Newsreel - President Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on vacation in Denver. Ike's heart attack
42 year old Rosa Parks - who worked for the NAACP - refused to give up her seat in the front of a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white man. Her action is said to be the true beginning of the Civil Rights movement in the South. which later in the year triggers the Montgomery Bus boycott. She became know as "The first lady of civil rights". Rosa Parks.
U.S. federations of trade unions, AFL and CIO merge into the AFL/CIO with George Meany elected president of the now largest labor union in the United States. AFL/CIO.
McCarthyism coupled with the Red Scare caused Congress to pass legislation requiring IN GOD WE TRUST on not only all US coins but on paper money as well. Congressman Bennett introduced the Bill by saying, "In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, we should continuously look for ways to strengthen the foundations of our freedom. At the base of our freedom is our faith in God and the desire of Americans to live by His will and His guidance. As long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail." It passe both houses of Congress unanimously and became the official United States motto the following year. IN GOD WE TRUST
Nobel prizes 1955
Physics – Willis Eugene Lamb, Polykarp Kusch
Chemistry – Vincent du Vigneaud
Physiology or Medicine- Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell
Literature – Halldór Kiljan Laxness
Peace – not awarded
General Motors President Harlow Herbert Curtice "Because of the success of the American economic system, the U.S. rolled through 1955 in two-toned splendor to an alltime crest of prosperity, heralded around the world. Much of this prosperity was directly attributable to the manufacture and sale of that quintessential American product, the automobile. Some 8,000,000 of them were produced and sold, and a good half of them were made and marketed by General Motors under the direction of President Harlow Herbert Curtice—the Man of the Year."
The World 1955
Winston Churchill resigns as British Prime Minister and popular foreign minister Anthony Eden succeeds him.
Warsaw Pact is signed and the Iron Curtian becomes official. Signatories are the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Warsaw Pact.
Pope Pius XII ex-communicates Argentine President Juan Peron
42 year old
McCarthyism
