1956

January

January 1

The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan.

Carl Perkins' record "Blue Suede Shoes" is released in the United States.

A crowd crush and stampede during a New Year's event results in 124 deaths and 77 injuries at the Yahiko Shrine in Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

January 3 – In the United States:

By popular demand, Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, is restaged live by Producers' Showcase on NBC-TV.

Columbia Records first releases Glenn Gould's solo piano recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations.

January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Huaorani people of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.

January 16 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to reconquer Palestine.

January 25–26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4.

January 26 – The 1956 Winter Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

February

February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union after being missing for 5 years.

February 14–26 – 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

February 16 – Only a little more than four months after the release of the 70mm 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 55mm, ends up being shown only in 35mm.

February 22 – Elvis Presley enters the United States 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 25 – Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Josef Stalin in a speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences".

March

March 1 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.

March 2 – Morocco declares its independence from France.

March 9

The British deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus to the Seychelles.

Soviet Armed Forces suppresses mass demonstrations in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.

March 10 – The Fairey Delta 2 broke the World Air Speed Record, raising it to 1,132 mph (1,822 km/h) or Mach 1.73, an increase of some 300 mph (480 km/h) over the previous record, and thus becoming the first aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h) in level flight.

March 11 – After having opened in London the previous year, Laurence Olivier's film, Richard III, adapted from Shakespeare's play, has its U.S. premiere in theatres and on NBC Television on the same day. On TV it is not shown in prime time, but as an afternoon matinée, in a slightly cut version. It is one of the first such experiments of its kind. Olivier is later nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

March 12

96 U.S. Congressmen sign the Southern Manifesto, a protest against the 1954 Supreme Court ruling (Brown v. Board of Education) that desegregated public education.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 500 for the first time rising 2.40 points, or 0.48%, to 500.24.

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 19 – At age 48, Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren contests his last match in Rotterdam.

March 20 – Tunisia gains independence from France.

March 21 – The 28th Academy Awards ceremony is held.

March 23 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, and a national holiday is observed in the country including the former East Pakistan state.

April

April 2 – The first episode of As the World Turns is broadcast on the CBS television network in the United States.

April 7 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.

April 9 – Habib Bourguiba is elected President of the National Constituent Assembly of the Kingdom of Tunisia; on April 15 he becomes Prime Minister.

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 17 – Queen Elizabeth II inaugurates the 4.9 km² Chew Valley Lake in Somerset, England, as a reservoir for the Bristol area.

April 18 – Maria Desylla-Kapodistria is elected mayor of Corfu and becomes the first female mayor in Greece.

April 19

British diver Lionel Crabb (working for MI6) dives into Portsmouth harbour to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser and vanishes.

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

May 2 – The United Methodist Church in America 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 8

Austria and Israel form diplomatic relations.^{Confirmation needed}

The constitutional union between Indonesia and the Netherlands is dissolved.

John Osborne's Look Back in Anger opens at the Royal Court Theatre, London, changing the scope of theatrical and other forms of drama in the UK: the theatre's press release describes the dramatist as among the angry young men of the time.

May 9 – Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world, is first ascended.

May 18 – Lhotse (main), the fourth highest mountain, is first ascended.

May 22 – The NBC Peacock debuts On Television

May 23 – French minister Pierre Mendès France resigns due to his government's policy on Algeria.

May 24 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast from Lugano, Switzerland. The winning song is the host country's Refrain by Lys Assia (music by Géo Voumard, text by Émile Gardaz).

May 25 – India announces the institution of diplomatic relations with Spain (still under Franco's rule)

June

June 1 – Vyacheslav Molotov resigns as foreign minister of the Soviet Union; he later becomes ambassador in Mongolia.

June 3 – British Rail renames 'Third Class' passenger facilities as 'Second Class' (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).

June 5 – Elvis Presley performs "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.

June 6 – In Singapore, chief minister David Marshall resigns after the breakdown of talks about internal self-government in London.

June 8 – General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", first snooze alarm clock ever.

June 10 – 1956 Summer Olympics: Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden (all other events are held in November in Melbourne, Australia).

June 13

International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO).

Real Madrid beats Stade Reims 4-3 at Parc des Princes, Paris and wins the 1955–56 European Cup (football).

June 14 – The Flag of the United States Army is formally dedicated.

June 15 – Eindhoven University of Technology is founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

June 18 – The last foreign troops leave Egypt.

June 21 – Playwright Arthur Miller appears before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee.

June 23 – Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes the 2nd president of Egypt.

June 28

MP Sydney Silverman's bill for the abolition of the death penalty in the UK passes the British House of Commons.

Labour riots in Poznań, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at a crowd protesting high prices, killing 53 people.

The film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner, is released only a few months after the film version of R&H's Carousel. It becomes the most financially successful film version of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical up to that time, and the only one to win an acting Oscar (Yul Brynner wins Best Actor for his performance as the King of Siam). It is also one of two Rodgers and Hammerstein films to be nominated for Best Picture (which it does not win).

June 29

Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller.

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 United States.

July

July 2 – A lab experiment involving scrap thorium at Sylvania Electric Products in Bayside, New York, results in an explosion.

July 4 – The first Lockheed U-2 spy plane flight over the Soviet Union.

July 8 – The mountain Gasherbrum II, on the border of Pakistan and China, is first ascended by an Austrian expedition.

July 9 – The 7.7 Mw Amorgos earthquake shakes the Cyclades island group in the Agean Sea with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shaking and the destructive tsunami that followed left fifty-three people dead.

July 10 – The British House of Lords defeats the abolition of the death penalty.

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 nightclub, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together (their act started on July 25, 1946).

July 25 – The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm in heavy fog 72 kilometers (45 mi) south of Nantucket island, killing 51.

July 26 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.

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.

July 31

Cricket: Jim Laker sets an extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test between England and Australia, taking 19 wickets in a first class match (the previous best was 17).

Luzhniki Stadium, as well known for sports venues of Russia (former part of Soviet Union), officially open in Moscow.

August

August 6 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network airs its final broadcast, an episode of its sports series Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena.

August 8 – 262 miners die in a fire in a coal mine in Marcinelle, Belgium.

August 9 – The exhibition This Is Tomorrow opens at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.

August 12 – Around 5,000 members of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church hold a mass outside Cluj-Napoca Piarists' Church to demonstrate that their church, proscribed by the government in 1948, has not ceased to exist as the regime claims.

August 17 – West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany.

September

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 16 – Television broadcasting commences in Australia.

September 21 – Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García is assassinated.

September 25 – The submarine transatlantic telephone cable opens.

September 27 – The Bell X-2 becomes the first manned aircraft to reach Mach 3.

October

October 5 – Cecil B. DeMille's epic film The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses, is released in the United States. 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

Finland joins UNESCO.

The prototype Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the final Lockheed Constellation model, makes its first flight.

October 14

Indira Kala Sangeet University, Khairagarh is inaugurated by Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi.

Dalit Buddhist movement: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Indian Dalit leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 followers.

October 15 – The British Royal Air Force retires its last Avro Lancaster bomber.

October 17

The world's first commercial nuclear power plant is opened at Calder Hall in England.

The Game of the Century (chess): 13-year-old Bobby Fischer beats grandmaster Donald Byrne in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament in New York City.

October 22 – Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom, France, and Israel secretly meet in and make plans to invade Egypt.

October 23 – Hungarian Revolution breaks out against the pro-Soviet government, originating as a student demonstration in Budapest. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact.

October 26 – Red Army troops invade Hungary.

October 29

Suez Crisis: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and pushes Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.

Tangier Protocol: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.

The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuts on NBC-TV in the United States.

October 31

Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

A United States 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

November 1

The States Reorganisation Act of India reforms the boundaries and names of Indian states. Three new states, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, are formed.

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 had to be actually shot twice, rather than printing one version in two different film processes as was later done.

November 3

Khan Yunis massacre (Suez Crisis) – Israeli soldiers shoot dead hundreds of Palestinian refugees and local inhabitants in Khan Yunis Camp.

MGM's film The Wizard of Oz is the first major Hollywood film running more than ninety minutes to be televised uncut in one evening.

November 4 – 1956 Hungarian Revolution: More Soviet troops invade Hungary to crush a revolt that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.

November 6 – United States presidential election, 1956: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat challenger Adlai E. Stevenson in a rematch of their contest 4 years earlier.

November 7 – Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Arab lands immediately.

November 13 – Browder v. Gayle: The United States Supreme Court declares illegal the state and municipal laws requiring segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama, thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

November 14 – Fighting ends in Hungary.^{Confirmation needed}

November 15 – Middle East Technical University is founded in Ankara, Turkey.

November 18 – At a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow Nikita Khrushchev utters his famous phrase "We will bury you".

November 20 – In Yugoslavia, former prime minister Milovan Đilas is arrested after he criticizes Josip Broz Tito.

November 22 – The 1956 Summer Olympics begin in Melbourne, Australia.

November 23 – The Suez Crisis causes petrol rationing in Britain.

November 25 – Fidel Castro and Che Guevara depart from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, en route to Santiago de Cuba aboard the yacht Granma with 82 men.

November 28 – Roger Vadim's drama film And God Created Woman, released in France as Et Dieu ... créa la femme, propels Brigitte Bardot into the public spotlight as a "sex kitten".

November 30 – Floyd Patterson wins the world heavyweight boxing championship that is vacant after the retirement of Rocky Marciano.

December

December 2

Fidel Castro and his followers land in Cuba in the boat Granma.

A pipe bomb planted by George Metesky explodes at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, injuring 6 people.

December 3 – 1956 Bush Terminal explosion 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 first and last time in history.

December 5 – Rose Heilbron becomes Britain's first female judge.

December 9 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 crashes into a mountain in British Columbia. All 62 people on board are killed.

December 12 – Japan becomes a member of the United Nations.

December 18 – To Tell the Truth debuts on CBS-TV.

December 19 – John Bodkin Adams is arrested for the murder of 2 patients in Eastbourne, Great Britain.

December 23 – British and French troops leave the Suez Canal region.

December 31 – Bob Barker makes his TV debut as host of the game show Truth or Consequences.

Date unknown

Asian flu pandemic originates in China.

Minamata disease is discovered.

The Alpine Club of Canada, Toronto section, is founded.

January

January 1

Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (d. 2000)

Kōji Yakusho, Japanese actor

Christine Lagarde, French lawyer and politician

Andrew Lesnie, Australian cinematographer (d. 2015)

January 3

Mel Gibson, American-born Australian/Irish actor and director

Tomiko Suzuki, Japanese voice actress (d. 2003)

January 5

Celso Blues Boy, Brazilian singer and guitarist (d. 2012)

Chen Kenichi, Japan-born Chinese chef

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German politician

January 7

David Caruso, American actor (NYPD Blue)

Uwe Ochsenknecht, German actor

Johnny Owen, Welsh professional boxer (d. 1980)

January 9

Kimberly Beck, American actress

Imelda Staunton, English actress

January 12

Nikolai Noskov, Soviet and Russian rock singer and songwriter

January 14

Ronan Bennett, Northern Irish writer

Martyn Davies, Welsh weather presenter, meteorologist and former child actor

January 16 – Martin Jol, Dutch football manager

January 17 – Paul Young, English musician

January 18 – Tom Bailey, English musician

January 19 – Adriana Acosta, Argentine militant and field hockey player

January 20 – Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst

January 21 – Geena Davis, American actress

January 24 – Lounès Matoub, Algerian Berber Kabyle singer

January 25 – Bronwyn Pike, Australian politician

January 27

Susanne Blakeslee, American actress

Mimi Rogers, American actress

January 28 – Peter Schilling, German singer

January 29

Jan Jakub Kolski, Polish film director

Irlene Mandrell, American musician, actress

January 31 – John Lydon, British punk musician and TV personality

February

February 1 – Mike Kitchen, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

February 2 – Philip Franks, English actor and director

February 3

Nathan Lane, American actor

Lee Ranaldo, American musician

February 6 – Jon Walmsley, British actor

February 7 – Heather Jones, Australian writer

February 10 – Enele Sopoaga, Tuvaluan politician and diplomat

February 11

Catherine Hickland, American actress

Didier Lockwood, French jazz violinist

February 13

Yiannis Kouros, Greek-Australian ultra marathoner

Jay Nixon, 55th Governor of Missouri

Paul Stojanovich, American television producer

February 14 – Tom Burlinson, Australian actor

February 15 – Desmond Haynes, West Indian cricketer

February 18 – Thomas Gradin, Swedish hockey player

February 19

Kathleen Beller, American actress

Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Dave Wakeling, English musician

February 23

Reinhold Beckmann, German television presenter

February 24

Judith Butler, American philosopher

Paula Zahn, American television journalist

February 25

Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer (d. 1995)

Michel Friedman, German lawyer, politician and talk show host

February 26

Kevin Dunn, American actor

Michel Houellebecq, French author

Keisuke Kuwata, Japanese musician

February 29

Mike Compton, American mandolinist

Bob Speller, Canadian politician

Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)

March

March 1

Tim Daly, American screen actor

Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania

March 2 – Eduardo Rodríguez, President of Bolivia

March 5

Teena Marie, American singer (d. 2010)

Marco Paolini, Italian stage actor, dramaturge and author

March 7 – Bryan Cranston, American actor

March 11 – Rob Paulsen, American voice actor

March 12 – Steve Harris, British musician, composer (Iron Maiden)

March 13 – Dana Delany, American actress

March 16 – Vladimír Godár, Slovak composer

March 18 – Ingemar Stenmark, Swedish alpine skier

March 19 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician

March 20

Catherine Ashton, British politician

Naoto Takenaka, Japanese actor, comedian, singer and director

March 21

José Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister of Portugal

Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner

Win Lyovarin, Thai author

March 24 – Steve Ballmer, American businessman, former CEO of Microsoft (2000–2014), and current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers

March 28

Susan Ershler, American mountaineer

Evelin Jahl, German athlete

March 29 – Evie, American Christian musician

March 30 – Shahla Sherkat, Iranian feminist journalist

April

April 3

Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (d. 1996)

Boris Miljković, Serbian TV & theatre director and video artist

April 4

Kerry Chikarovski, Australian politician

David E. Kelley, American writer and television producer

April 5 – Diamond Dallas Page, former American professional wrestler

April 6

Sebastian Spreng, American-Argentinean visual artist

Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer

April 12

Andy García, Cuban-American actor

Herbert Grönemeyer, German musician and actor

Yasuo Tanaka, Japanese politician, novelist

April 13 – Possum Bourne, New Zealand rally car driver (d. 2003)

April 14 – Barbara Bonney, American soprano

April 16

David McDowell Brown, American astronaut (Columbia Disaster) (d. 2003)

Lise-Marie Morerod, Swiss skier

April 18

John James, American actor

Melody Thomas Scott, American actress

Eric Roberts, American actor

April 19 – Sue Barker, British tennis player and television presenter

April 21 – Phillip Longman, American demographer

April 22 – Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Finnish conductor

April 26 – Koo Stark, British actress

April 28 – Hanka Paldum, Bosnian singer

April 30 – Lars von Trier, Danish film director

May

May 1 – Alexander Ivanov, Russian-born American chess grandmaster

May 4

David Guterson, American writer

Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper

May 5 – Lisa Eilbacher, American actress

May 6 – Vladimir Lisin, Russian business oligarch

May 7

Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (2002–2010)

Jean Lapierre, Canadian politician and television host

May 9 – Wendy Crewson, Canadian actress

May 10 – Vladislav Nikolayevich Listyev, Russian journalist (d. 1995)

May 13

Kenneth Eriksson, Swedish rally driver

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian guru

Kirk Thornton, American voice actor

May 15 – Dan Patrick, American sports commentator

May 17

Sugar Ray Leonard, African American boxer

Bob Saget, American actor and television host

May 20

Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian author

Dean Butler, American actor and producer

May 23

Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician

Buck Showalter, American baseball player and manager

May 24 – Michael Jackson, Irish Anglican bishop

May 26 – Lisa Niemi, American actress and dancer, widow of Patrick Swayze

May 28

Jerry Douglas, American dobro player

John O'Donoghue, former Irish Fianna Fáil politician

Sayuri Yamauchi, Japanese voice actress (d. 2012)

May 29 – La Toya Jackson, African-American singer

May 31 – Yoshiko Sakakibara, Japanese voice actress

June

June 3 – George Burley, Scottish football manager

June 5 – Kenny G, American saxophonist

June 6

Christopher Adamson, British actor

Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player

June 7 – Antonio M. Reid, American record executive

June 8 – Udo Bullmann, German politician

June 9 – Patricia Cornwell, American novelist

June 10 – Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg, German head of the House of Mecklenburg

June 11

Joe Montana, American football player

Arthur Porter, Canadian physician (d. 2015)

June 14 – King Diamond, Danish heavy metal musician

June 15 – Robin Curtis, American actress

June 17 – Andrew Bicknell, English actor

June 20 – Cho Chikun, Korean professional Go player

June 23 – Randy Jackson, African American musician and talent judge

June 25

Anthony Bourdain, American chef, author and television personality

Boris Trajkovski, President of the Republic of Macedonia (d. 2004)

Chloe Webb, American actress and singer

June 26

Catherine Samba-Panza, former President of the Central African Republic

Chris Isaak, American musician

June 27 – Heiner Dopp, German field hockey player

June 28 – Noel Mugavin, Australian rules football player

July

July 1 – Alan Ruck, American actor

July 2 – Jerry Hall, American model and actress

July 3 – Rick Ducommun, Canadian actor and comedian

July 5 – Sheila Walsh, Scottish Christian artist and former talk-show hostess

July 9 – Tom Hanks, American actor and director

July 11

Amitav Ghosh, Indian-American fiction writer

Sela Ward, American actress

July 12 – Mel Harris, American actress

July 13 – Günther Jauch, German television host

July 14 – Vladimir Kulich, Czech actor

July 15

Ian Curtis, English rock musician (Joy Division) (d. 1980)

Barry Melrose, Canadian hockey player, coach, and commentator

Toshihiko Seko, Japanese long-distance runner

July 16

Jerry Doyle, American talk show host and actor (d. 2016)

Tony Kushner, American playwright

July 18 – Sheila Aldridge, American singer

July 19 – Yoshiaki Yatsu, Japanese professional wrestler

July 24

Charlie Crist, American politician

Pat Finn, American game show host and producer

Carmen Nebel, German television presenter

July 26

Andy Goldsworthy, British sculptor and photographer

Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater and Olympic Gold medalist

July 30 – Delta Burke, American actress

July 31

Michael Biehn, American actor

Deval Patrick, American politician; first African-American Governor of Massachusetts

August

August 2 – Jim Neidhart, American professional wrestler

August 4 – Gerry Cooney, American boxer

August 5

Ferdi Bolland, Dutch musician, songwriter, and music producer (Bolland & Bolland)

Maureen McCormick, American actress

August 6 – Stepfanie Kramer, American actress

August 7 – Ernie Johnson, Jr., American sportscaster

August 8 – Chris Foreman, English rock guitarist

August 10

Fred Ottman, American professional wrestler

Charlie Peacock, American Christian producer, singer-songwriter

August 12 – Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor

August 14

Jackée Harry, American actress and television personality

Rusty Wallace, American NASCAR race car driver

August 17 – Dave Jones, English football manager

August 19 – Adam Arkin, American actor

August 20 – Joan Allen, American actress

August 21 – Kim Cattrall, English-born Canadian actress

August 22 – Paul Molitor, American baseball player

August 23 – Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)

August 24 – John Culberson, American politician

August 26 – Mark Mangino, American football coach

August 29 – Mark Morris, American choreographer

August 31

Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwanese president

September

September 1 – Bernie Wagenblast, American editor and broadcaster

September 2 – Angelo Fusco, Provisional Irish Republican Army member

September 3 – Pat McGeown, Provisional Irish Republican Army member (d. 1996)

September 11 – Phillip D. Bissett, American politician

September 12

Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong actor (d. 2003)

Ricky Rudd, American race car driver

Walter Woon, law professor and former Nominated Member of Parliament and Attorney-General of Singapore

September 14

Kostas Karamanlis, Greek politician

Ray Wilkins, English footballer and coach

September 15 – George Howard, American jazz saxophone musician (d. 1998)

September 16

Sergei Beloglazov, Russian free-style wrestler

David Copperfield, American illusionist

Ross Greenberg, American journalist and antivirus pioneer (d. 2017)

September 17

Brian Andreas, American writer, sculptor, painter, and publisher

Almazbek Atambayev, 3-Time Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan and 4th President of Kyrgyzstan

September 18 – Tim McInnerny, English actor

September 20

Gary Cole, American actor

Debbi Morgan, African-American actress

September 21 – Jack Givens, American basketball player

September 23 – Paolo Rossi, Italian soccer player

September 24 – Gregory Peter Panos, American futurist, writer, inventor

September 25 – Jamie Hyneman, American television co-host

September 26 – Linda Hamilton, American actress

September 29 – Sebastian Coe, Baron Coe, British athlete; co-ordinator of the London 2012 Olympic Games

September 30 – Gordon Elliott, British-Australian television personality and talk show host

October

October 1

Tara Buckman, American actress

Andrus Ansip, Estonian politician, 10th Prime Minister of Estonia

Theresa May, 74th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

October 2- Charlie Adler, American voice actor and director

October 3 – Ralph Morgenstern, German actor

October 4 – Christoph Waltz, German-Austrian actor

October 8 – Stephanie Zimbalist, American actress

October 10 – Amanda Burton, Irish actress

October 11 – Nicanor Duarte, President of Paraguay

October 12 – Trần Đại Quang, President of Vietnam

October 16 – Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah, Bangladeshi poet (d. 1992)

October 17 – Mae Jemison, African American astronaut

October 18 – Martina Navratilova, Czech-American tennis player

October 19 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (d. 2003)

October 20 – Danny Boyle, English film director

October 21 – Carrie Fisher, American actress and novelist (d. 2016)

October 23 – Dwight Yoakam, American country singer, musician and actor

October 26 – Rita Wilson, American actress and producer

October 28 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 6th President of Iran

November

November 5 – Rob Fisher, British keyboardist and songwriter (Climie Fisher) (d. 1999)

November 8 – Richard Curtis, English film director, producer and screenwriter

November 10 – Mohsen Badawi, Egyptian entrepreneur, political activist, and writer

November 14

Avi Cohen, Israeli football player (d. 2010)

Peter R. de Vries, crime reporter

November 17 – Kelly Ward, American actor

November 18

Noel Brotherston, Irish footballer (d. 1995)

Warren Moon, American football player

November 20

Bo Derek, American actress and model

Olli Dittrich, German actor, comedian, television personality and musician

November 21 – Terri Welles, American actress and adult model

November 22 – Richard Kind, American actor

November 23

Shane Gould, Australian swimmer

Nikolay Sidorov, Soviet athlete

Jimmy Hibbert, British comedian and script writer and script editor

November 24 – Jouni Kaipainen, Finnish composer

November 26 – Dale Jarrett, American race car driver

November 27

Nazrin Shah of Perak, 35th Sultan of Perak

William Fichtner, American actor

November 28

Kristine Arnold, American singer (Sweethearts of the Rodeo)

Lucy Gutteridge, English actress

November 29

Eric Laakso, American football player

Leo Laporte, American author and television host

December

December 5

Klaus Allofs, German football player

Krystian Zimerman, Polish pianist

December 6

Peter Buck, American guitarist

Randy Rhoads, American guitarist (d. 1982)

December 7

Larry Bird, American basketball player

Iveta Radičová, Prime Minister of Slovakia

December 9 – Jean-Pierre Thiollet, French writer

December 11 – Lani Brockman, American playwright

December 12

Ana Alicia, Mexican actress

Johan van der Velde, Dutch cyclist

December 13 – Majida El Roumi, Lebanese singer

December 14 – Béla Réthy, German sports journalist

December 16 – Duncan Faure, South African musician

December 18 – Ron White, American comedian

December 19

Masami Akita, Japanese noise musician (also known as Merzbow)

Jimmy Cauty, British musician (The KLF, The Timelords)

December 21 – Anna Erlandsson, Swedish filmmaker and animator

December 23

Michele Alboreto, Italian race car driver (d. 2001)

Dave Murray, British musician (Iron Maiden)

December 26

Michael Jones (aka Kashif), 59, musician, singer-songwriter (B.T. Express) (d. 2016)

David Sedaris, American essayist

December 28

Nigel Kennedy, English violinist

Jimmy Nicholl, Canadian-born footballer

December 29 – Fred MacAulay, Scottish comedian

December 30

Patricia Kalember, American actress

Sheryl Lee Ralph, African American actress

December 31 – Hussein Ahmed Salah, Djiboutian marathon player

Date unknown

Gilma Jiménez, Colombian politician (d. 2013)

Nancy Lynn, American aerobatic pilot (d. 2006)

Shelagh Rogers, Canadian radio host

Miladin Šobić, Montenegrin singer

Susan Solomon, American atmospheric chemist

January

January 3

Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (b. 1864)

Joseph Wirth, former Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)

January 5 – Mistinguett, French singer and actress (b. 1875)

January 9 – Marion Leonard, American actress (b. 1881)

January 10 – Karl Ludwig Schmidt, German theologian (b. 1891)

January 12 – Norman Kerry, American actor (b. 1894)

January 13 – Lyonel Charles Feininger, German painter (b. 1871)

January 14 – Sheila Kaye-Smith, English writer (b. 1887)

January 18 – Konstantin Päts, 1st President of Estonia (b. 1874)

January 21 – Sam Langford, Canadian boxer (b. 1883)

January 23 – Sir Alexander Korda, Hungarian-born film director (b. 1893)

January 27 – Erich Kleiber, German conductor (b. 1890)

January 29 – H. L. Mencken, American writer (b. 1880)

January 31 – A. A. Milne, English author (Winnie The Pooh) (b. 1882)

February

February 2

Bob Burns, American comedian (b. 1890)

Charles Grapewin, American actor (b. 1869)

February 3 – Robert Yerkes, American psychologist and ethologist (b. 1876)

February 8 – Connie Mack, American baseball executive and manager (Philadelphia Athletics) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1862)

February 10 – Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, British marshal of the Royal Air Force (b. 1873)

February 18 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)

February 20

Heinrich Barkhausen, German physicist (b. 1881)

James Cousins, Irish writer (b. 1873)

February 26 – Elsie Janis, American singer and actress (b. 1889)

February 29 – Elpidio Quirino, 6th President of the Philippines (b. 1890)

March

March 12 – Bolesław Bierut, Polish Communist politician and statesman, former Prime Minister and Presdident of Poland (b. 1892)

March 14 – David Browning, American Olympic diver (b. 1931)

March 17

Fred Allen, American comedian (b. 1894)

Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1897)

March 18 – Louis Bromfield, American writer (b. 1896)

March 20

Fanny Durack, Australian swimmer (b. 1889)

Wilhelm Miklas, 3rd President of Austria (b. 1889)

March 22 – Eduardo Lonardi, Argentine military officer, (de facto) 30th President of Argentina (b. 1896)

March 25

Lou Moore, American racing driver and team owner (b. 1904)

Robert Newton, English film actor (b. 1905)

March 28 – Thomas de Hartmann, Russian composer (b. 1885)

March 30 – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, English inventor (b. 1875)

March 31 – Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (b. 1884)

April

April 6 – Pío Valenzuela, Filipino physician and one of the leaders of the Katipunan (b. 1869)

April 13 – Emil Nolde, German-Danish painter (b. 1867)

April 15 – Kathleen Howard, Canadian-born American actress and opera singer (b. 1884)

April 19 – Ernst Robert Curtius, Alsatian philologist (b. 1886)

April 21

Samuel Gottesman, American pulp-paper merchant (b. 1885)

Charles MacArthur, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1895)

April 24 – Henry Stephenson, British character actor (b. 1871)

April 26 – Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)

June 28 – Friedrich Schmidt-Ott, German lawyer, scientific organizer, and science policymaker (b. 1860)

April 29

Harold Bride, English-born junior radio officer on RMS Titanic (b. 1890)

Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, German field marshal (b. 1876)

April 30 – Alben W. Barkley, 35th Vice President of the United States (b. 1877)

May

May 3

Rodney Collin, British writer (b. 1909)

Peter Watson, English art collector and benefactor (b. 1908)

May 12 – Louis Calhern, American actor (b. 1895)

May 15 – Austin Osman Spare, English artist and occultist (b. 1886)

May 18 – Maurice Tate, English cricketer (b. 1895)

May 20

Max Beerbohm, English essayist, parodist and caricaturist (b. 1872)

Zoltán Halmay, Hungarian Olympic swimmer (b. 1881)

May 23 – Gustav Suits, Estonian poet (b. 1883)

May 24 – Guy Kibbee, American actor (b. 1882)

May 26 – Al Simmons, American baseball player (Philadelphia Athletics) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (b. 1902)

May 29 – Frank Beaurepaire, Australian Olympic swimmer (b. 1891)

May 31 – Diedrich Hermann Westermann, German linguist (b. 1875)

June

June 2

Richard S. Edwards, American admiral (b. 1885)

Jean Hersholt, Danish actor (b. 1886)

June 4 – Katherine MacDonald, American silent film actress (b. 1891)

June 6

Hiram Bingham, American explorer, discoverer of Machu Picchu (b. 1875)

Margaret Wycherly, English stage and film actress (b. 1881)

June 11

Frank Brangwyn, Anglo-Welsh artist (b. 1867)

Ralph Morgan, American actor (b. 1883)

June 17 – Paul Rostock, German official, surgeon, and university professor (b. 1892)

June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer, and novelist (b. 1873)

June 23 – Reinhold Glière, Russian composer (b. 1875)

June 25 – Ernest King, American Fleet Admiral (b. 1878)

June 26 – Clifford Brown, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1930)

July

July 7 – Gottfried Benn, German poet (b. 1886)

July 8 – Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet, novelist (b. 1881)

July 10 – Joe Giard, American baseball player (b. 1898)

July 11 – John T. Raulston, Scopes Monkey Trial judge (b. 1868)

July 20 – James Alexander Calder, Canadian politician (b. 1868)

August

August 2 – Albert Woolson, last surviving Union veteran of the American Civil War (b. 1847)

August 11

Jackson Pollock, American painter (b. 1912)

Mincho Neychev, former Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly (head of state) of Bulgaria (b. 1887)

August 14

Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (b. 1898)

Konstantin von Neurath, Nazi German diplomat and foreign minister (b. 1873)

August 16

Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born film actor (Dracula) (b. 1882)

Lynde D. McCormick, American admiral (b. 1895)

August 23 – Peaches Browning, American actress (b. 1910)

August 24 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director (b. 1898)

August 25 – Alfred Kinsey, American sex researcher (b. 1894)

September

September 6

Lee Jung-seob, Korean oil painter (b. 1872)

Felix Borowski, British-American composer and teacher (b. 1872)

September 11

Billy Bishop, Canadian World War I flying ace (b. 1894)

Lucien Febvre, French historian (b. 1878)

September 20 – Flora Eldershaw, Australian novelist, critic, and historian (b. 1897)

September 22 – Frederick Soddy, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)

September 27

Milburn G. Apt, American test pilot (b. 1924)

Babe Zaharias, American golfer (b. 1911)

September 29 – Anastasio Somoza García, President of Nicaragua (assassinated) (b. 1896)

October

October 1 – Albert Von Tilzer, American songwriter (b. 1878)

October 2 – George Bancroft, American actor (b. 1882)

October 9 – Marie Doro, American stage & silent film actress (b. 1882)

October 12 – Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (b. 1872)

October 17 – Anne Crawford, British actress (b. 1920)

October 19 – Isham Jones, American musician (b. 1894)

October 22 – Hannah Mitchell, English socialist and suffragette (b. 1872)

October 25 – Risto Ryti, 23rd Prime Minister of Finland and 5th President of Finland (b. 1889)

October 26 – Walter Gieseking, French conductor (b. 1895)

November

November 1

Pietro Badoglio, Italian general and 28th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1871)

Tommy Johnson, American musician (b. 1896)

November 5 – Art Tatum, American jazz pianist (b. 1909)

November 6 – Paul Kelly, American stage and film actor (b. 1899)

November 10

Harry F. Sinclair, American entrepreneur (b. 1876)

Victor Young, American composer (b. 1900)

November 19 – Francis L. Sullivan, English actor (b. 1903)

November 22 – Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and actor (b. 1882)

November 24 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (b. 1920)

November 26 – Tommy Dorsey, American trombonist and bandleader (b. 1905)

November 27 – Hugo Ballin, American artist, film production designer, and director (b. 1879)

December

December 2 – Dell Henderson, Canadian actor (b. 1883)

December 6 – Dr B. R. Ambedkar, A founding father of modern India, the architect of its constitution and Indian dalit leader (b. 1891)

December 7 – Huntley Gordon, Canadian actor (b. 1887)

December 10 – David Shimoni, Israeli poet and writer (b. 1891)

December 14 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, 2-Time Prime Minister of Finland and 7th President of Finland (b. 1870)

December 16 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)

December 17 – Eddie Acuff, American actor (b. 1903)

December 26 – Holmes Herbert, English actor (b. 1882)

December 30 – Ruth Draper, American actress (b. 1884)

Date unknown

Lotte Herrlich, female photographer of German naturism

Nobel Prizes

Physics – William Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain

Chemistry – Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Nikolay Semyonov

Physiology or Medicine – André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, Dickinson W. Richards

Literature – Juan Ramón Jiménez

Peace – Not Awarded