February 1956

1956

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<<	February 1956					>>
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
			01	02	03	04
05	06	07	08	09	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29

The following events occurred in February 1956:

February 1, 1956 (Wednesday)

• France's Socialist leader, Guy Mollet, becomes prime minister, heading a centre-left coalition called the Republican Front.
• Born: Brahmanandam, Indian actor and comedian, in Sattenapalli

February 2, 1956 (Thursday)

• The world première of Eugene O'Neill's semi-autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night (written in 1942) takes place at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in a Swedish language production directed by Bengt Ekerot and starring Lars Hanson. It would not appear on Broadway until November of the same year.[1]
• The Israeli Defence Force prevents an Egyptian delegation from attending a meeting of the Egypt-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission at Auja al-Hafir.

February 3, 1956 (Friday)

• Panamanian cargo ship Rosalind sinks 120 nautical miles (220 km) south of Crete. All crew are rescued by the Italian ship San Carlo.[2]
• Norwegian cargo ship Dovrefjell runs aground on the Pentland Skerries, Orkney Islands, Scotland. All 41 crew members are rescued by Royal Air Force and Royal Navy helicopters.[3]
• Sonny Ramadhin takes 6 New Zealand wickets for West Indies cricket team in the first innings of the first Test Match of their tour at Dunedin.[4]
• Died: Émile Borel, 85, French mathematician

February 4, 1956 (Saturday)

• East Germany's national airline Deutsche Lufthansa (DLH), established in the previous year, begins scheduled passenger flights between East Berlin and Warsaw, Poland.

February 5, 1956 (Sunday)

• The 1956 Winter Olympics conclude in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, with a firework display.[5]
• The Free Cinema movement begins in the UK by showing documentary films at the National Film Theatre, London.[6]

February 6, 1956 (Monday)

• Born: Natalia Linichuk, Russian ice dancer and coach, in Moscow

February 7, 1956 (Tuesday)

• Born: John Nielsen, Danish racing driver, in

February 8, 1956 (Wednesday)

• 1956 Hawker Hunter multiple aircraft accident: Eight aircraft from RAF West Raynham Hawker Hunter jet fighters are diverted to RAF Marham after completing a combat exercise. Only two manage to land successfully; the remaining six are lost as a result of a combination of poor visibility and fuel shortage. Four pilots eject,[7] one survives a crash and the sixth is killed.[8]
• The Treaty of London 1956 is signed, establishing the independent Federation of Malaya
• Died: Connie Mack (Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy), 93, US baseball player and manager

February 9, 1956 (Thursday)

• US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, with the concurrence of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Department of Defense, authorizes an additional 350 US military personnel to go to South Vietnam to salvage an estimated $1 billion worth of military equipment abandoned by French troops.[9]

February 10, 1956 (Friday)

• The Brazilian cargo ship Loide-Honduras runs aground on Long Sand Bank, in the Thames Estuary, UK. A British ship, ST Rumania, is sent to assist but runs aground on the same sandbank and sinks.
• The British ship MV Conlea founders 15 nautical miles (28 km) off La Corbière, Jersey.[10]
• In the first stage of an Australian government reshuffle, Howard Beale is replaced as Minister for Supply and Minister for Defence Production by Athol Townley. Shortly afterwards, Beale is appointed Australian Ambassador to the United States of America.[11]
• Died: Wilbert Coffin, 40, Canadian prospector and convicted murderer, executed after seven reprieves.[12]

February 11, 1956 (Saturday)

• British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean appear in the Soviet Union, five years after vanishing from the UK.[13]
• The Rock Island Line Aerotrain “Jet Rocket” begins service between Chicago and Peoria, Illinois.
• The 1956–57 Israel State Cup football competition opens.[14]

February 12, 1956 (Sunday)

• In Malta, a referendum on integration with the United Kingdom finds that 77% of voters are in favour of the proposals. Despite this, the plans are never implemented.[15]

February 13, 1956 (Monday)

• An "Exhibition of works of Soviet artists of 1917-1956" opens in Moscow, featuring Mikhail Avilov, Aleksandr Gerasimov, Aleksandr Deyneka, and other important Soviet artists.[16]
• The Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin graduated Engels Kozlov, Nikolai Pozdneev, Piotr Nazarov, Anatoli Nenartovich, and other famous artists in the future.[17]

February 14, 1956 (Tuesday)

• 1956 Santiago rail crash: Near the Chilean capital Santiago, on the branch line to Cartagena, a train runs into the back of another, killing 23 people and injuring a further 198.[18]
• The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union opens.

February 15, 1956 (Wednesday)

• Irish Senator Owen Sheehy-Skeffington introduces a parliamentary motion calling for the prohibition of all corporal punishment for girls in Irish national schools.[19]

February 16, 1956 (Thursday)

• British hopper barge No. 24 collides with SS Indus and sinks in the River Mersey. All eleven of her crew are rescued.[20]
• Just over four months after the release of the Todd-AO 70 mm version of Oklahoma!, the screen version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, featuring the same stars, Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, is released in CinemaScope 55.

February 17, 1956 (Friday)

February 18, 1956 (Saturday)

• 1956 Scottish Airlines Malta air disaster: An engine fire breaks out on a Scottish Airlines Avro York just after takeoff from Malta International Airport. The aircraft stalls while the pilot is attempting to turn back, and crashesnear Zurrieq, killing all fifty people on board.[21]
• An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 strikes the Izu Islands of Japan.[22]
• The 1955/1956 News of the World Snooker Tournament concludes in Manchester, UK, with a win for Joe Davis.[23]
• Died: Gustave Charpentier, 95, French composer

February 19, 1956 (Sunday)

• British collier ship Corchester collides with SS City of Sydney near the Haisborough Light Vessel, off the coast of Norfolk, UK, and sinks; eight of her 21 crew lose their lives.[24]

February 20, 1956 (Monday)

• An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), strikes the Eskişehir region of Turkey, causing four deaths.[25]
• Tunku Abdul Rahman, Chief Minister of the Federation of Malaya announces in Malacca Town that Malaya will become independent on 31 August 1957.

February 21, 1956 (Tuesday)

February 22, 1956 (Wednesday)

• Elvis Presley enters the United States music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".

February 23, 1956 (Thursday)

• Norma Jean Mortenson legally changes her name to Marilyn Monroe.
• Fire breaks out at Eastwood Mills, Keighley, Yorkshire, UK, killing eight employees.[26]

February 24, 1956 (Friday)

• The General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) is formed in Algeria.[27]
• Doris Day records her best-known hit, "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)"; the song is performed by Day in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.
• Born: Judith Butler, US political philosopher, in Cleveland, Ohio[28]

February 25, 1956 (Saturday)

• Khrushchev Thaw: Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Josef Stalin in a speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", in a closed session of the Congress of the Communist Party.[29]

February 26, 1956 (Sunday)

• Born: Michel Houellebecq, French author, in Réunion

February 27, 1956 (Monday)

• Poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath meet for the first time, in Cambridge, UK.[30]

February 28, 1956 (Tuesday)

February 29, 1956 (Wednesday)

• Abdullahi Issa Muhammad becomes Prime Minister of Somalia following the parliamentary elections.[31]
• Turkish cargo ship Sapanca collides in the River Scheldt, Belgium, with Dutch ship SS Blommersdijk and sinks. All 35 crew members are rescued by Blommersdijk.[32]
• Born: Aileen Wuornos, US serial killer, in Rochester, Michigan[33] (executed 2002)

References

1. "Shubert Theater". CAPA New Haven. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
2. "Ship's Crew Rescued". The Times (53446). London. 4 February 1956. col D, p. 5.
3. "41 Seamen Saved By Helicopters". The Times (53446). London. 4 February 1956. col C-D, p. 6.
4. "Statistics / Statsguru / S Ramadhin / Test matches". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
5. Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano (1956), pp. 691–692
6. Free Cinema manifesto, February, as quoted in Free Cinema, 2006, BFI DVD booklet, [unpaginated, p9]
7. "Ejections and Bale Outs 1956". ejection-history.org.uk. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
8. "Hunter Aircraft (Crashes)". Hansard. 9 February 1956. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
9. Jacobs, Seth Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Diem Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950-1963 New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing, 2006, p. 97
10. "MV Conlea (+1956)". wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
11. Beale, Howard (1977). This inch of time : memoirs of politics and diplomacy. Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press. p. 233. ISBN 0-522-84127-9.
12. 1958 :[Final Edition 57]. (1999, December 27). Kingston Whig-Standard, p. 61. Retrieved February 15, 2008 from Canadian Newsstand Core database. (Document ID: 294746281)
13. "Cambridge spies' surface in Moscow". On This Day. BBC. 11 February 1956. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
14. 100 Years of Football 1906-2006, Elisha Shohat (Israel), 2006
15. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1302 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
16. Exhibition of works of Soviet artists of 1917-1956. Catalogue. - Moscow: State Tretyakov Gallery, 1956.
17. Anniversary Directory graduates of Saint Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture named after Ilya Repin, Russian Academy of Arts. 1915 - 2005. - Saint Petersburg: Pervotsvet Publishing House, 2007.
18. Accidente de Queronque Archived 2010-01-26 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2017-04-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
20. "Ship Sinks After Collision". The Times (53457). London. 15 February 1956. col G, p. 2.
21. "50 Killed In Malta Crash." Times [London, England] 20 Feb. 1956: 6. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Jan. 2016.
22. "M7.3 – Izu Islands, Japan region". United States Geological Survey. February 18, 1956. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
23. "Snooker". The Glasgow Herald. 20 February 1956. p. 4.
24. "Eight Lost As Ship Sinks". The Times (53459). London. 20 February 1956. col G, p. 8.
25. National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS), Significant Earthquake Database, National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA, doi:10.7289/V5TD9V7K
26. "Mills & Work Places". Vale and Dale Keighley. 2007. Archived from the original on 2006-05-10. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
27. "Hydrocarbon nationalization: New gains for workers despite oil crisis". Algeria Press Service. 23 February 2016. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
28. Maclay, Kathleen (March 19, 2009). "Judith Butler wins Mellon Award". UC Berkeley News. Media Relations. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
29. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, First Secretary, Communist Party of the Soviet Union (February 24–25, 1956). "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences". Special report at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Retrieved 2006-08-27.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
30. Jones, Neal T., ed. (1984). A Book of Days for the Literary Year. London; New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01332-2.
31. Elections in Somalia African Elections Database
32. "Ship Sunk In Scheldt Collision". The Times (53468). London. 1 March 1956. col D, p. 7.
33. "Aileen Carol Wuornos". The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney. Archived from the original on September 27, 2008. Retrieved September 26, 2008.