Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
Years:	1953 1954 1955 - 1956 - 1957 1958 1959

1956 by topic:

Subject:      Archaeology - Architecture - Art

Aviation - Film - Literature (Poetry) Meteorology - Music (Country) Rail transport - Radio - Science - Spaceflight

Sports - Television

Countries:      Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Malaysia - New Zealand - Norway - Pakistan - Singapore South Africa - Soviet Union - UK - Zimbabwe

Leaders:    Sovereign states - State leaders

Religious leaders - Law

Categories: Births - Deaths - Works - Introductions

Establishments - Disestablishments - Awards v • d • e

Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1956

January

• January 1
  • End of Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in Sudan.
  • 124 die in a crash at a shrine in Niigata, Japan.
• January 8 - Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
• January 16 - Gamal Abdal Nasser, leader of Egypt, vows to reconquer Palestine.
• January 25-26 - Finnish troops re-occupy Porkkala after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4.
• January 26 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

A 1956 Chevrolet

February

• February 11 - British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurfaced in the Soviet Union after being missing for five years.
• February 16 - The film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, is released.
• February 22 - Elvis Presley enters the United States music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel."
• February 23 - Norma Jean Mortenson legally changes her name to Marilyn Monroe.
• February 25 - Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality."

March

• March 1 - the International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
• March 2 - Morocco declares its independence from France.
• March 9 - British deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus to Seychelles.
• March 11 - Laurence Olivier's film, Richard III, adapted from Shakespeare's play, premieres in the U.S. in theatres and on NBC television on the same day, as an afternoon matinee. It is one of the first such experiments of its kind. Olivier is later nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
• March 12
  • 96 U.S. Congressmen sign the Southern Manifesto, a protest against the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Brown vs. Board of Education) desegregating public education.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 500 for the first time rising 2.40 points, or 0.48%, to 500.24.
• March 13 - Elvis Presley releases his first Gold Album titled Elvis Presley.
• March 15 - The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.
• March 19 - At age 48, Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren contests his last match in Rotterdam.
• March 20 - Tunisia gains independence from France.
• March 21 - 28th Academy Awards ceremony
• March 23 - Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic and a national holiday is observed in the country including the former East Pakistan state.

April

• April 7 - Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
• April 9 - Habib Bourgiba is elected prime minister of Tunisia. ^{Confirmation needed}
• April 14 - Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago by Ampex. It was the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as 2" Quadruplex.
• April 17 - Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated Chew Valley Lake.
• April 18 - Maria Desylla-Kapodistria is elected mayor of Corfu and becomes the first female mayor in Greece.
• April 19
  • British diver Lionel Crabb dives into the Portsmouth harbor to investigate visiting Soviet cruiser and vanishes.
  • Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
• April 21
  • First daughter Margaret Truman married Clifton Daniel.

May

• May 2 - The Methodist Church in America decides at its General Conference to grant women full ordained clergy status. It also calls for an end to segregation in the denomination.
• May 8
  • Austria and Israel form diplomatic relations. ^{Confirmation needed}
  • Constitutional union between Indonesia and Netherlands is dissolved.
  • John Osborne's Look Back in Anger opened at the Royal Court Theatre, changing the scope of theatrical and other forms of drama in England.
• May 9 - First ascent of Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world.
• May 18 - First ascent of Lhotse (main), fourth highest mountain.
• May 23 - French minister Pierre Mendès-France resigns due to his government's policy on Algeria.
• May 24 - The first Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast from Lugano, Switzerland. The winning song is Refrain by Lys Assia (music by Géo Voumard, text by Émile Gardaz).

June

• June 1 - Vyacheslav Molotov resigns as a foreign minister of Soviet Union; he later becomes ambassador in Mongolia.
• June 3 - British Rail renamed 'Third Class' passenger facilities as 'Second Class' (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).
• June 6 - In Singapore, chief minister David Marshall resigns after breakdown of talks about internal self government in London.
• June 8 - General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", first snooze alarm clock ever. ^{Confirmation needed}
• June 10 - 1956 Summer Olympics: Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden. (All other events held in November in Melbourne, Australia.)
• June 14 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the phrase "under God" should be added to the Pledge of Allegiance. The Flag of the United States Army was formally dedicated.^{citation needed}
• June 15 - Eindhoven University of Technology is founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
• June 18 - Last foreign troops leave Egypt.
• June 23 - Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes the second president of Egypt.
• June 28
  • MP Sydney Silverman's bill for abolition of death penalty passes the British House of Commons.
  • Labour riots at Poznań, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at crowd that protests high prices - 53 dead.
  • The film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner, is released only a few months after the film version of R&H's Carousel.
• June 29
  • Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller.
  • President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act, creating the Interstate Highway System
• June 30 - A TWA Lockheed Constellation and United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collide in mid-air over the Grand Canyon in Arizona and crash. All 128 people aboard the two aircraft are killed in the disaster. The accident prompts tighter air traffic control to be implemented in the United States.

July

• July 2 A lab experiment at Sylvania Electric Products results in an explosion.
• July 8 - First ascent of Gasherbrum II.
• July 10 - British House of Lords defeats the abolition of death penalty.
• July 24 - At New York City's Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together which started on July 25, 1946.
• July 25 - 72 kilometers (45 miles) south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm in heavy fog, killing 51.
• July 26 - Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
• July 30 - A Joint Resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing "In God We Trust" as the U.S. national motto.
• July 31 - Cricket: Jim Laker sets extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test of taking nineteen wickets in a first class match (the previous best was seventeen).

August

• Exhibition This Is Tomorrow at Whitechapel Art Gallery.
• August 6 - After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network has its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena.
• August 8 - 262 miners die in fire in a coal mine in Marcinelle, Belgium.
• August 11 - Jackson Pollock dies after crashing his car, aged 44.
• August 17 - West Germany bans Communist Party of Germany.

September

• September 9 - Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.
• September 13 - The Hard Disk Drive is invented by an IBM team led by Reynold B. Johnson.
• September 16 - Television broadcasting commences in Australia.
• September 21 - Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García is assassinated.
• September 25 - Submarine Transatlantic telephone cable opened.

October

• October 8 - Baseball pitcher Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the first, and only perfect game in World Series history in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yogi Berra caught the game. Dale Mitchell was the final out. The New York Yankees won the series. Larsen was named series MVP.
• October 10 - Finland joins UNESCO.
• October 14 - Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Indian Untouchable leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 followers. See Neo-Buddhism.
• October 15
  • RAF retires its last Lancaster bomber.
  • Fidel Castro and Che Guevara depart from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, enroute to Santiago de Cuba aboard the yacht Granma with 82 men. After the ship passes a storm, it lands at Belici, Cuba, on December 2
• October 17 - The 13 years old Bobby Fischer beats GM Donald Byrne in the NY Rosenwald chess tournament (The Game of the Century).
• October 23 - Hungarian revolution against the pro-Soviet government. Soviet Union intervenes. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact.
• October 26 - Red Army troops invade Hungary.
• October 29
  • The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuts on NBC-TV.
  • Suez Crisis begins: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.
  • Tangier Protocol signed: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.
  • The first hard disk drive (5MB) is born at IBM.
• October 31 - Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

November

• November 1 - the States Reorganisation Act of India reformed the boundaries and names of Indian states.
• November 3 - MGM's screen classic, The Wizard of Oz, is shown on television for the first time by CBS, as the final installment of their Ford Star Jubilee.
• November 4 - 1956 Hungarian Revolution: more Soviet troops invade Hungary to crush a revolt that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
• November 6 - U.S. presidential election, 1956: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower is reelected by defeating Democrat challenger Adlai E. Stevenson in a rematch of their contest four years earlier.
• November 6 - Enoch A. Holtwick defeated as presidential candidate of Prohibition Party.
• November 7 - Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Arab lands immediately.
• November 14 - Fighting ends in Hungary. ^{Confirmation needed}
• November 15 - Middle East Technical University founded in Ankara, Turkey.
• November 16 - Israel is denounced by UN ^{Confirmation needed}
• November 20 - In Yugoslavia, former prime minister Milovan Djilas is arrested after he criticized Josip Broz Tito.
• November 22 - Beginning of the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
• November 23 - Suez Crisis causes petrol rationing in Britain.^[1]

December

• December 2
  • Fidel Castro and his followers land on Cuba in the boat Granma.
  • A pipe bomb explodes at a movie theater in Brooklyn (work of George Metesky), injuring six people.^{Confirmation needed}
• December 5 - Rose Heilbron becomes Britain's first female judge.
• December 9 - Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 crashes into a mountain in British Columbia. All 62 people on board die, making this one of the worst airline crashes in the world at that date.
• December 12 - Japan becomes member of the United Nations.
• December 18 - To Tell The Truth debuts on CBS-TV.
• December 19 - John Bodkin Adams arrested for the murder of two patients in Eastbourne, Great Britain.
• December 23 - British and French troops leave Suez Canal region.
• December 31 - Bob Barker makes his TV debut as host of the Game Show Truth or Consequences.

Undated

• Minamata disease is discovered.
• Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada, Toronto section

Ongoing

• Cold War

Births

January-February

• January 1
  • Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (d. 2000)
  • Kōji Yakusho, Japanese actor
• January 3 - Mel Gibson, Australian actor and director
• January 4 - Bernard Sumner, British guitarist (Joy Division and New Order)
• January 5 - Chen Kenichi, Japan-born Chinese chef
• January 7 - David Caruso, American actor
• January 9 - Imelda Staunton, British actress
• January 10 - Shawn Colvin, American singer
• January 14 Ben Heppner, Canadian tenor
• January 16 - Martin Jol, Dutch football manager
• January 17 - Paul Young, English musician
• January 20 - Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst
• January 21 - Geena Davis, American actress
• January 24 - Lounès Matoub, a famous Berber Kabyle singer
• January 25 - Bronwyn Pike, Australian politician
• January 27 - Mimi Rogers, American actress
• January 31 - Johnny Rotten, British singer (Sex Pistols)
• February 1 - Mike Kitchen, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• February 3 - Nathan Lane, American actor
• February 11
  • Didier Lockwood, French jazz violinist
  • Catherine Hickland, American actress
• February 12
  • Brian Robertson, British guitarist (Thin Lizzy, Wild Horses, and Motörhead)
  • Ultan Quigley, Irish poet, playwright and polemecist
• February 13
  • Peter Hook, British bassist (Joy Division and New Order)
  • Yiannis Kouros, Greek-Australian ultramarathoner
  • Paul Stojanovich, American television producer
• February 14 - Tom Burlinson, Australian actor
• February 15 - Desmond Haynes, West Indian cricketer
• February 18 - Thomas Gradin, Swedish hockey player
• February 19 - Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• February 24
  • Judith Butler, Prominent American philosopher
  • Paula Zahn, American television journalist
• February 25 - Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer (d. 1995)
• February 26 - Keisuke Kuwata, Japanese musician
• February 28 - Jimmy Nicholl, Canadian-born footballer
• February 29
  • Bob Speller, Canadian politician
  • Aileen Carol Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)

March-April

• March 1 - Tim Daly, American actor
• March 11 - Rob Paulsen, American voice actor
• March 12 - Steve Harris, British bass player, founding member of Iron Maiden
• March 19 - Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician
• March 21 - Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner
• March 23 - José Manuel Barroso, Prime-minister of Portugal
• March 24 - Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft
• April 3
  • Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (d. 1996)
  • Boris Miljkovic, Serbian TV & theatre director and video artist
• April 4
  • Kerry Chikarovski, Australian politician
  • David E. Kelley, American writer and television producer
• April 6 - Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer
• April 12
  • Andy Garcia, American actor
  • Yasuo Tanaka, Japanese politician, novelist
• April 13 - Peter 'Possum' Bourne, New Zealand rally car driver (d. 2003)
• April 14 - Barbara Bonney, American soprano
• April 16
  • David M. Brown, astronaut (d. 2003)
  • Lise-Marie Morerod, Swiss skier
• April 19 - Sue Barker, British tennis player and television presenter
• April 21 - Phillip Longman, American demographer
• April 23 - Judy Davis, Australian actress
• April 26 - Koo Stark, British actress
• April 28
  • Jimmy Barnes, Australian musician
  • Paul Phillips, American conductor-composer
• April 30 - Lars von Trier, Danish film director

May-June

• May 1 - Alexander Ivanov, chess Grandmaster
• May 4
  • David Guterson, American writer
  • Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper
• May 6 - Vladimir Lisin, Russian oligarch
• May 7
  • Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
  • Jean Lapierre, Canadian politician and television host
• May 10 - Vladislav Nikolayevich Listyev, Russian journalist (d. 1995).
• May 11 - Andrew Hidalgo, American entrepreneur
• May 13
  • Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian guru
  • Steve Blackwood, American actor and musician
• May 15
  • Dan Patrick, American sports commentator
  • Kjartan Poskitt, English author
• May 17
  • Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer
  • Bob Saget, American actor
• May 20 - Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian author
• May 23
  • Buck Showalter, baseball player and manager
  • Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician
• May 24 - Michael Jackson, Irish Anglican bishop
• May 28 - Jerry Douglas, American dobro player
• June 6 - Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player
• June 9 - Patricia Cornwell, American novelist
• June 10 - Georg Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg, head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
• June 11 - Joe Montana, American football player
• June 20 - Cho Chikun, Korean professional Go player
• June 23
  • Glenn Danzig, American musician (Danzig)
  • Randy Jackson, American musician
• June 25 - Boris Trajkovski, President of the Republic of Macedonia (d. 2004)
• June 26 - Chris Isaak, American musician
• June 27 - Heiner Dopp, German field hockey player
• June 28 - Noel Mugavin, Australian Rules Football player
• June 30 - Ronald Winans, American musician (d. 2005)

July-August

• July 2 - Jerry Hall, American model and actress
• July 3 - Rick Ducommun, Canadian actor and comedian
• July 5 - Sheila Walsh, Scottish musician
• July 9 - Tom Hanks, American actor
• July 11 - Sela Ward, American actress
• July 12 - Sandi Patty, American Christian musician
• July 14
  • Vladimir Kulich, Czech actor
  • King Diamond, Danish heavy metal musician
• July 15
  • Ian Curtis, British musician (Joy Division) (d. 1980)
  • Barry Melrose, Canadian hockey player, coach, and commentator
  • Marky Ramone American drummer (The Ramones)
• July 16 - Tony Kushner, American playwright
• July 18 - Sheila Aldridge, American singer, The Aldridge Sisters
• July 20 - Thomas Nkono, Cameroonian footballer
• July 24 - Pat Finn, American game show host and producer
• July 26 - Andy Goldsworthy, British sculptor and photographer
• July 30 - Soraida Martinez, American painter, Creator of Verdadism
• July 31
  • Michael Biehn, American actor
  • Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts
• August 1 - Steve Green, American musician
• August 5 - Maureen McCormick, American actress
• August 14 - Rusty Wallace, American race car driver
• August 20 - Joan Allen, American actress
• August 21
  • Kim Cattrall, Canadian actress
  • Anselmo Feleppa, clothes designer
• August 22 - Paul Molitor, baseball player
• August 23
  • Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)
  • Arabella Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, stillborn
• August 24 - John Culberson, American politician
• August 26 - Mark Mangino, American football coach
• August 29 - Mark Morris, American choreographer
• August 31 - Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer

September-October

• September 1 - Bernie Wagenblast, American editor and broadcaster
• September 2 - Angelo Fusco, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
• September 3 - Pat McGeown, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
• September 11 - Phil Bissett, American politician
• September 12
  • Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong actor (d. 2003)
  • September 12 - Ricky Rudd, American race car driver
• September 14
  • Kostas Karamanlis, Greek politician
  • Ray Wilkins, English footballer and coach
• September 16
  • Mickey Rourke, American actor
  • David Copperfield, American illusionist
• September 17 - Brian Andreas, American writer, sculptor, painter and publisher.
• September 20 - Gary Cole, American actor
• September 21 - Jack Givens, American basketball player
• September 24 - Gregory Peter Panos, American futurist, writer, inventor, virtual reality expert, human simulation visionary
• September 25 - Jamie Hyneman, Mythbusters co-host
• September 26 - Linda Hamilton, American actress
• September 29
  • Sebastian Coe, British athlete, co-ordinator of London 2012 Olympic Games
  • Kenneth Newby, Canadian Media Artist
• October 8 - Stephanie Zimbalist, American actress
• October 10 - Amanda Burton, Irish actress
• October 11 - Nicanor Duarte Frutos, President of Paraguay
• October 17 - Mae Jemison, astronaut
• October 18 - Martina Navratilova, Czech-born tennis player
• October 19 - Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (d. 2003)
• October 23 - Dwight Yoakam, country singer/musician and actor
• October 27 - Jaq D. Hawkins, British author, occultist and lecturer
• October 28 - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian president

November-December

• November 4 - Jordan Rudess, American musician (Dream Theater)
• November 8 - Steven Miller, American record producer
• November 10 - Mohsen Badawi, Entrepreneur, political activist and writer
• November 14 - Avi Cohen, Israeli football player
• November 18
  • Noel Brotherston, Irish footballer (d. 1995)
  • Warren Moon, American football player
• November 20 - Bo Derek, American actress
• November 23
  • Shane Gould, Australian swimmer
  • Nikolay Sidorov, former Soviet athlete, winner of the gold medal in the 4x100 m relay at the 1980 Summer Olympics.
• November 26 - Dale Jarrett, American race car driver
• November 27 - William Fichtner, American actor
• November 28 - Lucy Gutteridge, British actress
• November 29