Events 1 - 200 of 541
- Jan 1 21st Orange Bowl: #14 Duke beats Nebraska, 34-7
- Jan 1 21st Sugar Bowl: #5 Navy beats #6 Mississippi, 21-0
- Jan 1 41st Rose Bowl: #1 Ohio State beats #17 Southern California, 20-7
- Jan 1 Bhutan issues its 1st postage stamps
- Jan 1 WEAT (now WPEC) TV channel 12 in West Palm Beach, FL (CBS) begins
- Jan 2 1st "Bob Cummings Show" premieres on NBC (later on CBS)
- Jan 2 Panamanian president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated.
- Jan 3 Jose Ramon Guizado becomes president of Panama
- Jan 5 KMSP TV channel 9 in Minneapolis-St Paul, MN (IND) 1st broadcast
Boxing Title Fight
Jan 7 20 year-old future world heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson scores a 5th-round TKO of Willie Troy in a non-title super middleweight bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden
Music History
Jan 7 Marian Anderson becomes the 1st African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera"
- Jan 7 WCIQ TV channel 7 in Mt Cheaha, AL (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Jan 8 Furman sets NCAA basketball single-game scoring record with 154 pt
- Jan 8 Georgia Tech ends Kentucky's 130-game home basketball win streak
- Jan 8 WUNC TV channel 4 in Chapel Hill, NC (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Jan 10 "Ordet", directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, starring Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass Christensen, is released
- Jan 14 Heitor Villa-Lobos' 8th Symphony premieres by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by the composer, in Carnegie Hall, New York City
- Jan 15 1st official act of Princess Beatrice, launches tanker Vasum
Music History
Jan 15 Dmitri Shostakovich's "From Jewish Folk Poetry" premieres in Leningrad
NBA All-Star Game
Jan 18 5th NBA All-Star Game, Madison Square Garden NYC: East beats West, 100-91; MVP: Bill Sharman, Boston Celtics, G
- Jan 18 Battle of Yijiangshan Islands between Chinese National Revolutionary Army and the People's Liberation Army
- Jan 19 "Scrabble" debuts on board game market
- Jan 19 "The Millionaire" TV program premieres on CBS
Historic Communication
Jan 19 1st presidential news conference filmed for TV (Eisenhower)
- Jan 22 Norwegian government of Einar Gerhardsen forms
- Jan 23 Express train travelling from York to Bristol derails, killing 14 and injuring many other passengers
- Jan 23 KORK (now KVBC) TV channel 3 in Las Vegas, Nevada (NBC) 1st broadcast
- Jan 24 Photography exhibition "The Family of Man" curated by Edward Steichen opens at MOMA, New York, "greatest photographic enterprise ever undertaken"
- Jan 25 Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock accurate to within one second in 300 years
- Jan 25 Jill Kinmont hits a tree & breaks her back in Snow Cup Ski Race
- Jan 25 Russia ends state of war with Germany
- Jan 25 US & Panama sign canal treaty
- Jan 27 1955 NFL Draft: George Shaw from University of Oregon first pick by Baltimore Colts
- Jan 27 Albert Hague and Arnold Horwitt's musical "Plain and Fancy", about an Amish wedding, opens at Mark Hellinger Theater, NYC; runs for 476 performances
- Jan 29 John Williams Cox buys Yankee Stadium, sells grounds to Knights of Columbus, later leaves structure to Rice University (1962)
Australian Men's Tennis Open
Jan 31 Australian Championships Men's Tennis: In an all-Australian final Ken Rosewall wins his 2nd Australian title; beats Lew Hoad 9-7, 6-4, 6-4
- Jan 31 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: Beryl Penrose wins her only Australian singles title; beats Thelma Coyne Long 6-4, 6-3
- Jan 31 RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer
- Feb 1 Hap Day becomes the first man to serve as Toronto Maple Leafs' captain, coach and general manager when he is appointed to run the famous Canadian NHL club
- Feb 1 HC Hansen appointed premier of Denmark
- Feb 2 1st presidential news conference on network TV-Eisenhower on ABC
Appointment of Interest
Feb 8 Georgy Malenkov resigns as USSR premier and is replaced by Nikolai Bulganin
- Feb 8 The Government of Sindh abolished Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
- Feb 9 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts crematory law
- Feb 9 US federations of trade unions merge into AFL/CIO
- Feb 10 The US Navy evacuate 1000s from Tachen Islands in the Pacific
- Feb 12 McGuire Sisters' "Sincerely" single goes to No. 1 and stays No. 1 for 10 weeks
- Feb 12 President Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to South Vietnam
- Feb 12 Soviets decides space center built in Baikonur, Kazakhstan
- Feb 12 WTVY TV channel 4 in Dothan, AL (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Feb 13 Israel acquires 4 of 7 Dead Sea scrolls
- Feb 13 KRCG TV channel 13 in Jefferson City, MO (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Feb 14 WFLA (now WXFL) TV channel 8 in Tampa-St Petersburg, Florida (NBC) begins
- Feb 15 1st pilot plant to produce man-made diamonds announced
- Feb 17 American golfer Mike Souchak sets PGA 72-hole record of 257 (not broken until 2001)
- Feb 17 Ice Dance Championship at Vienna Austria won by J Westwood/Demmy GRB
- Feb 17 Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden of Canada
- Feb 17 KTVF TV channel 11 in Fairbanks, AK (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
Sports History
Feb 17 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Vienna won by Tenley Albright US
Golden Globes
Feb 24 12th Golden Globes: "On The Waterfront", Marlon Brando, & Judy Garland win
Music Premiere
Feb 24 Cole Porter's final Broadway musical "Silk Stockings", loosely based on the Melchior Lengyel's "Ninotchka", opens at the Imperial Theatre, NYC; runs for 478 performances
- Feb 24 Pact of Baghdad signed between Iraq & Turkey
- Feb 26 1st aviator to bail out at supersonic speed-GF Smith
Musical Finale
Feb 26 Leigh, Charlap, Styne, Comden and Green's musical "Peter Pan", starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard, closes at Winter Garden Theater, NYC, after 152 performances
- Mar 1 Israeli assault on Gaza, kills 48
- Mar 1 KFAR (now KATN) TV channel 2 in Fairbanks, AK (ABC/NBC) 1st broadcast
- Mar 1 Pakistan and India play out a draw in the 5th cricket Test at the National Stadium in Karachi; 5 Test series drawn 0-0
- Mar 2 King Norodom Sihanukh of Cambodia succeeded by his father
- Mar 2 William Inge's "Bus Stop" premieres in NYC
TV Show Appearance
Mar 3 Elvis Presley makes his 1st TV appearance on a broadcast of radio show "Louisiana Hayride"
Waiting for Godot
Mar 6 Dutch premiere of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"
Emmy Awards
Mar 7 7th Emmy Awards: "Make Room for Daddy", Danny Thomas & Loretta Young win
- Mar 7 Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick says he favors legalization of spitter
- Mar 7 Musical "Peter Pan", starring Mary Martin broadcast live on NBC as part of "Producers' Showcase" series; attracts a then record 65 million viewers
- Mar 13 Bir BSD Mahendra succeeds Tribhubana as king of Nepal
Golf Tournament
Mar 13 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Patty Berg wins her 6th Titleholders title by 2 strokes from Mary Lena Faulk
Sports History
Mar 16 NHL President Clarence Campbell suspends Montreal Canadiens superstar Maurice "Rocket" Richard for the remainder of the season after he viciously attacked an opponent; Riots ensued in Montreal
- Mar 16 President Eisenhower upholds the use of atomic weapons in case of war
- Mar 17 After Maurice Richard is suspended for the remainder of the season, riots break out in Montreal. 37 people are injured and over 100 are arrested. The following morning, Richard goes on the radio to ask citizens to stop vandalizing the city.
- Mar 18 Ichirō Hatojama recognized as premier of Japan
Sports History
Mar 19 17th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: San Francisco beats La Salle, 77-63; Dons' future Hall of Fame center Bill Russell is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
- Mar 20 KXTV TV channel 10 in Sacramento, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Mar 21 Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus advocates for Cyprus to join Greece
- Mar 21 Brooklyn Bulletin ask Dodger fans not to call their team "Bums"
- Mar 24 1st seagoing oil drill rig placed in service
- Mar 24 British Army patrols withdraw from Belfast after 20 years
Music History
Mar 24 Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opens for 694 performances
- Mar 25 East Germany granted full sovereignty by occupying power, USSR
Event of Interest
Mar 25 United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene.
- Mar 26 "Ballad of Davy Crockett" version recorded by Bill Hayes becomes the #1 record in US
- Mar 26 109th Grand National: Pat Taaffe wins aboard Quare Times at 100/9; third consecutive GN victory for trainer Vincent O'Brien
- Mar 26 France misses out on a maiden Grand Slam after losing, 16-11 to Wales at Stade Colombes; share Five Nations Rugby Championship with Wales with 3-1 record
- Mar 27 9th Tony Awards: "The Desperate Hours" (play) & "The Pajama Game" (musical) win
The Chivington Raid
Mar 27 Steve McQueen makes his network TV debut (Goodyear Playhouse, episode "The Chivington Raid")
- Mar 27 WPRI TV channel 12 in Providence, Rhode Island (ABC) begins broadcasting
- Mar 28 NZ cricket all out for 26 v England at Eden Park
- Mar 29 Linguist Yuri Knorosov defends his master's thesis in Moscow, expanding on his new phonetic method to decipher the Mayan script (first announced in article Soviet Ethnology 1952) [1]
Academy Awards
Mar 30 27th Academy Awards: "On the Waterfront", Marlon Brando & Grace Kelly win
- Mar 31 Merger of Chase National Bank (3rd largest bank) and Bank of the Manhattan Company (15th largest bank) forms Chase Manhattan
- Mar 31 West Indies cricket all-rounder Collie Smith scores 104 in his Test debut in a 9 wicket 1st Test defeat to Australia in Kingston, Jamaica
- Apr 1 Armed military action taken against bureaucratic strike in Amsterdam
- Apr 1 EOKA-bomb attacks against British government buildings in Cyprus
- Apr 1 WTVT TV channel 13 in Tampa-St Petersburg, FL (CBS) 1st broadcast
- Apr 3 Baltimore Orioles pull their 1st triple play (3-6-2 vs KC Athletics)
- Apr 3 Fire in cinema in Sclessin, Belgium, kills 39
- Apr 3 Night express train in Guadalajara, Mexico derails, killing 300
- Apr 3 The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book "Howl" against obscenity charges
- Apr 4 British government signs military treaty with Iraq
PM Anthony Eden
Apr 5 Anthony Eden succeeds Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
US Masters Golf
Apr 10 19th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Cary Middlecoff wins by a record 7 strokes ahead of Ben Hogan
- Apr 10 9th NBA Championship: Syrac Nats beat Ft Wayne Pistons, 4 games to 3
- Apr 10 Ruth Ellis shoots jilting lover David Blakely (last woman to be executed in the UK)
Marty
Apr 11 "Marty" directed by Delbert Mann and starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair premieres in New York (Best Picture 1956)
Assassination Attempt
Apr 11 Chartered Air India plane the "Kashmir Princess" is bombed and crashes into the South China Sea in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by a Kuomintang secret agent
Cricket History
Apr 11 Garfield Sobers starts run of 85 uninterrupted Test Cricket appearances for West Indies
- Apr 12 1st game in KC, KC A's beat Detroit Tigers, 6-2
Polio
Apr 12 Polio vaccine tested by Jonas Salk announced to be 'safe and effective' and is given full approval by the US Food and Drug Administration
- Apr 13 20.33" (51.64 cm) of rainfall, Axis, Alabama (then state record, eclipsed in 1997)
Sports History
Apr 14 26-year-old catcher/outfielder Elston Howard becomes first African-American to play for NY Yankees; hits single with 1 RBI in 8-4 loss to Boston Red Sox
- Apr 14 Stanley Cup Final, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI: Detroit Red Wings win back-to-back titles; beat Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 for a 4-3 series victory
- Apr 14 WBRZ TV channel 2 in Baton Rouge, LA (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
- Apr 15 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Apr 18 1st "Walk"/"Don't Walk" lighted street signals installed
- Apr 18 1st Bandoeng Conference opens in Indonesia, attended by 29 nations - first international assembly of Asian-African nations
- Apr 18 59th Boston Marathon won by Hideo Hamamura of Japan in 2:18:22
- Apr 18 Dan Shapiro, and music by Sammy Fain's musical "Ankles Aweigh" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater, NYC; runs for 176 performances
- Apr 19 The German automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, founds Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network
- Apr 20 "Saint of Bleecker St" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 92 performances
- Apr 21 Brooklyn Dodgers win, then record 10th straight game to begin a season
- Apr 21 J Lawrence & R E Lee's "Inherit the Wind" premieres in NYC
- Apr 21 Minas Gerais Argentina tunnel caves in; 30 die
- Apr 22 KC Athletic's 1st game, beat Tigers 6-2
- Apr 23 Robert Wright and George Forrest's musical "Kismet" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 583 performances
- Apr 24 Conference of Bandung against colonialism and for self determination, ends
- Apr 24 Gaullists lose elections in France
- Apr 24 KFDM TV channel 6 in Beaumont, TX (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Apr 24 KMAU (now KGMV) TV channel 3 in Wailuku, HI (CBS) begins broadcasting
In the Wee Small Hours
Apr 25 Captiol Records releases "In the Wee Small Hours", the ninth studio album by American vocalist Frank Sinatra; collection of melancholy ballads with arrangements by Nelson Riddle was an early example of a concept album and helped popularize the 12-inch format for non-classical recordings
- Apr 28 WBIQ TV channel 10 in Birmingham, Alabama (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Apr 29 Giovanni Gronchi elected third President of Italy
- Apr 30 Cuban bandleader Pérez Prado's mambo version of "Cherry Pink & Apple Blossom White" goes #1 for 10 weeks
- Apr 30 Element atomic number 101, Mendelevium, announced
- Apr 30 Imperial Bank of India nationalized
- Apr 30 West German unions protest for 40-hour work week & higher wages
- May 1 American golfer Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins the Peach Blossom LPGA Tournament in Spartanburg, South Carolina, her final victory before her death the following year
Sports History
May 1 Future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller tosses his record 12th 1-hitter in Indians' 2-0 win v Boston Red Sox at Cleveland Stadium
Miss Atomic Pageant
May 1 Showgirl Linda Lawson is crowned "Miss-Cue" in the Atomic Pageant, after the Operation Cue test is repeatedly delayed by high winds
- May 2 India proposal to discrimination against Dalits or "Untouchables" punishable
- May 2 Pulitzer prize awarded Tennessee Williams for (Cat on Hot Tin Roof)
- May 2 WGBH TV channel 2 in Boston, MA (PBS) begins broadcasting
- May 5 Indian parliament accepts Hindu divorce
- May 5 Richard Adler and Jerry Ross' musical "Damn Yankees", starring Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston, opens at 46th St Theater, NYC; runs for 1022 performances, winning 7 Tony Awards
- May 5 US performs nuclear test at Nevada test Site
- May 5 West Germany is granted full sovereignty by its three occupying powers
- May 6 West Germany joins NATO
Kentucky Derby
May 7 81st Kentucky Derby: Bill Shoemaker aboard Swaps wins in 2:01.8
- May 7 USSR signs peace treaty with France & Great Britain
- May 7 West European Union established
- May 9 German Federal Republic (West Germany) joins NATO
- May 10 8th Cannes Film Festival: "Marty" directed by Delbert Mann wins Palme d'Or
- May 11 Israel attacks Gaza
- May 12 Chicago Cub Sam "Toothpick" Jones is 1st African-American to pitch a no-hitter, winning 4-0 over Pittsburgh Pirates, at Wrigley Field, Chicago
Baseball Record
May 13 Mickey Mantle hits 3 consecutive HRs of at least 463'
- May 14 US performs nuclear test at Pacific Ocean
- May 14 Warsaw Pact is signed by the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland & Romania
- May 15 Building of space travel center at Baikonur Kazakhstan begins
- May 15 KPUA (now KGMD) TV channel 9 in Hilo, HI (CBS) begins broadcasting
- May 15 The first ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain
- May 15 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- May 15 Vienna Treaty: Britain, France, US & USSR restore Austria's independence
- May 16 King Baudouin of Belgium visits Congo
- May 16 Ray Lindwall scores his 2nd Test Cricket century 118 at Bridgetown
Marciano TKOs Cockell
May 16 Rocky Marciano beats Don Cockell by TKO in the 9th round at Kezar Stadium, San Francisco to retain his world heavyweight boxing title
- May 17 Dutch government of Drees resigns
- May 18 28.7 cm rain falls at Lake Maloya New Mexico (state record)
- May 18 Atkinson & Depeiaza take West Indies from 6-187 to 6-494 in day v Australia
- May 18 Queen Juliana opens E55 fair in Amsterdam, Netherlands
- May 19 Atkinson & Depeiaza make 347 stand for 7th wkt WI v Australia
- May 20 Argentine parliament accepts separation of church and state
- May 21 1st transcontinental round-trip solo flight-sunrise to sunset
Abolitionists
Dictators
Explorers
Outlaws
Queens
Spies