1954 in the United Kingdom

1954 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1952 | 1953 | 1954 (1954) | 1955 | 1956

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport, Television and music

1954 British Grand Prix 1954 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1954 in British television 1954 in British music

Events from the year 1954 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Elizabeth II
• Prime Minister – Winston Churchill (Conservative)

Events

• 10 January – A British Overseas Airways Corporation de Havilland Comet jet airliner on BOAC Flight 781 from Singapore to London crashes in the Mediterranean Sea following fatigue failure, killing all 35 on board.^[1]
• 25 January – First broadcast of Dylan Thomas's radio play Under Milk Wood, two months after its author's death, with Richard Burton as 'First Voice', on the BBC Third Programme.
• 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]
• 23 March – Film of Doctor in the House released.
• 24 March – After an eight-day trial at Winchester Assizes, The Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Peter Wildeblood and Michael Pitt-Rivers are convicted of "conspiracy to incite certain male persons to commit serious offences with male persons" or buggery and related charges.^[4] Pitt-Rivers and Wildebood are sentenced to eighteen months and Lord Montagu to twelve months in prison.
• 2 April – BBC Television broadcasts the opening episode of The Grove Family, the first British TV soap opera.^[5]
• 3 April – Oxford wins the 100th Boat Race.^[6]
• 24 April – Wolverhampton Wanderers win the Football League First Division title for the first time in their history.^[7] The result ends the hopes that their local rivals, FA Cup finalists West Bromwich Albion, had of becoming the first team of the 20th century to win the double of the league title and FA Cup.^[8]
• 1 May – West Bromwich Albion win the FA Cup for the fourth time in their history with a 3-2 win over Preston North End in the final at Wembley Stadium.^[9]
• 6 May – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to break the four-minute mile, at the Iffley Road Track of the University of Oxford.^[10]
• 29 May – Diane Leather becomes the first woman to break the five-minute mile, at the Alexander Sports Ground in Birmingham.^[11][12]
• 6 June
  • J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings first published (first volumes).^[13]
  • 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.^[14]
• 12 June – An Irish Republican Army unit carries out a successful arms raid on Gough Barracks in Armagh, signalling the renewal of IRA activity following a long hiatus.
• 30 June – Britain witnesses its first eclipse since 1927 as the eclipse in America casts its shadow over Europe and Asia.^[15]
• July – Crichel Down affair, a political scandal over compulsory land purchase leads to resignation of the government minister responsible.^[16][17]
• 4 July – Fourteen years of rationing during and following World War II comes to an end when meat officially comes off ration.^[18]
• 15 July – Donald McGill, the artist of saucy seaside postcards, found guilty of breaching the Obscene Publications Act 1857.^[13]
• 19 July – United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority established by the Atomic Energy Act "to produce, use and dispose of atomic energy and carry out research into any matters therewith".^[19]
• 4 August – Maiden flight of the English Electric Lightning P-1 supersonic fighter plane.^[14]
• 5 August – Julian Slade's musical Salad Days opens in London, following a premiere at the Bristol Old Vic.
• September^[17]
  • Hunstanton Secondary Modern School, Hunstanton, Norfolk, considered a key building in modern British architecture, designed by Peter and Alison Smithson, opens.^[20]
  • Kidbrooke School in the London Borough of Greenwich opens as Britain's first purpose-built comprehensive school.^[21]
• 3 September – The National Trust for Scotland acquires Fair Isle.^[22]
• 14 September – Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera The Turn of the Screw receives its world premiere at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice.^[23]
• 18 September - Marble head of Mithras from London Mithraeum unearthed in Walbrook Square.^[24]
• 22 September – Terence Rattigan's plays Separate Tables premiere in London.^[25]
• 13 October – Chris Chataway breaks the world record for the 5000 metres by five seconds.^[26]
• 14 October – The Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie visits the United Kingdom.^[27]
• 19 October
  • Britain agrees to end its military occupation of the Suez Canal.^[14]
  • 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.^[28]
• 2 November – Radio comedy series Hancock's Half Hour first aired.^[14]
• 13 November
  • The Great Britain national rugby league team beat France to win the first Rugby League World Cup at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
  • BBC Television broadcasts the opening episode of Fabian of the Yard, the first British TV police procedural.
• 27 November – The South Goodwin lightvessel is wrecked on the Goodwin Sands with the loss of six of the seven on board.^[29] The tanker World Concord breaks in two in the Irish Sea.
• 29 November – The leading case of Ladd v Marshall is decided in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, establishing criteria for the Court to admit fresh evidence in a case on which a judgement has already been delivered.
• 30 November – Winston Churchill becomes the first, and as of 2014 the only, British Prime Minister to reach his 80th birthday while still in office.
• 25 December – 1954 Prestwick air disaster: BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser G-ALSA crashes on landing at Prestwick Airport from London in poor visibility at 03:30, killing 28.
• Undated – The first UK Wimpy Bar is opened at the Lyons Corner House in Coventry Street, London.^[30]

Publications

• Kingsley Amis's novel Lucky Jim.
• Agatha Christie's novel Destination Unknown.
• Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Live and Let Die.
• William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies.
• C. S. Lewis's novel The Horse and His Boy.
• Iris Murdoch's novel Under the Net.
• Alan S C Ross's paper "Linguistic class-indicators in present-day English" in Neuphilologische Mitteilungen.
• Rosemary Sutcliff's historical children's novel The Eagle of the Ninth illustrated by C. Walter Hodges, the first in the series of the same name.
• J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, the first two volumes of 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 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
• 15 September – 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
• 16 December Peter Campbell golfer and bon viveur
• 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