* 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

He became mayor of the city of Thiès, Senegal in November 1956 and then advisory minister in the Michel Debre's government from 23 July 1959 to 19 May 1961.

In addition to these groups the OCI was cultivating the exiled Hungarian League of Revolutionary Socialists ( LRSH ) led by Michel Varga, a former leader of the students during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and of the German Socialist Workers League ( BSA ).

A capable vocalist, Stuart collaborated with Percy Faith on an album in 1956 and with Michel Legrand in 1973.

She has been married three times: to actor Philippe Lemaire ( 1953 – 1956 ; one daughter, Laurence-Marie Lemaire, b. 1954 ), actor Michel Piccoli ( 1966 – 1977 ), and pianist Gérard Jouannest ( since 1988 ).

There, he met and married Mary Schaefer ( 1926 – 2006 ) in 1949 and had four children, Michel ( 1950-), André ( 1951-), Pierre ( 1956 – 2005 ) and Marie ( 1959-), and now, 5 grandchildren.

* Observations of Michel Tapié, edited by Paul and Esther Jenkins, published by George Wittenborn in New York, 1956.

His francophone discoveries included the singers Hugues Aufray, Michel Delpech, Dalida ( whom he launched in 1956 ), Mireille Mathieu, Claude Nougaro, and Eddy Mitchell.

* 1956 – Pierre-Louis Lions, French mathematician

* 1956 – Dominique Blanc, French actress

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 – 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