# List of references in We Didn't Start the Fire

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is a 1989 hit single by American musician Billy Joel in which the lyrics tell the history of the United States from 1949 to 1989 through a series of cultural references. In total, the song contains 118 or 119 references to historical people, places, events, and phenomena. The idea for creating a song chronicling news events and personalities originally came to Joel from a conversation he had with Sean Lennon, wherein Lennon claimed that nothing of note happened in the news during the early life of Joel. In his effort to prove Lennon wrong, Joel began listing various important global events such as the Korean War, Little Rock Crisis, and Hungarian Revolution. The references are presented in roughly chronological order, beginning with Joel's birth in 1949 and culminating in 1989, when Joel had turned 40 years old. The song proved divisive, with some praising its educational value and others criticizing the melody.

## List

Lists cataloging every reference in the song have previously been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Far Out, and Ranker.
| No. | Lyric | Subject | Date | Description |
| 1 | "Harry Truman" | Harry S. Truman | November 2, 1948 | Democratic party candidate Truman unexpectedly wins the 1948 United States presidential election. |
| 2 | "Doris Day" | Doris Day | June 25, 1948 | Starring Day in her debut role, the movie Romance on the High Seas is released, making her a celebrity singer and actress. |
| 3 | "Red China" | Proclamation of the People's Republic of China | October 1, 1949 | Following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the People's Republic of China is established. |
| 4 | "Johnnie Ray" | Johnnie Ray | 1949 | Ray signs a contract with Okeh Records, which starts his career as a famous rock and roll musician. |
| 5 | "South Pacific" | South Pacific (musical) | April 7, 1949 | South Pacific debuts on Broadway to critical and popular success. |
| 6 | "Walter Winchell" | Walter Winchell | 1950 | Winchell stands "at the height of his popularity" but soon comes under public scrutiny for his promotion of McCarthyism. |
| 7 | "Joe DiMaggio" | Joe DiMaggio | February 7, 1949 | DiMaggio signs a contract to play for the New York Yankees, becoming the first American league player to earn over $99,000. |
| 8 | "Joe McCarthy" | Joseph McCarthy | February 9, 1950 | Senator McCarthy gives his Lincoln Day speech, launching his career as an anticommunist fearmonger. |
| 9 | "Richard Nixon" | Richard Nixon | November 7, 1950 | Nixon is elected to the United States Congress as senator. |
| 10 | "Studebaker" | Studebaker | 1950 | The car manufacturer enters a period of financial decline which leads to it merging with Packard to form Studebaker-Packard four years later. |
| 11 | "Television" | Golden Age of Television | 1948 | A "golden age" of television in the United States begins, ending in 1958. |
| 12 | "North Korea" | Korean War | June 25, 1950 | The communist North invades its anticommunist counterpart in a major intensification of the Cold War. |
| 13 | "South Korea" | Korean War | June 25, 1950 | The communist North invades its anticommunist counterpart in a major intensification of the Cold War. |
| 14 | "Marilyn Monroe" | Marilyn Monroe | 1950 | Monroe appears in five movies in one year: Right Cross, The Asphalt Jungle, All About Eve, The Fireball, and A Ticket to Tomahawk. |
| 15 | "Rosenbergs" | Julius and Ethel Rosenberg | April 5, 1951 | The Rosenbergs are sentenced to death on the charge of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union by sharing classified information relating to the development of nuclear weapons. |
| 16 | "H-bomb" | Hydrogen bomb | January 1950 | The United States government under the Truman administration begins developing and testing thermonuclear weapons. |
| 17 | "Sugar Ray" | Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Jake LaMotta | February 14, 1951 | In their final boxing match, Robinson beats LaMotta with such brutality that the event is dubbed "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre." |
| 18 | "Panmunjom" | Panmunjom | August 1951 | Negotiations for a ceasefire to the Korean War relocate to the village of Panmunjom, where an armistice agreement would be signed two years later. |
| 19 | "Brando" | Marlon Brando | 1951 | Brando performs in the first film rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. |
| 20 | "The King and I" | The King and I | March 29, 1951 | The Broadway musical premieres to critical and popular success, earning several Tony Awards. |
| 21 | "The Catcher in the Rye" | The Catcher in the Rye | July 16, 1951 | The novel is published to both critical acclaim and moral controversy due to obscene content. |
| 22 | "Eisenhower" | Dwight D. Eisenhower | November 4, 1952 | Eisenhower is elected 34th president of the United States. |
| 23 | "Vaccine" | Salk polio vaccine | July 2, 1952 | Jonas Salk begins testing vaccines which would later prove successful in preventing the disease polio. |
| 24 | "England’s got a new queen" | Proclamation of accession of Elizabeth II | February 6, 1952 | George VI dies, causing his heiress Elizabeth to be proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom. |
| 25 | "Marciano" | Rocky Marciano | September 23, 1952 | Marciano becomes world heavyweight boxing champion after knocking out his predecessor Jersey Joe Walcott. |
| 26 | "Liberace" | Liberace | February 3, 1952 | Consisting of live musical shows hosted by Liberace himself, The Liberace Show begins airing on television to popular success. |
| 27 | "Santayana goodbye" | George Santayana | September 26, 1952 | Santayana, an influential Spanish-American philosopher, dies of cancer in Rome, Italy. |
| 28 | "Joseph Stalin" | Death of Joseph Stalin | March 5, 1953 | Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin dies, ending his reign of totalitarianism. |
| 29 | "Malenkov" | Georgy Malenkov | March 6, 1953 | Malenkov succeeds Stalin as leader of the Soviet Union. |
| 30 | "Nasser" | Gamal Abdel Nasser | July 23, 1952 | Nasser successfully leads the Free Officers movement in overthrowing King Farouk in the 1952 Egyptian revolution. |
| 31 | "Prokofiev" | Sergei Prokofiev | March 5, 1953 | The renowned Russian composer dies of a stroke on the same day as Joseph Stalin. |
| 32 | "Rockefeller" | Divorce between Winthrop Rockefeller and Barbara "Bobo" Sears | June 19, 1954 | Rockefeller pays $5,750,000 to Sears in a divorce settlement, a record-breaking amount. |
| 33 | "Campanella" | Roy Campanella | November 27, 1953 | Campanella receives the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award for a second time, which he would win again two years later. |
| 34 | "Communist Bloc" | Communist Bloc | June 17, 1953 | The Communist government of East Germany receives military aid from the Soviet Union to quell a workers' uprising. |
| 35 | "Roy Cohn" | Roy Cohn | July 1954 | Cohn resigns as Chief Counsel of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations due to the Army–McCarthy hearings, during which he had served as McCarthy's top aide. |
| 36 | "Juan Perón" | Juan Perón | September 19, 1955 | Argentine president Perón is ousted in a military coup. |
| 37 | "Toscanini" | Arturo Toscanini | April 4, 1954 | The virtuoso conductor performs his final concert with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. |
| 38 | "Dacron" | Dacron | 1954 | Surgeon Michael DeBakey begins experimenting with the polyester fiber, eventually using it to develop the first artificial arterial patches. |
| 39 | "Dien Bien Phu Falls" | Battle of Dien Bien Phu | May 7, 1954 | The Viet Minh capture the key city of Điện Biên Phủ, a decisive victory in the First Indochina War. |
| 40 | "Rock Around the Clock" | Rock Around the Clock | April 12, 1954 | Bill Haley & His Comets release their rendition of the song, which would later achieve commercial success in 1955. |
| 41 | "Einstein" | Albert Einstein | April 18, 1955 | The renowned physicist dies of heart failure. |
| 42 | "James Dean" | James Dean | September 30, 1955 | The celebrity actor dies in a car crash at age 24. |
| 43 | "Brooklyn’s got a winning team" | Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1955 World Series | October 4, 1955 | The baseball team becomes the World Series champion after beating the New York Yankees. |
| 44 | "Davy Crockett" | Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier | May 25, 1955 | An edited compilation of the titular miniseries releases as a standalone movie. |
| 45 | "Peter Pan" | Peter Pan | March 7, 1955 | The 1954 musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie's play starring Mary Martin is broadcast live as part of NBC's Producers' Showcase. |
| 46 | "Elvis Presley" | Elvis Presley | November 21, 1955 | The "King of Rock and Roll" signs a recording contract with RCA Victor. |
| 47 | "Disneyland" | Disneyland | July 17, 1955 | The first Disneyland amusement park opens in Anaheim, California. |
| 48 | "Bardot" | Brigitte Bardot | November 28, 1956 | Bardot stars as the leading actress in And God Created Woman, establishing her status as a sex symbol. |
| 49 | "Budapest" | Hungarian Revolution of 1956 | October 23, 1956 | A revolution against the Communist Hungarian government breaks out in Budapest, Hungary's capital. |
| 50 | "Alabama" | Montgomery bus boycott | December 5, 1955 | African American activist Rosa Parks incites a boycott of public transit in Montgomery, Alabama after being convicted of violating racial segregation laws in a segregated bus. |
| 51 | "Khrushchev" | Nikita Khrushchev | February 25, 1956 | Soviet leader Khrushchev delivers his "Secret Speech", a denunciation of Joseph Stalin's cult of personality and a herald of his policy of De-Stalinization. |
| 52 | "Princess Grace" | Grace Kelly | April 18, 1956 | The American actress marries Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, thereafter becoming Princess of Monaco. |
| 53 | "Peyton Place" | Peyton Place | September 24, 1956 | The novel is released and achieves commercial success, staying on a best-seller list for 26 weeks. |
| 54 | "Trouble in the Suez" | Suez Crisis | July 26, 1956 | Egyptian president Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, provoking a Franco–Israeli–British invasion of Egypt. |
| 55 | "Little Rock" | Little Rock Crisis | September 24, 1957 | American president Eisenhower deploys members of the 101st Airborne Division to guard the entry of nine African American students into Little Rock Central High School. |
| 56 | "Pasternak" | Boris Pasternak | November 23, 1957 | Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago is published to critical acclaim and wins the Nobel Prize in Literature the following year. |
| 57 | "Mickey Mantle" | Mickey Mantle | November 22, 1957 | The baseballer wins his second consecutive MVP award, leading the league in walks and runs scored. |
| 58 | "Kerouac" | Jack Kerouac | September 5, 1957 | Kerouac's novel On the Road is published to critical acclaim. |
| 59 | "Sputnik" | Sputnik 1 | October 4, 1957 | Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union. |
| 60 | "Chou En-Lai" | Zhou Enlai | January 1957 | Chinese premier Zhou begins engaging in shuttle diplomacy in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. |
| 61 | "Bridge on the River Kwai" | The Bridge on the River Kwai | October 2, 1957 | The movie is first released and later wins seven Academy Awards, including an Academy Award for Best Picture. |
| 62 | "Lebanon" | 1958 Lebanon crisis | May 8, 1957 | The United States sends 15,000 marines around Beirut to aid president Camille Chamoun of Lebanon. |
| 63 | "Charles de Gaulle" | Charles de Gaulle | December 21, 1958 | De Gaulle is elected the first president of the French Fifth Republic. |
| 64 | "California baseball" | Major League Baseball relocations of 1950s–1960s | 1958 | The New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers both move to California, thereafter becoming the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers. |
| 65 | "Starkweather homicide" | Charles Starkweather | December 1, 1957 | Starkweather begins a murder spree, eventually claiming 11 lives by January 1958. |
| 66 | "Children of Thalidomide" | Thalidomide scandal | 1957 | The immunomodulatory drug thalidomide is first introduced in the European market. Later brought to the United States, it would be linked to thousands of birth defects and stillbirths. |
| 67 | "Buddy Holly" | The Day the Music Died | February 3, 1959 | American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson die in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. |
| 68 | "Ben-Hur" | Ben-Hur | November 18, 1959 | The Biblical epic film Ben-Hur releases to overwhelmingly positive reviews. |
| 69 | "Space monkey" | Miss Baker | May 28, 1959 | A squirrel monkey named Miss Baker and a rhesus macaque named Able become the first two animals to be launched into space by the United States and safely return. Other monkeys and apes follow them before humans go to space. |
| 70 | "Mafia" | Vito Genovese | April 17, 1959 | American Mafia mobster Vito Genovese is sentenced to 15 years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta. |
| 71 | "Hula hoops" | Hula hoop | 1958 | Australian businessman Alex Tolmer begins selling hoops made of plastic, and rights are purchased by the American toy company Wham-O. The toy becomes a massive fad in the United States, reaching over 100 million sales in two years. |
| 72 | "Castro" | Fidel Castro | February 16, 1959 | Revolutionary leader Fidel Castro becomes the fifteenth Prime Minister of Cuba after the end of the Cuban Revolution. |
| 73 | "Edsel is a no-go" | Edsel | November 19, 1959 | The Ford Motor Company's Edsel brand of automobiles performs very poorly, and the word "Edsel" becomes a shorthand for any massive and embarrassing failure. |
| 74 | "U-2" | 1960 U-2 incident | May 1, 1960 | An American Lockheed U-2 is shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces deep within Soviet territory, embarrassing the United States on the international stage and causing the cancellation of a summit in Paris. |
| 75 | "Syngman Rhee" | Syngman Rhee | March 15, 1960 | The South Korean government claims that Syngman Rhee wins 100% of the vote in the March 1960 South Korean presidential election, leading to widespread protests against election fraud. The protests spiral into the April Revolution, leading to the collapse of the First Republic and the resignation and exile of Rhee. |
| 76 | "Payola" | Payola | 1959 | Radio disc jockeys illegally accept bribes to play certain music, causing investigations and criminal charges being filed against several radio hosts such as Alan Freed. In sessions before the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight, 335 DJs admit to having received over $263,000 in bribes. |
| 77 | "Kennedy" | John F. Kennedy | January 20, 1961 | John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. |
| 78 | "Chubby Checker" | Chubby Checker | July 1960 | American singer Chubby Checker releases a hit cover of "The Twist", popularizing the dance move into a dance craze. |
| 79 | "Psycho" | Psycho | September 8, 1960 | The horror film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock releases, becoming Hitchcock's most famous and influential work. |
| 80 | "Belgians in the Congo" | Congo Crisis | July 5, 1960 – November 25, 1965 | After the fall of the Belgian Congo, a series of civil wars break out in the country, with Belgian troops attempting to regain control. The crisis serves as a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union. |
| 81 | "Hemingway" | Ernest Hemingway | July 2, 1961 | Writer Ernest Hemingway commits suicide in his home in Idaho. |
| 82 | "Eichmann" | Adolf Eichmann | June 1, 1962 | Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is executed by hanging in Israel. |
| 83 | "Stranger in a Strange Land" | Stranger in a Strange Land | June 1, 1961 | Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel becomes iconic and influential in the counterculture of the 1960s. |
| 84 | "Dylan" | Bob Dylan | 1960s | American musician Bob Dylan becomes hugely influential in the 1960s, with his music becoming emblematic of the decade's social changes. |
| 85 | "Berlin" | Berlin Wall | August 13, 1961 | East Germany begins construction of a wall separating East Berlin and West Berlin, with the primary goal of preventing East Germans from defecting to the West. |
| 86 | "Bay of Pigs Invasion" | Bay of Pigs Invasion | April 17–20, 1961 | The United States launches a failed invasion of Cuba via Playa Girón, attempting to overthrow the Castro government. |
| 87 | "Lawrence of Arabia" | Lawrence of Arabia | December 10, 1962 | The 1962 film, an adaptation of Seven Pillars of Wisdom and based on the life of T. E. Lawrence, is released and later gets nominated for ten Oscars at the 35th Academy Awards, winning seven. |
| 88 | "British Beatlemania" | Beatlemania | c.1963 – 1966 | The Beatles become hugely popular in the United Kingdom, with British press using the term "Beatlemania" to describe the ecstatic, female-led fandom. Beatlemania spreads from the United Kingdom to the United States in 1964. |
| 89 | "Ole Miss" | Ole Miss riot of 1962 | September 30 – October 1, 1962 | A race riot, stoked by Mississippi's state authorities, breaks out at the University of Mississippi (commonly known as Ole Miss) after the admission of James Meredith, a black student, into the formerly segregated school. President John F. Kennedy quells the riot by mobilizing over 20,000 United States Army troops to combat the 3,000 rioters. |
| 90 | "John Glenn" | John Glenn | February 20, 1962 | John Glenn becomes the third American in space and the first American to orbit the Earth. |
| 91 | "Liston beats Patterson" | Sonny Liston vs. Floyd Patterson II | July 22, 1963 | Boxer Sonny Liston becomes the world heavyweight champion after knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round of their fight. |
| 92 | "Pope Paul" | Pope Paul VI | June 21, 1963 | Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini is elected as the successor of Pope John XXIII, taking the papal name of Paul VI. |
| 93 | "Malcolm X" | Malcolm X | February 21, 1965 | American civil rights leader Malcolm X is assassinated by Thomas Hagan, a member of the Nation of Islam. |
| 94 | "British politician sex" | Profumo affair | c. early 1960s | John Profumo, the British Secretary of State for War serving under the Conservative Harold Macmillan, has an extramarital affair with Christine Keeler. The scandal ends Profumo's career and contributes to the Conservative Party's defeat in the 1964 United Kingdom general election. |
| 95 | "JFK blown away" | Assassination of John F. Kennedy | November 22, 1963 | American president John F. Kennedy is shot in the head by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. |
| 96 | "Birth control" | Griswold v. Connecticut | June 7, 1965 | The Supreme Court of the United States rules that married couples have the right to use birth control without government restriction. |
| 97 | "Ho Chi Minh" | Ho Chi Minh | September 2, 1969 | Ho Chi Minh, the first president of North Vietnam and leader through the beginning of the Vietnam War, dies. |
| 98 | "Richard Nixon back again" | Richard Nixon | January 20, 1969 | Years after serving as vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon becomes the 37th president of the United States. |
| 99 | "Moonshot" | Apollo 11 | July 20, 1969 | Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land the Lunar Module Eagle, becoming the first humans to land on the surface of the Moon. |
| 100 | "Woodstock" | Woodstock | August 15–18, 1969 | The Woodstock Music and Art Fair is held in Bethel, New York. It becomes one of the largest music festivals in history and becomes a defining moment in the counterculture of the 1960s. |
| 101 | "Watergate" | Watergate scandal | June 17, 1972 | President Richard Nixon is involved with an attempted burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex. On the verge of impeachment, Nixon resigns and is pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford. |
| 102 | "Punk rock" | Punk rock | c. mid-1970s | The punk rock music genre, spearheaded by bands such as the Ramones and The Stooges, gains international popularity in the 1970s. |
| 103 | "Begin" | Menachem Begin | June 21, 1977 | Menachem Begin wins the 1977 Israeli legislative election, becoming the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. He and Anwar Sadat are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for signing the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. |
| 104 | "Reagan" | Ronald Reagan | January 20, 1981 | Following a landslide victory in the 1980 United States presidential election, Ronald Reagan is sworn in as the 40th president of the United States. |
| 105 | "Palestine" | Israeli–Palestinian conflict | 1979 – 1990 | Major events in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict take place from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, including the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty, the 1982 Lebanon War, the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, and the First Intifada. |
| 106 | "Terror on the airline" | Attacks on aircraft by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine | 1968 – 1970 | Nearly 200 aircraft hijackings are committed by the revolutionary socialist PFLP in Europe and the Middle east between 1968 and 1970. |
| 107 | "Ayatollah's in Iran" | Ruhollah Khomeini's return to Iran | February 1, 1979 | Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 14 years in exile, marking an important moment in the Iranian revolution. His return leads to the final overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ten days later. Khomeini takes office as the first Supreme Leader of Iran on December 3, 1979. |
| 108 | "Russians in Afghanistan" | Soviet–Afghan War | December 24, 1979 | The Soviet Union sides with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in a war against the anticommunist Afghan mujahideen, marking the beginning of the protracted Afghan conflict. |
| 109 | "Wheel of Fortune" | Wheel of Fortune | January 6, 1975 | The game show Wheel of Fortune airs, eventually becoming one of the most beloved game shows in American history. |
| 110 | "Sally Ride" | Sally Ride | June 18, 1983 | Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. |
| 111 | "Heavy metal suicide" | Death of John Daniel McCollum | October 27, 1984 | Nineteen-year-old John Daniel McCollum commits suicide while listening to the song "Suicide Solution" from the album Blizzard of Ozz by Ozzy Osbourne. McCollum's parents file a lawsuit against Osbourne, alleging that he is responsible for the death. The lawsuit is dismissed. |
| 112 | "Foreign debts" | National debt of the United States | October 23, 1981 | Nine months into the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the American national debt passes one trillion dollars. |
| 113 | "Homeless vets" | Homeless veterans in the United States | After 1975 | Vietnam veterans returning to the United States after the end of the Vietnam War face high levels of homelessness. |
| 114 | "AIDS" | HIV/AIDS in the United States | June 5, 1981 | The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes HIV/AIDS in San Francisco for the first time, marking the start of the AIDS Epidemic. |
| 115 | "Crack" | Crack epidemic in the United States | 1980s – 1990s | The use of crack cocaine in the United States surges, resulting in increased crime and violence in American inner-city neighborhoods. The government response to the epidemic includes "tough on crime" policies and massively increased incarceration rates, disproportionately affecting African Americans. |
| 116 | "Bernie Goetz" | 1984 New York City Subway shooting | December 22, 1984 | Bernie Goetz shoots four black youths in the New York City Subway after they allegedly try to rob him. The shooting sparks a nationwide debate on race and crime in America, with supporters dubbing Goetz the "Subway Vigilante". |
| 117 | "Hypodermics on the shore" | Syringe tide | 1987 – 1988 | Significant amounts of biomedical waste from the Fresh Kills Landfill, including syringes, wash up on the shores of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, forcing beaches along the East Coast of the United States to close. |
| 118 | "China's under martial law" | People's Liberation Army at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre | May 21 – June 9, 1989 | The People's Liberation Army enforces martial law in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. |
| 119 | "Rock and roller Cola wars" | Celebrity branding in the Cola wars | November 1983 | Celebrity branding is used in the Cola wars, a period of rivalry between The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo. Coca-Cola hires Paula Abdul to represent them, while Pepsi hires Michael Jackson. Jackson helps Pepsi with public relations and advertising, even suggesting that the company use his song "Billie Jean" as their jingle. While filming a Pepsi commercial, Jackson meets child actor James Safechuck, who later alleges that Jackson had sexually abused him in the 1980s. |