The government of the
Rhodesia commissions an airport at Salisbury; it would later become
Harare International Airport when the name of the capital city changed. The airport would be officially opened in
February 1957.[1]
Hurricane Anna forms in the
Gulf of Mexico. In the course of a week, it causes damage in the US states of Florida and Alabama, but there are no associated fatalities.[6]
Vice President
Richard Nixon visits South Vietnam, where he addresses the Vietnamese constituent assembly, saying that "the march of Communism has been halted".[10]
The British steamship Yewcroft is stranded in dense fog on the rocks of
Trevean Cove,
Cornwall, UK, while carrying cement from Kent to
Bristol.[16]
French cargo ship Dione collides with Liberian-registered SS Michael off the
Goodwin Sands,
Kent, UK.[17]
British cross-channel ferry Lord Warden collides with a French ship, SS Tamba off
Cap Gris Nez,
Pas de Calais, France.
French fishing boat collides with the British ship Kenuta off the
Eddystone Lighthouse in the
English Channel and sinks. The crew members are rescued by Kenuta.
Died:Giovanni Papini, 75, Italian journalist, essayist, literary critic, poet, and novelist[18]
1956 Amorgos earthquake: An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 strikes the easternmost island of the
Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, also affecting neighbouring
Santorini.[19] The earthquake and resultant
tsunami kill 53 people.
Australia's prime minister,
Robert Menzies, speaking in London, states that the Commonwealth Prime Ministers are unanimously in favour of Japan being admitted to the
United Nations.[22]
After ten years as partners,
Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together at the
Copacabana nightclub in New York, United States.[36]
Italian ocean liner
SS Andrea Doria sinks during an Atlantic crossing from Genoa after colliding with the Swedish icebreaker
SS Stockholm in heavy fog 72 kilometers (45 mi) south of
Nantucket island, United States, killing 46 people, including five crew.[37]
The British
ketchMoyana flounders in strong gales off
The Lizard,
Cornwall, UK. All crew members are rescued by SS Clan Maclean. In the same storm, the cargo ship Teeswood capsizes off
Dungeness, Kent, losing one of her sixteen crew, and sinks.[43]
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower approves a Joint Resolution by the 84th Congress, adopting "
In God We Trust" as the official motto of the United States.[48]
England cricketer
Jim Laker sets a record by taking 19 wickets in a first class match (the previous best was 17) in the fourth
Test against Australia at
Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester, UK.[49]
^Pham, David Lan (2000). Two Hamlets in Nam Bo: Memoirs of Life in Vietnam Through Japanese Occupation, the French and American Wars, and Communist Rule, 1940-1986. McFarland. p. 85.
ISBN978-0-7864-0646-3.
^Warwick, Neil; Kutner, Jon; Brown, Tony (2004). The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles and Albums (3rd ed.). London: Omnibus Press.
ISBN1-84449-058-0.
^Lewis, Jerry: Dean & Me: A Love Story, page 277. Pan Books, 2007
^Samuel Halpern, An Objective Forensic Analysis of the Collision Between Stockholm and Andrea Doria