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The following events occurred inDecember 1954:

• TheEstádio da Luz football stadium opens in Lisbon, Portugal.
• The firstHyatt Hotel, The Hyatt House Los Angeles, opens on the grounds ofLos Angeles International Airport, USA. It is the first hotel in the world built on an airport property.
• Died:Fred Rose, 57, US songwriter

• Second Red Scare: TheUnited States Senate votes 67–22 to condemnJoseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
• The Taiwan-United States Mutual Defense Treaty is signed.^[1]

• Mustafa Ben Halim, Prime Minister ofLibya, adds the role of Foreign Minister of Libya to his portfolio.
• AWest German court dismisses the charges againstWerner Naumann, head of theNeo-NaziNaumann Circle.
• Väinö Linna's war novelThe Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon sotilas) is published.^[2]

• Born:Tony Todd, American actor, known for hisCandyman role (died on November 6th, 2024).
• The firstBurger King opens inMiami, Florida, USA.
• The first commercial flight by Air Laos fromVientiane toMuang Sing, with stops atLuang Prabang andLuang Namtha, by aDouglas C-47A-70-DL Skytrain (registration F-BEIA), ends in tragedy when the aircraft crashes during the Luang Prabang-to-Luang Namtha leg, killing all 28 people on board.^[3]

• West Berlin state election, 1954: TheSocial Democratic Party of Germany wins an outright majority, but agrees to enter into a coalition with theChristian Democratic Union of Germany because of the tense political situation in Berlin.

• Born:
  • Nicola De Maria, Italian painter
  • Chris Stamey, American singer-songwriter, musician, and music producer

• Born:Pascal Renwick [fr], French voice actor (died on july 19th, 2006)
• Operation Passage to Freedom: Bui Van Luong is replaced as the head of COMIGAL, Vietnam's government resettlement agency, by Pham Van Huyen.^[4]

• AHellenic Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashes atElefsis Air Base inGreece, killing all 19 people on board.^[5]
• TheAutonomous University of Chihuahua is founded in Mexico.
• Died:
  • Claude Cahun, 60, French photographer and writer
  • Gladys George, 50, US actress (brain haemorrhage)

• Born:
  • Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourger lawyer and politician,Prime Minister of Luxembourg
  • Henk ten Cate, Dutch footballer and manager

• Ichirō Hatoyama becomes Prime Minister of Japan.^[6][7]
• U.S. Air Force scientistJohn Stapp makes his 29th and last decelerator sled ride atHolloman Air Force Base inNew Mexico, demonstrating that a human can withstand at least 46.2 g (in the forward position, with adequate harnessing). This is the highest known acceleration voluntarily encountered by a human.^[8][9] Stapp reaches a speed of 632 mph (1,017 km/h), which breaks theland speed record and makes him the fastest man on Earth.^[10][11]

• Born:
  • Sylvester Clarke, West Indian cricketer, in Christ Church, Barbados (died 1999)
  • Puspa Kamal Dahal, Nepalese Politician, in Dhikuri Pokhari, Kaski, Nepal

• Live transmission of the BBC's ground-breaking adaptation ofNineteen Eighty-Four, starringPeter Cushing, takes place on UK television.

• TheWolverhampton Wanderers F.C. v Budapest Honvéd FC football match takes place inWolverhampton, UK, and is broadcast live by theBBC.^[12] The match will be instrumental in the eventual establishment of theEuropean Cup.^[13]
• The final match of the1953–54 European Rugby League Championship is played, with England finishing on top of the tournament ladder to claim the championship.
• Died:Ed Sanders, 30, U.S. heavyweight boxer, hours after the previous night's bout with Willie James, New England Heavyweight Champion, inBoston,Massachusetts. Sanders, felled by a simple punch combination, loses consciousness and dies after a long surgery to relieve bleeding in the brain.

• Born:Alan Kulwicki, US race car driver, in Greenfield, Wisconsin (died 1993)

• TheNetherlands Antilles is created out of the Dutch Caribbean nations. It is later dissolved between1986 and2010.
• BritishT-classsubmarineHMS Talent is swept out of her dock atHMNB Chatham when a caisson collapses, and runs aground in theRiver Medway. Four people are killed. The submarine was later repaired and returned to service.

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• PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower presentsJames H. "Dutch" Kindleberger and theNorth American AviationF-100 Super Sabre design team with theCollier Trophy in recognition of their contributions to aviation.^[14]

• Making its fourth attempt to land atIdlewild Airport inQueens,New York, aLinee Aeree ItalianeDouglas DC-6B (registration I-LINE) strikes the pier supporting Runway 04's slope line approach lights, crashes in flames, and sinks inJamaica Bay, killing 26 of the 32 people on board.^[15]
• The Swedish shipHispania strikes a rock in the Sound of Mull and sinks with the loss of her captain.
• Born:Ray Liotta, American actor, inNewark, New Jersey (d. 2022)^[16]

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• Born:Sandra Cisneros, American author (House on Mango Street), inChicago^[17]
• Died:James Hilton, 54, English novelist (liver cancer)

• Died:Edwin G. Seibels, inventor of the vertical filing system, 88.

• Johnson Flying Service Flight 4844C, a Douglas C-47A-90-DL Skytrain (registration N24320) on a civil air movement flight of military personnel toTacoma, Washington, ditches in theMonongahela River nearPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, due to fuel exhaustion during a leg of its flight fromNewark Metropolitan Airport inNewark,New Jersey, toAllegheny County Airport in Pittsburgh, killing 10 of the 28 people on board.^[18]

• J. Hartwell Harrison andJoseph Murray perform the world's first successfulkidney transplant in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Died:René Iché, 57, French sculptor (b. 1897)

• Laos gains full independence from France.

• 1954 Prestwick air disaster: TheBritish Overseas Airways CorporationBoeing 377 Stratocruiser G-ALSAcrashes on landing atGlasgow Prestwick Airport from London in poor visibility at 03:30, killing 28 of the 36 passengers and crew on board.
• Asmall annular solar eclipse covered only 93% of the Sun in a very broad path, 262 km wide at maximum, and lasted 7 minutes and 39.03 seconds, occurring 177.8 days after thetotal solar eclipse of June 30, 1954.

• The1954 Asian Baseball Championship ends in victory forthe Philippines.^[19]
• The1954 NFL Championship Game takes place at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and is won by theCleveland Browns.
• Born:Ozzie Smith, American baseball player, inMobile, Alabama

• Born:Teo Chee Hean, Singaporean politician, 5thSenior Minister of Singapore

• Sampurnanand becomesChief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, India.^[20]
• TheAll India Democratic Students Organisation is founded.
• Born:Denzel Washington, American actor, inMount Vernon, New York

• TheUnited States defeatAustralia in Sydney, to win the1954 Davis Cup.
• The very first British-animated film,Animal Farm, premieres.
• Born:Norihito, Prince Takamado, Japanese prince, in Tokyo (died 2002)

• Died:Archduke Eugen of Austria, 91, Austrian field marshal

• AnAeroflot airliner – possibly anIlyushin Il-14 – crashes on takeoff fromIrkutsk Airport inIrkutsk in theSoviet Union, killing all 17 people on board.^[21]
• Liberian tankerWorld Peace collides with theEl Ferdan Railway Bridge,Suez Canal,Ismailia, Egypt. The canal is blocked as part of the bridge ends up across the deck ofWorld Peace.^[22]
• The first specimens of the mineralbenstonite are collected by Orlando J. Benston in theMagnet Cove igneous complex ofArkansas, USA.^[23]

• December 1954
• December by year
• Months in the 1950s

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