher of saucy seaside postcards, found guilty of breaching the Obscene Publications Act of 1857.^[6]
• 4 August - Maiden flight of the English Electric Lightning P-1 supersonic fighter plane.^[7]
• 3 September - the National Trust for Scotland acquires Fair Isle.^[9]
• 13 October - Chris Chataway breaks the world record for the 5000 metres by five seconds.^[10]
• 14 October - the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie visits the United Kingdom.^[11]
• 19 October - Britain agrees to end its military occupation of the Suez Canal.^[7] A public inquiry into the Comet airline disasters hears that metal fatigue was the most likely cause of the two recent crashes which claimed the lives of a total of 50 people. [2]
• 2 November - Radio comedy series Hancock's Half Hour first aired.^[7]
• 30 November - Winston Churchill becomes the first, and as of 2009 the only, serving British Prime Minister to reach his 80th birthday while still in office.

Publications

• Kingsley Amis's novel Lucky Jim.
• William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies.
• Agatha Christie's novel Destination Unknown.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Live and Let Die.
• C. S. Lewis' novel The Horse and His Boy.
• Iris Murdoch's novel Under the Net.
• J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, the first two volumes of the The Lord of the Rings.

Births

• 4 January - Dave Ulliott, professional poker player
• 6 January - Anthony Minghella, film director (died 2008)
• 9 February - Kevin Warwick, scientist
• 16 February - Iain Banks, writer
• 20 February - Anthony Stewart Head, actor
• 4 March - Willie Thorne, snooker player
• 8 March - David Wilkie, swimmer
• 13 March - Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos, politician
• 17 March - Lesley-Anne Down, actress
• 19 April - Trevor Francis, footballer
• 1 May - Archie Norman, politician and businessman
• 8 May - Gary Wilmot, entertainer
• 10 July - Neil Tennant, musician
• 2 August - Sammy McIlroy, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
• 11 August - Joe Jackson, singer
• 25 August - Elvis Costello, singer
• September 15 - Colin Cunningham, swimmer
• 3 November - Adam Ant, singer
• 8 November - Kazuo Ishiguro, Japanese-born author
• 5 December - Hanif Kureishi, novelist and screenwriter
• 8 December - Louis de Bernières, author
• 25 December - Annie Lennox, singer
• 31 December - Alex Salmond, Scottish National Party leader

Deaths

• 18 January - Sydney Greenstreet, actor (born 1879)
• 20 January - Fred Root, cricketer (born 1890)
• 8 February - Ronald Niel Stuart, Royal Navy Captain (born 1886)
• 6 May - B.C. Forbes, Scottish-born publisher (born 1880)
• 7 June - Alan Turing, mathematician, logician and cryptographer (born 1912)
• 11 July - Henry Valentine Knaggs, physician and author (born 1859)
• 24 September - Edward Pilgrim, victim of bureaucracy (born 1904)
• 20 December - James Hilton, novelist (born 1900)

References

See also