March 1956 was the third month of that leap year. The month which began on a Thursday and ended after 31 days on a Saturday

The following events occurred inMarch1956:

• TheNATO phonetic alphabet (the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet) is drafted by theInternational Air Transport Association for theInternational Civil Aviation Organization.^[1]
• InWashington, D.C., United States, a replica of theDiscus Thrower is dedicated; it is a gift from theItalian government to acknowledge the return ofart objects looted duringWorld War II.^[2]
• The National People's Army of East Germany is Formed
• Born:
  • Tim Daly, US actor, in New York City^[3]
  • Dalia Grybauskaitė, Lithuanian politician, President (2009-2019), in Vilnius^[4]

• Morocco reaches agreement withFrance, ending the protectorate, to become the independent "Kingdom of Morocco".^[5]
• While rehearsing for a comingair show, fourCanadair Sabre fighter planes of the Sky Lancersaerobatics team of No. 4 Wing,Royal Canadian Air Force, based inWest Germany, crash in theUpper Rhine Valley southwest ofStrasbourg,France, while performing aloop in formation; all four pilots are killed, and RCAF aerobatic flying stops.^[6][7]
• Born:Eduardo Rodríguez, Bolivian politician, President 2005–06, in Cochabamba^[8]
• Died:Fred Merkle, 67, American baseball player whosefailure to touch second base on what should have been a game-winning hit in a September 1908 game against theChicago Cubs cost theNew York Giants the National League pennant that year.

• Astate election in New South Wales, Australia, results in theAustralian Labor Party, under incumbent PremierJoseph Cahill, retaining a majority over a coalition of the Liberal and Country parties.^[9]

• Popular demonstrations begin in theGeorgian Soviet Socialist Republic, protesting againstNikita Khrushchev'sde-Stalinization policy.^[10]
• Elections to the National Constituent Assembly take place in South Vietnam. PresidentNgo Dinh Diem's party wins 90 of the 123 seats.^[11]

• The laststeam locomotive to have been purchased new bySouthern Pacific Railroad is retired from service.^[12]
• Born:Teena Marie, US singer-songwriter, in Santa Monica, under the name Mary Christine Brockert (died 2010)^[13]

• West Germany'sBundestag approves 14 constitutional amendments which allow for rearmament and civilian control over the armed forces, re-introducing conscription.^[14]

• Avalanches in Norway'sNordland andTroms regions cause 21 deaths and heavy damage.
• Born:Bryan Cranston, US actor, in Hollywood^[15]

• In theHong Kong municipal election, four of the six seats are won by theReform Club of Hong Kong, and the other two by the newHong Kong Civic Association.^[16]

• British security forces deport ArchbishopMakarios III fromCyprus; he arrives inMahe Island,Seychelles, as a "guest" of Governor Sir William Addis.^[17]
• InTbilisi, wherepro-Stalin protests continue, Soviet troops fire on a demonstrating crowd,^[10] resulting in at least 100 casualties.^[18]

• AFairey Delta 2 research aircraft, developed by theFairey Aviation Company, breaks the World Air Speed Record, achieving a speed of 1,132 mph (1,822 km/h) as 300 mph (480 km/h) over the previous record. It becomes the first aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h) in level flight, with permission, but no active support, from the British government.^[19]
• AUnited States Air ForceBoeing B-47 Stratojet and its 3-man crewdisappear over theMediterranean Sea. The wreckage has to date not been located.^[20]

• The Belgian ship MVPrince de Liege catches fire off the coast ofSpain and is abandoned by its crew. The ship is towed by a Spanishnaval tug then by the Swedish salvage shipHerakles toGibraltar.^[21]

• 101 members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives sign theSouthern Manifesto, in protest against the 1954Supreme Court ruling (Brown v. Board of Education), opposing racial integration in public places.^[22]
• TheDow Jones Industrial Average closes above 500 for thefirst time rising 2.40 points, or 0.48%, to 500.24.

• In the United StatesNew Hampshire Democratic Party primary,Estes Kefauver of Tennessee defeatsAdlai Stevenson, the eventual winner of the Democratic nomination.^[23]
• Born:Motoharu Sano, Japanese musician and singer-songwriter, inTaitō, Tokyo
• Died:David Browning, 24, 1952 Olympic diving gold medalist from the United States, in jet fighter crash nearRantoul, Kansas during a training flight^[24]

• The Frenchfishing trawlerVert Prairial is driven ashore at Wireless Point,Porthcurno,Cornwall, UK. All seventeen on board lose their lives.^[25]
• Harry Pollitt, General Secretary of theCommunist Party of Great Britain, unveils a memorial toKarl Marx atHighgate Cemetery, London, UK, following the reburial of Marx and his family a few months earlier.^[26]

• Ageneral election is held inNyasaland (laterMalawi) for the first time ever. The newly elected Legislative Council consisted of eleven officials (five indirectly-elected seats for Africans and six elected seats for non-Africans).^[27]
• The musicalMy Fair Lady receives its Broadway première at theMark Hellinger Theatre, withRex Harrison in the role of Higgins andJulie Andrews as Eliza. It would run for a record 2,717 performances.^[28]

• Mount Lebanon Governorate,Lebanon, is struck by amagnitude 5.3 earthquake, followed 11 minutes later by a magnitude 5.5 quake inBeqaa Governorate. Overall, 148 people are killed.^[29] The second quake was located underLebanon at a depth of 15.0 km.^[30]
• TheRiotous Assemblies Act no. 17 is passed by the South African government, prohibiting any outside gathering that the Minister of Justice considers a threat to public peace.Nelson Mandela later became one of many charged with offences under the Act.^[31]

• Died:
  • Fred Allen, 61, US comedian (heart attack)^[32]
  • Irène Joliot-Curie, 58, French physicist, recipient of theNobel Prize in Chemistry (leukaemia)^[33]

• US navy destroyerUSS Willis A. Lee is driven onto rocks atJamestown, Rhode Island, in a storm. It was repaired and returned to service later in the year.^[34]
• Italian cargo shipSS Etrusco runs aground atScituate, Massachusetts, United States. All 30 crew members are rescued bybreeches buoy.^[34]

• 48-year-old DutchboxerBep van Klaveren contests his last match inRotterdam, losing toWerner Handtke.^[35]
• Born:Yegor Gaidar, Russian economist, politician and author, in Moscow (died 2009)^{[citation needed]}

• Tunisia gains independence from French rule as anindependent kingdom underMuhammad VIII al-Amin, the country's lastbey.^[36]
• A 2-daynor'easter, affecting the USMid-Atlantic States and southernNew England, comes to an end, leaving an estimated 162 people dead.^[37]
• Died:
  • Fanny Durack, 66, Australian swimmer
  • Wilhelm Miklas, 83, 3rdPresident of Austria^[38]

• At the28th Academy Awards ceremony inLos Angeles, United States,Marty becomes the shortest film to win theBest Motion Picture award. Its star,Ernest Borgnine, winsBest Actor.^[39]

• In the early hours of the morning, US singerCarl Perkins is injured in a car accident near Wilmington, Delaware, on his way to New York City to make an appearance on thePerry Como Show. Perkins suffers three fractured vertebrae in his neck, severe concussion, a broken collar bone, and multiple lacerations; he remains unconscious for an entire day.^[40]

• Pakistan adopts anew constitution, becoming the world's firstIslamic republic, though it does not adopt a state religion until 1973.^[41]
• In the UK'sGrand National steeplechase,Devon Loch, a horse owned byQueen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and ridden byDick Francis, inexplicably collapses 50 yards (45 m) from the finish while leading the race. The jockey later suggested that the horse was distracted by the cheers of the crowd.^[42][43]
• Born:Ingrid Kristiansen, Norwegian athlete, in Trondheim^[44]

• Born:Steve Ballmer, US entrepreneur, in Detroit

• Died:Robert Newton, 50, English actor (heart attack)

• Colonel Tom Parker is formally appointed asElvis Presley's manager.^[45]

• The United States Internal Revenue Service raids the offices of the Communist newspaperThe Daily Worker in New York and other locations, for non-payment of taxes. The editor claims that the paper lost $200,000 in the previous year, therefore it owes no taxes.^[46]

• The UK cargo shipChangsha runs aground atTokyo, Japan; it was later successfully refloated.^[47]

• Four Israeli soldiers captured by Syria in theGolan Heights in 1954 are returned to Israel, in exchange for forty Syrian soldiers captured duringOperation Olive Leaves.^[48]
• Thegiant sequoia,General Grant, located inKings Canyon National Park, United States, is declared a "National Shrine" by US PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower.^[49]

• Bezymianny, a volcano in Russia'sKamchatka Peninsula, erupts, destroying the summit and forming a horseshoe-shaped crater.^[50]

• Typhoon Sarah approaches thePhilippines, but changes direction at the last moment and dissipates within a few days.

• March 1956
• March by year
• Months in the 1950s

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