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Last updated 01/06/16           

Synoptic of Events during 1956                  

World Statistics
  Population: 2.833 billion population by decade

World Events
    Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of USSR Communist Party, denounces Stalin's excesses (Feb. 24).
    Morocco gains independence from France (March 1) and Spain (April 7).
    Workers' uprising against Communist rule in Poland is crushed (June 28-30).
    Egypt takes control of Suez Canal (July 26). Israel launches attack on Egypt's Sinai peninsula and drives toward Suez Canal (Oct. 29).
    British and French invade Egypt at Port Said (Nov. 5). Cease-fire forced by US pressure stops British, French, and Israeli advance (Nov. 6).
    Soviet troops and tanks crush anti-Communist uprisings in Hungary (November).

U.S. Events
    President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
    Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
    Population: 168,903,031
    Life expectancy: 69.7 years
    Homicide Rate (per 100,000):    4.6

More U.S. Events
    Autherine Lucy, the first black student at the University of Alabama, is suspended after riots (March 1).
    U.S. tests the first aerial hydrogen bomb over Namu islet, Bikini Atoll with the force of 10 million tons TNT (May 21).
    Miss America: Sharon Ritchie (CO)

Economics
    US GDP (1998 dollars): $438 billion
    Federal spending: $70.64 billion
    Federal debt: $272.7 billion
    Consumer Price Index: 27.2
    Unemployment: 4.4%
    Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03

Sports
    World Series; NY Yankees d. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-3)
    NBA Championship; Philadelphia Warriors d. Ft. Wayne Pistons (4-1)
    Stanley Cup; Montreal d. Detroit (4-1)
    Wimbledon:
        Women; Shirley Fry d. A. Buxton (6-3 6-1)
        Men; Lew Hoad d. K. Rosewall (6-2 4-6 7-5 6-4)
    Kentucky Derby Champion; Needles
    NCAA Basketball Championship; San Francisco d. Iowa (83-71)
    NCAA Football Champions; Oklahoma (10-0-0)
    1956 Summer Olympics
    1956 Winter Olympics

Pulitzer Prizes
    Fiction: Andersonville, MacKinlay Kantor
    Music: Symphony No. 3, Ernst Toch
    Drama: The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
    Oscars awarded in 1956

Academy Award  Best Picture: Marty, Harold Hecht, producer (United Artists)
    Nobel Prize for Literature: Juan Ramón Jiménez (Spain)
    1956 Emmy Awards
    1956 Tony Awards

Entertainment
    With many hit singles (including "Heartbreak Hotel"), Elvis Presley emerges as one of the world's first rock stars. The gyrating rocker 
    enjoys fame on the stages of the Milton Berle, Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan shows, as well as in the first of his many movies, Love Me Tender.

    Kay Thompson's Eloise, the Plaza Hotel's most famous guest, is a bestseller.
    Grace Metalious's steamy Peyton Place is a bestseller.
    The Wizard of Oz has its first airing on TV.

Movies
    Giant
    The Searchers
    Around the World in 80 Days
    The King and I
    Friendly Persuasion

Music
    Woody Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land"
    Elvis Presly, "Hearbreak Hotel"
    Vic Damone, "On the Street Where You Live"
    The Platters, "Great Prender"
    The Four Lads, "Standing on the Corner"

Books
    John Barth, The Floating Opera
    James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
    Allen Ginsburg, Howl
    Lewis Mumford, The Transformations of Man
    William Styron, The Long March

Nobel Prizes in Science
    Chemistry: Sir Cyril Hinshelwood (UK) and Nikolai N. Semenov (USSR), for parallel research on chemical reaction kinetics
    Physics: William Shockley, Walter H. Brattain, and John Bardeen (all US), for developing electronic transistor
    Physiology or Medicine: Dickinson W. Richards, Jr., André F. Cournand (both US), and Werner Forssmann (Germany),
        for new techniques in treating heart disease
    Felix Wankel (Germany) develops the rotary internal combustion engine.
    The DNA molecule is first photographed. Background: genetic engineering
    The neutrino is first observed at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Events of 1956
    Suez Crisis - Suez canal nationalised by Egypt
    Hungarian Uprising crushed by Soviet tanks while the US sits idly by.
    Israeli forces under Moshe Dayan seize the Gaza Strip & Sinai Peninsula.
    Fidel Castro and Che Guevara land in Cuba and begin a guerrilla war.
    Transatlantic telephone cable installed.
    Eisenhower re-elected President of US (Nixon Vice President)
    First LP in hit parade (Frank Sinatra's Songs for Swinging Lovers
    "My Fair Lady" opens in New York
    Film actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
    TV debuts in Australia
    Melbourne Olympics
    Donald Campbell breaks world water speed record (216 mph)