Born in 1956
Turns 70 in 2026 · 70th birthday gifts
70th birthday gifts for someone born in 1956
1956 Front PageTheir name. The news from their year.Unframed from $30.00Add their name
Their birth chartThe sky as astrology reads it, cast for one birth.Unframed from $30.00
The Years We Were BornThe whole family, together in years.Unframed from $30.00
Our Story timelineTheir life, told in your words.Unframed from $30.00
Front Page: United States edition. The year is filled in; add their name in the editor. “Your name” is a placeholder. Light news is selected. A new keepsake, not an original newspaper.
BACK TO 1956 · United States
A little history to go with their gift.
Researchers gathered at Dartmouth to give artificial intelligence its name and set an academic research agenda. TAT-1 began carrying telephone calls beneath the Atlantic, and Melbourne hosted the first Summer Olympics held in the Southern Hemisphere despite political boycotts.
What happened in 1956?
The transistor's inventors share the Physics Nobel
William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain shared the 1956 Physics Nobel for semiconductor research and the transistor effect in electronics.
Eisenhower wins a second term
Voters returned Dwight D. Eisenhower to the White House in the 1956 election.
National Archives and Records Administration · Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
Eisenhower signs the 1956 highway act
On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, authorizing an expanded Interstate System.
National Archives and Records Administration · Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
Two women debate the presidential campaign
Two women discussed the presidential campaign on Face the Nation shortly before the 1956 election.
Firsts and new ideas
IBM puts a hard disk inside business computing
IBM introduced the 305 RAMAC in 1956 with the first commercial hard-disk system, giving businesses random access to stored records.
Dartmouth gives artificial intelligence its name
The Dartmouth summer workshop of 1956 coined artificial intelligence as a field label and asked whether machines could simulate human learning.
Number ones and music in 1956
Chart positions belong to the country and chart named in each record.
Que Sera, Sera becomes a song of hope
Doris Day sang Whatever Will Be Will Be in Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film, and the song became a six-week UK number one.
Heartbreak Hotel makes Elvis a national star
Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel entered the UK Official Singles Chart in May 1956 and became a twenty-two-week hit built around loneliness and menace.
Prices and everyday money in 1956
United States figures in the money of the time. Units and sources matter: these are not today's prices.
| Item or measure | Then | Unit and source |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic first-class letter postage | 3¢ | first ounce United States Postal Service, Historian; Smithsonian National Postal Museum |
| White wheat flour, U.S. city average | 53.3¢ | 5-pound package U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| White bread, U.S. city average | 17.9¢ | 1 pound U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| Grade A large eggs, U.S. city average | 60.2¢ | 1 dozen U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |
Planning the birthday
Someone born in 1956 turns 70 in 2026. Before their birthday they are one year younger. Choose the birth year for the print; add the full date in the editor if you know it.
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