1954 - The Year I Was Born

Week 12 - 1954 - The year I was Born 

I was born in 1954 in the middle of the post World War II baby boom. Television was still in its infancy. With the growth of the middle class, (“servantless households”) sales of large appliances were soaring. People were benefiting from advances in modern medicine.  Our parents lived through the depression and World War II. My generation grew up during the cold war. And although the Korean War was coming to an end, seeds of the Vietnam War had already been sown.

Prices in 1954

Average income:          $3,960

House:                       $22,000
Rent:                         $85
Ford car:                    $1548-$2415
Milk:                          $.92
Gas:                          $.21
Bread                         $.17
Postage stamp:            $.03
T-Bone steak :             $.95 lb.
water heater                $75.
Clothes washer:           $155

Events

•       January 14 – Marilyn Monroe marries Joe DiMaggio

•       January 21 – Launch of the first nuclear-powered submarine

•       February 23 – The first mass vaccination against polio

•       March 1 – The US conducted secret testing of a Hydrogen bomb 100 times more powerful than those dropped on Japan (code name Castle Bravo). 

           The radio-active fallout from the detonation poisoned hundreds islanders and the crew of a Japanese fishing boat, one of whom later died.  Castle Bravo led to global calls for a ban on atmospheric thermonuclear testing.

Image: United States Department of Energy

•       March 1– Puerto Rican nationalists fired onto the House Chamber wounding five U.S. Representatives

•       March 25 - RCA begins production of its first color TV set, the CT-100 which had a 15-inch screen and sold for $1,000. Admiral and Westinghouse bean RCA to the market, but the RCA was the only one with backward compativility to existing black-and-white broadcasts

•       April – Bill Haley & His Comets record "Rock Around The Clock"

•       April 1 – Authorization for the Air Force Academy

•       May 14 – The Boeing 707 is released after about two years of development

•       May 15 – Brown v. Board of Education: The Supreme Court rules segregated schools are unconstitutional

•       June 14 – The words "under God" are added to the United States Pledge of Allegiance

•       June 27 – The world's first atomic power station opens at Obninsk, Russia

•       August 16 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published

•       September 3 – The last new episode of The Lone Ranger radio program is broadcast

•       September 11 – The Miss America Pageant is broadcast on television for the first time

•       October 18 – Texas Instruments announces the development of the first commercial transistor radio

•       November 12 –Ellis Island immigration port-of-entry closes permanently

•       November 23 – The Dow Jones closed at an all-time high of 382.74, surpassing the peak reached just before the Crash of 1929

•       December 2 – The US Senate votes to censure Joseph McCarthy

•       December 4 – The first Burger King opens in Miami, Florida

•       December 23 – The world's first successful kidney transplant 

•       The first electric drip coffee maker was invented in Germany

•       The Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race

•       The TV dinner is introduced by the American entrepreneur Gerry Thomas

•       New York City Ballet production of The Nutcracker is staged for the first time

•       Ernest Hemingway wins a Nobel Prize for Literature

•       The top 3 money maker films were White Christmas, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Rear Window

•       The Academy Award Winner Best Film was On the Waterfront. Marlon Brando won Best actor for the same file. Grace Kelly won Best Actress for The Country Girl

•       I Love Lucy won an Emmy for the best sitcom; Dragnet won an Emmy as the best Drama, and Make Room for Daddy was named the best new show. NBC airs the first Tonight Show hosted by Steve Allen

•       The top 5 singles for the year were: Mr. Sandman by the Chordettes, Secret Love by Doris Day, Sh-Boom by The Crew Cuts, Little Things Mean a Lot by Kitty Kallen and Hey There by Rosemary Clooney. Other memorable songs included I left my heart in San Francisco by Tony Bennett and You’ll never walk alone by Frank Sinatra

•       Elvis Presley cut his first commercial record

•       Popular Books written in 1954 - Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming; Lord of the Flies by William Golding; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien; and The Magicians by J.B. Priestley

•       Famous people born in 1954 include Oprah Winfrey, John Travolta, Patty Hearst, Ron Howard, Karen Ann Quinlan, Walter Payton, Al Sharpton, Condoleezza Rice, and Chris Evert