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August 20, 1955

Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

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Headlines from August 20, 1955

CONNECTICUT RAIN AT DISASTER STAGE; Floods Are Called Worst in State's History, With New Blows Facing Hartford CONNECTICUT RAIN AT DISASTER STAGE

By Merrill Folsomspecial To the New York Times

Conn; floods worst in history; crops destroyed, bridges and dams smashed, damage to indus, power and phone lines, rrs, rds; Naugatuck River rampaging at 50 mph; Army ships portable bridges; Gov Ribicoff views damage, directs rescues, appeals to Pres Eisenhower to declare state major disaster area; State Guard mobilized; Army repts $500,000 allocated to Engineers for emergency work, Mass and Conn; Waterbury Mayor Snyder repts; damage put at $150 million; illus

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DELAWARE RISES, MENACES TRENTON; Thousands Flee Low Areas -- Mercer, Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon Hard Hit DELAWARE RISES, MENACES TRENTON

By Unknown Author

NJ; major damage along Delaware River; Gov Meyner proclaims emergencies in 4 counties; all bridges N of Trenton closed, many damaged; last covered bridge across Delaware at Columbia swept away; Bergen and Passaic counties hard hit; beaches declared unsafe; Branchville water supply contaminated; dam burst there; illus

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Notable Births

Agnes Chan

1955Agnes Chan, Hong Kong singer and author[†]

Agnes Miling Kaneko Chan is a Hong-Kong-born Japanese singer, television personality, university professor, essayist and novelist. Since 1998, Chan has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and supports the Japan Committee for UNICEF. In Japan she is professionally known as Agnes Chan (アグネス・チャン), Agnes being her Christian name.

Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

1955Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, English politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster[†]

Janet Anne Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon,, is a British Labour Co-operative Party politician. A former secretary and adviser to Neil Kinnock, Royall was appointed to the House of Lords in 2004 after having stood unsuccessfully to be MEP for The Cotswolds, and to be MP for Ipswich and Ogmore. She also stood to be a member of Gloucestershire County Council.

Historical Events

1955Battle of Philippeville: In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.[†]

The Battle of Philippeville, also known as the Philippeville massacre or the August Offensive, was a series of raids launched on 20 August 1955 on various cities and towns of the Constantine region by FLN insurgents and armed mobs during the Algerian War between France and the Algerian rebels. The raids, which mostly took the form of ethnic riots, resulted in the massacre of several dozens of European settlers, known as pieds-Noirs. The massacres were then followed by reprisals by the French army and pied-noir vigilantes, which resulted in the death of several thousand Muslim Algerians. The events of late August 1955 in the Constantinois region are considered to be a major turning point of the Algerian War.

Historical Context for August 20, 1955

In 1955, the world population was approximately 2,740,213,792 people[†]