* 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

His most significant publications before his two major books ( cited below ) include " Environment and Symptom Formation " ( 1946 ), “ Cultural Discontinuity and the Shadow of the Past ” ( 1948 ), “ The Principle of Limits with Special Reference to the Social Sciences ” ( 1950 ), “ Family Structure and Psychic Development ” ( 1951 ), “ Family Structure and the Transmission of Neurotic Behavior ” ( 1951 ), “ Child Rearing, Culture and the Natural World ” ( 1952 ), “ Culture, Education and Communications Theory ” ( 1954 ), “ American Culture and Mental Health ” ( 1956 ), “ Attitude Organization in Elementary School Classrooms ” ( 1957 ), “ The Problem of Spontaneity, Initiative and Creativity in Suburban Classrooms ” ( 1959 ), “ The Naturalistic Observations of Families of Psychotic Children ” ( 1961 ), “ Notes on the Alchemy of Mass Misrepresentation ” ( 1961 ), “ Values, Guilt, Suffering and Consequences ” ( 1963 ), “ American Schoolrooms: Learning the Nightmare ” ( 1963 ), “ On Regimentation ” ( 1964 ), “ My Life with the Families of Psychotic Children ” ( 1964 ), “ Sham ” ( 1966 ), “ Public Education and Public Anxiety ” ( 1967 ), and “ Attitude Organization in Elementary School Classrooms ” ( 1969 ).

* 1956 — Formation of Hero Cycles in Ludhiana ( majestic auto limited )

The United States Naval Observatory began the A. 1 scale 13 September 1956, using an Atomichron commercial atomic clock, followed by the NBS-A scale at the National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado.

* Adrian Dantley ( born 1956 ), American retired National Basketball Association ( NBA ) player

Aberdare, during its boom years, was considered a centre of Welsh culture: it hosted the first National Eisteddfod in 1861, again in 1885, and in 1956 at Aberdare Park where the Gorsedd standing stones still exist.

Bernard Allan Federko ( born May 12, 1956 ) is a retired professional ice hockey centre who played fourteen seasons in the National Hockey League from 1976 through 1990.

* National People's Army ( 1956 – 1990 ), armed forces of the former German Democratic Republic

* First Jewish player elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1956.

He was appointed to the prestigious portfolios of Minister for Labour and National Service ( 1949 – 1958 ; he had previously served in this portfolio 1940 – 41 ) and Minister for Immigration ( 1949 – 1956 ), by which time he was being touted in the press as a " certain successor to Menzies and a potential Prime Minister ".

* 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.

Amongst these measures included the universalization of old-age pensions for all Canadians aged seventy and above ( 1951 ), the introduction of old age assistance for needy Canadians aged sixty-five and above ( 1951 ), the introduction of allowances for the blind ( 1951 ) and the disabled ( 1954 ), amendments to the National Housing Act ( 1954 ) which provided federal government financing to non-profit organisations as well as the provinces for the renovation or construction of hostels or housing for students, the disabled, the elderly, and families on low incomes, and unemployment assistance ( 1956 ) for unemployed employables on welfare who had exhausted ( or did not qualify for ) unemployment insurance benefits.

Luis Somoza Debayle became President ( 29 September 1956 to 1 May 1963 ), and was effectively dictator of the country until his death, but his brother Anastasio Somoza Debayle held great power as head of the National Guard.

The 1956 General Elections saw the emergence of the People's National Movement under the leadership of Eric Williams.

It was part of the National People's Army, established in 1956.

On 1 March 1956, the GDR formally created its Nationale Volksarmee ( NVA ) ( National People's Army ), and the VP-See became the Verwaltung Seestreitkräfte der NVA ( Maritime Forces Administration of the NVA ) with about 10, 000 men.

On April 5, 1956, the hundredth anniversary of Washington's birth, the house where he was born in Franklin County, Virginia, was designated as the Booker T. Washington National Monument.

He remained an extra year at Oxford studying graduate-level statistics, and following his National Service in the Royal Navy ( 1956 – 1958 ).

Renfrew was educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire ( where one of the houses is named after him ) and from 1956 to 1958 did National Service in the Royal Air Force.

In between these two presidential bids, Senator Humphrey was part of the free-for-all for the vice-presidential nomination at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, where he received 134 votes on the first ballot and 74 on the second.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff was officially established under Title II, Section 211 of the original National Security Act of 1947 before Sections 209 – 214 of Title II were repealed by the law enacting Title 10 and Title 32, United States Code ( Act of August 10, 1956, 70A Stat.

Her distinctive colours of blue with buff stripes were carried by horses such as Special Cargo, the winner of the 1984 Whitbread Gold Cup, and Devon Loch, which spectacularly halted just short of the winning post at the 1956 Grand National and whose jockey Dick Francis later had a successful career as the writer of racing-themed detective stories.

Administration of the park was conducted from neighboring Zion Canyon National Park until 1956, when Bryce Canyon's first superintendent started work.

The National Water Carrier Project was begun in 1956 and completed in 1964 ; it combined all previous water projects and delivered water to the dry Mitzpe Ramon in the south.

In the United States, beginning in 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly called the Interstate Highway System was built.

In Paris in 1956, he was elected to the National Assembly as a member of Pierre Poujade's UDCA populist party.

From that public platform, Williams on January 15, 1956 inaugurated his own political party, the People's National Movement, which would take Trinidad and Tobago into independence in 1962, and dominate its postcolonial politics.