All 119 References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Explained

Harry Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, leading the country through the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. During World War II he was also the person responsible for the United States’ use of atomic weapons against Japan—a decision that resulted in the deaths of some 200,000 civilians.

Doris Day

A shining star of the movie musicals of the 1950s and the sex comedies of the 1960s, Doris Day was once the United States’ leading box-office attraction.

Red China

Communist victory in China’s 1945–49 civil war led to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, a communist government initially led by Chairman Mao Zedong. Mao’s goals were to create a fully socialist society—and, eventually, world communism.

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Johnnie Ray

Picture an American rock star with a little too much of a bad-boy image. Johnnie Ray was the Elvis of the early 1950s (and his oeuvre, full of suggestive dance moves and revolutionary lyrics, paved the way for the King’s stardom).

South Pacific

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical South Pacific premiered in 1949 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. Based on “one of the most remarkable books” to come out of World War II (at least according to The New York Times) and a sharp diversion from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s previous work, South Pacific was intended as a frank condemnation of racial prejudice.

Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell was a journalist and radio host whose mix of news and gossip attracted the attention of Americans from the 1930s through the 1950s. By the 1950s Winchell had turned ultraconservative in his punditry: he was a fan of Senator Joseph McCarthy, supporting—and spreading—McCarthy’s wild tales of communist infiltration of the United States.

Joe DiMaggio

Joe DiMaggio’s status as a star with the New York Yankees was only compounded by his 1954 marriage to actor and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe (who appears later in this list).

Joe McCarthy

That’s U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy to you. This Wisconsin politician lent his name to McCarthyism, which describes a period in the early 1950s when McCarthy and his allies conducted a widespread communist witch hunt. Entertainers, CIA agents, army lawyers, and journalists were indiscriminately accused of spying for the Soviet Union.

Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon was elected vice president of the United States in 1952. (His presidential exploits, beginning in 1969, are covered later in the song.)

Studebaker

In 1954 the Studebaker Corporation—once the world’s largest producer of horse-drawn vehicles and a leader in automobile manufacturing—merged with the Packard Motor Car Company. Studebaker-Packard lasted only 10 years in the United States before halting production.

Television

In 1946 about 6,000 American homes had televisions; by 1951 the number was 12,000,000.

North Korea

After World War II the Soviet Union occupied all land on the Korean peninsula north of the 38th parallel, and the United States occupied all land to the south on the peninsula. Though the Allied powers originally planned to exit and leave Korea a united nation once more, Soviet and American interference created two very different governments: a communist state in the north and a democratic state in the south. When the U.N. recognized the southern Republic of Korea as an independent state (1947), North Korea waged a war (1950) to reunify the peninsula—an effort that ultimately failed. The two countries have remained separated ever since.

South Korea

See above.

Marilyn Monroe

Famous for her very public private life (including the aforementioned marriage to Joe DiMaggio) as well as for performances in such Hollywood blockbusters as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955), Marilyn Monroe was an actor, singer, and pop culture icon. She died in 1962 after an overdose of barbiturates.

Rosenbergs

After being convicted of sharing plans for nuclear weapons with the Soviet Union in 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became the first American civilians to be executed for conspiracy to commit espionage.

H-bomb

H-bomb, hydrogen bomb, or thermonuclear bomb—it’s a devastating weapon by any name. Different from an atomic bomb, the H-bomb’s enormous explosive power results from an uncontrolled self-sustaining chain reaction in which isotopes of hydrogen combine under extremely high temperatures to form helium in a process known as nuclear fusion. During the late 1980s nuclear-armed nations possessed, collectively, some 40,000 of these weapons.

Sugar Ray

A six-time world champion, Sugar Ray Robinson is often considered to be the best professional boxer in world history.

P’anmunjŏm

The village of P’anmunjŏm, located in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, hosted the truce conference between United Nations representatives and North Korean authorities held from 1951 to 1953.

Brando

Though his derision for the acting profession was no secret, Marlon Brando’s theatrical and Hollywood stardom spanned from 1947’s A Streetcar Named Desire to 1972’s The Godfather (and beyond).

The King and I

Rodgers and Hammerstein returned for their fifth musical, in 1951. The King and I follows the romantic relationship between British schoolteacher Anna and the king of Siam. The stage version and the 1956 film featured Yul Brynner, a Russian-born white actor who sometimes claimed Mongolian and Roma heritage, as the Siamese king.

The Catcher in the Rye

Published in 1951, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is a coming-of-age story that follows Holden Caulfield, a disillusioned teenager frustrated by “phonies.” The novel captivated millions of readers, including a particularly notorious one: Mark David Chapman, whose 1980 murder of John Lennon was motivated by the desire to “become” Holden.

Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower served as president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. The United States’ first major civil rights victories since Reconstruction, including Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1957, occurred during his tenure.

Vaccine

On April 12, 1955, it was announced to the public that trials of the first polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk, were successful—the vaccine worked.

England’s got a new queen

Elizabeth II was crowned queen of the United Kingdom in 1953, following the death of her father, George VI.

Marciano

Rocky Marciano was the world heavyweight boxing champion from September 23, 1952, when he knocked out former champion Jersey Joe Walcott, to his retirement in 1956. He was killed in an airplane crash in 1969.

Liberace

The extravagantly costumed pianist Liberace built his career playing popular music in his own unique style. The Liberace Show, his television variety program, premiered in 1952.

Santayana

George Santayana was a Spanish American aesthetic theorist and philosopher known for the philosophical texts Scepticism and Animal Faith (1923) and Dominations and Powers (1951). He died in 1952.

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953, after a quarter of a century of dictatorial rule over the Soviet Union that resulted in the deaths of millions of people.

Malenkov

After Stalin’s death his close collaborator Georgy Malenkov became prime minister of the Soviet Union as well as the Communist Party’s senior secretary. He held the latter role for only a few weeks before being replaced by Nikita Khrushchev. Still Malenkov remained an influential force in reducing arms appropriations, increasing the production of consumer goods, and providing incentives for collective farmworkers. As Stalin’s collaborator, he also had the blood of millions on his hands.

Nasser

In 1952 Gamal Abdel Nasser and other members of the revolutionary Free Officers group ousted Egypt’s monarchical government in a near-bloodless coup d’état. He went on to serve as Egypt’s prime minister and, later, president.

Prokofiev

Prolific Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1953.

Rockefeller

When former Arkansas governor Winthrop Rockefeller and his wife, Barbara Sears, divorced in 1954, the media responded with a frenzy of coverage (which may or may not have foreshadowed the response to the Brad Pitt–Jennifer Aniston split of 2005).

(Let’s take this explanation with a grain of salt, though. The Rockefeller family has so many famous members that it’s difficult to say for certain which one Billy Joel was referencing.)

Campanella

Roy Campanella, one of major league baseball’s first Black athletes, was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player three times: in 1951, 1953, and 1955.

Communist Bloc

During the Cold War the European and Asian states under Soviet influence were known as the Communist Bloc (or the Eastern or Soviet bloc).

Roy Cohn

American lawyer Roy Cohn assisted Joseph McCarthy in his accusations of communist activity in the United States during McCarthyism…and later was cited in future president Donald Trump’s book The Art of the Deal as advising Trump to never apologize. (Apologies, Cohn and Trump felt, were a sign of weakness.)

Juan Perón

Army colonel Juan Perón served as president of Argentina in 1946–52, 1952–55, and, finally, 1973–74. Though Perón’s legacy was one of political turmoil (he was ousted more than once from the presidency), Argentines largely supported the de facto leadership of his wife Eva, a former actress who arranged financial support for labor unions, expanded Argentina’s social services, and advocated for women’s suffrage—and whose life was the basis for the musical Evita.

Toscanini

One of the great virtuoso conductors of the first half of the 20th century, Arturo Toscanini died in 1957.

Dacron

Dacron, which debuted in 1951, is the brand name of an artificial high-strength textile fiber sometimes used in medical procedures. Patients suffering from coarctation of the aorta may find a section of their aorta replaced by Dacron.

Dien Bien Phu falls

No, this one isn’t referencing a waterfall. The Viet Minh victory over the French in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu essentially ended the First Indochina War.

“Rock Around the Clock”

Bill Haley and His Comets was a white musical group represented by Decca, the only major American company to retain its Black performers during the 1940s; their song “Rock Around the Clock” became one of the best-selling rock-and-roll hits of all time.

Einstein

Albert Einstein, the famed German-born physicist who developed the theory of relativity, died on April 18, 1955.

James Dean

James Dean starred in only a few films before dying in a 1955 car accident at age 24, but his performances—and his restless bad-boy image—remain iconic in American culture.

Brooklyn’s got a winning team

The Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers) lost the World Series to the New York Yankees in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953 before finally beating their crosstown rival in 1955. Their lineup included Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella.

Davy Crockett

Disney’s Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier premiered in 1955, following the real (but often exaggerated) exploits of the legendary frontiersman and politician.

Peter Pan

Another Disney moment: the animated feature Peter Pan, based on J.M. Barrie’s play of the same name, premiered in 1953.

Elvis Presley

The “King of Rock and Roll” dominated the charts from 1956 to 1958, capturing the adoration of American teens (especially young women) with such hits as “Love Me Tender” and “All Shook Up.”

Disneyland

Though Walt Disney began planning themed experiences at his Burbank film studio as early as the 1940s, Disneyland—his Anaheim, California, theme park—didn’t become reality until July 17, 1955. The original iteration of the park included Main Street, U.S.A, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland (and, according to accounts of opening day, suffered from a barrage of unexpected guests who either sneaked in or entered with forged tickets).

Bardot

The French film actress Brigitte Bardot became an international sex symbol in the 1950s and ’60s after posing for the cover of Elle at age 15. Though she was beloved by French leftists during the early years of her career for breaking film taboos against nudity, after her retirement Bardot was fined for inciting racial hatred after publishing anti-Muslim and homophobic commentary.

Budapest

Much of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution against Soviet rule was centered around the capital of Budapest.

Alabama

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks’s arrest after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Alabama triggered the Montgomery bus boycott, a 381-day mass protest. In 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court declared Montgomery’s segregated public transit to be unconstitutional.

Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev (as seen in number 29 on this list) served as prime minister of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964, during which time he pursued policies of de-Stalinization and “peaceful coexistence” with the capitalist West.

Princess Grace

In 1956 Hollywood star and Hitchcock muse Grace Kelly abandoned her acting career to marry Rainier III, prince of Monaco.

Peyton Place

One of the first soap operas to successfully air in prime time, Peyton Place premiered in 1964 and introduced American viewers to a small New England town secretly populated by scandal. The series was based on Grace Metalious’s notorious 1956 novel.

Trouble in the Suez

Months of political tension between Egypt and Britain and France prompted Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser to nationalize the Suez Canal Company—in other words, to declare the canal, formerly a joint British-French enterprise, under Egyptian management. Though British and French leaders were outraged, Nasser remained firm in his decision to extricate Egypt from at least one remnant of colonial rule.

Little Rock

Three years after Brown v. Board of Education declared segregated public schooling unconstitutional, nine Black students enrolled at the previously white-only Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The intense harassment and violence perpetrated against the students by white people eventually prompted U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send protection in the form of federal troops.

Pasternak

Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago, an epic tale of the effects of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and its aftermath on a bourgeois family, was published in 1957 and became an international hit, earning Pasternak the Nobel Prize for Literature. (The rejection of the novel by Soviet authorities, however, compelled Pasternak to decline the award.)

Mickey Mantle

New York Yankees player Mickey Mantle ended his 17-year baseball career in 1968, having helped the Yankees win seven World series and having hit 536 home runs.

Kerouac

Beat writer Jack Kerouac published On the Road in 1957, a road-trip novel described by Britannica editor Jeff Wallenfeldt as “the Bible of the original hipsters.”

Sputnik

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first in a series of three artificial Earth satellites, on October 4, 1957, many Americans were shocked: they had wrongly assumed that their country was technologically ahead of the Soviets. Thus began the space race, in which the United States and the Soviet Union each fought to be the first to reach various milestones in space exploration.

Chou En-Lai

Zhou Enlai served as the first-ever premier of the People’s Republic of China, from its creation in 1949 until 1976. He was also its widely traveling foreign minister from 1949 to 1958. He signed a treaty in 1950 that committed China and the Soviet Union to cooperate, and he was key to orchestrating Richard Nixon’s historic meeting of Mao Zedong in China in 1972. (The song uses the Wade-Giles romanization of his name: Chou En-lai.)

Bridge on the River Kwai

Released in 1957, The Bridge on the River Kwai (based on the novel Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï by Pierre Boulle) was a British-American war film following the lives of men imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp during World War II. Boulle, the novelist, was credited for the film and awarded an Oscar for best screenplay—even though it had actually been writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman who adapted it. Since Wilson and Foreman were both on the Hollywood blacklist for alleged communist ties, Boulle received the film’s honors alone.

Lebanon

When Lebanon’s President Camille Chamoun refused to cut ties with Britain and France during the Suez War (number 54), Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser accused Lebanon of Western sympathies. When Syria entered a union with Egypt in 1958, Chamoun’s Muslim opponents in Lebanon demonstrated to join the alliance. In May the demonstration became an insurrection.

Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle served as president of France from 1958 to 1969. Determined to establish France as an independent power, he amassed a nuclear arsenal and withdrew France from the military command of NATO, following his own views on foreign policy.

California baseball

In 1958 the New York Giants followed the Brooklyn Dodgers from New York to California, becoming the San Francisco Giants instead.

Starkweather homicide

Nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather, a James Dean enthusiast who tried to imitate Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause bad-boy style, embarked on a 1958 killing spree that resulted in the deaths of 10 people, including the parents and young sister of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. Starkweather was arrested after a high-speed chase; Starkweather was executed, and Fugate—then one of the youngest Americans ever charged with first-degree murder—was sentenced to life in prison.

Children of thalidomide

The medical compound thalidomide, developed in the 1950s in West Germany as a sedative and tool for preventing nausea, was discovered to cause severe fetal malformations when taken during pregnancy. It was removed from the market in 1961–62 after affecting thousands of children. (Thalidomide has other therapeutic uses today.)

Buddy Holly

After hearing Elvis Presley in 1955, former rhythm-and-blues devotee Buddy Holly became a full-time rock-and-roller. With his band the Crickets, Holly released the meticulously crafted tracks “Not Fade Away,” “Peggy Sue,” and “That’ll be the Day.”

Ben Hur

Considered one of Hollywood’s best biblical epics, 1959’s Ben Hur stars Charlton Heston as a young Jewish prince who encounters Jesus Christ.

Space monkey

In May 1959, monkeys called Able and Baker became the first primates to survive the journey home after being launched into space by the United States.

Mafia

In 1959 La Cosa Nostra mob boss Vito Genovese was convicted of conspiracy to violate narcotics laws and sentenced to 15 years in prison—from which setting Genovese would continue to operate the organized crime group via his vast network of contacts.

Hula hoops

Variations of the hula hoop have existed since ancient times, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the toy was marketed in plastic (then a brand-new material). An estimated 100 million hula hoops were sold in the United States alone between 1958 and 1960.