1955 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Vice President: Richard Nixon
• Chief Justice: Earl Warren
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph William Martin Jr. , Sam Rayburn
• Senate Majority Leader: William F. Knowland , Lyndon B. Johnson
• Congress: 83rd, 84th

  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 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 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 2 - 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, 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. 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 coonskin cap craze.
• March 28 - The important income tax case of Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co. is decided in the Supreme Court.

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, 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, Walt Disney's 15th animated film, premieres in Chicago.

July

• July 17 - The Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California, an event broadcast on the ABC television network.
• July 18
• *The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially, powering Arco, Idaho.
• *Illinois's Governor William Stratton signs the Loyalty Oath Act, that mandates all public employees take a loyalty oath or lose their jobs.
• *The Geneva Summit between the U.S., Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France begins.
• July 23 - The Geneva Summit ends.

  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 - 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 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, defeating the New York Yankees 2–0 in Game 7 of the 1955 Fall Classic.
• 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 is the key presenter of a concert at Brooklyn High School, featauring 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.
• 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.

  Ongoing

• Cold War
• Second Red Scare

  Births

January–June

• January 4 - Cecilia Conrad, economist and academic
• 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 27 - John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. from 2005
• January 29 - Eddie Jordan, basketball player and coach and politician
• February 8 - John Grisham, writer of legal thrillers
• February 12 - Bill Laswell, bass player and producer
• February 21 - Kelsey Grammer, TV actor
• February 24 - Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and inventor
• March 2 - Ken Salazar, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009
• March 5 - Penn Jillette, magician
• March 17 - Gary Sinise, film & TV actor
• March 19 - Bruce Willis, actor
• April 6 - Michael Rooker, actor
• April 7
• * Grace Hightower, philanthropist, actress and singer
• * Gregg Jarrett, lawyer-journalist
• April 8
• * Ron Johnson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 2011
• * Barbara Kingsolver, novelist, essayist and poet
• April 26 - Mike Scott, baseball player
• April 29 - Kate Mulgrew, TV actress
• May 2 - Ed Murray, Democrat politician and former mayor of Seattle
• May 6 - Tom Bergeron, TV game-show host
• May 9 - Kevin Reed, theologian and author
• May 10 - Mark David Chapman, murderer
• May 16 - Debra Winger, film actress
• May 17 - Bill Paxton, film actor
• May 29 - John Hinckley Jr., attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan
• May 31
• *Bruce Adolphe, pianist, composer, and scholar
• *Marty Ehrlich, multi-instrumentalist
• June 7 - Joey Scarbury, singer-songwriter
• June 16 - Laurie Metcalf, TV actress
• June 25 - Patricia Smith, African-American poet, "spoken-word performer", playwright, author and writing teacher

  July–December

• July 1
• * Lisa Scottoline, writer of legal thrillers
• * Keith Whitley, country music singer
• July 8 - Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator from South Carolina from 2003
• July 18 - Nancy Garrido, kidnapper
• July 21 - Howie Epstein, bass player, songwriter and producer
• July 22 - Willem Dafoe, actor
• August 2
• * Caleb Carr, novelist and military historian
• * PHASE 2, graffiti artist
• August 4
• *Billy Bob Thornton, film actor, director, screenwriter, producer and singer-songwriter
• *Alberto Gonzales, 80th United States Attorney General
• August 13 - Daryl, magician
• August 24 - Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas
• August 29 - Jack Lew, 76th United States Secretary of the Treasury
• August 31 - Edwin Moses, track & field athlete

• September 17 - Charles Martinet, actor and voice actor
• September 29 - Joe Donnelly, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 2013 to 2019
• October 17 - Tyrone Mitchell, murderer
• October 20 - Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 2007
• October 26 - Michelle Boisseau, poet
• October 28 - Bill Gates, software designer and entrepreneur
• October 30 - Heidi Heitkamp, U.S. Senator from North Dakota from 2013 to 2019
• November 5 - Kris Jenner, TV personality
• November 7 - Paul Romer, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
• November 13 - Whoopi Goldberg, African American comic actress
• November 23
• * Steven Brust, fantasy author and musician
• * Peter Douglas, television and film producer
• * Mary Landrieu, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015
• November 27 - Bill Nye, science communicator, television presenter and mechanical engineer
• November 30
• * Richard Burr, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 2005
• * Kevin Conroy, stage, screen and voice actor
• December 11
• * Gene Grossman, economist and academic
• * Stu Jackson, basketball player, coach and manager
• December 19 - Rob Portman, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 2011
• December 21 - Jane Kaczmarek, TV actress
• December 26 - Evan Bayh, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1999 to 2011

  Deaths

January

• January 1 - Arthur C. Parker, part-Seneca archeologist and ethnographer of Native Americans
• January 20 - Robert P. Tristram Coffin, poet, essayist and novelist
• January 21 - Archie Hahn, sprinter
• January 24 - Ira Hayes, Native American U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima
• January 31 - John Mott, YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

  February

• February 11 - Ona Munson, actress
• February 12 - Thomas J. Moore, Irish-American film actor
• February 20 - Oswald Avery, physician and medical researcher
• February 22 - John T. Walker, Marine Corps lieutenant general
• February 27 - Trixie Friganza, actress

  March

• March 3 - Katharine Drexel, Roman Catholic saint
• March 8 - William C. deMille, screenwriter and director
• March 9 - Matthew Henson, African-American explorer
• March 12 - Charlie Parker, African-American jazz saxophonist

  April

• April 1 - Robert R. McCormick, newspaper publisher
• April 7 - Theda Bara, silent film actress
• April 14 - Cleveland L. Abbott, African-American football player and coach
• April 18 - Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist, developer of theory of relativity

  May

• May 2 - Truman Abbe, surgeon who received awards for his research on radium in medicine
• May 10 - Tommy Burns, boxer
• May 11 - Bradley Walker Tomlin, painter
• May 14 - Charles Pelot Summerall, general
• May 16 - James Agee, writer
• May 18 - Mary McLeod Bethune, educator
• May 22 - Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, actor
• May 30 - Bill Vukovich, race-car driver

  June

• June 5 - Pattillo Higgins, oil pioneer and businessman
• June 10 - Margaret Abbott, golfer, first American woman to take first place in the Olympics
• June 11 - Walter Hampden, film actor
• June 17 - Carlyle Blackwell, actor

  July

• July 13 - Stanley Price, film and television actor
• July 23 - Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• July 31 - Robert Francis, actor

  August

• August 2 - Wallace Stevens, poet
• August 5 - Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian singer and actress
• August 8 - Grace Hartman, actress
• August 11 - Robert W. Wood, optical physicist
• August 12 - James B. Sumner, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• August 14 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress
• August 22 - Olin Downes, music critic
• August 28 - Emmett Till, murder victim

  September

• September 1 - Philip Loeb, actor
• September 20 - Robert Riskin, screenwriter
• September 23 - Martha Norelius, Olympic swimmer
• September 27 - Leslie Garland Bolling, African-American sculptor
• September 30
• * James Dean, film actor
• * Louis Leon Thurstone, pioneer of psychometrics and psychophysics

  October

• October 1 - Charles Christie, film studio owner
• October 8 - Iry LeJeune, Cajun musician
• October 9 - Alice Joyce, actress
• October 19 - John Hodiak, film actor
• October 31 - William Woodward Jr., banker and horse breeder, shot in mariticide

  November

• November 1 - Dale Carnegie, writer and lecturer
• November 4 - Cy Young, baseball player, member of MLB Hall of Fame
• November 7 - Tom Powers, actor
• November 11 - Jerry Ross, lyricist and composer
• November 14 - Robert E. Sherwood, playwright
• November 15 - Lloyd Bacon, actor and film director
• November 22 - Shemp Howard, film actor and comedian
• November 29 - Rene Paul Chambellan, sculptor

  December

• December 1 - Chief Thundercloud, character actor
• December 6
• * George Platt Lynes, photographer
• * Honus Wagner, baseball player, member of MLB Hall of Fame
• December 22 - Otto Eppers, cartoonist
• December 25
• * Thomas J. Preston Jr., professor of archeology at Princeton University; second husband of Frances Cleveland
• * Elizabeth Harrison Walker, daughter of President Benjamin Harrison and Mary Dimmick Harrison