March 1954

The following events occurred in March 1954:

March 1, 1954 (Monday)

 * U.S. officials announced that a hydrogen bomb nuclear test (Castle Bravo) had been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean as part of Operation Castle.
 * U.S. Capitol shooting: Four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire in the United States House of Representatives chamber and wounded five; they were apprehended by security guards.
 * Born:
 * Catherine Bach, American actress
 * Ron Howard, American film director, producer and actor

March 2, 1954 (Tuesday)

 * Born: Hunt Sales, musician

March 3, 1954 (Wednesday)

 * Born:
 * Keith Fergus, American professional golfer
 * Robert Gossett, American actor
 * John Lilley, American musician

March 4, 1954 (Thursday)

 * Born:
 * François Fillon, Prime Minister of France (2007-2012)
 * Ricky Ford, American jazz musician
 * Peter Jacobsen, American professional golfer
 * Boris Moiseev, Russian singer (d. 2022)
 * Ray Troll, American artist
 * Anne Van Lancker, Belgian politician

March 7, 1954 (Sunday)

 * Born:
 * Mike Armstrong (baseball), American baseball player
 * Will Grant, American football player
 * Nyls Nyman, American baseball player
 * Carol M. Swain, American political scientist
 * Jasmina Tešanović, Serbian author and political activist
 * Died:
 * Otto Diels, 78, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
 * Will H. Hays, 74, namesake for the Hays Code

March 8, 1954 (Monday)

 * Born:
 * Cheryl Baker, British singer and television presenter
 * Karl Schnabl, Austrian Olympic ski jumper
 * David Wilkie, Scottish Olympic swimmer
 * Died:
 * Lawrence Townsend, 93, American diplomat

March 9, 1954 (Tuesday)

 * American journalists Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produced a 30-minute See It Now documentary, entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy".
 * Born:
 * Bobby Sands, Irish republican hunger striker (d. 1981)
 * Died:
 * Vagn Walfrid Ekman, 79, Swedish oceanographer
 * Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, 41, German astronomer

March 12, 1954 (Friday)

 * Finland and Germany officially ended their state of war.

March 13, 1954 (Saturday)

 * First Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu began, involving the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Việt Minh Communist fighters.
 * Died: César Klein, 77, German Expressionist painter

March 19, 1954 (Friday)

 * Joey Giardello knocked out Willie Tory at Madison Square Garden, in the first televised boxing prize fight to be shown in color.

March 23, 1954 (Tuesday)

 * In Vietnam, the Viet Minh captured the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu. The remaining French Army units there were partially isolated.

March 25, 1954 (Thursday)

 * The 26th Academy Awards ceremony was held.
 * RCA manufactured the first color television set (12-inch screen; price: $1,000).
 * The Soviet Union recognised the sovereignty of East Germany. Soviet troops remained in the country.

March 26, 1954 (Friday)

 * Born: Kazuhiko Inoue, Japanese voice actor
 * Died: Louis Silvers, 64, American film composer

March 27, 1954 (Saturday)

 * The Castle Romeo nuclear test explosion was executed.

March 28, 1954 (Sunday)

 * Puerto Rico's first television station, WKAQ-TV, commenced broadcasting.
 * The trial of A. L. Zissu and 12 other Zionist leaders ended with harsh sentences in Communist Romania.
 * The British troopship HMT Empire Windrush suffered an engine-room explosion and fire. Four crew were killed but 1494 crew and passengers were saved. The abandoned ship sank two days later.
 * Egyptian protests in The Republic of Egypt against democracy.
 * Born:
 * Bill Bourne, Canadian musician (d. 2022)
 * Arthur Frederick Goode III, American murderer (d. 1984)

March 29, 1954 (Monday)

 * A C-47 transport with French nurse Geneviève de Galard on board was wrecked on the runway at Dien Bien Phu.
 * Born: Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (d. 1985)

March 30, 1954 (Tuesday)

 * Toronto subway: The first operational subway line in Canada.
 * Died: Horatio Dresser, 88, American writer

March 31, 1954 (Wednesday)

 * Born: Tony Brock, British musician