August 1955

• Norway's Ministry of Pay and Prices was established, headed by Gunnar Bråthen.
• The Lockheed Article 001, a prototype of the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, made its maiden flight in what was intended to be only a high-speed taxi test at Groom Lake in Nevada, United States.{{cite magazine |last=Huntington |first=Tom |title=U-2 |magazine=Invention & Technology Magazine |volume=22 |issue=3}}

• Died: Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, 86, German military leader and last heir apparent to the Bavarian throne{{cite book |first=Jonathan |last=Boff |title=Haig's Enemy: Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germany's War on the Western Front |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |isbn=9780199670468 |page=253}}

• The English-language première of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, directed by Peter Hall, took place at the Arts Theatre, London.{{cite book |last=Knowlson |first=James |title=Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett |location=London |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=1996 |page=415}}

• The 1955 Mitropa Cup football competition was won by Vörös Lobogó, with ÚDA Praha as runners-up after the second leg of the final.
• While her act was being filmed for NBC variety series The Jimmy Durante Show, Carmen Miranda complained of feeling ill and out of breath but finished her performance.{{cite news |via=Google News |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PUYxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6w8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6067,5271979&dq=carmen+miranda+durante&hl=en |title=Carmen Miranda Of Movies Dies |date=6 August 1955 |newspaper=The Milwaukee Sentinel |access-date=21 November 2012}}{{cite news |via=Google News |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19550806&id=FEcNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=A2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5206,34782 |title=Actress Dies After Making Video Film |date=6 August 1955 |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |access-date=4 April 2014}}

• Died: Carmen Miranda, 46, Portuguese Brazilian singer and actress (pre-eclampsia)Encyclopedia of World Biography | 2006; COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

• The French Southern and Antarctic Territories were created, as an overseas territory of France.

• The French département of Bône was created out of the eastern extremity of the former département of Constantine in Algeria.
• Born: Wayne Knight, American actor, in New York City

• Composer Luigi Nono married Nuria, the daughter of another composer, Arnold Schoenberg, in Venice.{{cite book |first=Jon |last=Paxman |title=Classical Music 1600–2000: A Chronology |location=London |publisher=Omnibus |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-84449-773-7}}
• At Edwards Air Force Base in California, an explosion occurred inside the rocket engine of the X-1A research aircraft while it was being carried under its B-29 mother ship prior to a planned flight by test pilot Joseph A. Walker. Walker climbed out of the X-1A back into the B-29, but pilot Stan Butchart, unable to risk landing the B-29 with the X-1A still attached to its underside, was forced to drop the rocket plane, which exploded in the desert.{{cite book |last=Hansen |first=James R. |author-link=James R. Hansen |title=First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong |title-link=First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong |publisher=Simon & Schuster Paperbacks |date=April 2018 |page=66 |isbn=978-1-5011-5306-8}}
• Died: Grace Hartman, 48, American actress

• The Canadian National Railway opened its part of Walkley Yard in Ottawa, Canada.
• Born: Maud Olofsson, Swedish politician, in Arnäsvall

• The Division of Stirling was created in a Western Australia electoral redistribution.[http://www.aec.gov.au/profiles/wa/stirling.htm Division of Stirling - Australian Electoral Commission]

• As a formation of nine United States Air Force Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars flew over Edelweiler, near Stuttgart, West Germany, on a training mission carrying troops, one of them, a C-119G, experienced engine trouble, lost altitude momentarily, pulled upward abruptly, and collided with another C-119G. Both aircraft crashed, killing all 19 people aboard one and all 47 aboard the other. The combined death toll of 66 made it the worst aviation accident in German history at the time and the deadliest ever involving any variant of the C-119. It would tie with the March 22 crash of a United States Navy R6D-1 Liftmaster in Hawaii and the October 6 crash of United Airlines Flight 409 in Wyoming as the deadliest air accident of 1955.[http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19550810-0 Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description][http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19550810-1 Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description]
• Burhanuddin Harahap became Prime Minister of Indonesia.

• Hurricane Connie struck North Carolina as a Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
• Died:
• Thomas Mann, 80, German novelist, Nobel Prize laureate{{cite journal |last=Bollinger |first=A. |title=The death of Thomas Mann: consequence of erroneous angiologic diagnosis? |journal=Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift |year=1999 |volume=149 |issue=2–4 |pages=30–32 |pmid=10378317}}{{cite web |title=Thomas Mann – Facts |website=NobelPrize.org |publisher=Nobel Prize Outreach AB |year=2024 |access-date=22 April 2024 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1929/mann/facts/}}
• James B. Sumner, 67, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate{{cite web |title=James B. Sumner – Facts |website=NobelPrize.org |publisher=Nobel Prize Outreach AB |year=2024 |access-date=22 April 2024 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1946/sumner/facts/}}

• Died: Florence Easton, 72, English-born operatic soprano

• The US schooner Levin J. Marvel capsized and sank in Chesapeake Bay with the loss of 14 of the 16 people on board. It was lost during high waves in Hurricane Connie.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Twelve Drown When Schooner Capsizes |date=15 August 1955 |page=5 |issue=53299 |column=C}}{{cite encyclopedia |page=105 |title=Connie, Hurricane |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones |edition=New |first=David |last=Longshore |year=2008 |publisher=Facts on File, Inc. |isbn=9781438118796 |access-date=22 April 2024 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8kXwskQHBLoC&dq=hurricane+connie+1955&pg=PA105}}

• Rear Admiral Royce de Mel became the first native Commander of the Royal Ceylon Navy.{{cite web |title=Past Commanders |url=http://www.navy.lk/past-commanders.html |publisher=navy.lk |access-date=17 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140902032132/http://www.navy.lk/past-commanders.html |archive-date=2 September 2014}}{{cite web |title=Sri Lanka Navy: Diamond Jubilee celebrations |url=http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20101207_06 |publisher=navy.lk |access-date=7 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206071019/http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20101207_06 |archive-date=6 February 2016 |url-status=dead}} He would later be implicated in the 1962 Ceylonese coup d'état attempt.

• Edward Makula set a new world record glider speed of {{Convert|67.304|km/h}} over a triangular course of {{Convert|200|km}}, the first of seven world records Makula would hold in the course of his career.[http://records.fai.org/pilot.asp?from=gliding&id=2759 FAI: records by Edward Makula] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608182958/http://records.fai.org/pilot.asp?from=gliding&id=2759 |date=2011-06-08}} - accessed 2008-01-11

• Died: Fernand Léger, 74, French painter and sculptor

• The First Sudanese Civil War began.
• First meeting of the Organization of Central American States (Organización de Estados Centroamericanos, ODECA), in Antigua Guatemala.

• Hurricane Diane hit the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people and causing over $1.0 billion in damage.

• Dorothy Hodgkin and her colleagues published the final structure of vitamin B₁₂.{{cite journal |last1=Hodgkin |first1=Dorothy Crowfoot |author1-link=Dorothy Hodgkin |last2=Pickworth |first2=Jenny |last3=Robertson |first3=John H. |last4=Trueblood |first4=Kenneth N. |last5=Prosen |first5=Richard J. |last6=White |first6=John G. |title=Structure of Vitamin B₁₂: The Crystal Structure of the Hexacarboxylic Acid derived from B₁₂ and the Molecular Structure of the Vitamin |journal=Nature |volume=176 |issue=4477 |year=1955 |pages=325–8 |doi=10.1038/176325a0 |pmid=13253565 |bibcode=1955Natur.176..325H |s2cid=4220926}}
• In Algeria, the Battle of Philippeville, also known as the Philippeville massacre or the August Offensive, began when several thousand civilians launched a general assault on the city of Philippeville, to attack Europeans and moderate Muslim personalities.{{cite magazine |first=Adam |last=Shatz |title=The Torture of Algiers |magazine=The New York Review of Books |volume=49 |issue=18 |date=21 November 2002}} Over a hundred people, mainly European civilians, were killed in this and the accompanying attacks.{{cite book |last=Vétillard |first=Roger |title=20 August 1955 dans le Nord-Constantinois. Un tournant dans la guerre d'Algérie? |trans-title=20 August 1955 in Nord-Constantinois. A turning point in the Algerian war? |year=2013 |publisher=Riveneuve éditions |page=270 |language=fr}}
• Flying a U.S. Air Force North American F-100C Super Sabre, Horace A. Haines set a world speed record of 822.135 mph (1,323.889 km/h).{{cite book |last=Angelucci |first=Enzo |title=The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present |location=New York |publisher=Orion Books |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-517-56588-9 |page=352}}

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• The Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter, a claimed alien and UFO encounter in Christian County, Kentucky.

• Eleven schoolchildren were killed when their school bus was hit by a freight train in Spring City, Tennessee, United States after the driver disregarded a crossing signal; a further 39 were injured.{{cite web |url=https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/45169 |title=Interstate Commerce {{sic|Comm|ision|nolink=y}}, Report of the Accident Investigation {{sic|Occ|uring|nolink=y}} on the CINCINNATI, NEW ORLEANS AND TEXAS PACIFIC, SOUTHERN RAILWAY SYSTEM, SPRING CITY, TENN |publisher=Interstate Commerce Commission |date=August 22, 1955 |access-date=31 July 2023}} - [https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/45169/dot_45169_DS1.pdf PDF file]

• The Westland Widgeon helicopter made its maiden flight.
• Died: Rudolf Minger, 73, Swiss politician

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• In China, the Sufan movement issued its "Directive on the thorough purge and cleansing of hidden counter-revolutionaries".{{cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=1955年7月1日 中共中央发出《关于展开斗争肃清暗藏的反革命分子的指示》|url=http://www.scio.gov.cn/wszt/wz/Document/946663/946663.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630032520/http://www.scio.gov.cn/wszt/wz/Document/946663/946663.htm |archive-date=30 June 2020 |access-date= |website=The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China |language=zh}}
• While on a voyage from Hampton Roads, Virginia, United States, to Copenhagen, Denmark, the British cargo ship Argobeam was caught in a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. It caught fire and was abandoned by the crew. A few days later it was taken in to Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, and would eventually be repaired and returned to service as Parkgate.{{cite book |last2=Sawyer |first2=LA |last1=Mitchell |first1=WH |year=1990 |title=The Empire Ships |place=London, New York, Hamburg, Hong Kong |publisher=Lloyd's of London Press Ltd |isbn=1-85044-275-4 |edition=Second |page=29}}

• Satyajit Ray's film Pather Panchali was released in Calcutta, India, receiving a poor initial response but quickly attracting audiences to become a classic of Indian cinema.{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Andrew |author-link=W. Andrew Robinson |title=Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye |via=Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/details/satyajitrayinner00robi_0 |url-access=registration |year=1989 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06946-6}}

• The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published, in London, compiled by Norris and Ross McWhirter.{{Cite web |title=Guinness Book History 1950 – Present |url=http://spyhunter007.com/spy_guinness_book_history.htm |access-date=2012-02-10 |archive-date=13 May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513093133/http://spyhunter007.com/spy_guinness_book_history.htm |url-status=dead}}
• Born: Sergey Khlebnikov, Soviet speed skater (d. 1999)

• The Challenge Round of the 1955 Davis Cup tennis competition was won by Australia at the West Side Tennis Club, Forest Hills, New York, USA.{{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Tennis |year=1974 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=London |isbn=0047960426 |first=Max |last=Robertson |author-link=Max Robertson |page=384}}
• A US-registered tugboat, the Harold J, sank in the Bering Sea near Lopp Lagoon on the Alaskan coast in a storm, with the loss of three crew members.{{cite web |url=https://alaskashipwreck.com/shipwrecks-a-z/alaska-shipwrecks-h/ |title=Alaska Shipwrecks (H) |website=Alaska Shipwreck}}
• Died: Emmett Till, 14, African-American teenager, was beaten and shot to death in Mississippi for allegedly speaking to a white woman.{{cite magazine |author=Huie |first=William Bradford |author-link=William Bradford Huie |date=January 1956 |title=The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi |magazine=Look |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/till-killers-confession/ |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422152704/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/till-killers-confession/ |archive-date=22 April 2020}}

• A British Royal Air Force English Electric Canberra set a new world altitude record of 65,876 ft (20,079 m).{{cite book |editor-last=Donald |editor-first=David |title=The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft |location=New York |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7607-0592-6 |page=89}}
• The 1955 CCCF Championship soccer competition ended in victory for Costa Rica.{{cite web|title=CCCF Championship 1955 (Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Aug 14-28) |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablesc/cccf55.html |access-date=8 April 2012 |url-status=live |website=RSSSF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307081152/http://www.rsssf.com/tablesc/cccf55.html |archive-date=7 March 2012}}

• U.S. Patrolmen William Hudec and Warren Stainbrook of the Cleveland Division of Police were killed when a train struck the police ambulance they were driving.{{cite web |url=http://www.odmp.org/officer/6792-patrolman-william-hudec |title=Patrolman William Hudec, Cleveland Division of Police, Ohio |publisher=The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc |access-date=2022-07-28}}{{cite web |url=https://www.odmp.org/officer/12676-patrolman-warren-stainbrook |title=Patrolman Warren Stainbrook, Cleveland Division of Police, Ohio |publisher=The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc |access-date=2022-07-28}} Hudec was the father of actress Majel Leigh Hudec, who would later be better known as Majel Barrett and play multiple roles in the Star Trek franchise.

• The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad began experiments with air conditioning on its subway cars, a technology that the New York City Subway system had declared impractical before then.{{cite web |last=Klapouchy |first=B. |year=2005 |url=http://www.hudsoncity.net/tubesenglish/3-operatinghistory.html |title=Hudson and Manhattan Railroad: Operating History |access-date=31 August 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050908135514/http://www.hudsoncity.net/tubesenglish/3-operatinghistory.html |archive-date=8 September 2005 |url-status=usurped}} This experiment resulted in the first successful production application of air conditioning in a rapid transit car, 50 cars (20 owned by H&M, 30 by H&M parent PRR) built by St. Louis Car Company in 1958.
• Lockheed Aircraft Corporation engineering test pilot Stanley Beltz was killed in a crash near Lancaster, California, USA, while piloting an F-94B Starfire modified to test the nose section of the BOMARC missile.{{cite magazine |last=Logan |first=Willy |title=Death of a Quiet Birdman |magazine=Aviation History |date=September 2010 |page=21}}, cited in {{cite web |first=Willy |last=Logan |date=25 January 2018 |access-date=23 April 2024 |title=Death of a Quiet Birdman |website=HistoryNet |url=https://www.historynet.com/death-quiet-birdman/}}
• Emmett Till's decomposed corpse was pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Moses Wright identified the body from a ring with the initials L.T. {{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/till-timeline/ |title=The Murder of Emmett Till |access-date=2023-04-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619043522/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/till-timeline/ |archive-date=19 June 2020 |url-status=dead}}

{{reflist}}

{{Events by month links}}

1955

*1955-08