Top News Stories from 1955

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decadeMore World Statistics...

U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Population: 165,931,202
Life expectancy: 69.6 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.5
More U.S. Statistics...

Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $415.1 billion
Federal spending: $68.44 billion
Federal debt $274.4 billion
Consumer Price Index: $26.8
Unemployment: 5.5%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03

Sports

World Series
Brooklyn Dodgers d. NY Yankees
NBA Championship
Syracuse d. Ft. Wayne Pistons
Stanley Cup
Detroit d. Montreal
Wimbledon
Women: Louise Brough d. B. Fleitz (7-5 8-6)
Men: Tony Trabert d. K. Nielsen (6-3 7-5 6-1)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Swaps
NCAA Basketball Championship
San Francisco d. La Salle
NCAA Football Champions
Oklahoma (11-0-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction:

A Fable, William Faulkner

Music: The Saint of Bleecker Street, Gian Carlo Menotti
Drama: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
Academy Award, Best Picture: On the Waterfront, Sam Spiegel, producer (Columbia)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Halldór Kiljan Laxness (Iceland)
Miss America: Lee Meriwether (CA)
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Events

Movies

  • Rebel without a Cause, Marty, East of Eden, Bad Day at Black Rock, Picnic

Books

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Vincent du Vigneaud (US), for work on pituitary hormones
Physics: Polykarp Kusch and Willis E. Lamb, Jr. (US), for atomic measurements
Physiology or Medicine: Hugo Theorell (Sweden), for work on oxidation enzymes
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...

Death

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