March 11 - Laurence Olivier\'s film, Richard III, adapted from Shakespeare\'s play, premieres in the U.S. in theatres and on NBC television on the same day, as an afternoon matinee. It is one of the first such experiments of its kind. Olivier is later nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
April 14 - Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago by Ampex. It was the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as 2" Quadruplex.
Constitutional union between Indonesia and Netherlands is dissolved. John Osborne\'s Look Back in Anger opened at the Royal Court Theatre, changing the scope of theatrical and other forms of drama in England.
May 9 - First ascent of Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world.
May 18 - First ascent of Lhotse (main), fourth highest mountain.
June 3 - British Rail renamed \'Third Class\' passenger facilities as \'Second Class\' (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).
June 6 - In Singapore, chief minister David Marshall resigns after breakdown of talks about internal self government in London.
July 31 - Cricket: Jim Laker sets extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test of taking nineteen wickets in a first class match (the previous best was seventeen).
August 6 - After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network has its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena.
December 9 - Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 crashes into a mountain in British Columbia. All 62 people on board die, making this one of the worst airline crashes in the world at that date.
