"We Didn't Start the Fire" - A Little History

Inspiresd by other "We Didn't Start the Fire" explanation web pages and Americans ignorance of world history, let alon their own, I offer this page using mostly Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Below are the lyrics to Billy Joel's song that many perceive to speak to generation 'X'ers. Generally speaking, generation 'X' are those Americans born between 1965 and 1982 while 'Baby boomers' are those who were born between 1945 and 1964. By clicking on the links below, you will be taken to an explanation of that particular event.

The song begins....

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio.

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe.

Rosenbergs, 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 goodbye.

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

Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser, Prokofiev, Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc.

Roy 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, Disneyland.

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev, Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez.

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

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac, Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge on the River Kwai.

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball, Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomide.

Ah huh huh ho
Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, space monkey, Mafia, hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no go,

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola -n- Kennedy, Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo.

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

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania, Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson.

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex, JFK blown away, what else do I have to say...

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

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again.

Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock.

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airlines, Ayatollolah'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.

We didn't start the fire, it was always burning, since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire, but when we are gone, will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on...
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.
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.
We didn't start the fire, it was always burning, since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire...

Other related links
A Humous Flash File created Ye Li
History Summary from 1949-1989 by Ron Kurtus
Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start The Fire' - The Song
Wiki entry for 'We Didn't Start The Fire'

First Post 06-21-2005
Updated 07-10-2012