* 1955 – Rob Epstein, American filmmaker and journalist

* 1955 – Keith Hunter Jesperson, Canadian serial killer

* 1955 – Cathy Jones, Canadian comedian

* 1955 – Blind Mississippi Morris, American blues musician

* 1955 – Michael Rooker, American actor

* 1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.

* 1955 – Nicolas Hulot, French journalist

* 1955 – Dimitra Liani, Greek air hostess, widow of Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou

* 1955 – Laura Fygi, Dutch singer

* 1955 – Robert Richardson, American cinematographer

* 1955 – Diana Scarwid, American actress

* 1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.

* 1868 – Paul Claudel, French poet ( d. 1955 )

* 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1955 )

* 1955 – Gregory Bryant-Bey, American convicted murderer ( d. 2008 )

* 1955 – Rusty Magee, American composer ( d. 2003 )

* 1955 – Peter Schmuck, American columnist

* 1955 – John E. Sweeney, American politician

* 1955 – Keith Ahlers, English race car driver

* 1955 – Hideo Fukuyama, Japanese race car driver

* 1955 – Paul Greengrass, English director

* 1865 – John Radecki, Australian artist ( d. 1955 )

* 1955 – Caleb Carr, American author and historian

* 1955 – Tim Dunigan, American actor

* 1955 – Tony Godden, English footballer

* 1955 – Gerd Müller, German politician

* 1955 – Marion Caspers-Merk, German politician

* 1955 – Werner Stocker, German actor ( d. 1993 )

* 1890 – Rudolf Schlichter, German artist and writer ( d. 1955 )

* 1955 – Christian Sackewitz, German footballer

Rearmament and the founding of the Bundeswehr in 1955 brought with it a wave of war films which tended to depict the ordinary German soldiers of World War II as brave and apolitical.

123 German movies were produced in 1955, only 65 in 1965.

* 1879 – Carl Ramsauer, German physicist ( d. 1955 )

In 1955, the USSR declared the Soviet occupation zone – the historic middle portion of Germany – to be a sovereign state named the Deutsche Demokratische Republik ( German Democratic Republic, established in 1949 ), while the Red Army and the Western Allies ' occupation forces remained in place under the tripartite Potsdam Agreement ( 1945 ) which established the Allied Occupation of Germany.

* 1955 – Edmund Malura, German footballer

* 1955 – Michael Schenker, German guitarist ( UFO )

Adenauer with the mother of a German POW brought home in 1955 from the Soviet Union, due to Adenauer's visit to Moscow

* Helped secure the release of the last German prisoners of war in 1955, ( see Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union ).

* 1955 – Nina Hagen, German singer and actress

* 1955 – Axel Zwingenberger, German pianist and songwriter

* 1993 – Werner Stocker, German actor ( b. 1955 )

* 1885 – Hermann Weyl, German mathematician ( d. 1955 )

* 1955 – Michael Zimmer, German footballer

* 1955 – Thomas Grunenberg, German footballer

* 1955 – Kurt Niedermayer, German footballer

* 1955 – Detlef Ultsch, German judoka

* 1955 – Matthias Jabs, German guitarist ( Scorpions )

* 1895 – Engelbert Zaschka, German engineer, designer, and inventor, invented the Human-powered aircraft ( d. 1955 )

* 1955 – Andy Bechtolsheim, German engineer, co-founder of Sun Microsystems