April 1956 tornado outbreak: At the end of an outbreak that produced 47 tornadoes, including an F5 tornado that devastated the Hudsonville and Standale, Michigan, areas of the United States, 18 people are left dead and 340 injured, and the historic lighthouse at Saugatuck destroyed.[4]
Following the country's independence from France, Spain discontinues the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, ceding its territory to the newly established kingdom.
ANat King Cole concert in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, is interrupted by three Ku Klux Klan members, who push Cole from his piano stool; all are later tried and convicted, but Cole would never again perform in his home state.[12]
The 1956 World Table Tennis Championships comes to an end in Tokyo, Japan. The host country finishes with four of the seven available gold medals, Romania with two, and the United States with one.[13]
Ampex demonstrates videotape the VR-1000, the first of its line of 2 inch Quadruplex videotape recorders at the 1956 NARTB (now NAB) convention in Chicago, United States.[15] Later the same year, the first television network programme to use the new Ampex Quadruplex recording system will be shown on CBS.
Born:Barbara Bonney, US soprano, in Montclair, New Jersey
British MI6diverLionel "Buster" Crabb is sent into Portsmouth harbour to investigate the visiting Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze. After diving in, he is never seen again. The UK government declines to give any further information.[25]
The report of the Board of Inquiry into the 1956 Hawker Hunter multiple aircraft accident reports that the primary cause of the accident was a sudden deterioration in the weather, but that it had been an error of judgement to divert the aircraft on the assumption that they could perform a visual landing.[29]
^Morris, Benny (1993) Israel's Border Wars, 1949 - 1956. Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press, ISBN0-19-827850-0. Page 371.
^Jacobs, Seth (2006). Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950–1963. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN0-7425-4447-8. P 84
^Mullan (1996). Boxing: The Definitive Illustrated Guide to World Boxing. London, England: Carlton Books. p. 81. ISBN0-7858-0641-5.
^"Sinking Of Portuguese Ship". The Times. No. 53519. London. 1 May 1956. col F, p. 10.
^Silverstein, Josef (1956). "Politics, Parties and National Elections in Burma". Far Eastern Survey. 25 (12). Institute of Pacific Relations: 177–184. doi:10.2307/3024383. JSTOR3024383.
^Logevall, Frederik Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam New York: Random House, 2012, p 650
^Smith, Douglas N.W. (July 2000). Canadian Rail Passenger Review Number 3. Trackside Canada. ISBN0-9697415-8-8.
^"DFB-Pokal 1955-56" (in German). fussballdaten.de. 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
^"1956 NBA Draft". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
