1955

Federal Republic of West Germany becomes a sovereign state
Warsaw Pact, east European mutual defense agreement, established
Juan Peron ousted and exiled from Argentina
Rosa Parks refuses to sit at the back of the bus
Martin Luther King, Jr., leads black boycott of Montgomery, Ala., bus system
Marian Anderson debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York
The Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series
Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" wins Pulitzer
1st synthetic diamond
Tetracycline
Tylenol
Wiffle balls
Songs - "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and The Comets, Chuck Berry's "Maybellene"
"Cha-Cha" the fashionable dance
Broadway - "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Damn Yankees"
Films - "Marty", "Richard III", "The Seven Year Itch"
TV shows - "The Honeymooners", "Gunsmoke", "The Mickey Mouse Club", "Disneyland", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
Barbara Kingsolver, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates born
Albert Einstein, Alexander Fleming, Mary McLeod Bethune, James Dean, Cy Young, and Honus Wagner die