Timeline February 1956

Events in February 1956 4

• 1862 – 1956 Connie Mack (1862-1956) Died 8 February 1956, aged 93 American baseball player and manager who led the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, longer than anyone has managed a single team in major league history. He won nine American League pennants and five World Series titles as manager. He died in Philadelphia at age 93.
• 1956 1956 Winter Olympics VII Winter Games - Cortina d'Ampezzo The first Winter Olympics to be televised. Winner: Soviet Union.
• 1956 11th Elfstedentocht — no winner declared Five skaters disqualified for finishing hand in hand The 1956 edition on 14 February became infamous: Jan van der Hoorn, Aad de Koning, Jeen Nauta, Maus Wijnhout and Anton Verhoeven crossed the finish line hand in hand — violating the post-1940 rules against shared finishes. All five were disqualified. No winner was officially declared.
• 1956 Khrushchev delivers the Secret Speech Khrushchev denounces Stalin's crimes to the party congress Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a speech to a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party denouncing Joseph Stalin's cult of personality and crimes. The speech was not published in the USSR but its contents spread quickly abroad. It marked the beginning of de-Stalinization and unsettled communist parties worldwide.