The year in history
1955
Someone born in 1955 turns 71 in 2026
1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1955th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 955th year of the 2nd millennium, the 55th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1950s decade.
What happened in 1955
JosΓ© RamΓ³n Guizado becomes president of Panama.
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established, at a meeting in Bangkok.
The Taiwanese Kuomintang put a bomb on the airplane Kashmir Princess, killing 16 but failing to assassinate the People's Republic of China leader, Zhou Enlai.
West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Mir mine, the first diamond mine in the Soviet Union, is discovered.
El Al Flight 402 from Vienna (Austria) to Tel Aviv, via Istanbul, is shot down over Bulgaria. All 58 passengers and crewmen aboard the Lockheed Constellation are killed.
The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London.
A Soviet Navy Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuts on the CBS TV network in the United States.
Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608 (the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster to date).
The International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations is founded in Luxembourg.
American cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes, forty-six.
Famous people born in 1955
Mary Beard
English classicist
January 1 β
Mychal Thompson
Bahamian basketball player
January 30 β
Alain Prost
French four-time Formula 1 world champion
February 24 β
Milovan BojiΔ
Serbian medical doctor, administrator and politician
March 13 β
Lena Olin
Swedish actress
March 22 β
Sirindhorn
Princess Royal of Thailand
April 2 β
Binod Chaudhary
Nepalese billionaire businessman, politician and philanthropist
April 14 β
Jing Yidan
Chinese television host
April 27 β
Dave Hoover
American comic book artist and animator (d. 2011)
May 14 β
Dale Winton
English radio DJ and television presenter (d. 2018)
May 22 β
Sandra Bernhard
American comedian, actress, author and singer
June 6 β
Laurie Metcalf
American actress
June 16 β
Lisa Scottoline
American novelist
July 1 β
Jimmy Smits
American actor
July 9 β
Sylvie LΓ©onard
French-Canadian actress
July 17 β
Corey Burton
American voice actor
August 3 β
Jay Acovone
American actor
August 20 β
Paul Cliteur
Dutch professor of jurisprudence, politician, philosopher, writer, publicist and columnist
September 6 β
Georg Christoph Biller
German choral conductor (d. 2022)
September 20 β
Yo-Yo Ma
French-born Chinese American cellist
October 7 β
Glynis Barber
South African-born British actress
October 25 β
Detlef Ultsch
German judo athlete
November 7 β
Harolyn Blackwell
American lyric coloratura soprano
November 23 β
Dumitru GΔleΘanu
Romanian writer, poet, philosopher, illustrator and jurist
December 5 β