Rent A Year to Remember: 1954 (1954)

This was the year in which colonial power took a battering. France suffered at the hands of the Viet Minh in Indochina and faced riots in Algeria, Britain battled the Mau Mau in Kenya, and five senators were shot by Puerto Rican nationalists in the United States. Meanwhile, Colonel Nasser, soon to plunge Britain into the Suez Crisis, became prime minister of Egypt. In other news, Senator Joe McCarthy's career came to a sordid end this year. In Britain, the economy improved, rationing finally ceased, the recently-crowned Queen Elizabeth II continued her glorious tour of the Commonwealth realms and Roger Bannister ran his four-minute mile.