At A Glance

17 July 1956 at a glance

Day of the week
17 July 1956 was a Tuesday.
Top Film of 1956
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1956 was The Ten Commandments.
Bestselling Novel of 1956
“Don't Go Near the Water” by William Brinkley was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1956.
Top-Rated TV Show
“I Love Lucy” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1956–57 season.
Star sign
The star sign for 17 July is Cancer.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 17 July 1956 fell in the Year of the Monkey.
Birthstone
The birthstone for July is Ruby.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 17 July 1956 was Waxing Gibbous.

On this day: 17 July

  • 1938 Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.
  • 1945 World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, hold the Potsdam Conference in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
  • 1954 First Indochina War: Viet Minh troops successfully ambush the armoured French column 'G.M. 42' in the Battle of Chu Dreh Pass in the Central Highlands. It is the last battle of the war.
  • 1968 Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba'ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
  • 1973 King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.

Famous people born on July 17

  • Brett Goldstein, British actor, comedian and writer (born 1980)
  • Billie Lourd, American actress (born 1992)
  • Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor and producer (1935–2024)
  • Queen Camilla, Queen Consort of King Charles III of the United Kingdom (born 1947)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Events of 1956 in the United States

A selection from Wikipedia's '1956 in the United States'. Not a complete list.

  • February 24 – Doris Day records her most famous song, "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)"; it is from Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which Day co-stars with James Stewart.
  • March 15 – The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.
  • April 2 – The first episodes of As the World Turns and The Edge of Night are broadcast on CBS television.

Life in the US in 1956

President

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Gas (per gallon)

$0.30

Loaf of Bread

$0.18

Average House

$10,000

Weekly Wage

$73

Or

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Famous Faces Born in the 1950s

Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.

Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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