1956

Events from the year **1956 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Jim Folsom (Democratic)
* Governor of Arizona: Ernest McFarland (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Orval Faubus (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Goodwin Jess Knight (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Edwin C. Johnson (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Abraham A. Ribicoff (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: J. Caleb Boggs (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: LeRoy Collins (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Marvin Griffin (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: Robert E. Smylie (Republican)
* Governor of Illinois: William G. Stratton (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: George N. Craig (Republican)
* Governor of Iowa: Leo A. Hoegh (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: Fred Hall (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: Happy Chandler (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana: Robert F. Kennon (Democratic) (until May 8), Earl K. Long (Democratic) (starting May 8)
* Governor of Maine: Edmund Muskie (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: Theodore R. McKeldin (Republican)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Christian A. Herter (Republican)
* Governor of Michigan: G. Mennen Williams (Democratic)
* Governor of Minnesota: Orville L. Freeman (Democratic)
* Governor of Mississippi: Hugh L. White (Democratic) (until January 17), James P. Coleman (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Missouri: Phil M. Donnelly (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: J. Hugo Aronson (Republican)
* Governor of Nebraska: Victor E. Anderson (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: Charles H. Russell (Republican)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Lane Dwinell (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: Robert B. Meyner (Democratic)
* Governor of New Mexico: John F. Simms (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: W. Averell Harriman (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Luther H. Hodges (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: Clarence Norman Brunsdale (Republican)
* Governor of Ohio: Frank J. Lausche (Democratic)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Raymond D. Gary (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Paul L. Patterson (Republican) (until February 1), Elmo Smith (Republican) (starting February 1)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: George M. Leader (Democratic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Dennis J. Roberts (Democratic)
* Governor of South Carolina: George Bell Timmerman Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Joe Foss (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Frank G. Clement (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Allan Shivers (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: J. Bracken Lee (Republican)
* Governor of Vermont: Joseph B. Johnson (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: Thomas Bahnson Stanley (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Arthur B. Langlie (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: William C. Marland (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Walter J. Kohler Jr. (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Milward L. Simpson (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: William G. Hardwick (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Nathan Green Gordon (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Harold J. Powers (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Stephen L. R. McNichols (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Charles W. Jewett (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: John W. Rollins (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Georgia: S. Ernest Vandiver (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: J. Berkeley Larsen (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John William Chapman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Harold W. Handley (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Leo Elthon (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: John McCuish (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Harry Lee Waterfield (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: C. E. "Cap" Barham (Democratic) (until May 8), Lether Frazar (Democratic) (starting May 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Sumner G. Whittier (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Philip A. Hart (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Karl Rolvaag (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Carroll Gartin (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: James T. Blair Jr. (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: George M. Gosman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Rex Bell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Joseph Montoya (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: George DeLuca (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Clarence P. Dahl (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: John William Brown (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: Cowboy Pink Williams (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Roy E. Furman (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: John S. McKiernan (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Ernest Hollings (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: L. Roy Houck (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Jared Maddux (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Ben Ramsey (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Consuelo N. Bailey (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Allie Edward Stokes Stephens (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Emmett T. Anderson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Warren P. Knowles (Republican)

## Events

### January - March

* January 1 – Carl Perkins' record "Blue Suede Shoes" is released by Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
* January 3 – *Peter Pan*, starring Mary Martin, is restaged live by Producers' Showcase on NBC television by popular demand.
* January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
* January 22 – Redondo Junction train wreck in Los Angeles kills thirty people.
* January 31 – The first book in Ed McBain's long-running 87th Precinct police procedural series, *Cop Hater*, is published under Evan Hunter's new pseudonym.
* February 14 – Dwight D. Eisenhower's doctors say that he is healthy enough to seek another term at the White House.
* February 16 – Only a little more than four months after the release of the 70 mm version of *Oklahoma!*, the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's *Carousel*, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, is released in CinemaScope 55. MacRae and Jones had previously starred in *Oklahoma!* *Carousel*, intended for showing in 55 mm, ends up being shown only in 35 mm.
* February 22 – Elvis Presley enters the U.S. music charts for the first time with "Heartbreak Hotel".
* February 23 – Norma Jean Mortenson legally changes her name to Marilyn Monroe.
* February 24 – Doris Day records her most famous song, "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)"; it is from Alfred Hitchcock's *The Man Who Knew Too Much*, in which Day co-stars with James Stewart.
* February 29 – Dwight D. Eisenhower announces he will seek re-election as President.
* March 11 – Laurence Olivier's film, *Richard III*, adapted from Shakespeare's play, premieres in the U.S. in theaters and on NBC Television, on the same day as an afternoon matinée. It is one of the first such experiments of its kind. Olivier is later nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
* March 12
	+ The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 500 for the first time rising 2.40 points, or 0.48%, to 500.24.
	+ 96 U.S. Congressmen sign the Southern Manifesto, a protest against the 1954 Supreme Court ruling (*Brown v. Board of Education*) desegregating public education.
* March 13 – Elvis Presley releases his first Gold Album titled "Elvis Presley".
* March 15 – The Broadway musical *My Fair Lady* opens in New York City.
* March 21 – The 28th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Jerry Lewis, is held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with the television broadcast hosted by Claudette Colbert and Joseph L. Mankiewicz in New York. Delbert Mann's *Marty* wins four awards, including Best Motion Picture and Best Director for Mann. The film is also tied for the most nominations with eight, along with Henry King's *Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing* and Daniel Mann's *The Rose Tattoo*.

### April - June

* April 2 – The first episodes of *As the World Turns* and *The Edge of Night* are broadcast on CBS television.
* April 14 – Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago by Ampex. It is the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as 2" Quadruplex.
* April 19 – American actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.
* April 21 – Former U.S. First Daughter Margaret Truman marries Clifton Daniel.
* April 27 – Heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano retires without losing a professional boxing match.
* May 2 – The Methodist Church in the U.S. decides, at its General Conference, to grant women full ordained clergy status. It also calls for an end to racial segregation in the denomination.
* May 22 – The Peacock logo of NBC is introduced on television.
* June 1 – 19-year-old Hunter S. Thompson is arrested as an accessory to robbery.
* June 4 – Montgomery bus boycott: *Browder v. Gayle* is decided by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, ruling state bus segregation laws unconstitutional; this will be confirmed on appeal.
* June 5 – Elvis Presley performs "Hound Dog" on *The Milton Berle Show*, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.
* June 8 – General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", first snooze alarm clock.
* June 14
	+ President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the phrase "under God" to be added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
	+ The Flag of the United States Army is formally dedicated.
* June 21 – Playwright Arthur Miller appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C.
* June 26 – Books published by discredited psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich are burned under a court injunction.
* June 29
	+ Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller in White Plains, New York.
	+ President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act, creating the Interstate Highway System.
* June 30 – A TWA Lockheed Constellation and United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collide in mid-air over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft in the deadliest civil aviation disaster to date; the accident leads to sweeping changes in the regulation of cross-country flight and air traffic control over the U.S.

### July - September

* July 2 – Sylvania Electric Products explosion: A laboratory experiment involving scrap thorium at Sylvania Electric Products in Bayside, New York, results in an explosion.
* July 4 – A U.S. Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft makes its first flight over the Soviet Union.
* July 13
	+ Elvis Presley's recording of "Hound Dog" is released by RCA Records.
	+ John McCarthy (Dartmouth), Marvin Minsky (MIT), Claude Shannon (Bell Labs) and Nathaniel Rochester (IBM) assemble the first coordinated research meeting on the topic of artificial intelligence, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
* July 16 – With the closing of its "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announces all subsequent circuses will be "arena shows" due to changing economics.
* July 24 – At New York City's Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together (their act started on July 25, 1946).
* July 25 – 72 kilometers (45 mi) south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS *Andrea Doria* sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship MS *Stockholm* in heavy fog, killing 51 people.
* July 29 – McKee refinery fire kills 19 in Texas.
* July 30 – A Joint Resolution of Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing "In God We Trust" as the U.S. national motto.
* August 6 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network has its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena.
* August 11 – Painter Jackson Pollock dies in a car crash in Springs, New York.
* September 9 – Elvis Presley appears on *The Ed Sullivan Show* for the first time.
* September 13 – The hard disk drive is invented by an IBM team led by Reynold B. Johnson.
* September 27 – The Bell X-2 becomes the first manned aircraft to reach Mach 3.

### October - December

* October 1 – *The Ladder* becomes the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine in the U.S.
* October 5 – Cecil B. DeMille's epic film *The Ten Commandments*, starring Charlton Heston as Moses, is released in the U.S. It will be in the top ten of the worldwide list of highest-grossing films of all time, adjusted for inflation.
* October 8 – Baseball pitcher Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the only perfect game in World Series history in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yogi Berra catches the game. Dale Mitchell is the final out. The New York Yankees win the series. Larsen is named series MVP.
* October 10 – The prototype Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the final Lockheed Constellation model, makes its first flight.
* October 17 – The Game of the Century: 13-year-old Bobby Fischer beats GM Donald Byrne in the NY Rosenwald chess tournament.
* October 29 – The *Huntley-Brinkley Report* debuts on NBC-TV.
* October 31 – A U.S. Navy team becomes the third group to reach the South Pole (arriving by air) and commences construction of the first permanent Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station.
* November 1
	+ City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco publishes *Howl and Other Poems* by Allen Ginsberg, a key work of the Beat Generation.
	+ The film *Oklahoma!* (1955), previously released to select cities in Todd-AO, now receives a U.S. national release in CinemaScope, since not all theatres are yet equipped for Todd-AO. To accomplish this, the film has actually been shot twice, rather than printing one version in two different film processes, as is later done.
* November 3 – MGM's screen classic, *The Wizard of Oz*, is shown on television for the first time by CBS, as the final installment of their *Ford Star Jubilee*.
* November 6 – 1956 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democratic challenger Adlai E. Stevenson in a rematch of their contest four years earlier.
* November 13 – *Browder v. Gayle*: The United States Supreme Court declares Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery bus boycott.
* November 30 – African American boxer Floyd Patterson wins the world heavyweight championship that is vacant after the retirement of Rocky Marciano.
* December 2 – A pipe bomb planted by George Metesky explodes at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York, injuring 6 people.
* December 3 – The 1956 Bush Terminal explosion occurs in Brooklyn.
* December 4 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio for the only time.
* December 18 – *To Tell the Truth* debuts on CBS-TV.
* December 31 – Bob Barker makes his TV debut as host of the game show *Truth or Consequences*.

## Memoriam

* January 9 – Marion Leonard, stage and silent film actress (aged 74; Woodland Hills, CA, USA)
* January 10 – Zonia Baber, geographer and geologist (aged 93; East Lansing, MI, USA)
* January 12 – Norman Kerry, silent film actor (aged 61; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 26 – Fred H. Hildebrandt, U.S. House of Representatives from South Dakota (aged 81; Bradenton, FL, USA)
* January 29 – H. L. Mencken, writer (aged 75; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* February 2
	+ Bob Burns, comedian (aged 65; Encino, CA, USA)
	+ Charley Grapewin, vaudeville, stage & film actor (aged 86; Corona, CA, USA)
* February 3 – Robert Yerkes, psychologist and ethologist (aged 79; New Haven, CT, USA)
* February 8 – Connie Mack, baseball executive and manager (aged 93; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* February 15 – J. H. Smith, politician and pioneer (aged 97; Everett, WA, USA)
* February 26 – Elsie Janis, singer and actress (aged 66; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* February 28 – Harley M. Kilgore, U.S. Senator from West Virginia from 1941 to 1956 (aged 63; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* March 14 – David Browning, Olympic diver; in aviation accident (aged 24; Rantoul, KS, USA)
* March 17 – Fred Allen, comedian (aged 61; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 18 – Louis Bromfield, writer and conservationist (aged 59; Columbus, OH, USA)
* March 21 – Edwin Thanhouser, actor, businessman and film producer (aged 90; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 22 – George Sarton, historian of science (aged 71; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* March 25 – Lou Moore, racing driver and team owner (aged 51; Atlanta, GA, USA)
* April 15 – Kathleen Howard, opera singer and film actress (aged 71; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* April 21
	+ Samuel Gottesman, pulp-paper merchant (aged 72; New York City, NY, USA)
	+ Charles MacArthur, playwright and screenwriter (aged 60; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 26 – Edward Arnold, film actor (aged 66; Encino, CA, USA)
* April 30 – Alben W. Barkley, 35th Vice President of the United States from 1949 to 1953 (aged 78; Lexington, VA, USA)
* May 4 – Fielding L. Wright, 49th and 50th Governor of Mississippi (aged 60; Jackson, MS, USA)
* May 11 – Walter Sydney Adams, astronomer (aged 79; Pasadena, CA, USA)
* May 12 – Louis Calhern, actor (aged 61; Nara, Japan)
* May 15 – Arthur Talmage Abernethy, poet, journalist, theologian and minister (aged 83; Asheville, NC, USA)
* May 24 – Guy Kibbee, actor (aged 74; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 26 – Al Simmons, baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics) (aged 54; Milwaukee, WI, USA)
* June 1 – Jesse H. Jones, entrepreneur, 9th United States Secretary of Commerce (aged 82; Houston, TX, USA)
* June 2 – Richard S. Edwards, admiral (aged 71; Oakland, CA, USA)
* June 4 – Katherine MacDonald, silent film actress (aged 64; Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
* June 6 – Hiram Bingham III, explorer, discoverer of Machu Picchu (aged 80; Washington, DC, USA)
* June 11 – Ralph Morgan, character actor (aged 72; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 25 – Ernest King, Fleet Admiral (aged 77; Kittery, ME, USA)
* June 26 – Clifford Brown, jazz trumpeter (aged 25; Bedford, PA, USA)
* July 4 – Udo Keppler, cartoonist (Puck) (aged 84; La Jolla, CA, USA)
* August 2 – Albert Woolson, last surviving Union veteran of the American Civil War (aged 106; Duluth, MN, USA)
* August 11 – Jackson Pollock, painter (aged 44; Springs, NY, USA)
* August 13 – Lyonel Feininger, German American painter (aged 84; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 16
	+ Bela Lugosi, actor (aged 73; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
	+ Lynde D. McCormick, admiral (aged 61; Newport, RI, USA)
* August 23 – Peaches Browning, divorcee and vaudeville actress (aged 46; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 24 – Mitchell Lewis, actor (aged 76; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 25 – Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher (aged 62; Bloomington, IN, USA)
* September 6 – Felix Borowski, composer and teacher (aged 84; Chicago, IL, USA)
* September 10 – Homer Stille Cummings, lawyer and politician (aged 86; Stamford, CT, USA)
* September 27
	+ Milburn G. Apt, test pilot (aged 32; Edwards Air Force Base, CA, USA)
	+ Babe Didrikson Zaharias, golfer (aged 45; Galveston, TX, USA)
* October 1 – Albert Von Tilzer, songwriter (aged 78; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 2 – George Bancroft, film actor (aged 74; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* October 7 – Clarence Birdseye, inventor, entrepreneur, and naturalist (aged 69; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 9 – Marie Doro, stage and silent film actress (aged 74; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 15 – William H. Murray, 9th Governor of Oklahoma (aged 86; Tishomingo, OK, USA)
* October 19 – Isham Jones, bandleader (aged 62; Hollywood, FL, USA)
* October 27 – Charles S. Johnson, sociologist (aged 63; Louisville, KY, USA)
* November 1 – Tommy Johnson, Delta blues falsetto singer & guitarist (aged 60; Crystal Springs, MS, USA)
* November 5 – Art Tatum, jazz pianist (aged 47; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 6 – Paul Kelly, actor (aged 57; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* November 10
	+ Harry Ford Sinclair, entrepreneur (aged 80; Pasadena, CA, USA)
	+ Victor Young, composer (aged 57; Palm Springs, CA, USA)
* November 26 – Tommy Dorsey, trombonist and bandleader (aged 51; Greenwich, CT, USA)
* November 27 – Hugo Ballin, artist, film production designer and director (aged 77; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* December 9 – Charles Joughin, baker on RMS Titanic (aged 78; Paterson, NJ, USA)
* December 17 – Eddie Acuff, actor (aged 53; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* December 21 – Lewis Terman, psychologist (aged 79; Palo Alto, CA, USA)
* December 30 – Ruth Draper, monologuist (aged 72; New York City, NY, USA)