| 1955-08-19
In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
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| 1955-05-05
West Germany gains full sovereignty.
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| 1955-12-15
Jens Olsen's World Clock is started by Danish King Frederick IX and Jens Olsen's youngest grandchild Birgit.
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| 1955-10-26
Ngô Đình Diệm declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.
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| 1955-07-09
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto is released by Bertrand Russell in London.
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| 1955-09-25
The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.
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| 1955-12-05
E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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| 1955-08-28
Black teenager Emmett Till is murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent American Civil Rights Movement.
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| 1955-04-23
The Canadian Labour Congress is formed by the merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour.
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| 1955-06-13
Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
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| 1955-08-07
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, sells its first transistor radios in Japan.
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| 1955-04-12
The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
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| 1955-06-07
Lux Radio Theater signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.
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| 1955-11-23
The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to Australia.
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| 1955-07-17
Disneyland televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California.
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| 1955-07-18
Disneyland opens to the public
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| 1955-02-23
First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
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| 1955-12-05
The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL-CIO.
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| 1955-03-02
King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates the throne in favor of his father, King Norodom Suramarit.
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| 1955-05-25
First ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 m.), the third highest mountain in the world, by a British expedition led by Joe Brown and George Band.
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| 1955-04-01
The EOKA rebellion against The British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of obtaining the desired unification ("enosis") with Greece.
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| 1955-04-19
The German automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, founds Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network.
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| 1955-01-18
Battle of Yijiangshan is fought.
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| 1955-10-03
The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on ABC.
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| 1955-09-30
Film icon James Dean dies in a road accident aged 24.
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| 1955-05-14
Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
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| 1955-12-14
Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations.
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| 1955-05-09
Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
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| 1955-07-27
The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends.
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| 1955-08-20
In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
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| 1955-04-18
Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
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| 1955-07-28
The Union Mundial pro Interlingua is founded at the first Interlingua congress in Tours, France.
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| 1955-12-01
American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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| 1955-10-26
After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares permanent neutrality.
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| 1955-02-18
Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots of the Teapot series.
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| 1955-06-15
The Eisenhower administration stages the first annual "Operation Alert" (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess the USA's preparations for a nuclear attack.
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| 1955-04-05
Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
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| 1955-09-06
Istanbul Pogrom: Istanbul's Greek and Armenian minority are the target of a government-sponsored pogrom.
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| 1955-03-17
The Richard Riot occurs in the streets of Montreal over the suspension of hockey legend Maurice Richard.
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| 1955-05-28
Henry Bolte becomes Premier of the Australian state of Victoria.
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| 1955-10-07
Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco.
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| 1955-02-08
The Government of Sindh abolished Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
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| 1955-04-11
The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.
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| 1955-05-12
The last section of the IRT Third Avenue Elevated in Manhattan closes.
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| 1955-04-24
The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
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| 1955-12-31
The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.
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| 1955-11-19
National Review publishes its first issue.
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| 1955-10-29
The Soviet battleship Novorossiisk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol.
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| 1955-12-24
NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.
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| 1955-11-01
The bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner.
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| 1955-02-13
Israel obtains 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
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| 1955-01-02
Panamanian president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated
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| 1955-06-02
The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
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| 1955-05-02
Tennessee Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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| 1955-11-04
After being totally destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio.
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| 1955-01-25
The Soviet Union ends state of war with Germany.
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| 1955-06-11
Eighty-three are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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| 1955-04-03
The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
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| 1955-05-25
In the United States, a night time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas, killing 80 and injuring 273. It is the deadliest tornado to ever occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.
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| 1955-07-15
Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
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| 1955-09-16
Juan Perón is deposed in Argentina.
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| 1955-12-20
Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
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| 1955-12-10
The Mighty Mouse Playhouse premieres on television.
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| 1955-06-14
Chile becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
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| 1955-05-18
Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ends.
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| 1955-09-22
In the United Kingdom, the television channel ITV goes live for the first time.
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| 1955-04-15
McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois
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| 1955-05-09
Sam and Friends debuts on a local United States television channel, marking the first television appearance of both Jim Henson and what would become Kermit the Frog and The Muppets.
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