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Events from the year 1956 in the United Kingdom.
[edit] Incumbents
[edit] Events
- 24 January - Plans are announced for the construction of thousands of new homes in the Barbican area of London, which was devastated by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. [1]
- 26 January–5 February - Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, but do not win any medals.
- 11 February - Two of the "Cambridge spies", Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean—at that time still diplomats—appear in Moscow after vanishing in mysterious circumstances in 1951,[1]
- 12 February - double yellow lines to prohibit parking introduced in Slough.[2]
- 17 April - Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan introduces Premium Bonds.[3]
- 3 May - Granada Television launched.[2]
- 7 May - Minister of Health, RH Turton, rejects a call for the government to lead an anti-smoking campaign arguing that no ill-effects had yet been proven.[4]
- 8 May - First performance of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger by the newly formed English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre.[5][2]
- 9 May - Anthony Eden makes a statement refusing to reveal any details surrounding the mystery of the disappearance of the frogman Lionel Crabb, who vanished after diving near the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze during a state visit by Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin.[6]
- 3 July - Prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Sidney Holland of New Zealand are made Freemen of the city of London. [2]
- 26 July - Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser announces the nationalisation of the Suez Canal triggering the Suez Crisis.[7]
- 17 August - Scotland Yard are called to Eastbourne to investigate the activities of society doctor John Bodkin Adams. The case is reported around the world and press reports claim up to 400 patients may have been murdered.[8]
- 10 September - Guy Mollet visits London and proposes a merger of France and the United Kingdom. However the idea was rejected by Anthony Eden.[9]
- 25 September - The TAT-1 transatlantic telephone cable between the UK and North America inaugurated.[2]
- 28 September - Eden considers allowing France to join the Commonwealth of Nations, but this idea is also rejected.[9]
- 15 October - The RAF retires its last Lancaster bomber.[2]
- 17 October - The Queen opens the world's first commercial nuclear power station at Calder Hall.[10]
- 5 November - Long running television programme What the Papers Say aired for the first time.[2]
- 6 November - British and French forces seize control of two Egyptian ports before declaring a ceasefire.[11]
- 22 November–8 December - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, and win 6 gold, 7 silver and 11 bronze medals.
- 29 November - petrol rationing introduced because of petrol blockades from the Middle East due to the Suez Crisis.[12]
- 6 December - British and French troops seize control of two major ports in the Suez Canal in Egypt, and declare a ceasefire. [3]
- 10 December - Cyril Norman Hinshelwood wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Nikolay Semyonov "for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions".[13]
- 19 December - Six people die and several more are injured in car crashes caused by heavy fog in northern England.[14]
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- - John Bodkin Adams is arrested for the murder of patient Edith Alice Morrell.[8]
[edit] Undated
[edit] Publications
[edit] Births
- 4 January - Bernard Sumner, guitarist (Joy Division and New Order)
- 6 January - Angus Deayton, actor and television presenter
- 9 January - Imelda Staunton, actress
- 17 January - Paul Young, musician
- 31 January - Johnny Rotten, singer (Sex Pistols)
- 13 February - Peter Hook, bassist (Joy Division and New Order)
- 25 February - Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer (died 1995)
- 12 March - Steve Harris, bass player, founding member of Iron Maiden
- 20 March - Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, politician
- 19 April - Sue Barker, tennis player and television presenter
- April 25 — Greg Richards, English decathlete
- 26 April - Koo Stark, actress
- 14 May - Hazel Blears, politician
- 15 May - Kjartan Poskitt, author
- 15 July - Ian Curtis, musician (Joy Division) (died 1980)
- 14 September - Ray Wilkins, footballer and coach
- 29 September - Sebastian Coe, athlete, co-ordinator of London 2012 Olympic Games
- 27 October - Hazell Dean, singer
- 30 October - Juliet Stevenson, actress
- 28 November - Lucy Gutteridge, actress
- 23 December - Dave Murray, guitarist
- 28 December - Nigel Kennedy, violinist
[edit] Deaths
- 31 January - A. A. Milne, author (born 1882)
- 25 March - Robert Newton, film actor (born 1905)
- 30 March - Edmund Clerihew Bentley, inventor (born 1875)
- 17 May - Austin Osman Spare, magician (born 1886)
- 18 May - Maurice Tate, cricketer (born 1895)
- 20 May - Max Beerbohm, theatre critic (born 1872)
- 22 June - Walter de la Mare, poet, short story writer and novelist (born 1873)
- 22 September - Frederick Soddy, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1877)
- 16 December - Nina Hamnett, artist (born 1890)
[edit] References
- ^ ""'Cambridge spies' surface in Moscow" BBC On This Day". http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/11/newsid_2721000/2721413.stm. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ a b c d e f Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
- ^ Palmer, Alan & Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 410–411. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ ""Minister rejects anti-smoking lobby" BBC On This Day". http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/7/newsid_2518000/2518245.stm. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
- ^ ""Mystery of missing frogman deepens" BBC On This Day". http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/9/newsid_4741000/4741060.stm. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ ""Egypt seizes Suez Canal" BBC On This Day". http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/26/newsid_2701000/2701603.stm. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ a b Cullen, Pamela V., A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams, London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9
- ^ a b ""France and UK considered 1950s 'merger'" The Guardian". http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1990795,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ "Sellafield Sites, Site history". http://www.sellafieldsites.com/page/sellafield-site-operations/site-history. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ ""Allied forces take control of Suez" BBC On This Day". http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/6/newsid_3115000/3115888.stm. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ ""Motorists panic as petrol rations loom" BBC On This Day". http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/29/newsid_3247000/3247805.stm. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1956". http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1956/. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ ""Thick fog causes death on roads" BBC On This Day". http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/19/newsid_3280000/3280473.stm. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ ""Jubilation as allied troops leave Suez" BBC On This Day". http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/23/newsid_3294000/3294305.stm. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ The London Encyclopaedia, Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, Macmillan, 1995, ISBN 0-333-57688-8
[edit] See also
1956 in the United Kingdom 
England | 
Scotland
