December 1955 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Dec 1 Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to move to the back of a bus and give her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama

Dec 4 Bernardus Johannes Alfrink installed as Archbishop of Utrecht
Dec 5 American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merge to form the AFL-CIO, with George Meany as President
Dec 5 Historic bus boycott begins in Montgomery, Alabama by Rosa Parks and other civil rights activists

Event of Interest

Dec 5 Montgomery Improvement Association formed by Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Edgar Nixon to support the Montgomery bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama

Dec 8 Turkish government of Menderes forms
Dec 12 1st prototype of hovercraft patented by British engineer Christoper Cockerell
Dec 14 16 countries join the United Nations, including Austria, Finland, Italy, and Spain
Dec 14 Tappan Zee Bridge in NY opens to traffic
Dec 20 Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales

Event of Interest

Dec 24 Author Aldous Huxley takes LSD for the first time

Dec 26 RKO is 1st to announce sale of its film library to TV

Event of Interest

Dec 31 The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.

President of General Motors Harlow Curtice

Birthdays in History

Dec 3 Warren Jeffs, American convicted polygamist
Dec 7 John Watkins, Australian politician (Deputy Premier of New South Wales), born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Dec 10 Jacquelyn Mitchard, American journalist and novelist (The Deep End of the Ocean), born in Chicago, Illinois
Dec 16 Carol M Browner, US Administrator (EPA)
Dec 16 Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
Dec 19 Rob Portman, American politician (Senator-R-Ohio 2011-), born in Cincinnati, Ohio
Dec 20 Sammy Mitchell, US programmer (Qedit/TSE/Semware)
Dec 23 Carol Ann Duffy, Scottish poet (British Poet Laureate 2009-19), born in Glasgow, Scotland
Dec 26 Evan Bayh, American politician, born in Shirkieville, Indiana
Dec 27 Barbara Olson (née Bracher), American political commentator, born in Houston, Texas (d. 2001)

Liu Xiaobo (1955-2017)

Dec 28 Chinese writer and human rights activist, born in Changchun, China

Dec 31 Dawood Ibrahim, Indian crime boss (D-Company), born in Khed, Ratnagiri, India

Weddings in History

Thurgood Marshall

Dec 17 Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (47) weds Cecilia Suyat

Deaths in History

Dec 5 Glenn Luther Martin, American pioneering aviator (founded what became Lockheed Martin), dies at 69
Dec 9 Hermann Weyl, German mathematician and philosopher, dies at 70
Dec 11 Johan Coenraad Altorf, Dutch sculptor (October 3 Monument), dies at 79
Dec 13 Egas Moniz, Portuguese psychiatrist and neurosurgeon (1949 Nobel laureate for developing Lobotomy procedure), dies at 81
Dec 27 Alfred Carpenter, English Royal Navy soldier, dies at 74
Dec 27 Ham Fisher, American comic strip writer and cartoonist (Joe Palooka), dies at 55
Dec 30 Rex Ingamells, Australian poet (b. 1913)