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The following events occurred inJuly 1954:

• Japan's National Security Board was reorganized as the Defense Agency, and theJapan Self-Defense Forces were established.^[1]
• TheNordic Passport Union was extended to allow citizens of the union to live and work in any of the four countries without a residence or work permit.^[2]
• The United States officially began using the international unit of thenautical mile, equal to 6,076.11549 ft. or 1,852 metres.^[3]
• Two men were killed when aUnited States Army plane crashed during aReserve Officer Training Corps training flight atKelly Air Force Base,Texas. One of the dead men was John McBride, a promisingUniversity of Alabama American football player.^[4]
• ANorth American X-10 plane,GM-19308, c/n 2, onNavaho X-10 flight number 7, developed a fire on board, crashed and burned eight minutes out ofEdwards AFB, California.^[5]
• WDBO (nowWCPX) TV channel 6 in Orlando, FL (CBS) begins broadcasting
• Died:
  • Thea von Harbou, 65, German actress and screenwriter^[6]
  • Hugh A. Butler, 76,United States Senator fromNebraska, died after astroke.^[7]

• A ballot of Welsh local authorities, carried out by theSouth Wales Daily News, revealed a preference forCardiff as the official capital of Wales.^[8]

• Following the death of Nebraska SenatorHugh A. Butler two days earlier,Samuel W. Reynolds was appointed by GovernorRobert B. Crosby to theUnited States Senate to fill the open seat. Reynolds' career would be short as he chose to return to his wholesale coal business when elections took place inNovember 1954.^[9]
• Died:Reginald Marsh, 56, US artist^[10]

• Food rationing in Great Britain ended with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II and nearly a decade after the war's end.^[11]
• In the "Miracle of Bern", West Germany beat Hungary 3–2 at the Wankdorf Stadium inBern, Switzerland, to win the1954 FIFA World Cup.^[12]

• TheAndhra Pradesh High Court was officially inaugurated in India by the country's Home Minister,Kailash Nath Katju.^[13]
• TheBBC broadcast the UK's first television news bulletin.^[14]
• Elvis Presley's first single, "That's All Right", was recorded bySun Records inMemphis, Tennessee.^[15][16]
• Born:
  • Jimmy Crespo, US guitarist and songwriter; inBrooklyn,New York City
  • John Wright, New Zealand cricketer and coach; inDarfield, New Zealand

• The Singapore-registered cargo shipCherry Venture was driven aground in a storm atTeewah Beach,Australia, where it would remain until scrapped in 2007. The captain and the crew of 24 people and two monkeys survived.^[17]
• KMOS TV channel 6 in Sedalia-Warrensburg, MO (PBS) begins broadcasting
• Born:Willie Randolph, American baseball player and manager; inHolly Hill, South Carolina
• Died:Gabriel Pascal, 60, Hungarian film producer and director

• TheOnslow by-election to the30th New Zealand Parliament, caused by the death ofHarry Combs, was rendered unnecessary in the absence of anyone having come forward by the closing date to oppose Labour candidateHenry May, who was declared elected.^[18]
• Dewey Phillips ofWHBQ (AM) in Memphis became the first radio announcer to broadcast a recording of Elvis Presley. The track "That's All Right" (later pressed asSun 209) was recorded two days earlier. Upon hearing that his debut record was about to be aired, Presley hid in a movie theater, thinking he would become a laughingstock.

• KMOX (nowKMOV) TV channel 4 in Saint Louis, MO (CBS) did their first broadcast.
• Died:George Gardiner (or Gardner), 77, Irish boxer, first undisputed World Light Heavyweight Champion^[19]

• After two years' study of problems that might be encountered inhuman spaceflight, a joint group -NACA,Air Force, andNavy - met inWashington, D.C., to discuss the need for a hypersonic research vehicle and to decide on the type of aircraft that could attain these objectives. The NACA proposal was accepted inDecember 1954, and a formal memorandum of understanding was signed to initiate theX-15 project. Technical direction of the project was assigned to the NACA.^[20]
• Born:Kevin O'Leary, Canadian entrepreneur^[21]

• 23-year-oldPeter Thomson wonthe British Open golf championship,^[22] becoming the first Australian to do so.
• Born:
  • Andre Dawson, American baseball player; inMiami
  • Neil Tennant, British singer-songwriter and record producer; in North Shields^[23]
  • Yō Yoshimura, Japanese voice actor (d. 1991)

• Died:Henry Valentine Knaggs, 95, English physician and author

• The Panamanian cargo shipSan Mardeno ran aground and sank offSaurashtra, India, resulting in the death of her captain. The remaining 42 crew members were rescued.^[24]

• Born:Ray Bright, Australian cricketer; in Melbourne
• Died:

• • Frida Kahlo, 47, Mexican painter, died of apulmonary embolism (or possibly by suicide) atLa Casa Azul, the house inMexico City where she was born.^[25]
  • Irving Pichel, 63, US actor and director^[26]
  • Grantland Rice, 73, US sports writer^[27]

• The first prototype of theHandley Page Victor bomber was lost when the tail became detached during a low-level pass over the runway atCranfield, UK, causing the aircraft to crash with the loss of the crew.^[28][29]
• Died:
  • Jacinto Benavente, 87, Spanish writer and Nobel laureate^[30]
  • Jackie Saunders, 61, American silent screen actress

• The maiden flight of theBoeing 367-80 (or Dash 80), prototype of theBoeing 707 series, took place.
• Juan Fangio, the Argentine driver for German Grand Prix teamMercedes-Benz, broke the lap record for the Silverstone Circuit with an average speed of 100.35 miles per hour (161.50 km/h), the previous record being 100.16 miles per hour (161.19 km/h).^[31]
• KOCO TV channel 5 in Oklahoma City, OK (ABC) begins broadcasting
• WBOC TV channel 16 in Salisbury, MD (CBS/NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting

• Apartial lunar eclipse took place.^[32]
• Died:
  • Henri Frankfort, 57, Dutch Egyptologist, archaeologist and orientalist^[33]
  • Herms Niel, 66, German composer^[34]

• Argentine driverJosé Froilán González won the1954 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.^[35]
• Born:
  • Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany; inHamburg^[36]
  • Edward Natapei, Vanuatuan politician, 6thPrime Minister of Vanuatu (d. 2015)
• Died:Machine Gun Kelly (George Kelly Barnes), 59, US gangster, died of aheart attack.^[37]

• France's prime minister,Pierre Mendès France, obtained an assurance from Chinese leaderZhou Enlai that he would cease to support some of the Viet Minh claims, in the interests of achieving peace in Indochina.^[38]

• Sun Records released Elvis Presley's first single, "That's All Right", in the United States.

• The1954 Geneva Conference ended after nearly two months, resulting in the partition ofVietnam.^[39]
• Born:Dave Shaw, Australian commercial aviator and cave diver (d. 2005)

• First Indochina War: TheGeneva Conference sent French forces to the south, and Vietnamese forces to the north, of a ceasefire line, and called for elections to decide the government for all ofVietnam byJuly 1956. Failure to abide by the terms of the agreement led to the establishmentde facto of regimes of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, and to theVietnam War.

• The first-ever meltdown of anuclear reactor was deliberately initiated as part ofArgonne National Laboratory'sBORAX experiments at theNational Reactor Testing Station inIdaho.^[40]
• WTHI TV channel 10 in Terre Haute, IN (CBS) begins broadcasting

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• A US Air Force pilot, Lieutenant Floyd C. Nugent, suffered alanding gear problem while flying aVought F7U-3 Cutlass, so he aimed the jet out to sea and ejected.^[41] The plane flew on for almost 30 minutes, circlingNaval Air Station North Island and theHotel del Coronado, before ditching near the shore.^[42]
• WCET TV channel 48 in Cincinnati, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
• Born:Vitas Gerulaitis, US tennis player; in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1994)

• The secondAvro Vulcan prototype was badly damaged when it swung off the runway upon landing atFarnborough, UK.^[43]
• Born:Lynne Frederick, British actress (d. 1994)^[44]

• Born:
  • Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela; inSabaneta, Barinas (d. 2013)^[45]
  • Gerd Faltings, German mathematician; inBuer^[46]
• Died:Sojin (Sōjin Kamiyama), 70, Japanese film star during the American silent film era

• The construction ofYad Vashem,^[47] an official memorial center to commemorate the victims ofthe persecution of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices in Europe, began in Jerusalem.
• Tropical Storm Barbara made landfall nearVermilion Bay,Louisiana, United States,^[48] causing some flooding and some damage to the local rice crop.
• Died:Coen de Koning, 75, Dutch speed skater (b. 1879)

• TheTelevision Act 1954 received Royal Assent, enabling the creation of a commercial television service in the UK.^[49]

Achille Compagnoni

Lino Lacedelli

Summit photographs of Compagnoni and Lacedelli

• Onan Italian expedition to K2, mountaineersLino Lacedelli andAchille Compagnoni became the first two people to reach the summit of the second highest mountain in the world.^[50]
• ThePatea by-election to the30th New Zealand Parliament, brought about by the resignation ofWilliam Sheat, resulted in Sheat being re-elected as an Independent candidate.^[51]

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

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