1956 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1956 in the United Kingdom.
Contents |
[edit] Incumbents
- Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II
- Prime Minister - Anthony Eden Conservative Party
[edit] Events
- 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]
- 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.[3]
- 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.[4]
- 26 July - Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser announces the nationalisation of the Suez Canal triggering the Suez Crisis.[5]
- 10 September - Guy Mollet visits London and proposes a merger of France and the United Kingdom. However the idea was rejected by Anthony Eden.[6]
- 28 September - Eden considers allowing France to join the Commonwealth of Nations, but this idea is also rejected. [6]
- 17 October - The Queen opens the world's first commercial nuclear power station at Calder Hall.[7]
- 6 November - British and French forces seize control of two Egyptian ports before declaring a ceasefire.[8]
- 29 November - petrol rationing introduced because of petrol blockades from the Middle East due to the Suez Crisis.[9]
- 19 December - Six people have died and several more have been injured in car crashes caused by heavy fog in northern England.[10]
- 23 December - British and French troops withdraw from Suez under United Nations and United States pressure.[11]
[edit] Undated
- Cyril Norman Hinshelwood wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Nikolay Semyonov "for their researches into the mechanism of chemical reactions".[12]
- The English Stage Company is formed at the Royal Court Theatre; one of its first productions is John Osborne's Look Back in Anger.[13]
- The Gower peninsula becomes the first area in the British Isles to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
- Opening of the first Welsh-medium secondary school in Wales - Ysgol Glan Clwyd, Rhyl.
- Parliament passes the Clean Air Act 1956 in response to the Great Smog of 1952.[14]
[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
- 13 April - Alison Wheeler, activist
- 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
- 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. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ (2006) Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
- ^ "Minister rejects anti-smoking lobby" BBC On This Day. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ "Mystery of missing frogman deepens" BBC On This Day. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ "Egypt seizes Suez Canal" BBC On This Day. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ a b "France and UK considered 1950s 'merger'" The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ Sellafield Sites, Site history. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ "Allied forces take control of Suez" BBC On This Day. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ "Motorists panic as petrol rations loom" BBC On This Day. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ "Thick fog causes death on roads" BBC On This Day. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ "Jubilation as allied troops leave Suez" BBC On This Day. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1956. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ (1999) The Hutchinson Factfinder. Helicon. ISBN 1-85986-000-1.
- ^ The London Encyclopaedia, Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, Macmillan, 1995, ISBN 0-333-57688-8
