October 31, 1956

1956Bruce Bawer, American poet and critic^[†]

Theodore Bruce Bawer is an American-Norwegian writer. Born and raised in New York, he has been a resident of Norway since 1999 and became a citizen of Norway in 2024. He is a literary, film, and cultural critic and a novelist and poet, who has also written about gay rights, Christianity, and Islam.

1956Christopher de Leon, Filipino actor, director, producer, and politician^[†]

Christopher Strauss de León, also known as Boyet, is a Filipino actor, filmmaker and politician. Often referred to as the "King of Philippine Drama", he gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous film and television productions including period, romantic drama and thriller. His work, covering more than five decades, has received various accolades, including eight FAMAS Awards, two Gawad Urian Awards, four Luna Awards, nine Star Awards, and eight Metro Manila Film Festival Awards.

1956Anders Lago, Swedish lawyer and politician^[†]

Anders Lago is a Swedish Social Democratic politician and former mayor of Södertälje, Sweden. On 10 April 2008, Lago participated in a hearing before the Helsinki Commission, the independent U.S. government agency led by members of U.S. Congress, where he claimed that his small city of about 80,000 was now home to nearly 6,000 Iraqis; "more refugees than the United States and Canada together".

1956Charles Moore, English journalist and author^[†]

Charles Hilary Moore, Baron Moore of Etchingham is an English journalist and the chairman of The Spectator. He is a former editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, and The Sunday Telegraph; he still writes for all three. He is known for his authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, published in three volumes. Under the government of Boris Johnson, Moore was given a peerage in July 2020, thus becoming a member of the House of Lords.

1956Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.^[†]

The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so with the primary objective of re-opening the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as the recent tightening of the eight-year-long Egyptian blockade further prevented Israeli passage. After issuing a joint ultimatum for a ceasefire, the United Kingdom and France joined the Israelis on 5 November, seeking to depose Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and regain control of the Suez Canal, which Nasser had earlier nationalised by transferring administrative control from the foreign-owned Suez Canal Company to Egypt's new government-owned Suez Canal Authority. Shortly after the invasion began, the three countries came under heavy political pressure from both the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as from the United Nations, eventually prompting their withdrawal from Egypt. The Crisis demonstrated that the United Kingdom and France could no longer pursue their independent foreign policy without consent from the United States. Israel's four-month-long occupation of the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula enabled it to attain freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran, but the Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 to March 1957.

1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956: A Revolutionary Headquarters is established in Hungary. Following Imre Nagy's announcement of October 30, banned non-Communist political parties are reformed, and the MDP is replaced by the MSZMP. József Mindszenty is released from prison. The Soviet Politburo makes the decision to crush the Revolution.^[†]

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising lasted 15 days before being crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on 7 November 1956. Thousands were killed or wounded, and nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fled the country.