1956 facts for kids
| 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 |
1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
- 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 16 – Peter Hook, English bass guitarist
- February 27 – Angela Aames, American actress (d. 1988)
- March 24 – Steve Ballmer, American business person, CEO of Microsoft
- April 5 – Dwight Hicks, American NFL player
- April 12 – Andy García, American actor
- 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 31 – Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
- September 17 – Andreas Starke, German politician, Lord Mayor of Bamberg
- September 27 – Milan Smrčka, Czech musician
- October 2 – Mike Scully, American television writer
- October 28 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 6th President of Iran
- November 11 – Ian Craig Marsh, English musician
- December 9 - Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French author
- Hugh Cook, English-born New Zealand writer
- Hans Enoksen, Prime minister of Greenland
Deaths
- 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
- 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
Images for kids
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A reel of 2-inch quadruplex videotape compared with a later miniDV videocassette.
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Robby Benson
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John Lydon
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John Kapelos
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Bob West
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Mullah Krekar
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Robert Khuzami
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Andreas Floer
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Michael Feinstein
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Joseph Wirth
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Wilhelm Miklas
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Michio Miyagi
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Alfred Kinsey
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Risto Ryti
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Pietro Badoglio
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Juan Negrín
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1956 Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.