Events from the year 1956 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- 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]
- 26 July - Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser announces the nationalisation of the Suez Canal triggering the Suez Crisis.[7]
- 10 September - Guy Mollet visits London and proposes a merger of France and the United Kingdom. However the idea was rejected by Anthony Eden.[8]
- 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.[8]
- 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.[9]
- 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.[10]
- 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.[11]
- 10 December - Cyril Norman Hinshelwood wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Nikolay Semyonov "for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions".[12]
- 19 December - Six people have died and several more have been injured in car crashes caused by heavy fog in northern England.[13]
- 23 December - British and French troops withdraw from Suez under United Nations and United States pressure.[14]
Undated
Publications
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
- 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
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)
References
See also
|
1956 in the United Kingdom 
England | 
Scotland