We Didn't Start the Fire: Encyclopedia II - We Didn't Start the Fire - Historical items referred to in the song

We Didn't Start the Fire - Historical items referred to in the song

The lyrics of "We Didn't Start the Fire" are essentially a chronological list of specific events, names, and places, beginning in Joel's year of birth. Stream of consciousness in style, the song could be considered a natural successor to songs such as "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", as it consists of a series of unrelated images in a quick-fire, half-rapped, half-sung vocal style.

The following are the lists as they appear in the song's lyrics, though in the actual song they are occasionally punctuated by the chorus. Events from a variety of contexts, such as popular entertainment, foreign affairs, and sports, are intermingled, giving an impression of the culture of the time as a whole.

The song and video have been interpreted as a rebuttal to criticism of Joel's Baby Boomer generation, from both its preceding and succeeding generations, for being responsible for much of the world's problems. The song's title and refrain imply that the world has been in a frenzied and troubled state since his generation's birth.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1949

• Harry Truman: Truman is inaugurated as president after being elected in 1948 to his own term; previously he was sworn in following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Doris Day: entered the public spotlight with "My Dream Is Yours" and "It's a Great Feeling"; divorced her second husband.
• Red China: the Communist Party of China wins the Chinese Civil War, establishing the People's Republic of China.
• Johnnie Ray: signs his first recording contract with Okeh Records, although he won't become popular for another two years.
• South Pacific: opens on Broadway on April 7
• Walter Winchell: an aggressive radio and newspaper journalist credited with inventing the gossip column.
• Joe DiMaggio: injured much of the season DiMaggio made a comeback in June and led the New York Yankees to win the World Series.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1950

• Joe McCarthy: McCarthy gains national attention and begins his anti-communist crusade with his Lincoln Day speech
• Richard Nixon: Nixon is first elected to the United States Senate
• Studebaker: a popular car company that was beginning its financial downfall at this time
• Television: widespread black-and-white TV becomes the most popular means of advertising
• North Korea, South Korea: North Korea attacks South Korea on June 25, beginning the Korean War
• Marilyn Monroe: soars in popularity with five new movies including The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve; attempts suicide after death of lover Johnny Hyde. Monroe also married for a time to Joe DiMaggio, with whose name in the prior verse hers rhymes here.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1951

• Rosenbergs: communists spying for the Soviet Union begin their highly publicized trial on March 6
• H-Bomb: the middle of the hydrogen bomb development program, announced in early 1950 and first tested in late 1952
• Sugar Ray (Robinson): the boxer attains the world's Middleweight title
• Panmunjeom: the border village where the Korean War cease-fire is signed in 1953
• (Marlon) Brando: nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the first time for his famous role in A Streetcar Named Desire
• The King and I: opened on Broadway on March 29
• and The Catcher in the Rye: first published in 1951

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1952

• (Dwight D.) Eisenhower: First elected as U.S. president by a landslide.
• Vaccine: Jonas Salk privately tests the first polio vaccine.
• England's got a new Queen: Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
• (Rocky) Marciano: defeats Jersey Joe Walcott, becoming the World's Heavyweight Champion.
• Liberace: a musical entertainer with a popular 1950s television show.
• Santayana good-bye: George Santayana dies on September 26.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1953

• Joseph Stalin: dies on March 5, yielding his position as leader of the Soviet Union.
• (Georgy Maksimilianovich) Malenkov: succeeds Stalin for six months following his death.
• (Gamal Abdel) Nasser: as Muhammad Naguib's minister of the interior, Nasser acts as the true power behind the new Egyptian nation.
• and (Sergei) Prokofiev: the composer, dies on March 5, the same day as Stalin.
• (Winthrop) Rockefeller: moves to Arkansas, the state in which he will be elected Governor.
• (Roy) Campanella: a baseball catcher, who receives the Most Valuable Player award for the second time.
• Communist bloc: a group of communist nations dominated by the Soviet Union at this time.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1954

• Roy Cohn: Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel; resigns and enters private practice with the fall of McCarthy
• Juan Perón: spends his last full year as President of Argentina before a September 1955 coup; married to Eva Perón.
• (Arturo) Toscanini: the famous conductor is at the height of his fame, performing regularly with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on national radio.
• Dacron: an early artificial fiber made from the same plastic as polyester
• Dien Bien Phu falls: the Vietnamese town falls to Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap, leading to the creation of North Vietnam and South Vietnam
• "Rock Around the Clock": Bill Haley and his Comets release the hit single "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock", spurring worldwide interest in rock and roll.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1955

• (Albert) Einstein: dies on April 18.
• James Dean: achieves success with East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and dies in a car accident on September 30.
• Brooklyn's got a winning team: Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series for the first time.
• Davy Crockett: television series.
• Peter Pan: Disney's 1953 film based on the classic Peter Pan character becomes a hit.
• Elvis Presley: Elvis signs with RCA Records on November 21, beginning his pop career.
• Disneyland: Disney's first theme park opens on July 17.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1956

• (Brigitte) Bardot: French sex symbol Bardot is popular internationally at this time.
• Budapest: the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
• Alabama: the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• (Nikita) Khrushchev: makes his famous Secret Speech denouncing Stalin's "cult of personality" on February 23.
• Princess Grace (Grace Kelly): releases her last film High Society and marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
• Peyton Place: the best-selling novel by Grace Metalious is published.
• Trouble in the Suez: Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal on October 29, beginning the Suez Crisis.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1957

• Little Rock: Orval Faubus stops the Little Rock Nine from attending Little Rock Central High School; Eisenhower deploys the 101st Airborne Division to counteract him.
• (Boris) Pasternak: the Russian author publishes his famous novel Doctor Zhivago.
• Mickey Mantle: the famous baseball player is in the middle of his career, an American League All-Star for the sixth year in a row.
• (Jack) Kerouac: publishes his first novel in seven years, On the Road.
• Sputnik: the first artificial satellite is launched on October 4.
• Chou En-lai: in the middle of his reign as Premier of the People's Republic of China.
• Bridge on the River Kwai: the film adaptation of the 1954 novel is released, receiving seven Academy Awards.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1958

• Lebanon: Lebanon Crisis of 1958.
• Charles de Gaulle: during war of independence in Algeria, France's Fourth Republic collapses and de Gaulle is elected in November to lead the new Fifth Republic.
• California baseball: the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to California and become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, becoming the first major league teams west of Kansas City.
• Starkweather homicide: the serial killer Charles Starkweather is at large, killing eleven people before he is caught.
• Children of thalidomide: sleeping aid and antiemetic, later found to cause birth defects, is for sale around the world.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1959

• Buddy Holly: died in a plane crash on February 3 with Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, "The Big Bopper".
• Ben-Hur: is an award-winning film set in Ancient Rome starring Charlton Heston.
• Space monkey: Able and Baker became the first living beings to successfully return to Earth from space aboard the Jupiter AM-18.
• Mafia: organized crime of an historically Sicilian/American origin is refered to as the Mafia.
• Hula hoops: the hula hoop is a toy hoop that promotes physical activity.
• (Fidel) Castro: comes to power after a revolution in Cuba and visits the United States later that year on an unofficial twelve-day tour.
• Edsel is a no-go: the 1960 model of this marketing disaster has production cut short in November 1959.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1960

• U-2: an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960.
• Syngman Rhee: was rescued by the CIA after being forced to resign as leader of South Korea for allegedly fixing an election and embezzling more than twenty million U.S. dollars.
• Payola: was publicized due to Dick Clark's testimony before Congress and Alan Freed's public disgrace.
• and (John F.) Kennedy: beats Richard Nixon in the November 8 general election amongst allegations of vote fraud.
• Chubby Checker: popularizes the dance The Twist with his song of the same name.
• Psycho: an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, based on a pulp novel by Robert Bloch and adapted by Joseph Stefano, which becomes a landmark in graphic violence and cinema sensationalism.
• Belgians in the Congo: The Democratic Republic of the Congo was declared independent on June 30, with Joseph Kasavubu as President and Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1961

• (Ernest) Hemingway: commits suicide on July 2 after a long battle with depression.
• (Adolf) Eichmann: is captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and tried for crimes against humanity.
• Stranger in a Strange Land: written by Robert A. Heinlein, is a breakthrough best-seller with themes of sexual freedom and liberation.
• (Bob) Dylan: after a New York Times review by critic Robert Shelton, Dylan is signed to Columbia Records.
• Berlin: The Berlin Wall, which separates West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany, is constructed.
• Bay of Pigs Invasion: failed attempt by United States-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1962

• Lawrence of Arabia: the Academy Award-winning film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence starring Peter O'Toole premiers in America on December 16.
• British Beatlemania: The Beatles gain Ringo Starr as drummer and Brian Epstein as manager, and join the EMI's Parlophone label.
• Ole Miss: James Meredith integrates the University of Mississippi.
• John Glenn: flew the first American manned orbital mission termed "Friendship 7" on February 20.
• Liston beats Patterson: Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson fight for the world heavyweight championship on September 25, ending in a round-one knockout.

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1963

• Pope Paul (VI): is elected to the papacy.
• Malcolm X: makes infamous statements about agreeing with the Kennedy assassination that cause Nation of Islam to censure him.
• British Politician Sex: the Profumo Affair.
• JFK, blown away; what else do I have to say?: President Kennedy is assassinated on November 22; see John F. Kennedy assassination

We Didn't Start the Fire - 1964–1989

• Birth control: in the early 1960s, oral contraceptives, popularly known as "the pill", first go on the market and are extremely popular. In 1968, Pope Paul VI released a document entitled Humanae Vitae which declared most birth control a sin.
• Ho Chi Minh: a Vietnamese Communist, who served as President of Vietnam from 1954–1969.
• Richard Nixon back again: Nixon elected in the 1968 presidential election.
• Moon shot: refers to the Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing.
• Woodstock: famous rock and roll festival that came to represent the epitome of the counterculture movement takes place.
• Watergate: political scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation.
• Punk rock: the Sex Pistols and their new sound become popular.
• (Menachem) Begin: becomes Prime Minister of Israel in 1977 and negotiates the Camp David Accords with Egypt's president in 1978.
• (Ronald) Reagan: elected twice as President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
• Palestine: the Palestine Liberation Organization is formed and attacks Israel; see history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Terror on the airline: at the time, numerous aircraft hijackings were shown on the news.
• Ayatollah's in Iran: during the Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran after exile and gains power.
• Russians in Afghanistan: Soviet forces fight a ten-year war in Afghanistan, from 1979 to 1989.
• Wheel of Fortune: a hit television game show, first shown in 1975.
• Sally Ride: in 1983 she becomes the first American woman in space.
• Heavy metal suicide: in the 1980s both Ozzy Osbourne and the band Judas Priest were brought to court by parents who accused the musicians of hiding subliminal pro-suicide messages in their music.
• Foreign debts.
• Homeless vets.
• AIDS: infectious disease which begins to spread rapidly on a global scale.
• Crack: cocaine
• Bernie Goetz: On December 22, 1984, Goetz shoots four black youths who attack him on a New York City subway; he is later acquitted.
• Hypodermics on the shore: medical waste was found washed up on beaches in New Jersey after being illegally dumped at sea.
• China's under martial law: On May 20, 1989, China declares martial law, enabling them to use force of arms to end the Tiananmen Square protests.
• Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore!: soda giants Coke and Pepsi each run marketing campaigns using popular music stars to reach the young adult demographic.

Of the individuals mentioned in the song, the following were still alive in 2005: Doris Day, Queen Elizabeth II, Brigitte Bardot, Fidel Castro, Chubby Checker, Bob Dylan, John Glenn, Floyd Patterson (but not Sonny Liston), Sally Ride, and Bernhard Goetz. Johnnie Ray became the first still-living person mentioned in the song to die, on February 24, 1990. John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon are the only individuals mentioned by name twice in the lyrics.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical items referred to in the song", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki