Timeline 1956
Return to home
1956 Jan 1, Sudan
became independent from Britain. Northern Muslim parties took over
rule. Southerners demanded autonomy and civil war began.
(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A14)(SFC, 11/17/00, p.A20)(WSJ,
10/22/03, p.A4)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.21)
1956 Jan 3, Mel Gibson,
Academy Award-winning director and actor, was born in Peekskill, New
York. His films included Braveheart (1995) actor and director;
Maverick, The Man Without a Face, Lethal Weapon series, Forever Young,
Hamlet, Bird on a Wire, Tequila Sunrise, Mad Max series, Mrs. Soffel,
The Road Warrior, The Year of Living Dangerously, Summer City.
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000154/)
1956 Jan 4, Oun Cheeand Sun was
elected by the People’s Socialist Communist Party and installed as
premier of Cambodia. He succeeded King Norodom Sihanouk.
(EWH, 1968, p.1272)
1956 Jan 5, Elvis Presley,
truckdriver, began his 1st recording session for RCA. "Heartbreak
Hotel," written by Mae Boren Axton, was the first song recorded. It
became the first of his 45 records to sell over a million copies. The
second was "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You", and "I Was the One"
was the third. In 1971 Jerry Hopkins authored Elvis: A Biography.
(SFC,1/22/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 4/6/97, DB p.65)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R34)(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A31)
1956 Jan 9, George Christopher was
sworn in as mayor of SF. He served to 1964.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F6)
1956 Jan 9, The first Dear Abbey
column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. It was written by
Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren. She began her
career as advice columnist "Dear Abby" under editor George Stanleigh
Arnold (d.1997 at 78). In 2002 her daughter took over the column.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A26)(SFC, 1/24/09, p.E1)
1956 Jan 10, The US Navy
established its first nuclear power school at Submarine Base, New
London, Connecticut.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1956 Jan 13, Lyonel Feininger
(b.1871), American-German painter, died. His work included the woodcut
"Kreuzende Segelschiffe" (1919) and the pen and ink wash "Three Ghosts"
(1953). A catalog of his prints was made by Leona Prasse (1897-1984),
late curator of prints at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Feininger
published comics for the Chicago Tribune from 1906-1907.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonel_Feininger)(HT,
5/97, p.60)(WSJ, 1/10/07, p.D10)
1956 Jan 13, Lebanon and Syria
signed a defense pact providing for joint retaliation against Israel if
either was attacked.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Jan 14, Little Richard
released "Tutti Frutti."
(MC, 1/14/02)
1956 Jan 16, Egyptian Pres. Nasser
pledged to reconquer Palestine. His government made Islam the state
religion.
(HN, 1/16/99)(MC, 1/16/02)
1956 Jan 19, The UN Security
council voted unanimously to censure Israel for its attack on Syria
(12/11/55) as a flagrant violation of the Palestine armistice.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Jan 19, Sudan became the 9th
member of the Arab League.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Jan 20, Buddy Holly recorded
"Blue Days Black Night" in Nashville.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1956 Jan 23, Alexander Korda (62),
English movie producer (Henry VIII), died.
(MC, 1/23/02)
1956 Jan 25, Khrushchev said that
he believed that Eisenhower was sincere in his efforts to abolish war.
(HN, 1/25/99)
1956 Jan 26, Buddy Holly had his
1st formal recording session. [see Jan 20]
(MC, 1/26/02)
1956 Jan 27, Elvis Presley's
"Heartbreak Hotel" and "I Was the One" was released by RCA. It sold
over 300,000 copies in its first three weeks on the market.
(Internet)
1956 Jan 28, Elvis Presley
recorded his television debut for “Stage Show” hosted by Tommy and
Jimmy Dorsey.”
(SFC, 12/27/04,
p.C10)(www.elvisconcerts.com/liv1956.htm)
1956 Jan 28, Pres. Eisenhower
rejected a proposal for a friendship pact from Soviet Premier Bulganin.
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)
1956 Jan 28, Iva Toguri D'Aquino
(1916-2006), a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio
propagandist "Tokyo Rose," was released from prison at Alderson, W.
Virginia. In 1949 she had been tried in San Francisco and convicted for
having spoken “into a microphone concerning the loss of ships.” She was
pardoned in 1977 by President Ford.
(SFC, 9/28/06, p.A18)(AH, 10/02, p.28)
1956 Jan 28-1956 Jan 29, Henry
Louis Mencken (b. Sep 11-12, 1880), author, critic and journalist, died
in his sleep in Baltimore. H.L. Mencken’s work included "Smart Set,"
"American Mercury," "In Defense of Women," "Treatise on the Gods," and
"A Mencken Chrestomathy." Mencken won fame as a journalist with the
Baltimore Morning Herald and Baltimore Sun, as editor of The American
Mercury magazine and as a literary critic. In 2002 Terry Teachout
authored "The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken." In 2005 Marion
Elizabeth Rodgers authored “Mencken: The American Iconoclast.”
(HNQ, 6/20/98)(SSFC, 11/3/02,
p.M1)(www.policyreview.org/DEC02/munson.html)
1956 Jan 31, British author A.A.
Milne (74), creator of "Winnie-the-Pooh," died. He left the rights to
the honey-loving bear to five beneficiaries that included the Garrick
Club, Westminster School, The Royal Literary Fund, his own family and
illustrator E.H. Shepard.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A20)(AP, 1/31/06)
1956 Jan 30, Elvis Presley
recorded his version of "Blue Suede Shoes."
(MC, 1/30/02)
1956 Jan 31, [Feb 1] A stick of
dynamite exploded on the porch of the Martin Luther King family.
(SFEM, 1/19/97, BR p.8)(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.12)
1956 Feb 2, Figure skater Tenley
Albright became the first American woman to win a gold medal at the
Winter Olympics in Italy. She achieved this despite an ankle injury.
(NYT, 2/3/1956, p. 26)
1956 Feb 2, Archbishop Makarios,
spokesman for the Greek Cypriotes, turned down a proposal for gradual
independence and demanded immediate sovereignty.
(EWH, 1968, p.1250)
1956 Feb 3, Lawyers for the NAACP
and the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) filed a petition in
federal court challenging the city’s bus segregation ordnance.
(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.12)
1956 Feb 3, Autherine Lucy
(b.1929) arrived at the Tuscaloosa branch of the Univ. of Alabama and
became the first black person to enroll there. She had been accepted in
1952 and then was denied because of her race.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/autherine-lucy-foster)
1956 Feb 6, The Univ. of Alabama
board of trustees voted to suspend Autherine Lucy, the 1st black
admitted to school, on the grounds that the campus was no longer safe
for her.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/autherine-lucy-foster)
1956 Feb 7, Garth Brooks, country
vocalist (No Fences), was born in Tulsa, Okla.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1956 Feb 8, U.S. banned the
launching of weather balloons because of Soviet complaints.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1956 Feb 14, The B.F. Huntley
furniture plant in Winston-Salem, NC, was destroyed by fire. The
factory was rebuilt and the Huntley name continued until it was sold to
Thomasville Furniture Industries in 1961.
(SFC, 7/9/08, p.G5)
1956 Feb 14-25, Khrushchev
denounced Stalin at the 20th Communist Party Congress at Moscow. [see
Feb 23, 25]
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(EWH, 1968,
p.1198)
1956 Feb 16, Britain abolished the
death penalty.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1956 Feb 17, The US announced a
suspension of all arms shipments to Israel and the Arab nations.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Feb 17, ATV Midlands launched
a weekday service and ABC began transmission at weekends in the same
region the following day. A north of England service, covering
Lancashire and Yorkshire, began in May, with ABC broadcasting at
weekends and Granada during the week.
(http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1057710,00.html)
1956 Feb 18, The US lifted its
arms ban and shipped tanks to Saudi Arabia.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Feb 18, Gustave Charpentier
(95), French opera composer (Louise), died.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1956 Feb 21, A Grand Jury in
Montgomery, Ala., indicted 115 in a Negro bus boycott.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1956 Feb 21, Edwin Franko Goldman
(78), composer, died.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1956 Feb 22, Elvis Presley's 1st
hit in Billboard's top 10: "Heartbreak Hotel."
(MC, 2/22/02)
1956 Feb 22, The US Montgomery
Boycott sparked arrests that included Martin Luther King. He was found
guilty on March 22 and ordered to pay a $500 fine.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(SFEM, 1/19/97, BR p.1)(Sm, 3/06,
p.44)
1956 Feb 23, Russian party leader
Nikita Khrushchev attacked the memory of Stalin. [see Feb 14, 25]
(MC, 2/23/02)
1956 Feb 25, Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev harshly criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before
a Communist Party congress in Moscow. Stalin was secretly disavowed by
Khrushchev at a party congress for promoting the "cult of the
individual." [see Feb 14, 23]
(AP, 2/25/98)(HN, 2/25/01)
1956 Feb 26, Writers Sylvia Plath
and Ted Hughes met at a party in Cambridge.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1956 Feb 27, Female suffrage was
granted in Egypt.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1956 Feb 29, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower announced he would seek a second term.
(AP, 2/29/00)(HN, 2/29/00)
1956 Mar 2, Morocco tore up the
Treaty of Féz and declared independence from France. A protocol
on Moroccan independence was signed in Paris.
(HN, 3/2/99)(EWH, 1968, p.1244)(SC, 3/2/02)
1956 Mar 3, Indonesian government
of Harahap resigned.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1956 Mar 5, "King Kong" was 1st
televised.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1956 Mar 5, The U.S. Supreme Court
affirmed the ban on segregation in public schools in Brown vs. Board of
Education.
(HN, 3/5/01)
1956 Mar 8, On the 2nd day of a
3-day regional conference of the Southern District Division of
Production, American Petroleum Institute, in San Antonio, Texas, M.
King Hubbert, a Shell geologist, predicted that US oil production for
the 48 states would peak (i.e., reach a maximum annual extraction rate)
in 1965 if the nation ultimately produced 150 billion barrels, and in
1969 if the nation ultimately produced 200 billion barrels. 1970 turned
out to be the peak year, both for the 48 states and for the 50 states
including Alaska.
(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.J3)(WSJ, 6/28/05, p.D8)
1956 Mar 9, British authorities
arrested and deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus to the
Seychelles. He was accused of supporting terrorists.
(EWH, 1968, p.1250)(HN, 3/9/98)
1956 Mar 10, A general strike in
Cyprus protested the exile of archbishop Makarios.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1956 Mar 11, Curtis L. Brown Jr.,
astronaut (STS 47, STS 66, 77, 85, sk:95), was born in NC.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1956 Mar 13, Elvis Presley
released his first album: "Elvis Presley."
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A1)
1956 Mar 15, The Lerner and Loewe
musical "My Fair Lady" opened starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison
at the Mark Hellinger Theater in NYC for 2,715 performances.
(AP, 3/15/97)(HN, 3/15/02)
1956 Mar 17, Fred Allen (b.1894),
American comedian (Fred Allen Radio Show), died.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(AP, 3/17/06)
1956 Mar 20, Union workers ended a
156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1956 Mar 20, Tunisia was granted
independence by France. Tunisia became an independent nation under the
leadership of Habib Bourguiba. He launched a campaign advocating birth
control. By 2003 the fertility rate plunged from 7.2 in the 1960s to
2.08.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1247)(SFEC,
4/12/98, p.T5)(SFC, 4/16/98, p.B4)(WSJ, 8/8/03, p.A1)
1956 Mar 20, Mount Bezymianny on
Kamchatka Peninsula, USSR, exploded.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1956 Mar 21, 50 years ago, "Marty"
won best picture at the Academy Awards; its star, Ernest Borgnine, won
best actor. Anna Magnani won best actress for "The Rose Tattoo."
(AP, 3/21/06)
1956 Mar 22, Musical "Mr.
Wonderful" with Sammy Davis Jr. premiered in NYC.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1956 Mar 23, Pakistan became an
independent republic within the British Commonwealth. Officially the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan became the first Islamic
republic,
(HFA, ‘96, p.26)(AHD, p.943)(AP, 3/23/97)(HN,
3/23/98)
1956 Mar 23, Soviet students
protested the campaign to desanctify Stalin.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1956 Mar 26, Medic Alert
Foundation formed.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1956 Mar 26, Red Buttons debuted
on TV in Studio One.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1956 Mar 27, US seized the US
communist newspaper "Daily Worker."
(MC, 3/27/02)
1956 Mar 27, French commandos
landed in Algeria.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1956 Mar, The Federal Hourly
Minimum Wage was set at $1.00 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1956 Apr 1, Libby Riddles, dogsled
racer: 1st woman to win Iditarod (1985), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1956 Apr 1, 10th Tony Awards:
Diary of Anne Frank and Damn Yankees won.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1956 Apr 1, Giovanni Giotta opened
the Cafe Trieste in San Francisco’s North Beach district at the corner
of Grant and Vallejo.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.C1)(SFC, 4/1/06, p.A1)
1956 Apr 2, The soap operas "As
the World Turns" and "The Edge of Night" premiered on CBS television.
(AP,
4/2/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edge_of_Night)
1956 Apr 2, Peter Ustinov's
"Romanoff and Juliet," premiered in Manchester.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1956 Apr 3, "Silk Stockings"
closed at Imperial Theater in NYC after 461 performances.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1956 Apr 3, German war criminals
Hinrichsen, Ruhl, Siebens and Viebahn were freed.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1956 Apr 4, Enid Bagnold's "Chalk
Garden," premiered in London.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1956 Apr 4, Spain relinquished its
protectorate to Morocco.
(EWH, 1968, p.1240)
1956 Apr 6, Polish communist
Gomulka was freed from prison.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1956 Apr 8, Poet Gary Snyder
resolved to write his opus Mountains and Rivers Without End.
(SFC, 9/1/96, DB p.31)
1956 Apr 8, Six marine recruits
drowned during exercise at Paradise Island, SC.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1956 Apr 10, Philips broadcasted
the 1st Dutch color TV programs.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1956 Apr 10, In Alabama singer Nat
Cole was attacked on stage at the Birmingham Municipal Auditorium by a
small group of white supremacists. Six local men were arrested for the
attack.
(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4113/is_200401/ai_n9350991/)(NYT,
4/11/1956, p.1)
1956 Apr 11, Elvis Presley's
"Heartbreak Hotel" went gold.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A1)
1956 Apr 11, French government
sent 200,000 reservists to Algeria.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1956 Apr 12, Henrique da
Rocha-Lima (b.1879), Brazilian scientist, died. Working in Germany, he
with Stanislaus von Prowazek (1875-1915) discovered Rickettsia
prowazekii, the pathogen of endemic typhus, which he named after the
German zoologist.
(www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/3185.html)
1956 Apr 13, Emil Nolde (b.1867 as
Emil Hansen), German Expressionist painter, died. He was a member of
the artist group Die Brucke.
(Econ, 10/11/08,
p.116)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Nolde)
1956 Apr 14, "Plain and Fancy"
closed at Mark Hellinger Theater in NYC after 476 performances.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1956 Apr 14, Ampex Corporation
demonstrated its first commercial videotape recorder, later renamed the
Mark IV, at the National Association of Radio and Television
Broadcasters Convention in Chicago.
(AP, 4/14/00)
1956 Apr 17, "Sugar" Ray Charles
Leonard, boxer (Oly-gold-1976) [or 5/17], was born.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1956 Apr 17, The Soviet Cominform
was officially dissolved.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1956 Apr 18, Eric Roberts, actor
(Pope of Greenwich Village, King of Gypsies), was born in Miss.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1956 Apr 18, Actress Grace Kelly
married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in a civil ceremony. A church
wedding took place the next day.
(AP, 4/18/97)
1956 Apr 18, An Israeli-Egyptian
cease fire, arranged by UN Gen’l. Sec. Dag Hammarskjöld, went into
effect.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)
1956 Apr 19, In southern England
Cdr. Lionel "Buster" Crabb, a decorated Royal Navy veteran, disappeared
while diving near Portsmouth. Secret documents released in 2006 showed
that British authorities lied to cover up the fate of a Crabb, who died
during a scuba diving spy mission near a warship used by Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.78)(AP, 10/27/06)
1956 Apr 21, Elvis Presley's 1st
hit record, "Heartbreak Hotel," became #1. [see Apr 25]
(MC, 4/21/02)
1956 Apr 21, Carl Perkins
(d.1998), rockabilly king, had his song "Blue Suede Shoes" hit the top
of the charts.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.A1,8)
1956 Apr 21, A tripartite military
pact was signed in Jidda between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
(EWH, 1968, p.1257)
1956 Apr 23, US Supreme court
ended race segregation on buses.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1956 Apr 23, During a 10-day visit
to England Khrushchev announced that the USSR would produce an H-bomb
guided missile.
(EWH, 1968, p.1198)
1956 Apr 25, Elvis Presley's
"Heartbreak Hotel" goes number one. [see Apr 21]
(HN, 4/25/98)(SFC, 1/20/98, p.A9)
1956 Apr 25, John W. Powell
(1919-2008), former editor of the China Weekly Review, was indicted by
a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges of sedition. Powell
had published articles about alleged military use of germ warfare
during the Korean War. A 5-day trial in 1959 ended in a mistrial and
the judge said the charge should been treason. A charge of treason was
dismissed 6 months later. All government charges were dropped in 1961.
(SSFC, 12/21/08, p.B6)
1956 Apr 27, Heavyweight boxer
Rocky Marciano announced his retirement. Marciano, with 43 knockouts to
his credit, retired having won every fight in his professional career.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Marciano)
1956 Apr 28, Last French troops
left Vietnam.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1956 Apr 30, Richard Farina, folk
singer (Reflections in a Crystal Wind), was born.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1956 Apr 30, Alben W. Barkley
(b.1877), the 35th Vice President of the US (1949-53), died in
Lexington, Va.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alben_W._Barkley)
1956 Apr, Ramon Barquin
(1914-2008), a former Cuban military attache in Washington, DC, was
imprisoned in Cuba after he led hundreds of soldiers in a coup that
failed when someone tipped off the government. He gained his freedom
three years later when Castro successfully toppled Batista, but he
opposed Castro soon after.
(AP, 3/6/08)
1956 May 2, US Methodist church
disallowed race separation.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1956 May 4, A new series of atomic
tests began in the Pacific.
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)
1956 May 8, John Osborne’s "Look
Back in Anger," premiered in London. The English dramatist introduced
the "angry young man" in his play "Look Back in Anger." It took English
theater on a radical turn. In 1958 it was made into a movie. In 2006
John Heilpern authored “John Osborne: A Patriot for Us.”
(http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/review/0,,1770791,00.html)(SFEC,
4/11/99, DB p.39)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.86)
1956 May 9, Sec. of State Dulles
announced that the US refused to supply arms to Israel in order to
avoid a US-USSR war by proxy.
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)
1956 May 9, The Philippines and
Japan signed a reparations agreement that provided for a Japanese
payment of $550 million in goods and services over a 20-year period.
(EWH, 1968, p.1291)
1956 May 10, French government
sent 50,000 reservists to Algeria. [see Apr 11]
(MC, 5/10/02)
1956 May 10, A UN sponsored
plebiscite in the British trust territory of Togoland revealed that the
voters wished to join the soon-to-be-established state of Ghana.
(EWH, 1968, p.1235)
1956 May 12, France shipped 12 jet
planes to Israel with the tacit approval of the US. This complemented
an April shipment.
(EWH, 1968, p.1255)
1956 May 12, East Pakistan was
struck by a cyclone and tidal waves.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1956 May 17, Sugar Ray [Charles]
Leonard, boxer (Olympics-gold-76) was born in Willington, SC.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1956 May 18, Queen Juliana opened
the Rembrandt fairs in Amsterdam.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1956 May 19, R.C., "(You’ve Got)
The Magic Touch" by The Platters peaked at #4 on the pop singles chart.
(DT, 5/19/97)
1956 May 20, The US dropped a
thermonuclear bomb from a plane onto Bikini Atoll. [see May 21]
(HN, 5/20/98)(MC, 5/20/02)
1956 May 20, Max Beerbohm,
caricaturist, writer (Yet Again), died.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1956 May 21, The first known
airborne US hydrogen bomb was tested over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
[see May 20]
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1210)(AP, 5/21/97)
1956 May 25, Pope Pius XII
published his encyclical Haurietis aquas.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1956 May 26, Aircraft carrier
"Bennington" burned off RI, killing 103.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1956 May 27, The French staged a
raid in Algiers.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1956 May 28, Germaine Montenesdro,
2nd victim of NYC's Zodiac killer, was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1956 May 28, Pres. Eisenhower
signed the Agriculture Act which embodied the "soil bank" plan to
reduce surpluses.
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)
1956 May 28, France in a treaty
with India renounced sovereignty over 4 territories held for 140 years.
(EWH, 1968, p.1262)
1956 May 29, Larry Blackmon,
rocker (Cameo-Alligator Woman), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1956 May 29, LaToya Yvette
Jackson, singer (posed in Playboy, Millipede), was born in Gary, IN.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1956 May 29, Greg R, rocker (Bad),
was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1956 May 29, Arnold
Schönberg's "Modern Psalm" premiered.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1956 May 29, Hermann Abendroth
(73) German conductor (Gewandhausorkest), died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1956 May 30, Bus boycott began in
Tallahassee, Florida.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1956 May-Aug, Terrorism raged on
Cyprus.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1956 Jun 1, Doris Day signed a
five-year recording contract with Columbia Records worth $1 million.
(DT, 6/1/97)
1956 Jun 5, A three-judge panel
ruled 2-1 in Browder vs. Gayle that segregation on Montgomery’s buses
was unconstitutional. Alabama officials appealed.
(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.12)
1956 Jun 8, The first American of
record to die in Vietnam was Air Force Tech Sergeant Richard B.
Fitzgibbon Jr. His son, Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, died in Vietnam Sep
7, 1965.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.B4)
1956 June 9, In Washington, DC,
President Eisenhower underwent surgery for an intestinal blockage. The
operation was a success and doctors assured the nation that the
president will make a full recovery.
(NYT, 6/9/1956, p.1)
1956 Jun 9, A heavy earthquake
struck Afghanistan and 400 were killed.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1956 Jun 10, In Argentina
loyalists smashed a Peronist revolt. 26 rebels were executed.
(EWH, 1968, p.1220)
1956 Jun 11, Ray Nagin, later
mayor of New Orleans, was born in New Orleans.
(WSJ, 1/10/06, p.A4)
1956 Jun 13, The 74-year British
occupation of the Suez Canal ended. The last British troops left the
Canal base.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)(PC, 1992 ed, p.953)
1956 Jun 13, The Int’l. Criminal
Police Commission, modified its constitution and adopted the name
Int’l. Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).
(www.exxun.com/ekio/io_interpol_2088.html)
1956 Jun 17, Golda Meir began her
term as Israel's foreign minister.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1956 Jun 19, Jerry Lewis and Dean
Martin no longer wished to film together after 16 films.
(DT, 6/19/97)
1956 Jun 19, Marilyn Monroe &
Arthur Miller were married.
(DT, 6/19/97)
1956 Jun 22, The battle for
Algiers began as three buildings in Casbah were blown up. France under
PM Guy Mollet resolved to put down the Arab uprising and put 400,000
soldiers in Algiers.
(HN, 6/22/98)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Jun 23, Egyptians approved a
new constitution and elected Gamal Abdel Nasser as president.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(EWH, 1968, p.1249)(AP, 6/23/97)
1956 Jun 27, Martin Luther King
was the featured speaker at the NAACP convention held at the SF Civic
Auditorium.
(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.10)
1956 Jun 28-30, Workers rioted in
Poznan, Poland, and some 100 died.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1956 Jun 29, Pres. Eisenhower
signed the US Federal Highway Act. It authorized a 42,500 mile network
linking major urban centers. 90% of the cost was to be borne by the
federal government. Initial estimates put completion in 12 years for
$25 billion. The system was completed in 1993 at a cost of $425 billion
(in 2006 dollars).
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)(SFC, 6/17/06, p.A1)(Econ,
2/16/08, p.32)
1956 Jun 29, Marilyn Monroe
married playwright Arthur Miller in a London ceremony.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1956 Jun 29, Charles Dumas became
the first person to jump over 7 feet.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1956 Jun 30, A United DC-7 and a
TWA Lockheed Constellation collided during a thunderstorm over the
Grand Canyon (Arizona) killing all 128 people.
(WSJ, 6/20/06, p.D3)(SFC, 6/30/09, p.D8)
1956 Jun 30, The Soviet Union
recognized Laos.
(EWH, 1968, p.1273)
1956 Jul 1, Elvis Presley appeared
on the Steve Allen Show wearing a tuxedo.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1956 Jul 2, Jeffrey Cooper,
guitarist (Midnight Star-No Parking), was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1956 Jul 2, Jerry Hall, model,
Mrs. Mick Jagger, was born in Mesquite, Tx.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1956 Jul 2, Julie Montgomery,
actress (Samantha-1, Life to Live, Kindred), was born in KC, Mo.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1956 Jul 2, Former truckdriver
Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog" by Lieber and Stoller and "Don't Be
Cruel." Presley, began Rock-n-Roll with his song "Don’t Be Cruel,"
written by Otis Blackwell (d.2002 at 70).
(SC, 7/2/02)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(SFC, 5/10/02,
p.A31)
1956 Jul 2, Turkey rejected a
British plan for the eventual self-determination of Cyprus.
(EWH, 1968, p.1250)
1956 Jul 3, Loew's was removed
from the DJIA and International Paper was added as a component of the
Dow Jones.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R46)(WSJ, 4/8/04, p.C4)
1956 Jul 5, France raised the
tobacco tax 20% to support war in Algeria.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1956 Jul 7, The Douglas Moore and
John Latouche opera "Ballad of Baby Doe," premiered.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1956 Jul 7, Seven Army trucks
loaded with dynamite exploded in middle of Cali, Columbia, killing
1,100-1,200. 2000 buildings were destroyed.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1956 Jul 9, Tom Hanks, actor
(Bossom Buddies, Forrest Gump, Phila), was born in Concord, Calif.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1956 Jul 9, Fred and Pat Cody
opened Cody’s bookstore in Berkeley, Ca. In 1977 they sold the
operation to Andy Ross. In 2005 Ross planned to open a store in Union
Square, SF. In 2006 Ross sold the company to a Japanese firm. Cody’s
closed its last store in Berkeley on June 20, 2008.
(SFC, 1/7/05, p.C1)(SFC, 6/23/08, p.A7)(SFC,
6/23/08, p.A7)
1956 Jul 10, 650,000 US steel
workers went on strike.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1956 Jul 19-20, The US and Britain
announced the withdrawal of their aid offers to Egypt for the
construction of the Aswan high dam.
(EWH, 1968, p.1249)
1956 Jul 20, Great Britain refused
to lend Egypt money to build Aswan Dam.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1956 Jul 20, France recognized
Tunisia's independence. [see Mar 20]
(MC, 7/20/02)
1956 Jul 23, The Bell X-2 rocket
plane set a world aircraft speed record of 3,050 kph.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1956 Jul 24, Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis performed for the last time at the Copacabana Club in NYC after a
decade together as the country's most popular comedy team.
(SSFC, 10/23/05, Par p.5)
1956 Jul 24, Brendan Behan's
"Quare Fellow," premiered in London.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1956 Jul 25, In Germany compulsory
military service became law.
(EWH, 1968, p.1182)
1956 Jul 25, Jordanians attacked
the UN Palestine truce.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1956 Jul 25, The Italian liner
Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish passenger ship Stockholm off the
New England coast late at night and began sinking in 200 feet of water
50 miles southeast of Nantucket Island, Mass. 51 people died as a
result of the impact. The Dorea was headed from Genoa, Italy, to NY.
The Andrea Doria sank eleven hours after the crash.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A1)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A16)(SFC,
7/30/99, p.D5)(AP, 7/25/07)
1956 Jul 26, Dorothy Hamill,
(Olympic Hall of Famer, Olympic Gold Medalist ice skater [1976]; U.S.
Ice Skating Champion [1974-1976]), was born.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1956 Jul 26, The Italian liner
Andrea Doria sank off New England, some 11 hours after colliding with
the Swedish liner Stockholm; at least 51 people died.
(AP, 7/26/06)
1956 Jul 26, Egypt’s Premier Gamal
Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal to provide revenue for the
construction of the high Aswan dam. His speech in Alexandria, which
included the codeword “De Lesseps,” triggered the army to start the
seizure of the canal.
(EWH, 1968, p.1241)(EWH, 1968, p.1249)(Econ,
7/29/06, p.23)
1956 Jul 29, Jacques Cousteau's
Calypso anchored in at a record 7,500 m under water.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1956 Jul 30, Anita Hill, professor
of law, Clarence Thomas' nemesis, was born.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1956 Jul 30, US motto "In God We
Trust" was authorized.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1956 Aug 2, Albert Woolson (109),
last veteran US Union army, died. Walter Williams, officially
recognized as the last survivor of the 4 million who fought in the
Civil War, died in 1959 at age117 in Houston. He had served as forage
master for a Confederate cavalry company.
(HN,
12/19/98)(www.chipublib.org/008subject/005genref/faqvet.html)
1956 Aug 3, Kirk Brandon, rocker
(Theatre of Hate, Spear of Destiny-Outland), was born.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1956 Aug 4, Elvis Presley released
"Hound Dog."
(MC, 8/4/02)
1956 Aug 4, The government of
Indonesia repudiated more than $1 billion owed to the Netherlands.
(EWH, 1968, p.1277)
1956 Aug 6, The government of
China lifted a 7-year ban on visits from US newsmen.
(EWH, 1968, p.1280)
1956 Aug 7, British government
sent 3 aircraft carriers to Egypt.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1956 Aug 11, Elvis Presley
released "Don't Be Cruel."
(MC, 8/11/02)
1956 Aug 11, Abstract artist
Jackson Pollock (b.1912) died at age 44 in an automobile accident in
East Hampton, N.Y. He was born in Wyoming and became a leader of the
abstract expressionist school of art.
(AHD, 1971, p.1015)(AP, 8/11/97)
1956 Aug 13, The 9 members of the
Arab League declared that an attack on Egypt would be interpreted as an
attack on all League members.
(EWH, 1968, p.1242)
1956 Aug 14, The US established a
Middle-East Emergency Committee to assure Western Europe of US oil
supplies if the Suez crises interrupted shipments.
(EWH, 1968, p.1210)
1956 Aug 14, Bertold Brecht
(b.1898), German dramatist (Mother Courage), died. His first play was
"Baal." He also wrote "The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui," a satire on
Hitler’s rise to power. In 1959 Prof. Martin Esslin (d.2002 at 83)
authored "Brecht: A Choice of Evils."
(WSJ, 10/3/96, p.A12)(SFEC, 8/10/97, DB p.15)(SFC,
2/28/02, p.A20)(MC, 8/14/02)
1956 Aug 14, Freiherr Constantine
von Neurath, German foreign minister under Hitler (1932-38), died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1956 Aug 16, Adlai E. Stevenson
was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in
Chicago. John F. Kennedy made his convention debut at the Democratic
convention in Chicago. Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver withdrew his
name from the balloting and asked his 200 delegates to support Adlai E.
Stevenson for the presidential nomination. Stevenson won the nomination
on the first ballot with 905 votes to New York Governor Averell
Harriman's 200 votes. Kefauver then went on to narrowly defeat Senator
John F. Kennedy for the party's vice-presidential nomination.
(WSJ, 8/26/96, p.A12)(HNQ, 8/10/99)(AP, 8/16/97)
1956 Aug 16, Bela Lugosi (b.1882),
actor (Dracula), died of heart attack in Hollywood. He was born in
Hungary as Bela Blasko.
(Internet)
1956 Aug 17, The Cypriots offered
a cease fire.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1956 Aug 18, Elvis Presley's
"Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reached #1.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1956 Aug 20, The Republican
Convention opened at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Ca.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, Z1 p.4)
1956 Aug 20, The US state
department reaffirmed its ban on travel to China.
(EWH, 1968, p.1280)
1956 Aug 21, Kim Cattrall, actress
(Mannequin, Star Trek VI), was born in Liverpool, England.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1956 Aug 22, President Eisenhower
and Vice President Nixon were nominated for second terms in office by
the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
(AP, 8/22/97)(Ind, 11/3/01, 5A)
1956 Aug 23, US Navy pilot Lt.
James B. Deane Jr. was shot out of the sky on a nighttime spy flight
off the coast of China. The Martin P4M-1Q Mercator in which Deane and
15 other men were flying was shot down over the East China Sea. China
later acknowledged that its jet fighters attacked the Mercator as it
scooped up electronic intelligence on military radars and other
sensitive Chinese systems. The remains of four crew members were
recovered, two by the crew of a U.S. search vessel and two by China,
which returned the bodies through British authorities in Shanghai. The
other 12 were never found.
(AP, 5/6/06)
1956 Aug 25, Alfred C. Kinsey
(62), US human sexuality researcher (Kinsey Report), died in
Bloomington, Ind.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(AP, 8/25/06)
1956 Aug 25, In South Africa the
government ordered over 100,000 non-whites to leave their homes in
Johannesburg within a year, in order to make room for whites.
(EWH, 1968, p.1232)
1956 Aug 29, French government
sent troops to Cyprus near Suez crisis.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1956 Aug 30, In Louisiana the
2-lane Lake Pontchartrain causeway opened. A 2nd span was added in 1969.
(HC, 6/14/05)
1956 Aug 30, A white mob prevented
the enrollment of blacks at Mansfield HS, Texas.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1956 Aug, Yasser Arafat attended
an int’l. student congress in Prague and secured membership for
Palestine.
(WSJ, 11/12/04, p.A11)
1956 Sep 1, Indian state of
Tripura became a territory.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1956 Sep 2, Tennessee National
Guardsmen halted rioters protesting the admission of 12
African-Americans to schools in Clinton.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1956 Sep 3, Tanks were deployed
against racist demonstrators in Clinton, Tennessee.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1956 Sep 6, Felix Borowski,
composer and music critic, died at 84.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1956 Sep 8, Harry Belafonte's
album "Calypso," went to #1 and stayed #1 for 31 weeks.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1956 Sep 9, Elvis Presley made the
first of three appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." By his third and
final appearance on the Sullivan show, due to a number of viewers, who
were outraged at his suggestive gyrations, Elvis was filmed from only
the waist-up.
(AP, 9/9/97)(MC, 9/9/01)
1956 Sep 10, In Louisville, Ky.,
the public schools integrated.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1956 Sep 11, Britain and France
announced economic pressure on Egypt to accept international control
over the Suez Canal.
(EWH, 1968, p.1242)
1956 Sep 12, British Prime
Minister Eden announced a British, French, US agreement to establish an
association to operate the Suez. Nasser dubbed this as an attempt to
provoke war.
(EWH, 1968, p.1242)
1956 Sep 12, In Haiti under
pressure of a general strike Magloire gave up the presidency.
(EWH, 1968, p.1220)
1956 Sep 12-17, Pres. Sukarno of
Indonesia made a state visit to Moscow and announced a Soviet loan of
$100 million.
(EWH, 1968, p.1277)
1956 Sep 13, Stravinsky's
"Canticum Sacrum," premiered in Venice.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1956 Sep 13, IBM introduced the
Model 305 computer capable of storing 20 megabytes of data. Reynold B.
Johnson (d.1998 at 92), IBM lab leader, developed a way to store
computer data on a metal disk instead of on tape or drum. The first
commercial disk drive, called RAMAC (random access method of accounting
and control), was developed by IBM and sold for $50,000. It used 50
disk platters, each 2-feet in diameter. Together they held 5 megabytes
of data. His Random Access Method of Accounting Control began the disk
drive industry.
(http://tinyurl.com/k3rzf)(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A21)(WSJ,
8/22/06, p.B3)
1956 Sep 14, Egypt assumed
complete control over the operation of the Suez Canal.
(EWH, 1968, p.1249)
1956 Sep 17, Black students
entered a Clay, Ky., elementary school.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1956 Sep 21, Anastasio Somoza,
Nicaraguan dictator, was assassinated by Roliberto Lopez. [see Sep 22]
(MC, 9/21/01)
1956 Sep 22, Pres. Somoza of
Nicaragua was shot. [see Sep 21]
(EWH, 1968, p.1216)
1956 Sep 24, The first
transatlantic telephone cable system from Newfoundland to Scotland
began operation.
(HN, 9/24/98)(MC, 9/24/01)
1956 Sep 25, The first
trans-Atlantic telephone cable went into service.
(AP, 9/25/06)
1956 Sep 26, Linda Hamilton
actress, was born. (Terminator series, Beauty and the Beast, Children
of the Corn).
(MC, 9/26/01)
1956 Sep 26, Lucien Febvre, French
historian (Un Destin, Martin Luther), died at 78.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1956 Sep 27, Mildred E "Babe"
Didrikson Zaharias (b.1911), track and field gold medalist (1932)
and Hall of Fame golfer, died in Galveston, Texas. Six years earlier
the Associated Press had named her the Greatest Female Athlete of the
First Half of the 20th Century.
(http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/siforwomen/top_100/2/)(AP, 9/27/06)
1956 Sep 27, Gerald Raphael Finzi,
composer, died at 55.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1956 Sep 27, The U.S. Air Force
Bell X-2, the world’s fastest and highest-flying plane, crashed,
killing the test pilot.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1956 Sep 28, RCA Records reported
Elvis Presley sold over 10 million records.
(MC, 9/28/01)
1956 Sep 29, Pres. Somoza of
Nicaragua died of gunshot wounds. He was succeeded by his son Luis.
(EWH, 1968, p.1216)
1956 Sep 30, In Algiers a blast at
the Milk Bar cafe together with another device set off nearby, killed
three people and wounded 60, including children. Several people lost
limbs sliced off by flying glass. Zohra Drif (20) set one device as a
reprisal for a big French bombing that killed dozens in the Casbah
weeks earlier. Captured soon afterwards, she was sentenced to death and
spent five years in French prisons.
(Reuters, 9/28/06)
1956 Sep 30, An Israeli delegation
presented France with a fabricated reason for war in Egypt. The details
were agreed on at a secret meeting in Sevres. Israel proposed to invade
Egypt and then let France and Britain come in as peacekeepers and
occupy the Suez Canal.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Sep, Sanche de Gramont (23),
a graduate of Yale, departed for Algeria. He spent 16 months there as a
French lieutenant working for a pro-French newspaper. He later changed
his name to Ted Morgan and in 2006 authored “My Battle of Algiers.”
(WSJ, 2/2/06, p.D8)
1956 Oct 6, Dr. Albert Sabin
discovered oral polio vaccine. Sabin developed an oral vaccine against
polio. It began to be used in 1961 and by 1965 was widely used.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(SFC, 6/18/99, p.A40)(MC, 10/6/01)
1956 Oct 8, Don Larsen pitched the
only perfect game in a World Series to date as the New York Yankees
beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5, 2-0.
(AP, 10/8/08)
1956 Oct 10, The New York Yankees
won the World Series, defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers, 9-0, in Game 7 at
Ebbets Field.
(AP, 10/10/06)
1956 Oct 13, A USSR veto prevented
a UN Security Council compromise resolution over the Suez.
(EWH, 1968, p.1242)
1956 Oct 14, Charles Ives'
overture "Robert Browning," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1956 Oct 14, British and French
officials met as Israel was about to attack Egypt. Anthony Nutting
(d.1999 at 79), a deputy foreign secretary, learned that Prime Minister
Anthony Eden had agreed with the French that once fighting began, they
would send in paratroopers under the guise to separate the fighting
factions, but would actually support Israel, seize the canal and
undermine Nasser. Nutting resigned when British planes took to the air
Oct 31.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A25)
1956 Oct 15, Pres. Eisenhower
appointed William J. Brennan Jr. to the Supreme Court. He served until
1990. In 1997 a collection of essays on Brennan was edited by
Rosenkranz and Schwartz titled: "Reason and Passion: Justice Brennan’s
Enduring Influence."
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(WSJ, 7/24/97, p.A16)(MC,
10/15/01)
1956 Oct 15, Pan Am Flight 943,
enroute to Hawaii from San Francisco crash landed in the ocean. All 31
aboard were rescued by the Coast Guard cutter Pontchartrain.
(SFC, 1/24/09, p.A1)
1956 Oct 16, The film "Love Me
Tender" with Elvis Presley premiered.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1956 Oct 17, The all-star movie
"Around the World in 80 Days," produced by Michael Todd, had its world
premiere in New York.
(AP, 10/17/06)
1956 Oct 17, The nuclear power
station Calder Hall was opened in Britain. Calder Hall was the first
nuclear station to feed an appreciable amount of power into a civilian
network. In 2007 engineers began the planned decommissioning of the
plant.
(HN, 10/17/98)(AP, 9/29/07)
1956 Oct 18, Martina Navratilova,
Czechoslovakian-born tennis player, was born.
(HN, 10/18/98)
1956 Oct 19, A Japanese-Soviet
peace declaration ended an 11-year state of war, but left unresolved
the disposition of the Kurile Islands. [see Dec 26]
(EWH, 1968, p.1285)
1956 Oct 20, Polish and Soviet
troops exchanged fire.
(EWH, 1968, p.1201)
1956 Oct 20, Tangier became part
of independent Morocco.
(EWH, 1968, p.1228)
1956 Oct 22, France intercepted a
Moroccan plane and arrested Ben Bella, an Algerian statesman.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1956 Oct 23, The 1st video
recording on magnetic tape was televised coast-to-coast.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1956 Oct 23, Britain’s PM Anthony
Eden admitted to the cabinet that secret conversations had been held in
Paris with representatives of the Israeli government.
(Econ, 12/16/06, p.86)
1956 Oct 23, An anti-Stalinist
revolt began in Hungary. As the revolution spread, Soviet forces
started entering the country, and the uprising was put down within
weeks. Bela Kiraly (1912-2009), recently released from prison, was
named as the military commander of the Budapest and head of the
national guard. In 2001 Bela Liptak authored "A Testament of
Revolution." In 2006 three books were published that covered Hungary’s
October Revolution: “Failed Illusions” by Charles Gati; “Journey to a
Revolution” by Michael Korda; and Viktor Sebestyen’s “Twelve Days: The
Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.”
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/19/01, p.A20)(WSJ,
10/20/06, p.W4)(Econ, 10/21/06, p.94)(AP, 10/23/07)(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.C8)
1956 Oct 24, Soviet troops invaded
Hungary and Imre Nagy became PM of Hungary.
(http://tinyurl.com/yydkfe)
1956 Oct 26, Walter Gieseking
(60), German pianist and composer, died.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1956 Oct 27, A Franco-German
agreement was signed to transfer the Saar Basin to West Germany.
France, Germany and Luxembourg agreed to canalize the Moselle River,
connecting the steel industry with the Ruhr Valley. The Saar Treaty
established that Saarland should be allowed to rejoin Germany. This
took place on Jan 1, 1957.
(EWH, 1968,
p.1182)(http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Saarland)
1956 Oct 29, "The Huntley-Brinkley
Report" with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley (1920-2003) premiered as
NBC's nightly television newscast, replacing "The Camel News Caravan."
It ran to 1970. Brinkley remained with NBC for 11 more years.
(AP, 10/29/97)(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.38)(MC,
10/29/01)(SFC, 6/13/03, p.A2)
1956 Oct 29, During the Suez Canal
crisis, Israel launched an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Paratroopers under Ariel Sharon dropped into Sinai to open the Straits
of Tiran. The Sinai Campaign, also known as Operation Kadesh, lasted
eight days to November 5, 1956.
(AP, 10/29/97)(Econ, 7/29/06,
p.24)(www.jafi.org.il/education/100/Concepts/d3.html)
1956 Oct 29, International zone of
Tangier was returned to Morocco.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1956 Oct 29, Polish Cardinal
Wyszinski was released from custody.
(EWH, 1968, p.1201)
1956 Oct 30, Britain and France
issued an ultimatum to Cairo and Tel Aviv to end fighting and withdraw
from a 10-mile strip along the canal.
(EWH, 1968, p.1242)
1956 Oct 31, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower praised the promise by Moscow made the previous day of major
concessions to Hungarians in revolt as "the dawning of a new day" in
Eastern Europe. Anti-government demonstrations in Budapest a week
earlier had forced a reshuffling of the Hungarian government and
demands that the new government denounce the Warsaw Pact and seek
liberation from Soviet domination.
(HNQ, 10/1/99)
1956 Oct 31, Rear Admiral G.J.
Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole.
(AP, 10/31/97)
1956 Oct 31, Great Britain and
France attempted to take over the Suez Canal. They bombed Egyptian
airfields.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Oct, The World Series was won
by the New York Yankees over the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-3.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Oct, The Brooklyn Dodgers
completed their last season in NYC. In 2003 Michael Shapiro authored
"The Last Good Season." The team moved to LA after Robert Moses, head
of the Triborought Bridge and Tunnel District, blocked the efforts of
owner Walter O’Malley to build a new Brooklyn ballpark.
(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.D8)
1956 Nov 1, Walter Brattain, John
Bardeen and William Shockley were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics
for the invention of the transistor. The trio invented the transistor
in 1948 at the Bell Laboratories. William Schockley, co-developer of
the transistor, founded Schockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Palo Alto
this year. Two of his hires, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, later went
on to start Intel Corp. Tim Jackson in 1998 published "Inside Intel."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.4)(WSJ, 2/13/98, p.A13)(HNQ,
12/23/99)
1956 Nov 1, The Nagy government of
Hungary withdrew from the Warsaw Pact.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1956 Nov 1, Pietro
Badoglio (85), Italian general (1922-43), Premier of Italy (1943-44),
died.
(www.fact-index.com/p/pi/pietro_badoglio.html)
1956 Nov 2, Hungary appealed for
UN assistance against Soviet invasion. The Soviets chose Janos Kadar to
form a counter-government.
(http://tinyurl.com/yydkfe)
1956 Nov 2, Gaza was occupied by
the Israeli army and evacuated in March 1957.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07101.html)
1956 Nov 2, The UN passed an
American resolution, 64 to 5, for a ceasefire at the Suez Canal in
Egypt. The General Assembly took up a Canadian suggestion for an
emergency force to monitor the ceasefire. These became the first “blue
hat” UN peacekeepers.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Nov 2, Jacob Weinberg (77),
composer, died.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1956 Nov 3, "Wizard of Oz" was 1st
televised (CBS-TV).
(MC, 11/3/01)
1956 Nov 4, Arthur Tatum (Art
Tatum, 46), US jazz pianist and composer, died.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1956 Nov 4, Israel captured the
Straits of Tiran and reached the Suez Canal in Egypt.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1956 Nov 4, Russian troops and
tanks attacked Budapest and crushed the Hungarian revolt under Premier
Imre Nagy. Soviet troops marched into the country. Martial law was
proclaimed and mass arrests followed. The UN censured the USSR. The
repression was organized by Yuri Andropov who later became Chief of the
KGB in 1967. 25,000 people were killed. Janos Kadar was installed by
the Soviet Union as head of Hungary's Communist Party.
(WSJ, 12/14/95, p.A-12)(SFC, 10/23/96, p.A8)(WSJ,
12/27/96, p.A5)(AP, 5/22/98)
1956 Nov 5, Britain and France
started landing troops in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and
Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. A cease-fire was declared two
days later.
(AP, 11/5/97)
1956 Nov 5, Israel liberated
Sharm-el-Sheikh, reopening Gulf of Aqaba.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1956 Nov 6, The Eisenhower-Nixon
Republican ticket won the presidential elections beating Democrat Adlai
E. Stevenson. The Democrats won a majority in both houses of Congress.
(SFC, 11/7/56, p.A1)(EWH, 1968, p.1210)(AP,
11/6/97)
1956 Nov 6, Pressure from the US
and USSR effected a cease-fire in the Middle-East. The UN created an
emergency force (UNEF) to supervise a cease fire. Britain’s PM Anthony
Eden called French PM Guy Mollet to tell him that Britain was aborting
operations in Egypt. German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, meeting with
Mollet, remarked that Europe must unite to counter the influence of the
United States.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(EWH, 1968, p. 1242)(Econ,
7/29/06, p.24)
1956 Nov 6, Holland and Spain
withdrew from Olympics, to protest Soviets in Hungary.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1956 Nov 7, Britain’s PM Anthony
Eden surrendered to American demands and stopped British operations in
Egypt’s Canal Zone.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.29)
1956 Nov 12, Largest observed
iceberg, 208 by 60 miles, was 1st sighted.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1956 Nov 13, The U.S. Supreme
Court struck down the Alabama bus segregation law. The Supreme Court
struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.
(AP, 11/13/97)(HN, 11/13/98)
1955 Nov 14, Robert E. Sherwood
(59), dramatist (Abe Lincoln in Illinois), died.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1956 Nov 14, The Hungarian revolt
was put down.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1956 Nov 15, The first units of
UNEF arrived to enforce the cease fire in the Suez Canal Zone.
(EWH, 1968, p.1242)
1956 Nov 16, "Love Me Tender," the
first Elvis Presley film, premiered in NYC.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A1)
1956 Nov 17, Soviet Sec. Gen.
Nikita Khrushchev told Western diplomats "We will bury you." A later
translation of his statement quoted the phrase as “be present at the
funeral” of the West.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F3)(Econ, 8/11/07, p.14)
1956 Nov 18, An agreement in
Moscow was signed for equality in Polish-Soviet relations.
(EWH, 1968, p.1201)
1956 Nov 24, "Pajama Game" closed
at St James Theater NYC after 1063 performances.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1956 Nov 25, Fidel Castro and his
81 rebel exiles departed Mexico to liberate Cuba from the corrupt
dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Che Guevara had recently joined
Fidel and his band of Cuban rebel exiles as their doctor.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(SFC, 6/16/97,
p.D3)(SFC,10/15/97, p.C2)
1956 Nov 26, Bandleader Tommy
Dorsey died in Greenwich, Conn., a week after his 51st birthday.
(AP, 11/26/06)
1956 Nov 29, The musical "Bells
Are Ringing," starring Judy Holliday, opened at Shubert Theater in NYC
for 925 performances. It was written by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and
Jule Styne.
(AP, 11/29/01)(WSJ, 4/18/01, p.A20)
1956 Nov 30, U.S. offered
emergency oil to Europe to counter the Arab ban.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1956 Nov 30, Britain and France
bowed to UN pressure and agreed to leave the Suez Canal. Russia and the
US forced a combined British, French and Israeli operation against
Nasser in the Suez to abort.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(TMC, 1994, p.1956)
1956 Nov, Austria provided
humanitarian aid to nearly 200,000 Hungarians fleeing their homeland
after Soviet tanks crushed freedom fighters aiming to overthrow
repressive communist rule.
(AP, 10/20/06)
1956 Nov, Hungarian Cardinal
Mindszenty (b.1892) took refuge in the US embassy in Budapest.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1956 Dec 1, Leonard Bernstein's
musical "Candide," based on the work by Voltaire, opened at Martin Beck
Theater in NYC for 73 performances. The book was by Lillian Hellman
with lyrics by Richard Wilbur.
(AP, 12/1/99)(SFC, 1/11/05, p.E1)
1956 Dec 2, Fidel Castro landed on
coast of Cuba. Castro landed with a small armed force to overthrow
dictator Fulgencio Batista. Che Guevara was one of the few who survived
the disastrous landing of the rebels’ boat, the Granma.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(SFC,10/15/97, p.C2)(MC, 12/2/01)
1956 Dec 3, England & France
pulled troops out of Egypt.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1956 Dec 5, Thornton Wilder's
"Matchmaker," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1956 Dec 6, Nelson Mandela and 156
others were arrested for political activities in South Africa.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1956 Dec 7, Larry Bird, American
basketball player for the Boston Celtics, was born. He won the NBA MVP
award three years in a row.
(HN, 12//99)
1956 Dec 12, In Hungary a general
strike protested the Kadar Regime and the UN General Assembly adopted a
resolution that condemned Soviet repression in Hungary, called on the
USSR to withdraw its forces, and urged Hungarian independence.
(EWH, 1968, p.1183)(HN, 12/12/98)
1956 Dec 14, John Diefenbaker was
elected leader of the Progressive Conservative party in Canada. he
succeeded John Drew.
(EWH, 1968, p.1213)
1956 Dec 16, Cardinal Francis
Spellman, the Archbishop of New York, personally denounced the
yet-to-be released movie "Baby Doll," saying Catholics would be
committing a sin if they saw it.
(AP, 12/16/98)
1956 Dec 17, A Soviet-Polish
agreement limited the role of Soviet troops in Poland.
(EWH, 1968, p.1201)
1956 Dec 18, "To Tell the Truth"
debuted on CBS-TV.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1956 Dec 18, The Israeli flag was
hoisted on Mount Sinai.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1956 Dec 18, Japan was admitted to
the United Nations.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(EWH, 1968, p.1292)(AP, 12/18/97)
1956 Dec 20, The Supreme Court
affirmed the Jun 5 decision against segregation on buses in Montgomery,
Alabama. Montgomery removed race-based seat assignments on its buses.
(SFEM, 1/19/97, BR p.8)(SFEM, 2/2/97, p.12,13)(MC,
12/20/01)
1956 Dec 22, The 1st gorilla was
born in captivity at Columbus, Ohio.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1956 Dec 22, The evacuation of the
Suez Canal was completed by Britain and France.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)(MC, 12/22/01)
1956 Dec 22, For the first time a
gorilla was born in captivity.
(HFA, ‘96, p.20)
1956 Dec 24, African Americans
defied a city law in Tallahassee, Fla., and occupied front bus seats.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1956 Dec 25, Pres. Eisenhower
invited Robert George (d.1998 at 74) to the White House as the official
Santa Claus. George served as the official Santa for 6 presidents and
maintained a year-round Christmas display at his home in Glendale, CA.,
until 1987 when it was declared a gaudy eyesore.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.C2)
1956 Dec 26, The USSR ended its
state of war with Japan.
(EWH, 1968, p.1198)
1956 Dec 27, Segregation on
Tallahassee, Fla. buses was outlawed.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1956 Dec 29, President Eisenhower
asked Congress for the authority to oppose Soviet aggression in the
Mideast.
(HN, 12/29/98)
1956 Dec 29, Salvage crews began
to clear the Suez Canal.
(EWH, 1968, p.1242)
1956 Dec 30, The New York Giants
defeated the Chicago Bears, 47-to-7, to win the NFL Championship Game.
(AP, 12/30/06)
1956 Dec 30, Sgt. Joseph Lacey, SF
police officer, was shot and killed while trying to stop a robbery.
(SFC, 2/17/07, p.B5)
1956 Dec 31, In Dallas 12-year-old
Jeannett Mangan was slain on Goat Hill bluff. Ernesto Lopez (19) and
Simon Rodriguez (16) were later convicted of the rape and murder. In
1962 both men escaped from prison. Rodriguez was captured but Lopez
remained at large until he was captured in 1997.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A8)
1956 Pop art emerged pioneered in
Britain by such artists as David Hockney, Richard Hamilton and Peter
Blake. In the US the style was led by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and
Robert Rauchenberg. Hungarian born artist Victor Vasarely (1906-1997)
made colorful abstract works in Paris that created the illusion of
movement.
(TL, 1988, p.115)(SFC, 3/16/97, p.C12)
1956 British artist Francis Bacon
(1909-1992) painted "Study for Figure V."
(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.6)
1956 Balthus (Balthazar Klossowski
aka Count de Rola b.1908) painted a pair of interior scenes with
sleeping girls "The Golden Fruit" and "Golden Afternoon." Most of his
works are of nude prepubescent girls.
(WSJ, 2/8/96, p.A-12)(WSJ, 9/30/96, p.A14)(SFC,
12/13/96, p.B1)
1956 Hans Bellmer’s art depicted
female bodies bound up in tight coils of twine.
(WSJ, 6/15/95, p.A-14)
1956 Jasper Johns painted "Canvas."
(SFEC, 11/24/96, C15)
1956 Franz Kline painted
"Mahoning," in which a welter of hefty, tilting beams bar the way to a
central rectangle.
(WSJ, 12/16/94, A-12)
1956 Willem de Kooning
(1904-1997), abstract artist, painted "Saturday Night."
(SFC, 3/20/97, p.A6)
1956 David Park painted his
"Studio Sink."
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.E6)
1956 Picasso painted his "Woman in
a Rocking Chair." He also painted "Woman Nude Before Garden," which was
slashed in 1999 by a mental patient in Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A20)(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A10)
1956 Stanley Spencer, English
artist, painted "Seated Nude."
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.B5)
1956 Eugene O'Neill wrote his play
"Long Day's Journey Into Night."
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB p.37)
1956 Alain Bosquet (d.1998 at 78)
edited the first complete French anthology of American poets.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1956 William Edgar Bowers (d.2000
at 75) published his first book of poetry, "The Form of Loss."
(SFC, 2/8/00, p.A23)
1956 William Bronk had his first
book of poems, "Light and Dark," published by the journal Origin edited
by Cid Corman.
(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A25)
1956 Werner von Braun authored
"The Exploration of Mars." It was illustrated by Chesley Bonestell.
(WSJ, 5/1/01, p.A24)
1956 Lawrence Ferlinghetti
published a 1st edition of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. The 1st 1000
copies were printed in Europe and passed Customs without incident.
(www.citylights.com/His/CLhowlhist.html)
1956 "History of the English
Speaking Peoples" by Winston Churchill was published.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Garret Eckbo (d.2000 at 89),
dean of West Coast landscape architects, authored "The Art of Home
Landscaping."
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.D6)
1956 Samuel Eilenberg (d.1998 at
84), mathematician and art collector, co-authored "Homological Algebra"
with Henri Cartan.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A15)
1956 Forrest E. Fickling (d.1998
at 72) began writing his Honey West detective novels under the
pseudonym G.G. Fickling. The books were used as the basis for a TV show
in the 1960s.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.D8)
1956 Dr. Arthur Guyton (d.2003 at
83) of the Univ. of Mississippi authored his "Textbook of Physiology."
(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A20)
1956 Emily Hahn (1905-1997) wrote:
"Diamond: The Spectacular Story of Earth’s Rarest Treasure and Man’s
Greatest Greed."
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A20)
1956 John Hersey authored his
novel "A Single Pebble," about a trip through the Yangtze River gorges.
(SSFC, 10/27/02, p.M3)
1956 John F. Kennedy
authored "Profiles in Courage," a study of eight American patriots. The
book won the years Pulitzer Prize.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.A6)(Econ, 6/2/07, p.93)
1956 John Kerry King (d.2003 at
86), CIA official and consultant (1956-1979), authored "Southeast Asia
in Perspective."
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A18)
1956 "Essays on the Sociology of
Culture" by Karl Mannheim was published.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Grace Metalious authored her
risque novel “Peyton Place.”
(SSFC, 1/1/06, p.B6)
1956 C. Wright Mills published
"The Power Elite," which became a bible of the New Left. It asserted
that a small cadre of powerful decision makers drove national events.
In 2000 John B. Judis published "The Paradox of American Democracy" in
which the same theme was seen in a positive light.
(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A24)
1956 Jan Morris, Welsh essayist
and travel writer, authored her book "Coast to Coast" based on
traveling around America in the early 1950s.
(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.C3)
1956 John Rewald published his
"Post-Impressionism: From Van Gogh to Gauguin."
(WSJ, 2/10/96, p.A16)
1956 Kenneth Stampp (1913-2009),
US Berkeley historian, authored “The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in
the Antebellum South.”
(SFC, 7/22/09, p.D5)
1956 "A Historian’s Approach to
Religion" by Arnold Toynbee was published.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Michael Ventris (d.1956) and
John Chadwick (d.1998 at 78) published "Documents in Mycenaean Greek."
This was a translation of Greek writings known as Linear B discovered
by Sir Arthur Evans at the Minoan palace of Cnossos [Knossos] in 1900
and dated to 1400 BC.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B6)
1956 "The Organization Man" by
William Hollingsworth Whyte (d.1999) was published. The book defined a
generation of big-company executives and look-alike managers seeking to
climb the corporate ladder.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(WSJ, 1/19/98, p.A22)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R25)
1956 "The Outsider," a novel by
Colin Wilson, was published.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Sir Angus Wilson wrote his
novel "Anglo-Saxon Attitudes."
(WSJ, 5/14/96, p.A-20)
1956 The Eugene O’Neill play "Long
Day’s Journey Into Night" premiered at the Royal Dramatic Theater in
Stockholm with Jarl Kulle as Edmond.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A20)
1956 The musical play "Li’l Abner"
was produced based on the Al Capp comic strip. The music was by Gene de
Paul and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer.
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.A20)
1956 Charles Jackson Jr. (d.2002
at 88) won $20,000 on the "64,000 Question" and the "$64,000 Challenge"
and then revealed that answers had been given to him. Ralph Story
(1920-2006) hosted “The $64,000 Challenge” from 1956-1958. The show was
cancelled in 1958 under allegations that answers were supplied in
advance.
(SFC, 4/27/02, p.A21)(SFC, 9/28/06, p.B5)
1956 Dick Clark (27) joined the TV
show "American Bandstand" in Philadelphia after one of the 2 original
hosts was arrested for drunk driving. He was re[placed by David Hirsch
for the last season in 1989.
(SFC, 11/10/99, p.E3)(SFC, 5/2/02, p.D1)
1956 The Captain Video TV show,
created by Lawrence Menkin (d.2000) in 1949, ended.
(SFC, 7/22/00, p.A21)
1956 The first all-color TV
station was NBC-TV in Chicago. It was dedicated by Robert Sarnoff
(1918-1997), president of NBC from 1955-1965.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.C12)
1956 "The Ernie Kovac Show" ran
for a season under NBC.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.37)
1956 "The Huntley-Brinkley Report"
began on NBC and ran to 1970.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.38)
1956 The game show “Treasure Hunt”
began on ABC. The show was done from the Century Theatre in NYC and was
hosted by comedian Jan Murray (1916-2006). It later switched to NBC and
ran until 1959.
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A2)
1956 The big money quiz show
"Twenty-One" began on TV. It let contestants choose questions on a 1-11
scale of difficulty and created a star player in college professor
Charles Van Doren. It was later found that the shows were rigged. A 194
film "Quiz Show," was based on the resulting scandal.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.38)(WSJ, 1/3/03, p.W4)
1956 Orson Welles made the pilot
TV show "Fountain of Youth."
(SFC, 6/7/99, p.B2)
1956 Steve Allen starred in NBC’s
"The Steve Allen Show." It ran until 1960.
(SFC, 11/1/00, p.A19)
1956 Jack Palance (1919-2006)
starred in Playhouse 90’s “Requiem for a Heavyweight” written by Rod
Serling. Palance won an Emmy for his role in the TV presentation.
(SFC, 11/11/06, p.B6)
1956 Mike Wallace hosted the CBS
quiz show "The Big Surprise."
(SFC, 10/3/02, p.D9)
1956 "The Mike Wallace Interview"
began a 4 year run on CBS.
(SFC, 10/3/02, p.D9)
1956 The American opera "The
Balled of Baby Doe" was written by Douglas Moore with the libretto by
John Latouche. It was based on the 19th century real-life story of
Colorado silver magnate Horace Tabor and his illicit affair with
Elizabeth "Baby" Doe.
(SFEC, 9/17/00, DB p.38)
1956 Maria Callas, US born Greek
operative soprano, made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House.
(TL, 1988, p.115)
1956 Lev Vlasenko (1929-1996) won
the prestigious Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest.
(SFC, 8/27/96, p.A17)
1956 Louis Armstrong recorded with
Ella Fitzgerald "Ella and Louis" on Verve.
(SFC, 7/4/97, p.D9)
1956 The Calypso album by Harry
Belafonte was the first to sell over a million copies.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, DB p.64)
1956 Jazz great Clifford Brown was
featured on Soupy’s On in Detroit and played "Memories of You" by Eubie
Blake and Gershwin’s "Lady Be Good." A few months later he was killed
in an auto accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the age of 25.
(DFP, 7/28/96, p.F1)
1956 James Brown recorded "Please
Please Please" on the Federal label of Cincinnati's King Records.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, BR p.5)
1956 Johnny Cash (1932-2003)
recorded his hit tunes: "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line."
(SFC, 9/13/03, p.A12)
1956 Chris Connor (1927-2009),
jazz singer, made a hit with “I Miss You.” Her song “Trust in Me”
reached the hit charts in 1957.
(SFC, 9/1/09, p.C5)
1956 Bill Doggett (1916-1996),
pianist and organist, made his blues hit "Honky Tonk." Matt Honk sold
pianos to saloons in the West in the late 1900s.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C7)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1 p.8)
1956 Screamin' Jay Hawkins (d.2000
at 70) recorded "I Put a Spell On You."
(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.D3)
1956 John Lennon formed a British
band called the Quarrymen.
(SFC, 12/1/01, p.D1)
1956 Julie London recorded her
hit: "Cry me a River."
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.A29)
1956 The song "Party Doll" was
recorded along with "I'm Stickin' With You" on the Triple-D label by
the Rhythm Orchids: Buddy Wayne Knox, Jimmy Bowen and Don Lanier. Party
Doll was written in 1948 by Knox (d.1999 AT 65)
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.C3)
1956 The Louvin brothers recorded
their album "Tragic Songs of Life."
(SFEM,10/19/97, DB p.45)
1956 Frankie Lymon (1942-1968) and
the Teenagers made a hit with their first single: "Why Do Fools Fall in
Love." The 1998 film "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" was a musical
comedy-drama with Halle Berry, Vivica A. Fox, Lela Rochon and Little
Richard. It was directed by Gregory Nava and set in the 1950s based on
the life of Frankie Lymon.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.C1)(SFC, 9/2/98,
p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Lymon)
1956 Guy Mitchell (d.1999 at 72)
had a hit with the Marty Robbins tune "Singing the Blues." Mitchell,
the son of Yugoslavia immigrants, was born as Al Cernick in Detroit.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.B2)
1956 Patti Page sang the song
"Mama From The Train." It was written by Irving Gordon (1915-1996). He
wrote the classic comedy routine used by Abbott and Costello known as
"Who’s on First." He also composed "Unforgettable."
(SFC, 12/4/96,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_From_The_Train)
1956 Ray Price made a country hit
with "Crazy Arms."
(WSJ, 7/13/01, p.W10)
1956 The Maddox Brothers and Rose
band broke up. They had been billed as the "Most Colorful Hillbilly
Band in America." Rose Maddox (d.1998) continued singing on her own.
(SFC, 4/17/98, p.A28)
1956 The Loewe & Lerner song
"On the Street Where You Live" was a hit songs from a Broadway musical.
(WSJ, 5/18/99, p.A24)
1956 The Styme, Comden, Green song
"The Party's Over" was a hit song from a Broadway musical.
(WSJ, 5/18/99, p.A24)
1956 Popular songs of the year
included Blue Suede Shoes; Around the World in 80 Days; I Could Have
Danced All Night; On the Street Where You live; Que Sera, Sera; Don’t
Be Cruel; Poor People of Paris.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 A new shopping mall in Edina,
Minn., the 1st enclosed shopping mall, was designed as a center of
community by Victor Gruen (1903-1980). In 2004 Paco Underhill authored
"Call of the Mall," an account of the decline of the shopping mall.
(WSJ, 12/24/03, p.D7)(WSJ, 1/30/04, p.W9)(Econ,
12/22/07, p.102)
1956 Frank Lloyd Wright designed
the New York Guggenheim Museum.
(SFEM, 4/19/98, p.23)
1956 The Danish architect Joern
Utzon designed the Sidney Opera House.
(TL, 1988, p.115)
1956 Eero Saarinen designed the US
Embassy in London.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 The New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) expanded to include 20 Broad St.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.D2)
1956 The 210-acre Henry Ford
Estate, Fair Lane, was donated to the Univ. of Michigan. The Ford Motor
Company also gave U of M $6.5 million to establish a campus on the
grounds and thus was born U of M Dearborn.
(MT, Win. ‘96, p.9)
1955 Phyllis Diller, housewife
turned comic, began her career at the SF Purple Onion.
(SFC, 5/24/97, p.E1)
1956 Edwina Froehlich (1915-2008)
co-founded the La Leche League in Franklin Park, a suburb of Chicago,
to promote the breast-feeding of babies.
(WSJ, 6/14/08, p.A7)
1956 Clairol introduced the 1st
at-home hair color kit with the slogan “Does She Or Doesn’t She?”.
Shirley Polykoff (d.1998 at 90) authored the "Does she... or doesn’t
she" slogan for Clairol hair dyes She wrote the 1975 book "Does She...
or Doesn’t She? And How She Die It."
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A24)(WSJ, 11/11/06, p.A8)
1956 The New York Coliseum with
nine acres of exhibit space opened.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 A Vogue magazine article made
famous the Irish wool sweaters of the Aran Islands.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, p.T10)
1956 In California Chuck Williams
opened the first Williams-Sonoma store in Sonoma.
(SFEM, 8/10/97, p.21)
1956 The Mill Valley, California,
annual Harvest Moon Festival was founded. It was later renamed the Fall
Arts Festival.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, DB p.15)
1956 Phyllis, the 92-year-old
great-granddaughter of Brigham Young, and Paul Lyman Wattis (d.1971),
of Utah Construction and Mining, established a philanthropic foundation
to spread their wealth.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.D7)
1956 Grace Kelly married Prince
Rainier of Monaco.
(TMC, 1994, p.1956)
1956 Melbourne hosted the summer
Olympics. 65 countries and 4,276 athletes competed.
(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.T8)(WSJ, 9/15/00, p.A1)
1956 Michigan State defeated UCLA
at the Rose Bowl 17-14.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Jerry Sacharski (1016-2009),
summer baseball instructor, created a T-Ball league for kids in Albion,
Mich.
(WSJ, 3/7/09, p.A12)
1956 In Michigan Wayne Univ.
became a full-fledged state university (WSU).
(WSUAN, V.52, p.6)
1956 Floyd Patterson at age 21
became the youngest boxer to win the heavyweight crown when he knocked
out Archie Moore.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 The World Calendar
Association presented its proposed changes to the United Nations but
never got past committee for approval.
(K.I.-365D)
1956 Eisenhower beat Adlai
Stevenson for the US presidency. Stevenson won only 7 southern states
but the Democrats retained control of the House and Senate.
(TMC, 1994, p.1956)(TL, 1988, p.115)
1956 Democrat Estes Kefauver won
the New Hampshire primary over Adlai Stevenson 84.6 to 14.8%.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A19)
1956 Dr. Leroy Burney was
appointed the 8th surgeon general of the US Public Health Service. He
replaced Dr. Leonard Scheele, who resigned after a number of children
developed polio from a defective Salk vaccine. Burney later helped
establish the national Library of Medicine, the National Center for
Health Statistics, and a national influenza surveillance system at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A17)
1956 The Bank Holding Company Act
was enacted by Congress. It kept financial-services conglomerates from
amassing too much power. The law created a barrier between banking and
insurance in response to the rapid growth of TransAmerica Corp.
(WSJ, 4/10/98, p.6)
1956 The FBI created its “Reserve
Index,” a list of people who did not meet standards for another
detention list approved by the Justice Department. By 1959 the reserve
index totaled 12,784 names.
(SFCM, 10/10/04, p.20)
1956 Winston Scott (1909-1971) was
appointed as the American CIA station chief in Mexico.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKscottW.htm)
1956 Riots prevented the
enrollment of the first black student at the Univ. of Alabama.
(TL, 1988, p.115)
1956 Stanford began developing a
shopping mall in Palo Alto, Ca. Major interest was sold to Simon
Property in 2003 for $333 million.
(SFC, 7/2/03, p.B1)
1956 The Georgia state flag with
its Confederate emblem was adopted under Gov. Marvin Griffin. The
emblem was added in part to protest federal attacks on segregation.
(http://tinyurl.com/9b6pd)
1956 The state of Mississippi set
up a secret agency to combat racial desegregation. It spied and
collected dossiers on 87,000 people considered to be potential
subversives.
(SFC, 4/5/96, p.A-3)
1956 Cecil Underwood (1922-2008),
was elected governor of West Virginia becoming at age 34 the state’s
youngest governor.
(SFC, 11/25/08, p.B4)
1956 The US Interstate Highway Act
paved the way for a 41,000 highway system.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1956 Louis Kelso (1913-1991),
American lawyer, invented the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
(Econ, 4/14/07,
p.76)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_O._Kelso)
1956 Warren Buffet started an
investment partnership in Omaha with money from family and friends. He
went on to become a billionaire.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1956 AT&T Submarine Systems
laid its first undersea phone line. Transatlantic cable telephone
service was inaugurated.
(WSJ, 10/17/96, p.A6)(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 AT&T settled an antitrust
suit and agreed to confine itself to common-carrier communications
service in return for recognition of the national Bell system.
(WSJ, 10/26/00, p.A12)
1956 Canadian Les Dawes (d.2002)
produced his first La Dawri car, a fiberglass body on a Ford chassis.
He moved to Southern California where his La Dawri Coachcraft produced
some 800 car kits before it folded in the late 1960s.
(SSFC, 9/30/07, p.B1)
1956 The Jack Daniel's Whiskey
company was sold to Kentucky-based Brown-Forman.
(SFC, 2/04/04, p.D2)
1956 Payless, a self-service shoe
chain, began US operations.
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.A4)
1956 Proctor & Gambol
introduced Crest toothpaste with the slogan "Look Mom, no cavities!"
(WSJ, 8/29/96, p.B1)
1956 Lockheed Corp. began moving
engineers to Sunnyvale, Ca., lured by offers of land and talent from
Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.D3)
1956 Dr. Forrest Shaklee
(1894-1985), an Oakland, Ca., chiropractor, along with his son founded
Shaklee Products, a nutritional supplement company. It was later sold
to Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. of Japan. In 2004 Roger Barnett bought
Shaklee for $310 million.
(SSFC, 8/13/06,
p.F1)(www.shaklee.com/main/aboutPhiloStory)
1956 Brice and Shirley Phillips
opened a crab shack in ocean City, Md. By 2006 Phillips Foods took in
$160 million in revenue from food sales.
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.A4)
1956 Industry experts in 1996
picked the 1956 Hudson as the number 1 worst American-made car. An
average car this year sold for about $2,500.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)(SFC, 9/11/06, p.C2)
1956 Malcom McLean (d.2001 at 87),
an entrepreneur from North Carolina, used a converted WW II tanker
called the Ideal X to sail 58 cargo filled containers from New Jersey
to Houston. He named his company Sea-Land Service and is considered as
the founder of container shipping. In 2006 Marc Levinson authored “The
Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World
Economy Bigger.”
(SFC, 5/28/01, p.A17)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.J1)(Econ,
3/18/06, p.81)
1956 The aurora borealis, or AB
rhinestone, was first made by the Swarovski company for Christian Dior.
It was rhinestone made of leaded glass that was coated with bits of
metal and steamed in a vacuum.
(SFC, 4/23/08, p.G6)
1956 The neutrino, an atomic
particle with no charge, was produced at the Los Alamos laboratory in
the US. An abandoned gold mine in South Dakota was filled with 100,000
gallons of dry-cleaning fluid was used to capture neutrinos from the
sun. Experimenters Frederick Reines and Clyde L. Cowan Jr. made the
catch.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(WSJ, 6/12/98, p.W13)(NYT,
4/28/02, 16wk)
1956 The anti-neutrino was
discovered by Cork, Lambertson, Piccioni and Wenzel.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 The cosmic-ray neutron
intensity monitor, developed by physicist John Simpson, was used to
collect the 1st evidence indicating the existence of the heliosphere,
the region beyond the planets that is influenced by the sun’s magnetic
field.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A23)
1956 The Fortran computer language
was developed.
(TL, 1988, p.115)
1956 The computer mouse was
invented at SRI Int’l. by Doug Engelbart and Bill English. It was
patented in 1963.
(Hem., 1/96, p.11)
1956 Jerome Lemelson (d. 1997 at
74) applied for a patent for his "machine vision device." It was
approved in 1989 and better known as bar code scanner technology.
Revenue from the invention allowed him to endow the annual $500,000
Lemelson-MIT Prize for outstanding inventors, to establish the Lemelson
Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, to make a $10 million
cash gift to the Smithsonian Inst., and provide funds to MIT and other
universities to encourage budding inventors.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A20)
1956 George Devol and Joseph
Engelberger met and formed a partnership to develop robots.
(Hem., 2/96, p.91)
1956 Bell Telephone began to
develop the visual telephone.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 The first video recording was
demonstrated in the US.
(TL, 1988, p.115)
1956 The Zenith Space Command
remote control, co-invented by Robert Adler (1913-2007) and Eugene
Polley, was introduced.
(SFC, 2/17/07, p.A2)
1956 French engineer Marc Gregoire
devised a way to coat aluminum with teflon. [See 1954]
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)
1956 Robert Hofstadter conceived
the Stanford Linear Accelerator.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A8)
1956 A new ion microscope by F.W.
Muller made atoms visible.
(TL, 1988, p.115)(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Dr. Evelyn Hooker (1907-1996)
delivered the landmark paper "The Adjustment of the Male Overt
Homosexual," to the American Psychological Assoc.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A28)
1956 A Univ. of Nebraska
researcher proposed that “free radicals” caused aging, indicating that
antioxidants may slow the process.
(WSJ, 10/30/06, p.A11)
1956 Four new antibiotics were
tested in the US.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 The bacterium Deinococcus
radiodurans was discovered in canned meat. Scientists later used the
organism to produce a superbug to attack heavy metals and radioactive
waste.
(SFC, 12/29/99, p.A4)
1956 Otto Wichterle (d.1998 at
84), Czech scientist, invented soft contact lenses.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)
1956 Chien-Shiung Wu (1913-1997)
conducted an experiment that disproved left and right symmetry in
nature. Her book Beta Decay became a standard reference on low-energy
emission of electrons by decaying atoms.
(SFC, 2/17/96, p.C2)
1956 Black Mountain College in
western North Carolina, founded in 1933 by Theodore Dreir (d.1997),
closed.
(www.ibiblio.org/bmc/bmcaboutbmc.html)
1956 MD Ross and ML Lewis reached
22.8 km in a balloon.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Dr. Edward Purdy Ney
(1921-1996) and colleague, John Winckler, built a pyramid-shaped
balloon that set a world altitude record of 27 miles. It was lofted
with instrumentation for meteorological and cosmic-ray research.
Photographic plates later recorded the track of a helium atom traveling
at nearly the speed of light. His early work was in separating isotopes
of uranium and his findings proved useful to the Manhattan project.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p. A19)
1956 Louisiana built its 1st
man-made river diversion to flush out salt water destroying oyster
reefs in the eastern estuaries. The Bayou Lamoque river diversion was a
success.
(SFC, 11/28/03, p.C7)
1956 The palace of Emperor
Diocletian was excavated in Split, Yugoslavia.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Victor Riesel, US Labor
columnist, was blinded by acid thrown by a gangster. Four months later
labor racketeer Johnny Dio was indicted for conspiracy with six others.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 Alben William Barkley
(b.1877) served one term as vice president of the U.S. under Harry
Truman (1949-53), and was reelected to the Senate from Kentucky in 1954
and died suddenly in 1956 while still a senator. Barkley served in the
senate from 1927 to 1949 (majority leader from 1937-47) before becoming
vice president.
(HNQ, 11/3/99)
1956 Walter de la Mare (b.1873),
poet and novelist, died. His work included 4 novels and over 100 short
stories. In 2000 his short story collection: "Short Stories: 1895-1926"
was published.
(WSJ, 2/3/00, p.A24)
1956 Cornelius McGillicuddy
(b.1862 aka Connie Mack) died.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)
1956 H.L. Mencken (b.1880),
American author, editor and critic, died. He founded the magazines
"Smart Set" and "American Mercury."
(WUD, 1994 , p.895)(SFEC, 5/31/98, BR p.4)
1956 Kenzi Mizoguchi, Japanese
film director, died. His films included "Ugetsu," "The Life of Oharu,"
"Crucified Lovers," "Sansho the Bailiff," "A Geisha," "Street of Shame"
and "Red Light District" just before he died.
(SFEC, 9/29/96, DB p.60,64)
1956 Thomas J. Watson Sr.
(b.1874), founder of IBM, died. In 2003 Kevin Maney authored "The
Maverick and His Machine," a biography of Watson.
(TOH, 1982, p.1956)(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.D8)
1956 In Argentina Col. Hector
Eduardo Cabanillas (d.1998 at 84), head of military intelligence, was
ordered by junta leader, Gen’l. Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, to transport
the embalmed body of Eva Peron to Italy for burial in a secret grave in
Milan.
(SFC, 2/3/98, p.A15)
1956 Bhutan abolished serfdom.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.55)
1956 In Bolivia Hernan Siles Zuazo
(1913-1996) became president.
(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)
1956 African honeybees were
imported to Brazil by a scientist who let them escape. By 1990 they had
worked their way north to southern Texas and began to spread across the
southwest.
(WSJ, 8/16/06, p.A12)
1956 The Sadler’s Wells Ballet of
Dame Ninette de Valois was renamed the Royal Ballet.
(SFC, 3/9/01, p.D5)
1956 Joan Littlewood directed the
play "The Quare Fella" by Irish writer Brendan Behan. Her work became
labeled "kitchen-sink" drama. This was seen as part of the
working-class revolution in British theater.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A25)
1956 The British administrator of
the Gilbert Islands put a levy on the export of phosphates (bird
manure) used in fertilizer. By 2007 the money set aside had developed
into the Kiribati Revenue Equalization Reserve Fund, a $250 million
investment portfolio that had grown to 9 times the atoll’s GDP.
State-owned investments later developed around the world and became
recognized as sovereign wealth funds.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.79)
1956 China extended an olive
branch to Washington, inviting American reporters to visit the People's
Republic for the first time. But the offer, coming just three years
after US and Chinese forces fought each other in the Korean War, was
flatly rebuffed.
(AP, 4/7/06)
1956 In Guangzou, China, the
Canton Trade Fair was begun with markets held in April and October of
every year.
(WSJ, 5/7/96, p.A-14)
1956 China introduced the Panda
cigarette brand and it became the exclusive property of the political
and military elite.
(WSJ, 5/26/04, p.A1)
1956 A Sino-Soviet split developed
along ideological lines.
(TL, 1988, p.115)
1956 The Eurovision Song Contest,
the brainchild of French music producer Marcel Baison, began with 7
contestants.
(Econ, 5/14/05, p.57)
1956 French PM Guy Mollet
discussed the possibility of a union with Britain’s PM Sir Anthony
Eden. Eden rejected the idea of a union but was more favorable toward a
French proposal to join the Commonwealth.
(SFC, 1/16/07, p.A2)
1956 A new German army, the
Bundeswehr, was created.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A15)
1956 The US and Canada agreed to
help India build a nuclear research reactor for power generation. India
rejected oversight by the new Int’l. Atomic Energy Agency.
(SFC, 5/28/98, p.A9)
1956 In Ecuador members of the
Auca tribe killed 5 missionary men of the Plymouth Brethren. The Auca
are also known as Tagaeri or Jivaro.
(WSJ, 1/17/03, p.W13)(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W2)
1956 The Paris Club of 19
industrialized countries began work to alleviate the financial
obligations of over-indebted countries.
(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A18)
1956 Gen. Jacques Massu (d.2002 at
94) took command of the French 10th Parachute Division, the elite force
tasked with maintaining order in Algeria.
(SFC, 10/28/02, p.A17)
1956 Saddam Hussein joined the
Arab Baath Socialist Party.
(WSJ, 1/20/02, p.A13)
1956 The State of Kerala was
established in Southwest India from the Malabar district of Madras
state and the principalities of Cochin and Travancore, to unite the
peoples speaking Malayalam.
(NG, 5.1988, pp. 605)
1956 Japan began building a
national highway system with money borrowed from the World Bank. Fees
were originally impose to pay for the 4,350-mile project. When the
loans were retired the tolls were continued to pay off some $358
billion from public works projects.
(WSJ, 9/15/03, p.A1)
1956 In Japan the term Minamata
Disease was coined to identify villagers suffering dizzy spells with
troubles walking and speaking. Growing numbers fell into convulsions,
wasted away and died. Chisso Corp. had polluted Minamata Bay and the
Shiranui Sea with deadly methylmercury. By 2007 at least 2,000 people
had died from eating tainted fish.
(AP, 9/30/07)
1956 In Morocco following
independence the northern region of the Rif mountains retained a
dispensation to grow cannabis, which was turned into hashish, but not
to sell it on a large scale.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.46)
1956 In Nigeria Shell became the
first company to strike oil at Oloibiri (later Bayelsa state).
(AP, 6/1/06)
1956 E.G. Buehrle (b.1890),
German-born Swiss industrialist, died. Emil Buhrle provided arms to the
Third Reich during World War II and amassed one of Europe's greatest
private collections in the aftermath of the war.
(www.buehrle.ch/collection.php?lang=en)
1956 In the USSR the Balkars,
independent Muslim warriors who live in the Caucasus Mountains between
the Black and Caspian seas were allowed to return home. During WW II
Stalin had shipped most of them to Siberia.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.T2)
1956-1957 "I Love Lucy" was again the top ranking
network show on television with a ranking of 43.7%.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1956-1957 The "My Friend Flicka" TV series featured
Gene Evans (d.1998 at 75).
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A23)
1956-1958 Enrique Oltuski, Shell Oil executive and
member of the July 26 Movement, helped orchestrate the overthrow of the
government. In 2002 he authored "Vida Clandestina: My Life in the Cuban
Revolution."
(SFC, 9/15/02, p.M2)
1956-1958 The Soviet Union provided
intermediate-range ballistic missile to China for study.
(AP, 10/15/03)
1956-1959 Some 1,300 Japanese made a 30-day, 8,000
mile voyage across the oceans to settle on free land offered by
Dominican Republic dictator Gen. Rafael Trujillo. In 2000 more than 170
immigrants sued the Japanese government, claiming they were deceived
into leaving Japan and taking bad land. In 2006 Japan settled the
lawsuit, promising to pay up to $17,000 to each plaintiff as well as
$10,000 to emigrants who did not take part in the suit.
(AP, 7/25/06)
1956-1960 Lawrence Durrell (b.1912) wrote his
"Alexandria Quartet." The 4 linked novels were set in Egypt before and
during WW II.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, BR p.7)
1956-1961 The CIA engaged in a secret program called
MK-ULTRA that included dosing hundreds of unsuspecting subjects with
LSD and other hallucinogens.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A15)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.A5)
1956-1961 Douglas MacArthur II (d.1997 at 88) served
as US ambassador to Japan.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A23)
1956-1962 General Lauris Norstad served as the
Supreme Allied Commander. He succeeded Gen’l. Gruenther.
(WUD, 1994, p.1685)
1956-1963 The US installed and financially supported
the political regime of South Viet Nam. This was supported by the
Pentagon Papers in a statement that South Vietnam was essentially a
creation of the US.
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-23)
1956-1966 In 1999 declassified documents revealed
that the US stored coreless nuclear weapons in Okinawa, and on the
islands of Chichi-Jima and Iwo Jima and other places in Japan.
(SFEC, 12/12/99, p.A24)
1956-1969 The "Silver Age" of comics featured such
works characters as Atom, the Green Lantern, the Hulk, Captain Marvel,
and Spider-Man, who were all drawn by Gil Kane (d.2000 at 73), born as
Eli Katz in Latvia.
(SFC, 2/2/00, p.A25)
1956-1970 David Brinkley co-anchored the NBC nightly
news program Huntley and Brinkley with Chet Huntley.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C6)
Go to 1957