| SUEZ | Canal in the Middle East which was at the centre of an international crisis in 1956 (4) (4) |
| ASSASSIN | Originally, a member of a secretive sect in the Middle East, which threatened local caliphates and killed crusaders |
| AGADIR | Moroccan port which became the centre of an international incident in 1911 when a gunboat arrived to protect German interests |
| BRESCIA | City in Lombardy which was at its height in the 16th century (7) |
| ATHENS | Greek city which was at that time in firstrate society (6) |
| PANIC | Lose cool leads in play about News International crisis (5) |
| EDEN | Anthony **** , British prime minister who presided over the Suez crisis in 1956 (4) |
| IDES | The middle of an ancient Roman month, such as the famous day of the assassination of one of that civilisation's greatest leaders (4) |
| BALL | "I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done." She was at the center of the TV show I Love Lucy. |
| CORE | Was at the centre of a score-draw (4) |
| GOLD | With the Latin name aurum, a metal gilded onto some styles of Satsuma or Imari ware for decorative accents; or, the centre of an archery target (4) |
| DEAD | --- Sea Scrolls, collection of manuscripts in Hebrew and Aramaic discovered in caves between 1946 and 1956 (4) |
| WINT | Accomplice of the assassin Kidd in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever (1956) (4) |
| EDGE | Margin in the middle of an accounts book (4) |
| FESS | In heraldry, a horizontal band across the middle of an escutcheon (4) |
| HOWL | Poem by Allen Ginsberg published in 1956 (4) |
| NAGY | The Hungarian premier executed following the country's failed revolution of 1956 (4) |
| YOLK | The centre of an egg (4) |
| ERIE | Canal in the folk song "Low Bridge, Everybody Down" |
| SEED | Inedible item in the center of an avocado |
