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1956
From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
| 1956 by topic: |
| Arts |
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature
Music (Country, UK) - Television - Home video |
| Science and technology |
Archaeology - Aviation
Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science |
| By country |
Australia - Canada - France - Germany - India
Ireland - Malaysia - Mexico - New Zealand - Pakistan
Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe |
| Other topics |
| Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Sovereign states - Religious leaders |
| Birth and death categories |
| Births - Deaths |
| Establishments and disestablishments categories |
| Establishments - Disestablishments |
| Works category |
| Works |
1956 in other calendars
| Gregorian calendar |
1956
MCMLVI |
| Ab urbe condita |
2709 |
| Armenian calendar |
1405
ԹՎ ՌՆԵ |
| Chinese calendar |
4652 – 4653
乙未 – 丙申 |
| Ethiopian calendar |
1948 – 1949 |
| Hebrew calendar |
5716 – 5717 |
| Hindu calendars |
|
| - Vikram Samvat |
2011 – 2012 |
| - Shaka Samvat |
1878 – 1879 |
| - Kali Yuga |
5057 – 5058 |
| Iranian calendar |
1334 – 1335 |
| Islamic calendar |
1376 – 1377 |
1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January
February
- February 22 - Elvis Presley enters the United States music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel."
- February 23 - 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 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.
- 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 15 - 2,000th anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar
- March 19 - At age 48, Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren contests his last match in Rotterdam.
- March 20 - Tunisia gains independence from France.
- March 23 - Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic and a national holiday is observed in the country included 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 19 - British diver Lionel Crabb dives into the Portsmouth harbor to investigate visiting Soviet cruiser and vanishes.
- April 19 - Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
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
- May 8 - Constitutional union between Indonesia and Netherlands is dissolved.
- May 9 - First ascent of Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world.
- May 18 - First ascent of Lhotse (main), fourth highest mountain.
- May 21 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
- 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
- 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.
- June 28 - Labour riots at Poznań, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at crowd that protests high prices - 53 dead.
- June 29 - Actress Marilyn Monroe marries the playwright Arthur Miller.
- June 29 - 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 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 - 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 - 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 17 - West Germany bans Communist Party of Germany
September
- September 21 Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia is hit by fire from the weapon of a single gun man Rigoberto Lopez Perez during a ball at the House of the Official Workers Union in León -second largest city of Nicaragua. Somoza had been in power since 1936. He was known to have ordered the assassination of guerrilla leader Augusto César Sandino in 1934. Somoza died later on September 29. His son Luis Somoza took over power since he was ruling head of the parliament.
- September 25 - Submarine Transatlantic telephone cable opened
October
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 (1939 film), is shown on television for the first time by CBS.
- 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.Confirmation needed
December
- December 2 - Fidel Castro and his followers land on Cuba in the boat Granma.
- December 2 - 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 12 - Japan becomes member of the United Nations.
- December 23 - British and French troops leave Suez Canal region
Unknown date
- Eindhoven University of Technology founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Minamata disease discovered
- Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada, Toronto section (who have their own site)
Births
January
- January 1 - Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (d. 2000)
- January 3 - Mel Gibson, Australian actor and director
- January 4 - Bernard Sumner, British guitarist (Joy Division and New Order)
- January 5 - Chen Kenichi, Japanese 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 17 - Steve Harvey, American actor
- January 20 - Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst
- January 21 - Geena Davis, American actress
- January 27 - Mimi Rogers, American actress
- January 31 - Johnny Rotten, British singer (Sex Pistols)
February
- February 3 - Nathan Lane, American actor
- February 11 - Didier Lockwood, French jazz violinist
- February 13 - Peter Hook, British bassist (Joy Division and New Order)
- February 13 - Yiannis Kouros, Greek-Australian ultramarathoner
- 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 - 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
- February 29 - Aileen Carol Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
March
- March 11 - Rob Paulsen, American voice actor
- March 12 - Steve Harris, British bass player, founding member of Iron Maiden
- March 21 - Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner
- March 23 - José Manuel Durão Barroso, Prime-minister of Portugal
- March 24 - Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft
April
- April 3 - Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian
- April 4 - Kerry Chikarovski, Australian politician
- April 4 - David E. Kelley, American writer and television producer
- April 6 - Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer
- April 12 - Andy Garcia, American actor
- April 13 - Peter 'Possum' Bourne, New Zealand rally car driver (d. 2003)
- April 13 - Alison Wheeler, British activist
- April 14 - Barbara Bonney, American soprano
- April 16 - David M. Brown, astronaut (d. 2003)
- April 16 - 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
- April 30 - Jorge Chaminé, Portuguese baritone
- April 30 - Lars von Trier, Danish film director
May
- May 4 - David Guterson, American writer
- May 4 - Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper
- May 7 - Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- May 11 - Andrew Hidalgo, American entrepreneur
- May 13 - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian guru
- May 13 - Steve Blackwood, American actor and musician
- May 15 - Dan Patrick, American sportscaster
- May 16 - Olga Korbut, Russian gymnast
- May 17 - Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer
- May 17 - Bob Saget, American actor
- May 20 - Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian author
- May 23 - Buck Showalter, baseball player and manager
- May 23 - Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician
- May 24 - Michael Jackson, Irish Anglican bishop
- May 28 - Jerry Douglas, American dobro player
June
July
- July 2 - Jerry Hall, American model and actress
- July 6 - Casey Sander, American actor
- July 9 - Tom Hanks, American actor
- July 11 - Sela Ward, American actress
- July 14 - King Diamond, Danish heavy metal musician
- July 15 - Ian Curtis, British musician (Joy Division) (d. 1980)
- July 15 - Barry Melrose, Canadian hockey player, coach, and commentator
- July 15 - Marky Ramone American drummer (The Ramones)
- July 16 - Tony Kushner, American playwright
- July 27 - Robert Kirkpatrick, American animator and Jeopardy! contestant
- July 31 - Michael Biehn, American actor
August
September
- September 11 - Phil Bissett, American politician
- September 12 - Ricky Rudd, American race car driver
- September 14 - Costas Caramanlis, Greek politician
- September 14 - Ray Wilkins, English footballer and coach
- September 16 - Mickey Rourke, American actor
- September 16 - David Copperfield, American illusionist
- September 20 - Gary Cole, American actor
- September 21 - Jack Givens, American basketball player
- September 22 - Masayuki Suzuki, Japanese singer (Rats & Star)
- September 26 - Linda Hamilton, American actress
- September 29 - Sebastian Coe, British athlete, co-ordinator of London 2012 Olympic Games
October
November
- November 10 - Mohsen Badawi, Businessman, political activist and writer
- November 18 - Noel Brotherston, Irish footballer (d. 1995)
- November 18 - Warren Moon, American football player
- November 21 - Ed Kaz, American journalist
- November 23 - Shane Gould, Australian swimmer
- November 26 - Dale Jarrett, American race car driver
- November 27 - William Fichtner, American actor
- November 28 - Lucy Gutteridge, British actress
- November 29 - Leo Laporte, American author and television host
December
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