1955

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s – 1950s – 1960s 1970s 1980s
Years:	1952 1953 1954 – 1955 – 1956 1957 1958

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1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January 2 – Panama president Jose Antonio Remon is killed.
January 7 – Marian Anderson becomes the first African-American person to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City
January 19 - The Scrabble board game debuts.
February 8 – Nikolai Bulganin ousts Georgi Malenkov
February 9 – Apartheid in South Africa: 60,000 non-white people who live in a suburb of Johannesburg are forced to leave their homes
February 13 – Israel gets 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
February 23 – First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
March: Jim Henson builds the first version of Kermit the Frog
March 2:
- King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia gave up the throne in favor of his father, King Norodom Suramarit.
- Much flooding in North and Western Australia – 200 humans and tens of thousands of sheep dead, 44.000 homeless
March 15- Fedral ALP (Australian Labor Party) split (a)
April 5 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom because of health problems. He is 80 years old
April 12 – Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration
April 15 – Ray Kroc opens the first McDonald's in Illinois
April 7 – Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
July 18 – Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California
October 14 – Pakistan changed the name of East Bengal province to East Pakistan. Before the independence of the colonial Bangladeshi people the people of this region were referred to as East Pakistanis under the One Unit Policy. Its capital was based in Dacca (now Dhaka). The western part of Pakistan becomes West Pakistan with its capital based in Lahore. The federal capital at the time was Rawalpindi.
October 26 - Establishment of South Vietnam and the Army of South Vietnam.
November 1 – The Vietnam War begins between the North Vietnam Army and the South Vietnam Army
November 20 – Bo Diddley makes his TV debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town show on CBS
December 1 – Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white person on a bus. She is arrested. This starts the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Unknown – The stack was proposed

Births

January 2 – Tex Brashear, American voice actor
January 6 – Rowan Atkinson, comedian, actor
January 12 - Elijah-Demetrius Kovács, Hungarian politician and judge
January 12 – Rockne O'Bannon, writer, producer
January 13 – Jay McInerney, writer
January 15 - JoAnne Good, British radio presenter, television presenter, broadcast journalist and actress
January 17 – Steve Earle, musician
January 18 – Kevin Costner, actor
January 19 – Simon Rattle, English conductor
January 26 – Eddie Van Halen, musician (Van Halen) (d. 2020)
January 27 – John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
February 8 – John Grisham, novelist
February 10 – Greg Norman, golfer
February 19 – Jeff Daniels, actor
February 21 – Kelsey Grammer, actor
February 23 – Howard Jones, musician
February 24 – Alain Prost, Formula One driver
February 24 – Steve Jobs, computer pioneer (d. 2011)
March 5 – Penn Jillette, magician, comedian
March 7 – Tommy Kramer, American football player
March 15 – Dee Snider, singer (Twisted Sister)
March 16 – Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxing world champion
March 16 – Bruno Barreto, Brazilian movie director
March 17 – Gary Sinise, actor
March 19 – Bruce Willis, actor
March 22 – Pete Sessions, U.S. politician
March 23 – Moses Malone, basketball player
March 28 – Reba McEntire, country music singer, actress
March 29 – Earl Campbell, American football star
March 31 – Angus Young, musician (AC/DC)
April 1 – Ronnie Burk, surrealist and AIDS activist
April 3 – Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
April 6 – Michael Rooker, actor
April 11 – Kevin Brady, American politician
April 15 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
April 16 – Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
April 23 – Tony Miles, English chess player
April 29 – Kate Mulgrew, actress
April 29 - Richard Epcar, actor
May 8 - Meles Zenawi, President of Ethiopia, and ex-Prime Minister of Ethiopia, (d. 2012)
May 29 - Mike Porcaro, American bass guitarist (Toto) (d. 2015)
August 3 – Corey Burton, American actor
August 9 - Charlie Morgan, English drummer (Orleans)
October 15 – Tanya Roberts, American actress
October 28 – Bill Gates co-founder of Microsoft
November 29- Howie Mandel, host of Deal or No Deal
December 5- Dumitru Găleșanu, Romanian writer, poet-philosopher, illustrator and jurist.

Deaths

January 15 – Yves Tanguy, French painter (b. 1900)
January 21 – Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)
March 11 – Sir Alexander Fleming, British medical researcher (b. 1881)
March 12 – Charlie Parker, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1920)
April 7 – Theda Bara, American movie actress (b. 1885)
April 18 – Albert Einstein, German physicist (b. 1879)
May 4 – Georges Enescu, Romanian composer (b. 1881)
May 10 – Tommy Burns, American boxer (b. 1881)
May 11 – Gilbert Jessop, English cricketer (b. 1874)
May 16 – James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
May 26 – Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (b. 1918)
August 2 – Wallace Stevens, American poet (b. 1879)
August 5 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese singer and actress (b. 1909)
August 12 – Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
August 12 – James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
September 30 – James Dean, American actor (b. 1931)
October 1 – Charles Christie, American movie studio owner (b. 1880)
October 9 – Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna
November 4 – Cy Young, baseball player (b. 1867)
November 5 – Maurice Utrillo, French artist (b. 1882)
November 12 – Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer (b. 1878)
November 27 – Arthur Honegger, French-born Swiss composer (b. 1982)
December 6 – Honus Wagner, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1874)

Television

October 1 – The Honeymooners debuts on CBS with stars Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph

Movies released

Hit Songs

Maybellene- Chuck Berry
Bo Diddley/I'm A Man- Bo Diddley
Diddley Daddy- Bo Diddley
Rock Around The Clock- Bill Haley

New Books

The Acceptance World – Anthony Powell
Andersonville – MacKinlay Kantor
Auntie Mame – Patrick Dennis
Bath Tangle – Georgette Heyer
Birdman of Alcatraz – Thomas E. Gaddis
Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan
The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
The Dragon in the Sea – Frank Herbert
The End of Eternity – Isaac Asimov
The Genius and the Goddess – Aldous Huxley
The Ginger Man – J. P. Donleavy
A Good Man is Hard to Find – Flannery O'Connor
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne – Brian Moore
The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Magician's Nephew – C.S. Lewis
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit – Sloan Wilson
Marjorie Morningstar – Herman Wouk
Moonraker – Ian Fleming
No Time for Sergeants – Mac Hyman
Not As a Stranger – Morton Thompson
Notes of a Native Son – James Baldwin
The October Country – Ray Bradbury
Pedro Paramo – Juan Rulfo
The Quiet American – Graham Greene
Satan in Goray – Isaac Bashevis Singer
Scuffy the Tugboat – Gertrude Crampton
Something of Value – Robert Ruark
That Uncertain Feeling – Kingsley Amis
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor (Relato de un náufrago) – Gabriel García Márquez
The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
Ten North Frederick – John O'Hara
The Tontine – Thomas B. Costain
The Tree of Man – Patrick White
Tunnel in the Sky – Robert A. Heinlein

1955 Media

January 7: Marian Anderson at the Met
An LGM-30 Minuteman III missile soars in the air after a test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Minuteman is a strategic weapon system using a ballistic missile of intercontinental range.
April 15: McDonald's
August 19: Hurricane Diane
September 18: Britain annexes Rockall
October 26: Austria free
December 14: Tappan Zee Bridge opens
Rowan Atkinson at the premiere for Johnny English Reborn in September 2011
actor J.K. Simmons and actor/film producer Josh Wood attending 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California

1955 by topic
Arts, history, and science
Archaeology Architecture Art Literature Poetry Music Science
Countries

Lists of leaders
State leaders Colonial governors Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works category
Works
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