A calendar of the triumphs, defeats and contortions of the human spirit during 1956:

JANUARY

Progress Report. In Taegu, South Korea, two weeks after he escaped from jail, Murder Suspect Kank Woo Won sent a polite note to the prosecutor: "I wasn't feeling too well because I feared I would be executed, but I am very well now, thank you."

FEBRUARY

The Critic. In Los Angeles, police looked for the thief who walked up to a movie house, poked a pistol at Theater Cashier Kay Lee Stafford, said: "I didn't like the movie. Give me everybody's money back," and walked off with $212.

MARCH

Vox Populi. In Washington, New Hampshire's Senator Norris Cotton received a fan letter from a high-school girl: "All my friends are saving pictures of movie stars, and I want to be different, so please send me photos of twelve senators, but pick carefully, even the best are sort of funny looking."

APRIL

Solid Argument. In Los Angeles, Viola Fredieu sued Harold Hester to recover her 49 gallstones, which he was using in sales promotion to show prospective customers what might happen if they refused to buy his water-softening equipment.

MAY

On the House. In Milwaukee, Internal Revenue officials, agreeing to accept $23,000 plus a percentage of her future income in settlement for $81,656 in back taxes from Mae Yager, 67, a bawdyhouse proprietress, explained that the arrangement might prove more profitable than a forced sale of Madam Yager's assets.

JUNE

You Name It. In Graham, N.C., History Teacher Wilton Hawkins apologized under pressure to the city council for including in a final examination a multiple choice question: "The Graham City Council is largely composed of A) Idiots; B) Ignoramuses; C) Ne'er-Do-Wells; D) You call it, you got it."

JULY

Below the Belt. In Laramie, Wyo., Mrs. Ralph Conwell got into the right side of her Chevrolet to wait for her husband, cinched up her new safety belt, tried in vain to reach the brake as the car rolled down the driveway, rammed a truck, jumped the curb, mowed down a lilac bush and crashed into the bedroom of the house next door.

AUGUST

Joy Unconfined. In Blair, Neb., the weekly Enterprise carried a classified ad: "LOST: light blue dress night of Share-the-Fun Contest."

SEPTEMBER

Small Voices. In Miami, caught making white lightning while free on bail after an earlier arrest, Moonshiner Lonnie Hastings mourned: "They is so much noise about a still, what with rats rustling around in the bushes and birds singing in the trees, that a feller can't hear them federal agents when they come around."

OCTOBER

Oedipus Rack. In Singapore, Them Kim Kow said in court that she had left her husband, but would return if her mother-in-law would stop sleeping under their bed.

NOVEMBER

Bulletin. In Wichita, Kans., after twelve months of only scattered rains, drought-conscious U.S. Weather Bureau Meteorologist Fred Wells looked out the window, teletyped: "NOW HEAR THIS NOW

HEAR THIS NOW HEAR THIS RAIN HAS JUST STARTED AT THE AIRPORT. GOODY GOODY GOODY."

DECEMBER

Put Them All Together. In Turin, Italy, when police arrived to quiet a family quarrel, they got an explanation from outnumbered Bridegroom Antonio Gu-glielmone: just before the wedding, his wife admitted that she wasn't a spinster but a widow with two children, then "finally she admitted that . . . she really had three children, not two. Then as time went by she seemed worried once more . . . and there were four children, not three . . . and then five children, not four ... I was concerned about the speed of the family's growth."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.