1956
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Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Years: 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 - 1956 - 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961
Table of contents |
Events
- 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 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.
- 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
- 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
- August 23 - Peaches Browning, American actress
- November 24 - Guido Cantelli, conductor
- December 7 - Huntley Gordon, pioneer Hollywood actor
- December 16 - Nina Hamnett, artist
Awards/Prizes
Winner of Eurovision Song Contest 1956: Lys Assia with Refrain- 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