1955 in the United States

::Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) (starting January 3) - Senate Majority Leader: ::William F. Knowland (R-California) (until January 3) ::Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas) (starting January 3) - Congress: [83rd](83rd-united-states-congress) (until January 3), [84th](84th-united-states-congress) (starting January 3) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Events ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/African_Americans_with_Oldsmobile.jpg" caption="1955: An African American family with their new Oldsmobile in Washington, D.C."] :: ### January - January 7 – Marian Anderson is the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. - January 22 – The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) armed with nuclear weapons. - January 28 – The United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa from the People's Republic of China. ### February - February 1 – Major tornadoes in Mississippi. - February 10 – The Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy helps the Republic of China evacuate Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan. - February 12 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam. - February 14 – WFLA-TV signs on the air in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida. - February 22 – In Chicago's Democratic primary, Mayor Martin H. Kennelly loses to the head of the Cook County Democratic Party, Richard J. Daley, 364,839 to 264,77. ### March - March 9 – Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-year-old African-American girl, refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white woman after the driver demands it. She is carried off the bus backwards whilst being kicked and handcuffed and harassed on the way to the police station. She becomes a plaintiff in *Browder v. Gayle* (1956), which rules bus segregation to be unconstitutional. - March 5 – WBBJ signs on the air in the Jackson, Tennessee as WDXI, to expanded U.S. commercial television in rural areas. - March 7 – The 1954 Broadway musical version of *Peter Pan*, starring Mary Martin, is presented on television for the first time by NBC (also the first time that a stage musical is presented in its entirety on TV exactly as performed on stage). The program gains the largest viewership of a TV special up to this time and becomes one of the first great television classics. - March 12 – African-American jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker dies in New York City at age 34. - March 19 – KXTV of Stockton, California signs on the air as the 100th commercial television station in the U.S. - March 20 – The film adaptation of Evan Hunter's *Blackboard Jungle* premieres, featuring the famous single "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets. Teenagers jump from their seats to dance to the song. On July 9 it becomes the first Rock and roll single to reach Number One on the U.S. charts. - March 26 – Bill Hayes tops the U.S. charts for five weeks with "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" and starts a (fake) coonskin cap craze. - March 28 – The important income tax case of *Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co.* is decided in the Supreme Court. - March 30 – The [27th Academy Awards](27th-academy-awards) ceremony is simultaneously held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood (hosted by Bob Hope) and at NBC Century Theatre in New York (hosted by Thelma Ritter). Elia Kazan's *On the Waterfront* wins and receives the most respective awards and nominations with eight and 12, including Best Motion Picture and Kazan's second Best Director win. ### April ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/McDonalds_Museum.jpg" caption="April 15: [[McDonald's"] :: - April – Theresa Meikle becomes the presiding judge of San Francisco County Superior Court, the first woman elected to such a position in any major U.S. city. - April 5 – Richard J. Daley defeats Robert Merrian to become mayor of Chicago by a vote of 708,222 to 581,555. - April 10 – In the National Basketball Association championship, the Syracuse Nationals defeat the Fort Wayne Pistons 92-91 in Game 7 to win the title. - April 12 – Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, having passed large-scale trials earlier in the U.S., receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration. - April 14 – The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup in ice hockey for the 7th time in franchise history, but will not win again until [1997](1997-in-the-united-states). - April 15 – Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois. ### May - May 9 – A young Jim Henson introduces the earliest version of Kermit the Frog (made in March), in the premiere of his puppet show *Sam and Friends*, on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. - May 21 – Chuck Berry records his first single, "Maybellene", for Chess Records in Chicago. ### June - June 7 – *The $64,000 Question* premieres on CBS television, with Hal March as the host. - June 16 – *Lady and the Tramp* premieres in Chicago. It is the first animated film distributed by Disney's own Buena Vista Film Distribution and the first filmed in CinemaScope widescreen. ### July ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/DisneylandCastle.JPG" caption="July 17: [[Disneyland]] opens"] :: - July 17 - The Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California, an event broadcast on the ABC television network. - The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering Arco, Idaho, from the National Reactor Testing Station; on July 18, Schenectady, New York, receives power from a prototype nuclear submarine reactor at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. - July 18 – Illinois Governor William Stratton signs the Loyalty Oath Act, that mandates all public employees take a loyalty oath to the State of Illinois and the U.S. or lose their jobs. - July 18–23 – Geneva Summit between the U.S., Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France. ### August - August 1 – The prototype Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft first flies, in Nevada. - August 4 – American Airlines Flight 476, a Convair CV-240-0 attempting an emergency landing at Forney Army Airfield, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri following an engine fire, crashes just short of the runway; all 27 passengers and three crew members are killed. - August 19 – Hurricane Diane hits the northeast, killing 200 and causing over $1 billion in damage. - August 22 – Eleven schoolchildren are killed when their school bus is hit by a freight train in Spring City, Tennessee. - August 28 – African-American teenager Emmett Till is lynched and shot in the head for allegedly grabbing and threatening a white woman, identified as Carolyn Bryant, in Money, Mississippi. His white murderers, Roy Bryant, the husband of Carolyn, and J. W. Milam, the half-brother of Roy, are acquitted by an all-white jury on September 23. Decades later, Carolyn recants her testimony. ### September - September 3 – African American rock singer Little Richard records "Tutti Frutti" in New Orleans; it is released in October. - September 10 – Western series *Gunsmoke* debuts on the CBS television network. - September 24 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a coronary thrombosis while on vacation in Denver. - September 26 – "America's Sweethearts", singers Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, marry. - September 30 – Film actor James Dean, aged 24, is killed when his Porsche 550 Spyder collides with another automobile at a highway junction near Cholame, California. ### October - October – First meeting of the lesbian group that becomes the Daughters of Bilitis. - October 3 – *The Mickey Mouse Club* airs on the ABC television network. - October 4 – The Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series in baseball, defeating the New York Yankees 2–0 in Game 7 of the 1955 Fall Classic. - October 7 – At the Six Gallery in San Francisco, Allen Ginsberg gives a spirited reading of his poem "Howl". Jack Kerouac and other Beat writers chant and shout along. The event is often seen as the birth of the counterculture. - October 11 – 70-mm film is introduced with the theatrical release of Rodgers and Hammerstein's masterpiece *Oklahoma!*. - October 20 – Disc jockey Bill Randle of WERE (Cleveland) is the key presenter of a concert at Brooklyn High School (Ohio), featuring Pat Boone and Bill Haley & His Comets and opening with Elvis Presley, not only Elvis's first performance north of the Mason–Dixon line, but also his first filmed performance, for a documentary on Randle titled *The Pied Piper of Cleveland*. - October 27 – The film *Rebel Without a Cause*, starring James Dean, is released. ### November - November 1 – A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B airliner flying above Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members. - November 5 – Racial segregation is forbidden on trains and buses in U.S. interstate commerce. - November 12 – The Bugs Bunny cartoon *Roman-Legion Hare* debuts. - November 20 – Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's *Toast Of The Town* show for the CBS network. - November 27 – Fred Phelps establishes the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. ### December ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Tappan_Zee_Bridge.JPG" caption="Tappan Zee Bridge"] :: - December 1 – Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to surrender her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama. - December 5 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge to become the AFL–CIO. - The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed in Montgomery, Alabama by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other Black ministers to coordinate the Montgomery bus boycott by Black people. - December 14 – Tappan Zee Bridge in New York opens to traffic. - December 15 – Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", recorded on July 30, is released by Sun Records. - December 22 – Cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes (46). - December 31 - General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year. - Michigan J. Frog, a Warner Bros. cartoon character, makes his debut in *One Froggy Evening*. ### Unknown date - The Peoria Zoo opens in Illinois. - Agricultural tractors outnumber horses on U.S. farms for the first time. - Tappan introduce the first domestic microwave oven. ### Ongoing - Cold War (1947–1991) - Second Red Scare (1947–1957) ## Births ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Steve_Jobs_and_Bill_Gates_(522695099).jpg" caption="[[Steve Jobs]] and [[Bill Gates"] :: ### January–June - January 1 – LaMarr Hoyt, baseball player (d. [2021](2021-in-the-united-states)) - January 2 – Bonnie Arnold, film producer - January 3 - Hal Rayle, voice actor - Jon Tiven, composer - January 4 - Cecilia Conrad, economist and academic - Brian Ray, session musician - Lea Fite, politician (d. [2009](2009-in-the-united-states)) - January 9 - Michiko Kakutani, journalist and critic - J. K. Simmons, actor - January 11 – Max Lucado, writer on Christian themes - January 12 – Rockne S. O'Bannon, writer and producer - January 13 – Jay McInerney, novelist - January 18 – Kevin Costner, film actor, producer and director - January 21 – Jeff Koons, "kitsch" artist - January 22 – Neil Bush, businessman and investor - January 23 – Ruth Haring, chess player (d. [2018](2018-in-the-united-states)) - January 24 – Lynda Weinman, author - January 26 – Eddie Van Halen, guitarist and innovator (d. [2020](2020-in-the-united-states)) - January 27 – John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. from 2005 - January 28 – Joe Beckwith, baseball player (d. [2021](2021-in-the-united-states)) - January 29 – Eddie Jordan, basketball player and coach and politician - January 30 - John Baldacci, politician, 73rd Governor of Maine - Tom Izzo, basketball player and coach - Curtis Strange, golfer and sportscaster - February 6 – Michael Pollan, author and journalist - February 8 - John Grisham, writer of legal thrillers - Jim Neidhart, pro wrestler (d. [2018](2018-in-the-united-states)) - February 10 - Jim Cramer, hedge fund manager and television personality - Lusia Harris, basketball player (d. [2022](2022-in-the-united-states)) - February 12 - Bill Laswell, bass player and producer - Chet Lemon, baseball player (d. [2025](2025-in-the-united-states)) - February 15 - Janice Dickinson, model, agent, and author - Christopher McDonald, actor - February 18 - Cheetah Chrome, musician - Tim Hankinson, soccer coach (d. [2022](2022-in-the-united-states)) - Lisa See, novelist - February 21 – Kelsey Grammer, TV actor - February 21 – Kevin Carl Scholz, architect, entrepreneur, professor, artist and business owner - February 23 - Flip Saunders, basketball coach (d. [2015](2015-in-the-united-states)) - Francesca Simon, children's books writer - Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange - February 24 – Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and inventor (d. [2011](2011-in-the-united-states)) - February 28 – Gilbert Gottfried, actor and stand-up comedian (d. [2022](2022-in-the-united-states)) - March 2 – Ken Salazar, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009 - March 5 – Penn Jillette, magician - March 17 – Gary Sinise, film & TV actor - March 19 – Bruce Willis, actor - March 22 – Pete Sessions, politician - March 30 - Connie Cato, country music singer - Rhonda Jo Petty, pornographic actress - Randy VanWarmer, singer-songwriter (d. [2004](2004)) - April 1 - Terry Nichols, criminal - Martin H. Levenglick, lawyer, New York - April 6 – Michael Rooker, actor - April 7 - Grace Hightower, philanthropist, actress and singer - Gregg Jarrett, lawyer-journalist - April 8 - Ricky Bell, American football player (d. [1984](1984-in-the-united-states)) - Ron Johnson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 2011 - Barbara Kingsolver, novelist, essayist and poet - William Spriggs, economist (d. [2023](2023-in-the-united-states)) - David Wu, Taiwanese-American lawyer and politician - April 11 – Micheal Ray Richardson, basketball player and coach (d. [2025](2025-in-the-united-states)) - April 16 – Bruce Bochy, French-born American baseball player and manager - April 26 – Mike Scott, baseball player - April 29 – Kate Mulgrew, TV actress - April 30 – Fred Hiatt, journalist and editor (d. [2021](2021-in-the-united-states)) - May 2 – Ed Murray, Democratic politician and former mayor of Seattle - May 6 – Tom Bergeron, TV game show host - May 7 – Ben Poquette, basketball player - May 8 – Carl E. Douglas, lawyer - May 10 – Mark David Chapman, murderer - May 16 - Dean Corren, politician and scientist (d. [2023](2023-in-the-united-states)) - Debra Winger, film actress - May 17 - Bill Paxton, film actor (d. [2017](2017-in-the-united-states)) - Marc Weiner, comedian, puppeteer, and actor - May 18 – Brad Raffensperger, politician - May 26 - Randy Burke, American football player (d. [2025](2025-in-the-united-states)) - Wesley Walker, American football player and educator - May 29 – John Hinckley Jr., attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan - May 31 - Bruce Adolphe, pianist, composer, and scholar - Marty Ehrlich, multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, clarinet, and flute) - June 1 - David Schultz, professional wrestler - Tony Snow, journalist (d. [2008](2008-in-the-united-states)) - June 7 – Joey Scarbury, singer-songwriter - June 12 – William Langewiesche, author and journalist (d. [2025](2025-in-the-united-states)) - June 14 – Michael D. Duvall, businessman and politician - June 16 – Laurie Metcalf, TV actress - June 25 – Patricia Smith, African-American poet, "spoken-word performer", playwright, author and writing teacher ### July–December ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Pope_Leo_XIV_2_(cropped).png" caption="[[Pope Leo XIV"] :: - July 1 – Lisa Scottoline, writer of legal thrillers - July 9 – Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator from South Carolina from 2003 - July 18 – Nancy Garrido, kidnapper - July 21 – Howie Epstein, bass player, songwriter and producer (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) (d. [2003](2003-in-the-united-states)) - July 22 – Willem Dafoe, actor - July 24 – F. Blair Wimbush, retired American railroad executive and lawyer - July 26 - Jim Avila, television journalist (d. [2025](2025-in-the-united-states)) - Michele Pillar, Christian music singer - August 2 - Caleb Carr, novelist and military historian (d. [2024](2024-in-the-united-states)) - Phase 2 (Lonny Wood), graffiti artist (d. [2019](2019-in-the-united-states)) - Butch Vig, record producer and drummer (Garbage) - August 4 - Alberto Gonzales, 80th United States Attorney General - Billy Bob Thornton, film actor, director, screenwriter, producer and singer-songwriter - August 13 – Daryl, magician (d. [2017](2017-in-the-united-states)) - August 24 – Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas - August 29 – Jack Lew, 76th United States Secretary of the Treasury - August 30 – Marvin Powell, American football player (d. [2017](2017-in-the-united-states)) - August 31 – Edwin Moses, track & field athlete - September 1 – Billy Blanks, martial artist and inventor of Tae Bo exercise program - September 8 – Terry Tempest Williams, writer, educator and activist - September 14 – Pope Leo XIV - September 17 – Charles Martinet, actor and voice actor - September 19 - Rebecca Blank, economist and academic administrator (d. [2023](2023-in-the-united-states)) - Rex Smith, actor and singer - September 29 - Joe Donnelly, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 2013 to 2019 - Gwen Ifill, journalist and author (d. [2016](2016-in-the-united-states)) - October 15 – Emily Yoffe, journalist and advice columnist - October 17 – Tyrone Mitchell, murderer (suicide [1984](1984-in-the-united-states)) - October 20 - Thomas Newman, film composer - Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 2007 - October 21 – Tommy Boggs, baseball player (d. [2022](2022-in-the-united-states)) - October 26 – Michelle Boisseau, poet (d. [2017](2017-in-the-united-states)) - October 28 - Ronnie Bass, American football player and sportscaster - Bill Gates, software designer and entrepreneur - October 30 – Heidi Heitkamp, U.S. Senator from North Dakota from 2013 to 2019 - November 4 – David Julius, physiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - November 5 – Kris Jenner, television personality - November 6 - Maria Shriver, journalist and Arnold Schwarzenegger's former wife from 1986 to 2021. - Paul Romer, economist, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences - November 13 - Roy Cooper, rodeo cowboy (d. [2025](2025-in-the-united-states)) - Whoopi Goldberg, comic actress - November 23 - Steven Brust, fantasy author and musician - Peter Douglas, television and film producer - Mary Landrieu, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015 - November 27 – Bill Nye, science communicator, television presenter and mechanical engineer - November 29 – Robert Jeffress, pastor - November 30 - Richard Burr, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 2005 to 2023 - Kevin Conroy, stage, screen and voice actor (d. [2022](2022-in-the-united-states)) - December 11 - Gene Grossman, economist and academic - Stu Jackson, basketball player, coach and manager - December 16 – Carol Browner, lawyer, environmentalist and businesswoman - December 19 – Rob Portman, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 2011 to 2023 - December 21 – Jane Kaczmarek, television actress - December 26 – Evan Bayh, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1999 to 2011 - December 27 – Barbara Olson, lawyer and TV commentator (d. [2001](2001-in-the-united-states)) ### Unknown dates - Mark Marderosian, cartoonist ## Deaths ### January ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Ira_Hayes.jpg" caption="[[Ira Hayes"] :: - January 1 – Arthur C. Parker, part-Seneca archeologist and ethnographer of Native Americans (b. [1881](1881-in-the-united-states)) - January 20 – Robert P. Tristram Coffin, poet, essayist and novelist (b. [1892](1892-in-the-united-states)) - January 21 – Archie Hahn, sprinter (b. [1880](1880-in-the-united-states)) - January 24 – Ira Hayes, Native American U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima (b. [1923](1923-in-the-united-states)) - January 31 – John Mott, YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. [1865](1865-in-the-united-states)) ### February - February 11 – Ona Munson, actress (b. [1903](1903-in-the-united-states)) - February 12 - Tom Moore, Irish-American film actor (b. [1883](1883-in-the-united-states)) - S. Z. Sakall, Hungarian-American actor (b. [1883](1883-in-austria-hungary)) - February 20 - Oswald Avery, physician and medical researcher (b. [1877](1877-in-the-united-states)) - Rajarsi Janakananda, millionaire and disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda (b. [1892](1892-in-the-united-states)) - February 22 – John T. Walker, Marine Corps lieutenant general (b. [1893](1893-in-the-united-states)) - February 27 – Trixie Friganza, actress (b. [1870](1870-in-the-united-states)) ### March ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Portrait_of_Charlie_Parker_in_1947.jpg" caption="[[Charlie Parker"] :: - March 3 – Katharine Drexel, Roman Catholic saint (b. [1858](1858-in-the-united-states)) - March 5 – William C. deMille, screenwriter and film director (b. [1878](1878-in-the-united-states)) - March 8 – William C. deMille, screenwriter and director (b. [1878](1878-in-the-united-states)) - March 9 – Matthew Henson, African-American explorer (b. [1866](1866-in-the-united-states)) - March 11 – Oscar F. Mayer, German-American entrepreneur (b. [1859](1859-in-germany)) - March 12 – Charlie Parker, African-American jazz saxophonist (b. [1920](1920-in-the-united-states)) - March 21 – Walter White, civil rights activist (b. [1893](1893-in-the-united-states)) - March 24 – John W. Davis, politician and presidential candidate (b. [1873](1873-in-the-united-states)) ### April ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Einstein_1933.jpg" caption="[[Albert Einstein"] :: - April 1 – Robert R. McCormick, newspaper publisher (*Chicago Tribune*) (b. [1880](1880-in-the-united-states)) - April 7 – Theda Bara, silent film actress (b. [1885](1885-in-the-united-states)) - April 14 – Cleveland Abbott, African-American football player and coach (b. [1894](1894-in-the-united-states)) - April 15 – Edgar J. Kaufmann, merchant and patron of Fallingwater (b. [1885](1885-in-the-united-states)) - April 18 – Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist, developer of theory of relativity (b. [1879 in Germany](1879-in-germany)) - April 25 – Constance Collier, English actress and acting coach (b. [1878](1878-in-the-united-kingdom)) ### May - May 2 – Truman Abbe, surgeon who received awards for his research on radium in medicine (b. [1873](1873-in-the-united-states)) - May 11 - Francis Pierlot, actor (b. [1875](1875-in-the-united-states)) - Bradley Walker Tomlin, painter (b. [1899](1899-in-the-united-states)) - May 14 – Charles Pelot Summerall, general (b. [1867](1867-in-the-united-states)) - May 16 – James Agee, writer (b. [1909](1909-in-the-united-states)) - May 18 – Mary McLeod Bethune, educator (b. [1875](1875-in-the-united-states)) - May 22 – Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, actor (b. [1891](1891-in-the-united-states)) - May 25 – Wardell Gray, jazz tenor saxophonist (b. [1921](1921-in-the-united-states)) - May 30 – Bill Vukovich, race-car driver (b. [1918](1918-in-the-united-states)) ### June ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Walter_Hampden_1951.jpg" caption="[[Walter Hampden"] :: - June 5 – Pattillo Higgins, oil pioneer and businessman (b. [1863](1863-in-the-united-states)) - June 10 – Margaret Abbott, golfer, first American woman to take first place in the Olympics (b. [1876](1876-in-india)) - June 11 – Walter Hampden, film actor (b. [1879](1879-in-the-united-states)) - June 13 – Nora Trueblood Gause, humanitarian (b. [1851](1851-in-the-united-states)) - June 17 – Carlyle Blackwell, actor (b. [1884](1884-in-the-united-states)) ### July - July 10 – Frank Hamer, lawman and ranger (b. [1884](1884-in-the-united-states)) - July 13 – Stanley Price, film and television actor (b. [1892](1892-in-the-united-states)) - July 23 – Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. [1871](1871-in-the-united-states)) - July 31 – Robert Francis, actor (b. [1930](1930-in-the-united-states)) ### August ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Wallace_Stevens,_1948.jpg" caption="[[Wallace Stevens"] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Carmen_Miranda_1941.JPG" caption="[[Carmen Miranda"] :: - August 2 – Wallace Stevens, poet (b. [1879](1879-in-the-united-states)) - August 5 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian singer and actress (b. [1909](1909)) - August 8 – Grace Hartman, actress (b. [1907](1907-in-the-united-states)) - August 11 - Frank Seiberling, innovator and entrepreneur (b. [1859](1859-in-the-united-states)) - Robert W. Wood, optical physicist (b. [1868](1868-in-the-united-states)) - August 12 – James B. Sumner, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. [1887](1887-in-the-united-states)) - August 14 – Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress (b. [1861](1861-in-the-united-states)) - August 22 – Olin Downes, music critic (b. [1886](1886-in-the-united-states)) - August 28 - Bob Gordon, jazz saxophonist (b. [1928](1928-in-the-united-states)) - Emmett Till, murder victim (b. [1941](1941-in-the-united-states)) ### September ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/James_Dean_in_Rebel_Without_a_Cause.jpg" caption="[[James Dean"] :: - September 1 – Philip Loeb, actor (b. [1891](1891-in-the-united-states)) - September 2 – Stephen Victor Graham, United States Navy Rear Admiral and 18th Governor of American Samoa (b. [1874](1874-in-the-united-states)) - September 3 – Georgina Jones, tennis player (b. [1882](1882-in-the-united-states)) - September 20 – Robert Riskin, screenwriter (b. [1897](1897-in-the-united-states)) - September 23 – Martha Norelius, Olympic swimmer (b. [1908](1908-in-the-united-states)) - September 27 – Leslie Garland Bolling, African-American sculptor (b. [1898](1898-in-the-united-states)) - September 28 – Sarah Blizzard, labor activist (b. [1864](1864-in-the-united-states)) - September 30 - Michael Chekhov, Russian actor and film director (b. [1891](1891-in-russia)) - James Dean, film actor (b. [1931](1931-in-the-united-states)) - Louis Leon Thurstone, pioneer of psychometrics and psychophysics (b. [1887](1887-in-the-united-states)) ### October - October 1 – Charles Christie, film studio owner (b. [1880](1880-in-the-united-states)) - October 8 – Iry LeJeune, Cajun musician (b. [1928](1928-in-the-united-states)) - October 9 – Alice Joyce, actress (b. [1890](1890-in-the-united-states)) - October 19 – John Hodiak, film actor (b. [1914](1914-in-the-united-states)) - October 31 – William Woodward Jr., banker and horse breeder, shot in mariticide (b. [1920](1920-in-the-united-states)) ### November ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Shemp_Howard_in_Brideless_Groom_1947.png" caption="[[Shemp Howard"] :: - November 1 – Dale Carnegie, writer and lecturer (b. [1888](1888-in-the-united-states)) - November 4 – Cy Young, baseball player (Cleveland Spiders), member of MLB Hall of Fame (b. [1867](1867-in-the-united-states)) - November 9 – Tom Powers, actor (b. [1890](1890-in-the-united-states)) - November 11 – Jerry Ross, lyricist and composer (b. [1926](1926-in-the-united-states)) - November 14 – Robert E. Sherwood, playwright (b. [1896](1896-in-the-united-states)) - November 15 – Lloyd Bacon, actor and film director (b. [1889](1889-in-the-united-states)) - November 17 – James P. Johnson, pianist and composer (b. [1894](1894-in-the-united-states)) - November 22 – Shemp Howard, film actor and comedian (The Three Stooges) (b. [1895](1895)) - November 29 – Rene Paul Chambellan, sculptor (b. [1893](1893-in-the-united-states)) ### December ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Honus_Wagner_(crop).JPG" caption="[[Honus Wagner"] :: - December 1 – Chief Thundercloud, character actor (b. [1899](1899-in-the-united-states)) - December 5 – Paul Harvey, actor (b. [1882](1882-in-the-united-states)) - December 6 - George Platt Lynes, photographer (b. [1907](1907-in-the-united-states)) - Honus Wagner, baseball player (Pittsburgh Pirates), member of MLB Hall of Fame (b. [1874](1874-in-the-united-states)) - December 22 – Otto Eppers, cartoonist (b. [1893](1893-in-the-united-states)) - December 24 – Nana Bryant, actress (b. [1888](1888-in-the-united-states)) - December 25 - Thomas J. Preston Jr., professor of archeology at Princeton University; second husband of Frances Cleveland (widow of President Grover Cleveland) (b. [1862](1862-in-the-united-states)) - Elizabeth Harrison Walker, daughter of President Benjamin Harrison and Mary Dimmick Harrison (b. [1897](1897-in-the-united-states)) - December 27 – Ham Fisher, comic strip writer and cartoonist (b. [1900](1900-in-the-united-states)) ## References ## References 1. 348 U.S. 426 (1955). 2. "1955". ''Houghton Mifflin Guide to Science & Technology''. 3. (2004-08-18). ["School Bus, Train Wreck Memorial Set For Aug. 21"](http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_54317.asp). *Chattanoogan.com*. 4. ((Editors of Chase's)). (30 September 2018). ["Chase's Calendar of Events 2019: The Ultimate Go-to Guide for Special Days, Weeks and Months"](https://books.google.com/books?id=JVJtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA95). *Rowman & Littlefield*. 5. Hashish, Amira. (March 1, 2011). ["Introducing the new Janice Dickinson – what America's top model did"](https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/starinterviews/introducing-the-new-janice-dickinson--what-americas-top-model-did-next-6572343.html). *[[London Evening Standard]]*. 6. [https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-mourns-the-passing-of-legendary-coach-tim-hankinson MLS mourns the passing of legendary coach Tim Hankinson ] 7. ["VIAF record"](https://viaf.org/processed/WKP%7CQ448776). 8. ["Scholz"](http://www.scholz-arch.com/firm_profile.html). *Kevin Scholz*. 9. {{CongLinks 10. (1999). "Maryland Biographical Dictionary". *Native Amer Books*. 11. [https://www.npr.org/2023/06/11/1181547731/remembering-trailblazing-economist-william-spriggs Remembering trailblazing economist William Spriggs] 12. {{CongLinks 13. [https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/06/media/fred-hiatt-washington-post-op-ed-editor/index.html The Washington Post's longtime editorial page editor dies at 66] 14. [https://vtdigger.org/2023/05/04/progressive-champion-dean-corren-dies-at-67/ Progressive champion Dean Corren dies at 67] 15. [https://archive.today/20130125120812/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2509919816.html] ''Who's Who Among African Americans'', January 1, 2009, Retrieved May 23, 2012. 16. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/midwest/ct-aud-rebecca-blank-dies-20230220-z4em2qnp5jct3kgisvr5y6qiam-story.html Rebecca Blank, former University of Wisconsin chancellor and Northwestern economics professor, dies at 67] 17. [https://athletics.concordia.edu/news/2022/10/5/concordia-university-texas-head-baseball-coach-tommy-boggs-passes-away.aspx Concordia University Texas Head Baseball Coach Tommy Boggs Passes Away] 18. ["Michelle Boisseau"](https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/michelle-boisseau/). 19. (11 November 2022). ["Kevin Conroy Dies: Longtime Voice Of Animated Batman Was 66"](https://deadline.com/2022/11/kevin-conroy-voice-actor-dead-animated-batman-was-66-1235169980/). 20. ["Olympedia – Georgina Jones"](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/2735). ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_in_the_United_States) and is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the [article history page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::