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Dryden, New York Class of 1956 THOSE WERE THE DAYS ... What was happening in the world during our senior year? "Gunsmoke" debuts on TV Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" is published Juan Peron, President of Argentina, is ousted Actor James Dean is killed in an auto accident First film footage of Elvis Presley in a short about a Cleveland disc jockey Software entrepreneur Bill Gates is born Time bomb explodes aboard a United Airlines flight Famed American baseball player Cy Young dies Racial segregation is forbidden on trains and buses in interstate commerce Actress and comedienne Whoopi Goldberg is born Seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Famed American baseball player Honus Wagner dies The Tappan Zee Bridge in New York State opens to traffic General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over $1 billion in a year Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina, Italy The United Kingdom bans heroin American writer H. L. Mencken dies English author A. A. Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh, dies American baseball executive and manager Connie Mack dies Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time with "Heartbreak Hotel" Nikita Khruschev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality" Ninety-six Congressmen sign the "Southern Manifesto," a protest against the desegregation of public education The musical "My Fair Lady" opens on Broadway 2,000th anniversary of the assassination of Julius Caesar Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic Videotape is first demonstrated at a convention in Chicago Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco The Methodist Church grants women clergy status and ends segregation in its denomination Russian gymnast Olga Korbut is born American boxer Sugar Ray Leonard is born First airborne testing of hydrogen bomb neary obliterates Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Swedish tennis player Björn Borg is born General Electric introduces the snooze alarm Summer Olympic Games begin in Stockholm, Sweden American football player Joe Montana is born President Dwight Eisenhower authorizes the phrase "under God" to be added to the Pledge of Allegiance Soviet troops fire at a crowd of protesters in Poland Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller President Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act, creating the Interstate Highway System |