Directory

1955 CE

The Montgomery bus boycott begins after Rosa Parks’ arrest; the Warsaw Pact forms the Eastern Bloc; the Bandung Conference unites Asian and African nations; Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California; the 1955 Le Mans disaster kills over 80 spectators; the Lynching of Emmett Till shocks the U.S.; the 1955 State of Vietnam referendum makes Ngô Đình Diệm president; the Bombing of Plaza de Mayo reveals Argentina’s unrest; and Hurricane Diane causes major U.S. flooding.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama.source
  • February 19 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established, at a meeting in Bangkok.source
  • February 24 – The Baghdad Pact (CENTO), originally known as Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), is signed between Iraq and Turkey.source
  • April 6 – Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • April 16 – The Burma–Japan Peace Treaty, signed in Rangoon on November 5, 1954, comes into effect, formally ending a state of war between the two countries.source
  • May 6 – The Western European Union Charter becomes effective.source
  • May 9 – West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).source
  • May 14 – Eight Communist Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty in Warsaw, Poland, that is called the Warsaw Pact (it will be dissolved in 1991).source
  • May 15 – The Austrian State Treaty, which restores Austria's national sovereignty, is concluded between the 4 occupying powers following World War II (the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France) and Austria, setting it up as a neutral country.source
  • June 26 – The Freedom Charter of the anti-apartheid South African Congress Alliance is adopted, at a Congress of the People in Kliptown.source
  • June 30 – The Simonstown Agreement provides for control of the naval base at Simon's Town in the Union of South Africa to transfer from the British Royal Navy to the South African Navy.source
  • July 18–23 – Geneva Summit between the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France.source
  • July 18 – Illinois Governor William Stratton signs the Loyalty Oath Act, that mandates all public employees take a loyalty oath to the State of Illinois and the United States or lose their jobs.source
  • September 18 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the uninhabited Atlantic island of Rockall.source
  • September 24 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, president of the United States, suffers a coronary thrombosis while on vacation in Denver, Colorado. Vice President Nixon assumed administrative duties and presided over Cabinet and National Security Council meetings while Eisenhower recovers.source
  • October 14 – The Organization of Central American States secretariat is inaugurated.source
  • October 26 – After the last Allied troops have left Austria, and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, the country declares its permanent neutrality.source
  • October 26 – Ngô Đình Diệm proclaims Vietnam to be a republic, with himself as its President (following the State of Vietnam referendum on October 23), and forms the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.source
  • November 15 – The Democratic Party of Japan and Japan Liberal Party merge to form the Japan Liberal Democratic Party, beginning the "1955 System".source
  • November 23 – The Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean are transferred from British to Australian control.source
  • December 9 – Adnan Menderes of DP forms the new government of Turkey (22nd government).source
  • December 10 – 1955 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a substantially increased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by H. V. Evatt. This election comes in the immediate aftermath of the devastating split in the Labor Party, which leads to the formation of the Democratic Labor Party. The DLP will preference against Labor, and keep the Coalition in office until 1972.source
  • December 20 – Cardiff is declared by the British Government as the capital of Wales.source
  • December 31 – Austria becomes independent, under terms of the May 15 Austrian State Treaty.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 18–20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan).source
  • January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941.source
  • February 10 – The United States Seventh Fleet helps the Republic of China evacuate the Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan.source
  • March 2 – Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African-American girl, refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white woman after the driver demands it. She is carried off the bus backwards, while being kicked, handcuffed and harassed on the way to the police station. She becomes a plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle (1956), which rules bus segregation to be unconstitutional.source
  • April 1 – EOKA starts a resistance campaign against British rule in the Crown colony of Cyprus.source
  • April 5 – Richard J. Daley defeats Robert Merrian to become Mayor of Chicago, by a vote of 708,222 to 581,555.source
  • April 11 – Taekwondo, a form of Korean martial arts, is officially recognized in South Korea. A board convened by General Choi Hong Hi, including master instructors, historians and societal leaders, officially adopts the name Taekwon-Do for the unified Korean martial art.source
  • April 11 – The Taiwanese Kuomintang put a bomb on the airplane Kashmir Princess, killing 16 but failing to assassinate the People's Republic of China leader, Zhou Enlai.source
  • May 7 – Newcastle United F.C. beat Manchester City F.C. 3–1 to win the 1955 FA Cup final in English Association football.source
  • August 18 – The First Sudanese Civil War begins.source
  • August 20 – Hundreds of people are killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.source
  • August 25 – The last Soviet Army forces leave Austria.source
  • August 26 – Satyajit Ray's film Pather Panchali is released in India.source
  • September 6 – Istanbul pogrom: Istanbul's Greek minority is the target of a government-sponsored pogrom.source
  • September 16 – The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.source
  • September 19–21 – President of Argentina Juan Perón is ousted in a military coup.source
  • October 27 – The film Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean, is released in the United States.source
  • November 1 – Official start date of the Vietnam War between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Republic of Vietnam; the north is allied with the Viet Cong.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 15 – The first franchised McDonald's restaurant is opened by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.source
  • April 18–24 – The Asian-African Conference is held in Bandung, Indonesia.source
  • May 15 – Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy become the first people to reach the summit of Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world, on the 1955 French Makalu expedition. The entire team of climbers reaches the summit over the next two days.source
  • May 18 – Free movement of residents between North and South Vietnam ends.source
  • May 25 – Joe Brown and George Band are the first to climb Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas, as part of the British Kangchenjunga expedition led by Charles Evans.source

Religion & Belief

  • September 14 – Pope Pius XII elevates many of the apostolic vicariates in Africa to Metropolitan Archdioceses.source

Economy & Finance

  • December 5 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge, to become the AFL–CIO.source
  • December 31 – General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make a profit of over 1 billion dollars in 1 year.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.source
  • July 17 – The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering Arco, Idaho, from the U.S. National Reactor Testing Station; on July 18, Schenectady, New York, receives power from a prototype nuclear submarine reactor at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory.source
  • July 17 – The Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California, an event broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company television network.source
  • August 1 – The prototype Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft first flies, in Nevada.source
  • September 22 – Commercial television starts in the United Kingdom with the Independent Television Authority's first ITV franchises beginning broadcasting in London, ending the BBC monopoly.source
  • October 5 – Disneyland Hotel opens to the public in Anaheim, California.source
  • November 3 – The Rimutaka Tunnel opens on the New Zealand Railways, at 5.46 mi (8.79 km), the longest in the Southern Hemisphere at this time.source
  • December 14 – The Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, in New York State, opens to traffic.source

Science & Discovery

  • March 20 – The movie adaptation of Evan Hunter's novel Blackboard Jungle premieres in the United States, featuring the famous single "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets. Teenagers jump from their seats to dance to the song.source
  • July 7 – The New Zealand Special Air Service is formed.source
  • September 16 – A Soviet Navy Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.source
  • November 19 – C. Northcote Parkinson first propounds 'Parkinson's law', in The Economist.source
  • December 22 – American cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes, forty-six.source

Health & Medicine

  • January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons.source
  • April 5 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, due to ill-health, at the age of 80.source
  • April 12 – The Salk polio vaccine, having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.source
  • April 17 – Imre Nagy, the communist Premier of Hungary, is ousted for being too moderate.source
  • September 2 – Under the guidance of Dr. Humphry Osmond, Christopher Mayhew ingests 400 mg of mescaline hydrochloride and allows himself to be filmed as part of a Panorama special for BBC TV in the U.K. that is never broadcast.source
  • November 26 – The British Governor of Cyprus declares a state of emergency on the island.source
  • December 19 – Australian comedian Barry Humphries first introduces his character Edna Everage on stage in Melbourne.source
  • World population: 2,755,823,000source

Crime & Justice

  • July 13 – Ruth Ellis is hanged for murder in London, becoming the last woman ever to be executed in the United Kingdom.source
  • August 28 – Black 14-year-old Emmett Till is lynched and shot in the head for allegedly whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi; his white murderers, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, are acquitted by an all-white jury.source
  • September 24 – Founder of Swiss watchmaker Glycine Watch SA, Eugène Meylan, age 64, is murdered.source
  • October 4 – The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is released from prison in Seoul, South Korea.source
  • December 1 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger, and is arrested, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England.source
  • February 16 – Nearly 100 die in a fire at a home for the elderly in Yokohama, Japan.source
  • February 22 – In Chicago's Democratic primary, Mayor Martin H. Kennelly loses to the head of the Cook County Democratic Party, Richard J. Daley, 364,839 to 264,077.source
  • May 11 – Japanese National Railways' ferry Shiun Maru sinks after a collision with sister ship Uko Maru, in thick fog off Takamatsu, Shikoku, in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan; 166 passengers (many children) and 2 crew members are killed. This event is influential in plans to construct the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge (built 1986–98).source
  • June 11 – Le Mans disaster: Eighty-three people are killed and at least 100 are injured after two race cars collide in the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans.source
  • June 13 – Mir mine, the first diamond mine in the Soviet Union, is discovered.source
  • July 27 – El Al Flight 402 from Vienna (Austria) to Tel Aviv, via Istanbul, is shot down over Bulgaria. All 58 passengers and crewmen aboard the Lockheed Constellation are killed.source
  • August 22 – Eleven schoolchildren are killed when their school bus is hit by a freight train in Spring City, Tennessee.source
  • September 30 – Actor James Dean is killed when his automobile collides with another car at a highway junction, near Cholame, California.source
  • October 29 – Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608 (the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster to date).source
  • November 1 – A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B, over Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew members on board.source

Climate & Environment

  • August 19 – Hurricane Diane hits the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people and causing over $1 billion in damage.source
  • September 3 – Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" in New Orleans; it is released in October.source
  • September 19 – Hurricane Hilda kills about 200 people in Mexico.source
  • September 21–30 – Hurricane Janet, one of the strongest North Atlantic tropical cyclones on record, sweeps the Lesser Antilles and Mexico, causing more than 1,020 deaths.source

Culture & Society

  • January 7 – Marian Anderson is the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.source
  • June 7 – The television quiz program The $64,000 Question premieres on CBS-TV in the United States, with Hal March as the host.source
  • July 28 – The first Interlingua Congress is held in Tours, France, leading to the foundation of the Union Mundial pro Interlingua.source
  • August 27 – The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London.source
  • September 10 – The long-running Western television series Gunsmoke debuts, on the CBS network in the United States.source
  • September 15 – Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in Paris, by Olympia Press.source
  • October 2 – Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuts on the CBS TV network in the United States.source
  • October 3 – The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on the ABC-TV network in the United States.source
  • October 11 – 70-mm film for projection is introduced, with the theatrical release of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical film, Oklahoma!.source
  • Captain Kangaroo debuts on CBS network in the United States.source
  • December 4 – The International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations is founded in Luxembourg.source
  • December 5 – The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed in Montgomery, Alabama, by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other Black ministers to coordinate the Montgomery bus boycott by Black people.source

Births

  • January 5 – Mamata Banerjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengalsource
  • January 17 – Katalin Karikó, Hungarian-born biochemist, Nobel Prize laureatesource
  • January 28 – Nicolas Sarkozy, 23rd President of Francesource
  • February 24 – Steve Jobs, American businessman and founder of Apple Computer (d. 2011)source
  • July 9 – Lindsey Graham, American politician, lawyer, U.S. Army soldier, U.S. Senator (R-Sc.) and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate (d. 2026)source
  • August 4 – Alberto Gonzales, American lawyer and 80th United States Attorney Generalsource
  • September 16 – Đorđe Božović, Serbian criminal and paramilitary commander in the Yugoslav Wars (d. 1991)source
  • October 28 – Bill Gates, American businessman and co-founder of Microsoftsource
  • October 30 – Heidi Heitkamp, American politician, senator, attorney general and tax commissioner from North Dakotasource
  • November 6 – Catherine Asaro, American science fiction and fantasy author, singer and teachersource
  • November 6 – William H. McRaven, U.S. Navy admiral and SEAL, leader of planning for Operation Neptune Spearsource
  • November 11 – Friedrich Merz, German politician, Chancellor of Germanysource
  • November 17 – Steve Chalke, British Baptist minister, founder of Oasis Charitable Trust, UN Special Adviser on Human Trafficking and social activistsource
  • December 28 – Liu Xiaobo, Chinese literary critic and human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2017)source

Deaths

  • March 3 – Katharine Drexel, American Roman Catholic foundress and saint (b. 1858)source
  • March 11 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1881)source
  • March 19 – Mihály Károlyi, 1st President of Hungary and 20th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1875)source
  • March 23 – Artur Bernardes, 12th President of Brazil (b. 1875)source
  • April 10 – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French Jesuit priest, philosopher, paleontologist and geologist (b. 1881)source
  • August 5 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian singer and actress (b. 1909)source
  • August 11 – Frank Seiberling, American inventor, co-founder of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (b. 1859)source
  • August 12 – Thomas Mann, German novelist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)source
  • September 16 – Leo Amery, British Conservative politician and journalist( b. 1873)source
  • October 25 – Sadako Sasaki, Japanese atomic bomb sickness victim (b. 1943)source
  • November 4 – Cy Young, American baseball player (Cleveland Spiders) and member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1867)source
  • December 6 – Honus Wagner, American baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1874)source
  • December 13 – António Egas Moniz, Portuguese neurologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)source
  • December 15 – Otto Braun, German politician, Minister President of the Free State of Prussia (b. 1872)source