* Austin Osman Spare ( 1886 – 1956 ), English artist and magician

* 1956 – Sebastian Spreng, Argentinean artist and journalist

* 1956 – Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer and administrator

* 1956 – Andy García, Cuban actor

* 1956 – Herbert Grönemeyer, German singer

* 1956 – Former Vice President and Senator Alben Barkley dies during a speech in Virginia.

* 1956 – Lars von Trier, Danish director

* 1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.

* 1956 – Stepfanie Kramer, American actress

* 1878 – Aino Kallas, Finnish-Estonian author ( d. 1956 )

* 1956 – Fulvio Melia, Italian-American physicist, astrophysicist, and author

* 1956 – Jim Neidhart, American wrestler

* 1956 – Isabel Pantoja, Spanish singer

* 2003 – Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong actor and singer ( b. 1956 )

* 1956 – Tom Leykis, American radio host

* 1956 – Kirk Brandon, English singer-songwriter and guitarist ( Theatre of Hate, Spear of Destiny and Dead Men Walking )

* 1956 – Balwinder Sandhu, Indian cricketer

* 1956 –, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.

Prominent leaders include co-founders Lucien Febvre ( 1878 – 1956 ) and Marc Bloch ( 1886 – 1944 ).

* 1867 – Emil Nolde, German painter ( d. 1956 )

* 1956 – Chris Foreman, English guitarist and songwriter ( Madness )

* 1956 – David Grant, English singer ( Linx )

* 1956 – Branscombe Richmond, American actor

* 1956 – Cecilia Roth, Argentine actress

Jean Metzinger ( Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger ) ( June 24, 1883 – November 3, 1956 ) was a French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, born in Nantes, France.

* Napoleon Bunny-Part ( 1956 ), voiced by Mel Blanc — A Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng where Napoleon matches wits ( unsuccessfully ) with Bugs Bunny

* Mont Blanc To Everest Thames & Hudson, 1956.

Mel Blanc, who voiced Barney, first used the Barney Rubble voice when imitating Norton in the 1956 Looney Tunes cartoon Half-Fare Hare.

* 1956 – Pierre-Louis Lions, French mathematician

In 1956 French legislation eliminated certain voting inequalities and provided for the creation of some organs of self-government in each territory.

Claude Piron ( 26 February 1931 – 22 January 2008 ) was a psychologist and a translator for the United Nations ( from Chinese, English, Russian and Spanish into French ) from 1956 to 1961.

In November 1956, Eisenhower forced an end to the combined British, French and Israeli invasion of Egypt in response to the Suez Crisis.

* 1956 – Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French author

* 1956 – Charlélie Couture, French singer and musician

* 1956 – Michel Houellebecq, French writer

* 1956 – Didier Lockwood, French violinist

* In 1956 another crisis struck French colonies, this time in Egypt.

* 1956 – The French National Assembly takes the first step in creating the French Community by passing the Loi Cadre, transferring a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa.

* 1956 – Marie Laurencin, French painter ( b. 1883 )

* 1871 – Émile Borel, French mathematician and politician ( d. 1956 )

In 1956 Nehru had criticised the joint invasion of the Suez Canal by the British, French and Israelis.

Sartre always sympathized with the Left, and supported the French Communist Party ( PCF ) until the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary.

From 1956 onwards Sartre rejected the claims of the PCF to represent the French working classes, objecting to its " authoritarian tendencies ".

* Togoland was split into British Togoland ( under an Administrator, a post filled by the colonial Governor of the British Gold Coast ( present Ghana ) except 30 September 1920 – 11 October 1923 Francis Walter Fillon Jackson ) and French Togoland ( under a Commissioner ) ( United Kingdom and France ), 20 July 1922 separate Mandates, transformed on 13 December 1946 into United Nations trust territories, French Togo Associated Territory ( under a Commissioner till 30 August 1956, then under a High Commissioner as Autonomous Republic of Togo ) and British Togoland ( as before ; on 13 December 1956 it ceased to exist as it became part of Ghana )

This movement led the French to establish reformed institutions in 1956 under the Loi Cadre ( Overseas Reform Act ), and Madagascar moved peacefully towards independence.

After a series of setbacks that includes a severe frost in 1956 and several vintages in the 1960s lost to rot, French authorities in Bordeaux banned new plantings of Merlot vines between 1970 and 1975.

* 1956 – Frédéric Dutoit, French politician