1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1956th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 956th year of the 2nd millennium, the 56th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1950s decade.
| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
|---|---|
| Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century |
| Decades: | 1920s 1930s 1940s – 1950s – 1960s 1970s 1980s |
| Years: | 1953 1954 1955 – 1956 – 1957 1958 1959 |
| Gregorian calendar | 1956 MCMLVI |
| Ab urbe condita | 2709 |
| Armenian calendar | 1405 ԹՎ ՌՆԵ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6706 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 112–113 |
| Balinese saka calendar | 1877–1878 |
| Bengali calendar | 1363 |
| Berber calendar | 2906 |
| British Regnal year | 4 Eliz. 2 – 5 Eliz. 2 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2500 |
| Burmese calendar | 1318 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7464–7465 |
| Chinese calendar | 乙未年 (Wood Goat) 4652 or 4592 — to — 丙申年 (Fire Monkey) 4653 or 4593 |
| Coptic calendar | 1672–1673 |
| Discordian calendar | 3122 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1948–1949 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5716–5717 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 2012–2013 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1877–1878 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5056–5057 |
| Holocene calendar | 11956 |
| Igbo calendar | 956–957 |
| Iranian calendar | 1334–1335 |
| Islamic calendar | 1375–1376 |
| Japanese calendar | Shōwa 31 (昭和３１年) |
| Javanese calendar | 1887–1888 |
| Juche calendar | 45 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4289 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 45 民國45年 |
| Nanakshahi calendar | 488 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2499 |
| Tibetan calendar | 阴木羊年 (female Wood-Goat) 2082 or 1701 or 929 — to — 阳火猴年 (male Fire-Monkey) 2083 or 1702 or 930 |
- The Summer Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia.
- The Winter Olympics were held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. This was the first Olympic Games in which the USSR competed.
- February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean appear in the Soviet Union after being missing for 5 years
- March 2 – Morocco declares its independence from France
- April 19 – American actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco
- May 2 – The United Methodist Church in America grants women full ordained clergy status
- June 5 – Elvis Presley performs "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show. His dancing causes a scandal.
- July 25 – The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm, killing 51
- August 17 – West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany
- September 16 – Television broadcasting begins in Australia
- October 26 – Red Army troops invade Hungary
- October 29 – November 7 – Suez Crisis: France, Israel and the United Kingdom in war with Egypt.
- November 30 – Floyd Patterson wins the world heavyweight boxing championship
- December 5 – Rose Heilbron becomes Britain's first female judge
- January 3 – Mel Gibson, American-Australian actor
- January 28 – Dario Chioli, Italian poet
- February 6 - Jerry Marotta, American drummer (Orleans)
- February 16 – Peter Hook, English bass guitarist
- February 26 – Emanuel Radovan, Romanian politician of Albanian nationality.
- February 27 – Csaba Vrabie, Romanian politician of Hungarian nationality from UDMR.
- February 27 – Angela Aames, American actress (d. 1988)
- February 29 – Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
- March 12 – Michael Catain, American businessman and convicted criminal
- March 24 – Steve Ballmer, American business person, CEO of Microsoft
- April 5 – Dwight Hicks, American NFL player
- April 12 – Andy García, American actor
- April 19 - Lane Hoppen, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans)
- May 7 – Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime minister of the Netherlands
- May 17 – Bob Saget, American actor and comedian
- June 2 – Mani Ratnam, Indian movie director
- June 4 – Martin Adams, English darts player
- June 11 – Joe Montana, American NFL player
- June 11 – Ray Nagin, American politician, mayor of New Orleans
- July 9 – Tom Hanks, American actor
- July 13 – Michael Spinks, American boxer
- July 15 – Joe Satriani, Italian-American guitar virtuoso
- August 4 – Margaret Whitman, American business person, CEO of Ebay
- August 26 – Sally Beamish, English composer
- August 31 – Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
- August 31 - Mark Mangini, American sound editor
- September 14 – Maxime Verhagen, Dutch politician
- September 17 – Andreas Starke, German politician, Lord Mayor of Bamberg
- September 27 – Milan Smrčka, Czech musician
- October 1 — Theresa May, British Prime Minister
- October 2 – Mike Scully, American television writer
- October 28 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 6th President of Iran
- November 11 – Ian Craig Marsh, English musician
- December 4 - Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, 9th President of Mauritania
- December 6 - Peter Buck, American guitarist (R.E.M.)
- December 8 - Warren Cuccurullo, American guitarist (Duran Duran)
- December 9 - Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French author
- Glen Hill (actor), actor
- Hugh Cook, English-born New Zealand writer
- Hans Enoksen, Prime minister of Greenland
- January 18 – Konstantin Päts, 1st President of Estonia (b. 1874)
- January 27 – Erich Kleiber, German conductor (b. 1890)
- February 10 – Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, British marshal of the Royal Air Force (b. 1873)
- February 29 – Elpidio Quirino, 6th President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
- March 8 – Drastamat Kanayan, Armenian military leader and politician (b. 1884))
- March 17 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1897)
- April 13 – Emil Nolde, German-Danish painter (b. 1867)
- May 18 – Maurice Tate, English cricketer (b. 1895)
- June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer, and novelist (b. 1873)
- June 26 – Clifford Brown, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1930)
- July 11 – John T. Raulston, Scopes Monkey Trial judge (b. 1868)
- August 11- Jackson Pollack, American painter
- August 14 – Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (b. 1898)
- August 25 – Alfred Kinsey, American sex researcher (b. 1894)
- September 22 – Frederick Soddy, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
- October 25 – Risto Ryti, 5th President of Finland (b. 1889)
- October 30 – Pio Baroja, Spanish writer (b. 1872)
- November 22 – Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and actor (b. 1882)
- December 14 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, 7th President of Finland (b. 1870)
- December 16 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)
- Nobel Prize in Physics won by William Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain for inventing the point-contact transistor
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English physical chemist, and Nikolay Semyonov, Russian/Soviet physicist and chemist
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, and Dickinson W. Richards for the development of cardiac catheterization
- Nobel Prize in Literature won by Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet
- Nobel Peace Prize – Not Awarded
- Around the World in 80 Days winning the Academy Award for Best Picture
- Bus Stop starring Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray
- Giant starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean
- Hollywood or Bust the final Martin and Lewis movie
- The King and I winning Best Actor for Yul Brynner
- The Searchers starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter
- The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner
- War and Peace starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda
- Agatha Christie – Dead Man's Folly
- Arthur C. Clarke – The City and the Stars
- Ian Fleming – Diamonds Are Forever
- Fred Gipson – Old Yeller
- Alf Prøysen – Little Old Mrs Pepperpot
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