1955 in the United States

Events from the year 1955 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government President: Dwight D. Eisenhower (R-Kansas/New York) Vice President: Richard Nixon (R-California) Chief Justice: Earl Warren (California) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph William Martin Jr. (R-Massachusetts) (until January 3) Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) (starting January 3) Senate Majority Leader: William F. Knowland (R-California) (until January 3) Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas) (starting January 3) Congress: 83rd (until January 3), 84th (starting January 3)

State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors

Lieutenant governors

Events

January January 7 – Marian Anderson is the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. January 22 – The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) armed with nuclear weapons. 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 1 – Major tornadoes in Mississippi. February 10 – The Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy helps the Republic of China evacuate Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan. February 12 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam. February 14 – WFLA-TV signs on the air in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida. 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 264,77.

March March 9 – Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-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 whilst being kicked and 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 signs on the air in the Jackson, Tennessee as WDXI, to expanded U.S. commercial television in rural areas. March 7 – The 1954 Broadway musical version of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, is presented on television for the first time by NBC (also the first time that a stage musical is presented in its entirety on TV exactly as performed on stage). The program gains the largest viewership of a TV special up to this time and becomes one of the first great television classics. March 12 – African-American jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker dies in New York City at age 34. March 19 – KXTV of Stockton, California signs on the air as the 100th commercial television station in the U.S. March 20 – The film adaptation of Evan Hunter's Blackboard Jungle premieres, featuring the famous single "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets. Teenagers jump from their seats to dance to the song. On July 9 it becomes the first Rock and roll single to reach Number One on the U.S. charts. March 26 – Bill Hayes tops the U.S. charts for five weeks with "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" and starts a (fake) coonskin cap craze. March 28 – The important income tax case of Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co. is decided in the Supreme Court.348 U.S. 426 (1955). March 30 – The 27th Academy Awards ceremony is simultaneously held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood (hosted by Bob Hope) and at NBC Century Theatre in New York (hosted by Thelma Ritter). Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront wins and receives the most respective awards and nominations with eight and 12, including Best Motion Picture and Kazan's second Best Director win.

April

April – Theresa Meikle becomes the presiding judge of San Francisco County Superior Court, the first woman elected to such a position in any major U.S. city. April 5 – Richard J. Daley defeats Robert Merrian to become mayor of Chicago by a vote of 708,222 to 581,555. April 10 – In the National Basketball Association championship, the Syracuse Nationals defeat the Fort Wayne Pistons 92-91 in Game 7 to win the title. April 12 – Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, having passed large-scale trials earlier in the U.S., receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration. April 14 – The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup in ice hockey for the 7th time in franchise history, but will not win again until 1997. April 15 – Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois.

May May 9 – 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 21 – Chuck Berry records his first single, "Maybellene", for Chess Records in Chicago.

June June 7 – The $64,000 Question premieres on CBS television, with Hal March as the host. June 16 – Lady and the Tramp premieres in Chicago. It is the first animated film distributed by Disney's own Buena Vista Film Distribution and the first filmed in CinemaScope widescreen.

July

July 17 The Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California, an event broadcast on the ABC television network. The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering Arco, Idaho, from the 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 U.S. or lose their jobs. July 18–23 – Geneva Summit between the U.S., Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France.

August August 1 – The prototype Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft first flies, in Nevada. August 4 – American Airlines Flight 476, a Convair CV-240-0 attempting an emergency landing at Forney Army Airfield, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri following an engine fire, crashes just short of the runway; all 27 passengers and three crew members are killed. August 19 – Hurricane Diane hits the northeast, killing 200 and causing over $1 billion in damage. August 22 – Eleven schoolchildren are killed when their school bus is hit by a freight train in Spring City, Tennessee. August 28 – African-American teenager Emmett Till is lynched and shot in the head for allegedly grabbing and threatening a white woman, identified as Carolyn Bryant, in Money, Mississippi. His white murderers, Roy Bryant, the husband of Carolyn, and J. W. Milam, the half-brother of Roy, are acquitted by an all-white jury on September 23. Decades later, Carolyn recants her testimony.

September September 3 – African American rock singer Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" in New Orleans; it is released in October. September 10 – Western series Gunsmoke debuts on the CBS television network. September 24 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a coronary thrombosis while on vacation in Denver. September 26 – "America's Sweethearts", singers Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, marry. September 30 – Film actor James Dean, aged 24, is killed when his Porsche 550 Spyder collides with another automobile at a highway junction near Cholame, California.

October October – First meeting of the lesbian group that becomes the Daughters of Bilitis. October 3 – The Mickey Mouse Club airs on the ABC television network. October 4 – The Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series in baseball, defeating the New York Yankees 2–0 in Game 7 of the 1955 Fall Classic. October 7 – At the Six Gallery in San Francisco, Allen Ginsberg gives a spirited reading of his poem "Howl". Jack Kerouac and other Beat writers chant and shout along. The event is often seen as the birth of the counterculture. October 11 – 70-mm film is introduced with the theatrical release of Rodgers and Hammerstein's masterpiece Oklahoma!. 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, not only Elvis's first performance north of the Mason–Dixon line, but also his first filmed performance, for a documentary on Randle titled The Pied Piper of Cleveland. October 27 – The film Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean, is released.

November November 1 – A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B airliner flying above Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members. November 5 – Racial segregation is forbidden on trains and buses in U.S. interstate commerce. November 12 – The Bugs Bunny cartoon Roman-Legion Hare debuts. November 20 – Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town show for the CBS network. November 27 – Fred Phelps establishes the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

December

December 1 – Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to surrender her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama. 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 14 – Tappan Zee Bridge in New York opens to traffic. December 15 – Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", recorded on July 30, is released by Sun Records. December 22 – Cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes (46). December 31 General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year. Michigan J. Frog, a Warner Bros. cartoon character, makes his debut in One Froggy Evening.

Unknown date The Peoria Zoo opens in Illinois. Agricultural tractors outnumber horses on U.S. farms for the first time. Tappan introduce the first domestic microwave oven.

Ongoing Cold War (1947–1991) Second Red Scare (1947–1957)

Births

January–June January 1 – LaMarr Hoyt, baseball player (d. 2021) January 2 – Bonnie Arnold, film producer January 3 Hal Rayle, voice actor Jon Tiven, composer January 4 Cecilia Conrad, economist and academic Brian Ray, session musician Lea Fite, politician (d. 2009) January 9 Michiko Kakutani, journalist and critic J. K. Simmons, actor January 11 – Max Lucado, writer on Christian themes January 12 – Rockne S. O'Bannon, writer and producer January 13 – Jay McInerney, novelist January 18 – Kevin Costner, film actor, producer and director January 21 – Jeff Koons, "kitsch" artist January 22 – Neil Bush, businessman and investor January 23 – Ruth Haring, chess player (d. 2018) January 24 – Lynda Weinman, author January 26 – Eddie Van Halen, guitarist and innovator (d. 2020) January 27 – John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. from 2005 January 28 – Joe Beckwith, baseball player (d. 2021) January 29 – Eddie Jordan, basketball player and coach and politician January 30 John Baldacci, politician, 73rd Governor of Maine Tom Izzo, basketball player and coach Curtis Strange, golfer and sportscaster February 6 – Michael Pollan, author and journalist February 8 John Grisham, writer of legal thrillers Jim Neidhart, pro wrestler (d. 2018) February 10 Jim Cramer, hedge fund manager and television personality Lusia Harris, basketball player (d. 2022) February 12 Bill Laswell, bass player and producer Chet Lemon, baseball player (d. 2025) February 15 Janice Dickinson, model, agent, and author Christopher McDonald, actor February 18 Cheetah Chrome, musician Tim Hankinson, soccer coach (d. 2022)MLS mourns the passing of legendary coach Tim Hankinson Lisa See, novelist February 21 – Kelsey Grammer, TV actor