A year to remember..... USA 1956With many hit singles (including "Heartbreak Hotel"), Elvis Presley emerges as one of the world's first rock stars. The gyrating rocker enjoys fame on the stages of the Milton Berle, Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan shows, as well as in the first of his many movies, Love Me Tender. Legendary Big Band Leader, Tommy Dorsey dies at age 51 and Anna Magnani wins an Oscar for her role in The Rose Tatoo.The Wizard of Oz first airs on TV, a Pulitzer Prize is awarded in Drama to The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. 1956 Best Picture: Marty, Harold Hecht, producer (United Artists) Nobel Prize for Literature: Juan Ramón Jiménez (Spain)
What Things Cost in 1956: Car: $2,100 / Gasoline: 30 cents/gal / House: $17,800 / Bread: 18 cents/loaf / Milk: 97 cents/gal / Postage Stamp: 3 cents / Stock Market: 499 / Average Annual Salary: $5,300 / Minimum Wage: $1.00 per hour
President: Dwight D. Eisenhower / Vice President: Richard M. Nixon / Population: 168,903,031 / Life expectancy: 69.7 years / Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.6
US GDP (1998 dollars): $438 billionFederal spending: $70.64 billionFederal debt: $272.7billionConsumer Price Index: 27.2Unemployment: 4.4% / Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
President: Dwight D. Eisenhower / Vice President: Richard M. Nixon / Population: 168,903,031 / Life expectancy: 69.7 years / Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.6
US GDP (1998 dollars): $438 billionFederal spending: $70.64 billionFederal debt: $272.7billionConsumer Price Index: 27.2Unemployment: 4.4% / Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
World Series NY Yankees d. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-3)
NBA Championship Philadelphia Warriors d. Ft. Wayne Pistons (4-1)
Stanley Cup Montreal d. Detroit (4-1)
Wimbledon Women: Shirley Fry d. A. Buxton (6-3 6-1)Men: Lew Hoad d. K. Rosewall (6-2 4-6 7-5 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion Needles
NCAA Basketball Championship San Francisco d. Iowa (83-71)
NCAA Football Champions Oklahoma (10-0-0)
WORLD EVENTS
Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of USSR Communist Party, denounces Stalin's excesses (Feb. 24). / Morocco gains independence from France (March 1) and Spain (April 7).
Workers' uprising against Communist rule in Poland is crushed (June 28-30).
Egypt takes control of Suez Canal (July 26). Israel launches attack on Egypt's Sinai peninsula and drives toward Suez Canal (Oct. 29). British and French invade Egypt at Port Said (Nov. 5). Cease-fire forced by US pressure stops British, French, and Israeli advance (Nov. 6).
Soviet troops and tanks crush anti-Communist uprisings in Hungary (November).
Workers' uprising against Communist rule in Poland is crushed (June 28-30).
Egypt takes control of Suez Canal (July 26). Israel launches attack on Egypt's Sinai peninsula and drives toward Suez Canal (Oct. 29). British and French invade Egypt at Port Said (Nov. 5). Cease-fire forced by US pressure stops British, French, and Israeli advance (Nov. 6).
Soviet troops and tanks crush anti-Communist uprisings in Hungary (November).
Carmen Elvira Lichtl is born / November 21, 1956 / Havana Cuba
CUBA 1956
A general amnesty for political prisoners in May 1955 freed rebel leader Fidel Castro (1926-) and his followers from prison in Cuba; they promptly left for Mexico to reorganize their plans to overthow the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar (1901-73), whose regime was marked by blatant corruption, police oppression, and embezzlement. In 1956, Castro and 81 followers returned to eastern Cuba in a yacht loaded with arms and ammunition; many of these "invaders" were slain or captured by Batista's forces (Castro was erroneously presumed dead), but the rest found refuge in the rugged Sierra Maestra mountain range in Oriente province. For the next two years Castro's rebels carried out a successful guerrilla campaign from their mountain stronghold, from which neither the army nor the police could dislodge them. Castro's ranks grew to several hundred as sympathizers joined the guerrilla bands, which intermittently raided military installations and destroyed property. In 1957, the rebels kidnapped 10 American civilians and 28 sailors, but released them without harm when the US government and press angrily protested. Opposition to Batista's tyranny increased throughout Cuba, and admiration for the bearded revolutionaries who defied him grew apace. After calling for "total war" against Batista's regime, Castro took the offensive and moved out of the mountains in the fall of 1958. The rebels captured Santa Clara, the capital of Las Villas province, on December 31, 1958. Two day s before, Major Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-67), Castro's comrade-in-arms, had gained a coup by capturing an armored train loaded with weapons at Santa Clara. Realizing that all support for his government had eroded, Batista fled with his family to the Dominican Republic on January 1, 1959, taking the loot he had accumulated and leaving the Cuban government in the hands of a three-man military junta. Two days later Castro led the first of his motley columns into Havana, Cuba's capital, where they were hailed enthusiastically by the people. The army made no attempt to stop the rebel forces; indeed, most of the military was on their side and welcomed them. A provisional government was quickly formed with Castro as premier; gradually Cuba was transformed into a communist state supported by the Soviet Union.
This is the world I was born into/ in 1956 /to parents who wanted a world of good for their child.
In 1958 by age two - I had a little sister, my father was part of Fidel's rebel army and our lives were set on a colision course with the world my parents had dreamed of and fought for....
