MusicAndHistory.com

1 January 1955 The oil pipeline from Suez to Cairo passes from British to Egyptian control.

Universal health insurance goes into effect in Sweden.

Structure II for two cellos by Morton Feldman (28) is performed for the first time, in the Charles Egan Gallery, New York.  Also premiered are Feldman’s Extensions 5 for two cellos and Three Pieces for Piano.

2 January 1955 President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt commutes the death sentences passed on 28 December to life imprisonment.

Ruben Miro shoots Panamanian President José Antonio Remón to death at a racetrack in Panama City.  Two other people are killed in the ensuing gun battle.  The attacker escapes.

3 January 1955 The US government announces that 3,000 people were fired from government service between June 1953 and October 1954 because of their political beliefs.

Senator Joseph McCarthy convenes his last hearing as chairman of the Senate Investigations Subcommittee.  The chair will soon pass to Democrats, who won a majority in last year’s election.

José Ramón Guizado replaces José Antonio Remón as President of Panama.  The Panamanian Congress suspends certain civil liberties while about 70 people are rounded up for questioning.

4 January 1955 Six Moroccan nationalists convicted of terrorism are executed by firing squad near Casablanca.

5 January 1955 UN Secretary-General  Dag Hammarskjöld arrives in Peking to try to negotiate the release of eleven US airmen held by China as spies.

The Eighty-fourth Congress of the United States convenes in Washington.  The opposition Democratic Party controls both houses.  The Republican Party will not control both houses again for forty years.

7 January 1955 Marian Anderson makes her Metropolitan Opera debut as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi’s (†53) Un ballo in maschera.  She is the first black lead in the company’s history.

Symphony no.6 “Fantaisies symphoniques” by Bohuslav Martinu (64) is performed for the first time, in Boston, the celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

10 January 1955 600 Chinese bombers attack the Tachin (Dachen) Islands.

UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-lai complete talks on the fate of eleven US airmen held by China as spies.

Aria and Tarantelle for cello and piano by Robert Ward (37) is performed for the first time, in the Textile Museum, Washington.

12 January 1955 Ernest MacMillan (61) resigns as conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, effective at the conclusion of the 1955-56 season.

14 January 1955 The government of South Africa announces its intention to forcibly remove 178,000 blacks out of Western Cape Province.

Senator Joseph McCarthy says on the floor of the US Senate that some Democrats are patriotic but the “Truman-Acheson branch of the party certainly has coddled, covered up, and nurtured treason.”

Two works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (67) are performed for the first time, in Philadelphia, the composer conducting:  Symphony no.8 and Concerto for harp and orchestra.

15 January 1955 Ruben Miro confesses to the murder of Panamanian President José Antonio Remón on 2 January.  He implicates current President José Ramón Guizado in the plot, along with Guizado’s son and Miro’s business partner, Rudolfo Saint Malo.  Miro claims that Guizado offered him the post of Minister of Government and Justice if he killed Remón.  The National Assembly of Panama removes President José Ramón Guizado from office.  Ricardo Arias Espinosa is sworn in to succeed him.

The Paulo Affonso hydroelectric dam is opened on the São Francisco River near Salvador, Brazil.  It will provide power to eight states.

From Jewish Folk Poetry, a cycle for three solo voices and piano by Dmitri Shostakovich (48) is performed publicly for the first time, in Glinka Concert Hall, Leningrad the composer at the keyboard.  See 25 September 1948 and 19 February 1964.

17 January 1955 Short Pieces for string quartet or string orchestra by Ernst Krenek (54) is performed for the first time, in the Basel Konservatoriumssaal.

18 January 1955 Chinese forces capture Yikiangshan (Yijiangshan), 13 km north of the Tachin (Dachen) Islands.

The British Governor-General of Kenya offers leniency (including no death penalty) to Mau Mau leaders who surrender.  European settlers are aghast.

For the second time, a federal judge in Washington throws out a charge of perjury against Prof. Owen Lattimore.  He was charged with lying about communist affiliations in 1952.  The judge calls the charges “so formless and obscure [as to} make a mockery of the Sixth Amendment.”  Five counts of perjury still remain in force against Lattimore.

19 January 1955 200 Chinese aircraft attack the Tachin (Dachen) Islands.  Planes from Taiwan retaliate in the areas of Amoy (Xiamen) and Swatow (Shantou).

US President Dwight Eisenhower gives a press conference in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House.  For the first time, a presidential news conference is filmed for television.

21 January 1955 Einar Gerhardsen replaces Oscar Torp as Prime Minister of Norway.

24 January 1955 President Eisenhower asks Congress for authority to use United States forces to defend Taiwan and the Pescadores (Penghu) and to attack nearby Chinese positions.

25 January 1955 The USSR formally ends its state of war with Germany.

26 January 1955 Dr. Charles Hard Townes of Columbia University demonstrates his atomic clock, called a maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) in New York.  He claims it will lose only one second every 300 years.

27 January 1955 The US Air Force announces that a fighter-bomber wing is being transferred from Okinawa and the Philippines to Taiwan.

The Midsummer Marriage, an opera by Michael Tippett (50) to his own words, is performed for the first time, at Covent Garden.

28 January 1955 Canticle III “Still Falls the Rain--The Raids, 1940--Night and Dawn” for solo voice, horn, and piano by Benjamin Britten (41) to words of Edith Sitwell, is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London by Peter Pears, Denis Brain, and the composer.

29 January 1955 Prime Minister Hans Hedtoft of Denmark dies of a heart attack in Stockholm.

Congress authorizes President Eisenhower to defend Taiwan and its offshore islands.

31 January 1955 The Committee for Reforming the Chinese Written Language announces a “draft plan for the simplifying of Chinese characters.”

In an affidavit filed in New York, ex-Communist actor Harvey Matusow admitted that he lied repeatedly as a witness for the government in trials and before Congressional Committees.  He reveals in a forthcoming book, False Witness, that Roy Cohn, former chief counsel for Senator McCarthy’s Investigations Subcommittee, helped him concoct testimony.

High Schools in St. Louis are racially desegregated without incident.

1 February 1955 Hans Christian Hansen replaces Hans Hedtoft as Prime Minister of Denmark.

The US and France announce ratification of the SEATO treaty.

Octet for woodwinds by Peter Maxwell Davies (20) is performed for the first time, in London.

2 February 1955 David, an opera by Darius Milhaud (62) to words of Lunel, commissioned to celebrate the 3,000 years since the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of Judea, is staged for the first time, in Teatro alla Scala, Milan.  See 1 June 1954.

4 February 1955 The government of Pakistan announces its intention to end dominion status and become a republic.

Piano Quintet op.66 by Vincent Persichetti (39) is performed for the first time, at the Library of Congress, Washington, the composer at the keyboard.

5 February 1955 The French National Assembly votes no-confidence in the North Africa policy of Prime Minister Pierre Mendès-France.  The government falls.

Cello Concerto no.2 by Heitor Villa-Lobos (67) is performed for the first time, in New York.

7 February 1955 President René Coty of France asks Antoine Pinay to form a new government.

8 February 1955 Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov resigns as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and is replaced by Nikolay Alyeksandrovich Bulganin.  Malenkov favored consumer goods over heavy industry.

The South African government bans all public gatherings in Johannesburg for 20 days to prevent violence in connection with the first forced resettlement of Blacks to outside the city limits.

9 February 1955 The eleven-kilometer-long Metropolitana opens in Rome.  It is the first subway in Italy.

Of Identity, a ballet by Otto Luening (54) and Vladimir Ussachevsky (43), is performed publicly for the first time, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York.

10 February 1955 The British Parliament defeats a Labour motion to suspend the death penalty for five years.

The government of Argentina fires 101 Roman Catholic priests who have been teaching in public schools.

In federal court in New York, ex-Communist actor Harvey Matusow testifies that Roy Cohn (then Asst. US Attorney) helped him develop false testimony in a 1952 trial of alleged Communists.

Over the next nine days, witnesses who linked publisher/broadcaster Edward Lamb of Erie, Pennsylvania with communists recant their testimony before the Federal Communications Commission.

11 February 1955 US sea and air forces complete the evacuation of the Tachin Islands by 10,000 Taiwanese troops, 4,000 guerrillas and 14,500 civilians.

Two affidavits are introduced in federal court in New York wherein actor Harvey Matusow retracts his testimony before congressional committees that many employees of the New York Times and Time magazine are communists.  He says that “my manner of presentation and my theme was encouraged by [and] at the behest of Senator McCarthy.”

12 February 1955 President Eisenhower agrees to send American advisors to help train the South Vietnamese army.  A US general takes over responsibility for training and reorganizing the military.

Eleven Transparencies for orchestra by Ernst Krenek (54) is performed for the first time, in Louisville.

13 February 1955 China announces that it has liberated the Tachin (Dachen) Islands, Yashan Islands and the Peishan Islands.

Silhouette, a song for voice and piano by Leonard Bernstein (36) to words of the composer after a Lebanese folk song, is performed for the first time, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

14 February 1955 The United Nations suspends efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the Chinese civil war because the mainland government refuses to take part.

The US Supreme Court approves a lower court ruling that a Jewish couple may not adopt a child born to a Roman Catholic mother.

15 February 1955 China approves conscription regulations making 80,000,000 men liable for service.

Dance Preludes for clarinet and orchestra by Witold Lutoslawski (42) is performed for the first time, in Warsaw.  See 10 November 1959.

French President René Coty asks Pierre Pflimlin to form a government after the failure of Antoine Pinay.

The British government announces a plan to build at least twelve nuclear power plants over the next ten years.

The US Atomic Energy Commission reports that fallout from the March 1954 hydogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll spread contamination over an area of 18,000 square kilometers.  But they say that contamination risk can be greatly reduced by seeking shelter and taking “simple decontamination measures.”

The Little Song that Wanted to be a Symphony for speaker, three women singers, and orchestra by William Grant Still (59) to words of his wife, Verna Avery, is performed for the first time, in Bailey Auditorium, Jackson, Mississippi.

16 February 1955 Former President of Panama José Ramón Guizado is indicted in the murder of his predecessor, José Antonio Remon last month.

Scientists for General Electric reveal in Schenectady, New York that they have artificially created diamonds of industrial quality.

17 February 1955 The British government announces that it will develop a hydrogen bomb as a deterrent to war.

18 February 1955 Taiwanese and Chinese sea and air forces battle near the Taishan Islands.  Taiwan claims a major victory.  Further sea battles continue for five more days.

Poland officially ends its state of war with Germany.

The United States begins a series of tests at their Nevada proving grounds of “small” atomic weapons, not more than 15 kilotons.

Violin Concerto no.2 by Ernst Krenek (54) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of WDR, Cologne.

Symphony no.5 “Sinfonia sacra” by Howard Hanson (58) is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.

Piano Trio no.2 by Ross Lee Finney (48) is performed for the first time, in Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress, Washington.

21 February 1955 In federal court in New York, actor Harvey Matusow testifies that he believes Elizabeth Bentley, star witness at many trials of alleged communists, lied under oath.  He says this is based on “conversations with her.”  He also admit he took money from Republicans to make speeches linking two Democratic senators with communists.

Four Russian Songs for soprano, flute, harp, and guitar by Igor Stravinsky (72) are performed for the first time, in Los Angeles.

22 February 1955 In federal court in New York, actor Harvey Matusow testifies that Senator Joseph McCarthy knew that his charges against alleged communists were false and actively encouraged him.  Senator McCarthy denies the charges.

23 February 1955 As China begins shelling Quemoy (Jinmen) and Matsu (Mazu), the Nationalist government evacuates the Nanchi (Nanji) Islands, 200 km north of Taiwan.

Foreign ministers of the eight SEATO nations begin their first conference, in Bangkok.

Edgar Faure replaces his fellow Radical Party member Pierre Mendès-France as Prime Minister of France.

Variazioni for chamber orchestra by Luciano Berio (29) is performed for the first time, in Hamburg.

24 February 1955 Leaders of Turkey and Iraq sign a mutual defense treaty in Baghdad.  They call on Iran, Pakistan, Arab League countries, the US, and UK to join the pact.

26 February 1955 Four of the 15 pièces pour cor et piano op.180/1, 9, 10, 13 by Charles Koechlin (†4) are performed for the first time, in Brussels.

27 February 1955 National elections in Japan see the Democratic Party winning the most seats.  They will rule in coalition with the Liberal Party.

Two US citizens are released by China in Hong Kong after three-and-a-half years in prison charged with espionage.

After a contentious debate, the West German Bundestag ratifies the Paris agreements on rearmament and the Saar.

28 February 1955 King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia announces his abdication, effective 2 March, as a protest against opponents of his pro-western policy.  He turns the throne over to his father, Prince Suramarit.

The US State Department rejects protests by Jewish War Veterans and the New York local of the American Federation of Musicians against the current tour of the Berlin Philharmonic.  The protesters claim that conductor Herbert von Karajan and business manager Gerhard von Westerman are ex-Nazis.  The State Department says they were both cleared by denazification courts.

1 March 1955 President Juan Perón of Argentina removes the governors of three provinces for “noncooperation” with his regime.

2 March 1955 Ex-communist actor Harvey Matusow tells a US Senate committee that he probably had testified falsely about “every one” of the 244 people he accused of communist associations before Congress.

Bus Stop by William Inge opens at the Music Box Theatre, New York.

4 March 1955 Dance Rhythms op.58 for orchestra by Wallingford Riegger (69) is performed for the first time, in Albany, Georgia.

6 March 1955 The CBS television network broadcasts a performance of the opera The Mighty Casey by William Schuman (44) and Jeremy Gury on their Omnibus program.  Schuman has encouraged the Broadway producer Alfred de Liagre to watch as an audition for possible stage performance in New York.

7 March 1955 Broadway producer Alfred de Liagre writes to William Schuman (44) about the televised broadcast of The Mighty Casey:  “Wholesale premeditated massacre—that’s what it was.  I can’t remember, on screen and off, ever having seen a first rate work so completely horsed up and loused up in every department as your and Jerry’s was yesterday afternoon.  If you decided to launch litigation against the Omnibus people, which I hope you will, you can count on me as a full time witness.”  (Polisi, 195)

10 March 1955 Ten Puerto Rican nationalists are convicted in federal court in New York of seditious conspiracy.  One is acquitted.

11 March 1955 Sun, Moon, Stars and Man for unison chorus and strings by Ralph Vaughan Williams (82) to words of Wood, is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, Birmingham.

12 March 1955 China announces the formation of the Tibet Autonomous Region to be headed by the Dalai Lama.

A man with a knife jumps onto the running board of the car of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Nagpur.  Nehru pushes the man off and he is arrested.

A federal judge in El Paso, Texas holds actor Harvey Matusow in contempt of court for recanting testimony he gave against union official Clinton Jencks.  Matusow will be sentenced to three years in prison.  The judge refuses to grant Jencks a new trial.

Charlie Parker dies in New York.

Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes for brass band by Ralph Vaughan Williams (82) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC.

14 March 1955 Night for baritone, female chorus, and chamber ensemble by Ben Johnston to words of Robinson Jeffers is performed for the first time, at the University of Illinois, on the eve of the composer’s 29th birthday.

16 March 1955 Aneurin Bevan is expelled from the Parliamentary Labour Party for disloyalty to party leader Clement Atlee.

Night Creature for jazz orchestra and symphony orchestra by Duke Ellington (55) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.

19 March 1955 Erich Kleiber resigns as music director of the Berlin State Opera saying that curbs on freedoms under the communists are like those of the Nazis.

20 March 1955 Concerto for clarinet and chamber group by Ralph Shapey (34) is performed for the first time, in Kaufman Auditorium of the 92nd Street Y, New York conducted by the composer.

Transitions for orchestra by Colin McPhee (55) is performed for the first time, in Vancouver and broadcast throughout Canada.

21 March 1955 On the 270th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, Olivier Messiaen (46) plays the French premiere of his Livre d’orgue at the Trinité, Paris.  The organizer of the concert, Pierre Boulez (29), expected only about 50 people to attend and planned for them to enter through a small door on the side of the church.  A large number of people showed up and Messiaen gains admittance to the building only with great difficulty.  Among those taking part in the crush is the Paris chief of police, there purely as a music lover.

22 March 1955 Nikolay Alyeksandrovich Mikhailov replaces Georgi Fyodorovich Alyeksandrov as minister of culture for the USSR.

An atomic weapons test in Nevada sent a radioactive cloud over Las Vegas.  Officials deny that residents of the city are in any danger.

23 March 1955 Four Dialogues for soprano, tenor, and two pianos by Ned Rorem (31) to words of O’Hara, is performed for the first time, at the Palazzo of Contessa Mimi Pecci-Blunt, in Rome, the composer at the keyboard.

24 March 1955 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams opens in the Morosco Theatre, New York.

25 March 1955 The US Customs Service confiscates over 500 copies of Howl by Alan Ginsberg, which were printed in Great Britain, saying the work is obscene.  The publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, will be found innocent of the charge and claim that the Customs Service did more for the sales of the poem than any group of critics ever could.

26 March 1955 The cabinet of Pakistan approves the unification of four provinces and ten princely states in West Pakistan.

100,000 people march on Brussels to protest cuts in government aid to Catholic schools.  They are dispersed by police.

Canti per 13 for 13 instruments by Luigi Nono (31) is performed for the first time, in Paris, conducted by Pierre Boulez on the conductor’s 30th birthday.

27 March 1955 Governor-General Ghulam Mohammed of Pakistan declares a state of emergency and grants himself special powers.

The French Council of the Republic approves of the four treaties on German rearmament and the Saar.

Mottete zur Opferung, zür das ganze Kirchenjahr for chorus by Ernst Krenek (54) is performed for the first time, in Basel.

From a Lost Continent for chorus and orchestra by William Grant Still (59) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Flemish Belgian Radio, originating in Brussels.  See 22 May 1953.

Three Pieces After Blake for soprano and orchestra by Ulysses Kay (38) is performed for the first time, at Cooper Union, New York.

Music for Orchestra op.50 by Wallingford Riegger (69) is performed for the first time, in New York.

28 March 1955 Sonata for violin by Peter Sculthorpe (25) is performed for the first time, in Assembly Hall, Melbourne.

The semi-official Buenos Aires daily Democracia attacks the Roman Catholic Church, calling its leadership a “worn-out oligarchy” and an “insidious enemy” of President Juan Perón.

Dirge in Woods for voice and piano by Aaron Copland (54) to words of Meredith, written for Nadia Boulanger (67) on the occasion of her 50th anniversary year as a teacher, is performed publicly for the first time, in Carnegie Hall.

29 March 1955 Rebel Binh Xuyen forces attack Saigon police headquarters.  South Vietnamese army troops are brought into the battle which lasts over three hours.  26 people are killed, 122 injured before a truce is arranged by French Commissioner-General Paul Ely.

Former President of Panama José Ramón Guizado is found guilty by the National Assembly of complicity in the murder of his predecessor, José Antonio Remón.  He is sentenced to six years, eight months in prison.

Eve in the Future, a ballet for magnetic tape by Toru Takemitsu (24), is performed for the first time, in Roppongi Haiyuza, Tokyo.

30 March 1955 The New York World-Telegram & Sun reports that none of the 440,000 children who received the Salk anti-polio serum last year contracted the disease.  A report currently being prepared will declare the vaccine a success.

31 March 1955 East Germany raises tolls on roads approaching West Berlin by eleven times.

1 April 1955 The US Senate ratifies the German treaties, one for sovereignty and one for NATO membership.

2 April 1955 The US government issues exit visas to 76 Chinese students who have been held in the country since the beginning of the Korean War.

4 April 1955 Great Britain signs the Bagdad Pact defense treaty, joining Turkey and Iraq.

Two of the 12 petites pièces très faciles op.208 for piano by Charles Koechlin (†4) are performed for the first time, over the airwaves of BBC Radio 3.

Igor Stravinsky’s (72) Greeting Prelude for orchestra, composed to celebrate the 80th birthday of Pierre Monteux, is performed for the first time, in Boston.

Pensée amicale op.342 for strings by Darius Milhaud (62) is performed for the first time, in Boston.

5 April 1955 Herbert von Karajan is officially named conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.

The governor of Mississippi signs into law a bill providing for fines and jail sentences for white students who attend schools with blacks.

6 April 1955 Sir Anthony Eden replaces Sir Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

8 April 1955 China officially ends its state of war with Germany.

11 April 1955 A plane carrying an Indian crew, seven or eight Chinese journalists, and one North Vietnamese delegate to the Bandung conference crashes off Borneo on a flight from Hong Kong to Djakarta.  China alleges sabotage at Hong Kong by the United States and nationalist agents attempting to assassinate Chinese delegates.  An Indonesian investigation will reveal that a bomb was placed in the wheel well.

12 April 1955 At a press conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the tenth anniversary of the death of Franklin Roosevelt, Dr. Thomas Francis announces that the year-long field trial of the Salk polio vaccine has been successful.

US President Eisenhower approves an agreement to share atomic military information, but not weapons, with the NATO allies.

The Gadfly, a film with music by Dmitri Shostakovich (48), is shown for the first time.

The Saint of Bleecker Street by Gian Carlo Menotti (43) wins the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as Best Musical of the year.

13 April 1955 Prime Minister Faure of France announces his governments decision not to produce atomic weapons.

14 April 1955 Prime Minister Imre Nagy of Hungary is removed from office because he “represents ideas which are controversial to the interest” of the country.

15 April 1955 After a three-day meeting in Moscow, Austrian Chancellor Julius Raab and Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov issue a joint communiqué.  The USSR offers to conclude an Austrian peace treaty with the other three wartime victors.  They agree to the withdrawal of all foreign troops, return of all property, and lenient reparations in return for strict Austrian neutrality.

The Soviet periodical Evening Moscow announces that the Soviet government will develop an earth-orbiting satellite.

US Attorney General Herbert Brownell announces that the government will stop using ex-communists as paid “consultants” but will continue to use them as witnesses in specific cases.

Song for a Spring Festival for chorus by Ralph Vaughan Williams (82) to words of his wife, Ursula Vaughan Williams, is performed for the first time, in Dorking Halls, Dorking the composer conducting.

The first McDonald’s restaurant opens in Des Plaines, Illinois.

18 April 1955 A conference of Asian and African states opens at Bandung, Indonesia attended by 25 countries.  In his opening remarks, President Sukarno first uses the phrase “third world.”

Elements of the Binh Xuyen army fire on South Vietnamese army units in Saigon, two days before the end of the truce asked by Head of State Bao Dai.

András Hegedüs replaces Imre Nagy replaces as Prime Minister of Hungary.

Physical Review receives an article from Albert Ghiorso, Bernard Harvey, Gregory Choppin, Stanley Thompson, and Glenn Seaborg which describes their discovery of element 101, Mendelevium.  It will be published in the June issue.

Albert Einstein dies in Princeton, New Jersey at the age of 76.

19 April 1955 Volkswagen of America, Inc. is established in Englewood, New Jersey.  It will provide the first real competition to the “Big Three” automobile makers in the United States.

Ideas and Transformations no.1 for violin and viola by Kenneth Gaburo (28) is performed for the first time, in Rome.

20 April 1955 Actor Harvey Matusow testifies before a US Senate committee that Roy Cohn, chief counsel of Senator McCarthy’s committee, coached him in his fabrications about Communists in the government.  He said Cohn “tops me and takes it in spades” as a liar.

21 April 1955 Inherit the Wind, a play by Lawrence and Lee, opens at the National Theatre, New York.

22 April 1955 A treaty is signed between China and Indonesia governing the status of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia.

Tunisian leaders sign an agreement with French Prime Minister Edgar Faure in Paris outlining the terms of autonomy in Tunisia.

24 April 1955 The Bandung Conference closes adopting, the Declaration on the Problems of Dependent Peoples and a Declaration on the Promotion of World Peace and Cooperation.

25 April 1955 The Binh Xuyen army threatens a revolt unless South Vietnam’s Head of State, Bao Dai, removes Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem from office.

Primrose, duets for soprano, alto, violin, and piano after Moravian folk poetry by Bohuslav Martinu (64), is performed for the first time, in Brno.

26 April 1955 Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam names Nguyen Ngoc Le head of the National Police force, replacing a Binh Xuyen member.  Street fighting begins again in Saigon between the national army and Binh Xuyen elements.

27 April 1955 Shortly after a 14:30 deadline for Binh Xuyen forces to evacuate Saigon, they send mortar shells onto the grounds of the palace of Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem.  Full scale warfare ensues.

28 April 1955 Aneurin Bevan is readmitted to the Parliamentary Labour Party after he apologizes to the party leadership.

29 April 1955 By dawn, at least 100 people have been killed, 500 injured, and 250 hectares of Saigon have been destroyed by fire.  Later in the day, government forces begin to gain the upper hand against Binh Xuyen rebels.

30 April 1955 Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam convenes a “Revolutionary Committee” of 33 people from 18 political parties in Saigon.  They vote to depose Bao Dai (presently in France) as Head of State and call on Diem to form a new government.

1 May 1955 All publications in China begin using the first set of 57 simplified characters.

Trois psaumes de David op.339 for chorus by Darius Milhaud (62) is performed for the first time, at Stanford University.

2 May 1955 Ex-Communist David Brown testifies that he repeatedly lied in reports he gave the FBI as a paid informer.

Gian Carlo Menotti (43) is awarded the Pulitzer Prize in music for a second time, for The Saint of Bleecker Street. See 27 December 1954. 

5 May 1955 50 provincial and municipal councilors convened by Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon vote to ask Head of State Bao Dai to transfer all powers to Diem.  In a separate meeting, 95 political parties and revolutionary committees vote on a unified program calling for the dismissal of Bao Dai and immediate withdrawal of French troops.

Noon.  The Federal Republic of Germany gains full sovereignty as ratifications of the Paris agreements are deposited in Bonn.  The Western European Union comes into being between Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and West Germany.  The Saarland becomes a European territory supervised by the Western European Union subject to a plebiscite within three months.

Damn Yankees opens at the 46^th Street Theatre, New York.

6 May 1955 10,000 people gather before the cathedral in Buenos Aires to protest government plans to separate church and state.  Forty people are arrested.

7 May 1955 Western European Union foreign ministers meet in Paris for the first time as the WEU Council.  They elect British Foreign Secretary Harold MacMillan as chairman.

8 May 1955 Piano Concerto no.5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos (68) is performed for the first time, in Royal Festival Hall, London.

Canticle of Freedom for chorus and orchestra by Aaron Copland (54) to words of Barbour, is performed for the first time, in Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

9 May 1955 The Federal Republic of Germany is formally admitted to NATO at a council meeting in Paris.  It is the 15^th member of the organization.

10 May 1955 South Vietnamese Prime Minister Bao Dai appoints a new, moderate cabinet.

A Childhood Miracle, an opera by Ned Rorem (31) to words of Stein, is performed for the first time, in Carl Fischer Hall, New York.

11 May 1955 About 20-25 Chinese and US jets battle over water 50 miles southwest of Sinuiju, North Korea.  The US claims it is international waters.  China claims that the US planes violated Chinese airspace earlier.  Both sides claim to down planes.

Giovanni Gronchi replaces Luigi Einaudi as President of Italy.

12 May 1955 In a closed-circuit broadcast from New York to St. Paul, Minnesota, RCA demonstrates a color video-tape recorder.

Three new works by Pauline Oliveros (22) are performed for the first time, at San Francisco State College:  Essay for piano, Fugue for piano, and a Trio for clarinet, horn and bassoon.

13 May 1955 French Prime Minister Edgar Faure announces that his recent talks with US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and British Foreign Secretary Harold MacMillan have produced “total agreement” on Indochina.  What he doesn’t say is that they have decided to back Ngo Dinh Diem.

The Congress of Argentina votes to eliminate religious education in public schools.

The Ruby, an opera by Norman Dello Joio (42) to words of Mass (pseud. Gibson) after Dunsany, is performed for the first time, at Indiana University in Bloomington.  The composer so changed the work of the librettist that he insists it be published under another name.

14 May 1955 A mutual defense treaty between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the USSR, designed to counter NATO, is signed in Warsaw.  It will hereafter be known as the Warsaw Pact.

Ernst Krenek (54) is awarded the City of Vienna Prize of 10,000 schillings.  As he can not be present, his mother receives it for him.

Henry Brant (41) and Irving Fine (40) are awarded grants from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

15 May 1955 The Austrian State Treaty, returning sovereignty to Austria, is signed in Vienna by representatives of France, the USSR, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  Occupation troops are to leave by the end of the year.

17 May 1955 James Agee dies in New York.

La chute des étoiles op.40 for female chorus and piano by Charles Koechlin (†4) to words of Leconte de Lisle is performed publicly for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.  See 15 September 1934.

20 May 1955 A South Vietnamese official announces that France has agreed to remove its troops from Saigon.

The Congress of Argentina votes to disestablish the Roman Catholic Church and subject all religious institutions to taxation.

23 May 1955 Ordination of women as ministers is approved by the  General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the US meeting in Los Angeles.

24 May 1955 China and the USSR announce that the Soviets have removed their forces from Port Arthur (Lüshun) and transferred the naval base to China.

25 May 1955 Hu Feng is expelled from the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Union of Chinese Writers for advocating more literary freedom.

Werner Egk (54) buys a plot of land in Inning, near Munich.

26 May 1955 Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolay Bulganin arrive in Belgrade to patch up differences with Yugoslavia.

General elections in Great Britain result in a victory for the ruling Conservative Party.

27 May 1955 Two of the 15 pièces pour cor et piano op.180/4, 12 by Charles Koechlin (†4) are performed for the first time, in Brussels.

28 May 1955 About 1,000 young people from East Berlin attack a reunion of German war veterans in West Berlin.  They battle police for an hour before being subdued.  20 people are injured.

Part I of Perspektiven, music to an imaginary ballet for two pianos by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (37), is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.  See 2 June 1957.

29 May 1955 Mirage, a song by Charles Ives (†1) to words of Rossetti, is performed for the first time, at the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis.

30 May 1955 Incontri for 24 instruments by Luigi Nono (31) is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.

31 May 1955 China releases to Hong Kong four US air force pilots shot down during the Korean War.

British Queen Elizabeth II declares a state of emergency on the third day of a railroad strike.

The US Supreme Court rules that its 17 May 1954 desegregation decision must be carried out “with all deliberate speed.”  They charge all federal courts to determine if the efforts of local school authorities “constitutes good-faith implementation” of the ruling.

Capriccio for cello and orchestra by Ernst Krenek (54) is performed for the first time, in the Kranichsteiner Musikinstitut, Darmstadt.

Quattro poemi for orchestra by Hans Werner Henze (28) is performed for the first time, in Frankfurt.  The conductor, Leopold Stokowski, has a standing rule that latecomers may not be admitted until the intermission.  Unfortunately for the composer, he arrives late and is not able to hear his piece.

1 June 1955 Klavierstücke V-VIII no.4 by Karlheinz Stockhausen (26) are performed completely for the first time, in Darmstadt.  During the performance talking and giggling begin in the audience, which draws epithets in French from Pierre Boulez (30).  Eventually the battling whistles and applause make it impossible for the music to be heard and Stockhausen grabs the music and stalks off, locking himself in his hotel room.  After considerable effort by Luigi Nono (31) he is lured back to the hall.  The music is restarted, whereupon the entire sequence of events begins again.  The pianist, Marcelle Mercenier, thereupon abandons the performance.  See 21 August 1954.

String Quartet in two movements by Bruno Maderna (35) is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.

2 June 1955 The Belgrade declaration is signed by President Tito of Yugoslavia and Prime Minister Bulganin of the USSR.  It is a manifestation of Soviet-Yugoslav rapprochement and recognition that Yugoslavia may take a “separate road to socialism.”

3 June 1955 France grants internal autonomy to Tunisia in a ceremony in Paris.

4 June 1955 As part of the Austrian State Treaty, 250 Austrians and ethnic Germans arrive in Vienna, having been released by the Soviet Union.  They report “many Americans” are being held in Soviet prisons.

Ite, angeli veloces, a cantata in three parts by Paul Hindemith (59), is performed completely for the first time, in Wuppertal, conducted by the composer.  The three parts are I.  Chant de triomphe du roi David, to words from the Bible, for alto, tenor, chorus, audience, orchestra, and wind orchestra, II.  Custos quid de nocte for tenor, chorus, and orchestra, and III.  Cantique de l’espérance, to words of Claudel, for mezzo-soprano, chorus, audience, orchestra, and wind orchestra.  See 9 July 1953.

7 June 1955 The Soviet government invites West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to Moscow to discuss establishment of relations.

Piano Sonata no.3 by Ned Rorem (31) is performed for the first time, in Foyer de la Musique Contemporaine, Paris.

8 June 1955 The University of Oklahoma drops its ban on black students.

10 June 1955 The British offer of leniency to Mau Mau leaders, made 18 January, is rescinded.

11 June 1955 100,000 Roman Catholics rally in the Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires to celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi (two days late) and in defiance of attacks on the church by President Juan Perón.  They raise the Vatican flag over the Congress building.

12 June 1955 Rioting breaks out in Buenos Aires between Roman Catholics and followers of President Juan Perón.  430 Catholics are arrested today and tomorrow as they seek refuge in the Cathedral and the palace of the Argentine primate.

14 June 1955 The British railroad strike ends after 17 days.

Two monsignors of the Buenos Aires archdiocese are put on a plane bound for Rome, by order of the government.  They are charged with fomenting the riots of 12 June.

At the urging of the American Civil Liberties Union, the US First Army announces it will no longer publish the pamphlet How to Spot a Communist.  Among the clues to membership in the Party are use of certain words, such as colonialism, oppressive, and hootenanny.

Dinga-donga for voice and piano by Heitor Villa-Lobos (68) to his own words is performed for the first time.

15 June 1955 The US government carries out a simulated nuclear attack on Washington.  15,000 government workers, including President Eisenhower, “flee” the capital and move to 31 secret shelters, all within 500 km of the city.

16 June 1955 Three anti-capitalist demonstrations in West Berlin are broken up by police.  127 people are arrested.

The South African Senate approves a government-sponsored bill to pack the Senate.  A two-thirds vote of both houses is needed to remove colored voters from the roles.

Pope Pius XII excommunicates President Juan Perón of Argentina and other government officials involved in the expulsion of two church officials on 14 June.  Within hours the Argentine Navy stages a coup attempt beginning with a bombing attack on the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.  Loyal army units and mobs of irregulars support the government and defeat the coup.  174 people are reported killed, 846 injured.

18 June 1955 Argentine leftist leader Dr. Juan Ingalinella dies in a Rosario police station after being beaten by police.  His body is thrown in the Parana River.

Le Marteau sans Maître for alto and six players by Pierre Boulez (30) to words of Char, is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden.

19 June 1955 The Garden of Peace and Friendship opens in Lidice, Czechoslovakia with thousands of rose bushes donated by 32 countries to commemorate the victims of the wartime atrocity that happened there.

Sonatina for piano by Peter Sculthorpe (26) is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden.

22 June 1955 Two Soviet planes fire on a US reconnaissance plane over the Bering Strait, forcing it to crash land on St. Lawrence Island, a US possession.  Seven of the eleven crewmen are injured.

The Symphony no.1 for alto and orchestra by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (49) to words of Whitman is performed for the first time, in Vienna.  It is a reworking of his Symphonisches Fragment composed in 1936.

23 June 1955 The governor and State Board of Education of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the US decide to continue racial segregation in the public schools into next year.

24 June 1955 New Prince, New Pomp for soprano and chorus, the fourth movement of the Christmas suite Christ’s Nativity by Benjamin Britten (41), is performed for the first time, in Aldeburgh Parish Church.  See 14 June 1991.

25 June 1955 A second group of 190 Austrians arrive in Vienna from the USSR as part of the Austrian State Treaty.  They report dozens of citizens of France, the US, and the UK are in Soviet prisons.

The USSR offers official regret for the 22 June incident, although laying some of the blame with the US, and offers to pay for 50% of the damage.

Incidental music to de Musset’s play Lorenzaccio by Witold Lutoslawski (42) is performed for the first time, in Teatr Polski, Warsaw.

26 June 1955 Lamento, a cantata for soprano and piano by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (49) to words of Gryphius, is performed for the first time, in Schloss Mainau, Konstanz.

Two works for recorders by Benjamin Britten (41) are performed for the first time, in Thorpeness:  Scherzo for recorder quartet and Alpine Suite for recorder trio.

28 June 1955 The US government drops its perjury case against accused communist, Professor Owen Lattimore of Johns Hopkins University.  He was accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy and a Senate committee.

29 June 1955 50,000 people greet the Dalai Lama in Lhasa after a year’s stay in China.

President Juan Perón of Argentina lifts the national State of Siege in effect since the coup attempt of 16 June.

30 June 1955 Irkanda I for violin by Peter Sculthorpe (26) is performed for the first time, in the British Music Society Rooms, Melbourne.

4 July 1955 Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam claims complete victory over the Hoa Hao rebels.

General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Prime Minister Nikolay Bulganin and several other top Soviet officials visit an Independence Day celebration at the US ambassador’s residence in Moscow.  It is the first time senior Soviet officials have visited the residence or attended such an event and is seen as a desire to improve relations.

The Argentine government rescinds its expulsion order on two Vatican officials thrown out of the country on 15 June.

In congressional elections in Mexico, women vote for the first time.

6 July 1955 Antonio Segni replaces Mario Scelba as Prime Minister of Italy.

The US State Department reverses its own decision and issues a passport to Joseph Clark, foreign editor for the Daily Worker, so that he may attend the upcoming summit in Geneva.  They also issue a passport to Martin Kamen, an atomic scientist teaching at Washington University.  Kamen’s passport was taken in 1947 because of alleged communist affiliations.

10 July 1955 Supporters of the Roman Catholic Church denouncing President Perón battle police in front of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.

11 July 1955 The Authentic Anti-Communist Revolutionary Army, organized by Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, enters Costa Rica as punishment for an alleged plot by Costa Rica to assassinate Somoza.  They conduct land and air raids on Costa Rican cities.

The Board of Education for the State of Georgia in the US orders that the salary and license of any teacher be revoked who “supports, encourages, condones, offers to teach or teaches” integrated classes.

12 July 1955 Chamber Concerto for 13 players by Toru Takemitsu (24) is performed for the first time, in Yamaha Hall, Tokyo.

The BBC broadcasts excerpts from Georges Bizet’s (†80) unperformed opera La coupe du roi de Thulé, to words of Gallet and Blau, 86 years after it was composed.  Only fragments of the work are extant.

14 July 1955 Volkswagen introduces the Karmann-Ghia.

A bomb explodes outside a cafe in Casablanca killing six people and injuring 35.  This leads to four days of nationalist riots.  Over fifty people will be killed in the violence.

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia rules that racial segregation on city buses in Columbia, South Carolina is illegal.

To Catch a Thief, a film with sound effects by Vladimir Ussachevsky (43), is shown for the first time, in Hollywood.

15 July 1955 The British Public Health Laboratory Service announces that the Salk polio vaccine is too dangerous for testing.  They are seeking a safer vaccine from milder strains of polio.

President Juan Perón announces the lifting of martial law throughout Argentina.  He then resigns as head of the Perónista party but remains as Head of State.

16 July 1955 Budapest Radio announces that Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty has been moved to a residence  “designated for him by the Board of Bishops” because of his “advanced age and state of health.”

17 July 1955 Arco, Idaho becomes the first town entirely lit by nuclear power.

A grand opening celebration takes place for Disneyland in Anaheim, California for invited guests.  It is televised live on ABC.  The public will be allowed in tomorrow.

18 July 1955 Heads of government of France, the USSR, the UK, and the US meet in Geneva.  They immediately find differences over how to unify Germany.

The first demonstration in the United States of commercial electricity generated by atomic power takes place when electricity from an atomic submarine power plant project is directed into the lines of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation in West Milton, New York.

20 July 1955 A government sponsored demonstration in Saigon against the Armistice Commission turns into a riot.  Demonstrators run amok through two hotels where commission members are staying.  60 people are injured.

21 July 1955 At the Big Four summit in Geneva, US President Eisenhower suggests that the nuclear powers exchange military blueprints and allow air reconnaissance of their installations.  The Soviet Union does not reply.

Gunfire erupts in Buenos Aires between members of the Perónista and Radical parties.  One person is killed.

22 July 1955 Witold Lutoslawski (42) wins the Polish Order of Labor, class 2.

Princeton University announces the appointment of its first African-American professor, Dr. Charles T. Davis.  He is the father of Anthony Davis (4).

23 July 1955 The Big Four summit of heads of government in Geneva concludes.

24 July 1955 How Stands the Glass Around for chorus by Ulysses Kay (38) is performed for the first time, in Weston Playhouse, Weston, Vermont.

25 July 1955 India suspends rail traffic to the Portuguese possession of Goa.  Prime Minister Nehru asks Portugal to close its legation in New Delhi.

Ongoing talks in Geneva between China and the United States are raised from the consular to the ambassadorial level.

Playwright Arthur Miller is cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to disclose alleged communist associates.

26 July 1955 Elections to the Israeli Knesset produce losses for the leading Mapai Party and gains for the opposition Herut.  Mapai will lead the government coalition under David Ben-Gurion.

The third anniversary of the death of Eva Perón is marked by a national day of mourning in Argentina.  Monuments to her honor are vandalized in three cities.

27 July 1955 The first national elections in Malaya take place.  They are won by the Alliance party, which advocates independence within four years.  Only 52 of the 98 seats are contested.  The other 46 are appointed by the British High Commissioner.

As France, the last of the five signatories to act, deposits its ratification of the Austrian State Treaty in Moscow, the Republic of Austria officially regains sovereignty for the first time in 17 years.

Bulgarian fighter planes shoot down an El Al airliner a few kilometers inside their border with Greece and Yugoslavia.  All 58 passengers and crew, mostly non-Israelis, are killed.

29 July 1955 The Bulgarian government expresses “deep regret” for the downing of an Israeli airliner two days ago.  At first they say that anti-aircraft batteries could not identify the plane.

The US government says it plans to launch “small unmanned earth-circling satellites” as part of the International Geophysical Year in 1957-58.

The US government fails for the fourth time to revoke the citizenship of Harry Bridges, leader of the Longshoremen’s Union.  A federal judge in San Francisco rules that it was not proved that Bridges was a communist when he gained US citizenship.

30 July 1955 Israeli investigators visiting the crash site of an El Al airliner in Bulgaria determine that the plane was shot down by fighters, not anti-aircraft fire.

31 July 1955 Hymn to Saint James, a cantata for solo voices, chorus, organ, and instruments by Bohuslav Martinu (64) to words of Danek, is performed for the first time, in Policka.

1 August 1955 China announces the beginning of regular mail traffic between Peking and Hanoi.

Peking Radio announces that eleven US airmen held as spies have been freed and are heading for Hong Kong.

The Board of Education in the US State of Georgia orders that all black teachers who are members of the NAACP must resign by 15 September or have their teaching licenses revoked for life.

2 August 1955 Doctors and dentists in Argentina stage a 24-hour strike to protest police brutality following the 18 June death of leftist leader Dr. Juan Ingalinella in a police station.

Wallace Stevens dies in Hartford, Connecticut.

The name of Aaron Copland (54) is removed from the Security Index.  He is no longer due to be arrested by the US government in case of national emergency.

3 August 1955 The Bulgarian government admits that it was fighters and not anti-aircraft fire which brought down the Israeli airliner 27 July.  They say the pilots involved will be punished and offer to pay restitution to the victims’ relatives.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is first performed in English at the Arts Theatre, London.  About half the audience walks out.

4 August 1955 Eleven US airmen released by China arrive in Hong Kong.

5 August 1955 Eugene William Landy graduates second in his class from the US Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Point, New York.  However, he is denied the customary commission in the Naval Reserve because his mother was a member of the Communist Party from 1937 to 1947.  She says she left the Party largely because her son urged her to.

Dr. Werner von Braun predicts manned space flight “in our time.”

6 August 1955 South Korea demands the removal of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission.

7 August 1955 Colonel John Arnold, one of the eleven US airmen recently released, describes physical and psychological torture during his two-and-a-half years as a prisoner of the Chinese.

6,000 demonstrators block a causeway leading to the island housing the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission in Inchon Harbor.  They unsuccessfully attempt to force their way past US troops guarding the island.  US forces use tear gas to prevent a landing by demonstrators from fishing boats.  The protesters accuse the representatives from Czechoslovakia and Poland of espionage and sabotage.  Violence over the next week causes one death and 144 injuries, including several US soldiers.

Three Sonatas for solo clarinet by George Perle (40) are performed for the first time, in Chicago.

8 August 1955 1,200 representatives from 72 countries and seven UN agencies convene in Geneva for the first International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy.

10 August 1955 Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam rejects an offer by North Vietnam to discuss elections on unification of the country.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, in a nationwide ballot, votes action against any member who refuses to tell a Congressional committee whether or not they are a communist.

11 August 1955 Burhanuddin Harahap replaces Ali Sastroamidjojo as Prime Minister of Indonesia.

Chaudry Mohammad Ali replaces Mohammad Ali Bogra as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Rear Admiral Samuel Toranzo Calderón is sentenced to life in prison charged with leading the failed coup attempt of 16 June against Argentine President Juan Perón.

A symphonic suite from the music to the film On the Waterfront by Leonard Bernstein (36) is performed for the first time, at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts.

12 August 1955 Thomas Mann dies in Zürich.

13 August 1955 Carl Ruggles (79) is stricken with acute appendicitis at his home in Arlington, Vermont.  His wife and neighbors manage to get him to a nearby doctor’s office.  The doctor diagnoses the situation and sends him immediately to the hospital in Bennington for emergency surgery.  He will survive.

15 August 1955 On Independence Day, about 5,000 Indians attempt a non-violent “invasion” of Goa, a Portuguese Territory.  They walk towards police lines.  The police shout warnings and then open fire.  At least 13 Indians are killed, over 100 injured.

About 200 leaders of opposition parties across the political spectrum of Argentina are arrested after an alleged plot to kill President Juan Perón and War Minister Franklin Lucero is uncovered.

16 August 1955 Police open fire on demonstrators in Bombay who try to raise the Indian flag over the Portuguese consulate.

The Parliament of Sudan resolves that all British and Egyptian troops be removed from the country by 15 November.

Widespread arrests of opponents to the regime of President Juan Perón take place in Argentina.

A federal judge refuses to order the US State Department to issue Paul Robeson a passport unless he signs an affidavit declaring he is not a communist.

17 August 1955 One US airman is killed, another seriously injured when North Korean gunners shoot down their unarmed plane in the demilitarized zone.

Irische Legende, an opera by Werner Egk (54) to his own words after Yeats, is performed for the first time, in the Kleines Festspielhaus, Salzburg.

18 August 1955 Pete Seeger, folk singer and stepson of Ruth Crawford Seeger (†1), is called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in New York.  Asked if he is or ever was a communist, he invokes his rights under the Fifth Amendment.

19 August 1955 In Singapore, British Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd announces that his government favors a federation of all British territories in the region:  Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak.

India breaks off diplomatic relations with Portugal over the incident of 15 August.

20 August 1955 Attacks against French installations take place throughout Algeria and Morocco.  European residents and tourists are the main targets.  Over the next three days, over 1,000 people will be killed.

22 August 1955 The Soviet government announces that it will turn over 23 French citizens to French officials in Berlin.  The 23 are currently jailed for war crimes.

Egyptian and Israeli forces begin ten days of fighting over Gaza.

23 August 1955 The British embassy in Cairo announces that all British and Egyptian troops will leave Sudan by 12 November.

French Prime Minister Edgar Faure announces a call up of about ten divisions of reservists for service in Algeria and Morocco.

27 August 1955 The US Air Force clears Airman Stephen Branzovich of charges that he was a security risk because he “maintained a close, continuing association” with his father, who was accused of being a communist.

29 August 1955 Egyptian and Israeli fighters battle over Gaza.  No casualties are reported.

After an all-night meeting, the French cabinet accepts a compromise plan for Morocco worked out by Prime Minister Edgar Faure and Moroccan nationalists.  The present French-sponsored sultan will be removed by “honorable” means.  A regency will be formed.  Nationalist Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef will return from exile in Madagascar to France.  A representative government will be formed by 12 September.

31 August 1955 Speaking to 100,000 of his supporters in Buenos Aires, President Juan Perón of Argentina calls on them to “answer violence with violence…five of them will fall for every one of us.”

Carl Ruggles (79) is discharged from the hospital in Bennington, Vermont, two-and-a-half weeks after an emergency appendectomy.

1 September 1955 Egypt formally accepts a cease-fire in Gaza.  70 people have been killed in ten days of fighting.

The Argentine Congress declares a state of siege giving President Juan Perón sweeping powers.

Blacklisted actor Philip Loeb kills himself in a hotel room in New York with an overdose of barbiturates.

3 September 1955 Almost ten years to the day since he mistakenly killed Anton Webern, Raymond Bell dies in North Carolina, a victim of alcoholism brought on by remorse over the accident.  See 15 September 1945.

4 September 1955 Israel formally accepts a cease-fire in Gaza.

Cantata for a Summer’s Day for chorus, flute, clarinet, and strings by Thea Musgrave (27) to words of Hume and Lindsay is performed for the first time, in Edinburgh.

5 September 1955 27 foreign nationals held in Soviet prisons arrive by train in Berlin and are released to the West.  Among them are eight Belgians, six Dutch, four Danish, four French, two Swiss, two Americans, and one German.

6 September 1955 38 of the 79 truce inspectors from the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission are removed from Korea.

A bomb goes off in the garden of the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki.  When a false rumor spreads that this damaged the birthplace of Kemal Ataturk in Thessaloniki, Turkish mobs carry out an anti-foreign pogrom in Istanbul.  Thousands of buildings, including stores, churches, and schools, are destroyed.  The number of dead and injured is kept secret by the Turkish government.

The Chinese government announces that it will free twelve of the 41 US citizens it holds.

9 September 1955 In a visit by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to Moscow, the USSR and West Germany establish diplomatic relations.  The Soviets agree to release all German prisoners still held by them.  This will be accomplished next month.

10 September 1955 The Chinese government announces that it will free all 41 US citizens it holds.

Hymn and Fuguing Tune no.10 for oboe and strings by Henry Cowell (58) is performed for the first time, in Santa Barbara, California.

11 September 1955 Shouting “Morocco for the Moroccans”, 400 French Air Force reservists refuse to board a train in Paris for Marseille.  The 400 are flown to Morocco tomorrow.

Peter Westergaard (24) marries Barbara Jay.

12 September 1955 President João Café Filho of Brazil endorses a plan to move the nation’s capital from Rio de Janeiro to an unoccupied 800 sq km site in Gioas state.

13 September 1955 Following top level talks in Moscow, the USSR and West Germany agree to establish diplomatic relations.

Symphony no.7 by Darius Milhaud (63) is performed for the first time, in Venice.

Los Angeles records its worst smog attack to date, measuring ozone at .9 parts per million.

14 September 1955 West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer tells a news conference in Moscow that he has personal assurances from Soviet Prime Minister Nikolay Bulganin that all 9,626 Germans held as war criminals will soon be released.

15 September 1955 Three Japanese war criminals serving life sentences are released:  Okinori Kaya, Teiichi Suzuki, and Kingoro Hashimoto.

Swiss inventor George de Mestral receives a U.S. patent for VELCRO®.

16 September 1955 Revolts by Argentine army units break out in four provinces.  Loyalist planes attack two destroyers near Buenos Aires.  They escape to Uruguay where one is interned, the other returns to Argentina after unloading casualties.  Rebel naval forces institute a blockade of the entire coast and capture Bahia Blanca.

17 September 1955 Bey Muhammad al-Amin of Tunis approves the first all-Tunisian cabinet since 1891.

Four of the 15 pièces pour cor et piano op.180/3, 11, 14, 15 by Charles Koechlin (†4) are performed for the first time, in Brussels.

18 September 1955 The USSR announces amnesty for its citizens who collaborated with the Germans during World War II.  Minor collaborators will be released, major collaborators will see their sentences reduced.  Anyone convicted of serving in German military or police units are immediately free.

The Argentine government declares Buenos Aires an open city and appeals to rebel ships not to bombard it.  The Second Army in Mendoza goes over to the rebels.

19 September 1955 A mutual defense treaty is signed in Moscow by representatives of Finland and the USSR.  In it, the Soviet Union agrees to give up its naval base on the Porkkala Peninsula within three months.

President Juan Perón of Argentina is overthrown by the military and is granted asylum aboard a Paraguayan gunboat at Buenos Aires.  A three-man military junta is established, which immediately orders a cease-fire.

20 September 1955 Following three days of top level talks, the USSR abolishes the post of Soviet High Commissioner in East Germany and grants the German Democratic Republic full sovereignty.  This is the formal ending of the Soviet occupation of Germany.

21 September 1955 José Domingo Molina Gómez replaces Juan Domingo Perón Sosa as President of the military government of Argentina.

22 September 1955 The West German government announces that Chancellor Adenauer submitted the following information to Soviet officials during their recent talks:  1,150,000 Germans are listed as missing on the Eastern Front.  Most are presumed dead but letters from prisoners of war lead them to believe that 85,000 were alive in 1950.  They have certain knowledge of 10,000 prisoners today.

Commercial television begins in Britain as the Independent Television Authority begins programming.

23 September 1955 Pakistan joins the Baghdad Pact defense treaty.

After arriving in Buenos Aires from Cordoba, Major General Eduardo A. Lonardi Doucet replaces José Domingo Molina Gómez as President of the military government of Argentina.  He issues a decree dissolving the Congress and arresting all supporters of former President Juan Perón.

An all-white jury in Sumner, Mississippi acquits Roy Bryant and JW Milam of murdering Emmett Till.  The two reportedly killed Till because he whistled at Bryant’s wife.

24 September 1955 While vacationing in Denver, US President Dwight Eisenhower suffers a heart attack.  He is taken to hospital and will survive.

25 September 1955 In a radio speech, French Prime Minister Edgar Faure announces that Algeria will remain an integral part of France.

26 September 1955 Erich Raeder, commander of the German navy during World War II, is released from Spandau Prison by order of the four victorious powers.  He was sentenced to life in prison by the Nuremberg trials but is released for ill health and advanced age.

28 September 1955 The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet approves the release of 9,626 German prisoners from World War II.  8,877 will be freed and returned to their homes.  749 will be turned over to the German governments for prosecution under local laws.

Two songs for Auden and Plomer’s play The Punch Revue by Benjamin Britten (41) are performed for the first time, in London.

29 September 1955 Arthur Miller’s play A View from the Bridge is premiered in the Coronet Theatre, New York.

30 September 1955 Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej replaces Gheorghe Apostol as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Romania.

The UN General Assembly votes 28-27-5 to place the Algerian question on its agenda.

James Dean dies in an automobile accident near Paso Robles, California.

1 October 1955 China creates the Sinkiang-Uigur (Xinjiang-Uygur) Autonomous Region.

French Prime Minister Edgar Faure recalls his delegation to the UN in protest to the action of yesterday.

Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Moulay Arafa of Morocco vacates his throne but does not renounce it.  He flies from Rabat to the international city of Tangier.  Nationalists begin a campaign of guerrilla attacks around Fez.

By a new law, anyone in Sweden over 21, except alcoholics, may now buy unlimited amounts of liquor.  Previously, only married men over 21 or anyone over 25 could buy limited amounts of liquor.

2 October 1955 The French cabinet endorses the actions of Prime Minister Faure in recalling the French delegation to the UN.

Former Argentine President Juan Perón arrives in Paraguay aboard an amphibious plane that took him from the Paraguayan ship where he has been since 21 September.

3 October 1955 Chivu Stoica replaces Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej as Prime Minister of Romania.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover says that Communists do their “most destructive work” through “pseudo-liberals” who “attack everyone and everything related to the exposure of the Communist conspiracy.”

Presidential elections in Brazil are won by Juscelino Kubitscheck of the Social Democratic Party, supported by the Brazilian Labor Party of the late President Vargas.

Mount of Three Lights, a cantata for tenor, baritone, male chorus, and organ by Bohuslav Martinu (64) to words of Morton, the Bible, and traditional Moravian words, is performed for the first time, in Bern.

4 October 1955 Prime Minister Alexandros Leonidou Papagos of Greece dies in Athens of “heart exhaustion after lung hemorrhage.”

Five Love Songs for soprano and guitar by Thea Musgrave (27) to words of Parry is performed for the first time, in Utrecht.

6 October 1955 Konstantinos Georgiou Karamanlis replaces Alexandros Leonidou Papagos as Prime Minister of Greece.

7 October 1955 Floods in Indian and Pakistani Punjab kill about 1,700 people.

About 200 reservists called for duty in Morocco refuse to leave their barracks in Rouen.  Supporters outside attack the barracks in an attempt to free them but are repulsed.  About 170 surrender.  Protests against the use of reservists in North Africa are staged in Paris.

Alan Ginsberg reads Howl in public for the first time, in San Francisco.

Symphony no.6 by Darius Milhaud (63) is performed for the first time, in Boston, the composer conducting.

8 October 1955 The remaining reservist mutineers in Rouen surrender after a second attempt to free them fails.

9 October 1955 A government commission recommends that the internal boundaries of India be redrawn.  Twelve of the 14 major language groups would have their own states and the last vestiges of princely rule abolished.

French Prime Minister Edgar Faure wins a vote of confidence after four Gaullists quit the cabinet.

10 October 1955 The Sibelius Prize is awarded to Paul Hindemith (59) by the Wihuri Foundation.

Concerto for C trumpet and orchestra “Nobody Knows de Trouble I see” by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (37) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of NDR, Hamburg.

Reuben Reuben, a musical play by Marc Blitzstein (50) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in the Shubert Theatre, Boston.  It is a colossal failure.  About 300 people walk out before the end.  There is some enthusiasm in the remaining audience, but this is a minority.  The critics are scathing.

11 October 1955 At a meeting in Rangoon, the government of Laos and Pathet Lao rebels agree on a cease-fire.

14 October 1955 Before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Hollywood, Zero Mostel denies that he is a communist.  When asked if he has ever been a communist, Mostel invokes the Fifth Amendment.

15 October 1955 A four-man council of regency is formed in Rabat.  They declare the Moroccan throne vacant.

An Arnold Bax (†2) memorial room is opened at Cork University by Ralph Vaughan Williams (83).  It houses a number of effects donated by Harriet Cohen.

Luciano Berio’s (29) orchestral work Nones is performed for the first time, in Rome.

The Burgtheater, Vienna reopens having been rebuilt after extensive damage during World War II.

Livre pour quatuor Ia, Ib, II for string quartet by Pierre Boulez (30) is performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen.

Sonata for viola solo by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (37) is performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen.

Music for Piano 21-36; 37-52 by John Cage (43) is performed for the first time, at Clarkstown High School.

16 October 1955 Metastaseis for 61 instruments, the third part of Anastenaria by Iannis Xenakis (33), is performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen.  Also premiered is An Mathilde, a cantata for female voice and orchestra by Luigi Dallapiccola (51) to words of Heine.  See 15 December 2000.

Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs for clarinet and jazz ensemble by Leonard Bernstein (37) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the ABC television network.

17 October 1955 Ernst Krenek’s (55) opera Pallas Athene Weint to his own words, is performed for the first time, at the Hamburg State Opera.

20 October 1955 Jean Cocteau is initiated into the Académie Française declaring, “Since it’s now fashionable to laugh at the conservative French Academy, I have remained a rebel by joining it.”

23 October 1955 A national referendum in South Vietnam, rigged by the United States, gives 98% approval to Ngo  Dinh Diem as Head of State over Bao Dai, presently in France.

An International Statute for the Saar, which would transfer responsibility for its defense from France to the Western European Union, is rejected by the Saarland electorate 68% to 32%.  Pro-German parties call it a victory for union with Germany.

24 October 1955 France and the United States recognize Ngo Dinh Diem as Head of State of South Vietnam.

Leonard Bernstein (37) conducts the New York Philharmonic at United Nations headquarters in a concert celebrating the tenth anniversary of the organization.

26 October 1955 Ngo Dinh Diem declares the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and makes himself provisional president.

Egyptian forces enter Israel and attack a police station near El Auja (Nitzana).  One Israeli is killed, three wounded, two captured.

The film Rebel Without a Cause is released four weeks after the death of its star, James Dean.

28 October 1955 In retaliation for the attack of 26 October, Israeli forces enter the Sinai Desert and attack El Kuntilla, killing ten Egyptian soldiers and capturing 20.

Canti di Liberazione for chorus and orchestra by Luigi Dallapiccola (51) to words of Castellio, the Bible, and St. Augustine is performed for the first time, in Cologne.

Incidental music to Hellman’s (after Anouilh) play The Lark by Leonard Bernstein (37) is performed for the first time, in the Plymouth Theatre, Boston.

Ernest Bloch (75) undergoes prostate surgery in Portland, Oregon.

29 October 1955 A large explosion sinks the Soviet battleship Novorossisk while it is moored at Sevastopol.  Over 600 men are lost.  The cause of the explosion is unknown, but a German mine from World War II is suspected.

Violin Concerto no.1 by Dmitri Shostakovich (49) is performed for the first time, at the Leningrad Philharmonic Bolshoy Hall, with David Oistrakh as soloist.  It is a smashing success and the last movement is repeated.

30 October 1955 In a letter to President René Coty of France, Sidi Mohammed ben Moulay Arafa abdicates the throne of Morocco.  Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef flies from exile in Madagascar to Nice.

31 October 1955 US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announces that henceforth, US passports will be valid for travel to the Soviet Union and all eastern European countries with which the US has diplomatic relations.

The first World Symposium on Applied Solar Energy opens at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Benjamin Britten (41) and Peter Pears depart England on a five-month world tour.

1 November 1955 In a two-hour meeting with French Foreign Minister Antoine Pinay in Paris, Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef reaches agreement with the French government.

2 November 1955 David Ben-Gurion replaces Moshe Sharett as Prime Minister of Israel.

The four-man Council of Regency offers its resignation to Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef in Paris.

Incidental music to Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac by Joaquín Rodrigo (53) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Español, Madrid.

3 November 1955 During the night of 2-3 November fighting breaks out at the El Sabha post in the demilitarized zone between Israel in Egypt.  Apparently, the post changes hands a few times during the battle.  Today, both sides claim control of the site.  Dozens of people are killed.

The Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament chooses the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace for 1954.  Award of the 1955 prize is postponed.

Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley announce that they have crystallized the poliomyelitis virus, the first animal or human-infecting virus so crystallized.

4 November 1955 Credendeum, Article of Faith for orchestra by William Schuman (45) is performed for the first time, in Cincinnati.

5 November 1955 The newly rebuilt Vienna State Opera opens.

The French government formally recognizes Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef as Sultan of Morocco, two years after they banned him to Madagascar.

6 November 1955 Griffelkin, an opera by Lukas Foss (33) to words of Reid after H. Foss, is performed for the first time, in an abridged form over the airwaves of the National Broadcasting Company.  See 6 August 1956.

7 November 1955 In two decisions handed down today, the US Supreme Court bans racial segregation in publicly funded playgrounds, parks, and golf courses.  Governor Marvin Griffith of Georgia announces that his state “will get out of the park business before allowing a breakdown in segregation in the intimacy of the playground.”

8 November 1955 Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Carlos Coimbra da Luz becomes acting President of Brazil, replacing João Café Filho who takes indefinite leave because of a heart attack.

9 November 1955 The UN General Assembly’s Special Political Committee expresses “concern” over the continuing apartheid policies in South Africa.  The South African delegation withdraws from the General Assembly for the rest of the current session.

10 November 1955 The last British troops leave Sudan.

11 November 1955 Acting President Carlos Coimbra da Luz of Brazil is overthrown in a military coup led by Lt. General Henrique Baptista Duffles Teixeira Lott.  The Chamber of Deputies names Senate President Nereu Ramos as acting President.

US President Dwight Eisenhower is released from a hospital in Denver after seven weeks of treatment for a heart attack.

13 November 1955 The last Egyptian troops leave Sudan.

The provisional Argentine government of Eduardo A. Lonardi Doucet is overthrown in a bloodless coup led by Major General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Cilveti.  Aramburu is sworn in as president of a military government.

14 November 1955 While working on West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein (37) reports that the three collaborators have found “a young lyricist named Stephen Sondheim” who he thinks will fit perfectly.  Bernstein originally thought to write the lyrics himself.

Symphony no.6 by Henry Cowell (58) is performed for the first time, in Houston.

15 November 1955 Souvenirs, a ballet by Samuel Barber (45) to a story by Bolender, is performed for the first time, in New York.  See 11 March 1953 and 12 November 1953.

Serious Song, a Lament for strings by Irving Fine (40) is performed for the first time, in Louisville, Kentucky.

16 November 1955 After three weeks of negotiations, the foreign ministers of France, Great Britain, the USSR, and the US end their meeting in Geneva.  They have not reached agreement on any item on their agenda.

Two French planes, with twelve fighter escorts, carry Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef, his two wives, six children, and 20 concubines from Paris to Rabat.

17 November 1955 Zafar Ali Zolghadr fires a pistol at Iranian Prime Minister Hussein Ala in the Shah Mosque in Teheran because “Islamic rules are not being properly carried out.”  The Prime Minister is slightly wounded in the neck.  Zolghadr is subdued by police.

18 November 1955 The Iranian government issues orders for the “extermination” of the Fadayian Islam sect, who it blames for yesterday’s assassination attempt.

Leonard Bernstein (37) receives a telegram from the New York Philharmonic asking him to be guest conductor during the 1956-57 season.  It is his first official appointment from the orchestra since he was blacklisted.

19 November 1955 Rejoicing over the return of Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef turns to violence in several cities throughout Morocco.  14 people are killed and 60 injured.

Twelve by Eleven for eleven players by Gunther Schuller (29) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.

20 November 1955 Hymn to St. Peter op.56a for chorus and organ by Benjamin Britten (41) is performed for the first time, in St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich.

21 November 1955 Leonard Wesley pleads guilty to criminal libel.  He accused White House clerk Thomas Jones of selling secret documents to the Soviet embassy.

22 November 1955 Meeting in Baghdad, the five members of the Baghdad Pact (Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, UK) form the Middle East Treaty Organization and set up a permanent headquarters in that city.

23 November 1955 The Cocos Islands are made a territory of Australia.

Navab Savavi, leader of the Fadayian Islam sect, is arrested by Iranian authorities.  The sect is blamed for the assassination attempt of 17 November.

24 November 1955 By vote of the Brazilian Congress, the country is placed under a state of siege, to take effect tomorrow.

25 November 1955 The UN General Assembly votes to drop the Algeria question in this session.

The US Interstate Commerce Commission rules that all racial segregation on interstate trains and buses will end by 10 January 1956.

Senator Joseph McCarthy calls the Senate Constitutional Rights Subcommittee a “front [for] leftwing organizations…whose chief goal was to torpedo any effective security program.”

Carlos Chávez (56) gives a lecture at the Colegio Nacional on the subject of dodecaphony.  This helps to spread interest in the technique in Mexico and Latin America in general.

Symphony no.6 by Walter Piston (61), commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to celebrate its 75th anniversary, is performed for the first time, in Boston.

26 November 1955 British Governor John Harding declares a state of emergency in Cyprus after weeks of communal violence.

27 November 1955 16:20  Arthur Honegger dies of a thrombosis, in his Paris home, aged 63 years, eight months, and 17 days.  Although very ill since a heart attack in 1947, the composer dies suddenly, in the arms of his wife.

29 November 1955 In view of the decision of the UN General Assembly on 25 November, France returns to the Assembly.

The French National Assembly fails to vote confidence in the government of Prime Minister Edgar Faure.

30 November 1955 The USSR ends its ban on abortions, as long as they are performed in hospitals by qualified personnel.  The ban has been in effect for almost 20 years and is rescinded to cut down on the number of back-room abortions.

French Prime Minister Edgar Faure dissolves the National Assembly and calls new elections.

The new Argentine government dissolves the Perónista Party.

Le château de feu op.338 for chorus and orchestra by Darius Milhaud (63) to words of Cassou is performed for the first time, in Palais Chaillot, Paris.

William Tompkins, assistant Attorney General of the United States, concludes that there is “insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution” of Aaron Copland (55) for his political beliefs.

1 December 1955 In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man.  She is arrested for violating one of Alabama’s apartheid laws.  The case is seen as the beginning of the activist civil rights movement in the United States.

The American Federation of Labor, made up of 109 unions with 10,000,000 members, ratifies the merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

2 December 1955 A funeral in memory of Arthur Honegger takes place at the Temple de l’Oratoire, Paris.  Afterwards, his mortal remains are cremated at Père Lachaise Cemetery.  On the occasion, words are spoken by Jean Cocteau.

Rev. Martin Luther King begins the black boycott of buses in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Congress of Industrial Organizations, made up of 32 unions with 5,700,000 members, ratifies the merger with the American Federation of Labor.

5 December 1955 Foreign Secretary Harold MacMillan tells the House of Commons that the government’s policy on Cyprus has shifted from no self-determination “within the foreseeable future” to self-determination “some time and in certain conditions.”

The Founding Convention of the AFL-CIO opens in New York.  Its first president is George Meany.

6 December 1955 The USSR, the United States, Great Britain, and France formally recognize the independence and neutrality of the Republic of Austria.

Sheng Zong Liang (Bright Sheng) is born in Shanghai.

7 December 1955 Former British Prime Minister Clement Atlee resigns his seat in Parliament and the leadership of the Labour Party.  He is created an Earl by Queen Elizabeth.

Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef becomes French Morocco’s first constitutional Sultan.  He swears in a cabinet responsible to him until a National Assembly can be elected.

The Argentine government returns the Buenos Aires newspaper La Prensa to its former owners, the Paz family.

The Opening of the Springs, a cantata for solo voices, female chorus, and instruments by Bohuslav Martinu to words of Bures, is performed for the first time, in Prague on the eve of the composer’s 65th birthday.

La procession de Vergès, an electronic composition of 2’47” for the film Around and About Joan Miró by Edgar Varèse (71), is performed for the first time, in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

9 December 1955 The West German government declares that any nation who establishes relations with East Germany will forfeit relations with West Germany.

Walter Piston (61) is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Petite Suite op.348 for organ by Darius Milhaud (63) is performed for the first time, at Synagogue Buffault, Paris.

Santa Claus, an opera by Leland C. Smith (30) to words of cummings, is performed for the first time, in Chicago.

10 December 1955 The ruling Liberal/Country coalition of Prime Minister Robert Menzies wins increased majorities in both houses in Australian parliamentary elections.

11 December 1955 Israeli forces raid a Syrian army post near the Sea of Galilee, killing 41.  The attack is carried out against Syrian guns firing on fishing boats on the sea.

Incidental music to Wilde’s play Salomé by Leonard Bernstein (37) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the CBS television network.

12 December 1955 Dr. Otto John, former head of West German Intelligence, who showed up in East Germany last year, is driven past East Berlin guards by Danish journalist Hendrik Bonde-Hendriksen.  He will fly to Bonn tomorrow and claim a tale of kidnapping and interrogation.

13 December 1955 Richard III, a film with music by William Walton (53), is shown for the first time, in Leicester Square Theatre, London.

14 December 1955 16 nations are admitted to the United Nations:  the People’s Republic of Albania, the Republic of Austria, the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the Republic of Finland, the People’s Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Ireland, the Republic of Italy, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Laos, the Kingdom of Libya, the Kingdom of Nepal, the Republic of Portugal, the People’s Republic of Romania and the Spanish State.

Prime Minister Said el-Mufti of Jordan and four other ministers resign over British insistence that Jordan join the Middle East Treaty Organization.  King Hussein appoints pro-western Hazzah Mahali to form a new government.  Riots break out in Amman almost immediately.

15 December 1955 The Veterans’ Administration Office in Newark, New Jersey informs James Kutcher, who lost both legs fighting in World War II, that it is suspending his $329 per month disability pension because he admits to being a member of the Socialist Workers Party.

Alagoana, Caprichos Brasileiros, a ballet by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (37), is staged for the first time, in Städtische Bühnen Essen.  See 21 November 1953.

16 December 1955 Three Japanese war criminals serving life sentences, Naoki Hoshino, Koichi Kido and Hiroshi Oshima, are released.

17 December 1955 A general strike takes place in Amman against joining the Middle East Treaty Organization.

18 December 1955 In elections in the Saarland, three pro-Germany parties win 33 of 50 seats.  A new government will be formed to prepare unification with Germany.

Hymn of Zrínyi, for baritone solo and chorus by Zoltán Kodály (73), is performed for the first time, in Budapest.  The audience requires the entire work to be repeated.

19 December 1955 Anti-METO mobs storm the Turkish consulate in East Jerusalem.  King Hussein dissolves Parliament and calls for new elections to decide the issue.

Pavana Real, a ballet by Joaquín Rodrigo (54) to a story by Victoria Kamhi (Sra. Rodrigo), is performed for the first time, in the Gran Teatro del Liceo, Barcelona.

20 December 1955 Sonata for four horns by Michael Tippett (50) is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.

21 December 1955 Saltanat, a film with music by Aram Khachaturian (52), is released.

22 December 1955 The Parliament of Sudan announces its support for declaring independence on 1 January as called for by Prime Minister Ismail al-Azhari.  This negates an Egyptian plan to hold a plebiscite in early 1956.

23 December 1955 Dr. Otto John, former head of West German intelligence, is arrested on “strong suspicions” of treason following his going to East Germany and subsequently returning.

27 December 1955 The Internal Security Subcommittee of the US Senate issues a book designed to inform the public about communism.  It says communism is not a result of “inequalities under our social system.”  Actually, it is directed by “mission-minded intellectuals,” neurotics and others psychologically deformed, “anyone with an axe to grind…adventurous spirits who thrive on the …conspiratorial atmosphere.”  It lists a number of “communist front” organizations and their sponsors, including WEB DuBois, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Linus Pauling, Paul Robeson, and IF Stone.

30 December 1955 136 Perónistas and Communists are arrested and imprisoned or exiled by the new military government of Argentina.

Incidental music to Shakespeare’s play Macbeth by Aram Khachaturian (52) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.

©2004-2011 Paul Scharfenberger

21 September 2011