1955

• The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins after Rosa Parks, a 43 year old black seamstress, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first national appearance as a civil rights leader.
• The Warsaw Pact, a NATO like co-operation between communist countries, is formed.
• South Africa leaves the United Nations.
• Albert Einstein dies.
• "In God We Trust" becomes a part of all US currency and coins.

San Diego History

• Westgate Park, a new home for the San Diego Padres baseball team is completed.
• Salton Sea State Park is dedicated. At the time, it is the second largest state park in California.

• Commercial whale-watching trips started in southern California for $1. Guided by naturalist Raymond M. Gilmore, the trips were a combination of science, education, and unpredictable whale behavior.

Arts

• Robert Rauschenberg hangs his Bed on a wall and calls it art.
• Sculptor Isamu Noguchi erects his Fountain of Peace for the UNESCO House in Paris. He explores the Japanese tradition of garden-making and lays the foundation for the future land art movement.
• Gunsmoke makes its television debut. In what would become TV's longest running drama, James Arness plays Marshal Matt Dillon.
• James Dean stars in Rebel Without a Cause and later in the year dies in a car accident.
• Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock debuts.
• Vladimir Nabokov publishes his controversial novel Lolita.
• The Family of Man, a photography exhibition organized by Edward Steichen, opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
• Checker Records release Bo Diddley's first record "Bo Diddley"/"I'm A Man".

American Life

• Fender introduces the Stratocaster guitar
• Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.
• New York Psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers fought through a slew of boxing questions to win the "$64,000 Question" and becomes a celebrity.

• Fast food expands. Ray Krok buys out the hamburger franchise from the McDonald bothers. Harland Sanders also opens his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.
• April 12: The Salk vaccine against polio is introduced.

• Chevrolet introduces its 1955 line of cars. The new design is aimed at a younger demographic and the design by Harley Earle recalls the fighter planes of World War II.