1956

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
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 2 - Morocco declares its independence from France
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 7 - Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
May 9 - First ascent of Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world.
May 21 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
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 Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the 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.
October 23 - Hungarian revolution against the communist government. Soviet Union intervenes. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact.
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 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.
December 12 : Japan becoms member of the UN
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
- 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 17 - Paul Young, English musician
January 18 - Ray Dolby, inventor of the Dolby noise reduction system
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 11 - Kathleen Beller, actress.
February 13 - Vicky J. Hedstrand, vickster
February 24 - Paula Zahn, television journalist
March 2 - Mark Evans, bassist of AC/DC
March 13 - Dana Delany, actress
March 17 - Patrick McDonnell, creator of syndicated cartoon strip "Mutts"
March 29 - Kurt Thomas, gymnast
April 4 - David E. Kelley, writer, television producer
April 26 - Koo Stark, actress
May 7 - Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
May 17 - Sugar Ray Leonard, boxer
May 17 - Bob Saget, actor
May 19 - James Gosling, the "father" of Java programming language
May 21 - Judge Reinhold, actor
June 9 - Patricia Daniels (later Patricia Cornwell), American crime novelist.
June 23 - Glenn Danzig, rock and roll preformer of Danzig
July 9 - Tom Hanks, actor
October 11 - Nicanor Duarte Frutos, President of Paraguay
December 7 - Larry Bird, Basketball Hall of Famer

Deaths

January 5 - Mistinguett, French cabaret singer
January 31 - A. A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh
February 8 - Connie Mack, baseball executive, coach
March 17 - Irene Joliot-Curie, scientist
May 12 - Louis Calhern, silent film actor
May 17 - Austin Osman Spare, magician
May 20 - Max Beerbohm, theater critic
May 31 - Diedrich Hermann Westermann, German inguist
December 7 - Huntley Gordon, pioneer Hollywood actor
December 16 - Nina Hamnett, artist

Awards/Prizes

Winner of Eurovision Song Contest 1956: Lys Assia with Refrain

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

Encyclopedia Home Page

1956

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Awards/Prizes