1955 Establishments In Sweden

Events

January

* January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama.
* January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.
* January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan).
* January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons.
* January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England.
* January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941.
* January 28 – The United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa from the People's Republic of China.

February

* 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.
* February 16 – Nearly 100 die in a fire at a home for the elderly in Yokohama, Japan.
* February 19 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established, at a meeting in Bangkok.
* 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.
* February 24 – The Baghdad Pact (CENTO), originally known as Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), is signed between Iraq and Turkey.

March

* 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.
* March 5
** WBBJ-TV signs on the air in Jackson, Tennessee, with WDXI as its initial call-letters, to expand American commercial television in mostly rural areas.
** Elvis Presley makes his television debut on "Louisiana Hayride", carried by KSLA-TV Shreveport in the United States.
* March 7 – The Broadway musical version of ''Peter Pan'', which had opened in 1954 starring Mary Martin, is presented on television for the first time by NBC-TV, with its original cast, as an installment of ''Producers' Showcase''. It is also the first time that a stage musical is presented in its entirety on TV, almost exactly as it was performed on stage. This program gains the largest viewership of a TV special up to this time, and it becomes one of the first great TV family musical classics.
* March 17 – Richard Riot in Montreal: 6,000 people protest the suspension of French Canadian ice hockey star Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens by the National Hockey League, following a violent incident during a match.
* March 19 – KXTV signs on the air in Sacramento, California, as the 100th commercial television station in the United States.
* 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.

April

* April 1 – EOKA starts a terrorist campaign against British rule in the Crown colony of Cyprus.
* April 5
** Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, due to ill-health, at the age of 80.
** Richard J. Daley defeats Robert Merrian to become Mayor of Chicago, by a vote of 708,222 to 581,555.
* April 6 – Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
* April 10 – In the American National Basketball Association championship, the Syracuse Nationals defeat the Fort Wayne Pistons 92–91 in Game 7, to win the title.
* 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.
** Taekwondo, a form of Korean martial arts, is officially recognized in South Korea.
* 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.
* April 14 – The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup in North American ice hockey for the 7th time in franchise history, but will not win again until 1997.
* April 14 – A 7.1 earthquake shakes the Chinese city of Kangding leaving 70 dead.
* April 15 – The first franchised McDonald's restaurant is opened by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.
* 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.
* April 17 – Imre Nagy, the communist Premier of Hungary, is ousted for being too moderate.
* April 18– 24 – The Asian-African Conference is held in Bandung, Indonesia.

May

* May 5 – West Germany becomes a sovereign country, recognized by important Western countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
* May 6 – The Western European Union Charter becomes effective.
* May 7 – Newcastle United F.C. in England win their fourth (and, as of 2022, last) Football League First Division title.
* May 9
** West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
** A young Jim Henson introduces the earliest version of Kermit the Frog (made in March), in the premiere of his puppet show '' Sam and Friends'', on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.
* 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).
* May 12 – New York's Third Avenue Elevated runs its last train between Chatham Square in Manhattan and East 149th Street in the Bronx, thus ending elevated train service in Manhattan.
* 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).
** Warrington win the British Rugby League Championship title for the third time; they will not win it again within the following 60 years.
* 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.
** 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.
* May 18 – Free movement of residents between North and South Vietnam ends.
* May 25 – Joe Brown and George Band are the first to reach the summit of Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas, as part of the British Kangchenjunga expedition led by Charles Evans.

June

* June 7 – The television quiz program ''The $64,000 Question'' premieres on CBS-TV in the United States, with Hal March as the host.
* 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.
* June 13 – Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the Soviet Union, is discovered.
* June 16 – ''Lady and the Tramp'', the Walt Disney company's 15th animated film, premieres in Chicago.
* June 26 – The Freedom Charter of the anti-apartheid South African Congress Alliance is adopted, at a Congress of the People in Kliptown.

July

* July 1 – Transformation from the Imperial Bank of India to the State Bank of India is given legal recognition through an Act of the Parliament of India.
* July 7 – The New Zealand Special Air Service is formed.
* July 13 – Ruth Ellis is hanged for murder in London, becoming the last woman ever to be executed in the United Kingdom.
* July 17
** The Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California, an event broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company television network.
** 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."1955". ''Houghton Mifflin Guide to Science & Technology''.
* 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.
* July 18– 23 – Geneva Summit between the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France.
* July 22 – In Long Beach, California (United States), Hillevi Rombin of Sweden is crowned Miss Universe.
* 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.
* July 28 – The first Interlingua Congress is held in Tours, France, leading to the foundation of the Union Mundial pro Interlingua.

August

* August 1 – The prototype Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft first flies, in Nevada.
* August 18
** The First Sudanese Civil War begins.
** The first meeting of the Organization of Central American States ( es, Organización de Estados Centroamericanos, ODECA) is held, in Antigua Guatemala.
* August 19 – Hurricane Diane hits the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people and causing over $1 billion in damage.
* August 20 – Hundreds of people are killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
* August 22 – Eleven schoolchildren are killed when their school bus is hit by a freight train in Spring City, Tennessee.
* August 25 – The last Soviet Army forces leave Austria.
* August 26 – Satyajit Ray's film '' Pather Panchali'' is released in India.
* August 27 – The first edition of the ''Guinness Book of Records'' is published, in London.
* August 28 – Black 14-year-old Emmett Till is lynched and shot in the head for allegedly grabbing and threatening a white woman in Money, Mississippi; his white murderers, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, are acquitted by an all-white jury.

September

* 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.
* September 3 – Little Richard records " Tutti Frutti" in New Orleans; it is released in October.
* September 6 – Istanbul pogrom: Istanbul's Greek minority is the target of a government-sponsored pogrom.
* September 10 – The long-running Western television series ''Gunsmoke'' debuts, on the CBS network in the United States.
* September 14 – Pope Pius XII elevates many of the Apostolic vicariates in Africa to Metropolitan Archdioceses.
* September 15 – Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel ''Lolita'' is published in Paris, by Olympia Press.
* September 16
** The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.
** A Soviet Navy Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.
* September 18 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the uninhabited Atlantic island of Rockall.
* September 19– 21 – President of Argentina Juan Perón is ousted in a military coup.
* September 19 – Hurricane Hilda kills about 200 people in Mexico.
* 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.
* 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.
* September 23: A 6.8 earthquake shakes the Chinese county of Huili, leaving 728 dead and 1,547 injured.
* September 24 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States, suffers a coronary thrombosis while on vacation in Denver, Colorado. Vice President Nixon serves as Acting President while Eisenhower recovers.
* September 24 – the body of Glycine Watch SA founder Eugène Meylan, age 64, found stoned to death
* September 30 – Actor James Dean is killed when his automobile collides with another car at a highway junction, near Cholame, California.

October

* October 2 – ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' debuts on the CBS TV network in the United States.
* October 3 – ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' debuts on the ABC-TV network in the United States.
* October 4 – The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is released from prison in Seoul, South Korea.
* October 5 – Disneyland Hotel opens to the public in Anaheim, California.
* October 11 – 70-mm film for projection is introduced, with the theatrical release of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical film, ''Oklahoma!''.
* October 14 – The Organization of Central American States secretariat is inaugurated.
* October 20 – Disc jockey Bill Randle of WERE (Cleveland) is the key presenter of a concert at Brooklyn High School (Ohio), featuring Pat Boone and Bill Haley & His Comets, and opening with Elvis Presley (Elvis's first filmed performance), for a documentary on Randle titled ''The Pied Piper of Cleveland''.
* 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.
** 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.
* October 27 – The film ''Rebel Without a Cause'', starring James Dean, is released in the United States.
* October 29 – Soviet battleship ''Novorossiysk'' explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608 (the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster to date).

November

* 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.
** 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.
* 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.
* November 5 - Emmett "Doc" Brown invents time travel
* November 15 – The Democratic Party of Japan and Japan Liberal Party merge to form the Japan Liberal Democratic Party, beginning the "1955 System".
* November 19 – C. Northcote Parkinson first propounds ' Parkinson's law', in ''The Economist''.
* November 20 – Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's ''Toast Of The Town'' show for the CBS-TV network in the United States.
* November 23 – The Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean are transferred from British to Australian control.
* November 26 – The British Governor of Cyprus declares a state of emergency on the island.
* November 27 – The Westboro Baptist Church holds its first service in Topeka, Kansas.

December

* 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.
* December 4 – The International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations is founded in Luxembourg.
* December 5
** The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge, to become the AFL–CIO.
** 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.
* December 9 – Adnan Menderes of DP forms the new government of Turkey (22nd government).
* 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.
* December 14
** The Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, in New York State, opens to traffic.
** Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sri Lanka join the United Nations simultaneously, after several years of moratorium on admitting new members that began during the Korean War.
* December 20 – Cardiff is declared by the British Government as the capital of Wales.
* December 22 – American cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes, forty-six.
* December 31
** General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make a profit of over 1 billion dollars in 1 year.
** Austria becomes independent, under terms of the May 15 Austrian State Treaty.

World population

* World population: 2,755,823,000
** Africa: 246,746,000
** Asia: 1,541,947,000
** Europe: 575,184,000
** South America: 190,797,000
** North America: 186,884,000
** Oceania: 14,265,000

Births

January

* January 1
** Mario Andreacchio, Australian film director
** Bonnie Arnold, American film producer
** Mary Beard, English classicist
** Akissi Kouamé, Ivorian army general (d. 2022)
** Simon Schaffer, English academic and historian of science and philosophy
** Mulatu Teshome, Ethiopian politician and 8th President of Ethiopia
* January 4 – Mark Hollis, English musician (d. 2019)
* January 5 – Mamata Banerjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal
* January 6 – Rowan Atkinson, English comic actor
* January 7 – Belinda Meuldijk, Dutch actress
* January 8 – Mike Reno, Canadian musician
* January 9
** Michiko Kakutani, American literary critic
** J. K. Simmons, American actor
* January 10
** Michael Schenker, German guitarist ( Scorpions, UFO, Michael Schenker Group)
** Jimmy Vivino, American guitarist
* January 12 – Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Canadian politician
* January 13
** Paul Kelly, Australian musician
** Jay McInerney, American writer
* January 15
** Andreas Gursky, German photographer
** Enrico Mentana, Italian journalist
* January 16
** Mary Karr, American poet
** J. S. G. Boggs, American artist
* January 17 – Steve Earle, American musician
* January 18
** Kevin Costner, American actor, producer and director
** Frankie Knuckles, American disk jockey and record producer (d. 2014)
** Marilyn Mazur, Danish percussionist
* January 19
** Sir Simon Rattle, English orchestral conductor
** Paul Rodriguez, Mexican American actor and comedian
* January 20 – Wyatt Knight, American actor (d. 2011)
* January 21 – Jeff Koons, American artist
* January 22 – Sonja Morgenstern, German figure skater
* January 25 – Olivier Assayas, French film director
* January 26
** Björn Andrésen, Swedish actor
** Eddie Van Halen, Dutch-American rock musician (Van Halen) (d. 2020)
** Lucía Méndez, Mexican film actress
* January 27
** John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States
** Ratnottama Sengupta, Indian journalist
* January 28
** Vinod Khosla, Indian-born American venture capitalist
** Nicolas Sarkozy, 23rd President of France
* January 29
** Rachid Mouffouk, Algerian sculptor
** Femi Pedro, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria
* January 30 – Mychal Thompson, Bahamian basketball player

February

* February 1 – Hans Werner Olm, German television and film comedian
* February 2 – Leszek Engelking, Polish poet, writer and translator (d. 2022)
* February 3
** Kirsty Wark, Scottish television presenter
* February 4 – Joseph D. Kernan, American military officer, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
* February 6
** Michael Pollan, American journalist
** Irinej Dobrijević, American-born Serbian Bishop of Australia and New Zealand
* February 7 – Miguel Ferrer, American actor (d. 2017)
* February 8
** Janusz Cisek, Polish historian (d. 2020)
** Jim Neidhart, American professional wrestler (d. 2018)
** John Grisham, American novelist
** Ethan Phillips, American actor
** Xu Bing, Chinese artist
* February 9 – Charles Shaughnessy, English actor
* February 10
** Chris Adams, English wrestler and judoka (d. 2001)
** Pablo Borges Delgado, Cuban artist
** Jim Cramer, American television personality
** Greg Norman, Australian golfer
* February 12
** David Owen Brooks, American convicted murderer (d. 2020)
** Bill Laswell, American bass guitarist
* February 13 – Hank Risan, American scientist
* February 14
** Guillermo Francella, Argentine actor
** Mitsuhisa Taguchi, Japanese footballer (d. 2019)
* February 15
** Janice Dickinson, American model, photographer, author and talent agent
** Christopher McDonald, American actor
* February 16 – Bradley Byrne, American business attorney and politician, Alabama
* February 17 – Mo Yan, Chinese writer
* February 18 – Cheetah Chrome, American musician
* February 19
** Jeff Daniels, American actor
** Siri Hustvedt, American novelist
* February 20 – Mack Wilberg, American composer
* February 21 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor and comedian
* February 22 – David Axelrod, American political analyst
* February 23 – Flip Saunders, American basketball coach (d. 2015)
* February 24
** Deborah Coyne, Canadian constitutional lawyer
** Steve Jobs, American businessman and founder of Apple Computer (d. 2011)
** Alain Prost, French four-time Formula 1 world champion
* February 25 – Leann Hunley, American television actress
* February 27 – Grady Booch, American software engineer

March

* March 1
** Sir Timothy Laurence, English vice admiral and second husband of Anne, Princess Royal
** Denis Mukwege, Congolese gynecologist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
* March 2 – Shoko Asahara, Japanese cult leader (Aum Shinrikyo) (d. 2018)
* March 3 – Kent Derricott, Canadian TV personality in Japan
* March 4 – Dominique Pinon, French actor
* March 5
** Julien Dray, French politician
** Penn Jillette, American magician and comedian (Penn & Teller)
** Deddy Mizwar, Indonesian politician, actor, movie Director
* March 6
** Wendy Boglioli, American Olympic gold medallist swimmer (1976)
** Jay Ilagan, Filipino actor (d. 1992)
** Cyprien Ntaryamira, Burundian politician, 5th President of Burundi (d. 1994)
** Alberta Watson, Canadian actress (d. 2015)
* March 7
** Michael Jan Friedman, American novelist and comic book writer
** Tommy Kramer, American football player
* March 8 – Don Ashby, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1981)
* March 9
** Ornella Muti, Italian actress
** Franco Uncini, Italian motorcycle racer
* March 10
** Yousra, Egyptian actress and singer
** Marianne Rosenberg, German singer
* March 11 – Nina Hagen, German pop singer
* March 12 – Richard Martini, American film director
* March 13
** Bruno Conti, Italian football player
** Gail Grandchamp, American female boxer
** Glenne Headly, American actress of film, stage and television (d. 2017)
* March 14 – Stephen R. Bissette, American comics artist
* March 15
** Robert Kabbas, Egyptian-born Australian Olympic silver medallist weightlifter
** Dee Snider, American rock singer (Twisted Sister)
* March 16
** Bruno Barreto, Brazilian film director
** Jiro Watanabe, Japanese former world super flyweight champion boxer
* March 17
** Cynthia McKinney, American politician, activist
** Gary Sinise, American actor, producer and director
* March 18
** Carlos Enrique Trinidad Gómez, Guatemalan Roman Catholic prelate (d. 2018)
** Guillermo Dávila, Venezuelan actor and singer
** Dwayne Murphy, American baseball player
* March 19
** Pino Daniele, Italian music artist (d. 2015)
** Bruce Willis, American actor
** Simon Yam, Hong Kong actor
* March 20
** Eric Schiller, American chess player and author (d. 2018)
** Mariya Takeuchi, Japanese singer-songwriter
* March 21
** Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian congressman and politician, 38th President of Brazil
** Philippe Troussier

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