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1956
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A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne () (18 January 1882 –31 January 1956) was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.
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Adam Arkin
Adam Arkin (born August 19, 1956) is an American television, film and stage actor and director. He played the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He is also one of the three actors to portray Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck on Monk. he starred in the NBC drama Life. In 2009 he portrayed villain Ethan Zobelle a white separatist gang leader on the FX original series Sons of Anarchy. He is the son of Oscar winning actor Alan Arkin.
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Adlai Stevenson II
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Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Carol Wuornos (February 29, 1956–October 9, 2002) was an American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, claiming they raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute. She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders and executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.
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Al Simmons
Aloysius Harry Simmons (May 22, 1902 - May 26, 1956), born Aloisius Szymanski[http://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/images/4/4d/AlSimmons8yrsold.jpg][http://www.geocities.com/godot_lives/simmonscensus1920] in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was an American player in Major League Baseball for two decades. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.
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Alben W. Barkley
Alben William Barkley (November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) was an American politician who served as the 35th Vice President of the United States from 1949 to 1953 under President Harry S. Truman.
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Albert Woolson
Albert Henry Woolson (February 11, 1850? – August 2, 1956), was the last surviving member of the Union Army, which fought in the American Civil War. He was also the last surviving Civil War veteran on either side whose status is currently undisputed. (At least three men who followed him in death claimed to be Confederate veterans, but their status as Civil War veterans is in dispute.)
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Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.
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Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Charles Kinsey (June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956) was an American biologist and professor of entomology and zoology, who in 1947 founded the Institute for sex research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Reports, Kinsey scale and Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. Kinsey's research on human sexuality, foundational to the modern field of sexology, provoked controversy in the 1940s and 1950s. His work has profoundly influenced social and cultural values in the United States and many other countries.
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Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet who vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression. In the 1950s, Ginsberg was a leading figure of the Beat Generation, an anarchic group of young men and women who joined poetry, song, sex, wine and illicit drugs with passionate political ideas that championed personal freedoms. Ginsberg's epic poem Howl, in which he celebrates his fellow "angel-headed hipsters" and excoriates what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States, is one of the classic poems of the Beat Generation The poem, dedicated to writer Carl Solomon, has a memorable opening:
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Amanda Burton
Amanda Burton (born 10 October 1956) is a British actress best known for her high-profile television roles as Sam Ryan in the BBC crime drama series Silent Witness, Clare Blake in The Commander, Beth Glover in Peak Practice, and Heather in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside.
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Ana Alicia
Ana Alicia (born December 12, 1956) is (maybe) a Mexican-born American actress known for her role as scheming heiress Melissa Agretti on the long-running primetime soap opera Falcon Crest.
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Andreas Floer
Andreas Floer (; August 23, 1956 – May 15, 1991) was a German mathematician who made seminal contributions to the areas of geometry, topology, and mathematical physics, in particular the invention of Floer homology.
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Andy García
Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956), professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including , The Untouchables, and When a Man Loves a Woman. More recently, he has starred in ''Ocean's Eleven and its sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, and The Lost City''.
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Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy, OBE (born 26 July 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects, to create both temporary and permanent sculptures which draw out the character of their environment.
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Angelo Fusco
Angelo Fusco (b. 2 September 1956 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a former volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who escaped during his 1981 trial for killing a Special Air Service (SAS) officer in 1980.
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Anne Crawford
Anne Crawford (22 November 1920, Haifa - 17 October 1956, London), born Imelda Crawford, was a British film actress, in films such as Millions Like Us. She married James Hartley in 1939, and died in 1956 of leukemia, aged only 35.
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Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. (October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso. He was nearly blind.
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Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include award-winning plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible.
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Austin Osman Spare
Austin Osman Spare (30 December 1886 – 15 May 1956) was an English artist who developed idiosyncratic magical techniques including automatic writing, automatic drawing and sigilization based on his theories of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious self. His artistic work is characterized by skilled draughtsmanship exhibiting a complete mastery of the use of the line, and often employs monstrous or fantastic magical and sexual imagery.
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Austria
Austria or (), officially the Republic of Austria (German: ), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below , and its highest point is . The majority of the population speaks German, which is also the country's official language. Other local official languages are Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
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Avi Cohen
Avraham "Avi" Cohen (born 14 November 1956 in Cairo, Egypt) is a former Israeli footballer who played in defence. He is best known for his spell playing for Liverpool in England. He is currently chairman of the Israel Professional Footballers Association.
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B. R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar ( ; 14 April 1891 — 6 December 1956), also known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, political leader, Buddhist activist, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist, historian, orator, prolific writer, economist, scholar, editor, revolutionary and a revivalist for Buddhism in India. He was also the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Born into a poor Mahar (then considered an Untouchable caste) family, Ambedkar spent his whole life fighting against social discrimination, the system of Chaturvarna — the categorization of Hindu society into four varnas — and the Hindu caste system. He is also credited with providing a spark for the conversion of hundreds of thousands of untouchables to Theravada Buddhism. Ambedkar has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.
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Babe Zaharias
MedalCountry | the
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Barbara Bonney
Barbara Bonney (born April 14, 1956) is an American soprano.
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Ben Heppner
Ben Heppner, CC (born January 14, 1956) is a Canadian tenor, specializing in opera and other classical works for voice.
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Bep van Klaveren
Lambertus "Bep" van Klaveren (September 26, 1907 – February 12, 1992) was a Dutch boxer, who won the gold medal in the featherweight division at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Born in Rotterdam as Lambertus Steenhorst, he adopted the name of his stepfather Pieter van Klaveren when he was eight. His nickname was The Dutch Windmill.
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Bernie Wagenblast
Bernhard Robert Wagenblast (born September 1, 1956 in Elizabeth, New Jersey) is the founder and editor of the Transportation Communications Newsletter (ISSN number 1529-1057), an e-mail publication with over 7,000 subscribers as of January 2008 which is distributed via Yahoo Groups and Google Groups Monday through Friday. The newsletter originated as a discussion group in June 1998, evolving into its current format shortly thereafter. It is currently the top Yahoo Group in the transportation category, based on group membership numbers. He is also the editor for of the AASHTO Daily Transportation Update, published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
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Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (; born ; 10 February 1898–14 August 1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.
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Bill Maher
William "Bill" Maher, Jr. (; born January 20, 1956) is an American stand-up comedian, television host, social critic, political commentator, author, and actor. Before his current role as the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher hosted a similar late-night talk show called Politically Incorrect originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC.
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Billy Bishop
Air Marshal William Avery "Billy" Bishop VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC, ED (8 February 1894 – 11 September 1956) was a Canadian First World War flying ace, officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian ace, and according to some sources, the top ace of the British Empire.
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Björn Borg
Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Sweden. He won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles (a record shared with Roger Federer) and four consecutive French Open singles titles (a record shared with Rafael Nadal), and is often considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
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Bo Derek
Bo Derek (born November 20, 1956) is an American film actress and model.
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Bob Barker
Robert William "Bob" Barker (born December 12, 1923) is an American former television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS's The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history, and for hosting Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1975. After holding the "Price is Right" job for 35 years and being in television for 50 years, Barker retired in June 2007.
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Bob Burns (comedian)
Bob Burns (August 2, 1890 – February 2, 1956) was an American radio and film comedian during the 1930s and 1940s. Early in his career he was billed as Robert Burns.
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Bob Saget
Robert Lane "Bob" Saget (born May 17, 1956) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Although he is best known for his past roles in the family-oriented shows Full House and ''America's Funniest Home Videos'', Saget is known outside of television for his starkly blue stand-up routine.
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Bob Speller
Robert "Bob" Speller, PC (born February 29, 1956) is a former Canadian politician.
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Boris Miljković
Boris Miljković (Cyrillic: Борис Миљковић) (born 3 April 1956 in Zagreb, Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia), is a prolific Serbian artist of many talents - TV and theatre director, video artist, creative director in advertising, writer and a lecturer at the Belgrade University of Arts. He is also the creative director at RTS, Serbia's public television broadcaster. He resides in Belgrade, Serbia.
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Boris Trajkovski
Boris Trajkovski (, ) (25 June 1956 – 26 February 2004) was the president of the Republic of Macedonia from 1999 to 2004.
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Brian Andreas
Brian Andreas (born 1956 in Iowa City, Iowa) is an American writer, painter, sculptor and publisher. Most notable of his works are the StoryPeople objects he makes using salvaged wood from old homesteads. These mixed-media works include a short story that focuses on a moment or a memory, and the deliberately crude shapes display bright yet soothing colors and shadowy amorphous faces to go along with the simple, declarative language of the prose. This style eventually led to a wide-ranging array of works, from the publication of nine books, to the production of brightly painted furniture hand-stamped with short stories. The diversity of his interests led to the 1994 foundation of his StoryPeople company.
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Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (, ; born 28 September 1934) is a French animal rights activist and a former fashion model, actress and singer.
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Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956) is a Canadian actor. He is generally known for his roles as the President of the United States in Thirteen Days and and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film.
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Bryan Cranston
Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor, voice actor, writer and director. He is perhaps best known for his role as Walter White in the AMC drama series Breaking Bad, for which he has won three consecutive Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy Awards. He previously became well known to audiences for his role as Hal, the father in the Fox situation comedy Malcolm in the Middle. Other notable roles include Dr. Tim Whatley on Seinfeld, Doug Heffernan's neighbor in the The King of Queens, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin in From the Earth to the Moon, and Ted Mosby's boss on How I Met Your Mother.
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Buddhism
Buddhism (Pali/Sanskrit: बौद्ध धर्म Buddha Dharma) is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (Pāli/Sanskrit "the awakened one"). The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an awakened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end suffering (or dukkha), achieve nirvana, and escape what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth.
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Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (20 October 188216 August 1956) commonly known as Béla Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for playing Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version. In the last years of his career he was featured in several of Ed Wood's low budget films.
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Béla Réthy
Béla Andreas Réthy (born 14 December 1956 in Vienna) is a German sports reporter of Hungarian ancestry.
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Carlo Urbani
Carlo Urbani (Castelplanio, Italy October 19, 1956 – Bangkok, Thailand March 29, 2003) was an Italian physician and the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as a new and dangerously contagious disease. His early warning to the World Health Organization (WHO) touched off a massive response that probably helped save the lives of millions of people around the world.
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Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher (born October 21, 1956) is an American novelist, screenwriter and actress. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, and her autobiography Wishful Drinking.
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Catherine Ashton
Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, PC (born 20 March 1956) is a British Labour politician who has been the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) since 1 December 2009 when the post was created. She is also the First-Vice-President of the European Commission (since February 2010). She prefers to be known as Cathy Ashton.
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Catherine Hickland
Catherine Hickland (born February 11, 1956) is a singer and an actress best known for roles in soap operas broadcast in the United States, most notably as the character of Lindsay Rappaport on ABC's One Life to Live, a character which she has portrayed since 1998.
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Charles Grapewin
Charley Ellsworth Grapewin (December 20, 1869 – February 2, 1956) was an American vaudeville performer and a stage and film actor, who portrayed Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Grandpa Joad in the film The Grapes of Wrath (1940).
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Charles MacArthur
Charles Gordon MacArthur (November 5, 1895, Scranton, Pennsylvania – April 21, 1956, New York City) was an American playwright and screenwriter.
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Charlie Crist
Charles Joseph "Charlie" Crist Jr. (; born July 24, 1956) is an American politician who is the forty-fourth and current Governor of Florida. Prior to his election as governor, Crist previously served as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner, and Attorney General. He was elected governor in 2006 with 52.4 percent of the vote (against opponent Jim Davis), and took office the following year.
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Charlie Peacock
Charlie Peacock (born Charles William Ashworth, August 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, record producer, session musician, author, and advocate for social justice. He is often noted as a unique musical and lyrical voice, intelligent, innovative, and difficult to categorize. His resume includes touring artist, much-recorded songwriter, record producer, record company president, seminary student, jazz pianist, and Sr. A&R; consultant to mega-music publisher, Sony/ATV.
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Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara (; June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, military theorist, and major figure of the Cuban Revolution. Since his death, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol and global insignia within popular culture.
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Chen Kenichi
, whose name is often romanized Chin Kenichi in Japanese sources, is a Han Chinese chef best known for his role as the Iron Chef Chinese on the television series Iron Chef. He wears a yellow outfit and rises into Kitchen Stadium holding a cleaver in his hand. He is the only Iron Chef to have held his position throughout the life of the show. He was born in Japan to ethnic Han Chinese parents of Japanese nationality and his formal name is .
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Cho Chikun
Cho Chihun 25th Honinbo Honorary Meijin Judan (born June 20, 1956 in Busan, South Korea) is a professional Go player. His total title tally of 71 titles is the most in the history of the Japanese Nihon Ki-in. Cho is the only player to hold the top three titles—Kisei, Meijin, and Honinbo—simultaneously which he did for 3 years in a row. Cho has also won all of the "Top 7" titles in Japan, the first one to do so in history; Kisei, Meijin, Honinbo, Judan, Tengen, Oza, and Gosei.
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Chris Foreman
Chris Foreman (born Christopher John Foreman, 8 August 1956, London), nicknamed Chrissy Boy, is an English guitarist, best known as a member of a second wave ska band, Madness.
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Chris Isaak
Christopher Joseph "Chris" Isaak (born June 26, 1956) is an American rock musician and occasional actor.
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Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz (; born 4 October 1956) is an Austrian and German actor. He has received international acclaim for his portrayal of SS Colonel Hans Landa in the 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009 and the Best Supporting Actor at the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010.
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Clifford Brown
Clifford Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956), aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings. Nonetheless, he had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players, including Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, Valery Ponomarev, and Wynton Marsalis.
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Clifton Daniel
Elbert Clifton Daniel Jr. (September 19, 1912-February 20, 2000) was managing editor of the New York Times. Before assuming the top editorial job at the paper, he served as the paper's London and Moscow bureau chief.
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Dale Jarrett
Dale Arnold Jarrett (born November 26, 1956) is a former American race car driver and current sports commentator known for his 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship win. He is the son of two-time NASCAR Grand National Champion Ned Jarrett, younger brother of Glenn Jarrett, a former NASCAR driver himself and pit commentator, father of former Busch Series racer Jason Jarrett and cousin of Todd Jarrett. Beginning in 2007, Jarrett joined the ESPN/ABC broadcasting team as an announcer in select Busch Series (now Nationwide Series) races. In 2008, after retiring from driving in racing events following the 2008 Food City 500, Jarrett joined ESPN permanently as the lead racing analyst replacing Rusty Wallace. Jarrett was born in Newton, North Carolina.
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Dan Patrick
Daniel Patrick Pugh (born May 15, 1956), professionally known as Dan Patrick, is an American sportscaster, radio personality, and actor from Mason, Ohio. He currently hosts The Dan Patrick Show which is broadcast on radio on Premiere Radio Networks, and on television on The 101 Network, co-hosts NBC's Football Night in America, and serves as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He previously worked (and is perhaps best known) for ESPN for 17 years, where he often anchored the weeknight and Sunday 11 PM edition of SportsCenter. He attended the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. His brother, Bill Pugh, is a longtime sports radio executive, and is currently the head of programming at Clear Channel San Diego.
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Dana Delany
Dana Welles Delany (born March 13, 1956) is a multi-award winning American film, stage, and television actress. She is known for her role as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television show China Beach (1988–1991), Katherine Mayfair on Desperate Housewives (2007-2010) and, as a voice-actress, Lois Lane in the DC Animated Universe as well as the television series The Batman. In an interview, she said she loves to play "complicated characters." Delany has been active in film, television, and stage since the late 1970s.
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Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, Sunshine and Slumdog Millionaire. For the latter Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director. Boyle was presented with the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award at the 2008 Austin Film Festival, where he also introduced that year's AFF Audience Award Winner Slumdog Millionaire. On the 17th June 2010, it was announced that he will be the artistic director for the 2012 Olympic games opening ceremony.
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David Browning
David "Skippy" Browning (June 5, 1931 – March 14, 1956) was a diver from the United States and Olympic champion. He represented the US at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, where he received a gold medal in Springboard Diving.
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David Caruso
David Stephen Caruso (born January 7, 1956) is an American film and television actor and producer, best known for his role of Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the TV series . Aside from that the role that gained him initial significant recognition was the role of Det. John Kelly on the initially controversial ABC Crime drama NYPD Blue.
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David E. Kelley
David Edward Kelley (born April 4, 1956) is an American screenwriter and television producer, best known as the creator of Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public and Boston Legal, as well as several films. Kelley's body of work has become famous for including whimsical, often surrealistic comedic touches, interlaced with moments of pathos.
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David Guterson
David Guterson ( ; born May 4, 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and essayist.
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David Saul Marshall
David Marshall (12 March 1908 – 12 December 1995) was the leader of the Singapore Labour Front and became the first Chief Minister of Singapore in 1955.
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David Sedaris
David Sedaris (born December 26, 1956) is a Grammy Award-nominated American humorist, writer, comedian, bestselling author, and radio contributor.
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David Shimoni
David Shimoni (Hebrew: דוד שמעוני) (born 25 August 1891; died 10 December 1956) was an Israeli poet, writer and translator.
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Davie Cooper
David "Davie" Cooper (25 February 1956 – 23 March 1995) was a professional football player. He was a Scotland international and played as a left winger.
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Dean Martin
Dean Martin (June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, film actor and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "Mambo Italiano", "Sway", "Volare" and posthumous smash "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?". Nicknamed the "King of Cool", he was one of the members of the "Rat Pack" and a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television.
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Debbie Morgan
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Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE (30 September 192116 October 2007) was a Scottish stage, television and film actress. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture, The King and I, and she was also the recipient of honorary Academy, BAFTA and Cannes Film Festival awards.
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Dell Henderson
George Delbert Henderson (5 July 1883 - 2 December 1956) was a Canadian actor, director and writer in films from the early silent days.
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Desmond Haynes
Desmond Leo Haynes (born February 15, 1956 in Barbados) is a West Indian cricketer and cricket coach. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1991. Haynes formed a formidable partnership with Gordon Greenidge for the West Indies cricket teamin Test cricket during 1980s. Between them they managed 16 century stands, four in excess of 200. The pair made 6482 runs while batting together in partnerships, the highest total for a batting partnership in Test cricket history. Haynes favoured a more measured approach to batting. He compiled 7487 runs in 116 Test matches at an average of 42.29, his highest Test innings coming against England in 1984 with 184 off 395 balls. He is one of the few Test batsman to have been dismissed handled the ball, falling in this fashion against India on March 3 1978.
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Diamond Dallas Page
:For the 1930s cricketer, see Dallas Page (cricketer)
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Didier Lockwood
Didier Lockwood (born 11 February 1956) is a French jazz violinist. He played in the progressive rock/jazz fusion band Magma in the 1970s and is known for his use of electric amplification and experimentation on different sounds on the electric violin.
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Dilip Vengsarkar
Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar (born 6 April 1956 in Rajapur, Maharashtra) is an Indian cricketer and cricket administrator. He was one of the most stylish batsmen of his time, known as one of the foremost exponents of the drive. He was also known by the nickname 'Colonel'.
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Don Larsen
Donald James Larsen (born August 7, 1929 in Michigan City, Indiana) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for 14 seasons. Larsen is best known for pitching a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the only no-hitter or perfect game in World Series history.Don Larsen was discussed on the top ten show on IsraelSportsRadio.com on October 14, 11 am EST.
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Donald Duart Maclean
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Doris Day
Doris Day (born April 3, 1922) is an American actress and singer, and has been an outspoken animal rights activist since her retirement from show business. Day's entertainment career began in her late teens as a big band singer. In 1945 she had her first hit recording , "Sentimental Journey", and, in 1948, appeared in her first film, Romance on the High Seas. During her entertainment career, she has appeared in thirty-nine films, recorded more than six-hundred-fifty songs, received an Academy Award nomination, won a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award, and, in 1989, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.
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Duncan Faure
Duncan Faure (b. December 16, 1956, Pretoria, South Africa) is a singer/songwriter and musician.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower ( ; October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas – March 28, 1969), at Walter Reed Army Hospital, in Washington D. C. was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961, and the last to be born in the 19th century. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
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Ed McCully
__NOTOC__
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Eddie Acuff
Eddie Acuff (June 3, 1903 – December 17, 1956) was an American actor. His best-known recurring role is that of Mr. Beasley, the postman, in the Blondie movie series that starred Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake.
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Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born 21 April 1926) is the reigning queen and head of state of 16 independent sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. In addition, as Head of the Commonwealth, she is the figurehead of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations and, as the British monarch, she is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
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Elpidio Quirino
Elpidio Rivera Quirino (November 16, 1890 – February 29, 1956) was a Filipino politician, and the sixth President of the Philippines.
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Elsie Janis
Elsie Janis (March 16, 1889 – February 26, 1956) was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and screenwriter. Entertaining the troops during World War I immortalized her as "the sweetheart of the AEF" (American Expeditionary Force).
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Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".
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Ernst Robert Curtius
Ernst Robert Curtius (April 14, 1886 – April 19, 1956) was a German literary scholar, a philologist and Romance language literary critic.
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Evelin Jahl
Evelin Jahl, née Schlaak (born 28 March 1956 in Annaberg-Buchholz, Saxony, East Germany) is a German former discus thrower, who won two Olympic gold medals as an athlete representing East Germany.
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Fanny Durack
Swimmer|
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Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban politician. One of the primary leaders of the Cuban Revolution, Castro served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then as the President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of Council of Ministers of Cuba until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He currently serves as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, a position he has held since 1965.
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Flora Eldershaw
Flora Sydney Patricia Eldershaw (16 March 1897 - 20 September 1956) was an Australian novelist, critic and historian. With Marjorie Barnard she formed the writing collaboration known as M. Barnard Eldershaw. She was also a teacher and later a public servant.
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Francis L. Sullivan
Francis Loftus Sullivan (6 January 1903, Wandsworth, London - 19 November 1956, New York City) was an English film and stage actor. He attended Stonyhurst, the Jesuit public school in Lancashire, England whose alumni include Charles Laughton and Arthur Conan Doyle.
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Frank Beaurepaire
MedalCountry |
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Fred Allen
Fred Allen (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956) was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.
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Fred MacAulay
Frederick "Fred" MacAulay (born 29 December 1956, Perth, Scotland) is a Scottish comedian. He presents a daily BBC Scotland radio programme, and has appeared on numerous TV shows.
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Fred Ottman
Fred Ottman (born August 10, 1956 in Norfolk, Virginia) is a retired American professional wrestler best known as Tugboat or Typhoon and teaming with John "Earthquake" Tenta as The Natural Disasters in the World Wrestling Federation. Ottman is also well-known for his infamous "Shockmaster" gimmick in World Championship Wrestling.
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Frederick Soddy
Frederick Soddy (2 September 1877 – 22 September 1956) was an English radiochemist who explained, with Ernest Rutherford, that radioactivity is due to the transmutation of elements, now known to involve nuclear reactions. He also proved the existence of isotopes of certain radioactive elements. He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1921, and has a crater named for him on the far side of the Moon.
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Gamal Abdel Nasser
:''This is an Arabic patronymic name; the family name is Abdel Nasser, taken from his father's given name.''
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Gary Cole
Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American actor. Cole is known for his supporting roles in the television series Entourage, Fatal Vision, The West Wing, Desperate Housewives, Midnight Caller, American Gothic, ''I'll Be Home for Christmas, Kim Possible, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Wanted and Crusade, and the films The Brady Bunch Movie, Office Space, From the Earth to the Moon, Kiss the Sky, I Spy'', ', ', and Pineapple Express. He has also appeared in television movies such as Those She Left Behind. He also had a small cameo appearance in To Live and Die in L.A., has appeared as George Armstrong Custer in the TV movie Son of the Morning Star, and has guest starred on the TV shows Family Guy, Chuck, and Monk.
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Geena Davis
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist.
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George Burley
George Elder Burley (born 3 June 1956 in Cumnock, East Ayrshire) is a Scottish football manager and former player and is currently the manager of Crystal Palace Football Club. Burley had a professional career spanning 21 years as a player making 628 appearances and earning 11 Scotland caps. His most successful spell came while at Ipswich Town making 394 senior appearances, and being part of the squad that won the FA Cup and UEFA Cup in 1978 and 1981 respectively. Burley's managerial career began officially in 1991 with Ayr United and has since spent spells at seven different clubs. On 24 January 2008 he was appointed manager of the Scotland national team. He was sacked on 16 November 2009, following a 3–0 defeat to Wales.
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George Howard (jazz)
George Howard (September 15, 1956 – March 20, 1998) was a Jazz-Funk/ Fusion /Smooth Jazz soprano saxophonist.
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George Metesky
George P. Metesky (November 2, 1903 – May 23, 1994), better known as the Mad Bomber, terrorized New York City for 16 years in the 1940s and 1950s with explosives that he planted in theaters, terminals, libraries and offices. Bombs were left in phone booths, storage lockers and restrooms in public buildings, including Grand Central Terminal, Pennsylvania Station, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Public Library, the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the RCA Building, as well as in the New York City Subway. Perhaps most notably, Metesky bombed movie theaters, where he cut into seat upholstery and slipped his explosive devices inside.
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Gerry Cooney
Gerry Cooney (born August 4, 1956) is a retired professional boxer from Huntington, New York best known for his loss to Larry Holmes in one of the most celebrated boxing matches in history.
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Gordon Elliott
Gordon Elliott (born September 30, 1956) is an Australian reporter and producer, best known for his work on the syndicated 90's TV talk show program The Gordon Elliott Show.
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Gordon MacRae
Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor and singer, best known for his appearances in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956).
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Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 Putlitz, Brandenburg – 7 July 1956 West Berlin) was a German essayist, novelist, and expressionist poet. A doctor of medicine, he became an early admirer, and later a critic, of the National Socialist revolution. Benn had a literary influence on German verse immediately before and after Nazi Germany.
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Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American Academy Award-winning actress and Princess consort of Monaco. In April 1956 Kelly married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and became styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and was commonly referred to as Princess Grace.
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Greg Panos
Gregory Peter Panos (born 24 September 1956) in Bronxville, New York is an American writer, futurist, educator, strategic planning consultant, conference / event producer, and technology evangelist in virtual reality, human simulation, motion capture, performance animation, 3D character animation, human-computer interaction and user experience design.
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Greg Phillinganes
Greg Phillinganes(born Gregory Arthur Phillinganes on May 12, 1956 in Detroit,Michigan) is an active session keyboardist in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of Cass Technical High School, Detroit Michigan.
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Guido Cantelli
Guido Cantelli (27 April 1920 – 24 November 1956) was an Italian orchestral conductor.
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Gustav Suits
Gustav Suits (30 November 1883 - 23 May 1956) is considered one of the greatest Estonian poets. He was also an early leader of the literary movement group Noor-Eesti (Young Estonia).
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Gustave Charpentier
Gustave Charpentier, born in Dieuze, Moselle on 25 June 1860, died Paris, 18 February 1956) was a French composer, best known for his opera Louise.
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Guy Kibbee
Guy Bridges Kibbee (March 6, 1882 – May 24, 1956) was an American stage and film actor.
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H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956), was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a student of American English. Mencken, known as the "Sage of Baltimore", is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century.
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Habib Bourguiba
Habib Bourguiba () (August 3, 1903 – April 6, 2000) was a Tunisian statesman, the Founder and First President of the Republic of Tunisia from July 25, 1957 until November 7, 1987. He is often compared to Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk because of the pro-Western reforms enacted during his presidency.
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Hannah Mitchell
Hannah Mitchell (born Hannah Maria Webster; 1872–1956) was an English suffragette and socialist. Born into a poor farming family in Derbyshire, Mitchell left home at a young age to work as a seamstress in Bolton, were she became involved in the socialist movement. She worked for many years in organisations related to socialism, women's suffrage and pacifism. After the First World War she was elected to Manchester City Council and worked as a magistrate.
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Harold Bride
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Heiner Dopp
Heiner Dopp (born June 27, 1956 in Bad Dürkheim, Rheinland-Pfalz) is a former field hockey player from West Germany, who competed at three Summer Olympics for his native country. He won the silver medal with his team, in 1984 (Los Angeles) and in 1988 (Seoul). Dopp made his olympic debut in 1976 (Montreal).
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Henry Stephenson
:See also Henry Kenyon Stephenson for the British politicians and business owners.
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Holmes Herbert
Holmes Herbert (30 July 1882 – 26 December 1956) was an English character actor who appeared in Hollywood films from 1915 to 1952.
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Hugo Ballin
Hugo Ballin (March 7, 1879 – November 27, 1956) was born in New York City and studied at the Art Students League of New York. When the Wisconsin State Capital was built in the early 20th Century, Ballin created 26 murals for its interior. In 1917 he began working for Goldwyn Pictures in New Jersey as an art director and production designer and in 1921 he moved to Los Angeles at the request of Samuel Goldwyn. He was soon also directing, writing, and producing silent films for his own production company. He was married to the actress Mabel Croft Ballin.
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Huntley Gordon
Huntley Gordon (October 8, 1887 - December 7, 1956) was an actor born in Montreal, Quebec.
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Hussein Ahmed Salah
Hussein Ahmed Salah (, born December 31, 1956 in Xarrirad, Awdal Region) is a former long-distance runner from Djibouti, best known for winning a bronze medal in marathon at the 1988 Summer Olympics. He also won silver medals in this event at the 1987 and 1991 World Championships. In addition, he won the 1985 IAAF World Marathon Cup.
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Ian Curtis
Ian Kevin Curtis (15 July 1956 – 18 May 1980) was the songwriter, lyricist and singer of the English post-punk band Joy Division. Joy Division released its critically-acclaimed debut album Unknown Pleasures in 1979, and recorded their follow-up Closer in 1980. Suffering from epilepsy and a failing marriage, Curtis committed suicide in May 1980, on the eve of Joy Division's first North American tour.
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Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress. She is best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path and the films Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge and Vera Drake. She drew widespread critical acclaim as Vera Drake, earning her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a number of wins including the BAFTA and Venice Film Festival Awards for best actress in a leading role.
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Ingemar Stenmark
Jan Ingemar Stenmark (born March 18, 1956 in Joesjö, Storuman Municipality) is a Swedish former skier, active during the 1970s and 1980s. He is regarded as one of the most prominent Swedish sportsmen, and as the greatest slalom and giant slalom specialist of all time. He competed for Fjällvinden Tärnaby.
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Ingrid Kristiansen
Ingrid Kristiansen née Christensen (born 21 March 1956 in Trondheim, Norway), was one of the best female long distance runners in the second half of the 1980s. She finished in fourth place in the first women's Olympic marathon race, at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
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Ingvar Ambjørnsen
Ingvar Even Ambjørnsen-Haefs (born 20 May 1956) is a Norwegian writer. He is best known for his "Elling" tetralogy: Utsikt til paradiset (1993), Fugledansen (1995), Brødre i blodet (1996), and Elsk meg i morgen (1999).
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Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie (12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French scientist, the daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. This made the Curies the family with most Nobel laureates to date. Both children of the Joliot-Curies, Hélène and Pierre, are also esteemed scientists.
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Isham Jones
Isham Jones (January 31, 1894 – October 19, 1956) was a United States bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter.
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Jack Givens
Jack "Goose" Givens (born September 21, 1956 in Lexington, Kentucky) is a retired American collegiate and professional basketball player. Givens led the University of Kentucky to the 1978 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship and was named that year's Final Four Most Outstanding Player due in most part to his 41-point performance in Kentucky's 94-88 victory over Duke University in the championship game. He was a 6'5" (1.96 m), 205 lb (93 kg) forward.
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Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, sometimes struggling with alcoholism. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy.
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Jackée Harry
Jackée Harry (born August 14, 1956) is an American actress, primarily known for her roles on sitcoms and other types of television shows. She is best known for her roles Sandra Clark, the sexy neighbor and nemesis of Mary Jenkins (played by Marla Gibbs), on the TV series 227 (a role she played from 1985 to 1989), and as Tia's mother, Lisa Landry, in the long-running comedy, Sister, Sister.
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James Cousins
James Henry Cousins (1873 – February 20, 1956) was an Irish writer, playwright, actor, critic, editor, teacher and poet. He used several pseudonyms including Mac Oisín, Dog hearing boy, Seamus O' Potato, and the Hindu name Jayaram.
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James Stewart
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American film and stage actor. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime Achievement award. He was a major MGM contract star. He also had a noted military career and was a World War II and Vietnam War veteran, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve.
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Jamie Hyneman
James Franklin "Jamie" Hyneman (born September 25, 1956) is an American special effects expert, best known for being the co-host of the television series MythBusters. He is also the owner of M5 Industries, the special effects workshop where MythBusters is filmed. He is known among Robot Wars devotees for his robot entry, Blendo, which, for a time, was deemed too dangerous for entry in the competition. He is one of the designers of the aerial robotic camera system Wavecam, used in sports and entertainment events. On May 16, 2010, he delivered the commencement address and received a Doctorate of Engineering, honoris causa, from Villanova University.
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Jan Peter Balkenende
Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende () (born 7 May 1956) is a Dutch politician of the party Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and has been since 22 July 2002, leading four coalition governments so far, cabinets Balkenende I, II, III and IV, none of which served a full 4-year term. On 9 June 2010, Balkenende resigned his position as party leader of the CDA as well as his seat in the newly-elected parliament, taking political responsibility for the CDA's disappointing election results in the Dutch general election in June, 2010. He's currently the caretaker Prime Minister of the Netherlands pending the outcome of the 2010 Dutch cabinet formation.
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Jaq D. Hawkins
Jaq D. Hawkins, also known as Denise Channing, is an occultist, author, and lecturer on chaos magic, born in California who currently lives in the United Kingdom. She has also written under the pseudonym Mark Chao.
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Jean Hersholt
Jean Hersholt (12 July 1886 – 2 June 1956) was a Danish-born actor who lived in the United States, where he was a leading film and radio talent, best known for his 17 years starring on radio in Dr. Christian and for playing Shirley Temple's grandfather in Heidi. Asked how to pronounce his name, he told The Literary Digest, "In English, ''her'sholt; in Danish, hairs'hult''." Of his total credits, 75 were silent films and 65 were sound films. He appeared in 140 films and directed four.
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Jean Lapierre
Jean-Charles Lapierre, PC (b. May 7, 1956) is a Canadian television broadcaster and a former federal politician.
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Jerry Hall
Jerry Faye Hall (born July 2, 1956) is an American model and actress, also known for her long-term relationship with Mick Jagger, with whom she had four children.
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Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (born Jerome Levitch, March 16, 1926) is an American comedian, actor, film producer, writer, film director and singer. He is best-known for his slapstick humor in stage, radio, screen, recording and television. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the comedy team of Martin and Lewis. In addition to the team's popular nightclub work, they starred in a successful series of comedy films for Paramount Pictures. As an innovative filmmaker, Lewis is credited with inventing the video assist system in cinematography. Lewis is also known for his charity fund-raising telethons and position as national chairman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).
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Jim Elliot
Philip James Elliot (October 8, 1927 – January 8, 1956) was an evangelical Christian missionary to Ecuador who, along with four others, was killed while attempting to evangelize the Waodani people through efforts known as Operation Auca.
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Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker (9 February 1922 – 23 April 1986) was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia. He played 46 Test matches between 1948 and 1959, taking 193 wickets with a bowling average of 21.24; in all first-class matches he took 1,944 wickets at 18.41.
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Jim Moginie
Jim Moginie (born 18 May 1956 in Sydney as James Moginie) is an Australian musician. He is best known for his work with Midnight Oil, of which he was a founding member, guitarist, keyboardist and leading songwriter. Moginie has two children, Samuel Moginie (22) and Alice Moginie (20).
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Jim Neidhart
James Henry "Jim" Neidhart (born February 8, 1955) is an American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation as Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, and is the father of WWE Diva Natalya. Among other accolades, he is a two-time WWF Tag Team Champion with Bret Hart as part of the original Hart Foundation.
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Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Swan (born 28 April 1956), better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. It was actually John who had encouraged and taught Jim how to sing as he wasn't really interested at the time. His career as both a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music artists of all time. The combination of 14 Australian Top 40 albums for Cold Chisel and 13 charting solo albums, including nine No. 1s, gives Barnes the highest number of hit albums of any Australian artist.
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Joan Allen
Joan Allen (born August 20, 1956) is an American actress. She worked in theatre, television and film during her early career, and achieved recognition for her Broadway debut in Burn This, winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1989.
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Joe Giard
Joseph Oscar Giard (October 7, 1898 - July 10, 1956) was an American major league baseball player.
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Joe Montana
For the actor with a similarly pronounced name, see Joe Mantegna.
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Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani (born July 15, 1956 in Westbury, New York) is an Italian American multi-instrumentalist, known primarily for his work as an instrumental rock guitarist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations. Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, and some of his former students have achieved fame with their guitar skills (Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, Alex Skolnick). Satriani has been a driving force in the music credited to other musicians throughout his career, as a founder of the ever-changing touring trio, G3, as well as performing in various positions with other musicians.
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Johan van der Velde
Johan van der Velde (born December 12, 1956 in Rijsbergen, Noord-Brabant) is a former Dutch cyclist. In the 1980 Tour de France he won the Maillot blanc, or white jersey, for being the best young rider under 25, also placing 12th overall that year. He had been a racing cyclist for only a year. In the 1981 Tour de France he took first place on the second and 21st stages, finishing 12th overall for the second year. He rode with TI-Raleigh in the Tour de France from 1979 to 1983, and Panasonic in 1986.
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John Bardeen
John Bardeen (May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American physicist and electrical engineer, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for a fundamental theory of conventional superconductivity known as the BCS theory.
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John Bodkin Adams
John Bodkin Adams (21 January 1899 – 4 July 1983) was an Irish-born British general practitioner, convicted fraudster and suspected serial killer. Between the years 1946-1956, more than 160 of his patients died under suspicious circumstances. Of these 132 left him money or items in their will. He was tried and acquitted for the murder of one patient in 1957. Another count of murder was withdrawn by the prosecution in what was later described as "an abuse of process" by the presiding judge Patrick Devlin, causing questions to be asked in Parliament about the prosecution's handling of events. The trial featured in headlines around the world and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of all time" and "murder trial of the century". It was also described at the time as "unique" because, in the words of the judge, "the act of murder" had "to be proved by expert evidence."
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John Culberson
John Abney Culberson (born August 24, 1956), American politician, is a Republican congressman from Texas, representing that state's 7th congressional district ([http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/tx07_109.gif map]) in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2001. The district takes in large portions of western Houston and surrounding Harris County.
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John James (actor)
John James Anderson was born on April 18, 1956 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is an American actor, best known to television audiences for playing the character of Jeff Colby in both the prime-time soap opera Dynasty and its spin-off series The Colbys throughout the 1980s.
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John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon (born 31 January 1956), also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is also well known as the lead singer of the post-punk band Public Image Ltd., which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again in 2009-2010. A highly controversial figure, Lydon has vocalised his contempt for the British Royal Family as well as other contentious issues such as segregated education. Q Magazine remarked that "somehow he's assumed the status of national treasure."
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John T. Raulston
John Tate Raulston (September 22, 1868–July 11, 1956) was an American state judge in Rhea County, Tennessee, best known for presiding over the 1925 Scopes Trial, a famous creationism-evolution debate.
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Jon Walmsley
Jon Walmsley (born February 6, 1956 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England) is an actor best known for his role of "Jason Walton" in the series The Waltons. He has played many other roles in a career going back to 1966, although most people would probably be hard pressed to think of him as anyone other than Jason Walton. Since The Waltons ended he has concentrated on his musical and production careers rather than his acting career, although he has appeared in all of the "reunion" movies.
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Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and head of state who served as the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. After the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union, which he ruled as a dictator.
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Joseph Wirth
Karl Joseph Wirth, known as Joseph Wirth, (6 September 1879 Freiburg im Breisgau – 3 January 1956 Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1921 to 1922. Along with his foreign minister, Walther Rathenau, Wirth set out to follow a policy of "fulfillment" with respect to Germany's reparations in order to show that Germany was incapable of payment.
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Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito (born Josip Broz; Cyrillic script: Јосип Броз Тито; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. He was Secretary-General (later President) of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1939–80), and went on to heroically lead the World War II Yugoslav guerrilla movement, the Yugoslav Partisans (1941–45). After the war, he was the Prime Minister (1943–63) and later President (1953–80) of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). From 1943 to his death in 1980, he held the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia, serving as the supreme commander of the Yugoslav military, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).
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José Manuel Barroso
José Manuel Durão Barroso (; born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician. He is the 11th and current President of the European Commission, since 23 November 2004. He served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 6 April 2002 to 17 July 2004.
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Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (24 December 1881–29 May 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."
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Judith Butler
Judith Butler (born 24 February 1956) is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is currently the Maxine Elliott professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Katherine MacDonald
Katherine Agnew MacDonald (December 14, 1891–June 4, 1956) was an American actress and film producer. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Kathleen Beller
Kathleen Beller (born February 19, 1956, in Westchester, New York) is an actress. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Promises in the Dark (1979).
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Kathleen Howard
Kathleen Howard (July 27, 1884 - April 15, 1956) was a Canadian-born opera singer (mezzo-soprano), magazine editor and US film character actress from the mid-1930s through the 1940s. She spent her childhood in Buffalo, NY and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery there.
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Keisuke Kuwata
has gained fame as a Japanese multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and frontman for the Southern All-Stars, as well as his own solo band, the Kuwata band. He has lent a significant amount of his time scoring music to film. He went to Aoyama Gakuin University.
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Kelly Ward
Kelly Ward (born on November 17, 1956 in San Diego, California) is an American actor and voice director for TV animation. He is most famous for his role as T-Bird's Putzie in Grease.
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Kelly Willard
Kelly Willard (born in Winter Haven, Florida) is a Contemporary Christian Musician best known for her praise and worship recordings. She was featured as a soloist on projects from Integrity, Vineyard Music, and Maranatha! Music. In addition she sang duets and background vocals with artists like Twila Paris and Keith Green; and did nine solo projects.
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Kenneth Eriksson
Kenneth Eriksson (born May 13, 1956 in Äppelbo, in the kommun of Vansbro) is a now retired World Rally Championship rally driver. He drove for several manufacturer teams, including the Subaru World Rally Team, Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Skoda. He was the 1986 Group A Champion in the competition's only year, his best performance, overshadowed by the fatalities that occurred in that season.
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Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall (, born 21 August 1956) is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, and Mannequin.
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Kimberly Beck
Kimberly Beck (born January 9, 1956; Glendale, California) is an American actress with over sixty television and film roles to her credit.
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Klaus Allofs
Klaus Allofs (born 5 December 1956 in Düsseldorf) is a retired German footballer, who played as a striker.
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Konstantin Päts
Konstantin Päts VR I/1 and III/1 (23 February 1874 – 18 January 1956) was a politician and the first President of Estonia.
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Koo Stark
Kathleen Dee-Anne Stark, better known as Koo Stark (born 26 April 1956), is an American film actress and photographer. She is perhaps best known for her appearance in the film Emily and subsequent relationship with Prince Andrew, son of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, before his marriage to Sarah, Duchess of York.
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Kostas Karamanlis
Konstantinos Alexandrou Karamanlis, known as Kostas Karamanlis (, ; born 14 September 1956) is a former Prime Minister of Greece and former president of the right-conservative New Democracy party, founded by his uncle Konstantinos Karamanlis. He served as Prime Minister for two consecutive terms, winning the 7 March 2004 parliamentary elections and the 16 September 2007 parliamentary elections. However, he asked for mid-term general elections to be held on 4 October 2009. The main reason for the mid-term election was the narrow majority his party enjoyed in Parliament that could not guarantee a stable government needed to handle the economic crisis and its repercussions. On 5 October 2009, Karamanlis conceded defeat in the Greek legislative election and resigned as president of the New Democracy party after 12 years as its leader, after an election victory for the opposition PASOK.
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Krystian Zimerman
Krystian Zimerman (born December 5, 1956) is a Polish classical pianist who is widely regarded as one of the finest pianists alive.
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Kōji Yakusho
is a Japanese actor.
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La Toya Jackson
La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, television personality, actress, businesswoman, activist and former model . She is the fifth child of the Jackson family. She had a career as a singer throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and returned to music in 2004 with her Billboard charting songs "Just Wanna Dance" and "Free the World". A forthcoming album, ''Startin' Over'', has yet to be released.
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Lani Brockman
Lani Brockman (born on December 11, 1956 in Seattle) is an American theater actress and director. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Studio East.
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Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, teaming with legendary center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale. Due to back problems, he retired as a player from the NBA in 1992. Bird was voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.
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Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier (; born Lars Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches. He is known for his female-centric parables and his exploration of controversial subject matter.
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Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered British actors of the 20th century. He married Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh and Joan Plowright.
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Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth, the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time, respectively.
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Leo Laporte
Léo Gordon Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is an American technology broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur. A native of Providence, Rhode Island, he now lives in Petaluma, California with his wife Jennifer and two children, Abby and Henry.
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Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing (12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003), nicknamed elder brother (哥哥), was a film actor and musician from Hong Kong. Cheung was considered as "one of the founding fathers of Cantopop", and "combining a hugely successful film and music career".
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Linda Hamilton
Linda Carroll Hamilton (born September 26, 1956) is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy.
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Lionel Crabb
Lionel "Buster" Crabb OBE, GM (28 January 1909 - presumed dead 19 April 1956) was a British Royal Navy frogman and MI6 diver who vanished during a reconnaissance mission around a Soviet cruiser in 1956.
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Lisa Niemi
Lisa Niemi (born May 26, 1956) is a Finnish-American actress and dancer. She was married to actor, singer and dancer Patrick Swayze from 1975 until his death in 2009.
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Lise-Marie Morerod
Lise-Marie Morerod (born 16 April 1956) is a Swiss former slalom skier. In 1977, she was women's overall season champion.
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Lorenzo Perosi
Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi (21 December 1872 - 12 October 1956) was an Italian composer of sacred music and the only member of the Giovane Scuola who did not write opera. In the late 1890s, while he was still only in his 20s, Perosi was an internationally celebrated composer of sacred music, especially large-scale oratorios. Nobel Prize winner Romain Rolland wrote: "It's not easy to give you an exact idea of how popular Lorenzo Perosi is in his native country." Perosi's fame was not restricted to Europe. A 19 March 1899 New York Times article entitled "The Genius of Don Perosi" began: "The great and ever-increasing success which has greeted the four new oratorios of Don Lorenzo Perosi has placed this young priest-composer on a pedestal of fame which can only be compared with that which has been accorded of late years to the idolized Pietro Mascagni by his fellow-countrymen." Gianandrea Gavazzeni made the same comparison: "The sudden clamors of applause, at the end of the [19th] century, were just like those a decade earlier for Mascagni." Perosi worked for five Popes, including Pope St. Pius X who greatly fostered his rise.
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Lotte Herrlich
Lotte Herrlich (1883-1956) was a German photographer. She is regarded as the most important female photographer of the German naturism. This mainly was during the 1920s, in which the Freikorperkultur (Free Body Culture) was popular within Germany, before the Nazi Party assumed the power (1930s), promptly prohibiting it.
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Louis Bromfield
Louis Bromfield (December 27, 1896 – March 18, 1956) was an American author and conservationist who gained international recognition winning the Pulitzer Prize and pioneering innovative scientific farming concepts.
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Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern (February 19, 1895 – May 12, 1956) was an American stage and screen actor.
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Lounès Matoub
Lounès Matoub (Berber: Lwennas Maâṭub, Tifinagh: ⵍⵡⴻⵏⵏⴰⵙ ⵎⴻⵄⵟⵓⴱ, often credited as Matoub Lounès in French sources) (January 24, 1956 – June 25, 1998) was a famous Berber Kabyle singer and mondol player [http://bahmaduzeggane.blogspot.com/2008/07/celebrating-lounes-matoub-berber.html] who was a prominent advocate of the Berber cause and secularism in Algeria throughout his life.
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Lucy Gutteridge
Lucy Karima Gutteridge (born 28 November 1956) is an English actress.
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Lyonel Feininger
Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871 January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter and caricaturist.
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Lys Assia
Lys Assia (born 3 March 1926, Rupperswil, Aargau, Switzerland) is a Swiss singer.
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Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an African American physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( Mahmūd Ahmadinezhād , ; born 28 October 1956) is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country.
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Majida El Roumi
Majida El-Roumi (, also transliterated as Magida Al-Roumi) was born in Kfarshima, Lebanon on December 13, 1956. She is a Lebanese singer and a soprano, who started her musical career in the early 1970s when she participated in the talent show, Studio El Fan on Télé Liban and won the gold medal for best female singer. Since her appearance on television at the age of 16, she has become one of the most successful and respected singers of the Arab world as well as a UN Goodwill Ambassador.
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Makarios III
Makarios III (), born Michail Christodolou Mouskos (Greek: Μιχαήλ Χριστοδούλου Μούσκος) (August 13, 1913 – August 3, 1977), was the archbishop and primate of the autocephalous Cypriot Orthodox Church (1950–1977) and the first President of the Republic of Cyprus (1960–1974 and 1974–1977).
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Margaret Truman
Mary Margaret Truman Daniel (February 17, 1924 — January 29, 2008), widely known throughout her life as Margaret Truman, was an American singer who later became a successful writer. She was the only child of Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States, and Bess Truman.
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Margaret Wycherly
Margaret Wycherly (26 October 1881 – 6 June 1956) was an English stage and film actress.
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Marie Doro
Marie Doro (May 25, 1882 – October 9, 1956) was an American stage and film actress of the early silent film era.
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Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962), born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was an American actress, singer and model. After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950) were well received. By 1953, Monroe had progressed to leading roles. Her "dumb blonde" persona was used to comedic effect in such films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Limited by typecasting, Monroe studied at the Actors Studio to broaden her range, and her dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) was hailed by critics. Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination, and she received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959).
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Marion Leonard
Marion Leonard (June 9, 1881 – January 9, 1956) was a stage and silent film actress.
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Mark Mangino
Mark Thomas Mangino (born August 26, 1956 in New Castle, Pennsylvania) is an American football coach. He was most recently the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks college football team from 2002 to 2009. In 2007, Mangino received several National Coach of the Year honors after leading the Jayhawks to their first 12-win season in school history. Prior to coaching the Jayhawks, Mangino served assistant positions at Kansas State and Oklahoma. On December 3, 2009, after allegations of verbal and physical player abuse, Mangino and the Jayhawks agreed on a settlement in which he resigned from his position as head coach.
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Mark Morris
Mark William Morris (born 29 August 1956) is an American dancer, choreographer and director whose work is acclaimed for its craftsmanship, ingenuity, humor, and at times eclectic musical accompaniments. Morris is popular among dance aficionados, the music world, as well as mainstream audiences.
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Mark R. Hughes
Mark Reynolds Hughes (January 1, 1956 — May 21, 2000) was an American businessman who was founder, chairman and CEO of Herbalife International Ltd.
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Martin Jol
Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. Prior to joining Ajax he managed German club Hamburger SV and English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Jol played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany, and England, as well as earning three caps with the Dutch national team.
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Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova (born October 18, 1956) is a Czech American and former Czechoslovak tennis player and a former World No. 1. Billie Jean King said about Navratilova in 2006, "She's the greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who's ever lived."
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Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989.
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Masami Akita
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Masashi Tashiro
is a former Japanese television performer and the founding member of the band Rats & Star who was born on August 31, 1956 in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, Japan. Tashiro was a tenor vocalist in the rock band Rats & Star, and later on made himself a name as a TV entertainer in Japan. He also directed a movie after his band broke up.
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Maureen McCormick
Maureen Denise McCormick (born August 5, 1956) is an American actress, celebrity and recording artist. She is most widely known as a child actor who played Marcia Brady in the television series The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974.
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Maurice Tate
Maurice William Tate (30 May 1895 in Brighton, Sussex – 18 May 1956 in Wadhurst, Sussex) was a Sussex and England cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s and the leader of England's Test bowling attack for a long time during this period. He was also the first Sussex cricketer to take a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket.
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Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.
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Mel Harris
Mel Harris (Mary Ellen Harris) (born July 12, 1956, Bethlehem) - an American actress.
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Melody Thomas Scott
Melody Thomas Scott (born April 18, 1956) is an American actress best known for playing Nikki Newman on the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
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Merzbow
is the main recording name of Japanese noise musician . Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings on numerous independent record labels.
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Michael Biehn
Michael Connell Biehn (born July 31, 1956) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction action films The Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss. He has also acted in other genres in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror. On television, Biehn appeared in the cast of the Emmy Award-winning 1980s television series Hill Street Blues.
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Michele Alboreto
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Miladin Šobić
Miladin Šobić (Cyrillic: Миладин Шобић) is a Montenegrin singer and songwriter.
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Milovan Đilas
Milovan Đilas (or Djilas) (Serbian/Montenegrin Cyrillic: Милован Ђилас) (June 4, 1911, Podbišće (Mojkovac) - April 20, 1995, Belgrade) was a Yugoslavian Communist politician, theorist and author from Montenegro. He was a key figure in the Partisan movement during World War II, as in the post-war government. A self-identified Communist, Đilas became one of the best-known and most determined critics of the system from the perspective of Marxist ideology, domestically and internationally.
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Mimi Rogers
Mimi Rogers (born January 27, 1956) is an American movie actress and competitive poker player.
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Mistinguett
Mistinguett (April 5, 1875 – January 5, 1956) was a French actress and singer, whose birth name was Jeanne Bourgeois.
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Mohsen Badawi
Mohsen Badawi (Arabic: ; born November 10, 1956, in Cairo, Egypt) is an entrepreneur, political activist, and writer.
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Nate Saint
"Nate" Saint (August 30, 1923 – January 8, 1956) was an evangelical Christian missionary pilot to Ecuador who, along with four others, was killed while attempting to evangelize the Waodani people through efforts known as Operation Auca.
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Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is a two-time Tony and Emmy award-winning American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and his voice work in The Lion King and Stuart Little. In 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
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Nicanor Duarte
Óscar Nicanor Duarte Frutos (born 11 October 1956) is a Paraguayan politician who served as President of Paraguay from 2003 to 2008. He currently holds the title of Senator for life.
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Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and violist.
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Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (April 15, 1894 – September 11, 1971) led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. Khrushchev's party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.
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Nikolay Semenov
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Nikolay Sidorov
Nikolay Aleksandrovich Sidorov (; born November 23, 1956) is a former Soviet track and field athlete where he won the soviet 100 metre championships on 2 occasions, he was then the winner of the gold medal in the 4x100 m relay at the 1980 Summer Olympics.
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Noel Brotherston
Noel Brotherston (18 November 1956 – 6 May 1995) was a footballer.
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Noel Mugavin
Noel Mugavin (born 28 June 1956 in Warrnambool) is a former Australian rules footballer who played his short but bright career with Fitzroy and Richmond in the VFL.
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Norman Kerry
Norman Kerry (June 16, 1894 – January 12, 1956) was an American actor whose career spanned over twenty-five years in the motion picture industry beginning in the silent era at the end of World War I.
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Pat Finn
Patrick "Pat" Finn (born July 24, 1956) is the former host of several game shows. He is the owner of the production company Rubicon Entertainment.
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Pat McGeown
Pat "Beag" McGeown (3 September 1956 – 1 October 1996) was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.
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Patricia Kalember
Patricia Kathryn Kalember (born December 30, 1957) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Georgie on the NBC television show Sisters from 1991 to 1996. Before that, she portrayed Susannah on the popular 1980s television show Thirtysomething.
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Paul Kelly (actor)
Paul Michael Kelly (August 9, 1899 – November 6, 1956) was an American child actor who later as an adult became a stage, film, and television actor.
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Paul Molitor
Paul Leo Molitor (born August 22, 1956, in Saint Paul, Minnesota), nicknamed Molly and The Ignitor, is an American former Major League Baseball player. Molitor played for 21 seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers (1978–92), Toronto Blue Jays (1993–95), and Minnesota Twins (1996–98). He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2004, his first year of eligibility.
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Paul Rostock
Paul Rostock (January 18, 1892 - June 17, 1956) was a German official, surgeon, and university professor. He was Chief of the Office for Medical Science and Research (Amtschef der Dienststelle Medizinische Wissenschaft und Forschung) under Third Reich Commissioner Karl Brandt and a Full Professor, Medical Doctorate, Medical Superintendent of the University of Berlin Surgical Clinic.
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Paula Zahn
Paula Ann Zahn (born February 24, 1956) is an American journalist, newscaster, former news anchor on ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and CNN. On July 24, 2007, she announced her resignation from CNN. The final broadcast of Paula Zahn Now aired August 2, 2007. In January 2009, Discovery Communications announced that Zahn had entered into a development deal for a newsmagazine series, On the Case with Paula Zahn. The series, which profiles real crime stories, premiered October 18, 2009 on the Investigation Discovery cable channel.
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Peaches Browning
Peaches Browning (June 23, 1910August 23, 1956), born Frances Belle Heenan, was an American actress, most famous for her failed marriage to New York real estate mogul, Edward West "Daddy" Browning (1875–1934). The story became one of the most sensational scandals of the Roaring Twenties.
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Pete Fleming
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Peter R. de Vries
Peter Rudolf de Vries (born 14 November 1956 in Aalsmeer, North Holland) is a Dutch crime reporter. His television program covers high profile cases and set a Dutch television viewing record. In 2005, he started his own political party which was disbanded soon after.
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Phillip D. Bissett
Phillip D. Bissett (born September 11, 1956), was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, District 30 in Anne Arundel County and is a former Republican candidate for Anne Arundel County Executive.
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Phillip Longman
Phillip Longman (born April 21, 1956, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) is a renowned demographer. Presently he is a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and he formerly worked as a senior writer and deputy assistant managing editor at U.S. News & World Report.
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Pierre Mendès France
Pierre Mendès France (; 11 January 1907, Paris - 18 October 1982) was a French politician.
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Pio Valenzuela
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Possum Bourne
Peter Raymond George "Possum" Bourne (April 13, 1956 - April 30, 2003) was a champion New Zealand rally car driver. He died under non-competitive circumstances while driving on a public road that was to be the track for an upcoming race.
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Ralph DePalma
Ralph DePalma (December 18, 1882 – March 31, 1956) was an Italian-American racecar driving champion, most notably winner of the 1915 Indianapolis 500. His entry at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame estimates that he won about 2000 races. DePalma won the 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911 American AAA national dirt track championships and is credited with winning 24 American Champ car races. He won the Canadian national championship in 1929. DePalma estimated that he had earned $1.5 million by 1934 after racing for 27 years. He is inducted in numerous halls of fame. He competed on boards and dirt road courses and ovals.
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Ralph Morgan
Ralph Morgan (July 6, 1883 – June 11, 1956) was a Hollywood film, stage and character actor, and the older brother of Frank Morgan (who played the title role in The Wizard of Oz, 1939).
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Randy Jackson
Randall Darius "Randy" Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American bassist, singer, record producer, music manager, A&R; executive and television personality. He is best known as a judge on American Idol and Executive Producer for MTV's ''America's Best Dance Crew''. Jackson has won a Grammy Award as a producer.
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Randy Rhoads
Randall William "Randy" Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. A devoted student of classical guitar, Rhoads often combined his classical music influences with his own heavy metal style. While on tour with Ozzy Osbourne, he would seek out classical guitar tutors for lessons. Despite his relatively short career, Rhoads is a major influence on neo-classical metal players that emerged in the 1980s such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Angelo Batio, and Jason Becker. He is cited as an influence by many contemporary heavy metal guitarists, including longtime Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde. Despite a short career span, he is included in several 'Greatest Guitarist' lists.
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Ray Combs
Raymond Neil "Ray" Combs, Jr. (April 3, 1956 – June 2, 1996) was an American comedian, actor, and host of the game show Family Feud on CBS and in syndication from 1988 to 1994.
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Ray Wilkins
Raymond Colin Wilkins MBE (born 14 September 1956 in Hillingdon, Middlesex), often known as "Butch" Wilkins, was an English football player and is now a coach and occasional television pundit. He is the brother of former Brighton & Hove Albion manager and player Dean Wilkins. He is currently the assistant manager of Chelsea.
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Reynold B. Johnson
Reynold B. Johnson (July 16, 1906 - September 15, 1998) was an American inventor and computer pioneer. A long-time employee of IBM, Johnson is said to be the "father" of the disk drive. Other inventions include automatic test scoring equipment and the videocassette tape.
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Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE (born 8 November 1958) is New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, ''Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, and Love Actually, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley''. He is also the founder of the British charity Comic Relief.
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Rick Ducommun
Richard "Rick" Ducommun (born July 3, 1956) is a Canadian actor and comedian, often seen in supporting roles on both television and the silver screen.
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Rita Wilson
Rita Wilson (born October 26, 1956) is an American actress and producer.
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Rob Paulsen
Robert Fredrick Paulsen III (born March 11, 1956), sometimes credited as Rob Paulson, is an American voice actor, best known as the voice behind Raphael from the 1987 cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yakko Warner and Dr. Otto Scratchansniff from Animaniacs, Pinky from Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs, and Throttle from the 1990s and 2006 versions of Biker Mice From Mars. His role as Yakko won him a Daytime Emmy Award for male vocal performance; he won a second one for his portrayal of Pinky.
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Robert Newton
Robert Newton (1 June 1905 – 25 March 1956) was an English stage and film actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the most popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys. He was cited as a role model by actor Tony Hancock and drummer Keith Moon.
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Robin Curtis
Robin Curtis (born June 15, 1956) is an American actress, most notable for playing Vulcan Lieutenant Saavik in the Star Trek films.
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Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969), born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, was an Italian-American boxer and the heavyweight champion of the world from September 23, 1952, to April 27, 1956. When he retired he became the only heavyweight champion to finish his career undefeated. Remembered for notable victories against Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott, Roland La Starza, Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore. He is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time.
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Roderick MacKinnon
Roderick MacKinnon (born 19 February 1956) is a professor of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics at Rockefeller University who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Peter Agre in 2003 for his work on the structure and operation of ion channels.
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Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim (26 January 1928 – 11 February 2000) was a French journalist, author, actor, screenwriter, director, and producer who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.
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Roger Youderian
Roger Youderian (January 21, 1924 – January 8, 1956) was an Armenian-American evangelical Christian missionary to Ecuador who, along with four others, was killed while attempting to evangelize the Huaorani people through efforts known as Operation Auca.
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Ron White
Ronald "Ron" White (born December 18, 1956) is an American stand-up comedian from Texas who has had two Grammy Award-nominations, and is RIAA certified 10x Platinum for CD and DVD sales of over 10 million units. He is a charter member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour and has written the book “I Had the Right to Remain Silent…But I Didn’t Have the Ability” which appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List. White is well-known for his famous punchline, "...You can't fix stupid."
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Ronald Winans
Ronald "Ron" Winans (June 30, 1956 – June 17, 2005) was an American Gospel singer who gained fame as a member of The Winans.
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Ronan Bennett
Ronan Bennett (born 1956) is a Northern Irish novelist and screenwriter. He was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family headed by William H. and Geraldine Bennett at 420 Merville Garden Village in the Whitehouse area of Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland. Since its development in the late-1940s, Merville has always been proud of its mixed Roman Catholic/Protestant make up. Bennett attended the Christian Brothers Grammar School in West Belfast (generally known as St Mary's CBGS).
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Ruth Draper
Ruth Draper (born December 2, 1884, New York City - died December 30, 1956, New York, New York) was an American actress and dramatist. She specialized in character-driven monologues and monodrama.
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Sam Langford
Sam Langford (March 4, 1883 - January 12, 1956) was a Black Canadian boxing standout of the early part of the 20th century. Called the "Greatest Fighter Nobody Knows," by ESPN. He was rated #2 by The Ring on their list of "100 greatest punchers of all time". Langford was originally from Weymouth Falls, a small community in Nova Scotia, Canada. He was known as the "Boston Bonecrusher", "Boston Terror" or by his most infamous nickname the "Boston Tar Baby," Langford stood only and weighed in his prime.
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Samuel Gottesman
David Samuel Gottesman (1885 – April 21, 1956), was a Hungarian-born, American pulp-paper merchant, financier and philanthropist. He was generally known as Samuel Gottesman or D. Samuel Gottesman.
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Sandi Patty
Sandi Patty (born July 12, 1956 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), known as "The Voice," is an American Contemporary Christian music singer.
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Sebastian Coe
Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, KBE (born 29 September 1956), often known by his nickname Seb Coe, is a former athlete and politician from the United Kingdom. A middle distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 m gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and set eight outdoor and three indoor world records in middle distance track events (and also participated in a world record relay). His rivalries with fellow Britons Steve Ovett and Steve Cram dominated middle-distance racing for much of the 1980s.
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Sebastian Spreng
Sebastian Spreng (born April 6, 1956) is an Argentine-American visual artist and music journalist.
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Sela Ward
Sela Ann Ward (born July 11, 1956) is an American movie and television actress, perhaps best known for her television roles as Teddy Reed on the American TV series Sisters (1991–96) and as Lily Manning on Once and Again (1999–2002).
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Sergei Beloglazov
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Shahla Sherkat
Shahla Sherkat (Born March 30, 1956 Isfahan, Iran) is a journalist, prominent Persian feminist author, and one of the pioneers of Women's rights movement in Iran.
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Shane Gould
MedalCountry|
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Shawn Colvin
Shawn Colvin (born January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician.
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Sheila Kaye-Smith
Sheila Kaye-Smith (4 February 1887 – January 14, 1956) was an English writer, known for her many novels set in the borderlands of Sussex and Kent in the English regional tradition. Her 1923 book The End of the House of Alard became a best-seller, and gave her prominence; it was followed by other successes and her books enjoyed worldwide sales.
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Shelagh Rogers
Shelagh Rogers (born 1956) is a Canadian radio broadcaster. She is currently the host of CBC Radio One's The Next Chapter.
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Sheryl Lee Ralph
Sheryl Lee Ralph (born December 30, 1956 in Waterbury, Connecticut) is an American actress and singer.
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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
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Stepfanie Kramer
Stepfanie Kramer (born August 6, 1956) is an American actress, writer, and singer/songwriter. She is probably best known for her role as the tough-minded detective, "Sgt. Dee Dee McCall," on the NBC TV series Hunter." She has been nominated for an Emmy in Special Class Programming and won the Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actress Award, honored by the First Americans in the Arts organization in 1995, 2002, and 2003. She was voted one of the most beautiful women in television in 1988, through a national TV Guide poll of viewers. Kramer has written and directed for television, and is also a singer.
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Stephanie Zimbalist
Stephanie Zimbalist (born October 8, 1956) is an American actress best known for her role as Laura Holt on the NBC detective series Remington Steele.
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Steve Ballmer
Steven Anthony "Steve" Ballmer (born March 24, 1956) has been the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation since January 2000. , he is one of the richest people in the world with a personal wealth estimated at US$13.1 billion.
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Steve Green (singer)
Steve Green (born August 1, 1956 in Portland, Oregon) is a Contemporary Christian music singer notable for his vocal range (tenor) and flexible solo style. Over his twenty-five year career, Green has been honored as a four-time Grammy Award nominee, seven-time Dove Award winner, has had 13 No. 1 songs, and has sold over three million albums. .
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Steven Miller
Steven Miller (born November 8, 1956 in New Jersey) is an American record producer and executive. He is best known for his association with Windham Hill Records, where his ambient sound helped create notable instrumental recordings such as Michael Hedges’ Aerial Boundaries, Mark Isham’s Vapor Drawings and George Winston’s December.
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Sue Barker
Susan Barker, MBE (born 19 April 1956, in Paignton, Devon, England) is an English television presenter and former professional tennis player. During her tennis career, she won the women's singles title at the French Open and reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 4. She is now one of the main sports presenters at the BBC.
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Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard (born May 17, 1956 in Wilmington, North Carolina) is a retired professional boxer. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother's favorite singer, Ray Charles. Leonard was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, and he is widely considered to be one of the best boxers of all time, winning world titles in five weight divisions and defeating future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Wilfred Benítez, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Durán and Marvin Hagler. Leonard was named "Boxer of the Decade" for the 1980s, due to his accomplishments.
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Teena Marie
Teena Marie (born Mary Christine Brockert on March 5, 1956) is an American Grammy Award-nominated singer–songwriter–producer. Marie, nicknamed Lady Tee, (sometimes spelled Lady T), is a protegée of late funk legend Rick James, and is notable as one of the few successful white performers of R&B.; She sings R&B; with strong, robust vocals and plays rhythm guitar, keyboards and congas. She also has written, produced, sung and arranged virtually all of her songs since her 1980 release Irons in the Fire. She has said this is her favorite album. She has a daughter named Alia Rose who, as of 2009, sings under the name Rose Le Beau.
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The Aldridge Sisters
The Aldridge Sisters, Sheila and Sherry Aldridge, are an American singing act that appeared on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1977 to 1982.
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The Boomtown Rats
The Boomtown Rats were an Irish punk rock band that had a series of UK hits between 1977 and 1980. They were led by vocalist Bob Geldof.
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Theodore Kosloff
Theodore Kosloff (January 22, 1882 – November 22, 1956) was a Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and film and stage actor. He was occasionally credited as Theodor Kosloff.
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Tim Daly
James Timothy "Tim" Daly (born March 1, 1956) is an American stage, screen and voice actor, director and producer. He is best known for his television role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and for his voice role as Superman/Clark Kent in , as well as his recurring role of the drug-addicted screenwriter J.T. Dolan on The Sopranos for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award. He is currently starring as Pete Wilder on Private Practice.
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Tom Burlinson
Tom Burlinson (born 14 February 1956, in Toronto, Canada) is an Australian actor and singer.
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Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title role in Forrest Gump, Commander James A. Lovell in Apollo 13, Captain John H. Miller in Saving Private Ryan, Joe Fox in ''You've Got Mail and Chuck Noland in Cast Away. Hanks won consecutive Best Actor Academy Awards, in 1993 for Philadelphia and in 1994 for Forrest Gump''. U.S. domestic box office totals for his films exceed $3.9 billion. He is the father of actor Colin Hanks.
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Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner (born 16 July 1956) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, , and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.
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Ursula Plassnik
Ursula Plassnik (born May 23, 1956 in Klagenfurt) is an Austrian diplomat and politician. She was Foreign Minister of Austria between October 2004 and December 2008.
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Vladimir Kulich
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Vladimir Lisin
Vladimir Lisin (born 7 May 1956, Ivanovo) is a Russian businessman specialised in the steel industry. He is considered by the Forbes magazine to be the richest man in Russia with an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion, judging by the Forbes magazine (2010).
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Vladimír Godár
Vladimír Godár (born 16 March 1956, Bratislava) is a Slovak composer who is active in the fields of contemporary classical music and film music. He is also known for his collaboration with the Czech violinist, singer and composer Iva Bittová. As an academic, he is a writer, editor and translator of books on historical music research. He has been active in reviving the music and reputation of 19th Century Slovakian composer Ján Levoslav Bella.
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Vladislav Listyev
Vladislav (Vlad) Nikolayevich Listyev () (May 10, 1956 – March 1, 1995) was a Russian journalist and head of the ORT TV Channel (now government-owned Channel One).
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Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov ( – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician and diplomat, a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium (Politburo) of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev. He was a major perpetrator of the Great Terror and the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 (also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) as well as post-war negotiations, and a signatory of the Politburo resolution authorizing the Katyn wood massacre. He remained unapologetic and had few regrets of the actions of the Party under Stalin, a view that remained until his death. The Molotov cocktail was derisively named after him by the Finnish military during the Winter War.
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Walter de la Mare
Walter John de la Mare (pronounced ), OM CH (25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and "The Listeners".
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Walter Gieseking
Walter Wilhelm Gieseking (5 November 189526 October 1956) was a French-born German pianist and composer.
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Waodani
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Warren Moon
Harold Warren Moon (born November 18, 1956 in Los Angeles, California) is a former American professional football quarterback who played for the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Eskimos and the National Football League's Houston Oilers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs. He is currently a broadcaster for the Seattle Seahawks.
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Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty (1955–91) is the informal name for the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, commonly known as the Warsaw Pact. The treaty was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe. It was established at the USSR’s initiative and realized on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland.
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Werner Forssmann
Werner Theodor Otto Forßmann, (August 29, 1904 – June 1, 1979) was a physician from Germany who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Medicine (with Andre Cournand and Dickinson Richards) for developing a procedure that allowed for cardiac catheterization.
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Wilhelm Miklas
Wilhelm Miklas (born 15 October 1872 20 March 1956) was an Austrian politician who served as the third President of Austria, from 1928 until its annexation by Nazi Germany in the Anschluss 1938.
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William Fichtner
William Edward Fichtner (born November 27, 1956) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Sheriff Tom Underlay on Invasion, as Alexander Mahone on Prison Break and as Ken Rosenberg in the video games ' and '.
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
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William Shockley
William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American physicist and inventor. Along with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, Shockley co-invented the transistor, for which all three were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics.
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Win Lyovarin
Win Lyovarin (), (birth name: Somchai Lyowarin, Thai: สมชัย เลี้ยววาริณ, born March 23, 1956 in Amphoe Hat Yai, Songkhla Province, Thailand) is a Thai writer. He is a two-time winner of the S.E.A. Write Award.
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Yasuo Tanaka
:For the astrophysicist, see Yasuo Tanaka (astronomer)
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Yiannis Kouros
Yiannis Kouros (born February 13, 1956 in Tripoli, Greece) is a Greek ultramarathon runner based in Melbourne. He is sometimes called the "Running God" or the "Pheidippides Successor". He holds every men's world record from 100 to 1,000 miles and from 24 hours to 10 days. In 1991, he starred as Pheidippides in the movie ''The Story of the Marathon: A Hero's Journey'', which chronicles the history of marathon running.
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Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra (born May 12, 1925) is a former American Major League Baseball player and manager. He played almost his entire career for the New York Yankees and was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Berra was one of only four players to be named the Most Valuable Player of the American League three times and one of only six managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series.
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Yoshiaki Yatsu
Yoshiaki Yatsu (谷津嘉章 Yatsu Yoshiaki) (born July 19, 1956) is a Japanese professional wrestler.
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Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner (, Julij Borisovič Briner; July 11, 1920October 10, 1985) was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I on both stage and screen, as well as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille film The Ten Commandments and Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven. Brynner was noted for his deep, rich voice and for his shaven head, which he maintained as a personal trademark after adopting it for his role in The King and I. He was also a photographer and the author of two books.
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Algeria
Algeria (Arabic: , al-Jazā’ir, Berber: Dzayer, French: Algérie), officially the '''People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria'''), is a country in North Africa. In terms of land area, it is the largest country on the Mediterranean Sea, the second largest on the African continent after Sudan, and the eleventh-largest country in the world.
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Ankara
Ankara (Traditional English: Angora) is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2008 the city had a population of 4,500,000. Ankara also serves as the capital of Ankara Province.
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Australia
{{Infobox country
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Austria
Austria or (), officially the Republic of Austria (German: ), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers and has a temperate and alpine climate. Austria's terrain is highly mountainous due to the presence of the Alps; only 32% of the country is below , and its highest point is . The majority of the population speaks German, which is also the country's official language. Other local official languages are Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene.
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Belgium
Belgium (, ), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of , and it has a population of about 10.8 million people.
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Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 large professional theatres with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan, New York City.Although theater is the preferred spelling in the U.S.A. (see further at American and British English Spelling Differences), the majority of venues, performers, and trade groups for live dramatic presentations use the spelling theatre. Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.
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Brooklyn
Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough with approximately 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area.
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Charles Grapewin
Charley Ellsworth Grapewin (December 20, 1869 – February 2, 1956) was an American vaudeville performer and a stage and film actor, who portrayed Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Grandpa Joad in the film The Grapes of Wrath (1940).
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Chicago
Chicago ( or ) is the largest city in the state of Illinois. With over 2.8 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous city in the country. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland," is the 26th most populous in the world, home to an estimated 9.7 million people spread across the U.S. states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County.
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Cuba
The Republic of Cuba (; , ) is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos.
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Cyprus
Cyprus (; , Kýpros, ; ), – officially the Republic of Cyprus (, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, ; ) – is a Eurasian island country in the Eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of its most popular tourist destinations. An advanced, high-income economy with a very high Human Development Index, the Republic of Cyprus was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement until it joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.
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Eastbourne
Eastbourne (say East-born) () is a large town and borough of East Sussex, on the south coast of England, with an estimated population of 97,992 as of 2009. The area has seen human activity since the Stone Age and it remained one of small settlements until the 19th century when its four hamlets gradually merged to form a town. Assisted by the arrival of the railway in 1849, Eastbourne became a prime Victorian seaside resort and still is today.
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Ecuador
Ecuador (), officially the Republic of Ecuador (, ), literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border with Brazil. The country also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about west of the mainland.
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Egypt
Egypt (; , Miṣr, ; Egyptian Arabic: مصر, Maṣr, ; Coptic: , ; Greek: Αίγυπτος, Aiguptos; Egyptian:
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Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a municipality and a city located in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, originally at the confluence of the Dommel and Gender streams. The Gender was dammed off short of the city centre in the 1950s, but the Dommel still runs through the city.
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Finland
Finland (pronounced ), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden on the west, Norway on the north and Russia on the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.
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France
{{Infobox Country
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Granma (yacht)
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Great Britain
Great Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 60.0 million people in mid-2009, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The island of Ireland lies to its west. Politically, Great Britain may also refer to the island itself together with a number of surrounding islands which comprise the territory of England, Scotland and Wales.
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Greece
Greece (; , Elláda, ; , Hellás, ), also known as Hellas and officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía, ), is a country in southeastern Europe. Situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the tenth longest coastline in the world at in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian Islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at .
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House of Lords
The House of Lords (commonly referred to as "the Lords" and also known as House of Peers for ceremonial purposes) is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom's national legislature. Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons (which is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as "the Commons"), and the Lords. The House of Lords, like the House of Commons, assembles in the Palace of Westminster.
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Hungary
Hungary ( ), officially the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság ), is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe, being part of the Finno-Ugric family.
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India
India (), officially the Republic of India ( ; see also official names of India), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.18 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Mainland India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east; and it is bordered by Pakistan to the west; Bhutan, the People's Republic of China and Nepal to the north; and Bangladesh and Burma to the east. In the Indian Ocean, mainland India and the Lakshadweep Islands are in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share maritime border with Thailand and the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the Andaman Sea. India has a coastline of .
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Indonesia
Indonesia ( or ), officially the Republic of Indonesia (), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With a population of around 238 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, and has the world's largest population of Muslims. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies.
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international city
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Israel
Israel (, ''Yisrā'el; , Isrā'īl), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: , Medīnat Yisrā'el; , Dawlat Isrā'īl''), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and Gaza on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is the world's only predominantly Jewish state, and is defined as A Jewish and Democratic State by the Israeli government.
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Italy
Italy (; ), officially the Italian Republic (), is a country located in south-central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia — the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea — and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, whilst Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.4 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third most populous in the world.
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Japan
Japan (日本 Nihon or Nippon), officially the State of Japan ( or Nihon-koku), is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin" (because it lies to the east of nearby countries), which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
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Karnataka
Karnataka (, pronounced ) is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as the State of Mysore, it was renamed Karnataka in 1973.
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Kerala
Kerala (Malayalam: , {{audio|Ml-Kerala.ogg|) is a state in India. It is located on the south-western region of the country. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act bringing together the areas where Malayalam was the dominant language.
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London
London () is the capital of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who called it Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
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Marcinelle
Marcinelle is a Walloon town in the Belgian province of Hainaut, it is currently a municipality within the Charleroi borders. Until 1977, the town was a municipality of its own.
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Melbourne
Melbourne (, locally also ) is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre (also known as the "Central Business District" or "CBD") is the hub of the greater geographical area (or "metropolitan area") and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater geographical area had an approximate population of 4.00 million. Inhabitants of Melbourne are called Melburnians.
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Mexico
Mexico, (pronounced ; ), officially known as the United Mexican States (), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost 2 million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of 111 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Hispanophone country on Earth. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
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Mongolia
Mongolia (; ) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 38% of the population. Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic.
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Montenegro
Montenegro ( or ; Montenegrin: Crna Gora, Црна Гора, , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the southeast. Its capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is designated as the Prijestonica (Пријестоница), meaning the former Royal Capital City.
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Morocco
Morocco (, al-Maġrib; Berber: Amerruk / Murakuc; French: Maroc), officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية, al-Mamlakah al-Maġribiyya), is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of nearly 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², including the disputed Western Sahara which is mainly under Moroccan administration. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Spain to the north (a water border through the Strait and land borders with three small Spanish-controlled exclaves, Ceuta, Melilla, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera), Algeria to the east, and Mauritania to the south.
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Netherlands
{{Infobox country
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Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.
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Pakistan
{{Infobox country
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Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh () is the second-largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it anchors the 22nd largest urban area in the United States. The estimated population of the city in 2009 was 311,647, while the seven-county metropolitan area was estimated at 2,354,957. Downtown Pittsburgh retains substantial economic influence, ranking at 25th in the nation for jobs within the urban core and 6th in job density. The characteristic shape of Pittsburgh's central business district is a triangular tract carved by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, where the Ohio River forms. The city features 151 high-rise buildings, 446 bridges, two inclined railways, and a pre-revolutionary fortification. Pittsburgh is known colloquially as "The City of Bridges" and "The Steel City" for its many bridges and former steel manufacturing base.
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Poland
Poland (), officially the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is , making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous Slavic member.
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Porkkala
:For other meanings of this and similar names, see Porkkala (disambiguation).
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Portsmouth
Portsmouth () is a city located in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is the United Kingdom's only island city, being mainly located on Portsea Island. The City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Football Club are both nicknamed Pompey. As a significant naval port for centuries, Portsmouth is home to the world's oldest dry dock still in use and also home to some famous ships, including HMS Warrior and Lord Nelson's flagship HMS Victory. Although smaller than in its heyday, the naval base remains a major dockyard and base for the Royal Navy and Royal Marine Commandos whose Headquarters resides there. There is also a thriving commercial ferryport serving destinations on the continent for freight and passenger traffic. The nickname Pompey is thought to have derived from shipping entering Portsmouth harbour making an entry in their logs as Pom. P. in reference to Portsmouth Point. Navigational charts also use this abbreviation.
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Poznań 1956 protests
The Poznań 1956 protests, also known as Poznań 1956 uprising or Poznań June (), were the first of several massive protests of the Polish people against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland. Demonstrations by workers demanding better conditions began on June 28, 1956, at Poznań's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent repression.
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Rotterdam
Rotterdam (; Dutch ) is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands. The municipality is the second largest in the country, with a population of 603,425 as of March 2010.
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Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island nation of Cuba, some east south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana.
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Seychelles
Seychelles ( ; French: ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Creole: Repiblik Sesel), is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar.
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Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai; ''sīnā'a''; Hebrew סיני) is a triangular peninsula in Egypt which is about . It lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa. In addition to its formal name, Egyptians also refer to it affectionately as the "Land of Fayrouz", based on the Ancient Egyptian "Dumafkat", which has the same meaning. The peninsula is divided into two Egyptian governorates, and has a population of approximately 1.3 million people.
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Singapore
{{Infobox Country
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, , abbreviated СССР, SSSR), informally known as the Soviet Union () or Soviet Russia, was a constitutionally socialist state that existed on the territory of most of the former Russian Empire in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
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Spain
Spain ( ; , ), officially the Kingdom of Spain (), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
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Spain under Franco
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SS Andrea Doria
{|
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St. Nicholas Arena
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Stockholm
Stockholm () is the capital and the largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag (parliament), and the official residence of the Swedish monarch as well as the prime minister. Since 1980, the monarch has resided at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm and uses the Royal Palace of Stockholm as his workplace and official residence. As of 2009, the Stockholm metropolitan area is home to approximately 22% of Sweden's population. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden with a population of 829,417 in the municipality (2009), 1.25 million in the urban area (2005), and 2 million in the 6650 km² large metropolitan area (2009).
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Sudan
Sudan (), officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and tenth largest in the world by area. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east,Kenya and Uganda to the southeast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. The world's longest river, the Nile, divides the country between east and west sides.
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Suez Canal
The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa. The northern terminus is Port Said and the southern terminus is Port Tawfik at the city of Suez. Ismailia lies on its west bank, north of the half-way point.
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Sweden
Sweden (pronounced , ), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: ), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and water borders with Denmark, Germany, and Poland to the south, and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia to the east. Sweden is also connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.
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Switzerland
Switzerland (, , , ), officially the Swiss Confederation (Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.
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Tangier
Tangier or Tangiers (Amazigh: Tanja, archaic Berber name: Tinji, Arabic: طنجة) is a city of northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 (2008 census). It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. It is the capital of the Tangier-Tétouan Region and of the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture within that Region..
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Toronto
Toronto (, colloquially or ) is the largest city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America. Toronto is at the heart of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and is part of a densely populated region in Southern Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe, which is home to over 8.1 million residents—approximately 25% of Canada's population. The census metropolitan area (CMA) had a population of 5,113,149, and the Greater Toronto Area had a population of 5,555,912 in the 2006 Census.
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Tunisia
Tunisia (pronounced , ; Tūnis), officially the Tunisian Republic ( al-Jumhūriyya at-Tūnisiyya), is the northernmost country in Africa. It is an Arab country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area is almost 165,000 km², with an estimated population of just over 10.3 million. Its name is derived from the capital Tunis located in the north-east.
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Turkey
Turkey (), known officially as the Republic of Turkey (), is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between Eastern Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
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Tuxpan, Veracruz
Tuxpan (or Túxpam, fully Túxpam de Rodríguez Cano) is both a municipality and city located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The population of the city was 78,523 and of the municipality was 134,394 inhabitants, according to the INEGI census of 2005, residing in a total area of 1,051.89 km² (406.14 sq mi). The municipality includes many smaller outlying communities, the largest of which are Alto Lucero and Santiago de la Peña.
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U.S.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a country and sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island nation, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border with another sovereign state, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Great Britain is linked to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel.
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United States
The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
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West Germany
West Germany () is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG () in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. This period, during which Germany and Berlin were divided, ended when communist East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the eleven states of the Federal Republic of Germany. The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany with sixteen states (known simply as "Germany") is thus the continuation of the pre-1990 Federal Republic of Germany, and not its successor.
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Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (Croatian, Serbian, Slovene: Jugoslavija; Macedonian, Serbian Cyrillic: Југославија) is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the western part of Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.
http://wn.com/Yugoslavia
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King and I, The (1956)
"King and I, The (1956)" Actors
- Deborah Kerr
- Yul Brynner
- Rita Moreno
- Martin Benson
- Terry Saunders
- Rex Thompson
- Carlos Rivas
- Patrick Adiarte
- Alan Mowbray
- Geoffrey Toone
- Robert Banas
- Dennis Bonilla
- Thomas Bonilla
- Gemze De Lappe
- Reuben Fuentes
"King and I, The (1956)" Director
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Spectacular New York, 1956
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:04
- Published: 19 Jun 2009
- Uploaded: 15 Dec 2011
- Author: travelfilmarchive
A tour of New York in 1956 in color.Footage from this subject is available for licensing from www.travelfilmarchive.com
http://wn.com/Spectacular_New_York,_1956
Bill Haley - Rock Around The Clock (1956)
The DVD "The Legends of Rock & Roll"states this clip is from the Ted Steel show WOR-TV, New York (1955). Apparently, it is from Washington Square, a show hosted by Ray Bolger (1956).
http://wn.com/Bill_Haley__Rock_Around_The_Clock_1956
1956 - Hungarian Revolution
A magyar forradalom emlékére (Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont-nyitány)
http://wn.com/1956__Hungarian_Revolution
"Around the World in 80 Days" (1956) Trailer
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:17
- Published: 22 Oct 2006
- Uploaded: 17 Dec 2011
- Author: bttfportugal
Niven is perfect as an imperturbable English gentleman who attempts to win a bet by circumnavigating the globe in eighty days. The Jules Verne story, 100 locations, 40 cameo appearances by Hollywood players, a Victor Young score, and SJ Perelman among the writers guarantee delightful family fare. The beginning of the film features a prologue by Edward R. Murrow, the esteemed television journalist, and it includes the first film to be based on a Jules Verne novel, Georges Melies's A TRIP TO THE MOON from 1902.
http://wn.com/Around_the_World_in_80_Days_1956_Trailer
Lincoln Assassination Eyewitness (Feb 9, 1956)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:29
- Published: 11 Apr 2009
- Uploaded: 17 Dec 2011
- Author: GiveMeBlackandWhite
Lincoln Assassination Witness appears on I've Got a Secret.
http://wn.com/Lincoln_Assassination_Eyewitness_Feb_9,_1956
Last footage from Laurel & Hardy ever! In 1956!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:42
- Published: 02 Mar 2007
- Uploaded: 17 Dec 2011
- Author: klukhuhntje
You will see a home movie that was taken at the house from stan. Ollie was visit Stan in 1956. The footage is in color. Enjoy!
http://wn.com/Last_footage_from_Laurel_Hardy_ever!_In_1956!
Popeye the Sailor: Parlez Vous Woo (1956)
Olive is so captived by "The International", a radio personality with a French accent, that she'd rather stay home than go out on a date with Popeye. Bluto, overhearing this, comes to the door as the character. Popeye does his best to get Olive back, to no avail. Finally, Bluto challenges Popeye to a duel, ultimately stabbing him in the chest where his can of spinach was. Popeye unmasks Bluto, then eats another can of spinach to give himself a French accent. Public Domain.
http://wn.com/Popeye_the_Sailor_Parlez_Vous_Woo_1956
![Eames Lounge Chair debut in 1956 on NBC [1/2]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120115212318im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zfzLzOl795E/0.jpg "Eames Lounge Chair debut in 1956 on NBC [1/2]")
Eames Lounge Chair debut in 1956 on NBC [1/2]
PART 1 of 2 - Charles & Ray Eames show their then-new masterpiece on the Arlene Francis "Home" show broadcast on the NBC television network in 1956. You can download a complete version from Google Video @ video.google.com
http://wn.com/Eames_Lounge_Chair_debut_in_1956_on_NBC_ 1/2
FEVER - Little Willie John - 1956
This is great! Enjoy!
http://wn.com/FEVER__Little_Willie_John__1956
Lone Ranger, The - Trailer (1956)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:28
- Published: 17 Feb 2007
- Uploaded: 17 Dec 2011
- Author: Adlerangriffe
A greedy, deceitful rancher stirs up trouble with a local Indian tribe, creating a dangerous, hostile climate. Only the Lone Ranger and his faithful friend, Tonto, can prevent a savage war from breaking out.
http://wn.com/Lone_Ranger,_The__Trailer_1956
Climate Science 1956: A Blast from the Past
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:51
- Published: 07 Nov 2010
- Uploaded: 15 Dec 2011
- Author: greenman3610
To support Climate Crocks: go to www.climatecrocks.com Many climate deniers still seem to think global warming was invented by Al Gore, in 2006. As this recently uncovered recording from 1956 shows, the outlines of climate change science have been clear for many decades. More Greenhouse history "In the 70s, they said there'd be an Ice Age" www.youtube.com Excursions in Science, complete recording www.youtube.com The Discovery of Global Warming www.aip.org summary of climate science history www.aip.org The last 55 million years - Hansen et al, Target CO2 www.columbia.edu Hansen's Bjerknes Lecture to the American Geophysical Union pdf or ppt download here www.columbia.edu
http://wn.com/Climate_Science_1956_A_Blast_from_the_Past
Gerry Mulligan - Walking Shoes - 1956
1956 in Rome Gerry Mulligan - baritone sax, piano Zoot Sims - tenor sax Jon Eardley - trumpet Bob Brookmeyer - trombone Bill Crow - bass Dave Bailey - drums
http://wn.com/Gerry_Mulligan__Walking_Shoes__1956
Harry Belafonte - "Banana Boat Song (Day O)" - 1956
Harry Belafonte - "Banana Boat (Day O)" - 1956
http://wn.com/Harry_Belafonte__Banana_Boat_Song_Day_O__1956
1956 Le Mans - Mike Hawthorn Jaguar OnBoard Lap
Mike Hawthorn drives a Jaguar D-Type in Le Mans in 1956
http://wn.com/1956_Le_Mans__Mike_Hawthorn_Jaguar_OnBoard_Lap
War and Peace (1956) - Theatrical Trailer - © Paramount Pictures
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:26
- Published: 09 Apr 2009
- Uploaded: 27 Nov 2011
- Author: IAmOnlyLove
Film: War and Peace. Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer. Directed by: King Vidor. Story written by: Leo Tolstoy "War and Peace" (novel) Screenplay written by: Bridget Boland, Robert Westerby, King Vidor, Mario Camerini, Ennio De Concini, Ivo Perilli, Gian Gaspare Napolitano and Mario Soldati. Distributed by: © Paramount Pictures. Theatrical Release Date: August 21, 1956 (USA) Niceties by: www.youtube.com Synopsis! "War and Peace" is the first English film version of the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It is an American/Italian version, directed by King Vidor and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti. The music score was by Nino Rota and the cinematography by Jack Cardiff. The film was made by Dino de Laurentiis Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film stars Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer, Vittorio Gassman and Anita Ekberg with Herbert Lom, Oskar Homolka, Helmut Dantine, Tullio Carminati, Barry Jones, Milly Vitale, Anna-Maria Ferrero, Wilfrid Lawson, May Britt, Jeremy Brett and John Mills. It was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film and it had Academy Awards nominations for Best Director (King Vidor), Best Cinematography, Color (Jack Cardiff) and Best Costume Design, Color (Maria De Matteis).
http://wn.com/War_and_Peace_1956__Theatrical_Trailer__©_Paramount_Pictures
Formula 1 - 1956 Nurburgring Juan Manuel Fangio
Formula 1 - 1956 Nurburgring Juan Manuel Fangio
http://wn.com/Formula_1__1956_Nurburgring_Juan_Manuel_Fangio
![Eames Lounge Chair debut in 1956 on NBC [2/2]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120115212318im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-MomNfLGOLg/0.jpg "Eames Lounge Chair debut in 1956 on NBC [2/2]")
Eames Lounge Chair debut in 1956 on NBC [2/2]
PART 2 of 2 - Charles & Ray Eames show their then-new masterpiece on the Arlene Francis "Home" show broadcast on the NBC television network in 1956. You can download a complete version from Google Video @ video.google.com
http://wn.com/Eames_Lounge_Chair_debut_in_1956_on_NBC_ 2/2
a trip around le mans 1956
A trip round le mans before the actual race in a jaguar race car at pretty high speed.
http://wn.com/a_trip_around_le_mans_1956
Eurovision Song Contest 1956 Winner - Switzerland - Lys Assia - Refrain (Chorus)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:20
- Published: 04 Jul 2009
- Uploaded: 14 Dec 2011
- Author: VINANDBANWARIE2
The winner of the first Eurovision Song Contest who was held in Switzerland and won by Switzerland.
http://wn.com/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1956_Winner__Switzerland__Lys_Assia__Refrain_Chorus
The Other Side Of Suez 1956 - BBC Documentary - part(1/3)
BBC documentary on 1956 Suez War , it shows the real causes of the tripartite attack on Egypt. watch part(2/3): youtube.com
http://wn.com/The_Other_Side_Of_Suez_1956__BBC_Documentary__part1/3
Carousel - 1956 - If I loved you duet.
Beautiful Duet with Gordon MacRae and Shirely Jones. Anya xoxo This clip belongs to Fox and Rodgers&Hammerstein. All rights reserved.
http://wn.com/Carousel__1956__If_I_loved_you_duet
Lou Costello Interview (1956)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 24:30
- Published: 21 May 2011
- Uploaded: 03 Dec 2011
- Author: nologorecords
DVD: www.amazon.com thefilmarchive.org Louis Francis Costello (March 6, 1906 -- March 3, 1959) was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott. Costello was famous for his bumbling, chubby, clean-cut image that has appealed to many Americans over the decades, and for his shouted line of "HEEEEYYY ABBOTT!!." Abbott and Costello signed up with the William Morris Agency, which sought to enlarge the duo's stature by putting them on the radio. In 1938 they received national exposure for the first time by becoming featured performers on The Kate Smith Hour, a popular variety show. They were hugely successful, which ultimately led to their appearance in a Broadway play and signing with Universal Studios in 1940. They filled supporting roles in their first film, One Night in the Tropics (1940), but stole the film with their classic routines, including a much-shortened version of "Who's On First?". (A more complete version was given in The Naughty Nineties, released in 1945.) The duo became famous for that routine, in which Abbott enumerated the names of a mythical baseball team, whose members have nicknames of "Who" who plays first base, "What" on second base and "I don't know" on third etc. This confounds Costello when they are addressed simply as "Who", "What" and "I don't know". This sketch made Abbott and Costello, among other things, to be recognized by (but not made members of) the Baseball Hall of Fame with a <b>...</b>
http://wn.com/Lou_Costello_Interview_1956
Electric Guitar Review Epiphone Les Paul Goldtop 1956 Gibson clone with P90s
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:11
- Published: 22 Nov 2010
- Uploaded: 16 Dec 2011
- Author: rockongoodpeople
www.nextlevelguitar.com Click link to get a killer brand new Blues lesson not on YouTube and a Blues scales and lead guitar Ebook, all for free from NextLevelGuitar.com www.facebook.com Click the above link to go to our official facebook page and then click on the "like" button on the top right to be entered into our give-away to win a free guitar - thats all it takes to enter! We are giving away three free guitars - an Epiphone Les Paul Goldtop, the one reviewed in this video, a Fender Deluxe Power Stratocaster, and an acrylic Flying V guitar. We will draw three random winners on 12/15/10 and ship them the guitars anywhere in the world - so this is open to anyone. In this video we demo the tones and review the features of a killer Epiphone Les Paul Goldtop electric guitar. This guitar is modeled after a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. Check out the features and tones. all from www.nextlevelguitar.com
http://wn.com/Electric_Guitar_Review_Epiphone_Les_Paul_Goldtop_1956_Gibson_clone_with_P90s
![Gadwalls (Anas strepera) on the west pond. The little grasslands, modest ponds, and lake shoreline of the UBNA is a sanctuary for birds (most dramatically crested cormorants, great blue herons, and eagles);[6] turtles and frogs may be seen.](http://web.archive.org./web/20120115212318/http://cdn4.wn.com/pd/55/74/efb65174f950cd9df09d69c4b80d_medium.jpg "Gadwalls (Anas strepera) on the west pond. The little grasslands, modest ponds, and lake shoreline of the UBNA is a sanctuary for birds (most dramatically crested cormorants, great blue herons, and eagles);[6] turtles and frogs may be seen.")
![Rabbi Regina Jonas, the world's first female rabbi, ordained in 1935, killed in the Holocaust in 1944. [1].](http://web.archive.org./web/20120115212318/http://cdn8.wn.com/pd/a1/8e/20697d13410e5bb365bf1aa56181_medium.jpg "Rabbi Regina Jonas, the world's first female rabbi, ordained in 1935, killed in the Holocaust in 1944. [1].")
![Kobe 神戸 — Designated city — 神戸市 · Kobe City[1]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120115212318/http://cdn1.wn.com/pd/d2/44/0d33e0622050d2d327bae0cb4c3a_medium.jpg "Kobe 神戸 — Designated city — 神戸市 · Kobe City[1]")
photo: WN / Yeshe Choesang
13 Jan 2012
Spiritual leaders should play an active role in shaping the young generation, instead of keeping themselves busy with rituals, said spiritual leader and Nobel laureate, the Dalai Lama. He was speaking...
size: 1.7Kb
size: 1.7Kb
photo: AP / Hadi Mizban
12 Jan 2012
Wherever they're deployed, they're menacing and feared for good reason. Known historically by various names, they include mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, dogs of war, and Condottieri for wealthy...
size: 14.2Kb
size: 14.2Kb
photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar
11 Jan 2012
In what could spell further trouble for the Lavasa Corporation Limited, two tribals have now challenged the government notification that conferred special powers upon the company to acquire land for...
size: 2.2Kb
size: 2.2Kb
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Austin American Statesman
Nearly two dozen 70-somethings poured into the Central Market Cafe on Thursday, drinking coffee, reminiscing and catching up on the latest news. Joe had come straight from a medical procedure. Mary was talking about the holidays. Gene circled the group, snapping pictures and greeting friends. This...
size: 8.5Kb
size: 8.5Kb
Huffington Post
1956 Swan Song of Colonialism In 1956 the last supporters of colonialism received a rude awakening, when gun boat diplomacy "a la Eden" was deemed unacceptable by the community of nations. The United Kingdom had completely misjudged global public opinion. The world had simply had enough! It was not...
size: 3.5Kb
size: 3.5Kb
Tampa Bay Online
Rock 'n' roll music today is loved and loathed and everything in between. Its form has been massaged and reinvented a million times over. But in 1956, rock was only a pebble on music's highway. Only a few appreciated its sound, and many vilified it. Now imagine a handful of skilled, Southern-born...
size: 2.8Kb
size: 2.8Kb
Engadget
Check out IBM's 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) hard disk and those gripes about dragging around that USB thumb drive soon evaporate. This 1956 HDD was composed of 50 24-inch discs, stacked together and taking up 16 sq ft of real estate. The once-cutting-edge monstrosity...
size: 10.1Kb
size: 10.1Kb
The Examiner
Why write about an open roadster when we are entering winter? How about a good winter project or something to think about for next spring (about four months from now)? It is reported that British sports car owners really take to their roles as feisty and quirky underdogs. And the...
size: 6.3Kb
size: 6.3Kb
New York Daily News
Half a century later, a rare bumblebee has buzzed its way back into the animal kingdom. The rare Cockrell’s bumblebee, first found in 1956, was discovered again on Monday in the White mountains of south-central Mexico, reported LiveScience.com. Scientists have gathered samples of the bee since 1913,...
size: 2.3Kb
size: 2.3Kb
MSNBC
An elusive bumblebee, which was last seen in 1956, was recently found living in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico, scientists announced Monday. Known as "Cockerell's bumblebee," the bee was first described in 1913 using six specimens collected along the Rio Ruidoso, a river located in...
size: 4.4Kb
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The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: The government plans to amend the Civil Law Act 1956 (Act 67) to increase the amount of compensation awarded for injury and...
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Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan.
January 3 – By popular demand, Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, is restaged live by Producers' Showcase on NBC-TV.
January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming are killed by the Waodani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
January 16 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser vows to reconquer Palestine.
January 25–26 – Finnish troops reoccupy Porkkala after Soviet troops vacate its military base. Civilians can return February 4.
January 26 – The 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union after being missing for 5 years.
February 14–26 – 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
February 16 – The film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, is released.
February 22 – Elvis Presley enters the United States music charts for the first time, with Heartbreak Hotel.
February 23 – Norma Jean Mortenson legally changes her name to Marilyn Monroe.
February 24 – Doris Day records her most famous song: Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). It is from Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which Day co-stars with James Stewart.
February 25 – Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality".
March 1 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization.
March 2 – Morocco declares its independence from France.
March 9
* The British deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus to the Seychelles.
* Soviet Armed Forces suppresses mass demonstrations in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
March 11 – After having opened in London the previous year, Laurence Olivier's film, Richard III, adapted from Shakespeare's play, has its U.S. premiere in theatres and on NBC Television on the same day. On TV it is not shown in prime time, but as an afternoon matinée, in a slightly cut version. It is one of the first such experiments of its kind. Olivier is later nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
March 12
* 96 U.S. Congressmen sign the Southern Manifesto, a protest against the 1954 Supreme Court ruling (Brown v. Board of Education) that desegregated public education.
* The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 500 for the first time rising 2.40 points, or 0.48%, to 500.24.
March 13 – Elvis Presley releases his first Gold Album titled Elvis Presley.
March 15 – The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.
March 19 – At age 48, Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren contests his last match in Rotterdam.
March 20 – Tunisia gains independence from France.
March 21 – The 28th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
March 23 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, and a national holiday is observed in the country including the former East Pakistan state.
April 2 – The first episode of As the World Turns is broadcast on the CBS television network
April 7 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
April 9 – Habib Bourguiba is elected prime minister of Tunisia.
April 14 – Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago by Ampex. It is the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as 2" Quadruplex.
April 17 – Elizabeth II inaugurates Chew Valley Lake.
April 18 – Maria Desylla-Kapodistria is elected mayor of Corfu and becomes the first female mayor in Greece.
April 19
* British diver Lionel Crabb dives into Portsmouth harbour to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser and vanishes.
* Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.
April 21 – Former U.S. First Daughter Margaret Truman marries Clifton Daniel.
April 27 – Heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano retires without losing a professional boxing match.
May 2 – The United Methodist Church in America decides at its General Conference to grant women full ordained clergy status. It also calls for an end to racial segregation in the denomination.
May 8
Austria and Israel form diplomatic relations.
* The constitutional union between Indonesia and the Netherlands is dissolved.
* John Osborne's Look Back in Anger opens at the Royal Court Theatre, London, changing the scope of theatrical and other forms of drama in the UK.
May 9 – Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world, is first ascended.
May 18 – Lhotse (main), the fourth highest mountain, is first ascended.
May 23 – French minister Pierre Mendès France resigns due to his government's policy on Algeria.
May 24 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast from Lugano, Switzerland. The winning song is Refrain by Lys Assia (music by Géo Voumard, text by Émile Gardaz).
May 25 – India announces the institution of diplomatic relations with Spain (still under Franco's rule)
June 1 – Vyacheslav Molotov resigns as foreign minister of the Soviet Union; he later becomes ambassador in Mongolia.
June 3 – British Rail renames 'Third Class' passenger facilities as 'Second Class' (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).
June 5 – Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.
June 6 – In Singapore, chief minister David Marshall resigns after the breakdown of talks about internal self-government in London.
June 8 – General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", first snooze alarm clock ever.
June 10 – 1956 Summer Olympics: Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden (all other events are held in November in Melbourne, Australia).
June 13 – International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO).
June 14 – The Flag of the United States Army is formally dedicated.
June 15 – Eindhoven University of Technology is founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
June 18 – The last foreign troops leave Egypt.
June 23 – Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes the 2nd president of Egypt.
June 28
* MP Sydney Silverman's bill for the abolition of the death penalty in the UK passes the British House of Commons.
* Labour riots in Poznań, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at a crowd that protests high prices, killing 53.
* The film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner, is released only a few months after the film version of R&H;'s Carousel.
June 29
* Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller.
* President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act, creating the Interstate Highway System
June 30 – A TWA Lockheed Constellation and United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collide in mid-air over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft in the deadliest civil aviation disaster to date; the accident leads to sweeping changes in the regulation of cross-country flight and air traffic control over the United States.
July 2 – A lab experiment at Sylvania Electric Products results in an explosion.
July 8 – The mountain Gasherbrum II is first ascended.
July 10 – The British House of Lords defeats the abolition of the death penalty.
July 16 – With the closing of its "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announces all subsequent circuses will be "arena shows" due to changing economics.
July 24 – At New York City's Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together (their act started on July 25, 1946).
July 25 – 72 kilometers (45 miles) south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm in heavy fog, killing 51.
July 26 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
July 30 – A Joint Resolution of Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing "In God We Trust" as the U.S. national motto.
July 31 – Cricket: Jim Laker sets an extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test between England and Australia, taking 19 wickets in a first class match (the previous best was 17).
August – The exhibition This Is Tomorrow opens at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.
August 6 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network has its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena.
August 8 – 262 miners die in a fire in a coal mine in Marcinelle, Belgium.
August 17 – West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany.
September 9 – Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.
September 13 – The hard disk drive is invented by an IBM team led by Reynold B. Johnson.
September 16 – Television broadcasting commences in Australia.
September 21 – Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García is assassinated.
September 25 – The submarine Transatlantic telephone cable opens.
October 8 – Baseball pitcher Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the only perfect game in World Series history in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yogi Berra caught the game. Dale Mitchell was the final out. The New York Yankees won the series. Larsen was named series MVP.
October 10
* Finland joins UNESCO.
* The Lockheed L-1649A Starliner makes its first flight.
October 14 – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Indian Untouchable leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 followers (see Neo-Buddhism).
October 15
* The RAF retires its last Lancaster bomber.
* Fidel Castro and Che Guevara depart from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, enroute to Santiago de Cuba aboard the yacht Granma with 82 men.
October 17 – The Game of the Century: 13-year-old Bobby Fischer beats GM Donald Byrne in the NY Rosenwald chess tournament.
October 22 – Suez Crisis: Britain, France, and Israel secretly meet in and make plans to invade Egypt.
October 23 – The Hungarian revolution breaks out against the pro-Soviet government. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact.
October 26 – Red Army troops invade Hungary.
October 29
* The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuts on NBC-TV.
* Suez Crisis: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.
* Tangier Protocol: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.
October 31 – Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.
November 1
* The States Reorganisation Act of India reforms the boundaries and names of Indian states. Two new states Kerala and Karnataka were formed.
* City Lights Books publishes Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg.
November 3 – The Wizard of Oz, has its TV debut on the CBS channel.
November 4 – 1956 Hungarian Revolution: More Soviet troops invade Hungary to crush a revolt that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
November 6 – United States presidential election, 1956: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat challenger Adlai E. Stevenson in a rematch of their contest 4 years earlier.
November 7 – Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France, and Israel to withdraw their troops from Arab lands immediately.
November 13 – The United States Supreme Court declares Alabama and Montgomery, Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal, thus ending the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
November 14 – Fighting ends in Hungary.
November 15 – Middle East Technical University is founded in Ankara, Turkey.
November 20 – In Yugoslavia, former prime minister Milovan Djilas is arrested after he criticizes Josip Broz Tito.
November 22 – The 1956 Summer Olympics begin in Melbourne, Australia.
November 23 – The Suez Crisis causes petrol rationing in Britain.
November 28 – Roger Vadim's drama film And God Created Woman released in France (as Et Dieu… créa la femme) propels Brigitte Bardot into the public spotlight as a "sex kitten".
November 30 – Floyd Patterson wins the world heavyweight boxing championship that was vacant after the retirement of Rocky Marciano.
December 2
* Fidel Castro and his followers land in Cuba in the boat Granma.
* A pipe bomb planted by George Metesky explodes at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, injuring 6 people.
December 5 – Rose Heilbron becomes Britain's first female judge.
December 9 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 crashes into a mountain in British Columbia. All 62 people on board are killed.
December 12 – Japan becomes a member of the United Nations.
December 18 – To Tell the Truth debuts on CBS-TV.
December 19 – John Bodkin Adams is arrested for the murder of 2 patients in Eastbourne, Great Britain.
December 23 – British and French troops leave the Suez Canal region.
December 31 – Bob Barker makes his TV debut as host of the game show Truth or Consequences.
Minamata disease is discovered.
The Alpine Club of Canada, Toronto section, is founded.
January 1
* Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (d. 2000)
* Kōji Yakusho, Japanese actor
January 3 – Mel Gibson, American actor and director
January 5 – Chen Kenichi, Japan-born Chinese chef
January 7 – David Caruso, American actor (NYPD Blue)
January 9
* Kimberly Beck, American actress
* Imelda Staunton, English actress
January 10 – Shawn Colvin, American singer
January 14 – Ben Heppner, Canadian tenor
January 16 – Martin Jol, Dutch football manager
January 17 – Paul Young, English musician
January 18 – Tom Bailey, English musician
January 20 – Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst
January 21 – Geena Davis, American actress
January 24 – Lounès Matoub, Algerian Berber Kabyle singer
January 25 – Bronwyn Pike, Australian politician
January 27 – Mimi Rogers, American actress
January 31 – Johnny Rotten, British punk musician and TV personality
February 1 – Mike Kitchen, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
February 3
* Nathan Lane, American actor (The Birdcage)
* Lee Ranaldo, American musician (Sonic Youth)
February 6 – Jon Walmsley, British actor (The Waltons)
February 11
* Didier Lockwood, French jazz violinist
* Catherine Hickland, American actress
February 13
* Yiannis Kouros, Greek-Australian ultramarathoner
* Paul Stojanovich, American television producer
February 14 – Tom Burlinson, Australian actor
February 15 – Desmond Haynes, West Indian cricketer
February 18 – Thomas Gradin, Swedish hockey player
February 19
* Kathleen Beller, American actress
* Roderick MacKinnon, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
February 24
* Judith Butler, American philosopher
* Paula Zahn, American television journalist (CBS News)
February 25 – Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer (d. 1995)
February 26 – Keisuke Kuwata, Japanese musician
February 29
* Bob Speller, Canadian politician
* Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)
* Mike Compton, American mandolinist
March 1 – Tim Daly, American actor
March 2 – Eduardo Rodríguez, former President of Bolivia
March 5
* Teena Marie, American singer (d. 2010)
* Marco Paolini, Italian stage actor, dramaturge and author
March 7 – Bryan Cranston, American actor
March 11 – Rob Paulsen, American voice actor
March 13 – Dana Delany, American actress
March 16 – Vladimír Godár, Slovak composer
March 18 – Ingemar Stenmark, Swedish alpine skier
March 19 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician
March 20 – Catherine Ashton, British politician
March 21
* Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner
* José Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister of Portugal
* Win Lyovarin, Thai author
March 24 – Steve Ballmer, American CEO of Microsoft
March 28
* Susan Ershler, American mountaineer
* Evelin Jahl, German athlete
March 30 – Shahla Sherkat, Iranian feminist journalist
April 3
* Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (d. 1996)
* Boris Miljković, Serbian TV & theatre director and video artist
April 4
* Kerry Chikarovski, Australian politician
* David E. Kelley, American writer and television producer
April 5 – Diamond Dallas Page, American professional wrestler
April 6
* Sebastian Spreng, American-Argentinean visual artist
* Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer
April 12
* Andy García, Cuban-American actor
* Yasuo Tanaka, Japanese politician, novelist
April 13 – Possum Bourne, New Zealand rally car driver (d. 2003)
April 14 – Barbara Bonney, American soprano
April 16
* David McDowell Brown, American astronaut (Columbia Disaster) (d. 2003)
* Lise-Marie Morerod, Swiss skier
April 18
* John James, American actor (Dynasty)
* Melody Thomas Scott, American actress
April 19 – Sue Barker, British tennis player and television presenter
April 21 – Phillip Longman, American demographer
April 26 – Koo Stark, British actress
April 28 – Jimmy Barnes, Australian musician
April 30 – Lars von Trier, Danish film director
May 1 – Alexander Ivanov, Russian-born American chess Grandmaster
May 4
* David Guterson, American writer
* Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper
May 6 – Vladimir Lisin, Russian business oligarch
May 7
* Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
* Jean Lapierre, Canadian politician and television host
May 10 – Vladislav Nikolayevich Listyev, Russian journalist (d. 1995)
May 12 – Greg Phillinganes, American keyboardist
May 13
* Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian guru
* Kenneth Eriksson, Swedish rally driver
May 15 – Dan Patrick, American sports commentator
May 17
* Sugar Ray Leonard, African American boxer
* Bob Saget, American actor and television host
May 18 – Jim Moginie, Australian rock guitarist (Midnight Oil)
May 20 – Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Norwegian author
May 23
* Buck Showalter, American baseball player and manager
* Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician
May 24 – Michael Jackson, Irish Anglican bishop
May 26 – Lisa Niemi, American actress and dancer, widow of Patrick Swayze
May 28 – Jerry Douglas, American dobro player
May 29 – La Toya Jackson, American singer
June 3 – George Burley, Scottish football manager
June 5 – Kenny G, American grammy-award winning saxophonist
June 6 – Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player
June 8 - Udo Bullmann, German politician
June 9 – Patricia Cornwell, American novelist
June 10 – Duke Georg Borwin of Mecklenburg, German head of the House of Mecklenburg
June 11 – Joe Montana, American football player
June 14 – King Diamond, Danish heavy metal musician
June 15 – Robin Curtis, American actress
June 20 – Cho Chikun, Korean professional Go player
June 23 – Randy Jackson, African American musician and talent judge
June 25
* Boris Trajkovski, President of the Republic of Macedonia (d. 2004)
* Anthony Bourdain, American chef, author and television personality
June 26 – Chris Isaak, American musician
June 27 – Heiner Dopp, German field hockey player
June 28 – Noel Mugavin, Australian rules football player
June 30 – Ronald Winans, African American musician (d. 2005)
July 1 – Alan Ruck, American actor
July 2 – Jerry Hall, American model and actress
July 3 – Rick Ducommun, Canadian actor and comedian
July 5 – Sheila Walsh, Scottish Christian artist and former talk-show hostess
July 9 – Tom Hanks, American actor and director
July 11 – Sela Ward, American actress
July 12
* Mel Harris, American actress
* Sandi Patty, American gospel singer
July 14 – Vladimir Kulich, Czech actor
July 15
* Ian Curtis, English rock musician (Joy Division) (d. 1980)
* Barry Melrose, Canadian hockey player, coach, and commentator
* Toshihiko Seko, Japanese long-distance runner
* Joe Satriani, famous guitar virtuoso, current guitarist for Chickenfoot
July 16 – Tony Kushner, American playwright
July 18 – Sheila Aldridge, American singer (The Aldridge Sisters)
July 19 – Yoshiaki Yatsu, Japanese professional wrestler
July 24
* Charlie Crist, American politician
* Pat Finn, American game show host and producer
July 26 – Andy Goldsworthy, British sculptor and photographer
July 30 – Delta Burke, American actress
July 31
* Michael Biehn, American actor
* Deval Patrick, African American Governor of Massachusetts
August 1 – Steve Green, American Christian musician
August 2 – Jim Neidhart, American professional wrestler
August 4 – Gerry Cooney, American former boxer
August 5 – Maureen McCormick, American actress (The Brady Bunch)
August 6 – Stepfanie Kramer, American actress (Hunter)
August 8
* Chris Foreman, English rock guitarist (Madness)
* David Grant, English singer and vocal coach
August 10
* Fred Ottman, American professional wrestler
* Charlie Peacock, American Christian producer, singer-songwriter
August 12 – Bruce Greenwood, Canadian actor
August 14 – Jackée Harry, American actress and television personality
August 17 – Dave Jones, English football manager
August 18
* Kelly Willard, American Christian singer
* Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, American drummer
August 19 – Adam Arkin, American actor
August 20 – Joan Allen, American actress
August 21 – Kim Cattrall, English-born Canadian actress
August 22 – Paul Molitor, American baseball player
August 23 – Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)
August 24 – John Culberson, American politician
August 26 – Mark Mangino, American football coach
August 29 – Mark Morris, American choreographer
August 31 – Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
September 1 – Bernie Wagenblast, American editor and broadcaster
September 2 – Angelo Fusco, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
September 3 – Pat McGeown, Provisional Irish Republican Army member (d. 1996)
September 10 – Johnny Fingers, Irish musician (The Boomtown Rats)
September 11 – Phillip D. Bissett, American politician
September 12
* Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong actor (d. 2003)
* Ricky Rudd, American race car driver
* Walter Woon, law professor and former Nominated Member of Parliament and Attorney-General of Singapore
September 14
* Kostas Karamanlis, Greek politician
* Ray Wilkins, English footballer and coach
September 15 – George Howard, American jazz saxophone musician (d. 1998)
September 16
* David Copperfield, American illusionist
* Sergei Beloglazov, Russian free-style wrestler
September 17 – Brian Andreas, American writer, sculptor, painter, and publisher
September 20
* Gary Cole, American actor
* Debbie Morgan, African-American actress
September 21 – Jack Givens, American basketball player
September 23 - Paolo Rossi, Italian soccer player
September 24 – Gregory Peter Panos, American futurist, writer, inventor, virtual reality expert, human simulation visionary
September 25 – Jamie Hyneman, American television co-host (MythBusters)
September 26 – Linda Hamilton, American actress (The Terminator)
September 29 – Sebastian Coe, British athlete, co-ordinator of the London 2012 Olympic Games
September 30 – Gordon Elliott, British-Australian television personality and talk show host
October 4 – Christoph Waltz, Austrian actor (Inglourious Basterds)
October 8 – Stephanie Zimbalist, American actress (Remington Steele)
October 10 – Amanda Burton, Irish actress
October 11 – Nicanor Duarte, President of Paraguay
October 17 – Mae Jemison, African American astronaut
October 18 – Martina Navratilova, Czech-American tennis player
October 19 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (d. 2003)
October 20 – Danny Boyle, English film director
October 21 – Carrie Fisher, American actress (Star Wars)
October 23 – Dwight Yoakam, American country singer/musician and actor
October 26 – Rita Wilson, American actress and producer
October 27 – Jaq D. Hawkins, British author, occultist and lecturer
October 28 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran
November 8
* Steven Miller, American record producer
* Richard Curtis, English film director, producer and screenwriter
November 10 – Mohsen Badawi, Egyptian entrepreneur, political activist, and writer
November 14 – Avi Cohen, Israeli football player
November 17 – Kelly Ward, American actor
November 18
* Noel Brotherston, Irish footballer (d. 1995)
* Warren Moon, American football player
November 20 – Bo Derek, American actress and model
November 23
* Shane Gould, Australian swimmer
* Nikolay Sidorov, Soviet athlete
November 26 – Dale Jarrett, American race car driver
November 27 – William Fichtner, American actor
November 28 – Lucy Gutteridge, English actress
November 29
* Leo Laporte, American author and television host
* Eric Laakso, American football player
December 5
* Krystian Zimerman, Polish pianist
* Klaus Allofs, German football player
December 6 – Randy Rhoads, American guitarist
December 7 – Larry Bird, American basketball player
December 11 – Lani Brockman, American playwright
December 12
* Johan van der Velde, Dutch cyclist
* Ana Alicia, Mexican actress (Falcon Crest)
December 13 – Majida El Roumi, Lebanese singer
December 14 – Béla Réthy, German sports journalist
December 16 – Duncan Faure, South African musician
December 18 – Ron White, American comedian
December 19 – Masami Akita, Japanese noise musician (also known as Merzbow)
December 23 – Michele Alboreto, Italian race car driver (d. 2001)
December 26 – David Sedaris, American essayist
December 28
* Jimmy Nicholl, Canadian-born footballer
* Nigel Kennedy, English violinist
December 29 – Fred MacAulay, Scottish comedian
December 30
* Patricia Kalember, American actress
* Sheryl Lee Ralph, African American actress
December 31 – Hussein Ahmed Salah, Djiboutian marathon player
Ronan Bennett, Irish writer
Shelagh Rogers, Canadian radio host
Miladin Šobić, Montenegrin singer
Susan Solomon, American atmospheric chemist
January 3
* Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (b. 1864)
* Joseph Wirth, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
January 5 – Mistinguett, French singer (b. 1875)
January 9 – Marion Leonard, American actress (b. 1881)
January 12 – Norman Kerry, American actor (b. 1894)
January 13 – Lyonel Charles Feininger, German painter (b. 1871)
January 14 – Sheila Kaye-Smith, English writer (b. 1887)
January 18 – Konstantin Päts, President of Estonia (b. 1874)
January 21 – Sam Langford, Canadian boxer (b. 1883)
January 24 – Sir Alexander Korda, Hungarian-born film director (b. 1893)
January 27 – Erich Kleiber, German conductor (b. 1890)
January 29 – H. L. Mencken, American writer (b. 1880)
January 31 – A. A. Milne, English author (Winnie The Pooh) (b. 1882)
February 2
* Bob Burns, American comedian (b. 1890)
* Charles Grapewin, American actor (b. 1869)
February 8 – Connie Mack, American baseball executive and manager (b. 1862)
February 10 – Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, British marshal of the Royal Air Force (b. 1873)
February 18 – Gustave Charpentier, French composer (b. 1860)
February 20 – James Cousins, Irish writer (b. 1873)
February 26 – Elsie Janis, American singer and actress (b. 1889)
February 29 – Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines (b. 1890)
March 14 – David Browning, American Olympic diver (b. 1931)
March 17
* Fred Allen, American comedian (b. 1894)
* Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1897)
March 18 – Louis Bromfield, American writer (b. 1896)
March 20
* Fanny Durack, Australian swimmer (b. 1889)
* Wilhelm Miklas, Austrian politician and 3rd President of Austria
March 25 – Robert Newton, English film actor (b. 1905)
March 30 – Edmund Clerihew Bentley, English inventor (b. 1875)
March 31 – Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (b. 1884)
April 6 – Pio Valenzuela, Filipino physician and one of the leaders of the Katipunan (b. 1869)
April 15 – Kathleen Howard, Canadian born American opera singer & character actress (b. 1884)
April 19 – Ernst Robert Curtius, Alsatian philologist (b. 1886)
April 21
* Samuel Gottesman, American pulp-paper merchant (b. 1885)
* Charles MacArthur, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1895)
April 24 – Henry Stephenson, British character actor (b. 1871)
April 26 – Edward Arnold, American actor (b. 1890)
April 29 – Harold Bride, English-born junior radio officer on RMS Titanic (b. 1890)
April 30 – Alben W. Barkley, Vice President of the United States (b. 1877)
May 3 – Peter Watson, English art collector and benefactor (b. 1908)
May 12 – Louis Calhern, American actor (b. 1895)
May 17 – Austin Osman Spare, English magician (b. 1886)
May 18 – Maurice Tate, English cricketer (b. 1895)
May 20
* Max Beerbohm, English theater critic (b. 1872)
* Zoltan Halmay, Hungarian Olympic swimmer (b. 1881)
May 23 – Gustav Suits, Estonian poet (b. 1883)
May 24 – Guy Kibbee, American actor (b. 1882)
May 26 – Al Simmons, American baseball player (b. 1902)
May 29 – Frank Beaurepaire, Australian Olympic swimmer (b. 1891)
May 31 – Diedrich Hermann Westermann, German linguist (b. 1875)
June 2 – Jean Hersholt, Danish actor (b. 1886)
June 4 – Katherine MacDonald, American silent film actress (b. 1891)
June 6 – Margaret Wycherly, English stage & film actress (b. 1881)
June 11 – Ralph Morgan, American actor (b. 1883)
June 17 – Paul Rostock, German official, surgeon, and university professor (b. 1892)
June 22 – Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer, and novelist (b. 1873)
June 23 – Reinhold Glière, Russian composer (b. 1875)
June 26 – Clifford Brown, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1930)
July 7 – Gottfried Benn, German poet (b. 1886)
July 8 – Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet, novelist (b. 1881)
July 10 – Joe Giard, American baseball player (b. 1898)
July 11 - John T. Raulston, Scopes Monkey Trial judge (b. 1868)
July 20 – James Alexander Calder, Canadian politician (b. 1868)
August 2 – Albert Woolson, last surviving Union veteran of the American Civil War (b. 1847)
August 11 – Jackson Pollock, American painter (b. 1912)
August 14
* Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (Threepenny Opera) (b. 1898)
* Konstantin von Neurath, Nazi German diplomat and foreign minister (b. 1873)
August 16 – Béla Lugosi, Hungarian-born film actor (Dracula) (b. 1882)
August 23 – Peaches Browning, American actress (b. 1910)
August 25 – Alfred Kinsey, American sex researcher (b. 1894)
September 11 – Billy Bishop, Canadian pilot (b. 1894)
September 20 – Flora Eldershaw, Australian novelist, critic, and historian (b. 1897)
September 22 – Frederick Soddy, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
September 27 – Babe Zaharias, American athlete and golfer (b. 1911)
September 29 – Anastasio Somoza García, President of Nicaragua (b. 1896)
October 1 – Albert Von Tilzer, American songwriter (b. 1878)
October 2 – George Bancroft, American actor (b. 1882)
October 9 – Marie Doro, American stage & silent film actress (b. 1882)
October 12 – Don Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (b. 1872)
October 17 – Anne Crawford, British actress (b. 1920)
October 19 – Isham Jones, American musician (b. 1894)
October 22 – Hannah Mitchell, English socialist and suffragette (b. 1872)
October 25 – Risto Ryti, 5th President of Finland (b. 1889)
October 26 – Walter Gieseking, French conductor (b. 1895)
November 5 – Art Tatum, American jazz pianist (b. 1909)
November 6 – Paul Kelly, stage & screen actor (b. 1899)
November 10
* Harry F. Sinclair, American entrepreneur (b. 1876)
* Victor Young, American composer (b. 1900)
November 14 – Peter R. de Vries, Dutch crime reporter (b. 1956)
November 19 – Francis L. Sullivan, English actor (b. 1903)
November 22 – Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and actor (b. 1882)
November 24 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (b. 1920)
November 26 – Tommy Dorsey, American trombonist and bandleader (b. 1905)
November 27 – Hugo Ballin, American artist, film production designer, and director (b. 1879)
December 2 – Dell Henderson, Canadian actor (b. 1883)
December 6 – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Indian dalit leader (b. 1891)
December 7 – Huntley Gordon, Canadian actor (b. 1887)
December 10 – David Shimoni, Israeli poet and writer (b. 1891)
December 14 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, 7th President of Finland (b. 1870)
December 16 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (b. 1890)
December 17 – Eddie Acuff, American actor (b. 1903)
December 26 – Holmes Herbert, English actor (b. 1882)
December 30 – Ruth Draper, American actress (b. 1884)
Lotte Herrlich, regarded as the most important female photographer of German naturism
Physics – William Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain
Chemistry – Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Nikolay Semenov
Physiology or Medicine – André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann, Dickinson W. Richards
Literature – Juan Ramón Jiménez
Peace – Not Awarded
1956 Coin Pictures
1956 in History
London Institute of World Affairs, The Year Book of World Affairs 1957 (London 1957) full text online, comprehensive reference book covering 1956 in diplomacy, international affairs and politics for major nations and regions
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zh:1956年
Events
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January–February
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Nobel Prizes
References
Further reading
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Bill Haley |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | William John Clifton Haley |
| Alias | Jack Haley, Johnny Clifton |
| Birth date | July 06, 1925 |
| Died | February 09, 1981, Harlingen Texas |
| Origin | Highland Park, Michigan, United States |
| Genre | Rock and roll, country, rockabilly |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter, musician, bandleader |
| Instrument | Vocals, guitar, slap bass |
| Years active | 1946–1980 |
| Label | Cowboy, Atlantic, Keystone, Center, Holiday, Essex, Decca, Warner Bros. Records, Orfeón, Dimsa, Newtown, Guest Star, Logo, APT, Gone, United Artists, Roulette, Sonet, Buddah, Antic, Arzee |
| Associated acts | Bill Haley & His Comets, The Down Homers }} |
Bill Haley (; July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981) was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".
Biography
Early life and career
Bill Haley was born in Highland Park, Michigan. Because of the effects of the Great Depression on the Detroit area, his father moved the family to Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, near the town of Chester, when Bill was seven years old. Haley's father played the banjo, and his mother was a technically accomplished keyboardist with classical training. Haley told the story that when he made a simulated guitar out of cardboard, his parents bought him a real one.The anonymous sleeve notes accompanying the 1956 Decca album "Rock Around The Clock" describe Haley's early life and career thus: "Bill got his first professional job at the age of 13, playing and entertaining at an auction for the fee of $1 a night. Very soon after this he formed a group of equally enthusiastic youngsters and managed to get quite a few local bookings for his band."
The sleeve notes continue: "When Bill Haley was fifteen [c.1940] he left home with his guitar and very little else and set out on the hard road to fame and fortune. The next few years, continuing this story in a fairy-tale manner, were hard and poverty stricken, but cramful of useful experience. Apart from learning how to exist on one meal a day and other artistic exercises, he worked at an open-air park show, sang and yodelled with any band that would have him and worked with a traveling medicine show. Eventually he got a job with a popular group known as the "Down Homers" while they were in Hartford, Connecticut. Soon after this he decided, as all successful people must decide at some time or another, to be his own boss again - and he has been that ever since.’ [Note: these notes fail to account for his early band, known as the Four Aces of Western Swing. They later changed their name to avoid confusion with the pop vocal group the Four Aces].
The sleeve notes conclude: "For six years Bill Haley was a musical director of Radio Station WPWA in Chester, Pennsylvania, and led his own band all through this period. It was then known as Bill Haley's Saddlemen, indicating their definite leaning toward the tough Western style. They continued playing in clubs as well as over the radio around Philadelphia, and in 1951 made their first recordings."
Bill Haley & His Comets
During the Labor Day weekend in 1952, The Saddlemen were renamed Bill Haley with Haley's Comets (inspired by a popular mispronunciation of Halley's Comet), and in 1953, Haley's recording of "Crazy Man, Crazy" (co-written by Haley and his bass player, Marshall Lytle although Lytle would not receive credit until 2001) became the first rock and roll song to hit the American charts, peaking at no.15 on Billboard and no.11 on Cash Box. Soon after, the band's name was revised to Bill Haley & His Comets.In 1953, a song called "Rock Around the Clock" was written for Haley. He was unable to record it until April 12, 1954. Initially, it was relatively unsuccessful, staying at the charts for only one week, but Haley soon scored a major worldwide hit with a cover version of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll", which went on to sell a million copies and became the first ever rock 'n' roll song to enter British singles charts in December 1954 and became a Gold Record. He retained elements of the original, but threw some country music aspects in to the song (specifically, Western Swing) and cleaned up the lyrics. Haley and his band were important in launching the music known as "Rock and Roll" to a wider, mostly white audience after years of it being considered an underground genre. When "Rock Around the Clock" appeared behind the opening credits of the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, it soared to the top of the American Billboard chart for eight weeks. The single is commonly used as a convenient line of demarcation between the "rock era" and the music industry that preceded it; Billboard separated its statistical tabulations into 1890-1954 and 1955–present. After the record rose to number one, Haley was quickly given the title "Father of Rock and Roll," by the media, and by teenagers that had come to embrace the new style of music.
"Rock Around the Clock" was the first record ever to sell over one million copies in both Britain and Germany and, in 1957, Haley became the first major American rock singer to tour Europe. Haley continued to score hits throughout the 1950s such as "See You Later, Alligator" and he starred in the first rock and roll musical movies Rock Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Rock, both in 1956. Haley was soon eclipsed in the United States by the younger, sexier Elvis, but continued to enjoy great popularity in Latin America, Europe, and Australia through the 1960s.
Death and legacy
A self-admitted alcoholic (as indicated in a 1974 radio interview for the BBC), Haley fought a battle with alcohol into the 1970s. Nonetheless, he and his band continued to be a popular touring act, enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1960s with the Rock and roll revival movement and the signing of a lucrative record deal with the European Sonet Records label. After performing for Queen Elizabeth II at a command performance in 1979, Haley made his final performances in South Africa in May and June 1980. Prior to the South African tour, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and a planned tour of Germany in the fall of 1980 was canceled.The October 25, 1980 edition of the German paper Bild reported that Haley had a brain tumor. It quoted British manager Patrick Maylan as saying that Haley "had taken a fit and went over the seat. He didn't recognize anyone anymore" after being taken to his home in Beverly Hills. It also reported that a doctor at the clinic where Haley had been taken said, "The tumor can't be operated on anymore."
"The Berliner Zeitung" reported a few days later that Haley had collapsed after a performance in Texas and been taken to the hospital in his home town of Harlingen, Texas.
Despite his ill health, Haley began compiling notes for possible use as a basis for either a biographical film based on his life, or a published autobiography (accounts differ), and there were plans for him to record an album in Memphis, Tennessee, when the brain tumor began affecting his behavior and he went back to his home in Harlingen, Texas, where he died early in the morning of February 9, 1981.
Martha, Bill's wife who was with him in these troubling times, denies he had a brain tumor as does his old, very close friend, Hugh McCallum. Martha and friends related that Bill did not want to go on the road any more and that ticket sales for that planned tour of Germany in the fall of 1980 were slow. According to McCallum, "It's my unproven gut feeling that that [the brain tumor] was said to curtail talks about the tour and play the sympathy card."
It was obvious that his drinking problem was getting worse. According to Martha, by this time she and Bill fought all the time and she told him to stop drinking or move out so he moved out into a room in their pool house. Martha still took care of him and sometimes he would come in the house to eat, but he ate very little. "There were days we never saw him," said his daughter Martha Maria.
In addition to the drinking problems, it had become obvious that he also was having serious mental problems; Martha Maria said that, "It was like sometimes he was drunk even when he wasn't drinking." After having been jailed by the Harlingen Police, Martha had the judge put Haley in the hospital where he was seen by a psychiatrist who said Bill's brain was overproducing a chemical, like adrenaline. The doctor prescribed a medication to stop the overproduction but said Bill would have to stop drinking. Martha said, "This is pointless." She took him home, however, fed him and gave him his first dose. As soon as he felt better, he went back out the his room in the pool house and the downward spiral continued until his death.
Haley's death certificate listed "Natural causes: Most likely heart attack" as the 'Immediate Cause' of death. The next lines, 'Due to, or as a consequence Of" were blank.
Haley made a succession of bizarre, mostly monologue late-night phone calls to friends and relatives in which he seemed incoherently drunk or ill. Haley's first wife has been quoted as saying, "He would call and ramble and dwell on the past, his mind was really warped." A belligerent phone call to a business associate was taped and gives evidence of Haley's troubled state of mind.
Media reports immediately following his death indicated Haley displayed deranged and erratic behavior in his final weeks, although beyond a biography of Haley by John Swenson, released a year later, which described Haley painting the windows of his home black, there is little information extant about Haley's final days.
Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Songwriters Tom Russell and Dave Alvin addressed Haley's demise in musical terms with "Haley's Comet" on Alvin's 1991 album Blue Blvd. Dwight Yoakam sang backup on the tribute.
Haley's original Comets still tour the world. They released a concert DVD in 2004 on Hydra Records, played the Viper Room in West Hollywood in 2005, and performed at Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Missouri in 2006-07.
In March 2007, the Original Comets pre-opened the Bill Haley Museum in Munich, Germany. On October 27, 2007, ex-Comets guitar player Bill Turner opened the Bill Haley Museum for the public.
Asteroid
:Main article - 79896 BillhaleyIn February 2006, the International Astronomical Union announced the naming of asteroid 79896 Billhaley to mark the 25th anniversary of Bill Haley's death.
Children
Married three times, Bill Haley had at least eight children. John W. Haley, his eldest son, wrote Sound and Glory, a biography of Haley, while his youngest daughter, Gina Haley, is a professional musician based in Texas. Scott Haley is an athlete, while Haley's youngest son, Pedro Haley, is also a musician.He also had a daughter, Martha Maria, from his last marriage with Martha Velasco.
Bill Haley Jr. (Haley's second son and first with Joan Barbara "Cuppy" Haley-Hahn) publishes a regional business magazine in Southeastern Pennsylvania (Route 422 Business Advisor). He sings and plays guitar with a band called "Lager Rhythms," and appeared with the "Original Comets" at the Bubba Mac Shack in Somers Point, New Jersey, in 2004 and 2005, and at the Twin Bar re-dedication ceremony in Gloucester City, New Jersey, in 2007. He is currently writing a biography about his father, concentrating on the years 1949-61.
Biographies
Film portrayals
Unlike his contemporaries, Bill Haley has rarely been portrayed on screen. Following the success of The Buddy Holly Story in 1978, Haley expressed interest in having his life story committed to film, but this never came to fruition. In the 1980s and early 1990s, numerous media reports emerged that plans were underway to do a biopic based upon Haley's life, with Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges and John Ritter all at one point being mentioned as actors in line to play Haley (according to Goldmine Magazine, Ritter attempted to buy the film rights to Sound and Glory).Bill Haley has also been portrayed - not always in a positive light - in several "period" films:
In March 2005, the British network Sky TV reported that Tom Hanks was planning to produce a biopic on the life of Bill Haley, with production tentatively scheduled to begin in 2006. However this rumor was quickly debunked by Hanks.
Discography
Prior to the formation of Bill Haley and the Saddlemen, which later became The Comets, Haley released several singles with other groups. Dates are approximate due to lack of documentation.As Bill Haley and the Four Aces of Western Swing
1948
As Johnny Clifton and His String Band
1949 or 1950
Many Haley discographies list two 1946 recordings by the Down Homers released on the Vogue Records label as featuring Haley. Haley historian Chris Gardner, as well as surviving members of the group, have confirmed that the two singles: "Out Where the West Winds Blow"/"Who's Gonna Kiss You When I'm Gone" (Vogue R736) and "Boogie Woogie Yodel"/"Baby I Found Out All About You" (Vogue R786) do not feature Haley. However, the tracks were nonetheless included in the compilation box set Rock 'n' Roll Arrives released by Bear Family Records in 2006.
:See the discography section of Bill Haley & His Comets for a list of the singles and album releases made by Haley with the Saddlemen and the Comets from 1950 onwards.
Unreleased recordings
Bill Haley recorded prolifically during the 1940s, often at the radio stations where he worked, or in formal studio settings. Virtually none of these recordings was ever released. Liner notes for a 2003 CD release by Hydra Records entitled Bill Haley and Friends Vol. 2: The Legendary Cowboy Recordings reveal that several additional Cowboy label single releases were planned for the Four Aces, but this never occurred.A number of previously unreleased Haley country-western recordings from the 1946-1950 period began to emerge near the end of Haley's life, some of which were released by the Arzee label, with titles such as "Yodel Your Blues Away" and "Rose of My Heart." Still more demos, alternate takes, and wholly unheard-before recordings have been released since Haley's death. Notable examples of such releases include the albums Golden Country Origins by Grassroots Records of Australia and Hillbilly Haley by the British label, Rollercoaster, as well as the aforementioned German release by Hydra Records. In 2006, Bear Family Records of Germany released what is considered to be the most comprehensive (yet still incomplete) collection of Haley's 1946-1950 recordings as part of its Haley box set Rock n' Roll Arrives.
Compositions
Bill Haley's compositions included "Four Leaf Clover Blues", "Crazy Man, Crazy", "What'Cha Gonna Do", "Fractured", "Live It Up", "Farewell, So Long, Goodbye", "Real Rock Drive", "Rocking Chair on the Moon", "Sundown Boogie", "Birth Of The Boogie", "Two Hound Dogs", "Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie", "Hot Dog Buddy Buddy", "R-O-C-K", "Rudy's Rock", "Calling All Comets", "Tonight's the Night", "Hook, Line and Sinker", "Sway with Me", "Paper Boy (On Main Street U.S.A.)", "Skinny Minnie", "B.B. Betty", "Eloise", "Whoa Mabel!", "Vive la Rock and Roll", "So Right Toight", "Football Rock and Roll", and "Chick Safari". He also wrote or co-wrote songs for other artists such as "Calypso Rock" for Dave Day and The Red Coats on Kapp in 1956, "A.B.C. Rock" and "Rocky the Rockin' Rabbit" for Sally Starr on Arcade, and "(Ya Gotta) Sing For The Ladies" and "Butterfly Love" for Ginger Shannon and Johnny Montana in 1960 on Arcade as well as the unissued "I'm Shook" in 1958.
Quotations
NME - October 1955NME - January 1957
References
Other sources
External links
Category:1925 births Category:1981 deaths Category:People from Highland Park, Michigan Category:Bill Haley & His Comets members Category:American radio personalities Category:American rock singers Category:Bandleaders Category:Musicians from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Category:People from Harlingen, Texas Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductees Category:American bandleaders Category:Decca Records artists Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Songwriters from Michigan
bg:Бил Хейли cs:Bill Haley cy:Bill Haley da:Bill Haley de:Bill Haley et:Bill Haley el:Μπιλ Χάλεϊ es:Bill Haley eo:Bill Haley fr:Bill Haley ga:Bill Haley gl:Bill Haley hr:Bill Haley io:Bill Haley id:Bill Haley it:Bill Haley he:ביל היילי hu:Bill Haley nl:Bill Haley ja:ビル・ヘイリー no:Bill Haley nn:Bill Haley oc:Bill Haley pl:Bill Haley pt:Bill Haley ro:Bill Haley ru:Хейли, Билл fi:Bill Haley sv:Bill Haley th:บิล เฮลีย์ tr:Bill HaleyThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | Yu Dafu |
|---|---|
| birth date | December 07, 1896 |
| birth place | Fuyang, Zhejiang, China |
| death date | September 17, 1945 |
| occupation | Short Story writer and Poet |
| website | }} |
Early years
Yu Dafu's father died at when he was only three, leaving the family poverty-stricken and destitute. He received a number of scholarships through the Chinese government and went on to receive a traditional Chinese education in Hangzhou. Chronologically he studied in Jiangxing-Fu Middle School (before he came to Hangzhou), Hangzhou-Fu Middle School, Yuying Academy (育英学堂, formerly of Zhejiang University).In 1912, he entered Hangchow University (later its major part merged into Zhejiang University) preparatory through examination. He was there only for a short period before he was expelled for participation in a student strike.
He then moved to Japan, where he studied economics at the Tokyo Imperial University between 1913 and 1922, where he met other Chinese intellectuals (namely, Guo Moruo, Zhang Ziping and Tian Han). Together, in 1921 they founded the Chuangzao she 創造社 ("Creation Society"), which promoted vernacular and modern literature. One of his earlier works Chenlun 沉淪, also his most famous, published in Japan in 1921. The work had gained immense popularity in China, shocking the world of Chinese literature with its frank dealing with sex, as well as grievances directed at the incompetence of Chinese government at the time.
In 1922, he returned to China as a literary celebrity and worked as the editor of Creation Quarterly, editing journals and writing short stories. In 1923, after an attack of tuberculosis, Yu Dafu directed his attention to the welfare of the masses.
In 1927, he worked as an editor of the Hongshui literary magazine. He later came in conflict with the Communist Party of China and fled back to Japan.
Second Sino-Japanese war
After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese war, he returned to China and worked as a writer of anti-Japanese propaganda in Hangzhou, and later in Zhejiang. From 1938 to 1942, he worked as a literary editor for the newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh in Singapore.In 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Singapore, he was forced to flee to Sumatra. Known under a different identity, he settled there among other overseas Chinese and began a brewery business with the help of the locals. Later he was forced to help the Japanese military police as an interpreter when it was discovered that he was one of the few "locals" in the area who could speak Japanese.
In 1945, he was arrested by the Kempeitai when his true identity was finally discovered. It is believed that he was executed by the Japanese shortly after the surrender of Japan.
Works
His most popular work, breaking all Chinese sales records, was Jih-chi chiu-chung "Nine Diaries", which detailed his affair with the writer Wang Ying-hsin. The most critically acclaimed work is Kuo-ch'u or "The Past", written in 1927.
References
External links
Category:1896 births Category:1945 deaths Category:Chinese expatriates in Japan Category:Hangzhou High School alumni Category:People from Hangzhou Category:Republic of China poets Category:University of Tokyo alumni Category:Zhejiang University alumni
de:Yu Dafu es:Yu Dafu fr:Yu Dafu it:Yu Dafu no:Yu Dafu zh:郁達夫This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | Gerry Mulligan |
|---|---|
| background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| birth name | Gerald Joseph Mulligan |
| alias | Jeru |
| birth date | April 06, 1927 |
| death date | January 20, 1996 |
| origin | Queens Village, Queens, New York, United States |
| instrument | Baritone saxophone, clarinet, piano |
| genre | Jazz, cool jazz |
| occupation | Saxophonist |
| associated acts | Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Lee Konitz, Paul Desmond, Billy Taylor, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck, Bob Brookmeyer |
| notable instruments | }} |
Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also a notable arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. Mulligan's pianoless quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the more important cool jazz groups. Mulligan was also a skilled pianist and played several other reed instruments. Mulligan reportedly had a relationship with actress Judy Holliday until she died in 1965, and with actress Sandy Dennis from 1965 until they broke up in 1976.
Biography
Early life and career
Gerry Mulligan was born in Queens Village, Queens, New York, the son of George and Louise Mulligan. His father was a Wilmington, Delaware native of Irish descent; his mother a Philadelphia native of half Irish and half German descent. Gerry was the last of four sons: George, Phil, Don and Gerry.George Mulligan's career as an engineer necessitated frequent moves through numerous cities. When Gerry was less than a year old, the family moved to Marion, Ohio, where his father accepted a job with the Marion Power Shovel Company.
With the demands of a large home and four young boys to raise, Mulligan's mother hired an African-American nanny named Lily Rose, who became especially fond of the youngest Mulligan. As he became older, Mulligan began spending time at Rose's house and was especially amused by Rose's player piano, which Mulligan later recalled as having rolls by numerous players, including Fats Waller. Black musicians sometimes came through town, and because many motels wouldn't take them, they often had to stay at homes within the black community. The young Mulligan occasionally met such musicians staying at Rose's home.
The family's moves continued with stops in southern New Jersey (where Mulligan lived with his maternal grandmother), Chicago, Illinois, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Mulligan lived for three years and attended Catholic school. When the school moved into a new building and established music courses, Mulligan decided to play clarinet in the school's nascent orchestra. Mulligan made an attempt at arranging with the Richard Rodgers song "Lover", but the arrangement was seized prior to its first reading by an overzealous nun who was taken aback by the title on the arrangement.
When Gerry Mulligan was 14, his family moved to Detroit and then to Reading, Pennsylvania. While in Reading, Mulligan began studying clarinet with dance-band musician Sammy Correnti, who also encouraged Mulligan's interest in arranging. Mulligan also began playing saxophone professionally in dance bands in Philadelphia, an hour and a half or so away.
The Mulligan family next moved to Philadelphia, where Gerry attended the West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys and organized a school big band, for which he also wrote arrangements. When Mulligan was sixteen, he approached Johnny Warrington at local radio station WCAU about writing arrangements for the station's house band. Warrington was impressed and began buying Mulligan's arrangements.
Mulligan dropped out of high school during his senior year to pursue work with a touring band. He contacted bandleader Tommy Tucker when Tucker was visiting Philadelphia's Earle Theatre. While Tucker did not need an additional reedman, he was looking for an arranger and Mulligan was hired at $100 a week to do two or three arrangements a week (including all copying). At the conclusion of Mulligan's three-month contract, Tucker told Mulligan that he should move on to another band that was a little less "tame". Mulligan went back to Philadelphia and began writing for Elliot Lawrence, a pianist and composer who had taken over for Warrington as the band leader at WCAU.
Mulligan moved to New York City in January 1946 and joined the arranging staff on Gene Krupa's bop-tinged band. Notable arrangements of Mulligan's work with Krupa include "Birdhouse", "Disc Jockey Jump" and an arrangement of "How High the Moon" that quoted Charlie Parker's "Ornithology" as a countermelody.
Mulligan next began arranging for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, occasionally sitting in as a member of the reed section. Thornhill's arranging staff included Gil Evans, whom Mulligan had met while working with the Krupa band. Mulligan eventually began living with Evans, at the time that Evans' apartment on West 55th Street became a regular hangout for a number of jazz musicians working on creating a new jazz idiom.
Birth of the Cool
In September 1948, Miles Davis formed a nine-piece band that featured arrangements by Mulligan, Evans and John Lewis. The band initially consisted of Davis on trumpet, Mulligan on baritone saxophone, trombonist Mike Zwerin, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, Junior Collins on French horn, tubist Bill Barber, pianist John Lewis, bassist Al McKibbon and drummer Max Roach.The band only played a handful of live performances (a two week engagement at the Royal Roost jazz club and two nights at the Clique Club). However, over the next couple of years, Davis reformed the nonet on three occasions to record twelve pieces for release as singles. These were eventually compiled on a Capitol Records album, titled Birth of the Cool. Mulligan wrote and arranged three of the tunes recorded ("Rocker," "Venus de Milo," and "Jeru," the latter named after himself), and arranged a further three ("Deception," "Godchild," and "Darn That Dream").
He was also (with Davis, Konitz and Barber) one of only four musicians who played on all the recordings. Despite the chilly reception by audiences of 1949, the Davis nonet has been judged by history as one of the most influential groups in jazz history, creating a sound that, despite its East Coast origins, became known as West Coast Jazz.
During his period of occasional work with the Davis nonet between 1949 and 1951, Mulligan also regularly performed with and arranged for trombonist Kai Winding. Mulligan's composition "Elevation" and his arrangement of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" were recorded by Mulligan's old boss, Elliott Lawrence. This brought Mulligan additional recognition. Mulligan also arranged for and recorded with bands led by Georgie Auld and Chubby Jackson.
In September, 1951, Mulligan recorded the first album under his own name, Mulligan Plays Mulligan. By this point, he had mastered a melodic and linear playing style, inspired by Lester Young, that he would retain for the rest of his career.
In the spring of 1952, Mulligan became more desperate for remunerative employment and headed west to Los Angeles with his girlfriend, pianist Gail Madden. Through an acquaintance with arranger Bob Graettinger, Mulligan started writing arrangements for Stan Kenton's Orchestra. While most of Mulligan's work for Kenton were pedestrian arrangements that Kenton needed to fill out money-making dance performances, Mulligan was able to throw in some more substantial original works along the way. His compositions "Walking Shoes" and "Young Blood" stand out as embodiments of the contrapuntal style that became Mulligan's signature. His sound or tone (timbre) was likened to a tweed cloth.
The Pianoless Quartet with Chet Baker
While arranging for Kenton, Mulligan began performing on off-nights at The Haig, a small jazz club on Wilshire Boulevard at Kenmore Street. During the Monday night jam sessions, a young trumpeter named Chet Baker began sitting in with Mulligan. Mulligan and Baker began recording together, although they were unsatisfied with the results. Around that time, vibraphonist Red Norvo's trio began headlining at The Haig, thus leaving no need to keep the grand piano that had been brought in for Erroll Garner's stay at the club.Faced with a dilemma of what to do for a rhythm section, Mulligan decided to build on earlier experiments and perform as a pianoless quartet with Baker on trumpet, Bob Whitlock on bass and Chico Hamilton on drums (later Mulligan himself would occasionally double on piano). Baker's melodic style fit well with Mulligan's, leading them to create improvised contrapuntal textures free from the rigid confines of a piano-enforced chordal structure. While novel at the time in sound and style, this ethos of contrapuntal group improvisation hearkened back to the formative days of jazz. Despite their very different backgrounds, Mulligan a classically-trained New Yorker and Baker from Oklahoma and a much more instinctive player, they had an almost psychic rapport and Mulligan later remarked that, "I had never experienced anything like that before and not really since." Their dates at the Haig became sell-outs and the recordings they made in the fall of 1952 became major sellers that led to significant acclaim for Mulligan and Baker.
This fortuitous collaboration came to an abrupt end with Mulligan's arrest on narcotics charges in mid-1953 that led to six months at Sheriff's Honor Farm. Both Mulligan and Baker had followed the example of their peers and became heroin addicts. However, while Mulligan was in prison, Baker transformed his lyrical trumpet style, gentle tenor voice and matinee-idol looks into independent stardom. Thus when upon his release Mulligan attempted to rehire Baker, the trumpeter declined the offer for financial reasons. They did briefly reunite at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival and would occasionally get together for performances and recordings up through a 1974 performance at Carnegie Hall. But in later years their relationship became strained as Mulligan, with considerable effort, would manage to kick his habit, while Baker's addiction would bedevil him professionally and personally almost constantly until his death in 1988.
Middle career
Mulligan continued the quartet format with valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer replacing Baker, although Mulligan and Brookmeyer both occasionally played piano. This quartet structure remained the core of Mulligan's groups throughout the rest of the 1950s with sporadic personnel changes and expansions of the group with trumpeters Jon Eardley and Art Farmer, saxophonists Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Lee Konitz, and vocalist Annie Ross. In 1957, Mulligan and his wife, Arlyne Brown Mulligan (daughter of composer Lew Brown), had a son, Reed Brown Mulligan.Mulligan also studied Piano with Suezenne Fordham, who was a member of the inner circle of Jazz players in NY. She was sought out by jazz musicians of the era to coach them to improve their piano technique. She and Mulligan also had a personal relationship from 1966 through 1972.
Mulligan also performed as a soloist or sideman (often in festival settings) with a veritable Who's Who of late 50s jazz artists: Paul Desmond, Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Jimmy Witherspoon, André Previn, Billie Holiday, Marian McPartland, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Thelonious Monk, Fletcher Henderson, Manny Albam, Quincy Jones, Kai Winding, Miles Davis, and Dave Brubeck. Mulligan appears in Art Kane's celebrated A Great Day in Harlem portrait of 57 major jazz musicians taken in August 1958.
Mulligan formed his first "Concert Jazz Band" in the Spring of 1960. Partly an attempt to revisit the ornate arrangements of big band music in a smaller setting, the band varied in size and personnel, with the core group being six brass, five reeds (including Mulligan) and a pianoless two-piece rhythm section. The membership included (at various times, among others): trumpeters Conte Candoli, Nick Travis, Clark Terry, Don Ferrara, Al Derisi, Thad Jones and Doc Severinsen, saxophonists Zoot Sims Jimmy Ryder, Gene Allen, Bobby Donovan, Phil Woods and Gene Quill, trombonists Willie Dennis, Alan Raph and Bob Brookmeyer, drummers Mel Lewis and Gus Johnson, and bassists Buddy Clark and Bill Crow. The band also recorded an album of songs sung by Gerry's close friend Judy Holliday in 1961. The band toured and recorded extensively through the end of 1964, ultimately producing five albums for Verve records.
Mulligan resumed work with small groups in 1962 and appeared with other groups sporadically (notably in festival situations). Mulligan would continue to work intermittently in small group settings until the end of his life, although performing dates started to become more infrequent during the mid '60s. After Dave Brubeck's quartet broke up in 1967, Mulligan began appearing regularly with Brubeck as the "Gerry Mulligan / Dave Brubeck Quartet" through 1973. Thereafter, Mulligan and Brubeck would work together sporadically until the final year of Mulligan's life.
In 1971, Mulligan created his most significant work for big band in over a decade for the album The Age of Steam. At various times in the 70's he performed with Charles Mingus. The Concert Jazz Band was "reformed" in 1978 and toured at various times through the '80s.
Orchestral work
Mulligan, like many jazz musicians of his era, occasionally recorded with strings. Notable dates include 1957 recordings with Vinnie Burke's String Jazz Quartet, a 1959 orchestra album with André Previn and a 1965 album of the Gerry Mulligan Quintet and Strings. In 1974, Mulligan collaborated with famed Argentine musician Ástor Piazzolla. While in Milan for the recording sessions, Mulligan met his future wife, Countess Franca Rota Borghini Baldovinetti, a freelance photojournalist and reporter. In 1975, Mulligan recorded a string album with Italian composer Enrico Intra.Mulligan's more serious work with orchestra began in May 1970 with a performance of Dave Brubeck's oratorio, The Light in the Wilderness with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Symphony.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Mulligan worked to build and promote a repertoire of baritone saxophone music for orchestra. In 1973, Mulligan commissioned composer Frank Proto to write a Saxophone Concerto that was premiered with the Cincinnati Symphony. In 1977, the Canadian Broadcasting Company commissioned Harry Freedman to write the saxophone concerto Celebration which was performed by Mulligan with the CBC Symphony. In 1982, Zubin Mehta invited Mulligan to play soprano saxophone in a New York Philharmonic performance of Ravel's Bolero.
In 1984, Mulligan commissioned Harry Freedman to write The Sax Chronicles which was an arrangement of some of Mulligan's melodies in pastiche styles. In April of that year, Mulligan was a soloist with the New American Orchestra in Los Angeles for the premier of Patrick Williams' Spring Wings.
In June 1984, Mulligan completed and performed his first orchestral commission, Entente for Baritone Saxophone and Orchestra, with the Filarmonia Venetia. In October, Mulligan performed Entente and The Sax Chronicles with the London Symphony Orchestra.
In 1987, Mulligan adapted K-4 Pacific (from his 1971 Age of Steam big band recording) for quartet with orchestra and performed it beside Entente with the Israel Philharmonic in Tel Aviv with Zubin Mehta conducting. Mulligan's orchestral appearances at the time also included the Houston Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic.
1988 saw the premier of Mulligan's Octet for Sea Cliff a chamber work commissioned by the Sea Cliff Chamber Players. In 1991 the Concordia Orchestra premiered Momo's Clock, a work for orchestra (without saxophone solo) that was inspired by a book by German author Michael Ende.
Later career
Throughout Mulligan's orchestral work and until the end of his life, Mulligan maintained an active career performing and recording jazz - usually with a quartet that included a piano.In June 1988, Mulligan was invited to be the first-ever Composer-in-Residence at the Glasgow International Jazz Festival and was commissioned to write a work, which he entitled The Flying Scotsman. In 1991, Mulligan contacted Miles Davis about revisiting the music from the germane 1949 Birth of the Cool album. Davis had recently performed some of his Gil Evans collaborations with Quincy Jones at the Montreux Jazz Festival and was enthusiastic. However, Davis died from a stroke in September and Mulligan continued the recording project and tour with Wallace Roney and Art Farmer subbing for Davis. Re-Birth of the Cool (released in 1992) featured the charts from Birth of the Cool, and a new nonet which included Lewis and Barber from the original Davis band. Mulligan appeared at the Brecon Jazz Festival 1991. Mulligan's final recording was a quartet album (with guests), Dragonfly, recorded in the Summer of 1995 and released on the Telarc label. Mulligan gave his final performance on the 13th Annual Floating Jazz Festival, SS Norway, Caribbean Cruise, November 9, 1995.
Mulligan died in Darien, Connecticut on January 20, 1996 at the age of 68 following complications from knee surgery. His widow Franca — to whom he had been married since 1976 — said he had also been suffering from liver cancer. Upon Mulligan's death, his library and numerous personal effects (including a gold-plated Conn baritone saxophone) were given to the Library of Congress. 'The Gerry Mulligan Collection' is open to registered public researchers in the library's Performing Arts Research Center. The library placed Mulligan's saxophone on permanent exhibit in early 2009.
Theatre and film
Mulligan's first film appearance was probably with Gene Krupa's orchestra playing alto saxophone in the 1946 RKO short film Follow That Music. Mulligan had small roles in the films I Want to Live! (1958 - as a jazz combo member), The Rat Race (1960 - in which he appears as a tenor saxophonist instead of playing his usual baritone sax), The Subterraneans (1960) and Bells Are Ringing (1960). Mulligan also performed numerous times on television in a variety of settings during his career.As a film composer, Mulligan wrote music for A Thousand Clowns (1965 - title theme) the film version of the Broadway comedy Luv (1967), the French films La Menace (1977) and Les Petites galères (1977 - with Ástor Piazzolla) and I'm Not Rappaport (1996 - title theme).
In 1974 Mulligan collaborated on a musical version of Anita Loos' play Happy Birthday. Although the creative team had great hopes for the work, it never made it past a workshop production at the University of Alabama. In 1978, Mulligan wrote incidental music for Dale Wasserman's Broadway play Play with Fire.
In 1995 the Hal Leonard Corporation released the video tape The Gerry Mulligan Workshop - A Master Class on Jazz and Its Legendary Players.
Awards
Discography
As leader
As sideman
With Miles Davis
References
External links
Category:Jazz baritone saxophonists Category:1927 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Cool jazz saxophonists Category:Cool jazz arrangers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American jazz baritone saxophonists Category:American jazz composers Category:Deaths from liver cancer Category:People from Queens Category:Deaths from surgical complications Category:Cancer deaths in Connecticut Category:Verve Records artists Category:GRP Records artists Category:Prestige Records artists
an:Gerry Mulligan bg:Джери Мълиган ca:Gerry Mulligan cs:Gerry Mulligan da:Gerry Mulligan de:Gerry Mulligan et:Gerry Mulligan es:Gerry Mulligan eo:Gerry Mulligan fa:جری مالیگن fr:Gerry Mulligan it:Gerry Mulligan he:ג'רי מאליגן nl:Gerry Mulligan ja:ジェリー・マリガン no:Gerry Mulligan nds:Gerry Mulligan pl:Gerry Mulligan pt:Gerry Mulligan ru:Маллигэн, Джерри sv:Gerry MulliganThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Harry Belafonte |
|---|---|
| Born | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Harold George Belafonete Jr. |
| Years active | 1949–2003 |
| Label | RCA Victor CBS EMI Island |
| Genre | Calypso, vocal, folk |
| Occupation | Actor, activist, singer }} |
Early life
Born Harold George Belafonte, Jr., at Lying-in Hospital, New York City, New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (née Love) – a housekeeper (of Jamaican descent) – and Harold George Belafonete, Sr., a Martiniquan who worked as chef in the Royal Navy. From 1932 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York City he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. At the end of the 1940s he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac.''
Music career
Belafonte started his career in music as a club singer in New York to pay for his acting classes. The first time he appeared in front of an audience he was backed by the Charlie Parker band, which included Charlie Parker himself, Max Roach and Miles Davis, among others. At first he was a pop singer, launching his recording career on the Roost label in 1949, but later he developed a keen interest in folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress' American folk songs archives. With guitarist and friend Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard. In 1952 he received a contract with RCA Victor.
Calypso
His first widely–released single, which went on to become his "signature" song with audience participation in virtually all his live performances, was "Matilda," recorded April 27, 1953. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) became the first LP to sell over 1 million copies (Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons," both singles, had previously surpassed that mark). The album is number four on Billboard's "Top 100 Album" list for having spent 31 weeks at number 1, 58 weeks in the top ten, and 99 weeks on the U.S. charts. The album introduced American audiences to Calypso music (which had originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 20th century) and Belafonte was dubbed the "King of Calypso," a title he wore with reservations, since he had no claims to any Calypso Monarch titles.One of the songs included in the album is the now famous "Banana Boat Song" (listed as "Day O" on the original release), which reached number five on the pop charts, and featured its signature lyric "Day–O." Belafonte based his version on a 1954 recording by Jamaican folk singer Louise Bennett. His other smash hit was "Jump in the Line."
Many of the compositions recorded for Calypso, including "Banana Boat Song" and "Jamaica Farewell," gave songwriting credit to Irving Burgie, Belafonte and his team but were really previously recorded Jamaican mento songs sold as calypso. The original Jamaican versions can now be heard on the "Jamaica—Mento1951–1958" CD released in 2010.
Middle career
While primarily known for Calypso, Belafonte has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. His second–most popular hit, which came immediately after "The Banana Boat Song," was the novelty tune "Mama Look at Bubu," also known as "Mama Look a Boo–Boo" (originally recorded by Lord Melody in 1956), in which he sings humorously about misbehaving and disrespectful children. It reached number eleven on the pop chart.In 1959 he starred in Tonight With Belafonte, a nationally televised special that featured Odetta, who sang Water Boy and who performed a duet with Belafonte of There's a Hole in My Bucket that hit the national charts in 1961. Belafonte continued to record for RCA through the 1950s to the 1970s. Two live albums, both recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1959 and 1960, enjoyed critical and commercial success. From his 1959 album, Hava Nagila became part of his regular routine and one of his signature songs. He was one of many entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the inaugural gala of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. That same year he released his second calypso album, Jump Up Calypso, which went on to become another million seller. During the 1960s he introduced several artists to American audiences, most notably South African singer Miriam Makeba and Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. His album Midnight Special (1962) featured the first–ever record appearance by a then young harmonica player named Bob Dylan.
As The Beatles and other stars from Britain began to dominate the U.S. pop charts, Belafonte's commercial success diminished; 1964's Belafonte at The Greek Theatre was his last album to appear in Billboard's Top 40. His last hit single, A Strange Song, was released in 1967 and peaked at number 5 on the Adult contemporary music charts. Belafonte has received Grammy Awards for the albums Swing Dat Hammer (1960) and An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965). The latter album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under Apartheid. He earned six Gold Records.
Later recordings and other activities
Belafonte's recording activity slowed after leaving RCA in the 1970s. From the mid–1970s to early 1980s he spent the greater part of his time touring Japan, Europe, Cuba and elsewhere. His involvement in USA for Africa during the mid–1980s resulted in renewed interest in his music, culminating in a record deal with EMI. He subsequently released his first album of original material in over a decade, Paradise in Gazankulu, in 1988. The album contains ten protest songs against the South African former Apartheid policy and as of 2011 was his last studio album. In the same year Belafonte, as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, attended a symposium in Harare, Zimbabwe to focus attention on child survival and development in Southern African countries. As part of the symposium, he performed a concert for UNICEF. A Kodak video crew filmed the concert, which was released as a 60-minute concert video entitled "Global Carnival." It features many of the songs from the album Paradise in Gazankulu and some of his classic hits. Also in 1988, Tim Burton used "The Banana Boat Song" and "Jump in the Line" in his movie ''Beetlejuice."Following a lengthy recording hiatus, An Evening with Harry Belafonte and Friends, a soundtrack and video of a televised concert were released in 1997 by Island Records. The Long Road to Freedom, An Anthology of Black Music, a huge multi–artist project recorded during the 1960s and 1970s with RCA, was finally released by the label in 2001. The album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Awards for Best Boxed Recording Package, for Best Album Notes and for Best Historical Album.
Belafonte was the first African–American to win an Emmy, with his first solo TV special Tonight with Belafonte (1959). During the 1960s he appeared on TV specials alongside such artists as Julie Andrews, Petula Clark, Lena Horne and Nana Mouskouri. He was also a guest star on a memorable episode of The Muppet Show in 1978, in which he performed his signature song "Day–O" on television for the first time. The episode is best known for Belafonte's rendition of the spiritual song, "Turn the World Around," which he performed with Muppets that resembled African tribal masks. It became one of the series' most famous performances. It was reportedly Jim Henson's favorite episode, and Belafonte reprised the song at Henson's memorial in 1990. "Turn the World Around" was also included in the 2005 official hymnal supplement of the Unitarian Universalist Association, "Singing the Journey."
Belafonte received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994 and he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. He performed sell–out concerts globally through the 1950s to the 2000s. Due to illness he was forced to cancel a reunion tour with Nana Mouskouri planned for the spring and summer of 2003 following a tour in Europe. His last concert was a benefit concert for the Atlanta Opera on October 25, 2003. In a 2007 interview he stated that he had since retired from performing.
Film career
Belafonte has starred in several films. His first film role was in Bright Road (1953), in which he appeared alongside Dorothy Dandridge. The two subsequently starred in Otto Preminger's hit musical Carmen Jones (1954). Ironically, Belafonte's singing in the film was dubbed by an opera singer, as Belafonte's own singing voice was seen as unsuitable for the role. Using his star clout, Belafonte was subsequently able to realize several then–controversial film roles. In 1957's Island in the Sun, there are hints of an affair between Belafonte's character and the character played by Joan Fontaine. The film also starred James Mason, Dandridge, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie and John Justin. In 1959, he starred in and produced Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow, in which he plays a bank robber uncomfortably teamed with a racist partner (Robert Ryan). He also co–starred with Inger Stevens in The World, the Flesh and the Devil. Belafonte was offered the role of Porgy in Preminger's Porgy and Bess, where he would have once again starred opposite Dandridge, but he refused the role because he objected to its racial stereotyping.Dissatisfied with the film roles available to him, he returned to music during the 1960s. In the early 1970s Belafonte appeared in more films among which are two with Poitier: Buck and the Preacher (1972) and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). In 1984 Belafonte produced and scored the musical film Beat Street, dealing with the rise of hip-hop culture. Together with Arthur Baker, he produced the gold-certified soundtrack of the same name. Belafonte next starred in a major film again in the mid-1990s, appearing with John Travolta in the race–reverse drama White Man's Burden (1995); and in Robert Altman's jazz age drama Kansas City (1996), the latter of which garnered him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in the TV drama Swing Vote (1999). In late 2006, Belafonte appeared in the role of Nelson, a friend of an employee of the Ambassador Hotel played by Anthony Hopkins, in Bobby, Emilio Estevez's ensemble drama about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
Personal life
Family
Belafonte and Marguerite Byrd were married from 1948 to 1957. They have two daughters: Adrienne and Shari. Shari Belafonte, married to Sam Behrens, is a photographer, model, singer and actor. In 1997 Adrienne Biesemeyer and her daughter Rachel Blue founded the Anir Foundation/Experience. Anir focuses on humanitarian work in southern Africa.On March 8, 1957, Belafonte married second wife Julie Robinson (former dancer with the Katherine Dunham Company). They had two children, David and Gina Belafonte. David Belafonte (a former model and actor) is an Emmy-winning producer and the executive director of the family-held company Belafonte Enterprises Inc. A music producer, he has been involved in most of Belafonte's albums and tours. He married Danish model, singer and TV personality Malena Belafonte, born Mathiesen, who won silver in Dancing with the Stars in Denmark in 2009. Malena Belafonte founded Speyer Legacy School, an award winning private elementary school for gifted and talented children. David and Malena's daughter Sarafina attended this school. Gina Belafonte is a TV and film actress and worked with her father as coach and producer on more than six films. Gina helped found The Gathering For Justice, an intergenerational, intercultural non-profit organization working to reintroduce nonviolence to stop child incarceration. She is married to actor Scott McCray.
In April 2008, Belafonte married Pamela Frank. Belafonte lived in a 17-room apartment at 300 West End Avenue (corner of 74th Street) in New York City for 50 years. In 2007 he sold his fifth-floor apartment to Abigail Disney for ten million eight hundred thousand dollars. In October 1998 Belafonte contributed a letter to Liv Ullmann's book Letter to My Grandchild.
Political and humanitarian activism
Belafonte's political beliefs were greatly inspired by the singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson, who mentored him. Robeson was a controversial figure who supported the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. Robeson opposed not only racial prejudice in the United States, but also western colonialism in Africa. Belafonte's success did not protect him from racial discrimination, particularly in the American South. Belafonte refused to perform there from 1954 until 1961. In 1960 he appeared in a campaign commercial for Democratic Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. Kennedy later named Belafonte cultural advisor to the Peace Corps.Belafonte gave the keynote address at the ACLU of Northern California's annual Bill of Rights Day Celebration In December 2007 and was awarded the Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival featured the documentary film "Sing Your Song," a biographical film focusing on Belafonte's contribution to and his leadership in the civil rights movement in America and his endeavours to promote social justice globally.
Civil rights activist
Belafonte supported the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and was one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s confidants. He provided for King's family, since King made only $8,000 a year as a preacher. Like many other civil rights activists, Belafonte was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. He bailed King out of the Birmingham City Jail and raised thousands of dollars to release other civil rights protesters. He financed the Freedom Rides, supported voter registration drives, and helped to organize the March on Washington in 1963.During "Freedom Summer" in 1964 Belafonte bankrolled the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, flying to Mississippi that August with $60,000 in cash and entertaining crowds in Greenwood. In 1968 Belafonte appeared on a Petula Clark primetime television special on NBC. In the middle of a song, Clark smiled and briefly touched Belafonte's arm, which made the show's sponsor, Plymouth Motors, nervous. Plymouth wanted to cut the segment, but Clark, who had ownership of the special, told NBC that the performance would be shown intact or she would not allow the special to be aired at all. Newspapers reported the controversy, and when the special aired it grabbed high ratings. Belafonte appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and performed a controversial "Mardi Gras" number with footage intercut from the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. CBS censors deleted the segment.
Humanitarian activist
In 1985, he helped organize the Grammy Award winning song "We Are the World," a multi-artist effort to raise funds for Africa. He performed in the Live Aid concert that same year. In 1987 he received an appointment to UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador. Following his appointment Belafonte traveled to Dakar, Senegal, where he served as chairman of the International Symposium of Artists and Intellectuals for African Children. He also helped to raise funds—alongside more than 20 other artists—in the largest concert ever held in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1994 he went on a mission to Rwanda and launched a media campaign to raise awareness of the needs of Rwandan children.In 2001 he went to South Africa to support the campaign against HIV/AIDS. In 2002 Africare awarded him the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award for his efforts to assist Africa. In 2004 Belafonte went to Kenya to stress the importance of educating children in the region. Belafonte has been involved in prostate cancer advocacy since 1996, when he was diagnosed and successfully treated for the disease. On June 27, 2006, Belafonte was the recipient of the BET Humanitarian Award at the 2006 BET Awards. He was named one of nine 2006 Impact Award recipients by AARP The Magazine.
On October 19, 2007, Belafonte represented UNICEF on Norwegian television to support the annual telethon (TV Aksjonen) in support of that charity and helped raise a world record of $10 per inhabitant of Norway. Belafonte was also an ambassador for the Bahamas. He is on the board of directors of the Advancement Project.
Political activist
Belafonte has been a longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy. He began making controversial political statements on this subject in the early 1980s. He has at various times made statements opposing the U.S. embargo on Cuba; praising Soviet peace initiatives; attacking the U.S. invasion of Grenada; praising the Abraham Lincoln Brigade; honoring Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and praising Fidel Castro. Belafonte is additionally known for his visit to Cuba which helped ensure hip-hop’s place in Cuban society. According to Geoffrey Baker’s article “Hip hop, Revolucion! Nationalizing Rap in Cuba,” in 1999 Belafonte met with representatives of the rap community immediately before meeting with Fidel Castro. This meeting resulted in Castro’s personal approval of (and hence the government’s involvement in), the incorporation of rap into his country’s culture. In a 2003 interview Belafonte reflected upon this meeting’s influence:“When I went back to Havana a couple years later, the people in the hip-hop community came to see me and we hung out for a bit. They thanked me profusely and I said, 'Why?' and they said, 'Because your little conversation with Fidel and the Minister of Culture on hip-hop led to there being a special division within the ministry and we've got our own studio'."
Belafonte was active in the anti–Apartheid movement. He was the Master of Ceremonies at a reception honoringAfrican National Congress President Oliver Tambo at Roosevelt House, Hunter College, in New York City. The reception was held by the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) and The Africa Fund. He is a current board member of the TransAfrica Forum and the Institute for Policy Studies.
In December 2007 he endorsed John Edwards for the 2008 Presidential Election.
Opposition to the George W. Bush Administration
Belafonte achieved widespread attention for his political views in 2002 when he began making a series of comments about President George W. Bush, his administration and the Iraq War. During an interview with Ted Leitner for San Diego's 760 KFMB, in October 2002 Belafonte referred to a quote made by Malcolm X. Belafonte said:
Belafonte used the quote to characterize former United States Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both African-Americans. Powell and Rice both responded, with Powell calling the remarks "unfortunate" and Rice saying "I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black."
thumb|Harry Belafonte at the 61st Berlin International Film FestivalThe comment was brought up again in an interview with Amy Goodman for Democracy Now! in 2006. In January 2006, Belafonte led a delegation of activists including actor Danny Glover and activist/professor Cornel West to meet with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez. In 2005 Chávez, an outspoken Bush critic, initiated a program to provide cheaper heating oil for poor people in several areas of the United States. Belafonte supported this initiative. Belafonte was quoted as saying, during the meeting with Chávez, "No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people support your revolution." Belafonte and Glover met again with Chávez in 2006. The comment ignited a great deal of controversy. Hillary Clinton refused to acknowledge Belafonte's presence at an awards ceremony that featured both of them. AARP, which had just named him one of its 10 Impact Award honorees 2006, released this statement following the remarks: "AARP does not condone the manner and tone which he has chosen and finds his comments completely unacceptable." During a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech at Duke University in 2006 Belafonte compared the American government to the 9/11 hijackers, saying, "What is the difference between that terrorist and other terrorists?" In response to criticism about his remarks Belafonte asked, "What do you call Bush when the war he put us in to date has killed almost as many Americans as died on 9/11 and the number of Americans wounded in war is almost triple? [...] By most definitions Bush can be considered a terrorist." When he was asked about his expectation of criticism for his remarks on the war in Iraq, Belafonte responded: "Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy."
In another interview Belafonte remarked that while his comments may have been "hasty," nevertheless he felt the Bush administration suffered from "arrogance wedded to ignorance" and its policies around the world were "morally bankrupt." In January 2006, in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference, Belafonte referred to "the new Gestapo of Homeland Security" saying, "You can be arrested and have no right to counsel!" During the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day speech at the Duke University in January 2006 Belafonte said that if he could choose his epitaph it would be, "Harry Belafonte, Patriot."
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Category:American anti-war activists Category:American folk singers Category:People from Manhattan Category:American socialists Category:International opponents of apartheid in South Africa Category:Calypsonians Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:American musicians of Jamaican descent Category:People of Martiniquais descent Category:World music musicians Category:Jubilee Records artists Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Tony Award winners Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:1927 births Category:Living people
an:Harry Belafonte bg:Хари Белафонте cy:Harry Belafonte da:Harry Belafonte de:Harry Belafonte et:Harry Belafonte es:Harry Belafonte fa:هری بلافونته fr:Harry Belafonte gl:Harry Belafonte hr:Harry Belafonte io:Harry Belafonte id:Harry Belafonte is:Harry Belafonte it:Harry Belafonte he:הארי בלפונטה hu:Harry Belafonte ml:ഹാരി ബെലാഫൊണ്ടെ nl:Harry Belafonte ja:ハリー・ベラフォンテ no:Harry Belafonte oc:Harry Belafonte pl:Harry Belafonte pt:Harry Belafonte ru:Белафонте, Гарри simple:Harry Belafonte fi:Harry Belafonte sv:Harry Belafonte tr:Harry BelafonteThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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