1955

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1950–1959	USA [everyday life]	The number of people in the USA who live in the suburbs increases by 44% in the 1950s.
1950–1980	UK [television]	Watch With Mother, a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.
15 October 1951 - 24 June 1957	USA [television]	I Love Lucy, US television's first smash hit situation comedy, is shown, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley.
1955	Germany [literature and language]	The German physicist and philosopher Werner Heisenberg publishes Das Naturbild der heutigen Physik/The Physicist's Conception of Nature.
1955	USA [painting]	The US artist Jasper Johns paints the first of his Flag, Target, and Number series, including Target with Four Faces.
1955	USA [philosophy]	US political journalist Walter Lippmann publishes The Public Philosophy.
1955	USA [plays]	The play A View from the Bridge by the US dramatist Arthur Miller, is first performed, at the Coronet Theater in New York City.
1955	USA [plays]	The play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by the US dramatist Tennessee Williams, is first performed, at the Morosco Theater in New York City.
1955	world [ships and shipping]	Container ships begin to appear, revolutionizing the shipping industry by reducing the need for longshoremen. Their hulls are divided into compartments that accommodate truck containers, which can be loaded and unloaded far faster than traditional cargo ships. The first container ships are converted tankers.
1955	USA [technology]	US radiophysicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology develop the use of ultra high-frequency (UHF) waves for television broadcasting. With a 0.1–1 metre wavelength and a frequency of 3,000 and 300 megahertz they are used in the USA and Canada to carry channels 14 to 83.
1955	England [technology]	English radio astronomer Martin Ryle builds the first radio interferometer. Consisting of three antennae spaced 1.6 km/1 mi apart, it increases the resolution of radio telescopes, permitting the diameter of a radio source to be determined, or two closely spaced sources to be separated.
1955	North America, Europe [clothing and fashion]	Tight jeans for both men and women are fashionable in North America and Western Europe.
1955	England [fiction]	The Irish-born English writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch publishes her novel The Flight from the Enchanter.
1955	England [fiction]	The English writer Graham Greene publishes his novel The Quiet American.
1955	Russia, USA [fiction]	The Russian-born US writer Vladimir Nabokov publishes his novel Lolita in Paris, France, following rejection by US publishers on grounds of obscenity. It is published in the USA in 1958.
1955	USA [fiction]	The US writer Flannery O'Connor publishes her short-story collection A Good Man is Hard to Find.
1955	France [fiction]	The French writer Alain Robbe-Grillet publishes his novel Le Voyeur/The Voyeur.
1955	USA [aircraft]	US firm IBM develops SABRE (Semi-Automated Business Related Environment) for American Airlines passenger reservations. It consists of more than 1,000 teletypewriters connected to a central database – the first computer network.
1955	France [anthropology]	The French scientist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin publishes Le Phénomène humain/The Phenomenon of Man.
1955	France [biography]	The French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss publishes Tristes Tropiques/Sad Tropics, his intellectual autobiography.
1955	USA [biology]	Spanish-born US molecular biologist Severo Ochoa discovers polynucleotide phosphorylase, the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of RNA (ribonucleic acid), which allows him to synthesize RNA.
1955	USA [biology]	The US geneticists Joshua Lederberg and Norton Zinder discover that some viruses carry part of the chromosome of one bacterium to another; called transduction it becomes an important tool in genetics research.
1955	USA [computing]	The US electrical engineer Jack Gilmore builds the TX0, a computer that uses a cathode-ray tube display and function keys; it is the forerunner of the modern video terminal.
February 1955	USA [computing]	IBM introduces the IBM 705 computer, the first commercially successful business computer to use magnetic core memory.
24 February 1955	Turkey, Iraq [treaties]	Turkey and Iraq sign a treaty of alliance, the Baghdad Pact, which provides for mutual support against communist militants.
11 March 1955	Scotland, England [births and deaths]	Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin, dies in London, England (73).
12 March 1955	USA [births and deaths]	Charlie ‘Yardbird’ or ‘Bird’ Parker, US jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, dies in New York City (34).
5 April 1955	UK [administration]	Winston Churchill resigns as British prime minister because of age and ill health and is succeeded on 6 April by Anthony Eden who, on 7 April, reforms the Conservative government. Harold Macmillan becomes foreign secretary and R A Butler chancellor of the Exchequer.
18 April 1955	USA, Germany [births and deaths]	Albert Einstein, German-born US physicist who developed the theory of relativity, dies in Princeton, New Jersey (76).
9 May 1955	West Germany [international organizations]	West Germany is admitted as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
14 May 1955	USSR, Europe [international organizations]	The Warsaw Treaty (of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance) is signed by the USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, establishing the ‘Warsaw Pact’ and providing for a unified military command (with headquarters in Moscow) and stationing of Soviet military units in member countries.
29 June 1955	USA [athletics]	Charles Dumas of the USA, aged 19, in winning the high jump at the US Olympic Trials, becomes the first person to clear the 2.1 m/7 ft barrier with a jump of 2.11m/7ft ½in.
13 July 1955	UK [crime and punishment]	Ruth Ellis is hanged in Britain for murdering her lover; she is the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
18 July 1955	USA [popular culture]	Disneyland, created by Walt Disney, opens in Anaheim, California. It is the first theme park in the world.
September 1955	UK [television]	For the first time, newsreaders actually appear on screen on the BBC Television News. Early newsreaders include Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall, and Richard Baker. Previously the news had been read by a voice-over only.
12 September 1955	England [transport]	English engineer Christopher Cockerell patents the first hovercraft.
22 September 1955	UK [television]	Commercial television is introduced in Britain, supervised by the Independent Television Authority. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) counters commercial television's first evening by scheduling the death of Grace Archer, a leading character in the popular radio series The Archers, in a fire.
22 September 1955	UK [television]	Barbara Mandell becomes the first woman newsreader on British television.
10 October 1955	UK [television]	The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) begins to make experimental colour broadcasts.
28 October 1955	USA [births and deaths]	Bill Gates, US computer software executive who developed and marketed the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) which is standard on almost all IBM and IBM-compatible computers, born in Seattle, Washington.
14 December 1955	world [United Nations]	Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Finland, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, and Spain are admitted to the United Nations (UN).