Top News Stories from 1956
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). Background: Arab-Israeli Wars
- Soviet troops and tanks crush anti-Communist uprisings in Hungary (November).
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
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. Statistics... - 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). Background: nuclear weapons
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 PistonsStanley Cup
Montreal d. DetroitWimbledon
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
NeedlesNCAA Basketball Championship
San Francisco d. IowaNCAA Football Champions
Oklahoma (10-0-0) 1956 Summer OlympicsEntertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
Andersonville, MacKinlay Kantor
Music: Symphony No. 3, Ernst Toch
Drama: The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett
Academy Award, Best Picture: Marty, Harold Hecht, producer (United Artists)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Juan Ramón Jiménez (Spain)
Miss America: Sharon Ritchie (CO)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- 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
- The Seventh Seal, Giant, The Searchers, Around the World in 80 Days, The King and I, Friendly Persuasion
Music
- Woody Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land"
Books
- John Barth, The Floating Opera
- James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
- Allen Ginsburg, Howl
- John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage
- Lewis Mumford, The Transformations of Man
- William Styron, The Long March
Science
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
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - 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.
