Events from the year 1954 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – Elizabeth II Prime Minister – Winston Churchill (Conservative) Parliament – 40th Events 10 January – a British Overseas Airways Corporation de Havilland Comet jet airliner on BOAC Flight 781 from Singapore to London crashes in the Mediterranean Sea following fatigue failure, killing all 35 on board. 25 January – first broadcast of Dylan Thomas's radio play Under Milk Wood, two months after its author's death, with Richard Burton as 'First Voice', on the BBC Third Programme. 12 February United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority founded. British Medical Committee report suggests the existence of a link between smoking and lung cancer. 23 March – film of Doctor in the House released. 24 March – after an eight-day trial at Winchester Assizes, The Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, his cousin Michael Pitt-Rivers, and their friend Peter Wildeblood are convicted of "conspiracy to incite certain male persons to commit serious offences with male persons" or buggery and related charges. Pitt-Rivers and Wildebood are sentenced to eighteen months and Lord Montagu to twelve months in prison. 2 April – BBC Television broadcasts the opening episode of The Grove Family, the first British TV soap opera. 3 April – Oxford wins the 100th Boat Race. 14 April – Aneurin Bevan resigns from the Labour Party's Shadow Cabinet in protest over his party's failure to oppose the rearmament of West Germany. 24 April – Wolverhampton Wanderers win the Football League First Division title for the first time in their history. The result ends the hopes that their local rivals, FA Cup finalists West Bromwich Albion, had of becoming the first team of the 20th century to win the double of the league title and FA Cup. 1 May – West Bromwich Albion win the FA Cup for the fourth time in their history with a 3-2 win over Preston North End in the final at Wembley Stadium. 6 May – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to break the four-minute mile, at the Iffley Road Track of the University of Oxford. 29 May – Diane Leather becomes the first woman to break the five-minute mile, at the Alexander Sports Ground in Birmingham. 6 June – first broadcast on the Eurovision Network founded by Britain, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland of a message from Pope Pius XII. 12 June – an Irish Republican