the 5000 metres by five seconds. 14 October – the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie visits the United Kingdom. 19 October Britain agrees to end its military occupation of the Suez Canal. A public inquiry into the de Havilland Comet airline disasters hears that metal fatigue was the most likely cause of the two recent crashes which claimed the lives of a total of 50 people. November – postwar government limitations on housebuilding are lifted. 2 November – radio comedy series Hancock's Half Hour first aired. 13 November The Great Britain national rugby league team beat France to win the first Rugby League World Cup at the Parc des Princes in Paris. BBC Television broadcasts the opening episode of Fabian of the Yard, the first British TV police procedural. 27 November – the South Goodwin lightvessel is wrecked on the Goodwin Sands with the loss of six of the seven on board. The tanker World Concord breaks in two in the Irish Sea. 29 November – the leading case of Ladd v Marshall is decided in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, establishing criteria for the Court to admit fresh evidence in a case on which a judgement has already been delivered. 30 November – Winston Churchill becomes the first, and to the present day; the only UK Prime Minister to celebrate his eightieth birthday whilst in office. 25 December – 1954 Prestwick air disaster: BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser G-ALSA crashes on landing at Prestwick Airport from London in poor visibility at 03:30, killing 28. Undated – the first UK Wimpy Bar is opened at the Lyons Corner House in Coventry Street, London. Publications Kingsley Amis's first work of fiction, the comic campus novel Lucky Jim. Agatha Christie's spy novel Destination Unknown. Ian Fleming's James Bond spy novel Live and Let Die. William Golding's first book, the dystopian allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. C. S. Lewis's children's fantasy novel The Horse and His Boy, fifth of The Chronicles of Narnia. Iris Murdoch's first work of fiction, the philosophical picaresque novel Under the Net. Alan S. C. Ross's paper "Linguistic class-indicators in present-day English" in Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. Rosemary Sutcliff's historical children's novel The Eagle of the Ninth illustrated by C. Walter Hodges, first in the series of the same name. J. R. R. Tolkien's epic high fantasy novels The Fellowship of the Ring (29 July) and The Two Towers