October 23, 1956 – November 10, 1956
A nationwide uprising against Hungary's Soviet-backed government is crushed by Soviet forces.
Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands sign the treaty creating the European Economic Community, forerunner of the European Union.
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, Earth's first artificial satellite, opening the Space Age.
The Geneva Conference ends the First Indochina War, temporarily partitioning Vietnam at the 17th parallel pending elections planned for 1956.
Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union since the mid-1920s, dies near Moscow, opening the way to de-Stalinisation under Khrushchev.
James Watson and Francis Crick publish the double-helix model of DNA in Nature, drawing in part on Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction data.
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbits the Earth aboard Vostok 1, becoming the first human in space.