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1954

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May

1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1954th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 954th year of the 2nd millennium, the 54th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1950s decade.

From top to bottom, left to right: A thermonuclear test, code named Castle Romeo; The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, United States; Surface weather map of Hurricane Hazel near landfall in North Carolina; U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower with U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the advocate of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état; Soldiers of the National Liberation Army during the Algerian War of Independence.; Final of the 1954 FIFA World Cup; Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet "About the transfer of the Crimean Oblast", Supreme Council Herald; Damage from the 1954 Blons avalanches

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century 20th century 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957

1954 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1954 MCMLIV
Ab urbe condita	2707
Armenian calendar	1403 ԹՎ ՌՆԳ
Assyrian calendar	6704
Baháʼí calendar	110–111
Balinese saka calendar	1875–1876
Bengali calendar	1361
Berber calendar	2904
British Regnal year	2 Eliz. 2 – 3 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2498
Burmese calendar	1316
Byzantine calendar	7462–7463
Chinese calendar	癸巳年 (Water Snake) 4651 or 4444 — to — 甲午年 (Wood Horse) 4652 or 4445
Coptic calendar	1670–1671
Discordian calendar	3120
Ethiopian calendar	1946–1947
Hebrew calendar	5714–5715
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2010–2011
- Shaka Samvat	1875–1876
- Kali Yuga	5054–5055
Holocene calendar	11954
Igbo calendar	954–955
Iranian calendar	1332–1333
Islamic calendar	1373–1374
Japanese calendar	Shōwa29 (昭和29年)
Javanese calendar	1885–1886
Juche calendar	43
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4287
Minguo calendar	ROC43 民國43年
Nanakshahi calendar	486
Thai solar calendar	2497
Tibetan calendar	阴水蛇年 (female Water-Snake) 2080 or 1699 or 927 — to — 阳木马年 (male Wood-Horse) 2081 or 1700 or 928

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Events

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January

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January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany.^{[citation needed]}
January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.^[1]
January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head office of IBM.^[2]
January 10 – BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland Comet jet plane, disintegrates in mid-air due to metal fatigue, and crashes in the Mediterranean near Elba; all 35 people on board are killed.^[3]
January 12 – Avalanches in Austria kill more than 200.
January 15 – Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya.^[4]
January 17 – In Yugoslavia, Milovan Đilas, one of the leading members of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, is relieved of his duties.
January 20 – The US-based National Negro Network is established, with 46 member radio stations.
January 21 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut, by First Lady of the United States Mamie Eisenhower.^[5]
January 25 – The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meet at the Berlin Conference.^[6]

January 14: Marilyn weds DiMaggio.

February

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February 10 – After authorizing $385 million over the $400 million already budgeted for military aid to Vietnam, President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against his country's intervention in Vietnam.
February 19 – 1954 transfer of Crimea: The Soviet Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
February 23 – The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
February 25 – Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes premier of Egypt.

March

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March 1
- U.S. officials announce that a hydrogen bomb test (Castle Bravo) has been conducted, on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
- U.S. Capitol shooting incident: Four Puerto Rican nationalists open fire in the United States House of Representatives chamber and wound 5; they are apprehended by security guards.
March 9 – American journalists Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produce a 30-minute See It Now documentary, entitled A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy.
March 12 – Finland and Germany officially end their state of war.
March 13 – Việt Minh forces under General Võ Nguyên Giáp began a massive artillery bombardment on the French military, beginning the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the climactic battle of the First Indochina War.
March 19 – Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory at Madison Square Garden in the first televised boxing prize fight to be shown in colour.
March 23 – In Vietnam, the Viet Minh capture the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu. The remaining French Army units there are partially isolated.
March 25
- The 26th Academy Awards Ceremony is held.
- The Soviet Union recognises the sovereigntyofEast Germany. Soviet troops remain in the country.
March 27 – The Castle Romeo nuclear test explosion is executed at Bikini Atoll, in the Marshall Islands.
March 28
- The trial of A. L. Zissu and 12 other Zionist leaders ends with harsh sentences in Communist Romania.
- Puerto Rico's first television station, WKAQ-TV, commences broadcasting.
March 29 – A C-47 transport with French nurse Geneviève de Galard on board is wrecked on the runway at Dien Bien Phu.
March 30 – The first operational subway line in Canada opens in Toronto.

April

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April 1
- The U.S. Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorize the founding of the United States Air Force AcademyinColorado.
- South Point School in India is founded, and becomes the largest school in the world by 1992.
April 3 – Petrov Affair: Diplomat Vladimir Petrov defects from the Soviet Union and asks for political asylum in Australia.
April 4 – Legendary symphony conductor Arturo Toscanini experiences a lapse of memory during a concert broadcast live from Carnegie Hall in New York City. At this concert's end, his retirement is announced, and he never conducts in public again.
April 7 – Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech, during a news conference.
April 8 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Air Lines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.
April 11
- This day is denoted as the most boring day in the 20th century by True Knowledge, an answer engine developed by William Tunstall-Pedoe. No significant newsworthy events, births, or deaths are known to have happened on this day.^[7]
- In a general election in Belgium, the dominant Christian Social Party wins 95 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives, and 49 of the 106 seats in the Senate. The government led by Jean Van Houtte loses their majority in parliament. The two other main parties, the Socialist and Liberal Party, subsequently form a rare "purple" government, with Achille Van Acker as Prime Minister.^[8]
April 12 – Bill Haley & His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" in their first session for American Decca in New York City; it is released on May 20 as a B-side, but only in 1955 becomes a #1 hit, helping to initiate the rock and roll craze.
April 14
- Aneurin Bevan resigns from the British Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet in protest over his party's failure to oppose the rearmament of West Germany.
- A Soviet spy ring in Australia is unveiled.
April 16 – Vice President Richard Nixon announces that the United States may be "putting our own boys in Indochina regardless of Allied support".^[9]
April 22
- The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees comes into force, defining the status of refugees and setting out the basis for granting right of asylum.
- Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.
April 26
- Aninternational conference on Korea and Indo-China opens in Geneva.
- Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is released in Japan.
April 28 – U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles accuses Communist China of sending combat troops to Indo-China to train Viet Minh guerrillas.^[10]

May

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May 1 – The Unification Church is founded in South Korea.
May 4 – General Alfredo Stroessner deposes Federico Chaves in a coup d'étatinParaguay; from August 15 he will hold the office of President until 1989.
May 6 – Roger Bannister runs the first sub-four minute mile, in Oxford, England.
May 7 – Vietnam War (run-up): The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
May 8 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is formed in Manila, Philippines.
May 11 – U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declares that Indochina is important but not essential to the security of Southeast Asia, thus ending any prospect of American intervention on the side of France.
May 14
- The Boeing 707 jetliner is rolled out in the United States, after about 2 years of development.
- The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is adopted in The Hague, Netherlands.
May 15 – The Latin Union (Unión Latina) is created by the Convention of Madrid. Its member countries use the five Romance languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian. It suspended operations in 2012.
May 16 – Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.^[11]
May 17
- Brown v. Board of Education (347 US 483 1954): The Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously that segregated schools are unconstitutional.
- The Royal Commission on the Petrov Affair in Australia begins its inquiry.
- Adnan Menderes of the Democrat Party forms the new (21st) government of Turkey.
May 20 – Chiang Kai-shek is re-elected as the president of the Republic of China, by the National Assembly.
May 22 – The common Nordic Labour Market act is signed.
May 26 – A fire on board the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Bennington, off Narragansett Bay, Massachusetts, kills 103 sailors.
May 29
- 1954 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a decreased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by H.V. Evatt. The election has come shortly after the Petrov Affair, arguably helping the Government survive what was initially predicted to be a defeat.
- Creation and first meeting of the Bilderberg Group.
- Diane Leather becomes the first woman to run a sub-five minute mile, in Birmingham, England.^[12]

June

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June 6 – The grand opening of the sculpture of Yuriy Dolgorukiy takes place in Moscow (this statue is one of the main monuments of Moscow).
June 7 – English cryptanalyst, mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, age 41, commits suicide by cyanide poisoning.
June 9 – McCarthyism: Joseph N. Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy, during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army, saying, "Have you, at long last, no decency?"^[13]
June 14 – The words "under God" are added to the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
June 15 – The UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) is formed in Basel, Switzerland.
June 17 – A CIA-engineered military coup occurs in Guatemala.
June 18 – Pierre Mendès France becomes prime minister of France.
June 22
- Sarah Mae Flemming is expelled from a bus in South Carolina, for sitting in a white-only section.
- Parker–Hulme murder case: Pauline Parker, 16 and her friend Juliet Hulme, 15, bludgeon Parker's mother to death using a brick, at Victoria Park in New Zealand.
June 27
- Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz steps down in a CIA-sponsored military coup, triggering a bloody civil war that continues for more than 35 years.
- The world's first atomic power station opens at Obninsk, near Moscow.

July

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July 1
- The Common Nordic Labor Market Act comes into effect.
- The United States officially begins using the international unit of the nautical mile, equal to 6,076.11549 ft. or 1,852 meters.
July 4
- Food rationing in Great Britain ends, 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.
- "Miracle of Bern": West Germany beats Hungary 3–2 to win the 1954 FIFA World Cup.
July 10 – Peter Thomson becomes the first Australian to win the British Open Golf Championship.
July 15
- The Boeing 367-80 (or Dash 80), prototype of the Boeing 707 series, makes its maiden flight.
- Juan Fangio, Argentine driver for German Grand Prix team Mercedes-Benz, makes a new fastest lap of the Silverstone Circuit in England, with an average speed of 100.35 mph, the previous record being 100.16 mph.
July 19 – Release of Elvis Presley's first single, a cover of "That's All Right", by Sun Records (recorded July 5inMemphis, Tennessee).
July 21 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference sends French forces to the south, and Vietnamese forces to the north, of a ceasefire line, and calls for elections to decide the government for all of Vietnam by July 1956. Failure to abide by the terms of the agreement leads to the establishment of the de facto regimes of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, and the Vietnam War.
July 29 – The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of three volumes in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, is published in London.
July 31 – 1954 Italian expedition to K2: Italian mountaineers Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni become the first to reach the summit of the second highest mountain in the world, in the Karakoram range.

August

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August 1 – The First Indochina War ends with the Vietnam People's ArmyinNorth Vietnam, the Vietnamese National ArmyinSouth Vietnam, the Kingdom of CambodiainCambodia, and the Kingdom of LaosinLaos, emerging victorious against the French Army.
August 6 – Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne quintuplets, dies of asphyxiation following an epileptic seizure. She is the first of the Canadian five to perish; three live into the 21st century.
August 16 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine is published in the United States.
August 23 – A United States Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules makes its first flight at Burbank, California, manufactured by Lockheed Martin.
August 24 – Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas commits suicide, after being accused of involvement in a conspiracy to murder his chief political opponent, Carlos Lacerda.

September

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September 6 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) treaty is signed in Manila, Philippines.
September 8 – SEATO is established in Bangkok, Thailand.
September 9 – The 6.7 M_w Chlef earthquake shakes northern Algeria, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The shock destroys Orléansville, leaving 1,243–1,409 dead, and 5,000 injured.
September 11 – The Miss America Pageant is broadcast on television for the first time.
September 14
- The Soviet Union carries out the Totskoye nuclear exercise.
- English composer Benjamin Britten's chamber opera version of The Turn of the Screw receives its world premiere, at the Teatro La FeniceinVenice, Italy.
September 15 – Black Wednesday in air travel: severe delays to flights, due to bad weather, occur along the East Coast of the United States.
September 17 – William Golding's allegorical dystopian novel Lord of the Flies is published in London.
September 18 – Finnish president J. K. Paasikivi is the first Western head of state to be awarded the highest honor of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin.^[14]^[15]
September 20 – The first Moomins comic strip is published in the London newspaper The Evening News.^[16]
September 25 – Footscray Football Club wins their first Australian Football League Grand Final.
September 26 – Japanese ferry Tōya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait. More than 1,100 people are killed, 7 other ships are wrecked, and at least nine others seriously damaged.
September 27 – The Tonight Show first airs on live television on NBC in the United States being the first late night talk show.
September 30 – The USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world, is commissioned into the U.S. Navy.

October

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October 11
- Pre-Vietnam War: The Viet Minh takes control of North Vietnam.
- Hurricane Hazel crosses over Haiti, killing 1,000.
October 15 – Hurricane Hazel makes U.S. landfall; it is the only recorded Category 4 hurricane to strike as far north as North Carolina
October 18
- Texas Instruments announces the development of the first commercial transistor radio. The Regency TR-1 goes on sale the following month.
- The comic strip Hi and Lois, by Mort Walker and Dik Browne, is launched in the United States.
October 23
- West Germany joins NATO.
- Paris Agreement sets up the Western European Union to implement the Treaty of Brussels (1948), providing for mutual self-defence and other collaboration between Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
October 25 – Landslides caused by heavy rains hit Salerno, Italy, killing about 300.
October 26 – Muslim Brotherhood member Mahmoud Abdul Latif tries to kill Gamal Abdel Nasser.
October 31 – Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.

November

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November 1 – The FLN attacks representative and public buildings of the French colonial power.
November 2
- The dock workers' strike in the UK comes to an end.
- The radio program Hancock's Half Hour, a pioneer in situation comedy, is first broadcast on BBC Radio (a television version will follow in 1956).
November 3 – The first Godzilla film premieres in Tokyo.
November 5 – Japan and Burma sign a peace treaty in Rangoon, to end their long-extinct state of war.
November 10 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial), at the Arlington National Cemetery.
November 12 – The main immigration port-of-entry in New York HarboratEllis Island closes permanently.
November 13 – Great Britain defeats France, to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators
November 14 – Egyptian president Muhammad Naguib is deposed, and Gamal Abdel Nasser replaces him.
November 22 – Berman v. Parker (348 U.S. 26): The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the federal slum clearance and urban renewal programs.
November 23 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 3.27 points, or 0.86 percent, closing at an all-time high of 382.74. More significantly, this is the first time the Dow has surpassed its peak level, reached just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
November 30 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, a four-kilogram piece of the Hodges Meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and badly bruises a napping woman, in the first documented case of an object from outer space hitting a person.

December

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December 1 – The first Hyatt Hotel, The Hyatt House Los Angeles, opens on the grounds of Los Angeles International Airport. It is the first hotel in the world built on an airport property.
December 2
- Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 67–22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy, for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
- The Taiwan-United States Mutual Defense Treaty is signed.^[17]
December 3 – A German court dismisses charges against Werner Naumann, head of the Neo-Nazi Naumann Circle.
December 4 – The first Burger King opens in Miami, Florida.
December 15 – The Netherlands Antilles is created out of the Dutch Caribbean nations. It is dissolved between 1986 and 2010.
December 23 – J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray perform the world's first successful kidney transplantation, in Boston, Massachusetts.
December 24 – Laos gains full independence from France.

Date unknown

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New Zealand engineer Sir William Hamilton develops the first pump-jet engine (the "Hamilton Jet") capable of propelling a jetboat.^[18]
The first electric drip brew coffeemaker is patented in Germany and named the Wigomat after its inventor Gottlob Widmann.^[19]
The Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race.
Gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) are brought to the United States by Dr. Victor Schwentker.
The case of Lothar Malskat, who had admitted that he had painted the supposedly antique frescoesinMarienkirche himself, goes to trial.
The TV dinner is introduced, by American entrepreneur Gerry Thomas.
InSouth Vietnam, the Viet Minh is reorganised into the Viet Cong.
After the death of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union starts releasing political prisoners and deportees from its Gulag prison camps.

Births

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Births
January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December

January

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January 1
- Thomas Aisu, Ugandan physician, educator (d. 2018)
- Djimrangar Dadnadji, 16th prime minister of Chad (d. 2019)
January 2 – Henry Bonilla, American politician
January 3
- Ned Lamont, American politician^[20]
- Ross the Boss, American heavy metal/punk guitarist
January 4
- Tina Knowles, African-American fashion designer; mother of R&B singers Beyoncé and Solange Knowles^[21]
- Dave "The Devilfish" Ulliott, English professional poker player
January 5 – Alex English, American basketball player
January 6 – Anthony Minghella, British film, theatre director (d. 2008)
January 7
- Jodi Long, American actress
- José María Vitier, Cuban music composer, pianist
January 8 – Julieta Castellanos, Honduran sociologist
January 11 – Kailash Satyarthi, Indian activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
January 11 – Balachandra Menon, Indian Malayalam film director and actor
January 12 – Howard Stern, American radio host
January 13 – Trevor Rabin, South African–American musician
January 14 – Masanobu Fuchi, Japanese professional wrestler
January 15 – Jose Dalisay, Jr., Filipino writer
January 16 – Morten P. Meldal, Danish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate^[22]
January 17 – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmental lawyer, 2024 United States presidential election candidate
January 19
- Ted DiBiase, American professional wrestler^[23]
- Katey Sagal, American actress and singer^[24]
- Katharina Thalbach, German actress
- Yumi Matsutōya, Japanese singer-songwriter^{[citation needed]}
January 21 – Thomas de Maizière, German politician
January 22 – Peter Pilz, Austrian politician
January 23
- Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer, songwriter
- Edward Ka-Spel, British/Dutch singer and songwriter (The Legendary Pink Dots)
January 28
- Peter Lampe, German theologian, historian
- Bruno Metsu, French football coach (d. 2013)^[25]
- Kaneto Shiozawa, Japanese voice actor (d. 2000)^[26]
- Willy Telavi, 11th prime minister of Tuvalu
January 29
- Yukinobu Hoshino, Japanese cartoonist^[27]
- Oprah Winfrey, African-American actress, talk show hostess, producer and publisher^[28]
January 31 – Mark Slavin, Israeli wrestler (d. 1972)

February

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February 1 – Bill Mumy, American actor, musician (Lost In Space)^[29]
February 2 – Christie Brinkley, American model^[30]
February 4 – Andrei Karlov, Russian diplomat (d. 2016)^[31]
February 7 – Dieter Bohlen, German music producer and singer-songwriter (Modern Talking, Blue System)^[32]
February 9 – Gina Rinehart, Australian mining tycoon
February 11 – Noriyuki Asakura, Japanese composer
February 12
- Joseph Jordania, Georgian-Australian musicologist, academic
- Evangelos Basiakos, Greek politician, long term MP, and minister
- Tzimis Panousis, Greek comedian, singer, and author
February 13 – Donnie Moore, American baseball player (d. 1989)
February 15 – Matt Groening, American cartoonist (The Simpsons)
February 16
- Iain Banks, Scottish author (d. 2013)^[33]
- Michael Holding, Jamaican cricket player and commentator^[34]
- Margaux Hemingway, American fashion model and actress (d. 1996)
February 17
- Rene Russo, American actress, fashion model
- Yuji Takada, Japanese free-style wrestler
- Brian Houston, Australian-New Zealand pastor, author and founder of Hillsong Church
February 18
- John Travolta, American actor^[35]
- Jalaluddin Hassan, Malaysian actor
February 19
- Messaouda Boubaker, Tunisian writer
- Michael Gira, American musician
- Sócrates, Brazilian footballer (d. 2011)
February 20
- Anthony Head, English actor, musician
- Patty Hearst, American heiress and kidnap victim^[36]
February 23 – Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine
February 24 – Sid Meier, Canadian programmer, game designer, notable for the Civilization series
February 25 – Gerardo Pelusso, Uruguayan football manager
February 26 – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 12th President of Turkey

March

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March 1
- Peter Spellos, American actor, voice actor
- Catherine Bach, American actress (The Dukes of Hazzard)
- Ron Howard, American actor, director, producer (The Andy Griffith Show, Happy Days)
March 2
- Ed Johnstone, Canadian ice hockey player
- Gara Takashima, Japanese voice actress
March 4
- François Fillon, Prime Minister of France
- Catherine O'Hara, Canadian actress (SCTV)
- Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian writer
- Willie Thorne, English snooker player (d. 2020)
March 5 – João Lourenço, President of Angola
March 6 – Harald Schumacher, German football goalkeeper
March 8
- Cheryl Baker, English singer, former member of Bucks Fizz
- Marie-Theres Nadig, Swiss alpine skier
- David Wilkie, Scottish former world record holder, Olympic gold medallist swimmer (1976)
March 9
- Bobby Sands, Irish republican hunger striker (d. 1981)
- Kevin Wade, American screenwriter, television producer
March 11 – Nicolae Manea, Romanian football player, manager (d. 2014)
March 13 – The Baroness Amos, British politician
March 15
- Massimo Bubola, Italian singer, songwriter
- Craig Wasson, American actor
March 16
- S.A. Griffin, American actor, poet
- Nancy Wilson, American rock musician
- Jimmy Nail, English singer, songwriter, actor, film producer, and television writer
March 17 – Lesley-Anne Down, British actress
March 18 – James F. Reilly, American astronaut
March 20 – Louis Sachar, American author
March 23
- Geno Auriemma, American basketball coach
- Hideyuki Hori, Japanese voice actor
March 24
- Mike Braun, American businessman and politician
- Robert Carradine, American actor
- Donna Pescow, American actress, director (Angie)
- Rafael Orozco Maestre, Colombian singer (d. 1992)
March 26
- Wendy Fulton, American actress
- Kazuhiko Inoue, Japanese voice actor
- Clive Palmer, Australian mining tycoon
March 29 – Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (d. 1985)