Wikipedia / 1956
Wikipedia / 1956
Events
January
January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years.
January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Waorani people of Ecuador, shortly after making contact with them.
January 16 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to Liberate Palestine.
January 25–26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala, after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4.
January 26 – The 1956 Winter Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
February
February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union, after being missing for 5 years.
February 14–25 – The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held in Moscow.
February 16 – The 1956 World Figure Skating Championships open in Garmisch, West Germany.
February 25 – Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin, in a speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", at a secret session concluding the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This is not officially made public in the Soviet Union at this time but becomes known in the West in June.
March
March 1 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the radiotelephony spelling alphabet, for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The British deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus to the Seychelles.
The Soviet Armed Forces suppress mass demonstrations in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
March 10 – The Fairey Delta 2 breaks the World Air Speed Record, raising it to or Mach 1.73, an increase of some over the previous record, and thus becoming the first aircraft to exceed in level flight.
March 12 – 96 U.S. Congressmen sign the Southern Manifesto, a protest against the 1954 Supreme Court ruling (Brown v. Board of Education) that desegregated public education.
March 19 – At age 48, Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren contests his last match in Rotterdam.
March 21 – The 28th Academy Awards Ceremony is held in Los Angeles. Marty is awarded Best Picture.
March 23 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, and a national holiday is observed in the country, including the state of East Pakistan.
April
April 7 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
April 9 – Habib Bourguiba is elected President of the National Constituent Assembly of the Kingdom of Tunisia; on April 15 he becomes prime minister.
April 14 – Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (modern-day NAB) convention in Chicago, United States, by Ampex. It is the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as 2" Quadruplex.
American actress Grace Kelly legally marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco; a religious ceremony follows next day.
Maria Desylla-Kapodistria is elected mayor of Corfu, becoming the first female mayor in Greece.
British diver Lionel (Buster) Crabb (working for MI6) dives into Portsmouth Harbour, to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser, and vanishes.
The 5.0 1956 Atarfe-Albolote earthquake strikes southern Spain killing 12 and injuring dozens more.
May
May 1 – Minamata disease is discovered in Japan.
May 2 – The United Methodist Church in America decides, at its General Conference, to grant women full ordained clergy status. It also calls for an end to racial segregation in the denomination.
May 8 – The constitutional union between Indonesia and the Netherlands is dissolved.
May 9 – Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world (in the Nepalese Himalayas) is first ascended, by a Japanese team.
May 18 – Lhotse main summit, the fourth highest mountain (on the Nepalese–Tibetan border) is first ascended, by Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss.
May 23 – French minister Pierre Mendès France resigns, due to his government's policy on Algeria.
May 24 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast from Lugano, Switzerland. The winning song is the host country's Refrain by Lys Assia (music by Géo Voumard, lyrics by Émile Gardaz).
May 25 – India announces the institution of diplomatic relations with Francoist Spain.
June
June 1 – Vyacheslav Molotov resigns as foreign minister of the Soviet Union; he later becomes ambassador to Mongolia.
June 4 – Montgomery bus boycott: The related civil suit is heard in federal district court; the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the ruling in November.
June 5 – The text of Nikita Khrushchev's February attack on Stalin's reputation, "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", is first published in the West, in The New York Times.
June 6 – In Singapore, chief minister David Marshall resigns a little over a year into his chief ministership, after the breakdown of talks regarding internal self-government in London.
June 8 – General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", the first snooze alarm clock ever.
June 10 – 1956 Summer Olympics: Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden (all other events are held in November in Melbourne, Australia).
The International Criminal Police Organization adopts Interpol as its official name.
Real Madrid beats Stade Reims 4–3 at Parc des Princes, Paris and wins the 1955–56 European Cup (football).
June 14 – The Flag of the United States Army is formally dedicated.
June 15 – Eindhoven University of Technology is founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
June 21 – Playwright Arthur Miller appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C.
June 23 – Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes the 2nd president of Egypt, a post he holds until his death in 1970.
Poznań 1956 protests: Labour riots in Poznań, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at a crowd protesting high prices, killing 53 people.
The film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner, is released only a few months after the film version of R&H's Carousel. It becomes the most financially successful film version of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical up to this time, and the only one to win an acting Oscar (Yul Brynner wins Best Actor for his performance as the King of Siam). It is also one of two Rodgers and Hammerstein films to be nominated for Best Picture (which it does not win).
Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller, in White Plains, New York.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the Interstate Highway System in the United States.
June 30 – 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision: A TWA Lockheed Constellation and United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collide in mid-air over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft, in the deadliest civil aviation disaster to date; the accident leads to sweeping changes in the regulation of cross-country flight and air traffic control over the United States.
July
July 2 – A laboratory experiment involving scrap thorium at Sylvania Electric Products in Bayside, New York, results in an explosion.
July 4 – An American Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft makes its first flight over the Soviet Union.
July 8 – The mountain Gasherbrum II, on the border of Pakistan and China, is first ascended, by an Austrian expedition.
July 9 – The 7.7 Amorgos earthquake shakes the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shaking and the subsequent tsunami leave 53 people dead.
July 10 – The British House of Lords defeats the abolition of the death penalty.
July 13 – John McCarthy (Dartmouth), Marvin Minsky (MIT), Claude Shannon (Bell Labs) and Nathaniel Rochester (IBM) assemble the first coordinated research meeting on the topic of artificial intelligence, at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States.
July 25 – The Italian ocean liner sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm in heavy fog south of Nantucket island, killing 51.
July 26 – Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation.
July 30 – A joint resolution of Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing "In God we trust" as the U.S. national motto.
Cricket: Jim Laker sets an extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test between England and Australia, taking 19 wickets in a first class match (the previous best was 17).
Luzhniki Stadium, well known sports venue of Russia and the Soviet Union, officially opens in Moscow.
August
August 7 – Seven ammunition trucks loaded with 1,053 boxes of dynamite explode in Cali, Colombia. Death estimates range from 1,300 to 10,000, in a city that at this time has 120,000 inhabitants.
August 8 – 262 miners (chiefly Italian nationals) die in a fire at the Bois du Cazier coal mine, in Marcinelle, Belgium.
August 12 – Around 5,000 members of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church hold a mass outside Cluj-Napoca Piarists' Church to demonstrate that their church, proscribed by the government in 1948, has not ceased to exist as the regime claims.
August 17 – West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany.
The first interfaith dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims with over 850 participants takes place at the monastery of Toumliline in Azrou, Morocco.
September
The hard disk drive is invented by an IBM team, led by Reynold B. Johnson.
The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed.
September 16 – Television broadcasting in Australia commences.
September 21 – Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García is assassinated.
September 25 – The submarine transatlantic telephone cable opens.
September 27 – The Bell X-2 becomes the first crewed aircraft to reach Mach 3.
October
October 5 – Cecil B. DeMille's epic film The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses, is released in the United States. It will be in the top ten of the worldwide list of highest-grossing films of all time, adjusted for inflation.
October 8 – Baseball pitcher Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the only perfect game in World Series history, in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yogi Berra catches the game. Dale Mitchell is the final out. The New York Yankees win the series in seven games. Larsen is named series MVP.
Finland joins UNESCO.
The prototype Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the final Lockheed Constellation model, makes its first flight.
October 14 – Dalit Buddhist movement (India): B. R. Ambedkar, Dalit leader, converts to Buddhism, along with 500,000 followers.
October 15 – The British Royal Air Force retires its last Avro Lancaster bomber.
The world's first industrial-scale commercial nuclear power plant is opened at Calder Hall in the UK.
The Game of the Century (chess): 13-year-old Bobby Fischer beats grandmaster Donald Byrne, in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament in New York City.
October 19 – The Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 is signed in Moscow, ending the legal state of war between the Soviet Union and Japan (with effect from December 12) and making possible the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
October 23 – The Hungarian Revolution breaks out against the pro-Soviet government, originating as a student demonstration in Budapest. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact.
October 24 – The Protocol of Sèvres, a secret agreement between Israel, France and the United Kingdom, is signed, allowing the former to invade the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and occupy the Suez Canal with the support of the other two governments, giving rise to the Suez Crisis.
October 26 – Soviet Red Army troops invade Hungary.
Suez Crisis: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and pushes Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.
Tangier Protocol: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.
The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuts on NBC-TV in the United States.
Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.
A United States Navy team becomes the third group to reach the South Pole (arriving by air), and commences construction of the first permanent Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station.
November
The States Reorganisation Act of India reforms the boundaries and names of Indian states. Three new states, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, are formed.
The film Oklahoma! (1955), previously released to select cities in Todd-AO, now receives a U.S. national release in CinemaScope, since not all theatres are yet equipped for Todd-AO. To accomplish this, the film has actually been shot twice, rather than printing one version in two different film processes, as is later done.
Khan Yunis massacre (Suez Crisis): Israeli soldiers shoot dead hundreds of Palestinian refugees and local inhabitants in Khan Yunis Camp.
MGM's film The Wizard of Oz is the first major Hollywood film running more than 90 minutes to be televised uncut in one evening, in the United States.
November 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956: More Soviet troops invade Hungary, to crush the revolt that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
November 6 – 1956 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democratic challenger Adlai Stevenson, in a rematch of their contest 4 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 Arab lands immediately.
November 11 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Last insurgents succumb to the invading Soviet army.
November 12 – Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.
November 13 – Browder v. Gayle: The United States Supreme Court declares illegal the state and municipal laws requiring segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama, thus ending the Montgomery bus boycott.
November 14 – An eight-mile long stretch of highway is opened west of Topeka, Kansas, creating the first portion of the Interstate Highway System in the United States and the first highway to be completed with funds from the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.
November 15 – Middle East Technical University is founded in Ankara, Turkey.
November 18 – At a reception for Western ambassadors at the Polish embassy in Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev utters his famous phrase "We will bury you".
November 20 – In Yugoslavia, former prime minister Milovan Đilas is arrested after he criticizes Josip Broz Tito.
November 22 – The 1956 Summer Olympics begin in Melbourne, Australia.
November 23 – The Suez Crisis causes petrol rationing in Britain.
November 25 – Fidel Castro and Che Guevara depart from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, en route to Santiago de Cuba aboard the yacht Granma, with 82 men.
November 28 – Roger Vadim's film And God Created Woman (Et Dieu... créa la femme), is released in France, making Brigitte Bardot an international sex symbol.
November 30 – African-American Floyd Patterson wins the world heavyweight boxing championship that is vacant after the retirement of Rocky Marciano.
December
December 3 – The 1956 Bush Terminal explosion occurs in Brooklyn, United States.
December 4 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio, for the first and last time in history.
December 9 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes into Slesse Mountain near Chilliwack, British Columbia. All 62 people aboard, including five Canadian Football League players, are killed.
December 12 – Japan becomes a member of the United Nations.
December 19 – British doctor John Bodkin Adams is arrested for the murder of 2 patients in Eastbourne, England; he will be acquitted.
December 23 – British and French troops leave the Suez Canal region.
Births
January
Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (d. 2000)
Kōji Yakusho, Japanese actor
Christine Lagarde, French lawyer and politician, IMF Managing Director and ECB president
Dzulkefly Ahmad, Malaysian politician
Andrew Lesnie, Australian cinematographer (d. 2015)
Andy Gill, English musician (Gang of Four) (d. 2020)
January 3 – Mel Gibson, American actor and director
January 4 – Bernard Sumner, British musician
Ana Pessoa Pinto, East Timorese politician and jurist
Celso Blues Boy, Brazilian singer and guitarist (d. 2012)
Chen Kenichi, Japan-born Chinese chef
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German politician
Angus Deayton, British comedian, actor, and television host.
David Caruso, American actor
Uwe Ochsenknecht, German actor
Johnny Owen, Welsh boxer (d. 1980)
January 8 – Anatolii Brezvin, Ukrainian businessman, politician, and ice hockey executive
Kimberly Beck, American actress
Imelda Staunton, English actress and singer
January 12 – Nikolai Noskov, Soviet and Russian rock singer and songwriter
January 15 – Vitaly Kaloyev, Russian convicted murderer, architect deputy minister of construction of North Ossetia-Alania
January 16 – Martin Jol, Dutch football manager
January 17 – Paul Young, English musician
Sharon Mitchell, American sexologist
Jim Mothersbaugh, American rock drummer
Adriana Acosta, Argentine militant and field hockey player (d. 1978)
Susan Solomon, American atmospheric chemist
January 20 – Bill Maher, American actor, comedian and political analyst
Robby Benson, American actor, voice actor, director, singer and educator
Geena Davis, American actress
January 24 – Lounès Matoub, Algerian Berber Kabyle singer (d. 1998)
January 25 – Bronwyn Pike, Australian politician
January 26 – Pat Musick, American voice actress
Susanne Blakeslee, American actress
Mimi Rogers, American actress
January 28 – Peter Schilling, German singer
January 29 – Jan Jakub Kolski, Polish film director
January 30 – Keiichi Tsuchiya, Japanese racing driver
John Lydon, British punk musician and TV personality
Trevor Manuel, South African politician
February
February 1 – Mike Kitchen, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
February 2 – Alireza Soleimani, Iranian heavyweight freestyle wrestler (d. 2014)
Nathan Lane, American actor
Lee Ranaldo, American musician
February 10 – Enele Sopoaga, 12th prime minister of Tuvalu
February 11 – Didier Lockwood, French jazz violinist (d. 2018)
Peter Hook, British bass player
Yiannis Kouros, Greek-Australian ultra marathoner
February 14 – Tom Burlinson, Australian actor
February 15 – Desmond Haynes, West Indian cricketer
Thomas Gradin, Swedish hockey player
Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian-French billionaire oligarch and politician
Kathleen Beller, American actress
Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
February 20 – François Bréda, Romanian essayist, poet, literary critic, literary historian, translator and theatrologist (d. 2018)
February 23 – Reinhold Beckmann, German television presenter
February 24 – Judith Butler, American philosopher
Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer (d. 1995)
Michel Friedman, German lawyer, politician and talk show host
February 26 – Keisuke Kuwata, Japanese musician
February 28 – Thomas Remengesau Jr., 7th and 9th president of Palau
February 29 – Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
March
Tim Daly, American actor and producer
Teena Marie, American singer (d. 2010)
Marco Paolini, Italian stage actor, dramaturge and author
Andrea Levy, English novelist (d. 2019)
Bryan Cranston, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
Kadyrzhan Batyrov, Kyrgyz businessman and politician (d. 2018)
Shashi Tharoor, Indian politician
March 10 – Prasanna Jayawardena, Sri Lankan puisne justice of the Supreme Court (d. 2019)
March 11 – Rob Paulsen, American voice actor and singer
March 13 – Dana Delany, American actress
Vladimír Godár, Slovak composer
March 18 – Ingemar Stenmark, Swedish alpine skier
March 19 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician (d. 2009)
Minken Fosheim, Norwegian actress and author (d. 2018)
Catherine Ashton, British politician
Naoto Takenaka, Japanese actor, comedian, singer and director
José Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister of Portugal
Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner
Win Lyovarin, Thai author
Tyrone Brunson, American singer (d. 2013)
Ilana Kloss, South-African born tennis player, tennis coach, and commissioner of World Team Tennis
Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, consort of Grand Duke Henri
March 24 – Steve Ballmer, American businessman, CEO of Microsoft (2000–2014), owner of the Los Angeles Clippers
March 25 – Matthew Garber, English child actor (d. 1977)
March 27 – Rose Dieng-Kuntz , Senegalese French computer scientist (d. 2008)
Susan Ershler, American mountaineer
Evelin Jahl, German athlete
March 29 - George McCaskey, American football executive, owner of the Chicago Bears
March 30 – Paul Reiser, American actor
April
Miguel Bosé, Panamanian-born musician and actor
Boris Miljković, Serbian TV & theatre director and video artist
Kerry Chikarovski, Australian politician
David E. Kelley, American writer and television producer
Diamond Dallas Page, American professional wrestler
El Risitas, Spanish comedian and actor (d. 2021)
Sebastian Spreng, American-Argentinean visual artist
Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer
April 7 – Christopher Darden, African-American attorney, author, actor and lecturer
April 9 – Edmund Chong Ket Wah, Malaysian politician (d. 2010)
Andy García, Cuban-American actor
Herbert Grönemeyer, German musician and actor
Yasuo Tanaka, Japanese politician, novelist
April 14 – Barbara Bonney, American soprano
David M. Brown, American astronaut (d. 2003)
Lise-Marie Morerod, Swiss skier
Melody Thomas Scott, American actress
Karim Abdul Razak, Ghanaian footballer
Eric Roberts, American actor
April 19 – Sue Barker, British tennis player and television presenter
April 22 – Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Finnish conductor
April 28 – Hanka Paldum, Bosnian singer
April 30 – Lars von Trier, Danish film director and screenwriter
May
May 1 – Alexander Ivanov, Russian-born American chess grandmaster
David Guterson, American writer
Sharon Jones, African-American singer (d. 2016)
Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper
May 5 – Lisa Eilbacher, American actress
May 6 – Vladimir Lisin, Russian business oligarch
S. Scott Bullock, American actor and voice actor
Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (2002–2010)
Jean Lapierre, Canadian politician and television host (d. 2016)
Frank Andersson, Swedish wrestler (d. 2018)
Wendy Crewson, Canadian actress
Mickey Faerch, Danish-Canadian burlesque dancer and actress
Vladislav Listyev, Russian journalist (d. 1995)
Paige O'Hara, American actress, voice actress, singer and painter
Bikenibeu Paeniu, 2-Time Prime Minister of Tuvalu
May 12 – Jānis Bojārs, Latvian shot putter (d. 2018)
Kenneth Eriksson, Swedish rally driver
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian guru
Kirk Thornton, American voice actor
May 15 – Dan Patrick, American sports commentator
Cheenu Mohan, Indian actor (d. 2018)
Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer, motivational speaker and actor
May 19 – Steven Ford, American actor
Boris Akunin, Russian novelist and essayist
Dean Butler, American actor and producer
Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician
Buck Showalter, American baseball player and manager
May 26 – Lisa Niemi, American actress and dancer
May 27 – Giuseppe Tornatore, Italian film director
Jerry Douglas, American dobro player
John O'Donoghue, Irish Fianna Fáil politician
Sayuri Yamauchi, Japanese voice actress (d. 2012)
May 29 – La Toya Jackson, American singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and television personality
May 30 – David Sassoli, 16th president of the European Parliament (d. 2022)
May 31 – Yoshiko Sakakibara, Japanese voice actress
June
Chintaman Vanaga, Indian politician (d. 2018)
Peter Tomka, Judge, International Court of Justice
June 3 – George Burley, Scottish football manager
June 4 – Keith David, African-American actor and voice actor
Yuri Shundrov, Russian-Ukrainian ice hockey goaltender (d. 2018)
Christopher Adamson, British actor
Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player
Paul Sherwen, English racing cyclist and broadcaster (d. 2018)
Antonio M. Reid, American record executive
June 8 – Péter Besenyei, Hungarian pilot
June 9 – Patricia Cornwell, American novelist
June 10 – Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg, German head of the House of Mecklenburg
Joe Montana, American football player
Arthur Porter, Canadian physician (d. 2015)
June 13 – Yurik Vardanyan, Soviet weightlifter (d. 2018)
June 14 – King Diamond, Danish heavy metal musician
June 19 – Sergio Fajardo, Colombian politician<, Governor of Antioquia (2012-2016)
June 20 – Cho Chikun, Korean Go player
Abdulbaset Sieda, Kurdish-Syrian academic and politician
François Hadji-Lazaro, French actor and musician
June 23 – Randy Jackson, African-American musician and talent judge
June 24 – Turid Leirvoll, Norwegian-Danish politician
Isabel de Navarre, German figure skating coach
Boris Trajkovski, President of the Republic of Macedonia (d. 2004)
Anthony Bourdain, American chef, writer and television personality (d. 2018)
Chloe Webb, American actress and singer
Catherine Samba-Panza, President of the Central African Republic
Chris Isaak, American musician
Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, Royal Saudi Air Force pilot
Heiner Dopp, German field hockey player
June 28 – Noel Mugavin, Australian rules football player
Sun Chanthol, Cambodian politician
David Alan Grier, African-American actor and comedian
July
Alan Ruck, American actor
Gregg L. Semenza, American cellular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
July 2 – Jerry Hall, American model and actress
July 3 – Dorota Pomykała, Polish actress
Sapawi Ahmad, Malaysian politician
Horacio Cartes, former president of Paraguay
Louis Herthum, American actor and producer
Janet Cruz, American politician
Mullah Krekar, Iraqi Kurdish scholar and militant
Ryuho Okawa, Japanese religious leader (d. 2023)
Giam Swiegers, South African-Australian business executive
July 10 – K. Rajagopal, Malaysian football manager and national player
Amitav Ghosh, Indian novelist
Sela Ward, American actress
July 12 – Mel Harris, American actress
Günther Jauch, German television host
Koffi Olomide, Congolese soukous singer, dancer, producer and composer
Michael Spinks, African-American boxer
Dragan Despot, Croatian actor
Vladimir Kulich, Czechoslovak actor
Ian Curtis, English rock musician (Joy Division) (d. 1980)
Barry Melrose, Canadian hockey player, coach and commentator
Toshihiko Seko, Japanese long-distance runner
Jerry Doyle, American talk show host and actor (d. 2016)
Tony Kushner, American playwright
July 17 – Robert Romanus, American actor and musician
July 18 – Sheila Aldridge, American singer
Peter Barton, American actor
Yoshiaki Yatsu, Japanese professional wrestler
Charlie Crist, American politician, 44th governor of Florida
Carmen Nebel, German television presenter
Frances Arnold, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Andy Goldsworthy, British sculptor and photographer
July 26 – Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater, Olympic gold medalist
July 30 – Delta Burke, American actress
Michael Biehn, American actor
Deval Patrick, American politician, first African-American Governor of Massachusetts
August
Gerry Cooney, American boxer
Randall Wright, Canadian economist
August 6 – Stepfanie Kramer, American actress
August 7 – Christiana Figueres, Costa Rican diplomat and environmentalist
Dianne Fromholtz, Australian tennis player
Fred Ottman, American professional wrestler
August 11 – Richie Ramone, American rock drummer (Ramones)
August 12 – Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor
Jackée Harry, American actress and television personality
Rusty Wallace, American NASCAR race car driver
August 19 – Adam Arkin, American actor
Joan Allen, American actress
Jan Henry T. Olsen, Norwegian politician (d. 2018)
August 21 – Kim Cattrall, English-born Canadian actress
August 22 – Paul Molitor, American baseball player
Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)
Cris Morena, Argentine actress and television producer
August 25 – Henri Toivonen, Finnish rally car driver (d. 1986)
August 26 – Mark Mangino, American football coach
August 29 – Mark Morris, American choreographer
Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
September
September 1 – Bernie Wagenblast, American editor and broadcaster
Nandamuri Harikrishna, Indian actor and politician (d. 2018)
Angelo Fusco, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
September 3 – Pat McGeown, Provisional Irish Republican Army member (d. 1996)
September 5 – Low Thia Khiang, Singaporean businessman and politician
September 11 – Phillip D. Bissett, American politician
Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong actor (d. 2003)
Ricky Rudd, American race car driver
Walter Woon, law professor, Nominated Member of Parliament and Attorney-General of Singapore
September 13 – Ilie Balaci, Romanian football player (d. 2018)
Kostas Karamanlis, Greek politician
Ray Wilkins, English footballer and coach (d. 2018)
September 15 – George Howard, American jazz saxophone musician (d. 1998)
Sergei Beloglazov, Russian free-style wrestler
David Copperfield, American illusionist
September 17 – Almazbek Atambayev, 3-Time Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan and 4th president of Kyrgyzstan
September 18 – Tim McInnerny, English actor
Gary Cole, American television, film and voice actor
Debbi Morgan, African-American actress
September 21 – Jack Givens, American basketball player
Mait Riisman, Estonian water polo player (d. 2018)
Peter David, comic book writer and novelist (d. 2025
Paolo Rossi, Italian soccer player (d. 2020)
September 25 – Jamie Hyneman, American television co-host
September 26 – Linda Hamilton, American actress
September 29 – Sebastian Coe, Baron Coe, British athlete; co-ordinator of the London 2012 Olympic Games
October
Tara Buckman, American actress
Andrus Ansip, Estonian politician, 10th prime minister of Estonia
October 2 – Charlie Adler, American voice actor and director
October 3 – Ralph Morgenstern, German actor
October 4 – Christoph Waltz, German-Austrian actor
Danny Jacob, American composer, songwriter and guitarist
Stephanie Zimbalist, American actress
October 10 – Amanda Burton, Irish actress
Doug Lawrence, American jazz saxophonist
October 16 – Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah, Bangladeshi poet (d. 1991)
October 17 – Mae Jemison, African-American astronaut
Craig Bartlett, American animator, writer, storyboard artist, director and voice actor
Martina Navratilova, Czech-American multiple Grand Slam title winning tennis player
October 19 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (d. 2003)
October 20 – Danny Boyle, English film director
October 21 – Carrie Fisher, American actress and novelist (d. 2016)
October 22 – Marvin Bush, American businessman
October 23 – Dwight Yoakam, American country singer, musician and actor
October 26 – Rita Wilson, American actress and producer
November
November 7 – Mikhail Alperin, Soviet-Norwegian jazz pianist (d. 2018)
Richard Curtis, English film director, producer and screenwriter
Kurt Sorensen, New Zealand rugby league player
November 10 – Sinbad, African-American stand-up, comedian and actor
Talat Aziz, ghazal singer
Edgar Lungu, president of Zambia (d. 2025)
Greg Pence, American businessman and politician
Peter R. de Vries, Dutch crime reporter (d. 2021)
November 17 – Angelika Machinek, German glider pilot (d. 2006)
November 18 – Noel Brotherston, Irish footballer (d. 1995)
Bo Derek, American actress and model
Olli Dittrich, German actor, comedian, television personality and musician
November 22 – Richard Kind, American actor
Shane Gould, Australian Olympic triple gold medallist swimmer (1972)
Nikolay Sidorov, Soviet athlete
November 24 – Jouni Kaipainen, Finnish composer
November 26 – Dale Jarrett, American race car driver
William Fichtner, American actor
December
December 1 – Sultan bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Emirati politician and royal (d. 2019)
December 4 – Bernard King, American basketball player and commentator
Klaus Allofs, German football player
Krystian Zimerman, Polish pianist
Peter Buck, American guitarist
Randy Rhoads, American guitarist (d. 1982)
Chuy Bravo, Mexican-American actor and entertainer (d. 2019)
Larry Bird, American basketball player
December 9 – Baruch Goldstein, American-Israeli physician and mass murderer (d. 1994)
December 10 – Rod Blagojevich, American politician and convicted felon, Governor of Illinois (2003–2009)
Ana Alicia, Mexican actress
Johan van der Velde, Dutch cyclist
December 13 – Majida El Roumi, Lebanese singer
December 14 – Béla Réthy, German sports journalist
December 18 – Ron White, American comedian
December 19 – Masami Akita, Japanese noise musician (also known as Merzbow)
December 20 – Anita Ward, American disco singer.
December 21 – Anna Erlandsson, Swedish filmmaker and animator
Michele Alboreto, Italian racing driver (d. 2001)
Dave Murray, British musician (Iron Maiden)
December 24 – Anil Kapoor, Indian actor
December 26 – David Sedaris, American essayist
Nigel Kennedy, English violinist
Jimmy Nicholl, Canadian-born footballer
Patricia Kalember, American actress
Sheryl Lee Ralph, African American-actress
December 31 – Hussein Ahmed Salah, Djiboutian marathon runner
Deaths
January
Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (b. 1864)
Joseph Wirth, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1879)
January 5 – Mistinguett, French singer and actress (b. 1875)
January 9 – Marion Leonard, American actress (b. 1881)
January 12 – Norman Kerry, American actor (b. 1894)
January 18 – Konstantin Päts, 1st president of Estonia (b. 1874)
January 23 – Sir Alexander Korda, Hungarian-born film director (b. 1893)
January 27 – Erich Kleiber, German conductor (b. 1890)
January 29 – H. L. Mencken, American writer (b. 1880)
January 31 – A. A. Milne, English author (Winnie The Pooh) (b. 1882)
February
Charley Grapewin, American actor (b. 1869)
February 3 – Robert Yerkes, American psychologist and ethologist (b. 1876)
February 8 – Connie Mack, American baseball executive and manager (Philadelphia Athletics) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1862)
February 10 – Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, British marshal of the Royal Air Force (b. 1873)
February 18 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
February 20 – Heinrich Barkhausen, German physicist (b. 1881)
February 24 - Suzanne Veil, French chemical engineer and translator (b. 1886)
February 26 – Elsie Janis, American singer and actress (b. 1889)
Carlo Gnocchi, Italian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1902)
Frigyes Riesz, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1880)
February 29 – Elpidio Quirino, 6th president of the Philippines (b. 1890)
March
March 12 – Bolesław Bierut, Polish Communist politician and statesman, former prime minister and president of Poland (b. 1892)
March 14 – David Browning, American Olympic diver (b. 1931)
Fred Allen, American comedian (b. 1894)
Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1897)
March 18 – Louis Bromfield, American writer (b. 1896)
Fanny Durack, Australian swimmer (b. 1889)
Wilhelm Miklas, 3rd president of Austria (b. 1872)
Eduardo Lonardi, 30th president of Argentina (b. 1896)
George Sarton, Belgian-American chemist and historian (b. 1884)
March 25 – Robert Newton, English actor (b. 1905)
March 28 – Thomas de Hartmann, Russian composer (b. 1885)
March 30 – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, English writer (b. 1875)
March 31 – Ralph DePalma, Italian-born American race car driver (b. 1884)
April
April 13 – Emil Nolde, German-Danish painter (b. 1867)
April 15 – Kathleen Howard, Canadian-born American actress and opera singer (b. 1884)
April 19 – Ernst Robert Curtius, Alsatian philologist (b. 1886)
Charles MacArthur, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1895)
April 24 – Henry Stephenson, British actor (b. 1871)
April 26 – Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
Harold Bride, English-born junior radio officer on RMS Titanic (b. 1890)
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, German field marshal (b. 1876)
April 30 – Alben W. Barkley, 35th Vice President of the United States (b. 1877)
May
May 6 – Fergus Anderson, British motorcycle racer (b. 1909)
May 12 – Louis Calhern, American actor (b. 1895)
May 15 – Austin Osman Spare, English artist and occultist (b. 1886)
Max Beerbohm, English essayist, parodist and caricaturist (b. 1872)
Zoltán Halmay, Hungarian Olympic swimmer (b. 1881)
May 23 – Gustav Suits, Estonian poet (b. 1883)
Eugen Dieth, dialectologist (b. 1893)
Guy Kibbee, American actor (b. 1882)
May 26 – Al Simmons, American baseball player (b. 1902)
May 29 – Frank Beaurepaire, Australian Olympic swimmer (b. 1891)
May 30 – George Murray Levick, British Antarctic explorer and naval surgeon (b. 1876)
May 31 – Diedrich Hermann Westermann, German linguist (b. 1875)
June
June 2 – Jean Hersholt, Danish-born American actor (b. 1886)
June 4 – Katherine MacDonald, American actress (b. 1891)
Hiram Bingham III, American explorer, discoverer of Machu Picchu (b. 1875)
Margaret Wycherly, English actress (b. 1881)
June 7 – Julien Benda, French philosopher and novelist (b. 1867)
Frank Brangwyn, Anglo-Welsh artist (b. 1867)
Ralph Morgan, American actor (b. 1883)
June 17 – Artur Văitoianu, Romanian general and politician, 27th prime minister of Romania (b. 1864)
June 19 – Thomas J. Watson, American computer pioneer (b. 1874)
June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer, and novelist (b. 1873)
June 23 – Reinhold Glière, Russian composer (b. 1875)
June 25 – Ernest King, American Navy Fleet Admiral and Commander in Chief (b. 1878)
June 26 – Clifford Brown, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1930)
July
July 1 – Tawfik Abu Al-Huda, 4-Time Prime Minister of Jordan (b. 1895)
July 7 – Gottfried Benn, German poet (b. 1886)
July 8 – Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet, novelist (b. 1881)
July 12 – Sprague Cleghorn, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1890)
August
Jackson Pollock, American painter (b. 1912; car accident)
Mincho Neychev, former chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly (head of state) of Bulgaria (b. 1887)
Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (b. 1898)
Konstantin von Neurath, Nazi German diplomat and foreign minister (b. 1873)
August 16 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born American film actor (Dracula) (b. 1882)
August 24 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director (b. 1898)
August 25 – Alfred Kinsey, American sex researcher (b. 1894)
September
September 7 – C. B. Fry, English sportsman and writer (b. 1872)
Billy Bishop, Canadian World War I flying ace (b. 1894)
Carlos Bulosan, Filipino-American novelist and poet (b. 1913)
Lucien Febvre, French historian (b. 1878)
September 20 – Flora Eldershaw, Australian novelist, critic, and historian (b. 1897)
September 22 – Frederick Soddy, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
September 27 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American golfer (b. 1911)
September 28 – William E. Boeing, American engineer and airplane manufacturer (b. 1881)
September 29 – Anastasio Somoza García, 29th president of Nicaragua (b. 1896)
October
October 2 – George Bancroft, American actor (b. 1882)
October 6 – Charles E. Merrill, American banker, co-founder of Merrill Lynch (b. 1885)
October 9 – Marie Doro, American actress (b. 1882)
October 12 – Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (b. 1872)
October 14 – Jules Richard, French mathematician (b. 1862)
October 16 – Jules Rimet, French football administrator, 3rd president of FIFA (b. 1873)
October 17 – Anne Crawford, British actress (b. 1920)
October 19 – Isham Jones, American musician (b. 1894)
October 22 – Hannah Mitchell, English socialist and suffragette (b. 1872)
October 25 – Risto Ryti, 23rd prime minister of Finland and 5th president of Finland (b. 1889)
October 26 – Walter Gieseking, French-born German pianist (b. 1895)
October 30 – Pío Baroja, Spanish novelist (b. 1872)
November
November 1 – Pietro Badoglio, Italian field marshal and 28th prime minister of Italy (b. 1871)
November 2 – Leo Baeck, German rabbi, scholar and theologian (b. 1873)
November 3 – Jean Metzinger, French painter, theorist and critic (b. 1883)
November 5 – Art Tatum, American jazz pianist (b. 1909)
November 6 – Albert F. Nufer, American diplomat and ambassador (b. 1894)
Harry Ford Sinclair, American oil industrialist (b. 1876)
Victor Young, American composer (b. 1899)
November 12 – Juan Negrín, 67th prime minister of Spain (b. 1892)
November 19 – Francis L. Sullivan, English actor (b. 1903)
November 22 – Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and actor (b. 1882)
November 23 – André Marty, French Communist Party leader (b. 1886)
November 24 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (b. 1920)
November 26 – Tommy Dorsey, American trombonist and bandleader (b. 1905)
December
December 2 – Dell Henderson, Canadian actor (b. 1877)
December 3 – Alexander Rodchenko, Russian artist (b. 1891)
December 6 – B. R. Ambedkar, Indian jurist and politician (b. 1891)
December 9 – Charles Joughin, English-born baker on RMS Titanic (b. 1878)
December 12 – E. A. Dupont, German film director (b. 1891)
December 14 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, twice Prime Minister of Finland and 7th president of Finland (b. 1870)
René Couzinet, French aeronautics engineer and aircraft manufacturer (b. 1904)
Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)
December 17 – Eddie Acuff, American actor (b. 1903)
December 21 – Lewis Terman, American psychologist (b. 1877)
December 23 – Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Spanish architect (b. 1867)
Holmes Herbert, English actor (b. 1882)
Preston Tucker, American automobile designer (b. 1903)
Date unknown
Dumitru Coroamă, Romanian soldier and fascist activist (b. 1885)
Victoria Hayward, Bermudan-born travel writer and journalist (b. 1876)
Lotte Herrlich, female photographer of German naturism (b. 1883)
Nobel Prizes
Physics – William Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain
Physiology or Medicine – André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, Dickinson W. Richards
Peace – Not Awarded
References
Bibliography
Further reading
London Institute of World Affairs, The Year Book of World Affairs 1957 (London 1957) full text online, comprehensive reference book covering 1956 in diplomacy, international affairs and politics for major nations and regions
External links