Did You Start the Fire?
OK, so for some reason, that old Billy Joel song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” from 1989 is rolling around in my head. You know, the one that goes a little like…
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Yeah, that one. Anyway, I’m thinking about the fact that during the course of the song, there are a LOT of events from the 1950′s and 1960′s and 1970′s and 1980′s that get mentioned. Then I get to thinking like this: That if you knew something about all of the people, places, and events that are mentioned during the song, you would know quite a bit about popular US history. Or, you would have a lot of trivia locked up in your noggin.
Anyway, just for fun, I thought I would share a list of all the events mentioned in the song. How many ring a bell for you?
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggioJoe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn MonroeRosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, “The King and I” and “The Catcher in the Rye”Eisenhower, vaccine, England’s got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbyeJoseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist BlocRoy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron
Dien Bien, Phu Falls, “Rock Around the Clock”Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, DisneylandBardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev
Princess Grace, “Peyton Place”, trouble in the SuezLittle Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, “Bridge on the River Kwai”Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomideBuddy Holly, “Ben Hur”, space monkey, Mafia
Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-goU-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, “Psycho”, Belgians in the CongoHemingway, Eichmann, “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion“Lawrence of Arabia”, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats PattersonPope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to sayBirth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan“Wheel of Fortune”, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China’s under martial law
Rock and roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore
So, how many did you get?
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