* 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 – Takeshi Okada, Japanese footballer, coach, and manager

This design was introduced by Japanese manufacturer Olfa Corporation in 1956 as the world's first snap-off blade and was inspired from analyzing the sharp cutting edge produced when glass is broken and how pieces of a chocolate bar break into segments.

* 1956 – Junji Hirata, Japanese professional wrestler

* 1956 – Hitoshi Ogawa, Japanese racing driver ( d. 1992 )

* 1956 – Miki Fujimura, Japanese singer ( Candies )

* 1956 – Keiichi Tsuchiya, Japanese racing driver

* 1956 – Yoshiaki Yatsu, Japanese wrestler and mixed martial artist

Michio Miyagi ( 1894 – 1956 ), a blind composer, innovator, and performer, is considered to have been the first Japanese composer to combine western music and traditional koto music.

* 1956 – Yasushi Akimoto, Japanese writer, lyricist and producer

Nikita Khrushchev's February 1956 speech " On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences ", and the subsequent Hungarian Revolution of 1956, confused the Communist Party of the USA, the Communist Party of Great Britain, and the Japanese Communist Party, none of whom were able to present a unified response.

* Mikishi Daimon ( born 1956 ), Japanese politician

Even so Herrigel's book, when translated into Japanese in 1956, had a huge impact on perception of kyudo also in Japan.

** Modern Japanese Literature, Grove Press, 1956.

* The Chinese Maze Murders ( written 1950, published in Japanese in 1951, published in English in 1956 )

was a Japanese politician and the 52nd, 53rd and 54th Prime Minister of Japan, serving terms from 10 December 1954 through 19 March 1955, from then to 22 November 1955, and from then through 23 December 1956.

* Michio Miyagi ( 1894 – 1956 ), Japanese koto musician

During the Shōwa Restoration ( 1956 – 1964 ) a Japanese cypress tree with a length of 26. 4 m ( 87 ft ) was brought down from the Kiso Mountains and replaced the old pillar.

There was a small amount of Japanese settlement in the Dominican Republic between 1956 and 1961, in a programme initiated by Dominican Republic leader Rafael Trujillo.

* May 16 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director and screenwriter ( died 1956 )

One graduate of Unit 1644, Masami Kitaoka, continued to do experiments on unwilling Japanese subjects from 1947 to 1956 while working for the National Institute of Health Sciences.

Korean page says: 1945 by the inhabitants, Chinese page says 1956 by the South Korea's Minister of Culture and Minister of Education, Japanese page gives no details.

Manaslu was first climbed on May 9, 1956 by Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu, members of a Japanese expedition.

Even the expedition in 1956 which successfully climbed the mountain faced this situation and as a result the next Japanese expedition only took place in 1971.