1956 Events

1956 Aretha Franklin Releases "Songs of Faith"
Songs of Faith is Aretha Franklin's debut album. Songs of Faith is a 1956 album released by R&B/soul icon Aretha Franklin. It was her very first album. It was recorded live by Aretha a...
1956 Aretha Gives Birth to First Son Clarence
Franklin's son Clarence was born when she was 14 years old and at age 16 she gave birth to her son Edward. She has never identified the fathers of either of her two eldest children nor th...
1956 Castle & Cooke Exchanges Ownership in Hawaiian Tuna Packers for Columbia River Packers Association
Castle & Cooke exchanges ownership in Hawaiian Tuna Packers for 12% interest in Columbia River Packers Association, producers of Bumble Bee® Seafood.
1956 Ford Parklane is First Produced
The Ford Parklane was a car produced by the Ford Motor Company in the United States for one year only, 1956. Launched to compete with the Chevrolet Nomad, it was a two-door station wagon,...
1956 Kellogg's Special K Cereal Appears In Stores
Special K is a lightly toasted breakfast cereal manufactured by the Kellogg Company. The cereal was introduced to the United States in 1956. It is made primarily from rice and wheat. It i...
1956 S. R. Crown Hall Completed
S. R. Crown Hall, designed by the German-born Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the home of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, ...
1956 The Last Battle published
The Last Battle is the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. Lewis was awarded the Carnegie Medal for the book in 1956. In The Last Battle, Lewis b...
1956 Volvo Amazon is First Produced
The Volvo Amazon was a mid-size car manufactured by Volvo Cars from 1956 until July 3 1970 at the company's Torslandaverken — with 667,323 vehicles produced. Compared to its predecessor,...
1956 Volvo P1900 is First Produced
The Volvo P1900 is a fiberglass-bodied roadster built in small numbers in 1956 and 1957 by Volvo of Sweden. Volvo's president and founder Assar Gabrielsson got the idea for the car when ...
1956 Jan 1 'Profiles in Courage' is Published
Profiles in Courage is a 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning book attributed to John F. Kennedy, describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators from throughout the Senat...
1956 Jan 23
to 1956 Jan 25
 Buddy Holly Signs Recording Contract with Decca Records
Buddy negotiates a recording contract with Decca and a three-year songwriter's contract with Cedarwood Publishing Company. Throughout 1956, between recording sessions with Decca and pract...
1956 Jan 26 Buddy Holly's First Recording Session
Jan. 26 - Holley, Sonny Curtis, and Guess begin their first recording sessions for Decca at Owen Bradley's Barn in Nashville under the name Buddy and The Two Tones.
1956 Jan 26
to 1956 Feb 5
 VII Olympic Winter Games Held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The Games were held from Janua...
1956 Jan 31 A.A. Milne Dies
After Milne's death, his widow sold the rights to the Pooh characters to the Walt Disney Company, which has made a number of Pooh cartoon movies, as well as a large amount of Pooh-related...
1956 Feb 6 Boston College defeats Northeastern, 7-1
1956 Feb 6 Harvard defeats Boston University, 6-1
1956 Feb 8 Boston College defeats Harvard, 4-2
1956 Feb 8 Boston University defeats Northeastern, 9-3
1956 Mar 13 "The Searchers" Is Released
The Searchers is a 1956 epic Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May. It is the story of Ethan Edwards, a middle-aged Civil War veteran portrayed by Joh...
1956 Mar 21 28th Academy Awards
The 28th Academy Awards were presented at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Marty, a simple and low-budget film usually uncharacteristic of Best Picture awardees, becam...
1956 Mar 23 Elvis Presley releases self-titled debut album
Elvis Presley was the name of Elvis Presley's debut LP. It was released on RCA Victor, in mono, catalogue number LPM 1254, in March 1956. The recording sessions took place on January 10 a...
1956 Mar 24 San Francisco Beats Iowa in Final Four
The 1956 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball....
1956 Apr 5
to 1956 Apr 8
 Jack Burke Jr. wins the 20th Masters Tournament
Jack Burke scored a final round 71, one of only two subpar rounds Sunday, to rally from a Tournament record eight shots back and defeat amateur Ken Venturi. Burke's 289, along with Sam Sn...
1956 Apr 10 Montreal Canadiens win Stanley Cup
The 1956 Stanley Cup Final NHL championship series was contested by the Montreal Canadiens and the defending champion Detroit Red Wings in the fifth Detroit-Montreal series in the 1950s. ...
1956 Apr 12 FDA Approves Pfizer's Atarax
Atarax is an antihistamine used to relieve the symptoms of common anxiety and tension and, in combination with other medications, to treat anxiety that results from physical illness. It a...
1956 Jun 28 "The King And I" Is Released
The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on ...
1956 Jun 29 Marilyn Monroe Marries Arthur Miller
During this time, the relationship between Monroe and Miller had developed, and although the couple were able to maintain their privacy for almost a year, the press began to write about t...
1956 Jun 30 Two Airliners Collide Over the Grand Canyon
June 30, 1956; A midair collision over the Grand Canyon involving TWA Super Constellation L-1049 N6902C, Star of the Seine and United Airlines DC-7 N6324C, City of Vancouver. Both plan...
1956 Jul 1 Elvis Presley appears on the Steve Allen Show
Country vocalists The Jordanaires accompanied Presley on The Steve Allen Show and their first recording session together produced "Any Way You Want Me", "Don't Be Cruel" and "Hound Dog". ...
1956 Jul 3 Ronald Reagan Appers in "General Electric Summer Originals" - Season 1: The Jungle Trap
1956 Jul 25 The SS Andrea Doria Collides with MS Stockholm
A little after 11:00 p.m., the Stockholm struck the Doria, delivering a fatal blow. The impact opened such a gaping hole in the Doria's side that within minutes the ship was leaning dange...
1956 Aug 24 "Bob Le Flambeur" Is Released
Bob le flambeur ("Bob the Gambler" or "Bob the High Roller") is a 1956 French gangster film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The film stars Roger Duchesne as Bob. It is filmed in a film ...
1956 Aug 31 "Bus Stop" Is Released
Bus Stop, also known as The Wrong Kind of Girl, is a 1956 motion picture directed by Joshua Logan for 20th Century Fox, starring Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field,...
1956 Sep 9 Elvis Presley First Appears on The Ed Sullivan Show
Elvis, wearing a loud plaid jacket, greeted the audience from a set decorated with stylized guitar shapes. He announced that the show was “probably the greatest honor I have ever had in m...
1956 Sep 17 "Lust For Life" Is Released
Lust for Life (1956) is a MGM biographical film about the life of the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, based on the 1934 novel by Irving Stone and adapted by Norman Corwin. It was direc...
1956 Sep 24 "The Silent World" Is Released
The Silent World (French: Le Monde du silence) is a French documentary film released in 1956, co-directed by the famed French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and a young Louis Malle. ...
1956 Oct Agatha Christie publishes Dead Man's Folly
When Ariadne Oliver, the mystery novelist, summons Poirot to join her at a country house in Devon, he is respectful enough of her “intuition” to do so immediately. When she tells him, how...
1956 Oct 'If I Ran the Circus' is Published
Behind Mr. Sneelock's ramshackle store, there's an empty lot. Little Morris McGurk is convinced that if he could just clear out the rusty cans, the dead tree, and the old cars, nothing wo...
1956 Oct
to 1957 Mar
Suez Crisis/Tripartite Aggression
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956. The attack followed Egypt's dec...
1956 Oct 3
to 1956 Oct 10
 1956 World Series
The 1956 World Series of Major League Baseball was played between the New York Yankees (representing the American League) and the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers (representing the Nat...
1956 Oct 5 The Ten Commandments (film) released
The Ten Commandments is a 1956 motion picture that dramatized the biblical story of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince-turned deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. It was released by Paramount P...
1956 Oct 8 Don Larsen Pitches a Perfect Game
Donald James Larsen (born August 7, 1929 in Michigan City, Indiana) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for 14 seasons. Larsen is best known for pitching a perfect game i...
1956 Oct 16 Pan Am Flight 6 Crashes
In October 1956, they were passengers aboard a commercial aircraft that also lost two engines, forcing the pilot to land on open water - in their case, the Pacific Ocean. Like the 155 ...
1956 Oct 19 Elvis Presley releases Elvis
Elvis is the second album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono, LPM 1382, in October 1956. Recording sessions took place on September 1, September 2, and September 3 a...
1956 Oct 29 Operation Kadesh Begins
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, (Arabic: أزمة السويس - العدوان الثلاثي‎ ʾAzmat al-Sūwais/Al-ʿIdwān al-Thalāthī; French: Crise du canal de Suez; Hebrew: מבצ...
1956 Nov 22
to 1956 Dec 8
 Games of the XVI Olympiad Held in Melbourne, Australia
The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of...
1956 Nov 24 "Giant" Is Released
Giant is a 1956 drama film directed by George Stevens from a screenplay adapted by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat from the novel by Edna Ferber. The movie stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson ...
1956 Nov 25 "Friendly Persuasion" Is Released
Friendly Persuasion is a 1956 Palme d'Or-winning Civil War film starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love. The screenplay was...
1956 Dec "The Great Man" Is Released
The Great Man is a 1956 drama film directed by José Ferrer and based on a novel by Al Morgan. It was loosely based on the controversial career of Arthur Godfrey, the beloved TV and radio ...
1956 Dec 1 "The Girl Can't Help It" Is Released
The Girl Can't Help It is a 1956 comedy/musical film, starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, and Edmond O'Brien. It was produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, with a screenplay written by ...