360What happened in 1956?
4 moments from 1956 on 360n60, each told in 60 words or fewer.
- On this day · 25 September 1956
The first transatlantic telephone cable opens
On 25 September 1956, TAT-1, the first telephone cable under the Atlantic, opened between Scotland and Newfoundland. It could carry 36 calls at once, far clearer than radio. Today, fibre-optic cables under the oceans carry almost all international internet traffic.
- On this day · 17 October 1956
Calder Hall nuclear power station opens
On 17 October 1956, Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall in northwest England, the first nuclear power station to deliver electricity to a national grid on a commercial scale. It ran for almost 47 years. Nuclear power now provides about a tenth of the world's electricity.
- 1956 · from Bell Labs scientists build the first transistor
Nobel Prize in Physics
- 1956 · from Amundsen's team becomes the first to reach the South Pole
The first South Pole research station is built