January 25 - Soviet Union ends state of war with Germany.
February 8 - The Government of Sindh abolished Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
February 13 - Israel obtains 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
February 18 - The Shot Teapot-Wasp is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp would be the first of fourteen shots of the Teapot series.
February 23 - First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
March 25 - United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene.
April 1 - The EOKA rebellion against The British Empire starts in Cyprus, with the goal of obtaining the desired unification ("enosis") with Greece.
April 3 - The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.
April 5 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
April 11 - The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.
April 12 - The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.
April 15 - Ray Kroc opens his first franchise of McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
April 16 - The Burma-Japanese peace treaty signed in Rangoon on November 5, 1954 comes into force, formally ending the state of war.
April 18 - Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandurg, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.
April 19 - The German automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, founds Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network.
April 23 - The Canadian Labour Congress is formed by the merger of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour.
April 24 - The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
May 9 - Sam and Friends debuts on a local United States television channel, marking the first television appearance of both Jim Henson and what would become Kermit the Frog and the Muppets.
May 12 - The last portion of the IRT Third Avenue Elevated in Manhattan closes.
May 14 - Cold War: Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
May 15 - The Austrian Independence Treaty is signed.
May 15 - The first ascent of Makalu, the world's fifth highest mountain.
May 25 - In the United States, a night time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas, killing 80 and injuring 273. It is the deadliest tornado to ever occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.
May 28 - Henry Bolte becomes Premier of the state of Victoria.
June 2 - The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
June 7 - Lux Radio Theater signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.
June 11 - Eighty-three are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
June 13 - Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
June 14 - Chile becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
June 15 - The Eisenhower administration stages the first annual "Operation Alert" (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess the USA's preparations for a nuclear attack.
July 9 - The Russell-Einstein Manifesto is released by Bertrand Russell in London.
July 11 - The phrase In God We Trust is added to all U.S. currency.
July 15 - Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
July 17 - Disneyland televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California.
July 27 - The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends (started on May 9, 1945).
July 28 - The Union Mundial pro Interlingua is founded at the first Interlingua congress in Tours, France.
August 7 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, begins selling its first transistor radios in Japan.
August 19 - In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
August 20 - In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
September 6 - Istanbul Pogrom: Istanbul's Greek and Armenian minority are the target of a government-sponsored pogrom.
September 11 - Dedication of the first Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Europe, the Bern Switzerland Temple.
September 16 - Juan Perón is deposed in Argentina.
September 22 - In Britain, the television channel ITV goes live for the first time.
September 25 - The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.
September 30 - Film icon James Dean dies in a road accident at age 24.
October 3 - Captain Kangaroo debuts on the CBS television network.
October 6 - A United Airlines DC-4 crashes in Medicine Bow Peak, Wyoming, killing 66 people
October 7 - Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco.
October 20 - Publication of The Return of the King, being the last part of The Lord of the Rings.
October 26 - After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares permanent neutrality.
October 26 - Ngô Đình Diệm declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.
October 29 - The Soviet battleship Novorossiisk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol.
November 1 - The bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner.
November 4 - After being totally destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio.
November 19 - National Review publishes its first issue.
November 23 - The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to Australia.
December 1 - American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
December 5 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL-CIO.
December 5 - E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
December 14 - Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations.
December 20 - Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
December 31 - The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.
