1955 (MCMLV) was .

Events 
 January 2 – Panama president Jose Antonio Remon is killed.
 January 7 – Marian Anderson becomes the first African-American person to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City
 January 19 -  The Scrabble board game debuts.
 February 8 – Nikolai Bulganin ousts Georgi Malenkov
 February 9 – Apartheid in South Africa: 60,000 non-white people who live in a suburb of Johannesburg are forced to leave their homes
 February 13 – Israel gets 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
 February 23 – First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
 March: Jim Henson builds the first version of Kermit the Frog
 March 2:
 King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia gave up the throne in favor of his father, King Norodom Suramarit.
 Much flooding in North and Western Australia – 200 humans and tens of thousands of sheep dead, 44.000 homeless
 March 15- Fedral ALP (Australian Labor Party) split (a)
 April 5 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom because of health problems.  He is 80 years old
 April 12 – Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration
 April 15 – Ray Kroc opens the first McDonald's in Illinois
 April 7 – Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
 July 18 – Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California
 October 14 – Pakistan changed the name of East Bengal province to East Pakistan. Before the independence of the colonial Bangladeshi people the people of this region were referred to as East Pakistanis under the One Unit Policy. Its capital was based in Dacca (now Dhaka). The western part of Pakistan becomes West Pakistan with its capital based in Lahore. The federal capital at the time was Rawalpindi.
 October 26 - Establishment of South Vietnam and the Army of South Vietnam.
 November 1 – The Vietnam War begins between the North Vietnam Army and the South Vietnam Army
 November 20 – Bo Diddley makes his TV debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town show on CBS
 December 1 – Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white person on a bus.  She is arrested.  This starts the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
 Unknown – The stack was proposed

Births 
 January 2 – Tex Brashear, American voice actor
 January 6 – Rowan Atkinson, comedian, actor
 January 12 - Elijah-Demetrius Kovács, Hungarian politician and judge
 January 12 – Rockne O'Bannon, writer, producer
 January 13 – Jay McInerney, writer
 January 17 – Steve Earle, musician
 January 18 – Kevin Costner, actor
 January 19 – Simon Rattle, English conductor
 January 26 – Eddie Van Halen, musician (Van Halen) (d. 2020)
 January 27 – John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
 February 8 – John Grisham, novelist
 February 10 – Greg Norman, golfer
 February 19 – Jeff Daniels, actor
 February 21 – Kelsey Grammer, actor
 February 23 – Howard Jones, musician
 February 24 – Alain Prost, Formula One driver
 February 24 – Steve Jobs, computer pioneer (d. 2011)
 March 5 – Penn Jillette, magician, comedian
 March 7 – Tommy Kramer, American football player
 March 15 – Dee Snider, singer (Twisted Sister)
 March 16 – Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxing world champion
 March 16 – Bruno Barreto, Brazilian movie director
 March 17 – Gary Sinise, actor
 March 19 – Bruce Willis, actor
 March 22 – Pete Sessions, U.S. politician
 March 23 – Moses Malone, basketball player
 March 28 – Reba McEntire, country music singer, actress
 March 29 – Earl Campbell, American football star
 March 31 – Angus Young, musician (AC/DC)
 April 1 – Ronnie Burk, surrealist and AIDS activist
 April 6 – Michael Rooker, actor
 April 11 – Kevin Brady, American politician
 April 15 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
 April 16 – Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
 April 23 – Tony Miles, English chess player
 April 29 – Kate Mulgrew, actress
 April 29 - Richard Epcar, actor
 May 8 - Meles Zenawi, President of Ethiopia, and ex-Prime Minister of Ethiopia, (d. 2012)
 May 29 - Mike Porcaro, American bass guitarist (Toto) (d. 2015)
 August 3 – Corey Burton, American actor
 August 9 - Charlie Morgan, English drummer (Orleans)
 October 15 – Tanya Roberts, American actress
 October 28 – Bill Gates co-founder of Microsoft
 November 29- Howie Mandel, host of Deal or No Deal

Deaths 
 January 15 – Yves Tanguy, French painter (b. 1900)
 January 21 – Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)
 March 11 – Sir Alexander Fleming, British medical researcher (b. 1881)
 March 12 – Charlie Parker, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1920)
 April 7 – Theda Bara, American movie actress (b. 1885)
 April 18 – Albert Einstein, German physicist (b. 1879)
 May 4 – Georges Enescu, Romanian composer (b. 1881)
 May 10 – Tommy Burns, American boxer (b. 1881)
 May 11 – Gilbert Jessop, English cricketer (b. 1874)
 May 16 – James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
 May 26 – Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (b. 1918)
 August 2 – Wallace Stevens, American poet (b. 1879)
 August 5 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese singer and actress (b. 1909)
 August 12 – Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
 August 12 – James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
 September 30 – James Dean, American actor (b. 1931)
 October 1 – Charles Christie, American movie studio owner (b. 1880)
 October 9 – Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Archbishop of Vienna
 November 4 – Cy Young, baseball player (b. 1867)
 November 5 – Maurice Utrillo, French artist (b. 1882)
 November 12 – Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer (b. 1878)
 November 27 – Arthur Honegger, French-born Swiss composer (b. 1982)
 December 6 – Honus Wagner, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1874)

Television 
 October 1 – The Honeymooners debuts on CBS with stars Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph

Movies released 
 Alexander The Great
 Blackboard Jungle
 Marty
 All That Heaven Allows
 The Ladykillers (1955 movie)
 To Catch a Thief
 The Desperate Hours
 Godzilla Raids Again

Hit Songs 
 Maybellene- Chuck Berry
 Bo Diddley/I'm A Man- Bo Diddley
 Diddley Daddy- Bo Diddley
 Rock Around The Clock- Bill Haley

New Books 
 The Acceptance World – Anthony Powell
 Andersonville – MacKinlay Kantor
 Auntie Mame – Patrick Dennis
 Bath Tangle – Georgette Heyer
 Birdman of Alcatraz – Thomas E. Gaddis
 Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan
 The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
 The Dragon in the Sea – Frank Herbert
 The End of Eternity – Isaac Asimov
 The Genius and the Goddess – Aldous Huxley
 The Ginger Man – J. P. Donleavy
 A Good Man is Hard to Find – Flannery O'Connor
 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne – Brian Moore
 The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King – J. R. R. Tolkien
 The Magician's Nephew – C.S. Lewis
 The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit – Sloan Wilson
 Marjorie Morningstar – Herman Wouk
 Moonraker – Ian Fleming
 No Time for Sergeants – Mac Hyman
 Not As a Stranger – Morton Thompson
 Notes of a Native Son – James Baldwin
 The October Country – Ray Bradbury
 Pedro Paramo – Juan Rulfo
 The Quiet American – Graham Greene
 Satan in Goray – Isaac Bashevis Singer
 Scuffy the Tugboat – Gertrude Crampton
 Something of Value – Robert Ruark
 That Uncertain Feeling – Kingsley Amis
 The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor (Relato de un náufrago) – Gabriel García Márquez
 The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
 Ten North Frederick – John O'Hara
 The Tontine – Thomas B. Costain
 The Tree of Man – Patrick White
 Tunnel in the Sky – Robert A. Heinlein