WORLD HISTORY · 1955 日本語
Events of 1955Showa 30 (Japan) · Year of the Goat
What happened in 1955?
In 1955, the "1955 System" of rivalry between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Socialist Party began, and Japan formally joined GATT. Abroad, West Germany joined NATO, and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact was signed.
- Japan's "1955 System" beginsAsia
- Pencil rocket first test-fired horizontallyAsia
- West Germany joins NATOEurope
- Eight Communist nations sign Warsaw PactEurope
- Russell–Einstein Manifesto issuedEurope
- Morinaga arsenic milk poisoning comes to lightAsia
- Japan formally joins GATTAsia
- Rosa Parks arrested on a busNorth America
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1955 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 30 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Goat |
| Age of people born in 1955 | Turn 71 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1954 (Showa 29) ／ 1956 (Showa 31) |
| Events | 68 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 8 |
Famous people born in 1955
Our birthday pages list 678 people born in 1955. Here are some of them.
- Bill GatesBorn October 28 · turns 71 this year · American businessman who co-founded Microsoft and later focused on philanthropy…
- Steve JobsBorn February 24 · turns 71 this year · American entrepreneur who cofounded Apple and led the creation of the Macintosh…
- Rowan AtkinsonBorn January 6 · turns 71 this year · English actor and comedian famous for creating the comic characters Mr. Bean an…
- Kevin CostnerBorn January 18 · turns 71 this year · American actor and filmmaker who won Academy Awards for directing and producing…
- Tim Berners-LeeBorn June 8 · turns 71 this year · British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web and founded the Worl…
- Pope Leo XIVBorn September 14 · turns 71 this year · American-born head of the Catholic Church, elected pope in 2025 after serving a…
- Tony DungyBorn October 6 · turns 71 this year · Hall of Fame NFL coach who led the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl XLI title.
- Yo-Yo MaBorn October 7 · turns 71 this year · French-born American cellist famed for his rich tone, his Bach cello suites, an…
- Whoopi GoldbergBorn November 13 · turns 71 this year · American actress, comedian, and talk-show host who won an Oscar for Ghost and i…
- Bill NyeBorn November 27 · turns 71 this year · American engineer and TV science educator best known as the host of the PBS ser…
- LaSalle IshiiBorn October 19 · turns 71 this year
- Jun KunimuraBorn November 16 · turns 71 this year
Show 28 more
- Akira ToriyamaBorn April 5 · turns 71 this year
- Willem DafoeBorn July 22 · turns 71 this year
- Lindsey GrahamBorn July 9 · turns 71 this year
- Billy Bob ThorntonBorn August 4 · turns 71 this year
- LaMarr HoytBorn January 1 · turns 71 this year
- Mary BeardBorn January 1 · turns 71 this year
- Denis WalterBorn January 3 · turns 71 this year
- Mamata BanerjeeBorn January 5 · turns 71 this year
- Mamata ShankarBorn January 7 · turns 71 this year
- Harriet Sansom HarrisBorn January 8 · turns 71 this year
- Mike RenoBorn January 8 · turns 71 this year
- Bruce BoudreauBorn January 9 · turns 71 this year
- J. K. SimmonsBorn January 9 · turns 71 this year
- Michael SchenkerBorn January 10 · turns 71 this year
- Arif YunusovBorn January 12 · turns 71 this year
- Tom ArdolinoBorn January 12 · turns 71 this year
- Anne PringleBorn January 13 · turns 71 this year
- Jay McInerneyBorn January 13 · turns 71 this year
- Paul KellyBorn January 13 · turns 71 this year
- Andreas GurskyBorn January 15 · turns 71 this year
- Khalid IslambouliBorn January 15 · turns 71 this year
- Nigel BensonBorn January 15 · turns 71 this year
- Jerry M. LinengerBorn January 16 · turns 71 this year
- Pietro ParolinBorn January 17 · turns 71 this year
- Steve EarleBorn January 17 · turns 71 this year
- Steve JavieBorn January 17 · turns 71 this year
- Simon RattleBorn January 19 · turns 71 this year
- McKeeva BushBorn January 20 · turns 71 this year
Events of 1955 (timeline · 68)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
Following the assassination of the Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera, his deputy, José Ramón Guizado, takes power, but is quickly deposed after his involvement in Cantera's death is discovered.
Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.
A Martin 2-0-2 and Douglas DC-3 collide over Boone County, Kentucky, killing 15 people.
Twenty-nine people are killed when Sabena Flight 503 crashes into Monte Terminillo near Rieti, Italy.
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 in the Teapot series.
Norodom Sihanouk, king of Cambodia, abdicates the throne in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit.
An order to protect the endangered Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is legalized.
A United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster crashes into Hawaii's Waiʻanae Range, killing 66.
Pan Am Flight 845/26 ditches in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon, killing four.
The EOKA rebellion against the British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of unifying with Greece.
The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.
McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect.
Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
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.
First ascent of Mount Kangchenjunga: On the British Kangchenjunga expedition led by Charles Evans, Joe Brown and George Band reach the summit of the third-highest mountain in the world (8,586 meters); Norman Hardie and Tony Streather join them the following day.
In the United States, a night-time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas as part of a larger outbreak across the Great Plains, killing 80 and injuring 273. It is the deadliest tornado ever to occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.
The U.S. Supreme Court expands on its Brown v. Board of Education decision by ordering district courts and school districts to enforce educational desegregation "at all deliberate speed."
The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between the two countries, discontinued since 1948.
Lux Radio Theatre signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.
Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.
In a futile effort to topple Argentine President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.
The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
The Russell–Einstein Manifesto calls for a reduction of the risk of nuclear warfare.
Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
El Al Flight 402 is shot down by two fighter jets after straying into Bulgarian air space. All 58 people on board are killed.
Hurricane Diane makes landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina; it went on to cause major floods and kill more than 184 people.
In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
Battle of Philippeville: In Algeria, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published in Great Britain.
Black teenager Emmett Till is lynched in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman, galvanizing the nascent civil rights movement.
Istanbul's Greek, Jewish, and Armenian minorities are the target of a government-sponsored pogrom; dozens are killed in ensuing riots.
The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.
An all-white jury in Mississippi finds Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam not guilty in the torture-murder of 14-year-old African American boy Emmett Till.
The General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union approves the staging of the first Eurovision Song Contest.
Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam.
The people of the Saar region vote in a referendum to unite with West Germany instead of France.
After the last Allied troops have left the country, and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares that it will never join a military alliance.
Ngô Đình Diệm proclaims himself as President of the newly created Republic of Vietnam.
The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk sinks after probably striking a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol, with a loss of more than 600 sailers.
The establishment of a Military Assistance Advisory Group in South Vietnam marks the beginning of American involvement in the conflict.
The bombing of United Air Lines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner.
After being destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio.
The Soviet Union launches RDS-37, a 1.6 megaton two stage hydrogen bomb designed by Andrei Sakharov. The bomb was dropped over Semipalatinsk.
The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia.
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 that city's bus boycott.
The Civil Rights Movement: the Montgomery bus boycott begins, led by E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks.
The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO.
Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.
The first film adaptation of Väinö Linna's novel The Unknown Soldier, directed by Edvin Laine, premieres.
General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1955 in the Japanese calendar?
1955 was Showa 30 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1955?
1955 is the Year of the Goat.
How old is someone born in 1955?
They turn 71 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1955?
In 1955, the "1955 System" of rivalry between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Socialist Party began, and Japan formally joined GATT. Abroad, West Germany joined NATO, and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact was signed.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.