Week of December 1, 1956
A Brooklyn pier fire burns into a mountain of explosive cargo touching off a
tremendous blast. Nine persons are killed and 247 are injured. The shock
radiated 35 miles from the explosion. Windows were shattered as far away as
five miles.
President Eisenhower gives the signal to ship 500,000 barrels of oil daily to
Western European countries facing critical shortages because of the Mideast
crisis.
Suez canal pullback - Troops and gear
begin to board a ship, beginning the
British-French exodus from Egypt. Two
thousand soldiers will be aboard and
ready to sail out - just a month after the
first paratroopers leaped into the Canal
Zone.
Russian tanks and Hungarian police
shoot down scores of antigovernment
demonstrators in the heart of Budapest in
the bitterest fighting since the Soviets crushed the Hungarian revolt.
New strikes and street fights sweep Budapest. Workers told the Russian-
imposed government to quit jailing their leaders or face another outburst of
violence.
Scores of Hungarians are killed and many others wounded in clashes with police
and Russian troops throughout the countryside as workers battle Red tanks.
Martial law in
Hungary
- Janos Kadar’s Soviet-
backed government of Hungary orders the
dissolution of all the major workers’ councils
opposed to his regime and declares a state of
martial law for the nation.
President Eisenhower denounces Soviet terrorism
in Hungary. He said it has moved the free world to
“horror and revulsion” and almost completely
