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1956

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1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1956th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 956th year of the 2nd millennium, the 56th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1950s decade.

Events[edit]

January[edit]

• January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years.
• January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are killed for trespassing by the Huaorani peopleofEcuador, 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 Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

February[edit]

• February 2 – Austria and Israel establish diplomatic relations.
• February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union, after being missing for 5 years.
• February 14–25 – The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held in Moscow.
• February 16 – The 1956 World Figure Skating Championships open in Garmisch, West Germany.^[1]
• 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.^[2]
• 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, in a speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", at a secret session concluding the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This is not officially made public in the Soviet Union at this time but becomes known in the West in June.

March[edit]

• 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.^[3]
• March 9
  • The British deport Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus to the Seychelles.
  • The Soviet Armed Forces suppress mass demonstrations in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, reacting to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy.
• March 10 – The Fairey Delta 2 breaks the World Air Speed Record, raising it to 1,132 mph (1,822 km/h) or Mach 1.73, an increase of some 300 mph (480 km/h) over the previous record, and thus becoming the first aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h) in level flight.
• 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-TV on the same day. On television it is not shown in prime time, but as an afternoon matinée, in a slightly cut version, one of the first such experiments. 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.
• March 13 – Elvis Presley releases his first gold album titled Elvis Presley in the United States.
• 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 in Los Angeles. Marty is awarded Best Picture.
• March 23 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, and a national holiday is observed in the country, including the state of East Pakistan.

April[edit]

• April 2 – The first episodes of As the World Turns and The Edge of Night are broadcast on the CBS Television Network in the United States.
• April 7 – Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco.
• April 9 – Habib Bourguiba is elected President of the National Constituent Assembly of the Kingdom of Tunisia; on April 15 he becomes Prime Minister.^[4]
• April 14 – Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (modern-day NAB) convention in Chicago by Ampex. It is the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as 2" Quadruplex.
• April 18 – Maria Desylla-Kapodistria is elected mayorofCorfu, becoming the first female mayor in Greece.
• April 19
  • British diver Lionel (Buster) Crabb (working for MI6) dives into Portsmouth Harbour, to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser, and vanishes.
  • American actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.
  • The 5.0 M_w  1956 Atarfe-Albolote earthquake strikes southern Spain killing 12 and injuring dozens more.
• 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[edit]

• May 1 – Minamata disease is discovered in Japan.
• 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.
  • Violet Gibson, who attempted to assassinate Mussolini in 1926, dies in a mental hospital in England, after a lifetime of imprisonment.
• May 8 – The constitutional union between Indonesia and the Netherlands is dissolved.
• May 9 – Manaslu, eighth highest mountain in the world (in the Nepalese Himalayas) is first ascended, by a Japanese team.
• May 18 – Lhotse main summit, the fourth highest mountain (on the Nepalese–Tibetan border) is first ascended, by Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss.
• May 22 – The NBC Peacock logo debuts on television in the United States.
• 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 the host country's RefrainbyLys Assia (music by Géo Voumard, lyrics by Émile Gardaz).
• May 25 – India announces the institution of diplomatic relations with Francoist Spain.

June[edit]

• June 1 – Vyacheslav Molotov resigns as foreign minister of the Soviet Union; he later becomes ambassadortoMongolia.
• June 4 – Montgomery bus boycott: The related civil suit^[5] is heard in federal district court; the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the ruling in November.
• June 5
  • The text of Nikita Khrushchev's February attack on Stalin's reputation, "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", is first published in the West, in The New York Times.
  • Elvis Presley performs "Hound Dog" on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the American television 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", the first snooze alarm clock ever.^[6]
• June 10 – 1956 Summer Olympics: Equestrian events open in Stockholm, Sweden (all other events are held in November in Melbourne, Australia).
• June 13
  • The International Criminal Police Organization adopts Interpol as its official name.
  • Real Madrid beats Stade Reims 4–3 at Parc des Princes, Paris and wins the 1955–56 European Cup (football).
• June 14 – The Flag of the United States Army is formally dedicated.^[7]
• June 15 – Eindhoven University of Technology is founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
• June 18 – The last British troops leave Egypt.
• June 21 – Playwright Arthur Miller appears before the House Un-American Activities CommitteeinWashington, D.C.
• June 23 – Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes the 2nd president of Egypt, a post he holds until his death in 1970.
• June 28
  • Poznań 1956 protests: Labour riots in Poznań, Poland, are crushed with heavy loss of life. Soviet troops fire at a crowd protesting high prices, killing 53 people.
  • 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. It becomes the most financially successful film version of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical up to this time, and the only one to win an acting Oscar (Yul Brynner wins Best Actor for his performance as the King of Siam). It is also one of two Rodgers and Hammerstein films to be nominated for Best Picture (which it does not win).
• June 29
  • Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller, in White Plains, New York.
  • President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the Interstate Highway System in the United States.
• June 30 – 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision: A TWA Lockheed Constellation and United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collide in mid-air over the Grand CanyoninArizona, 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[edit]

• July 2 – A laboratory experiment involving scrap thorium at Sylvania Electric Products in Bayside, New York, results in an explosion.
• July 4 – An American Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft makes its first flight over the Soviet Union.
• July 8 – The mountain Gasherbrum II, on the border of Pakistan and China, is first ascended, by an Austrian expedition.
• July 9 – The 7.7 M_w  Amorgos earthquake shakes the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shaking and the subsequent tsunami leave 53 people dead.
• July 10 – The British House of Lords defeats the abolition of the death penalty.
• July 13 – John McCarthy (Dartmouth), Marvin Minsky (MIT), Claude Shannon (Bell Labs) and Nathaniel Rochester (IBM) assemble the first coordinated research meeting on the topic of artificial intelligence, at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States.
• 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 nightclub, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together (their act started on July 25, 1946).
• July 25 – The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SSStockholm in heavy fog 72 kilometers (45 mi) south of Nantucket island, killing 51.
• July 26 – Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation.
• July 30 – A joint resolutionofCongress 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).
  • Luzhniki Stadium, well known sports venue of Russia and the Soviet Union, officially opens in Moscow.^[8]

August[edit]

• August 6 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network airs its final broadcast, an episode of its sports series Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena.
• August 7 – Seven ammunition trucks loaded with 1,053 boxes of dynamite explode in Cali, Colombia. Death estimates range from 1,300 to 10,000, in a city that at this time has 120,000 inhabitants.^[9]
• August 8 – 262 miners (chiefly Italian nationals) die in a fire at the Bois du Cazier coal mine, in Marcinelle, Belgium.
• August 9 – Art exhibition This Is Tomorrow opens at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.
• August 12 – Around 5,000 members of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church hold a mass outside Cluj-Napoca Piarists' Church to demonstrate that their church, proscribed by the government in 1948, has not ceased to exist as the regime claims.
• August 17 – West Germany bans the Communist Party of Germany.
• The first interfaith dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims with over 850 participants takes place at the monastery of ToumlilineinAzrou, Morocco.^[10]

September[edit]

• September 9 – Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States for the first time.
• September 13
  • The hard disk drive is invented by an IBM team, led by Reynold B. Johnson.
  • The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed.
• September 16 – Television broadcasting in Australia commences.
• September 21 – Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García is assassinated.
• September 25 – The submarine transatlantic telephone cable opens.
• September 27 – The Bell X-2 becomes the first crewed aircraft to reach Mach 3.

October[edit]

• October 5 – Cecil B. DeMille's epic film The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton HestonasMoses, is released in the United States. It will be in the top ten of the worldwide list of highest-grossing films of all time, adjusted for inflation.^[11]
• October 8 – Baseball pitcher Don Larsen of the New York Yankees throws the only perfect gameinWorld Series history, in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yogi Berra catches the game. Dale Mitchell is the final out. The New York Yankees win the series in seven games. Larsen is named series MVP.
• October 10
  • Finland joins UNESCO.
  • The prototype Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the final Lockheed Constellation model, makes its first flight.
• October 14 – In India:
  • Indira Kala Sangeet University, Khairagarh, is inaugurated by Indira Gandhi.
  • Dalit Buddhist movement: B. R. Ambedkar, Dalit leader, converts to Buddhism, along with 385,000 followers.
• October 15 – The British Royal Air Force retires its last Avro Lancaster bomber.
• October 17
  • The world's first industrial-scale commercial nuclear power plant is opened at Calder Hall in England.^[12]
  • The Game of the Century (chess): 13-year-old Bobby Fischer beats grandmaster Donald Byrne, in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament in New York City.
• October 19 – The Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 is signed in Moscow, ending the legal state of war between the Soviet Union and Japan (with effect from December 12) and making possible the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two nations.^[13]
• October 22 – Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom, France, and Israel secretly meet in Sèvres and make plans to invade Egypt.
• October 23 – The Hungarian Revolution breaks out against the pro-Soviet government, originating as a student demonstration in Budapest. Hungary attempts to leave the Warsaw Pact.
• October 26 – Soviet Red Army troops invade Hungary.
• October 29
  • Suez Crisis: Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula and pushes Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.
  • Tangier Protocol: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.
  • The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuts on NBC-TV in the United States.
• October 31
  • Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.
  • AUnited States Navy team becomes the third group to reach the South Pole (arriving by air), and commences construction of the first permanent Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station.

November[edit]

• November 1
  • The States Reorganisation Act of India reforms the boundaries and names of Indian states. Three new states, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, are formed.
  • City Lights BookstoreinSan Francisco publishes Howl and Other PoemsbyAllen Ginsberg, a key work of the Beat Generation.
  • The film Oklahoma! (1955), previously released to select cities in Todd-AO, now receives a U.S. national release in CinemaScope, since not all theatres are yet equipped for Todd-AO. To accomplish this, the film has actually been shot twice, rather than printing one version in two different film processes, as is later done.
• November 3
  • Khan Yunis massacre (Suez Crisis): Israeli soldiers shoot dead hundreds of Palestinian refugees and local inhabitants in Khan Yunis Camp.
  • MGM's film The Wizard of Oz is the first major Hollywood film running more than 90 minutes to be televised uncut in one evening, in the United States.
• November 4 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956: More Soviet troops invade Hungary, to crush the revolt that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter million leave the country.
• November 6 – 1956 United States presidential election: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democratic challenger Adlai 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 11 – Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Last insurgents succumb to the invading Soviet army.^[14]
• November 12 – Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations.
• November 13 – Browder v. Gayle: The United States Supreme Court declares illegal the state and municipal laws requiring segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama, thus ending the Montgomery bus boycott.
• November 14 – An eight-mile long stretch of highway is opened west of Topeka, Kansas, creating the first portion of the Interstate Highway System in the United States and the first highway to be completed with funds from the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.^[15]
• November 15 – Middle East Technical University is founded in Ankara, Turkey.
• November 18 – At a reception for Western ambassadors at the Polish embassy in Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev utters his famous phrase "We will bury you".
• November 20 – In Yugoslavia, former prime minister Milovan Đilas 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.^[16]
• November 25 – Fidel Castro and Che Guevara depart from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, en route to Santiago de Cuba aboard the yacht Granma, with 82 men.
• November 30 – African-American Floyd Patterson wins the world heavyweight boxing championship that is vacant after the retirement of Rocky Marciano.

December[edit]

• December 2
  • Fidel Castro and his followers land in Cuba, from the yacht Granma.
  • Apipe bomb planted by George Metesky explodes at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, injuring 6 people.
• December 3 – The 1956 Bush Terminal explosion occurs in Brooklyn, United States.
• December 4 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio, for the first and last time in history.
• December 9 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes into Slesse Mountain near Chilliwack, British Columbia. All 62 people aboard, including five Canadian Football League players, are killed.
• December 12 – Japan becomes a member of the United Nations.
• December 18 – To Tell the Truth debuts on CBS-TV in the United States.
• December 19 – British doctor John Bodkin Adams is arrested for the murder of 2 patients in Eastbourne, England; he will be acquitted.
• December 23 – British and French troops leave the Suez Canal region.
• December 31 – Bob Barker makes his television debut, as host of the game show Truth or Consequences in the United States.

Date unknown[edit]

• Asian flu pandemic originates in China.
• The Alpine Club of Canada, Toronto section, is founded.

Births[edit]

January[edit]

• January 1
  • Mark R. Hughes, American entrepreneur (d. 2000)
  • Kōji Yakusho, Japanese actor
  • Christine Lagarde, French lawyer and politician, IMF Managing Director and ECB president
  • Dzulkefly Ahmad, Malaysian politician
  • Andrew Lesnie, Australian cinematographer (d. 2015)
  • Andy Gill, English musician (Gang of Four) (d. 2020)
• January 3
  • Mel Gibson, American actor and director
  • Tomiko Suzuki, Japanese voice actress (d. 2003)
• January 4 – Bernard Sumner, British musician
• January 5
  • Ana Pessoa Pinto, East Timorese politician and jurist
  • Celso Blues Boy, Brazilian singer and guitarist (d. 2012)
  • Chen Kenichi, Japan-born Chinese chef
  • Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German politician
• January 7
  • David Caruso, American actor
  • Uwe Ochsenknecht, German actor
  • Johnny Owen, Welsh boxer (d. 1980)
• January 9
  • Kimberly Beck, American actress
  • Imelda Staunton, English actress^[17]
• January 12 – Nikolai Noskov, Soviet and Russian rock singer and songwriter
• January 15 – Vitaly Kaloyev, Russian convicted murderer, architect deputy minister of construction of North Ossetia-Alania
• January 16 – Martin Jol, Dutch football manager
• January 17 – Paul Young, English musician
• January 18
  • Tom Bailey, English musician
  • Sharon Mitchell, American sexologist
  • Jim Mothersbaugh, American rock drummer
• January 19 – Adriana Acosta, Argentine militant and field hockey player (d. 1978)
• January 20 – Bill Maher, American actor, comedian and political analyst
• January 21
  • Robby Benson, American actor, voice actor, director, singer and educator
  • Geena Davis, American actress
• January 24 – Lounès Matoub, Algerian Berber Kabyle singer (d. 1998)
• January 25 – Bronwyn Pike, Australian politician
• January 26 – Pat Musick, American voice actress
• January 27
  • Susanne Blakeslee, American actress
  • Mimi Rogers, American actress
• January 28 – Peter Schilling, German singer
• January 29
  • Jan Jakub Kolski, Polish film director
  • Irlene Mandrell, American musician, actress
• January 30 – Keiichi Tsuchiya, Japanese race car driver
• January 31
  • John Lydon, British punk musician and TV personality
  • Trevor Manuel, South African politician

February[edit]

• February 1 – Mike Kitchen, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• February 2
  • Philip Franks, English actor and director
  • Alireza Soleimani, Iranian heavyweight freestyle wrestler (d. 2014)
• February 3
  • Nathan Lane, American actor
  • Lee Ranaldo, American musician
• February 10 – Enele Sopoaga, 12th Prime Minister of Tuvalu
• February 11
  • Didier Lockwood, French jazz violinist (d. 2018)
  • Catherine Hickland, American actress
• February 13
  • Peter Hook, British bass player
  • Yiannis Kouros, Greek-Australian ultra marathoner
  • Jay Nixon, 55th Governor of Missouri
  • 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
  • Dave Wakeling, English musician
• February 20 – François Bréda, Romanian essayist, poet, literary critic, literary historian, translator and theatrologist (d. 2018)
• February 23
  • Reinhold Beckmann, German television presenter
  • Paul O'Neill, American composer, record producer (d. 2017)
• February 24
  • Judith Butler, American philosopher
  • Paula Zahn, American television journalist
• February 25
  • Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer (d. 1995)
  • Michel Friedman, German lawyer, politician and talk show host
• February 26 – Keisuke Kuwata, Japanese musician
• February 28 – Thomas Remengesau Jr., 7th and 9th President of Palau
• February 29
  • Mike Compton, American mandolinist
  • Bob Speller, Canadian politician
  • Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (d. 2002)

March[edit]

• March 1
  • Tim Daly, American actor and producer
  • Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania^[18]
• March 2 – Eduardo Rodríguez, President of Bolivia
• March 5
  • Teena Marie, American singer (d. 2010)
  • Marco Paolini, Italian stage actor, dramaturge and author
• March 7
  • Andrea Levy, English novelist (d. 2019)^[19]
  • Bryan Cranston, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
• March 9
  • Kadyrzhan Batyrov, Kyrgyz businessman and politician (d. 2018)
  • Shashi Tharoor, Indian politician
• March 11 – Rob Paulsen, American voice actor and singer
• March 12 – Steve Harris, English musician and songwriter (Iron Maiden)
• March 13 – Dana Delany, American actress
• March 16
  • Boaz Arad, Israeli visual artist (d. 2018)
  • Vladimír Godár, Slovak composer
• March 18 – Ingemar Stenmark, Swedish alpine skier
• March 19 – Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist and politician (d. 2009)^[20]
• March 20
  • Minken Fosheim, Norwegian actress and author (d. 2018)
  • Catherine Ashton, British politician
  • Naoto Takenaka, Japanese actor, comedian, singer and director
  • José Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister of Portugal
  • Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian runner
  • Win Lyovarin, Thai author
• March 22
  • Tyrone Brunson, American singer (d. 2013)
  • Ilana Kloss, South-African born tennis player, tennis coach, and commissioner of World Team Tennis^[21]
  • Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, consort of Grand Duke Henri^[22]
• March 24 – Steve Ballmer, American businessman, CEO of Microsoft (2000–2014), owner of the Los Angeles Clippers
• March 25 – Matthew Garber, English child actor (d. 1977)
• March 28
  • Susan Ershler, American mountaineer
  • Evelin Jahl, German athlete
• March 29 – Evie, American Christian musician
• March 30
• Shahla Sherkat, Iranian feminist journalist
• Paul Reiser, American actor

April[edit]

• April 3
  • Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (d. 1996)
  • Miguel Bosé, Panamanian-born musician and actor
  • 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
  • El Risitas, Spanish comedian and actor (d. 2021)^[23]
• April 6
  • Sebastian Spreng, American-Argentinean visual artist
  • Dilip Vengsarkar, Indian cricketer
• April 7 – Christopher Darden, African-American attorney, author, actor and lecturer^[24]
• April 9 – Edmund Chong Ket Wah, Malaysian politician (d. 2010)
• April 12
  • Andy García, Cuban-American actor
  • Herbert Grönemeyer, German musician and 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 M. Brown, American astronaut (d. 2003)
  • Lise-Marie Morerod, Swiss skier
• April 18
  • John James, American actor
  • Melody Thomas Scott, American actress
  • Karim Abdul Razak, Ghanaian footballer
  • Eric Roberts, American actor
• April 19 – Sue Barker, British tennis player and television presenter
• April 21 – Phillip Longman, American demographer
• April 22 – Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Finnish conductor
• April 23 – Greg Colson, American artist
• April 26 – Koo Stark, British actress
• April 27 – Bryan Harvey, American musician (d. 2006)
• April 28 – Hanka Paldum, Bosnian singer
• April 30 – Lars von Trier, Danish film director and screenwriter

May[edit]

• May 1 – Alexander Ivanov, Russian-born American chess grandmaster
• May 4
  • David Guterson, American writer
  • Ulrike Meyfarth, German high jumper
• May 5 – Lisa Eilbacher, American actress
• May 6 – Vladimir Lisin, Russian business oligarch
• May 7
  • S. Scott Bullock, American actor and voice actor
  • Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (2002–2010)
  • Jean Lapierre, Canadian politician and television host (d. 2016)
• May 9
  • Frank Andersson, Swedish wrestler (d. 2018)
  • Wendy Crewson, Canadian actress
• May 10
  • Vladislav Listyev, Russian journalist (d. 1995)
  • Paige O'Hara, American actress, voice actress, singer and painter
  • Bikenibeu Paeniu, 2-Time Prime Minister of Tuvalu
• May 12 – Jānis Bojārs, Latvian shot putter (d. 2018)
• May 13
  • Kenneth Eriksson, Swedish rally driver
  • Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian guru
  • Mirek Topolánek, 7th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
  • Kirk Thornton, American voice actor
• May 15 – Dan Patrick, American sports commentator
• May 17
  • Cheenu Mohan, Indian actor (d. 2018)
  • Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer, motivational speaker and actor
• May 19 – Steven Ford, American actor
• May 20
  • Boris Akunin, Russian novelist and essayist^[25]
  • Dean Butler, American actor and producer
• May 23
  • Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician
  • Buck Showalter, American baseball player and manager
• May 26 – Lisa Niemi, American actress and dancer
• May 27 – Giuseppe Tornatore, Italian film director
• May 28
  • Jerry Douglas, American dobro player
  • John O'Donoghue, Irish Fianna Fáil politician
  • Sayuri Yamauchi, Japanese voice actress (d. 2012)
• May 29 – La Toya Jackson, American singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and television personality
• May 30 – David Sassoli, 16th President of the European Parliament (d. 2022)
• May 31 – Yoshiko Sakakibara, Japanese voice actress

June[edit]

• June 1
  • Chintaman Vanaga, Indian politician (d. 2018)
  • Peter Tomka, Judge, International Court of Justice
• June 3 – George Burley, Scottish football manager
• June 4 – Keith David, African-American actor and voice actor
• June 5 – Kenny G, American saxophonist
• June 6
  • Yuri Shundrov, Russian-Ukrainian ice hockey goaltender (d. 2018)
  • Christopher Adamson, British actor
  • Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player
• June 7
  • Paul Sherwen, English racing cyclist and broadcaster (d. 2018)
  • Antonio M. Reid, American record executive
• June 8 – Péter Besenyei, Hungarian pilot
• June 9 – Patricia Cornwell, American novelist
• June 10 – Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg, German head of the House of Mecklenburg
• June 11
  • Joe Montana, American football player
  • Arthur Porter, Canadian physician (d. 2015)
• June 13 – Yurik Vardanyan, Soviet weightlifter (d. 2018)
• June 14 – King Diamond, Danish heavy metal musician
• June 15 – Robin Curtis, American actress
• June 17 – Kelly Curtis, American actor
• June 20 – Cho Chikun, Korean Go player
• June 21 – Thomas James O'Leary, American actor
• June 22
  • Abdulbaset Sieda, Kurdish-Syrian academic and politician
  • François Hadji-Lazaro, French actor and musician
  • Tim Russ, American actor, film director, screenwriter and musician
• June 23 – Randy Jackson, African-American musician and talent judge
• June 24 – Turid Leirvoll, Norwegian-Danish politician
• June 25
  • Madeleine Petrovic, Austrian politician
  • Isabel de Navarre, German figure skating coach
  • Boris Trajkovski, President of the Republic of Macedonia (d. 2004)
  • Anthony Bourdain, American chef, writer and television personality (d. 2018)^[26]
  • Chloe Webb, American actress and singer
• June 26
  • Catherine Samba-Panza, President of the Central African Republic
  • Chris Isaak, American musician
• June 27
  • Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, Royal Saudi Air Force pilot
  • Heiner Dopp, German field hockey player
• June 28 – Noel Mugavin, Australian rules football player
• June 29
  • Nick Fry, British motorsport
  • Honorato Hernández, Spanish long-distance runner
• June 30
  • Sun Chanthol, Cambodian politician
  • Jessi Lintl, Austrian politician
  • David Alan Grier, African-American actor, comedian (In Living Color)
  • Piero Aiello, Italian politician

July[edit]

• July 1
  • Alan Ruck, American actor
  • Gregg L. Semenza, American cellular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• July 2 – Jerry Hall, American model and actress
• July 3
  • Dorota Pomykała, Polish actress
  • Min Aung Hlaing, Burmese Army General
• July 5
  • Sapawi Ahmad, Malaysian politician
  • Horacio Cartes, former President of Paraguay
  • Louis Herthum, American actor and producer
• July 7
  • Janet Cruz, American politician
  • Mullah Krekar, Iraqi Kurdish scholar and militant
  • Ryuho Okawa, Japanese religious leader (d. 2023)
  • Giam Swiegers, South African-Australian business executive
• July 9 – Tom Hanks, American actor and director
• July 10 – K. Rajagopal, Malaysian football manager and national player
• July 11
  • Amitav Ghosh, Indian novelist^[27]
  • Sela Ward, American actress
• July 12 – Mel Harris, American actress
• July 13
  • Günther Jauch, German television host
  • Koffi Olomide, Congolese soukous singer, dancer, producer and composer
  • Michael Spinks, African-American boxer
• July 14
  • Dragan Despot, Croatian actor
  • Vladimir Kulich, Czechoslovakian 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
• July 16
  • Jerry Doyle, American talk show host and actor (d. 2016)
  • Tony Kushner, American playwright
• July 17 – Robert Romanus, American actor and musician
• July 18 – Sheila Aldridge, American singer
• July 19
  • Peter Barton, American actor
  • Yoshiaki Yatsu, Japanese professional wrestler
• July 24
  • Charlie Crist, American politician, 44th Governor of Florida
  • Pat Finn, American game show host and producer
  • Carmen Nebel, German television presenter
• July 25
  • Frances Arnold, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Andy Goldsworthy, British sculptor and photographer
• July 26 – Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater, Olympic gold medalist
• July 30 – Delta Burke, American actress
• July 31
  • Michael Biehn, American actor
  • Deval Patrick, American politician, first African-American Governor of Massachusetts