1955

This was one of the best and worst years in recent-ish history. In March you have Claudette Colvin who refused to give her seat up to a white man on the bus. She was dragged from the bus, handcuffed, attacked and taken to the local police station. A good day for African-American civil rights in the USA. Probably a bad day for Ms Colvin.

In April, Churchill resigned from his position as PM due to ill health (as far as I remember) and never returned to politics.

Later in April, Imre Nagy was removed from his position as leader of Hungary on the grounds that he was too moderate a Communist. Of course he would later go on to lead the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and watch dumbfounded as the USA choked and refused to help despite their pledge to help fight the expansion of Communism from within its existing boundaries. Nagy was later executed.

In October, Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic. America seems to like the guy, he's a Roman Catholic, he denounces Communism and doesn't afraid of anything. Eisenhower pledged his support for the repressing of Communism, effectively supporting the death of 12,000 suspected communists. Of course this wasn't going to last and without going into detail, November 1st: the Vietnam War begins between the North and the South.

Fortunately, Bo Diddley made his TV debut a few days later (according to Wikipedia) and all was saved in the name of Rock 'n' Roll.

The End.