Japan's National Security Board is reorganized as the Defense Agency, and the Japan Self-Defense Forces are established.
The Nordic Passport Union is extended to allow citizens of the union to live and work in any of the four countries without a residence or work permit.
A North American X-10 plane, GM-19308, c/n 2, on Navaho X-10 flight number 7, develops a fire on board, crashes and burns eight minutes out of Edwards AFB, California.
The United States officially begins using the international unit of the nautical mile, equal to 6,076.11549 ft. or 1,852 metres.
Food rationing in Great Britain ends with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II and nearly a decade after the war's end.
The Singapore-registered cargo ship Cherry Venture is driven aground in a storm at Teewah Beach, Australia, where it remains until scrapped in 2007. The captain and the crew of 24 people and two monkeys survive.
Dewey Phillips of WHBQ (AM) in Memphis is the first radio announcer to broadcast a recording of Elvis Presley. The track "That's All Right" (later pressed as Sun 209) was recorded two days earlier. Upon hearing that his debut record was about to be aired, Presley hid in a movie theater, thinking he would become a laughingstock.
After two years' study of problems that might be encountered in human spaceflight, a joint group - NACA, Air Force, and Navy - meets in Washington, D.C., to discuss the need for a hypersonic research vehicle and to decide on the type of aircraft that could attain these objectives. The NACA proposal was accepted in December 1954, and a formal memorandum of understanding was signed to initiate the X-15 project. Technical direction of the project was assigned to the NACA.
Born:Andre Dawson, American baseball player, in Miami; Neil Tennant, British singer-songwriter and record producer, in North Shields; Yō Yoshimura, Japanese voice actor (d. 1991)
The Panamanian cargo ship San Mardeno runs aground and sinks off Saurashtra, India, resulting in the death of her captain. The remaining 42 crew members are rescued.
The first prototype of the Handley Page Victor bomber is lost when the tail becomes detached during a low-level pass over the runway at Cranfield, UK, causing the aircraft to crash with the loss of the crew.
The maiden flight of the Boeing 367-80 (or Dash 80), prototype of the Boeing 707 series.
Juan Fangio, the Argentine driver for German Grand Prix team Mercedes-Benz, breaks the lap record for the Silverstone Circuit with an average speed of 100.35 miles per hour (161.50 km/h), the previous record being 100.16 miles per hour (161.19 km/h).
France's prime minister, Pierre Mendès France, obtains an assurance from Chinese leader Zhou Enlai, that he will cease to support some of the Viet Minh claims, in the interests of achieving peace in Indochina.
First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference sends French forces to the south, and Vietnamese forces to the north, of a ceasefire line, and calls for elections to decide the government for all of Vietnam by July 1956. Failure to abide by the terms of the agreement leads to the establishment de facto of regimes of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, and the Vietnam War.
A US Air Force pilot, Lieutenant Floyd C. Nugent, suffers a landing gear problem while flying a Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, so he aims the jet out to sea and ejects. The plane flies on for almost 30 minutes before ditching near the shore.
Born:Vitas Gerulaitis, US tennis player, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1994)
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