I was born in 1956

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

What was it like in 1956? then.

Major Events of 1956

Soviets invade Hungary to crush anti-communist revolution.

Hungarian Revolution of 1956

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

(1956) Popular uprising in Hungary following a speech by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in which he attacked the period of Joseph Stalin's rule. Encouraged by the new freedom of debate and criticism, a rising tide of unrest and discontent in Hungary broke out into active fighting in October 1956. Rebels won the first phase of the revolution, and Nagy Imre became premier, agreeing to establish a multiparty system. On November 1 he declared Hungarian neutrality and appealed to the UN. Western powers failed to respond, and on November 4 the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to stop the revolution. Nevertheless, Stalinist-type domination and exploitation did not return, and Hungary thereafter experienced a slow evolution toward some internal autonomy.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

First Eurovision Song Contest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1956
The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the 1st Eurovision Song Contest, held in Lugano, Switzerland. This first contest was mainly a radio programme, though there were cameras in the studio for the benefit of the few Europeans who had television. The backdrops behind the singers were, perhaps understandably, not very lavish. Unlike more recent competitions, each country was allowed to enter two songs rather than one.
It had been strongly recommended that each participating country have a preliminary national song contest. Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom were disqualified from the final contest, however, as all of them registered after the official deadline. The BBC's Festival of British Popular Song, which had been intended to choose the United Kingdom entry, was in the end not held until after the Eurovision contest.
All participating countries sent two jury members to Lugano, except for Luxembourg who allowed the Swiss jury to vote on their behalf.
No video recording of the entire event is known to have survived, although an audio recording does exist (although 20 minutes is missing from the end of the first part of the interval act till the start of the announcement of the winner). Newsreel footage of Assia's encore performance of "Refrain" appears to be the only known video from the contest.
One rule of this contest is that every country had to have a national final, this rule was dropped in future years and some countries chose to choose a song internally.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/suez.htm

Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis began on 26 July 1956, when, following the United States’ decision to withdraw its offer of a grant to aid the construction of Egypt’s Aswan High Dam, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. The governments of Britain and France secretly began planning for an inva-sion of Egypt. Not to be outdone, Israel soon was doing its own invasion planning, completing its final plan on 5 October. After several international mediation efforts had failed, Britain and France agreed in mid-October 1956 to undertake a joint intervention in Egypt. Aware of the upcoming Israeli plan to invade the Sinai, French officials suggested that a Franco-British force could enter Egypt ostensibly to separate the combatants, while actually seizing control of the entire Suez waterway. On 26 October, the United States learned of Israel’s military mobilization, and President Dwight Eisenhower sent the first of two personal messages to Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion asking that Israel do nothing to endanger the peace. In the Mediterranean on the 28th, the U.S. Sixth Fleet was placed on alert. Undeterred by U.S. diplomatic maneuvering, Israeli forces began attacks in Egypt on 29 October.

The following day Britain and France began to make their move. The British government issued an Anglo-French ultimatum calling on the Israelis and Egyptians to withdraw their forces to a distance of 10 miles from the Suez Canal and demanding that Egypt allow British and French forces to temporarily occupy key positions guarding the canal. That same day, Admiral Walter F. Boone, U.S. Commander Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, ordered the Sixth Fleet to assist in the evacuation of U.S. nationals from Israel and Egypt. Coral Sea (CVA 43) and Randolph (CVA 15), the fleet’s two attack carriers that were already operating in the eastern Mediterranean, were directed to keep clear of British naval units operating there. In Norfolk, VA, the Navy ordered one attack carrier, a heavy cruiser and a destroyer squadron to get ready to sail to the Mediterranean to augment the Sixth Fleet and a second CVA and a division of destroyers to be on 72-hour notice. The Anglo-French attack on Egypt began at dusk on 31 October with a series of large-scale air strikes. The following day Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Arleigh Burke signaled Vice Admiral Charles R. “Cat” Brown, Commander Sixth Fleet: “Situation tense; prepare for imminent hostilities.” Brown signaled back: “Am prepared for imminent hostilities, but whose side are we on?” In classic Burke style, the CNO’s return response was, “Keep clear of foreign op areas but take no guff from anybody.”

The Suez Crisis increased in intensity on the afternoon of 5 November when the Soviet Union sent diplomatic notes to Britain, France and Israel threatening to crush the aggressors and restore peace in the Middle East through the use of force. President Eisenhower’s reaction to these threats was that “if those fellows start something, we may have to hit ’em—and, if necessary, with everything in the bucket.”

Coral Sea and Randolph and their escorts shifted to an operating area southwest of Crete in order to improve their readiness posture for a general emergency. Agreeing to a cease-fire on 6 November, Britain and France ended their military operations that night at midnight. Soviet military moves continued during the next few days, however, and on the 7th, Burke ordered attack carriers Forrestal (CVA 59) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA 42) to sail from Norfolk toward the Azores, together with a heavy cruiser and three divisions of destroyers, to act as a standby augmentation to the Sixth Fleet. U.S. Navy forces were directed to maintain readiness to execute emergency war plans.

Lester Pearson, the Canadian external affairs minister, suggested the creation of an United Nations Emergency Force to keep the peace between the opposing forces until a political settlement could be achieved. Tensions remained high until 15 November, when United Nations forces were brought into Egypt to provide a buffer between the Egyptians and the invasion forces. From that point on, the Soviet intervention threat gradually dissipated. Pearson won the 1957 Nobel Pace Prize for his efforts at creating U.N. peacekeeping forces.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

Operation Musketeer

The Aircraft Carrier HMS Ocean, Suez Crisis 1956 Photographic Print
Buy at AllPosters.com
Operation Musketeer was the name given to the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt that began on October 31st 1956. The invasion was prompted by the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal, and took place in coordination with an Israeli armoured attack into the Sinai.

Although British and French military forces were able to quickly take control over the Canal's principal facilities, the Egyptians were able to sink ships and other obstacles in the Canal, making it unusable. Furthermore, worldwide reaction against the operation was swift and severe; the USSR made military threats against Britain and France, Saudi Arabia started an oil embargo, Commonwealth Prime Ministers refused to support Britain, and the United States applied strong diplomatic and financial pressure on Britain.

On November 6th 1956, Britain unilaterally declared a ceasefire, without warning their French or Israeli allies in advance. British and French forces withdrew entirely from the Egypt before the end of the year, and were replaced by a United Nations force.

Until the Falklands War, Suez was the last major British military operation to take place without US support. The British and French governments drew opposite conclusions from the crisis: Britain moved closer to the United States, whereas France gradually moved to a more independent foreign policy, including developing its own nuclear weapons and eventually withdrawing from NATO's integrated military command structure.

The crisis visibly damaged the prestige of Britain and France, and increased pan-Arabist and anti-Colonial sentiments in the region. In particular, the position of Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser was greatly strengthened.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

elsewhere in pakistan

In 1956 Pakistan became a republic within the Commonwealth,
and Suhrawardy, the Prime Minister, continued the policy of his
predecessors, whereby Pakistan linked together S.E.A.T.O., the
Baghdad Pact, and the Commonwealth.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

In Burma..

In 1956 U Nu resigned the Premiership, and retired to a life of
meditation. His statesmanship and advice were still to be available
to his successors. But early in 1957 he was back again in office,
the one outstanding figure who could hold the country together
and negotiate with others. While U Nu was enjoying his temporary
retirement Chou En-lai had visited Burma on his extensive good-
will tour of many countries in the winter of 1956-57. His visit
and the return of U Nu greatly eased and accelerated a frontier
settlement.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

In Ceylon/sri langka
At the Bandung Conference in 1955, when the leaders of Com-
munist China did their best to woo the neutral countries of Asia
and North Africa and assume the political leadership of the con-
tinent, Sir John Kotelawala was one of the most outstanding advo-
cates of non-Communist democracy. He went so far as to suggest
that the Communist Powers were now the new Imperialists.

At the next elections in 1956 voting swung very much to the
Left and a coalition of Left Wing parties, headed by Mr. Bandara-
naike, took over the Government from the United Nationalist
Party. At this point some people quite expected that Ceylon might
opt out of the Commonwealth, but on the contrary, Mr. Bandara-
naike represented his country at the Prime Ministers' Common-
wealth Conference in London in July of the same year and expressed
no wish for Ceylon to leave the Commonwealth at this stage.
Britain was allowed to use one naval and one air base, but in 1957
even these were willingly surrendered.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

In Malaya

By 1955 Chin Peng and his terrorists were known to be oper-
ating from the border districts of Malaya and Siam. Meanwhile
the desire for political independence in Malaya had increased
steadily and a new constitution was adopted in 1954. Elections to
the Legislative Council were held in July 1955, and the United
Malays National Organization, working in close alliance with the
Malayan Chinese Association and the Malay Indian Congress,
together won fifty-one of the fifty-two seats. This indicated a
unity of policy and action which could not have been foreseen
ten years earlier in 1945, and was a big step forward towards
the granting of complete independence, which was eventually
promised in the early days of 1956.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5482

Still in Malaya

The Communists made one last desperate attempt to identify
themselves with the movement for independence and Chin Peng
asked for an opportunity of discussing the matter with a Malayan
deputation. The meeting took place in the heart of the jungle as
Chin Peng was in hiding at the time, but with no satisfactory
result. The Malayan leader, Tengku Abdul Rahman, came to
London in 1956 to work out with the British Government the
final details of the transfer of power; Malaya was to be independent
from August 1957,