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 Garden in London, with designs by Barbara Hepworth and choreography by John Cranko; it arouses controversy.
* 24 February – a big freeze across Britain results in more than 70 roads being blocked with snow, and in some parts of the country rail services are cancelled for several days. The Royal Air Force works to deliver food and medical supplies to the worst affected areas.
* 25 February – aircraft carrier HMS ''Ark Royal'' (launched 1950) commissioned, the first constructed with an angled flight deck and steam catapults from new.
* 1 April – EOKA starts a terrorist campaign against British rule in the Crown colony of Cyprus, leading to a state of emergency being declared by the Governor on 26 November.
* 2 April – Duncan Edwards, the 18-year-old Manchester United left-half, becomes the youngest full England international in a 7–2 win over Scotland at Wembley. Dudley-born Edwards is already being tipped by many observers to become the next England captain upon the eventual retirement of Billy Wright.
* 5 April – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister due to ill-health at the age of 80.
* 6 April – Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden is named as the new Prime Minister. Eden, 58, has held government and shadow cabinet ministerial roles for the last 20 years, and was first tipped for the role of prime minister as long ago as Stanley Baldwin's resignation. Eden's previous office of Deputy Prime Minister is not refilled.
* 16 April – release of Laurence Olivier's film '' Richard III''.
* 21 April – national newspapers published for the first time after a month-long strike by maintenance workers.
* 23 April – Chelsea F.C., who have previously never won the league title nor the FA Cup, are Football League First Division champions, and will be England's first entrants into UEFA's new European Cup next season if they accept the invitation to compete.
* 30 April – Pietro Annigoni's portrait of the Queen is unveiled.
* 1 May – the last Cornish engine pumping in the metalliferous mines of Cornwall is shut down at South Crofty.
* 4–6 May – a severe gale strips topsoil across Norfolk.
* 5 May – American virologist Dr Jonas Salk promotes a polio vaccine in Britain, with the 500,000th person receiving a vaccine against the disease.
* 7 May – Newcastle United secure the FA Cup for the sixth time with a 3-1 win over Manchester City at Wembley Stadium.
* 14 May – Warrington win the Rugby League Championship title for the third time; they will not win it again within the following 60 years.
* 24 May
** Film '' The Dam Busters'' released.
** With three days to go before the general election, all major opinion polls show the Conservative government well placed for re-election.
* 25 May – Joe Brown and George Band are the first to attain the summit of Kanchenjunga, as part of a British team led by Charles Evans.
* 27 May – Anthony Eden wins the general election for the Conservative Party with a majority of 31 seats, an improvement on the 17-seat majority gained by his predecessor Sir Winston Churchill four years ago. Between them the Conservative and Labour parties take 96.1% of the popular vote. Notable newcomers to the Conservative benches in the House of Commons include William Whitelaw and Geoffrey Rippon.
* 29 May – Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) calls a strike on British Railways which continues until 14 June, leading to a state of emergency being declared on 31 May.
* 6 June – Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act comes into effect, with intention of protecting children from horror comics.
* 16 June – submarine HMS ''Sidon'' sinks in Portland Harbour with the loss of thirteen crew following an explosion caused by a faulty torpedo on board.
* 30 June – a Gloster Meteor jet fighter crashes on takeoff from RAF West Malling, killing both crew and two fruit-pickers on the ground. On the same day, two Hawker Sea Hawk jet fighters flying from RNAS Lossiemouth in Scotland independently crash into the North Sea; one pilot is killed.
* Summer – heat wave and associated drought.
* July – unemployment stands at a modern low of just over 215,000, meaning that barely 1% of the workforce is currently without a job.
* 9 July
** Bertrand Russell issues the Russell-Einstein Manifesto highlighting the dangers posed by nuclear weapons.
** Police procedural ''Dixon of Dock Green'', starring Jack Warner, premieres on the BBC Television Service; it will run for 21 years.
* 13 July – Ruth Ellis becomes the last woman to be hanged in the UK, at HM Prison Holloway, for shooting dead a lover, David Blakely, outside a pub in Hampstead (north London) on 10 April (Easter Sunday).
* 17 July – Stirling Moss becomes the first English winner of the British Grand Prix at Aintree Motor Racing Circuit.
* 18 July – Winterborne St Martin (in Dorset) enters the UK Weather Records with the highest 24-hour total rainfall at 279 mm.
* 25–27 July – 'Operation Sandcastle': The first load of deteriorating captured Nazi German bombs filled with Tabun (nerve agent) is shipped from Cairnryan on the for scuttling in the Atlantic Ocean.
* 26 July – Chelsea F.C. withdraws from the new European Cup on the instructions of the Football League.
* 30 July – Philip Larkin makes a train journey from Hull to Grantham which inspires his poem '' The Whitsun Weddings''.
* 3 August
** Ministry of Housing and Local Government issues Circular 42/55 inviting local planning authorities to establish green belts.
** English language premiere of Samuel Beckett's play '' Waiting for Godot'', directed by Peter Hall, opens at the Arts Theatre, London.
* 26 August – Hammer Film Productions' ''The Quatermass Xperiment'' released.
* 27 August – '' Guinness Book of Records'' first published.
* 29 August – a Royal Air Force English Electric Canberra jet engined medium bomber sets a new world altitude record of 65,876 ft (20,079 m).
* 4 September – Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall become the first BBC Television newsreaders to be seen reading the news.
* 7 September – Meld wins the Fillies Triple Crown having finished first in the 1,000 Guineas Stakes, Epsom Oaks and St. Leger Stakes.
* 14 September – Airfix produce their first scale model aircraft kit, of the Supermarine Spitfire at 1/72 scale.
* 18 September
** ''The People'' newspaper makes public that Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who defected to the Soviet Union in 1951, were spies and not merely diplomats as previously reported.
** United Kingdom annexes Rockall.
* 22 September – the Independent Television Authority's first ITV franchise begins broadcasting the UK's first commercial television in London ending the 18-year monopoly of the BBC
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