1956

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1920s  1930s  1940s  – 1950s –  1960s  1970s  1980s
Years:	1953 1954 1955 – 1956 – 1957 1958 1959

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.

Births

• January 3 – Mel Gibson, American-Australian actor
• January 28 – Dario Chioli, Italian poet
• February 16 – Peter Hook, English bass guitarist
• 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
• May 7 – Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime minister of the Netherlands
• May 17 – Bob Saget, American actor and comedian
• June 2 – Mani Ratnam, Indian film 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
• September 17 – Andreas Starke, German politician, Lord Mayor of Bamberg
• September 27 – Milan Smrčka, Czech musician
• October 2 – Mike Scully, American television writer
• October 28 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 6th President of Iran
• November 11 – Ian Craig Marsh, English musician
• Hugh Cook, English-born New Zealand writer
• Hans Enoksen, Prime minister of Greenland

Deaths

• March 8 – Drastamat Kanayan, Armenian military leader and politician (b. 1884))
• August 11- Jackson Pollack, American painter
• August 14 – Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (b. 1898)
• August 25 – Alfred Kinsey, American sex researcher (b. 1894)
• October 30 – Pio Baroja, Spanish writer (b. 1872)

Movies released

• The Searchers
• Hollywood or Bust