As the Cold War heated up in 1955, the U.S.S.R. and seven of its European satellite countries formed the Warsaw Pact defense alliance to counter NATO. In the U.S., the first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, while Disneyland debuted in Anaheim, California and the Mickey Mouse Club premiered on TV. Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus in Alabama, and the racially inspired murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till sparked national outrage.
Jan
07
Mar
02
A full nine months before Rosa Parks's famous act of civil disobedience, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin is arrested on March 2, 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus.
Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
Mar
16
On March 16, 1955, NHL president Clarence Campbell suspends Montreal Canadiens star Maurice “Rocket” Richard for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs after he attacks an opponent with his stick and slugs a referee in the head. Riots erupt the following day at the Red Wings-Canadiens game in Montreal, causing the game to be cut short after items are thrown at Campbell and a tear gas bomb goes off in the arena.
Mar
24
Mar
26
On March 26, 1955, white pop singer Georgia Gibbs scores a hit with “Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower),” setting off a dubious trend in the music industry known as “whitewashing.”
Apr
05
Apr
24
The Afro-Asian Conference—popularly known as the Bandung Conference because it was held in Bandung, Indonesia—comes to a close on this day. During the conference, representatives from 29 “non-aligned” nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East met to condemn colonialism, decry racism and express their reservations about the growing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
May
01
On May 1, 1955, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, one of the greatest athletes in sports history, wins the Peach Blossom LPGA Tournament in Spartanburg, S.C. The victory, the 41st LPGA title of her career, comes as a Didrikson Zaharias continues her battle with colon cancer. After a strong start to the tournament, Didrikson falters in the final two rounds, but she holds off runner-up Marilynn Smith and wins by two strokes.
May
05
The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) becomes a sovereign state when the United States, France and Great Britain end their military occupation, which had begun in 1945. With this action, West Germany was given the right to rearm and become a full-fledged member of the western alliance against the Soviet Union.
May
06
Ten years after the Nazis were defeated in World War II, West Germany formally joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense group aimed at containing Soviet expansion in Europe. This action marked the final step of West Germany’s integration into the Western European defense system.
May
14
Jun
11
On June 11, 1955, a racing car in Le Mans, France, goes out of control and crashes into stands filled with spectators, killing 83 people, including the driver, Frenchman Pierre Levegh. The tragedy in the famous 24-hour endurance race led to a ban on racing in several nations.
Jul
13
Jul
17
Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 18 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion.
Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Jul
21
President Dwight D. Eisenhower presents his “Open Skies” plan at the 1955 Geneva summit meeting with representatives of France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The plan, though never accepted, laid the foundation for President Ronald Reagan’s later policy of “trust, but verify” in relation to arms agreements with the Soviet Union.
Aug
28
Aug
31
Sep
15
Sep
19
After a decade of rule, Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón is deposed in a military coup. Perón, a demagogue who came to power in 1946 with the backing of the working classes, became increasingly authoritarian as Argentina’s economy declined in the early 1950s. His greatest political resource was his charismatic wife, Eva “Evita” Perón, but she died in 1952, signaling the collapse of the national coalition that had backed him. Having antagonized the church, students, and others, he was forced into exile by the military in September 1955. He settled in Spain, where he served as leader-in-exile to the “Peronists”—a powerful faction of Argentines who remained loyal to him and his system.
Sep
21
On September 21, 1955—during an era when most homosexual people are deeply closeted—four lesbian couples meet at a private San Francisco house and launch America’s first lesbian-rights group. The eight women, including host Rosalie “Rose” Bamberger and her partner, Rosemary Sliepen, founded the Daughters of Bilitis initially as a social alternative to the frequently raided bar scene. The group would grow into a national advocacy organization.
Sep
30
At 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, 24-year-old actor James Dean is killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche he is driving hits a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection. Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom—and the crash made him a legend.
Oct
03
Oct
04
On October 4, 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series at last, beating the New York Yankees 2-0. They’d lost the championship seven times already, and they’d lost five times just to the Yanks—in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953. But in 1955, thanks to nine brilliant innings in the seventh game from 23-year-old lefty pitcher Johnny Podres, they finally managed to beat the Bombers for the first (and last) time.
Oct
07
Poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem “Howl” at a poetry reading at Six Gallery in San Francisco. The poem was an immediate success that rocked the Beat literary world and set the tone for confessional poetry of the 1960s and later.
Oct
29
On October 29, 1955, almost one month after up-and-coming actor James Dean died in a tragic car crash at the age of 24, Warner Bros. Pictures releases his second major film, Rebel Without a Cause. In the movie, Dean played Jim Stark, a rebellious teenager who moves to Los Angeles, where he clashes with his father, struggles to fit in at his new high school and runs afoul of the local tough guy, Buzz.
Natalie Wood talks with James Dean on set of the film ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ in 1955.
Getty Images / Warner Brothers
Dec
01
In Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The successful Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King Jr., followed Park’s historic act of civil disobedience.
Rosa Parks sitting in front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after the Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal on the city bus system on December 21st, 1956.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
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