December 5, 1955

1955Miyuki Kawanaka, Japanese singer^[†]

Miyuki Kawanaka is a Japanese enka singer. Her singing career spanned over four decades. She married Katsuo Yamada in 1991.

1955Juha Tiainen, Finnish hammer thrower (died 2003)^[†]

Juha Tiainen was a hammer thrower from Finland who won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The same year he achieved his personal best throw, 81.52 metres.

1955The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO.^[†]

The American Federation of Labor was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual support and disappointed in the Knights of Labor. Samuel Gompers was elected the full-time president at its founding convention and was re-elected every year except one until his death in 1924. He became the major spokesperson for the union movement.

1955E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery bus boycott.^[†]

Edgar Daniel Nixon, known as E. D. Nixon, was an American civil rights leader and union organizer in Alabama who played a crucial role in organizing the landmark Montgomery bus boycott there in 1955. The boycott highlighted the issues of segregation in the South, was upheld for more than a year by black residents, and nearly brought the city-owned bus system to bankruptcy. It ended in December 1956, after the United States Supreme Court ruled in the related case, Browder v. Gayle (1956), that the local and state laws were unconstitutional, and ordered the state to end bus segregation.