1956

{| align=right cellpadding=3 id=toc style="margin-left: 15px;"\n|- \n| align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1953 1954 1955 - 1956 - 1957 1958 1959 \n|-\n| align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s \n|- \n| align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

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\n1956 in art
\n1956 in aviation
\n1956 in film
\n1956 in literature
\n1956 in music
\n1956 in radio
\n1956 in science
\n1956 in sports
\n1956 in television\n|}

Table of contents

1 Events 1.1 April 2 Unknown date 3 Year in topic 4 Births 5 Deaths 6 Awards/Prizes

Events

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January

\n* January 1 - End of Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in Sudan.\n* January 16 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine\n* January 26 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy\n

February

\n* February 22 - Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".\n* February 23 - Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality"\n

March

\n* March 1 - the International Air Transport Association finalises a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization\n* March 2 - Morocco declares its independence from France\n* March 15 - The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City. \n* March 20 - Tunisia gains independence from France \n* March 23 - Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic.

April

\n* April 7 - Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco. \n

May

\n* May 9 - First ascent of Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world.\n* May 18 - First ascent of Lhotse (main), fourth highest mountain\n* May 21 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.\n

June

\n* June 10 - 1956 Summer Olympics: Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden. \n* 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. \n

July

\n* July 8 - First ascent of Gasherbrum II \n* 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. \n* 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. \n* July 26 - Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation. \n* 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. \n

October

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

November

\n* 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. \n* 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. \n* 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. \n

December

\n* December 12 : Japan becomes member of the UN

Unknown date

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

Year in topic

\n* 1956 in art\n* 1956 in film\n**Around the World in Eighty Days\n**The King and I\n**The Ten Commandments\n**Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much starring Jimmy Stewart\n**The Invasion of the Body Snatchers\n* 1956 in literature\n* 1956 in music\n**First ever Eurovision Song Contest - May 24\n* 1956 in sports\n* 1956 in television\n**April - WNBQ Chicago becomes the first TV station to broadcast all its local programming in color. \n**April Ampex demonstrates a videotape recorder at the NAB Convention in Chicago. The three networks place orders for the recorders. \n**August 8 - Final telecast of the DuMont Network.\n**September 16 - Australia's first television station TCN-9 commences transmission in Sydney\n**October 1 - Ernie Kovacs becomes the host for NBC's Tonight Show on Mondays and Tuesdays. \n**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\n**October 29 - Chet Huntley and David Brinkley take over anchor duties of the NBC evening newscast, which is renamed The Huntley-Brinkley Report\n**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\n**The Price is Right game show premieres\n**Black-and-white portable TV sets hit the market

Births

\n* January 3 - Mel Gibson, actor and director\n* January 7 - David Caruso, actor\n* January 10 - Shawn Colvin, singer\n* January 17 - Paul Young, English musician\n* January 20 - Bill Maher, actor, comedian, political analyst\n* January 21 - Geena Davis, actress\n* January 27 - Mimi Rogers, actress\n* January 31 - Johnny Rotten, musician (The "Sex Pistols")\n* February 3 - Nathan Lane, actor\n* February 11 - Kathleen Beller, actress.\n* February 24 - Paula Zahn, television journalist\n* February 29 - Randy Jackson, American musician, American Idol judge \n* February 29 - Bob Speller, Canadian politician \n* February 29 - Aileen Carol Wuornos, serial killer\n* March 2 - Mark Evans, bassist of AC/DC\n* March 13 - Dana Delany, actress\n* March 17 - Patrick McDonnell, creator of syndicated cartoon strip "Mutts"\n* March 22 - Lena Olin, actress\n* March 29 - Kurt Thomas, gymnast\n* April 3 - Ray Combs, game show host, comedian (d. 1996)\n* April 4 - David E. Kelley, writer, television producer\n* April 16 - Lise-Marie Morerod, slalom skier\n* April 26 - Koo Stark, actress\n* May 4 - Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper\n* May 7 - Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands\n* May 15 - Dan Patrick, sportscaster\n* May 17 - Sugar Ray Leonard, boxer\n* May 17 - Bob Saget, actor\n* May 19 - James Gosling, the "father" of Java programming language\n* May 21 - Judge Reinhold, actor\n* May 23 - Buck Showalter, baseball player, manager\n* June 6 - Björn Borg, tennis great\n* June 9 - Patricia Daniels (later Patricia Cornwell), American crime novelist.\n* June 11 - Joe Montana, Pro Football Hall of Famer\n* June 23 - Glenn Danzig, rock and roll performer of Danzig\n* July 9 - Tom Hanks, actor\n* July 15 - Barry Melrose, hockey player, coach, commentator\n* July 16 - Tony Kushner, playwright\n* August 5 - Maureen McCormick, actress (The Brady Bunch)\n* August 14 - Rusty Wallace, NASCAR driver\n* August 22 - Paul Molitor, Baseball Hall of Famer\n* September 12 - Ricky Rudd, NASCAR race car driver\n* September 14 - Costas Caramanlis, Greek politician\n* September 26 - Linda Hamilton, actress\n* October 11 - Nicanor Duarte Frutos, President of Paraguay\n* October 18 - Martina Navratilova, tennis great\n* November 18 - Warren Moon, Canadian football and American football star\n* November 23 - Steve Harvey, actor, comedian\n* November 26 - Dale Jarrett, NASCAR race car driver\n* November 28 - Lucy Gutteridge, British actress\n* December 5 - Krystian Zimerman, pianist\n* December 7 - Larry Bird, Basketball Hall of Famer

Deaths

\n* January 5 - Mistinguett, French cabaret singer\n* January 31 - A. A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh\n* February 8 - Connie Mack, baseball executive, coach\n* March 17 - Irène Joliot-Curie, scientist\n* May 12 - Louis Calhern, silent film actor\n* May 17 - Austin Osman Spare, magician\n* May 20 - Max Beerbohm, theater critic\n* May 26 - Al Simmons, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1902)\n* May 31 - Diedrich Hermann Westermann, German linguist \n* August 23 - Peaches Browning, American actress\n* September 27 - Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete and golfer\n* October 19 - Isham Jones, jazz musician (b. 1894)\n* November 24 - Guido Cantelli, conductor\n* December 6 - Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Indian Untouchable leader\n* December 7 - Huntley Gordon, pioneer Hollywood actor\n* December 16 - Nina Hamnett, artist

Awards/Prizes

\nWinner of Eurovision Song Contest 1956: Lys Assia with Refrain Nobel Prizes:\n* Physics - William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain\n* Chemistry - Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov\n* Medicine - André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, Dickinson W Richards\n* Literature - Juan Ramón Jiménez\n* Peace - not awarded \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n