1956 is a leap year starting on Sunday. (see link for calendar)

Events

January

• January 1 - End of Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in Sudan.
• January 16 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine
• January 26 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
• January 26 - United Kingdom bans heroin
• January 26 - The last Soviet troops leave the military base in Porkkala, Finland

February

• February 15 - Urho Kekkonen is elected President of Finland
• February 22 - Elvis Presley enters the 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 finalises 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
• March 15 - The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.
• March 20 - Tunisia gains independence from France
• March 23 - Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic.

April

• April 7 - Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
• April 19 - Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco

May

• 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.

June

• June 10 - 1956 Summer Olympics: Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden.
• June 14 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law that places the words "under God" to the United States' Pledge of Allegiance.
• June 18 - Last foreign troops leave Egypt
• June 28 - MP Sydney Silverman's bill for abolition of death penalty passes the British House of Commons
• June 28 - Labour riots at Poznan, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life
• June 29 - Marilyn Monroe marries the playwright Arthur Miller

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 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 United States Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing "In God We Trust" as the U.S. national motto.

August

• August 8 - Fire and explosion kills 263 miners at Marcinelle, Belgium

October

• October 14 - Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Indian Untouchable leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 followers. See Neo-Buddhism.
• October 23 - Hungarian revolution against the communist government. Soviet Union intervenes. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact
• October 26 - Warsaw Pact troops invade Hungary
• October 29 - Suez Crisis begins: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal
• October 29 - Tangier Protocol signed: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco
• October 31 - Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal

November

• November 4 - 1956 Hungarian Revolution: 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 7 - Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Egypt immediately.
• November 14 - Fighting ends in Hungary
• November 16 - Suez canal blocked
• November 23 - Suez Crisis causes petrol rationing in Britain

December

• December 2 - Fidel Castro and his followers land on Cuba
• December 2 - Pipe bomb explodes at a movie theater in Brooklyn (work of George Metesky)- six people injured
• December 5 - Rose Heilbron becomes Britain's first female judge
• December 12 : Japan becomes member of the United Nations

• Minamata disease discovered

Unknown date

• Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia
• Eindhoven University of Technology founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• First hard disk (5MB) invented by IBM.

Year in topic

• 1956 in art
• 1956 in film
  • Around the World in Eighty Days
  • The King and I
  • The Ten Commandments
  • Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much starring Jimmy Stewart
  • The Invasion of the Body Snatchers
• 1956 in literature
• 1956 in music
  • First ever Eurovision Song Contest - May 24
• 1956 in sports
• 1956 in television
  • April - WNBQ Chicago becomes the first TV station to broadcast all its local programming in color.
  • April Ampex demonstrates a videotape recorder at the NAB Convention in Chicago. The three networks place orders for the recorders.
  • August 8 - Final telecast of the DuMont Network.
  • September 16 - Australia's first television station TCN-9 commences transmission in Sydney
  • October 1 - Ernie Kovacs becomes the host for NBC's Tonight Show on Mondays and Tuesdays.
  • October 29 - First use of videotape in network television programming; CBS uses its Ampex VTR to record the evening news, anchored by Douglas Edwards. The tape is then fed to West Coast stations three hours later
  • October 29 - Chet Huntley and David Brinkley take over anchor duties of the NBC evening newscast, which is renamed The Huntley-Brinkley Report
  • November - The first use of videotape on a network television entertainment program; Jonathan Winters, uses videotape and superimposing techniques to be able to play two characters in the same skit for his NBC television show
  • The Price is Right game show premieres
  • Black-and-white portable TV sets hit the market

Births

• January 3 - Mel Gibson, actor and director
• January 7 - David Caruso, actor
• January 10 - Shawn Colvin, singer
• January 14 - Ben Heppner, tenor
• January 17 - Paul Young, English musician
• January 18 - Ray Dolby
• January 20 - Bill Maher, actor, comedian, political analyst
• January 21 - Geena Davis, actress
• January 27 - Mimi Rogers, actress
• January 31 - Johnny Rotten, musician (The "Sex Pistols")
• February 3 - Nathan Lane, actor
• February 6 - Ken Lorraway, Australian athlete
• February 11 - Kathleen Beller, actress
• February 14 - Tom Burlinson, Australian actor
• February 15 - Desmond Haynes, West Indies cricketer
• February 24 - Paula Zahn, television journalist
• February 26 - Keisuke Kuwata, Japanese Musician
• February 29 - Randy Jackson, American musician, American Idol judge
• February 29 - Bob Speller, Canadian politician
• February 29 - Aileen Carol Wuornos, serial killer
• March 2 - Mark Evans, bassist of AC/DC
• March 6 - Steve Vizard, Australian entrepreneur
• March 13 - Dana Delany, actress
• March 17 - Patrick McDonnell, creator of syndicated cartoon strip "Mutts"
• March 18 - Ingemar Stenmark
• March 20 - Ian Moss, Australian singer
• March 21 - Ingrid Kristiansen, Olypmpic athlete
• March 22 - Lena Olin, actress
• March 29 - Kurt Thomas, gymnast
• April 3 - Ray Combs, game show host, comedian
• April 4 - Kerry Chikarovski, Australian politician
• April 4 - David E. Kelley, writer, television producer
• April 6 - Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer
• April 9 - Irma Gonzalez, Queen of the Universe
• April 12 - Andy Garcia, US actor
• April 14 - Barbara Bonney, US soprano
• April 16 - Lise-Marie Morerod, slalom skier
• April 21 - Rick DeMont, US cyclist
• April 23 - Judy Davis, Australian actress
• April 26 - Koo Stark, UK actress
• April 28 - Jimmy Barnes, Australian rocker
• May 4 - Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper
• May 7 - Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• May 15 - Dan Patrick, sportscaster
• May 16 - Olga Korbut, Russian Olympic gymnast
• May 17 - Sugar Ray Leonard, boxer
• May 17 - Bob Saget, US actor
• May 19 - James Gosling, the "father" of Java programming language
• May 20 - Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian author
• May 21 - Judge Reinhold, actor
• May 23 - Buck Showalter, baseball player, manager
• June 6 - Björn Borg, tennis great
• June 9 - Patricia Daniels (later Patricia Cornwell), American crime novelist.
• June 11 - Joe Montana, Pro Football Hall of Famer
• June 23 - Glenn Danzig, rock and roll performer of Danzig
• July 9 - Tom Hanks, actor
• July 15 - Barry Melrose, hockey player, coach, commentator
• July 16 - Tony Kushner, playwright
• July 25 - Mark Rolston, actor
• July 31 - Michael Biehn, actor
• August 5 - Maureen McCormick, actress (The Brady Bunch)
• August 14 - Rusty Wallace, NASCAR driver
• August 20 - Joan Allen, US film actress
• August 22 - Paul Molitor, Baseball Hall of Famer
• August 24 - John Culberson, American politician
• September 12 - Ricky Rudd, NASCAR race car driver
• September 14 - Costas Caramanlis, Greek politician
• September 26 - Linda Hamilton, actress
• October 11 - Nicanor Duarte Frutos, President of Paraguay
• October 18 - Martina Navratilova, tennis great
• November 18 - Warren Moon, Canadian football and American football star
• November 23 - Shane Gould, Australian Olympic swimmer
• November 23 - Steve Harvey, actor, comedian
• November 26 - Dale Jarrett, NASCAR race car driver
• November 28 - Lucy Gutteridge, British actress
• December 5 - Krystian Zimerman, Polish pianist
• December 7 - Larry Bird, Basketball Hall of Famer
• December 23 - Michele Alboreto, Italian racing car driver
• December 28 - Nigel Kennedy, English violinist

Deaths

• January 3 - Alexander Grechaninov, Russian composer
• January 5 - Mistinguett, French cabaret singer
• January 13 - Lyonel Charles Feininger, German painter
• January 24 - Sir Alexander Korda, Hungarian/UK film director
• January 27 - Erich Kleiber, German conductor
• January 29 - H. L. Mencken
• January 31 - A. A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh
• February 2 - Charley Grapewin, US actor
• February 8 - Connie Mack, baseball executive, coach
• February 18 - Gustave Charpentier, French composer
• March 17 - Irène Joliot-Curie, French scientist
• March 20 - Fanny Durack, Australian Olympic swimmer
• March 25 - Robert Newton, English film actor
• March 30 - Edmund Clerihew Bentley, English inventor of the clerihew
• March 30 - Fritz Lehmann, German conductor
• April 30 - Alben W Barkly, US Vice-President
• May 12 - Louis Calhern, US film actor
• May 17 - Austin Osman Spare, magician
• May 20 - Max Beerbohm, theater critic
• May 26 - Al Simmons, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1902)
• May 31 - Diedrich Hermann Westermann, German linguist
• August 11 - Jackson Pollock, US painter
• August 14 - Bertolt Brecht, German playwright
• August 16 - Bela Lugosi, Hungarian/US film actor
• August 23 - Peaches Browning, American actress
• August 25 - Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher
• September 27 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete and golfer
• October 19 - Isham Jones, jazz musician (b. 1894)
• November 24 - Guido Cantelli, conductor
• December 6 - Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Indian Untouchable leader
• December 7 - Huntley Gordon, pioneer Hollywood actor
• December 16 - Nina Hamnett, artist

Nobel prizes

• Physics - William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain
• Chemistry - Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov
• Medicine - André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, Dickinson W Richards
• Literature - Juan Ramón Jiménez
• Peace - not awarded

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