1955
President Eisenhower endorsed the use of nuclear weapons in the case of war. School children were taught in government drills that they could avoid the devastation of nuclear weapons by 
ducking and covering when they saw "the flash." Military films told soldiers witnessing nuclear tests that they wouldn't experience any side effects if they wore sunglasses.
The Presbyterian Church approved the ordination of female ministers.
The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper - where Walt Whitman had once served as editor - went bankrupt following a 45-day strike. The paper had been published daily for 115 years.
The major labor advocates, the AFL and the CIO, merged.
Dr. Albert Einstein died at age 76.
Cole Porter's Silk Stockings opened on Broadway.
Long before his stint as a straight-ahead TV journalist and 60 Minutes anchor, Mike Wallace became the TV spokesman for Fluffo Shortening.
On the big screen, James Dean & Julie Harris starred in East Of Eden and Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones teamed up for Oklahoma!
DJ Alan Freed coined the term "Rock & Roll." Bill Haley & the Comets had the first #1 rock hit, Rock Around The Clock, which they introduced on Freed's radio show.
