1955

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1955 was a common year beginning on Saturday according to the Gregorian calendar, marking the 955th anniversary of the start of the 2nd millennium and the 55th year of the 20th century. It also became the 6th year of the decade of the 1950s.

Events in January began with the assassination of Panamanian President Colonel Jose Antonio Remon during a horse racing event at Panama City's racetrack on January 2. This incident was possibly orchestrated by American Mafia figure Lucky Luciano, who died in 1962. On the same day, Spain became a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In Costa Rica, Anastasio Somoza, the dictator of Nicaragua, challenged democratic president Jose Figueres to resolve their dispute between the two countries by a gun duel.

In February, Christian Dior presented his latest fashion collection. On January 19, the Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seized control of several islands from the Republic of China and the Indian subcontinent. The same day, the United States announced plans for developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) armed with nuclear weapons.

In the United Kingdom, a train accident in Sutton Coldfield on January 23 resulted in the deaths of 17 people near Birmingham. On February 10, the United States Seventh Fleet helped evacuate the Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan. A fire at an elderly home in Yokohama, Japan, claimed nearly 100 lives on February 16.

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was established on February 19, following a meeting in Bangkok. In Chicago's Democratic primary, Mayor Martin H. Kennelly lost to Richard J. Daley. The Pacte de Bagdad (CENTO), signed between Iraq and Turkey on February 24, aimed to counter Soviet influence.

In March, Claudette Colvin, an African American teenager from Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat in a bus after the driver demanded it be taken by a white woman. On March 20, the film adaptation of Evan Hunter's novel Blackboard Jungle premiered in the United States, featuring Bill Haley & His Comets' famous single "Rock Around the Clock".

In Cyprus, EOKA launched a resistance campaign against British rule in the Crown colony. Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on April 5 due to ill health.