January 28 –Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on CBS in the United States on the programStage Show, the first of six appearances on the series.
February 16 – Only a little more than four months after the release of the 70 mm version ofOklahoma!, the film version ofRodgers and Hammerstein'sCarousel, starringGordon MacRae andShirley Jones, is released inCinemaScope 55. MacRae and Jones had previously starred inOklahoma!Carousel, intended for showing in 55 mm, ends up being shown only in 35 mm.
February 29 – Dwight D. Eisenhower announces he will seek re-election as President.
March 11 –Laurence Olivier's film,Richard III, adapted fromShakespeare's play, premieres in the U.S. in theaters and onNBC Television, on the same day as an afternoonmatinée. It is one of the first such experiments of its kind. Olivier is later nominated for anOscar for his performance.
April 14 –Videotape is first demonstrated at the 1956 NARTB (nowNAB) convention in Chicago byAmpex. It is the demonstration of the first practical and commercially successful videotape format known as2" Quadruplex.
July 24 – At New York City's Copacabana Club,Dean Martin andJerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together (their act started on July 25, 1946).
July 25 – 72 kilometers (45 mi) south ofNantucket Island, the Italian ocean linerSS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish shipMS Stockholm in heavy fog, killing 51 people.
August 6 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcasterDuMont Television Network has its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena.
The filmOklahoma! (1955), previously released to select cities inTodd-AO, now receives a U.S. national release inCinemaScope, 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.
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