List of Famous people who died in 1956

Lester Lee was an American composer. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Original Song for the film Miss Sadie Thompson. Lee was also well known as the co-writer of "Pennsylvania Polka". Lee died in June 1956 of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 52.

Emil Nolde was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early 20th century to explore color. He is known for his brushwork and expressive choice of colors. Golden yellows and deep reds appear frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. His watercolors include vivid, brooding storm-scapes and brilliant florals.

Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr von Neurath was a German diplomat who served as Foreign Minister of Germany between 1932 and 1938.

Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel was a French mathematician and politician. As a mathematician, he was known for his founding work in the areas of measure theory and probability.

Greenleaf Whittier Pickard was a United States radio pioneer. Pickard was a researcher in the early days of wireless. While not the earliest discoverer of the rectifying properties of contact between certain solid materials, he was largely responsible and most famous for the development of the crystal detector, the earliest type of diode detector. The crystal detector was the central component in many early radio receivers from around 1906 until about 1920. Pickard also experimented with antennas, radio wave propagation and noise suppression. On August 30, 1906 he filed a patent for a silicon crystal detector, which was granted on November 20, 1906. On June 10, 1907 he filed a patent for a Magnetic Aerial which was granted on January 21, 1908. Pickard's loop antenna had directional properties that could be used to reduce interference to the intended wireless communications. On June 21, 1911 he filed a patent on a crystal detector incorporating a springy low inertia wire of about 24 gauge formed with a loop or helix and pointed to make contact with the crystal. Crystal detectors incorporating this construction would become the most widely used and popularly known by the term cat whisker detector. This patent was granted on July 21, 1914. Greenleaf Whittier Pickard was named after his great-uncle, the American Quaker John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). Pickard was president of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1913.

Sergei Nikiforovich Vasilenko was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and music teacher whose compositions showed a strong tendency towards mysticism.

Guglielmo Piani, S.D.B. also known as William Piani, was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He was Apostolic Delegate to the Philippines from 1922 to 1948 and then played a similar role in Mexico until his death in 1956.

Lucien Paul Victor Febvre was a French historian best known for the role he played in establishing the Annales School of history. He was the initial editor of the Encyclopédie française together with Anatole de Monzie.