1956

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s – 1950s – 1960s 1970s 1980s
Years:	1953 1954 1955 – 1956 – 1957 1958 1959

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1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday in the Gregorian calendar.

Events

Ercole Baldini, olympic gold medal winner from Italy

The Summer Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia.
The Winter Olympics were held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. This was the first Olympic Games in which the USSR competed.
February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean appear in the Soviet Union after being missing for 5 years
March 2 – Morocco declares its independence from France
April 19 – American actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco
May 2 – The United Methodist Church in America grants women full ordained clergy status
June 5 – Elvis Presley performs "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show. His dancing causes a scandal.
July 25 – The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm, killing 51
August 17 – West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany
September 16 – Television broadcasting begins in Australia
October 26 – Red Army troops invade Hungary
October 29 – November 7 – Suez Crisis: France, Israel and the United Kingdom in war with Egypt.
November 30 – Floyd Patterson wins the world heavyweight boxing championship
December 5 – Rose Heilbron becomes Britain's first female judge

Births

Dwight Hicks in 2008

January 3 – Mel Gibson, American-Australian actor
January 28 – Dario Chioli, Italian poet
February 6 - Jerry Marotta, American drummer (Orleans)
February 16 – Peter Hook, English bass guitarist
February 26 – Emanuel Radovan, Romanian politician of Albanian nationality.
February 27 – Csaba Vrabie, Romanian politician of Hungarian nationality from UDMR.
February 27 – Angela Aames, American actress (d. 1988)
February 29 – Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
March 12 – Michael Catain, American businessman and convicted criminal
March 24 – Steve Ballmer, American business person, CEO of Microsoft
April 5 – Dwight Hicks, American NFL player
April 12 – Andy García, American actor
April 19 - Lane Hoppen, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans)
May 7 – Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime minister of the Netherlands
May 17 – Bob Saget, American actor and comedian
June 2 – Mani Ratnam, Indian movie director
June 4 – Martin Adams, English darts player
June 11 – Joe Montana, American NFL player
June 11 – Ray Nagin, American politician, mayor of New Orleans
July 9 – Tom Hanks, American actor
July 13 – Michael Spinks, American boxer
July 15 – Joe Satriani, Italian-American guitar virtuoso
August 4 – Margaret Whitman, American business person, CEO of Ebay
August 26 – Sally Beamish, English composer
August 28 - Adrian Schervan Romanian water polo player
August 31 – Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
August 31 - Mark Mangini, American sound editor
September 14 – Maxime Verhagen, Dutch politician
September 17 – Andreas Starke, German politician, Lord Mayor of Bamberg
September 27 – Milan Smrčka, Czech musician
October 1 — Theresa May, British Prime Minister
October 2 – Mike Scully, American television writer
October 28 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 6th President of Iran
November 11 – Ian Craig Marsh, English musician
December 4 - Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, 9th President of Mauritania
December 6 - Peter Buck, American guitarist (R.E.M.)
December 8 - Warren Cuccurullo, American guitarist (Duran Duran)
December 9 - Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French author
Glen Hill (actor), actor
Hugh Cook, English-born New Zealand writer
Hans Enoksen, Prime minister of Greenland

Deaths

Elpidio Quirino

January 18 – Konstantin Päts, 1st President of Estonia (b. 1874)
January 27 – Erich Kleiber, German conductor (b. 1890)
February 10 – Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, British marshal of the Royal Air Force (b. 1873)
February 29 – Elpidio Quirino, 6th President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
March 8 – Drastamat Kanayan, Armenian military leader and politician (b. 1884))
March 17 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1897)
April 13 – Emil Nolde, German-Danish painter (b. 1867)
May 18 – Maurice Tate, English cricketer (b. 1895)
June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer, and novelist (b. 1873)
June 26 – Clifford Brown, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1930)
July 11 – John T. Raulston, Scopes Monkey Trial judge (b. 1868)
August 11- Jackson Pollack, American painter
August 14 – Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (b. 1898)
August 25 – Alfred Kinsey, American sex researcher (b. 1894)
September 22 – Frederick Soddy, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
October 25 – Risto Ryti, 5th President of Finland (b. 1889)
October 30 – Pio Baroja, Spanish writer (b. 1872)
November 22 – Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and actor (b. 1882)
December 14 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, 7th President of Finland (b. 1870)
December 16 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)

Nobel Prizes

Nobel Prize in Physics won by William Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain for inventing the point-contact transistor
Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English physical chemist, and Nikolay Semyonov, Russian/Soviet physicist and chemist
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, and Dickinson W. Richards for the development of cardiac catheterization
Nobel Prize in Literature won by Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet
Nobel Peace Prize – Not Awarded

Movies released

Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in Giant

Around the World in 80 Days winning the Academy Award for Best Picture
Bus Stop starring Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray
Giant starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean
Hollywood or Bust the final Martin and Lewis movie
The King and I winning Best Actor for Yul Brynner
The Searchers starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter
The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner
War and Peace starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda

New books

Agatha Christie – Dead Man's Folly
Arthur C. Clarke – The City and the Stars
Ian Fleming – Diamonds Are Forever
Fred Gipson – Old Yeller
Alf Prøysen – Little Old Mrs Pepperpot

1956 Media

A reel of 2-inch quadruplex videotape compared with a later miniDV videocassette.
Mel Gibson au festival de Cannes
Photos of David Caruso with Philip Nelson at the Emmy Awards. Licensed under a creative commons share-alike license. Use freely, but give credit Philip Nelson, Live Streaming Expert and link to philipnelson.org
Bill Maher attending a ceremony to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Robby Benson at GalaxyCon Minneapolis in 2019
ITU Secretary - General, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré and Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning Hollywood actress, ITU‘s Special Envoy for Women & Girls In ICT, and Founder, Geena Davis Institute with young engineer and entrepreneur Debra Sterling, Founder & CEO, Goldie Blox, at World Maker Faire, New York, 22 September 2013.*© ITU/ M. Jacobson - Gonzalez
Mimi Rogers at the premiere for Earth
Nathan Lane after Angels in America
Deputy High Commissioner to Fiji, Karinda D’Aloisio presented her credentials to Tuvalu Prime Minister Hon Enele Sopoaga on Tuesday 5 May. Ms D’Aloisio now also serves as non-resident High Commissioner to Tuvalu. While visiting Tuvalu earlier this month, she also met with the Governor General and other senior Ministers and Government officials.

1956 by topic
Arts, history, and science
Archaeology Architecture Art Literature Poetry Music Science
Countries

Lists of leaders
State leaders Colonial governors Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works category
Works
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