Date in year · 1956 · The 1950s

June 11, 1956

On June 11, 1956, start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150. César, Anne Glover, Beatrice Ask would arrive in the same year.

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1956

1950s

Around 1956

The year in brief

1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1956th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 956th year of the 2nd millennium, the 56th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1950s decade.

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What happened

On June 11, 1956

  1. 1956 Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150.

    First major Sinhalese-Tamil clash in Ceylon

    The 1956 anti-Tamil pogrom, also known as the Gal Oya riots, was the first organised pogrom against Sri Lankan Tamils in the Dominion of Ceylon. It began with anti-Tamil rioting in Colombo, followed by anti-Sinhalese rioting in the Batticaloa District. The worst of the violence took place in the Gal Oya valley after the Batticaloa attacks, where local majority Sinhalese colonists and employees of the Gal Oya Development Board commandeered government vehicles, dynamite and weapons and massacred minority Tamils.

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1956

The class of 1956

Others born in 1956

César 1956– Brazilian footballer (died 2024)
Anne Glover 1956– Scottish biologist and academic
Beatrice Ask 1956– Swedish politician, Swedish Minister for Justice
Peter Chelsom 1956– English film director, writer, and actor
Kakha Bendukidze 1956– Georgian economist and politician (died 2014)
Peter Kosminsky 1956– English director, producer, and screenwriter

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