1954 — Senator Joseph McCarthy was censured for contempt of a Senate subcommittee, misconduct and abuse of certain Senators and insults to the Senate during his investigations of alleged Communism in the government and U.S. Army in 1954. “McCarthyism” comes to mean political accusations using sensational tactics and unsupported evidence. Other events that year:

• Geneva settlement divides Vietnam into two parts — North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam under Bao Dai.
• The increasing popularity of television forces radio broadcasters to adopt a largely musical format.
• J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the epic fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
• William Golding publishes The Lord of the Flies.
• Picasso begins a series of 15 variations on a painting by Delacroix.
• The American Cancer Society reports higher death rates among cigarette smokers. The tobacco industry cites 36 specialists who deny that lung cancer is caused by cigarettes.
• Plastic contact lenses are developed.
• U.S. Supreme Court rules, in Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka that segregation of schools violates the 14th amendment. Lower courts are ordered to use “all deliberate speed” in admitting Negro children to public schools.