The First Indochina War ends with the Vietnam People's Army in North Vietnam, the Vietnamese National Army in South Vietnam, the Kingdom of Cambodia in Cambodia, and the Kingdom of Laos in Laos, emerging victorious against the French Army.
Died: Emilie Dionne, 20, one of the Dionne quintuplets, of asphyxiation following an epileptic seizure. She is the first of the five to perish, and three of them survive into the 21st century.
Three minutes after takeoff from Lajes Field on Terceira Island in the Azores, for a flight to Bermuda, an AviancaLockheed L-749A-79 Constellation (registration HK-163) crashes into high ground near Monte de Boi at an altitude of 620 meters (2,034 feet), killing all 30 people on board. It is the second-deadliest aviation accident in Portugal's history at the time.[4]
August 10, 1954 (Tuesday)
First use of the 24-second shot-clock in competitive basketball.
An Air VietnamBristol Type 170 Freighter on a domestic flight in Vietnam from Hanoi to Saigon carrying refugees from the Red River delta suffers engine trouble and attempts to divert to an emergency landing at Pakse, Laos. While on approach to Pakse, it crashes into a tributary of the Mekong River, killing 47 of the 55 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of newly independent Laos at the time and will be the deadliest in history involving a Bristol Freighter.[6]
The first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine is published in the United States.
Born:James Cameron, Canadian film director, in Kapuskasing, Ontario.
August 17, 1954 (Tuesday)
Died:Billy Murray, singer, dies of a heart attack aged 77
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August 18, 1954 (Wednesday)
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Belgian cargo ship Prince de Liege runs aground in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. It is refloated on 13 October with assistance from the Dutch tugPoolzee.[14]
The Filipino cargo ship Donalourdes, the British cargo ship Thorncombe, and the Panama-registered cargo ship Northern Princess are driven ashore at Kowloon, Hong Kong, in a typhoon.[15]
^Sendall, Bernard Independent Television in Britain: Volume 1 - Origin and Foundation 1946-62 London: The Macmillan Press Ltd 1982 (reprinted 1984) ISBN0-333-30941-3
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Grimwood, James M. "Part 1 (A) Major Events Leading to Project Mercury March 1944 through December 1957". Project Mercury - A Chronology. NASA Special Publication-4001. NASA. Retrieved 29 January 2023.