April 12, 1955★★★★★
Salk polio vaccine declared safe and effective
Results of a mass field trial show Jonas Salk's polio vaccine to be safe and effective, opening the way to mass vaccination.
ScienceDisease· United States
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Events this year
April 18, 1955 – April 24, 1955★★★★★
Bandung Conference
Delegates from 29 Asian and African nations meet in Bandung to promote Afro-Asian cooperation and oppose colonialism, a forerunner of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Politics· Indonesia
October 26, 1955★★★★★
Proclamation of the Republic of Vietnam
After the 23 October referendum deposing Bảo Đại, Ngô Đình Diệm proclaims the Republic of Vietnam with himself as president.
Politics· Vietnam
November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975★★★★★
Vietnam War
A conflict between North Vietnam and the Viet Cong on one side and South Vietnam, backed by the United States and its allies, on the other; it ends with the fall of Saigon in 1975.
War· Vietnam, United States, Laos, Cambodia
December 1, 1955 – December 1956★★★★★
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott
Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, sparking a year-long bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.
Politics· United States
Ongoing
1953 – 1956★★★★★
Land reform in North Vietnam
A land reform campaign in the North redistributes land, accompanied by many executions; the government later acknowledges errors and launches a rectification in 1956.
PoliticsEconomy· Vietnam
1954 – 1955★★★★★
Operation Passage to Freedom
During the 300-day free-movement period after the Geneva Accords, roughly 800,000 to one million people, many of them Catholics, move from North to South Vietnam.
Politics· Vietnam, United States, France
November 1, 1954 – March 19, 1962★★★★★
Algerian War of Independence
The National Liberation Front (FLN) fights French rule; the war ends with the Évian Accords and Algerian independence in 1962.
WarRevolution· Algeria, France