Extension Activity
Assessment
Standards
Timeline
Teacher Resources
The Song |
The lyrics to "We Didn't Start the Fire" list some of
the historically significant people, ideas, and events of the twentieth
century in chronological order. Below is a timeline of the topics
listed in the song.
1949
|
Harry Truman |
|
Doris Day |
|
Red China |
|
Johnnie Ray |
|
South Pacific |
|
Walter Winchell |
|
Joe DiMaggio |
1950
|
Joe McCarthy |
|
Richard Nixon |
|
Studebaker |
|
Television |
|
North Korea |
|
South Korea |
|
Marilyn Monroe |
1951
|
Rosenbergs |
|
H-Bomb |
|
Sugar Ray |
|
Panmunjom |
|
Brando |
|
The King and I |
|
The Catcher in the Rye |
1952
|
Eisenhower |
|
Vaccine |
|
England's got a new Queen |
|
Marciano |
|
Liberace |
|
Santayana good-bye |
1953
|
Joseph Stalin |
|
Malenkov |
|
Nasser |
|
Prokofiev |
|
Rockefeller |
|
Campanella |
|
Communist Bloc |
1954
|
Roy Cohn |
|
Juan Peron |
|
Toscanini |
|
Dacron |
|
Dien Bien Phu Falls |
|
Rock Around The Clock |
1955
|
Einstein |
|
James Dean |
|
Brooklyn's got a winning team |
|
Davy Crockett |
|
Peter Pan |
|
Elvis Presley |
|
Disneyland |
1956
|
Bardot |
|
Budapest |
|
Alabama |
|
Krushchev |
|
Princess Grace |
|
Peyton Place |
|
Trouble in the Suez |
1957
|
Little Rock |
|
Pasternak |
|
Mickey Mantle |
|
Kerouac |
|
Sputnik |
|
Chou-En-Lai |
|
Bridge on the River Kwai |
1958
|
Lebanon |
|
Charles de Gaulle |
|
California Baseball |
|
Starkweather Homicide |
|
Children of Thalidomide |
1959
|
Buddy Holly |
|
Ben Hur |
|
Space Monkey |
|
Mafia |
|
Hula hoops |
|
Castro |
|
Edsel is a no-go |
1960
|
U-2 |
|
Syngman Rhee |
|
Payola |
|
Kennedy |
|
Chubby Checker |
|
Psycho |
|
Belgians in the Congo |
1961
|
Hemingway |
|
Eichmann |
|
Stranger in a Strange Land |
|
Dylan |
|
Berlin |
|
Bay of Pigs Invasion |
1962
|
Lawrence of Arabia |
|
British Beatle Mania |
|
Ole Miss |
|
John Glenn |
|
Liston beats Patterson |
1963
|
Pope Paul |
|
Malcom X |
|
British Politician Sex |
|
JFK Blown away |
1964
|
Birth Control |
|
Ho Chi Minh |
|
Richard Nixon back again |
|
Moonshot |
1965 - 1989
|
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 Shore |
|
China's under Martial Law |
|
Rock & Roller Cola Wars |
|
