1955 - Definition

1955 is a common year starting on Saturday.

Events

January-April

• January 2 - Panama president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated.
• January 19 - The Scrabble board game debuts.
• February 8 - Nikolai Bulganin ousts Georgi Malenkov
• February 13 - Israel obtains 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
• February 23 - First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
• March 2:
  • King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates the throne in favor of his father, King Norodom Suramarit.
  • Severe flooding in North and Western Australia – 200 humans and tens of thousands of sheep dead, 44.000 homeless
• March 25 - United States Customs seizes Allen Ginsberg's Howl as obscene.
• April 5 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health
• April 7 - Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

- Bandung Conference

May-July

• May 5 - Cold War: West Germany becomes a sovereign nation
• May 9 - Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
• May 14 - Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union sign a mutual-defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
• May 15 - First ascent of Makalu, fifth highest mountain.
• May 20 – Peace talks with Mau Mau in Kenya fail again
• May 25 - First ascent of Kanchenjunga, 3rd highest mountain.
• Assassination of Florida judge Curtis Chillingworth
• June 11 - On the Le Mans racetrack, three cars crash into spectator's grandstand - 70 dead, more than 100 injured
• June 20 - Very long (7min 08sec) total solar eclipse visible in Southeast Asia. During the entire Second Millennium, only seven total solar eclipses exceeded seven minutes of totality. This was the next to last.
• July 17 - Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.
• July 27 - The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends (started on May 9, 1945).

August-October

• August 19 - In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
• August 20 - Eight World Scout Jamboree opens in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
• August 20 - In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria, raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
• August 27 - The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records
• August 28 - Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, is murdered in Money, Mississippi, by white men angered because he whistled at a white woman while buying groceries.
• September 11 - Dedication of the first Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Europe, the Bern Switzerland Temple.
• September 14 - Konrad Adenauer travels to Moscow to establish diplomatic relations and to negotiate for the release of the remaining German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union
• September 16 - A military coup in Argentina deposes Juan Peron.
• October 2 - The ENIAC computer is deactivated.
• October 7 - The last German prisoners of war are released from the Soviet Union
• October 23 - The Saarland is once again part of West Germany, following a referendum
• October 26 - Austrian independence is declared again forming the Second Republic with the declaration of everlasting neutrality and the state constitution.
• October 29 - The Soviet battleship Novorossiisk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol.

November-December

• November 1 - The first international solar energy conference is held in Tucson, Arizona
• November 1 - DC-6B explodes in mid air after takeoff in Denver, Colorado - 44 dead (later proves to be a time bomb placed by John Gilbert Graham)
• November 2 – Entry into catacombs of Paris becomes illegal and punishable by a fine
• November 20 - Train crash near Didcot, Oxfordshire - 10 dead, 99 injured
• November 22 - Soviet Union nuclear test in Siberia.
• November 23 - The Cocos Islands are transferred from United Kingdom to Australian control.
• November 24 - Fokker F27 first flight.
• December 1 - American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws (Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr. later led the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott as a result).
• December 7 - Clement Attlee resigns as leader of the Labour Party - his successor is Hugh Gaitskell.
• December 19 - Sudanese Parliament declares independence.
• December 31 - General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make sales of over one billion dollars in a year.

Unknown date

• Dick Bruna draws Miffy for the first time.
• Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of Britain for the second time.
• Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights organizations, is founded in the City of New York.
• Maurice Wilkes publishes a description of microprogramming in IEEE Spectrum.

Year in topic

• 1955 in film
  • Back to the Future
  • Marty
  • Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
• 1955 in literature
• 1955 in music
• 1955 in sports
• 1955 in television
  • April 1 - The DuMont Network drastically cuts back its programming.
  • September 28 - The First World Series game broadcast in color.
  • The Honeymooners premieres, starring Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Audrey Meadows.
  • Lawrence Welk Show debuts, and will run until 1982.
  • The Mickey Mouse Club debuts, featuring "Mouseketeer" Annette Funicello, and will run until 1959.

Births

January-February

• January 6 - Rowan Atkinson, comedian, actor
• January 12 - Rockne O'Bannon, writer, producer
• January 13 - Jay McInerney, writer
• January 17 - Steve Earle, musician
• January 18 - Kevin Costner, actor
• January 19 - Simon Rattle, English conductor
• January 26 - Eddie Van Halen, musician
• February 8 - John Grisham, novelist
• February 10 - Greg Norman, golfer
• February 12 - Arsenio Hall, actor, talk show host
• February 19 - Jeff Daniels, actor
• February 20 - Kelsey Grammer, actor
• February 23 - Howard Jones, musician
• February 24 - Alain Prost, Formula One driver
• February 24 - Steve Jobs, computer pioneer

March-April

• March 5 - Penn Jillette, magician, comedian
• March 7 - Tommy Kramer, American football player
• March 15 - Dee Snider, singer
• March 16 - Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxing world champion
• 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
• April 1 - Ronnie Burk, surrealist and AIDS activist
• April 6 - Michael Rooker, actor
• April 11 - Kevin Brady, American politician
• April 16 - Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
• April 23 - Tony Miles, chess player
• April 29 - Kate Mulgrew, actress

May

• May 3 - David Hookes, cricketer (d. 2004)
• May 6 - Tom Bergeron, television host
• May 9 - Anne-Sofie von Otter, Swedish mezzo-soprano
• May 10 - Chris Berman, sports anchor
• May 10 - Mark David Chapman, assassin
• May 10 - Ashoka Prasad,scientist
• May 11 - Mark Herndon, Alabama (band)
• May 16 - Olga Korbut, gymnast
• May 16 - Jack Morris, baseball pitcher
• May 16 - Hazel O'Connor, British singer
• May 16 - Debra Winger, actress
• May 17 - Bill Paxton, actor
• May 18 - Chow Yun-Fat, actor
• May 20 - Zbigniew Preisner, film composer
• May 26 - Morimoto Masaharu, Japanese chef (Iron Chef)
• May 26 - Doris Dörrie, actor and screenplay writer
• May 28 - John McGeoch, musician, (d. 2004)
• May 30 - Topper Headon, musician

June-December

• June 2 - Dana Carvey, actor, comedian
• June 7 - Tim Richmond, NASCAR race car driver (d. 1989)
• June 8 - Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web
• June 20 - Tor Norretranders, science author
• June 25 - Terry Chimes, musician
• June 26 - Mick Jones, musician
• June 27 - Isabelle Adjani, actress
• August 4 - Billy Bob Thornton, actor
• August 19 - Peter Gallagher, actor
• September 10 - Pat Mastelotto, musician
• September 16 - Robin Yount, baseball player
• September 29 - Jon Backstrom, Internet engineer
• October 7 - Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
• October 17 - Mae Jemison, astronaut
• October 26 - Mark Welch, inventor
• October 28 - Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft
• November 4 - Matti Vanhanen, prime minister of Finland
• November 6 - Maria Shriver, journalist, first lady of California
• November 7 - Detlef Ultsch, first German judo world champion
• November 13 - Whoopi Goldberg, actress, comedienne, singer
• November 23 - Steven Brust, fantasy author
• November 24 - Ian Botham, English cricketer
• December 3 - Steven Culp, actor
• December 10 - Warren Gaebel, evangelist / Bible teacher
• December 12 - Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Greek politician and business woman.
• December 15 - Paul Simonon, musician
• December 17 - Brad Davis, basketball player
• December 18 - Ray Liotta, actor
• December 21 - Jane Kaczmarek, actress

Deaths

• January 15 - Yves Tanguy, French surrealist painter (b. 1900)
• January 21 - Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)
• March 11 - Sir Alexander Fleming, British discoverer of penicillin (b. 1881)
• March 12 - Charlie Parker, jazz saxophonist (b. 1920)
• April 7 - Theda Bara, silent film actress (b. 1885)
• April 18 - Albert Einstein, German physicist (b. 1879)
• May 10 - Tommy Burns, American boxer (b. 1881)
• May 16 - James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
• May 26 - Alberto Ascari, Italian F1 race car driver (b. 1918)
• August 2 - Wallace Stevens, American poet (b. 1879)
• August 5 - Carmen Miranda, Portuguese singer, actress (b. 1909)
• August 28 - Emmett Till, teenage victim of anti-black murder
• September 30 - James Dean, American actor (b. 1931)
• October 1 - Charles Christie, pioneer film studio owner in Hollywood (b. 1880)
• October 9 - Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna 1932-1955
• November 4 - Cy Young, American baseball player (b. 1867)
• November 5 - Maurice Utrillo, French artist (b. 1882)
• November 12 - Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer (b. 1878)
• November 27 - Arthur Honegger, Swiss composer (b. 1982)
• December 6 - Honus Wagner, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1874)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Willis Eugene Lamb, - Polykarp Kusch
• Chemistry - Vincent du Vigneaud
• Medicine- Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell
• Literature - Halldór Kiljan Laxness
• Peace - not awarded