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1955 In The United Kingdom
Events from the year 1955 in the United Kingdom. The year is marked by changes of leadership for both principal political parties. Incumbents * Monarch – Elizabeth II * Prime Minister - Winston Churchill ( Conservative) (until 6 April), Anthony Eden ( Conservative) (starting 6 April) * Parliament ** 40th (until 6 May) ** 41st (starting 7 June) Events * 1 January – the U.K's first atomic bomber unit, No. 138 Squadron RAF, is formed, flying Vickers Valiants from RAF Gaydon in Warwickshire. * 7 January – U.K. release of the Halas and Batchelor film animation of George Orwell's ''Animal Farm'' (completed April 1954), the first full-length British-made animated feature on general theatrical release. * 23 January – Sutton Coldfield rail crash: an express train takes a sharp curve too fast and derails at Sutton Coldfield railway station: 17 killed, 43 injured. * 27 January – Michael Tippett's opera ''The Midsummer Marriage'' is premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1955 In Northern Ireland
Events during the year 1955 in Northern Ireland. Incumbents * Governor - The Lord Wakehurst * Prime Minister - Basil Brooke Events *21 July – The BBC brings into service its Divis transmitter, its first permanent facility serving Northern Ireland, marking the launch of a television service for Northern Ireland; the 35 kW transmissions can also be readily received in much of the Republic of Ireland. Arts and literature *22 March – A fire destroys much of the original rococo interior of Florence Court. Sport Football * Irish League ::Winners: Linfield *Irish Cup ::Winners: Dundela 3 - 0 Glenavon Births *11 January – Brian Gregory, footballer. *20 January – Joe Doherty, volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army. *25 February – Davy Hyland, Sinn Féin, later independent, MLA. *28 March – John Alderdice, Baron Alderdice, Alliance Party politician and Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1998–2004. *2 April – Michael Stone, Ulster loyali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the Two-party system, two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. It is the current Government of the United Kingdom, governing party, having won the 2019 United Kingdom general election, 2019 general election. It has been the primary governing party in Britain since 2010. The party is on the Centre-right politics, centre-right of the political spectrum, and encompasses various ideological #Party factions, factions including One-nation conservatism, one-nation conservatives, Thatcherism, Thatcherites, and traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist conservatives. The party currently has 356 Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of Parliament, 264 members of the House of Lords, 9 members of the London Assembly, 31 members of the Scottish Parliament, 16 members of the Senedd, Welsh Parliament, 2 D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sutton Coldfield Rail Crash
The Sutton Coldfield train crash took place at about 16:13 on 23 January 1955 in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire (now within Birmingham), when an express passenger train traveling from York to Bristol, derailed due to excessive speed on a sharp curve. Accident circumstances Headed by a London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0, Black Five steam locomotive No 45274, the 12:15 York to Bristol express, consisting of ten coach (rail), carriages, approached Sutton Coldfield railway station at about 55-60 mph (88-96 km/h) — twice the permitted speed of 30 mph. When it reached the sharp curve immediately before the station, the train derailed, colliding with the platforms. The carriages, engine, and station buildings were severely damaged. The first carriage was crushed between the engine and the second carriage. The fourth carriage was knocked into the air causing it to drag along the station roof, damaging both the roof and the platforms to either side. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949. Purpose It was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history and heritage of the United Kingdom. BFI activities Archive The BFI maint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal Farm (1954 Film)
''Animal Farm'' is a 1954 animated film directed by animators John Halas and Joy Batchelor. It was produced by Halas and Batchelor and funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who also made changes to the original movie script. It was based on the 1945 novel of the same name by George Orwell. Although the film was a financial failure and took 15 years to generate a profit, it quickly became a staple in classrooms across the United Kingdom, the United States and other English-speaking countries like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand into the 1980s. The film rights for a film adaptation of ''Animal Farm'' were bought from Orwell's widow after she was approached by agents working for the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), a branch of the CIA that dealt with the use of culture to combat communism. Maurice Denham provided the voice for all the animals in the film. Plot Manor Farm is mismanaged by its drunken owner, Mr. Jones. Prize pig Old Major encourages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism. Orwell produced literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is known for the allegorical novella ''Animal Farm'' (1945) and the dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949). His non-fiction works, including ''The Road to Wigan Pier'' (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and ''Homage to Catalonia'' (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture. Blair was born in India, and raised and educated in England. After school he became an Imperial policeman in Burma, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animation
Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed Computer animation#Animation methods, 3D animation, while Traditional animation#Computers and traditional animation, 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like cutout animation, paper cutouts, puppets, or Clay animation, clay figures. A cartoon is an animated film, usually a short film, featuring an cartoon, exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from comic strips, often featuring anthropomorphi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halas And Batchelor
Halas and Batchelor was a British animation company founded by husband and wife John Halas and Joy Batchelor. Halas was a Hungarian émigré to the United Kingdom. The company had studios in London and Cainscross, in the Stroud District of Gloucestershire. History From 1936, Halas ran a small animation unit that created commercials for theatrical distribution. After independent careers in animation, Halas and Joy Batchelor began working together in 1938. Batchelor responded to Halas's advertisement for an assistant, and they founded Halas and Batchelor in 1940 to create war information and propaganda films.Brian McFarlane ''The Encyclopedia of British Film'', London: Methuen/BFI, 2003, p.48 Approximately 70 films were created for the Minister of Information, Ministry of Information, the War Office, and the British Admiralty, Admiralty over the course of World War II; most of these were short film, shorts intended to improve morale or spur on increased contributions to the war effo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Gaydon
Royal Air Force Gaydon or more simply RAF Gaydon is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Wellesbourne, Warwickshire and north west of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. RAF Gaydon opened in 1942 and is known for its role during the Cold War, when it was under the control of RAF Bomber Command as it was the first Royal Air Force (RAF) station to receive the Vickers Valiant when No. 138 Squadron RAF re-formed here in 1955. In 1978, the site passed into civilian ownership and today contains the British Motor Museum, the headquarters and factory of automobile manufacturer Aston Martin, and the Jaguar Land Rover Gaydon Centre. History Second World War The airfield was used extensively during the Second World War, being opened in July 1942 and was immediately occupied by No. 12 Operational Training Unit (OTU) as a satellite of RAF Chipping Warden operating Vickers Wellingtons and Avro Ansons training pilots from a number of Allied nations, but mainly Canadian, Czech an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vickers Valiant
The Vickers Valiant was a British high-altitude jet bomber designed to carry nuclear weapons, and in the 1950s and 1960s was part of the Royal Air Force's "V bomber" strategic deterrent force. It was developed by Vickers-Armstrongs in response to Specification B.35/46 issued by the Air Ministry for a nuclear-armed jet-powered bomber. The Valiant was the first of the V bombers to become operational, and was followed by the Handley Page Victor and the Avro Vulcan. The Valiant was the only V bomber to have dropped live nuclear weapons (for test purposes).Blackman and Wright 2015, p. 33. In 1956, Valiants operating from Malta flew conventional bombing missions over Egypt for Operation Musketeer during the Suez Crisis. From 1956 until early 1966 the main Valiant force was used in the nuclear deterrence role in the confrontation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact powers. Other squadrons undertook aerial refuelling, aerial reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare. In 1962, in response ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first test of a fission ("atomic") bomb released an amount of energy approximately equal to . The first thermonuclear ("hydrogen") bomb test released energy approximately equal to . Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons TNT (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). A thermonuclear weapon weighing as little as can release energy equal to more than . A nuclear device no larger than a conventional bomb can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Since they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a focus of international relations policy. Nuclear weapons have been deployed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of MPs Elected In The 1955 United Kingdom General Election
This is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom at the 1955 general election, held on 26 May 1955. A total of 630 MPs were elected. Notable newcomers to the House of Commons included William Whitelaw and Geoffrey Rippon. Composition These representative diagrams show the composition of the parties in the 1955 general election. Note: This is not the official seating plan of the House of Commons, which has five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the Speaker and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time. By-elections See the list of United Kingdom by-elections. See also *List of parliaments of the United Kingdom * UK general election, 1955 * :UK MPs 1955–1959 {{UnitedKingdomMPs 1955 1955 United Kingdom general election List UK MPs Following is a (currently incomplete) list of past United Kingdom MPs in alphabetical order. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
