Timeline April 1955

Events in April 1955 13

• 1877 – 1955 Alben Barkley (1877-1955) Died 30 April 1955, aged 77 Alben Barkley served as Vice President of the United States under Harry Truman from 1949 to 1953. He collapsed and died of a heart attack while delivering a speech at Washington and Lee University. He was previously a longtime US Senator from Kentucky.
• 1879 – 1955 Albert Einstein Relativity Pioneer The physicist who developed the theory of relativity, fundamentally changing our understanding of space and time.
• 1885 – 1955 Theda Bara (1885-1955) Died 7 April 1955, aged 69 Theda Bara was an American silent film actress and one of the earliest sex symbols of the movie industry, celebrated for vamp roles such as in the 1917 film Cleopatra. Most of her films are now lost. She died of cancer in Los Angeles.
• 1955 Fats Domino releases Ain't That a Shame Crossover hit His first pop top-ten, covered by Pat Boone.
• 1955 In the Wee Small Hours -- the concept album invented 'In the Wee Small Hours' (1955) is Sinatra's first true concept album -- a sustained meditation on loss, loneliness and sleepless nights, constructed around Nelson Riddle's arrangements of 16 songs about romantic dejection. The album is inspired by his devastation following his divorce from Ava Gardner. It is the first popular album designed to be listened to in sequence as a unified emotional experience rather than as a collection of individual songs. Every subsequent concept album -- the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon -- owes a debt to 'In the Wee Small Hours.'
• 1955 Cyprus Emergency begins EOKA launches armed campaign against British rule The Greek Cypriot organization EOKA began a guerrilla campaign against British colonial rule in Cyprus, seeking union with Greece. The uprising led Britain to declare a state of emergency and deploy thousands of troops. The conflict continued until Cyprus gained independence in 1960.
• 1955 Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister Anthony Eden succeeds Churchill as UK premier Winston Churchill resigned as British Prime Minister due to declining health, ending his second and final term. Anthony Eden succeeded him the same day. Churchill remained a member of Parliament until 1964.
• 1955 The Russell-Einstein Manifesto His last public act, signed a week before his death Bertrand Russell's appeal to the world's governments to renounce nuclear war reached Princeton in April 1955 and Einstein signed it on the 11th. It was released in London in July with eleven signatures. The manifesto led directly to the Pugwash Conferences.
• 1955 Salk polio vaccine declared safe and effective Field trial results announced, launching mass vaccination Researchers announced that Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, tested in a massive field trial of over a million children, was safe and effective. Mass vaccination campaigns followed almost immediately across the United States and beyond. Polio cases in the country fell dramatically within a few years.
• 1955 First McDonald's franchise opens Ray Kroc opens a franchised restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois Businessman Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald's franchise location in Des Plaines, Illinois, after partnering with the McDonald brothers. Kroc later bought out the brothers and built the chain into a global fast-food empire. The Des Plaines store became the template for McDonald's rapid international expansion.
• 1955 Albert Einstein dies in Princeton An aortic aneurysm, and a refusal of surgery Einstein's aneurysm ruptured on 17 April 1955 and he declined an operation, saying it was tasteless to prolong life artificially and that he wanted to go when he wanted. He died early the next morning at Princeton Hospital, aged 76. A sheet of equations for a unified field theory lay beside the bed.
• 1955 Bandung Conference Asian and African nations meet to promote decolonization and cooperation Representatives of 29 Asian and African nations met in Bandung, Indonesia, to discuss decolonization, economic cooperation, and opposition to colonialism. The conference laid groundwork for the Non-Aligned Movement founded in 1961. Leaders including Sukarno, Nehru, and Zhou Enlai attended.
• 1955 The stolen brain Thomas Harvey removes it during the autopsy The pathologist kept Einstein's brain without family permission, later securing reluctant consent from Hans Albert, and sectioned it into 240 blocks. He lost his post and carried the pieces around the country for decades. Einstein had asked to be cremated and his ashes scattered in an undisclosed place.