News and Events of 1955

World Events

• Nikolai A. Bulganin becomes Soviet premier, replacing Malenkov (Feb. 8). Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
  
  
• Churchill resigns (April 5); Anthony Eden succeeds him (April 6).
  
  
• Federal Republic of West Germany becomes a sovereign state (May 5).
  
  
• The Soviet Union and seven East European countries sign the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense treaty (May 14).
  
  
• Argentina ousts dictator Juan Perón (Sept. 19).
  
  
• US starts sending $216 million in aid to Vietnam.
  
  
• The US, UK, USSR, and France meet at a summit in Geneva.
  
  

U.S. Events

• President Eisenhower suffers coronary thrombosis in Denver (Sept. 24).
  
  
• Rosa Parks refuses to sit at the back of the bus, breaking Montgomery, Ala., segregated seating law (Dec. 1). Martin Luther King, Jr., leads 381-day black boycott of Montgomery bus system; desegregated service begins Dec. 21, 1956. Background: Civil Rights
  
  
• AFL and CIO merge to become the AFL-CIO (Dec. 5).
  
  

Economics

Sports

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• On the Waterfront nearly sweeps the 1954 Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Eva Maria Saint), and Best Director (Elia Kazan).
• Gunsmoke debuts on CBS, and will go on to be television's longest-running western.
• 70mm film is introduced with Oklahoma!
• James Dean dies in a car accident at age 26.

Movies

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

Books

• James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Pictures of a Gone World
• William Gaddis, The Recognitions
• Mary McCarthy, A Charmed Life
• Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
• Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find
• Isaac Bashevis Singer, Satan in Goray

Science

• Narinder Kapany (England) develops fiber optics.
• Owen Chamberlain and Emilio Segrè discover the antiproton, a form of antimatter.
• The corticosteroid prednisone is developed.
• Severo Ochoa at NYU synthesizes DNA- and RNA-like molecules. Background: genetic engineering

Deaths

• Albert Einstein
  
  
• Alexander Fleming
  
  
• Thomas Mann
  
  
• Carmen Miranda
  
  
• Charlie Parker
  
  

Year by Year: 1900-2012

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