- Dec 1 21st Iron Bowl: Auburn beats Alabama 34-7 in Birmingham
- Dec 1 Algerian-born French long-distance runner Alain Mimoun wins the men's marathon in 2:25:00.0 at the Melbourne Olympics; first time runners follow painted line
- Dec 1 American Mildred McDaniel jumps world record 1.76m to win the women's high jump gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Briton Thelma Hopkins and Russian Mariya Pisareva dead-heat for silver (1.67m)
World Record
Dec 1 Australian women's 4 x 100m relay team of Norma Croker, Betty Cuthbert, Fleur Mellor & Shirley Strickland de la Hunty run world record 44.65 to win the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Cuthbert's 3rd gold of the Games
Robinson, Aparicio Rookies
Dec 1 Frank Robinson (NL) & Luis Aparicio (AL) voted Rookie of the Year
Gert Fredriksson's 3rd
Dec 1 Gert Fredriksson of Sweden wins his 3rd consecutive K-1 1,000m canoeing gold medal by 2.5s from Igor Pissarov of the Soviet Union at the Melbourne Olympics; also wins K-1 10,000m gold
- Dec 1 Hungarian boxer László Papp wins his 3rd straight Olympic gold medal when he beats future Hall of Famer José Torres representing the US on points in the light-middleweight final at the Melbourne Olympics
- Dec 1 In front of 100,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a US Army baseball team beats an Australian all-star team, 11–5 in an Olympic exhibition game; Sergeant Vance Sutton belts a grand slam for Army
- Dec 1 Indonesian VP Mohammed Hatta resigns
US Defeats Soviet Union
Dec 1 Led by future Basketball Hall of Famers Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, the US wins it's 4th consecutive Olympic gold medal with an 89-55 victory over the Soviet Union at the Melbourne Games
Dawn Fraser
Dec 1 Legendary Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser sets world record 1:02.0 to win the women's 100m freestyle at the Melbourne Olympics; first of Fraser's 3 consecutive gold medals in the event
Candide
Dec 1 Leonard Bernstein's musical "Candide" opens at Martin Beck Theater, NYC; runs for 73 performances
The Girl Can't Help It
Dec 1 Musical comedy film "The Girl Can't Help It" starring Jayne Mansfield with cameos by rock 'n' roll stars Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent premieres
- Dec 1 Romanian canoeist Leon Rotman wins the men's C-1,000m gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; claims the singles double after also winning the C-1 10,000m gold
World Record
Dec 1 US men's 4 x 100m relay team of Thane Baker, Leamon King, Bobby Morrow & Ira Murchison sets world record 39.60s to win the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Morrow's 3rd gold medal of the Games
Castro lands in Cuba
Dec 2 Fidel Castro lands with "Granma" on coast of Cuba
- Dec 3 Australian 4 x 200m freestyle relay team of Kevin O'Halloran, John Devitt, Murray Rose & Jon Henricks swim world record 8:23.6 to take the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Rose's 2nd of 3 gold at the Games
Chamberlain's Varsity Debut
Dec 3 Basketball icon Wilt Chamberlain makes his much anticipated varsity debut; scores 52 points and grabs 31 rebounds, breaking both all-time Kansas records in an 87–69 win against Northwestern
- Dec 3 Britain and France pull troops out of Egypt
- Dec 3 KFSA (now KFSM) TV channel 5 in Ft Smith, AR (CBS) 1st broadcast
- Dec 4 22nd Heisman Trophy Award: Paul Hornung, Notre Dame (QB)
- Dec 4 American diver Pat McCormick wins the 3m springboard gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics with 142.46 points; later wraps up the women's double when she takes the 10m platform gold
Million-Dollar Quartet
Dec 4 An impromptu recording session by the "Million-Dollar Quartet" - Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash - takes place at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee
- Dec 4 Australian swimmer Murray Rose sets world record 4:27.3 to claim the 400m gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Rose later also wins 1,500m gold
- Dec 5 17-year-old British swimmer Judy Grinham and American Carin Cone both swim world record 1:12.9 in the women's 100m backstroke at the Melbourne Olympics; Grinham is awarded gold medal
- Dec 5 Danish yachtsman Paul Elvstrøm wins the Finn class gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; his 2nd straight Finn gold and 3rd consecutive Olympic gold in sailing
Larisa Latynina's Golds
Dec 5 Soviet artistic gymnast Larisa Latynina wins the women's vault and ties for gold in the floor exercise section at the Melbourne Olympics; later takes gold total to 4 with teams and individual all-round titles
- Dec 6 Against the background of the Soviet invasion of Hungary the nations square off at the Melbourne Olympics in a famous water polo match; game called off with Hungary leading 4-0 and near riot halted by police; Hungary goes on to win gold medal
- Dec 6 Australian swimmer David Theile sets world record 1:02.2 to win the 100m backstroke gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics
- Dec 6 Australian women's 4 × 100m freestyle relay team of Dawn Fraser, Faith Leech, Sandra Morgan & Lorraine Crapp swim world record 4:17.1 and beat powerful US team to win the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics
- Dec 6 German WWII prisoner of war Helmut Bantz and Soviet gymnast Valentin Muratov tie for the vault gold medal with 18.85 points at the Melbourne Olympics
Happy Hunting
Dec 6 Harold Karr and Matt Dubey's musical "Happy Hunting", starring Ethel Merman and Fernando Lamas, opens at Majestic Theater, NYC; runs for 412 performances
Mandela Arrested
Dec 6 Nelson Mandela & 156 others arrested for political activities in South Africa
- Dec 6 Randhir Singh Gentle scores the winner as India beats Pakistan, 1-0 in the Melbourne Olympics field hockey final to win it's 6th consecutive gold medal in the sport
- Dec 6 Soviet gymnast Viktor Chukarin follows his parallel bars gold medal with the individual all-round title and teams gold at the Melbourne Olympics
- Dec 7 American diver Pat McCormick wraps up the women's double when she wins the 10m platform gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics with 84.85 points; also won the 3m springboard gold
- Dec 7 Australian swimmer Murray Rose claims his 3rd gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics when he wins the 1,500m in 17:58.9; also wins 400m & 4 x 200m relay
- Dec 7 Helen O'Connell joins Today Show panel (NBC)
- Dec 7 Soviet artistic gymnast Larisa Latynina takes her gold medal tally to 4 at the Melbourne Olympics; wins teams and individual all-round titles having earlier won vault and floor exercise sections
- Dec 8 1st test firing of Vanguard satellite program, TV-0
- Dec 8 Guy Mitchell's "Singing the Blues" single goes #1 for 10 weeks
- Dec 8 XVI Summer Olympic Games close in Melbourne, Australia; start of an Olympic tradition - amidst international tensions, athletes mingle together, parade into and around MCG arena for final appearance to close the Games
- Dec 10 Establishment of The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA (from Portuguese: Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola), left-wing party that has ruled since independence from Portugal
- Dec 11 Anti-Russian demonstrations in Stettin & Wroclaw, Poland
- Dec 12 Commencement of the Irish Republican Army's Border Campaign.
Anastasia
Dec 13 "Anastasia" comeback film for Ingrid Bergman is released in the US, role wins Bergman Academy Award for Best Actress.
Dodgers Attempt Robinson Trade
Dec 13 Dodgers trade Jackie Robinson to Giants for pitcher Dick Littlefield & $35,000. Robinson will retire rather than be traded.
- Dec 14 Paul-Henri Spaak appointed secretary-general of NATO
- Dec 15 Emergency crisis in North Ireland proclaimed after IRA strikes
- Dec 15 KGW TV channel 8 in Portland, OR (NBC) begins broadcasting
- Dec 15 WRAL TV channel 5 in Raleigh-Durham, NC (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Dec 16 Harold Rome, S. N. Behrman, and Joshua Logan's musical romance "Fanny", starring Ezio Pinza, Walter Slezak, and Florence Henderson, closes at Majestic Theater, NYC, after 888 performances
- Dec 18 "To Tell the Truth" debuts on CBS-TV
Inaugural Ballon d'Or
Dec 18 Ballon d'Or: Blackpool & England winger Stanley Matthews wins inaugural award for best football player in Europe; beats Real Madrid pair Alfredo Di Stéfano & Raymond Kopa
- Dec 18 Israeli flag hoisted on Mount Sinai
- Dec 18 Japan admitted to UN
Rizzuto for the Yankees
Dec 18 Phil Rizzuto signs as NY Yankees radio-TV announcer
- Dec 20 Military coup under colonel Simbolon in Sumatra
- Dec 20 Montgomery, Alabama removes race-based seat assignments on its buses
Montgomery Bus Boycott Ends
Dec 21 Montgomery bus boycott ends: Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, E. D. Nixon, and Glenn Smiley ride in new integrated bus after Supreme Court rules segregated buses unconditional [1]
- Dec 22 "New Faces of 1956" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 221 performances
- Dec 22 Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity at Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Columbus, Ohio
- Dec 22 Last British & French troops leave Egypt
- Dec 24 "I Love Lucy" Christmas show airs, never put in syndication
- Dec 24 Ferdinand de Lesseps statue blown up in Port Said Egypt
Howe's Christmas Hat Trick
Dec 25 Detroit's future Hockey Hall of Fame right wing Gordie Howe picks up a Xmas hat-trick & 3 assists in Red Wings' 8-1 win over NY Rangers; most points he scores in a single game in entire 26-year NHL career
- Dec 27 45th Davis Cup: Australia beats USA in Adelaide (5-0)
Sharman's Streak Ends
Dec 27 Bill Sharman (Boston) ends NBA free throw streak of 55 games
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