The Hong Kong-registered cargo ship Inchkeith strikes an uncharted rock in the Bay of Bengal off Port Meadows, Andaman Islands, and is abandoned as a total loss.[2]
Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-year-old African-American girl, becomes the first person arrested for resisting bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, when she refuses to give up her seat to a white woman as demanded by the driver. She is carried off the bus backwards while being kicked and handcuffed and harassed on the way to the police station.[3] She becomes a plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle (1956) which rules bus segregation to be unconstitutional.
US TV station WBBJ-TV signs on the air in Jackson, Tennessee, with WDXI as its initial call-letters, to expanded American commercial television in mostly-rural areas.
Elvis Presley makes his television debut on "Louisiana Hayride" carried by KSLA-TV Shreveport (although audio recordings exists, there is no known video footage of this appearance).
The Broadway musical version of Peter Pan, which had opened in 1954 starring Mary Martin, is presented on television for the first time by NBC-TV with its original cast, as an installment of Producers' Showcase. It is also the first time that a stage musical is presented in its entirety on TV almost exactly as it was performed on stage. This program gains the largest viewership of a TV special up to this time, and it becomes one of the first great TV family musical classics.
1955 Swiss tenant and consumer protection referendum: The proposal for a popular initiative "for the protection of tenants and consumers", which would prolong price controls, is approved by a majority of voters, it was rejected by a majority of cantons, with the result that it does not come into force.[6]
Died:Tribhuwan Bir Bikram Shah, 48, King of Nepal, under "mysterious circumstances". He is succeeded by his eldest legitimate son Mahendra.
The Greek fishing vessel Iason capsizes and sinks in the Ionian Sea with the loss of eleven of her fifteen crew. SS Stratheden sends one of her lifeboats to the aid of Iason, but it also capsizes and all eight on board are drowned. Four survivors from Iason are rescued by Stratheden.[7]
Richard Riot in Montreal: 6,000 people protest against the suspension of French Canadian ice hockey star Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens by the National Hockey League following a violent incident during a match.
The movie adaptation of Evan Hunter's novel Blackboard Jungle is premièred in the United States, making a hit out of "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets.[13] Teenagers jump from their cinema seats to dance to the song.
The Sovietic Foreign Affairs Minister Vjaceslav Molotov announces the constitution of a unified military command among USSR and the satellite countries (the future Warsaw Pact).[18]
In South Vietnam, the National Front (gathering the criminal-paramilitary organization Bimh-Xuyen and the religious sects Cao Dai and Hoa Hao) asks for a national union cabinet. The request is ignored by the Diem government.[19]
In Morgnano (Spoleto), a firedamp deflagration in a lignite mine owned by the Terni Steel Mills causes the death of 23 workers; another 18 are gravely injured.[22]
Dutch coaster Anna Henny is driven ashore at Aberavon, Wales, in a storm. It is refloated after five hours.[24]
In Pozzuoli, the last knightly dispute in Italy happens. Gaetano Fiorentino, senator of the People's Monarchist Party, faces in a fencing duel the attorney Attilio Romano, acting in name of his client Carlo Delcroix, war invalid. Both the two contenders are slightly wounded. The dispute was caused by a Fiorentino's press article about Delcroix, judged injurious.[25]
Born:Moses Malone, US basketball player, in Petersburg, Virginia (d. 2015)
The Italian Prime Minister Mario Scelba and the Foreign Affairs Minister Gaetano Martino begin a two weeks official travel in Canada and United States.[27]
Spanish cargo ship Urola collides with Soviet ship Storaya Pyaltylotka off Setubal, Portugal, and sinks. Storaya Pyaltylotka is badly damaged, entering the Tagus still taking on water. All 33 crew from Urola are rescued.[29]
In Rome, premiere, in presence of the president Luigi Einaudi, of Marcello Baldi's Italia K2, the official documentary about the 1954 expedition to K2. The film gets a noticeable public success, with a 360 million liras collection in Italy.[32]
"March on Brussels", in the course of the Second School War. 100.000 Catholic militants fall on the Belgian capital; they mean to protest against the socialist Leo Collard, Minister of Public Education, who proposed a bill vised to cut the funding for the private schools. The manifestation, unauthorized by the city authorities, is severely repressed, with use of hydrants and charges by the mounted police. Despite the civil war atmosphere, by chance there are no victims.[35][clarification needed]
Slaughter of Colombaia di Secchia (Casina). Guerrino Costi, Communist militant and former partisan, fires two rifle shots from a window in the tavern where the victory of the Catholic list in the elections for the farmers' mutual funds is celebrated. Afro Rossi, local section DC secretary, and Giovanni Munarini, president of the Casina Azione Cattolica, are killed; two others are wounded.[36]
In France and North-Africa, lockout of the shops, proclaimed by Pierre Poujaude's UDCA as a protest against the taxman. The initiative is almost wholly symbolic, because most of the French shops are closed Monday for the weekly rest.[39]
Serial killer Leslie "Mad Dog" Irvin ends his killing spree with the murders of Goebel Duncan, 51, his son Raymond Duncan, 29, and Maple Elizabeth Duncan, 20 (Goebel's daughter-in-law), during a robbery in southwestern Indiana, USA.
Uprising of the National Front in Saigon: the Prime Minister's palace and the police prefecture are attacked with mortars. Eight ministers (included the Minister of Defence Ho Thong Minh) resigns from the Diem cabinet.[40]
At the elections for the FIAT internal commissions, success of CISL and outstanding failure of CGIL, that almost halve its votes (from 63.2 to 36.7%). Because the defeat, the social-communist trade union revises its strategy, leaving the most political claims.[43][clarification needed]
SNCF in France sets a new world rail speed record of 331 km/h using 1800/2000V DC electric traction. The track is severely damaged by the passage of the train (see [1], [2], [3], [4]).
The British coaster Nigelock runs aground at Foochow, China.[44]
In Saigon, the French High Commissioner for Indochina, General Paul Ely, secures a truce between the Army and the National Front; the fighting between the two parties, after having caused 26 victims in the capital, goes on in the country.[40]
In Turin, the 22nd congress of the Italian Socialist Party begins; in his inaugural report, the Secretary Pietro Nenni confirms the alliance with the communists, but makes some openings to the Christian Democracy and accepts NATO as a "purely defensive alliance". The congress ends April 3, with the re-election of Nenni and Rodolfo Morandi as secretary and vice-secretary.[47]
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 282.
^"Rescues From Coaster". The Times. No. 53200B. London. 28 March 1955. col D, p. 8.
^Stephany, Pierre (2006). Les années 60 en Belgique (in French). Bruxelles: Editions Racine. pp. 67–68. ISBN9782873864873.