The new year, 2016, is upon us.
Sixty years ago, in 1956, I was 12
years old -- too old for childish things and too young for wayward women.
It was a year when a former truck
driver named Elvis Presley burst upon the American scene and helped to create a
new musical movement called "rock-n-roll." And the world has been
rocking and rolling ever since.
January 5 -- Elvis Presley recorded his
first record, "Heartbreak Hotel," for RCA. It would become the first
of 45 records by Elvis to sell over a million copies.
January 19 – The U.N. Security Council
voted unanimously to censure Israel for attacking Syria.
January 30 – Elvis Presley recorded
"Blue Suede Shoes."
March 5 – The U.S. Supreme Court banned
segregation in public school (Brown vs. Board of Education).
March 13 – RCA released Elvis Presley's
first record album.
March 31 – The Federal minimum wage was
set at one dollar an hour.
April 25 – "Heartbreak Hotel,"
recorded by Elvis Presley, became the #1 hit on the charts.
April 28 – The last of the French
occupying troops left Vietnam, leading to American intervention.
May 21 – The USA dropped a thermonuclear
(hydrogen) bomb from a plane onto Bikini Atoll.
June 8 – Air Force Sergeant Richard B
Fitzgibbon, Jr. became the first American military serviceman on record to die
in Vietnam. His son, Richard B Fitzgibbon III, was killed in Vietnam in 1965.
June 29 – Actress Marilyn Monroe and
playwright Arthur Miller were married in London.
July 1 – Elvis Presley appeared on the
Steve Allen Show wearing a tuxedo.
July 24 – Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis,
the country's most popular comedy team, performed together for the last time at
the Copacabana Club in New York City.
July 30 – The U.S. motto "In God
We Trust" was authorized by Congress.
August 4 – RCA released Elvis Presley's
recording of "Hound Dog."
August 11 – RCA released Elvis Presley's
recording of "Don't Be Cruel."
August 16 – Adlai E. Stevenson was
nominated for president by the Democratic Convention in Chicago.
August 18 – "Hound Dog" and
"Don't Be Cruel," recorded by Elvis Presley, reached #1 on the music
charts.
August 22 – President Dwight D.
Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon were nominated for second terms
by the Republican Convention in San Francisco.
September 9 – Elvis Presley made his
first of three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Due to viewer outrage of his
gyrations, Elvis was televised only from the waist up in the final
appearance.
September 28 – RCA reported that Elvis
Presley had sold over 10 million records so far.
October 8 – Don Larson, pitcher for the
New York Yankees, pitched the only perfect game in World Series history. The
Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0, and won the series four games to three.
October 24 – Soviet troops invaded
Hungary and installed a communist regime shortly thereafter.
October 31 – Great Britain and France
bombed Egyptian airfields in an attempt to take over the Suez Canal.
November 2 – Israel captured Gaza.
November 6 – Dwight Eisenhower was
reelected president. The Democrats won both houses of Congress.
November 16 – "Love Me
Tender," the first film by Elvis Presley, premiered in New York City.
December 2 – Fidel Castro led a small
band of rebels in an uprising that would eventually liberate Cuba from a
corrupt dictator named Batista, and replace him with another corrupt dictator
named Fidel Castro.
All in all, 1956 was a typical year of
global strife. Unfortunately, sixty years later, power struggles continue,
forcing the human race to squander resources and endure ceaseless change.
But rock-n-roll is here to stay.
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Quote for the Day -- “I've come too far,
and I don't know how to get back.” Elvis
___________
Bret Burquest is the author
of 11 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and the ghost of
Bo Diddley.
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