* 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

* 1956 – Operation Auca: Five U. S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.

Clockwise, from left: United Nations soldiers during the Korean War, which was the first UN authorized conflict ; Two atomic explosions from the RDS-37 and Operation Upshot-Knothole | Upshot-Knothole ( Soviet and American, respectively ) nuclear weapons, symbolizing the escalation of Cold War tensions between the two nations in the 1950s ; Israeli troops prepare to fight the Egypt ians during the Suez Crisis of 1956 ; A replica of Sputnik I, the world's first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 ; Fidel Castro leads the Cuban Revolution in 1959 ; North Sea flood of 1953

* Mohawk, the name of a 1956 Operation Redwing nuclear test

On 15 December 1956, after the failure of Operation Harvest and the introduction of the Special Powers Act, Murphy and Sean Cronin visited to convey the message that his usefulness to the IRA cause was over.

It was only approached in size by the 1991 Operation Granby deployment for the Gulf War and the 1956 Operation Musketeer Suez Crisis deployment.

The joint police / military plan, codenamed Operation Airborne saw Makarios exiled to Mahe Island in the Seychelles on 9 March 1956, as a ‘ guest ’ of Sir William Addis, Governor & Commander-in-Chief of the Seychelles.

Soviet authorities were informed about Operation Gold from the very beginning by their mole George Blake and " discovered " the tunnel in 1956.

* " Operation Opera " in Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1956

* Operation Musketeer ( 1956 ), the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt to capture the Suez Canal in 1956.

The preparations for Operation Grapple, including building the necessary structures on Christmas Island, began at the end of May 1956.

On September 11, 1956, an Israeli force in what the IDF termed one of its retribution operations, Operation Jonathan, raided Jordanian territory at Al-Rahwa, Hebron Sector, attacking the police station and clashing with a unit from the Legion's Desert Force.

In Cyprus the battalion was successful in Operation Golden Rain, destroying a major EOKA terrorist group operating in the Troodos Mountains in 1956.

In October 1956 an EOKA leader, Pilots Christof, was captured during Operation Sparrowhawk.

Published in 1956, this book presented the experience of U. S. Navy physician Thomas Anthony Dooley during Operation Passage to Freedom, in which approximately 90, 000 Vietnamese Christians were relocated from North to South Vietnam.

The design was tested twice during the Operation Buffalo series of nuclear trials at Maralinga in Australia-first on 27 September ( a 15 kT explosion, after which the resulting mushroom cloud rose to a height of 11, 430 metres ) and again on 22 October 1956.

* Operation Intrigue ( 1956 )

* Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye, GCSI, GCIE, KCB, KBE, MC, Vice-Chief of the Imperial General Staff as well as being involved in Operation Mincemeat, Governor of Madras in 1946, UK High Commissioner in Delhi from 1948 to 1952, High Commissioner to Canada from 1952 to 1956, chairman of the Nye Committee.

* Operation ENGULF: acoustic cryptanalysis of Egyptian Hagelin cipher machines in 1956 ;

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced the testing of a 95 % ' clean ' ( 2-stage ) fusion weapon, later identified to have been the 11 July Navajo test at Bikini Atoll during Operation Redwing.

Known from 1956 as Operation Schooner and then Operation Nylon, they were authorised, at the highest level, on an irregular basis to carry out covert photographic reconnaissance flights.

On November 5, 1956 the Royal Marines ' 45 Commando performed the world's first combat helicopter insertion with air assault during an amphibious landing as part of Operation Musketeer, in Suez, Egypt.