1956 (MCMLVI) was .

Events 

 The Summer Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia.
 The Winter Olympics were held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. This was the first Olympic Games in which the USSR competed.
 February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean appear in the Soviet Union after being missing for 5 years
 March 2 – Morocco declares its independence from France
 April 19 – American actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco
 May 2 – The United Methodist Church in America grants women full ordained clergy status
 June 5 – Elvis Presley performs "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show. His dancing causes a scandal.
 July 25 – The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm, killing 51
 August 17 – West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany
 September 16 – Television broadcasting begins in Australia
 October 26 – Red Army troops invade Hungary
 October 29 – November 7 – Suez Crisis: France, Israel and the United Kingdom in war with Egypt.
 November 30 – Floyd Patterson wins the world heavyweight boxing championship
 December 5 – Rose Heilbron becomes Britain's first female judge

Births 

 January 3 – Mel Gibson, American-Australian actor
 January 28 – Dario Chioli, Italian poet
 February 6 - Jerry Marotta, American drummer (Orleans)
 February 16 – Peter Hook, English bass guitarist
 February 26 – Emanuel Radovan, Romanian politician of Albanian nationality.
 February 27 – Csaba Vrabie, Romanian politician of Hungarian nationality from UDMR.
 February 27 – Angela Aames, American actress (d. 1988)
 February 29 – Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
 March 24 – Steve Ballmer, American business person, CEO of Microsoft
 April 5 – Dwight Hicks, American NFL player
 April 12 – Andy García, American actor
 April 19 - Lane Hoppen, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans)
 May 7 – Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime minister of the Netherlands
 May 17 – Bob Saget, American actor and comedian
 June 2 – Mani Ratnam, Indian movie director
 June 4 – Martin Adams, English darts player
 June 11 – Joe Montana, American NFL player
 June 11 – Ray Nagin, American politician, mayor of New Orleans
 July 9 – Tom Hanks, American actor
 July 13 – Michael Spinks, American boxer
 July 15 – Joe Satriani, Italian-American guitar virtuoso
 August 4 – Margaret Whitman, American business person, CEO of Ebay
 August 26 – Sally Beamish, English composer
 August 31 – Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
 August 31 - Mark Mangini, American sound editor
 September 14 – Maxime Verhagen, Dutch politician
 September 17 – Andreas Starke, German politician, Lord Mayor of Bamberg
 September 27 – Milan Smrčka, Czech musician
 October 1 — Theresa May, British Prime Minister
 October 2 – Mike Scully, American television writer
 October 28 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 6th President of Iran
 November 11 – Ian Craig Marsh, English musician
 December 6 - Peter Buck, American guitarist (R.E.M.)
 December 9 - Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French author 
 Hugh Cook, English-born New Zealand writer
 Hans Enoksen, Prime minister of Greenland

Deaths 

 January 18 – Konstantin Päts, 1st President of Estonia (b. 1874)
 January 27 – Erich Kleiber, German conductor (b. 1890)
 February 10 – Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, British marshal of the Royal Air Force (b. 1873)
 February 29 – Elpidio Quirino, 6th President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
 March 8 – Drastamat Kanayan, Armenian military leader and politician (b. 1884))
 March 17 – Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1897)
 April 13 – Emil Nolde, German-Danish painter (b. 1867)
 May 18 – Maurice Tate, English cricketer (b. 1895)
 June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer, and novelist (b. 1873)
 June 26 – Clifford Brown, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1930)
 July 11 – John T. Raulston, Scopes Monkey Trial judge (b. 1868)
 August 11- Jackson Pollack, American painter
 August 14 – Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (b. 1898)
 August 25 – Alfred Kinsey, American sex researcher (b. 1894)
 September 22 – Frederick Soddy, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
 October 25 – Risto Ryti, 5th President of Finland (b. 1889)
 October 30 – Pio Baroja, Spanish writer (b. 1872)
 November 22 – Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and actor (b. 1882)
 December 14 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, 7th President of Finland (b. 1870)
 December 16 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)

Nobel Prizes
 Nobel Prize in Physics won by William Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain for inventing the point-contact transistor
 Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English physical chemist, and Nikolay Semyonov, Russian/Soviet physicist and chemist
 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, and Dickinson W. Richards for the development of cardiac catheterization
 Nobel Prize in Literature won by Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet
 Nobel Peace Prize – Not Awarded

Movies released 

 Around the World in 80 Days winning the Academy Award for Best Picture
 Bus Stop starring Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray 
 Giant starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean
 Hollywood or Bust the final Martin and Lewis movie
 The King and I winning Best Actor for Yul Brynner
 The Searchers starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter
 The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner
 War and Peace starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda

New books 
Agatha Christie – Dead Man's Folly
Arthur C. Clarke – The City and the Stars
Ian Fleming – Diamonds Are Forever
Fred Gipson – Old Yeller
Alf Prøysen – Little Old Mrs Pepperpot