1956 in France

Events from the year 1956 in France.

Incumbents

 * President: René Coty
 * President of the Council of Ministers: Edgar Faure (until 1 February), Guy Mollet (starting 1 February)

Events

 * 2 January – Legislative Election held.
 * 1 February – Socialist leader Guy Mollet becomes prime minister
 * 2 March – Morocco declares its independence from France.
 * 20 March – Tunisia gains independence from France.
 * 23 May – Minister Pierre Mendès-France resigns due to his government's policy on Algeria.
 * 23 June – Loi Cadre passed by the French National Assembly, first step in the creation of the French Union.
 * 10 September – Guy Mollet visits London and proposes a merger of France and the United Kingdom. However the idea is rejected by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden.
 * 28 September – Eden considers allowing France to join the Commonwealth of Nations, but this idea is also rejected.
 * 31 October – Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.
 * 6 November – British and French forces seize control of two Egyptian ports before declaring a ceasefire.
 * 7 November – Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Arab lands immediately.
 * 23 December – British and French troops leave Suez Canal. region.
 * The Tefal cookware firm is established.

Arts and literatures

 * Two attacks are made on Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa in the Louvre.
 * 28 November – Roger Vadim's film And God Created Woman (Et Dieu… créa la femme), starring Brigitte Bardot, is released.
 * 3 December – Writing under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar, author Romain Gary becomes the only person ever to win the Prix Goncourt twice, this time for Les Racines du ciel.

Sport

 * 5 July – Tour de France begins.
 * 28 July – Tour de France ends, won by Roger Walkowiak.

Births

 * 1 January – Christine Lagarde, politician
 * 11 February – Didier Lockwood, jazz violinist (died 2018)
 * 26 February – Michel Houellebecq, novelist
 * 28 May – Francis Joyon, yachtsman
 * 4 July – Éric Neuhoff, novelist and journalist
 * 28 October – Jean-Luc Montama, karateka
 * 9 December – Jean-Pierre Thiollet journalist

Deaths

 * 5 January – Mistinguett, singer (born 1875)
 * 3 February – Émile Borel, mathematician and politician (born 1871)
 * 18 February – Gustave Charpentier, composer (born 1860)
 * 17 March – Irène Joliot-Curie, scientist, shared Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 (born 1897)
 * 20 May – Pierre Allemane, international soccer player (born 1882)
 * 11 September – Lucien Febvre, social historian (born 1878)
 * 26 October – Walter Gieseking, pianist and composer (born 1895)
 * 23 November – André Marty, leading figure in the French Communist Party (born 1886)