1956

Events

January

• January 3: The National Radical Union is founded by Constantine Karamanlis.
• January 9: EOKA fighter, Kyriakos Matsis, is arrested, along with his brother Yiannakis, by the British.
• January 24: The Democratic Union coalition is founded by Georgios Papandreou and other centrist and leftist politicians.

February

• February 7: Student Petros Yiallouros, a member of ANE, is slain during a protest in Cyprus.
• February 19: Owing to the complexity of the Greek electoral system (three different systems depending on region!), the National Radical Union emerges victorious from the Greek elections eventhough they were out-polled by the Democratic Union.
• February 29: Lina Tsaldari becomes the first woman Cabinet member. She is the widow of former PM Panagis Tsaldaris.

March

• March 4: 17-year old EOKA fighter, Giorgos Charalambous, is killed in Limassol.
• March 5: "The fiend" (O Drakos) is released in cinemas throughout Greece.
• March 9: Archbishop Makarios III is seized at Nicosia Airport by the British colonial authorities in Cyprus and exiled to the Seychelle Islands in the Indian Ocean.
• March 29: Dorotheus is elected Archbishop of Athens and all Greece.

April

• April 18: Maria Desylla-Kapodistria becomes the first woman elected mayor of a Greek city (Kerkyra/Corfu).
• April 22: Greece lose to Italy's seconds 7-1 in a Mediterranean Cup game played in Naples.
• April 23: EOKA fighter, Iakovos Patatsos, is arrested in Lefkosia for the murder of PC Nihat Basif.
• April 27: A RAF Douglas Dakota is destroyed on the ground by a bomb thought to have been placed by EOKA fighters.

May

• May 9: A huge protest in Athens, over the executions of Michalis Karaolis and Andreas Dimitriou, turns bloody as four protesters are killed and 164 are injured.
• May 10: Michalis Karaolis and Andreas Dimitriou become the first two Greek-Cypriots executed by the British during the EOKA campaign.
• May 16: EOKA members Michalis Koutsoftas and Andreas Panagidis kill British Cpl. Patrick J. Hale in retaliation for the Karaolis-Dimitriou executions 6 days earlier.
• May 27: Kostas Sfikas breaks the Greek record for the triple jump with 15.18m. The old record by Ioannis Palamiotis had stood for 17 years.
• May 28: Greek Foreign Minister, Spyros Theotokis, is forced to resign over the Cyprus matter.

June

• June 10: The Lycabettus funicular came into operation

July

• July 9: A major earthquake (7.3 on the Richter scale) strikes Santorini resulting in 53 deaths and more than 100 injuries.

August

• August 9: Iakovos Patatsos, Charilaos Michail and Andreas Zakos are hanged by the British in the Central Jail of Lefkosia
• August 10: Phaedon Mattheou scores a personal record of 28 points against Syria (94-75) at Cairo for the pre-olympic tournament. Mattheou will score a total of 529 points in 44 matches with the national basketball team. In this match Vangelis Nikitopoulos will play for the second and last time in his career.
• August 31: EOKA attack the General Hospital of Nicosia and free Polykarpos Georkadjis who was being held by the British.

September

• September 13: Kyriakos Matsis and six other EOKA fighters escape from Kokkinotrimithia Prison.
• September 21: Three EOKA members Andreas Panagidis, Michalis Koutsoftas and Stelios Mavrommatis are hanged by the British in Cyprus.

November

• November 26: Georgios Roubanis wins the bronze medal in the pole vault at the Olympic Games of Melbourne.

December

• December 18: Evagoras Pallikaridis is arrested in Cyprus by the British.

Births

February

• February 12: Velimir Zajec, footballer.
• February 19: Nikos Liakos, footballer

March

• March 9: Manthos Katsoulis, basketball player

May

• May 15: Andreas Loverdos, politician.

September

• September 14: Costas Karamanlis, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic
• September 17: Kostas Orfanos, footballer

October

• October 18: Giorgos Kimoulis, actor
• October 24: David Stergakos, basketball player.
• October 27: Babis Tsertos, musician, performer of traditional, folk and rebetiko songs

November

• November 5: Laurentis Machairitsas, musician, singer
• November 13: Anna Verouli, athlete.

Unknown

• Yiannis Kouros, long-distance runner

Deaths

February

• February 7: Petros Yiallouros, during the EOKA struggle.
• February 22: Alexandros Svolos, politician, head of the "Government of the Mountains"

March

• March 4: Giorgos Charalambous, EOKA fighter

May

• May 10: Michalis Karaolis, EOKA fighter
• May 10: Andreas Dimitriou, EOKA fighter

August

• August 9: Iakovos Patatsos, EOKA fighter
• August 9: Charilaos Michail, EOKA fighter
• August 9: Andreas Zakos, EOKA fighter

September

• September 21: Andreas Panagidis, EOKA fighter.
• September 21: Michalis Koutsoftas, EOKA fighter.
• September 21: Stelios Mavrommatis, EOKA fighter.

November

• November 14: Queen Elisabeth of Greece (wife of King George II)
• November 23: Grigoris Georgakopoulos, athlete (800m, 1500m)

December

• December 31: Michalis Georgalas, EOKA fighter

Unknown

• Panagiotis Paraskevopoulos, athlete
• Spyridon I, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece
• Emmanouil Tsouderos, banker, Prime Minister