The following events and individual's names, with Joel's lyric for each appearing in
bold, are listed in the order that they appear in the song, which is almost entirely chronological. The lyrics for each item are minimal, and the items are punctuated by the
chorus and other lyrical elements. The following list includes longer, more descriptive names for clarity. Events and names from a variety of contexts – such as popular entertainment, foreign affairs, and sports – are intermingled, giving an impression of the culture of the time as a whole. There are 118 items listed in the song.
1940s 1949 •
Harry Truman is inaugurated after he wins the
1948 United States presidential election following a partial term after the death of
Franklin D. Roosevelt. •
Doris Day releases her debut album ''
You're My Thrill, and stars in two hit movies, My Dream is Yours and It's a Great Feeling''. •
Red China is established by the
Communist Party of China, which wins the
Chinese Civil War. •
Johnnie Ray, a
rock and roll progenitor, signs his first recording contract with
Okeh Records. •
South Pacific, the award-winning musical, opens on
Broadway. •
Walter Winchell, an influential radio and newspaper journalist, begins to denounce Communism as the main threat facing America. •
Joe DiMaggio signs a record-breaking $100,000 contract with the
New York Yankees.
1950s 1950 •
Joe McCarthy, a
U.S. Senator, gains national attention and begins his
anti-Communism crusade with his
Lincoln Day speech. •
Richard Nixon is first
elected to the
United States Senate. •
Studebaker, a popular automobile company, begins its financial downfall. •
Television becomes widespread throughout Europe and North America. •
North Korea invades
South Korea, beginning the
Korean War. •
Marilyn Monroe appears in five films, including
The Asphalt Jungle and
All About Eve. 1951 • The
Rosenbergs, married couple Ethel and Julius, are convicted of espionage. •
H-Bomb development begins in the United States. •
Sugar Ray Robinson, a champion boxer, defeats
Jake LaMotta in the "
St. Valentine's Day Massacre". •
Panmunjom, a border village in Korea, is the location of truce talks between the parties of the
Korean War. •
Marlon Brando is nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in
A Streetcar Named Desire. •
The King and I, the musical by
Rodgers and Hammerstein, opens on
Broadway. •
The Catcher in the Rye, a controversial novel by
J. D. Salinger, is published.
1952 •
Dwight D. Eisenhower is the landslide winner of the
1952 United States presidential election. •
Vaccine for
polio is successfully developed by
Jonas Salk. • '''
England's got a
new queen''': Princess Elizabeth succeeds to the throne as Queen
Elizabeth II and is
crowned the following year. •
Rocky Marciano defeats Jersey Joe Walcott, becoming the world
heavyweight boxing champion. •
Liberace first broadcasts
The Liberace Show. •
George Santayana, philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist, dies.
1953 •
Joseph Stalin, leader of the
Soviet Union, dies. •
Georgy Malenkov succeeds Stalin for six months. •
Gamal Abdel Nasser acts as the true power behind the new Egyptian nation as
Muhammad Naguib's minister of the interior. •
Sergei Prokofiev, a popular Russian composer, dies. •
Winthrop Rockefeller had a highly publicized divorce in 1953, but
Nelson Rockefeller and
John D. Rockefeller III also made headlines that year. Billy Joel himself has stated that Nelson Rockefeller was meant, in particular for his fame as governor of New York state. However, Nelson was governor from 1959 to 1973, whereas all other items in this verse happened in 1953. •
Roy Campanella, a baseball catcher for the
Brooklyn Dodgers, receives the
National League's
Most Valuable Player award for the second time. •
Communist Bloc: The
East German uprising of 1953 is crushed by the
Volkspolizei and the
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.
1954 •
Roy Cohn resigns as
Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel and enters
private practice. •
Juan Perón is at the height of his power as
President of Argentina before a
coup the following year. •
Arturo Toscanini is at the height of his fame as a conductor, performing regularly with the
NBC Symphony Orchestra on U.S. national radio. •
Dacron is an early artificial fiber made from the same plastic as
polyester. •
Dien Bien Phu falls to
Việt Minh forces, leading to the creation of
North Vietnam and
South Vietnam as separate states. •
"Rock Around the Clock" is a hit single released by
Bill Haley & His Comets.
1955 •
Albert Einstein dies at the age of 76. •
James Dean achieves success with
East of Eden and
Rebel Without a Cause, but
dies in a car accident at the age of 24. • '''
Brooklyn's got a winning team''': The
Brooklyn Dodgers win their first and only
World Series before
their move to Los Angeles. •
Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, An edited compilation of the
titular miniseries by
Disney is released about the legendary frontiersman
Davy Crockett. •
Peter Pan, recently featured in a
Disney animated feature, is also the subject of a
stage musical starring
Mary Martin, broadcast on
NBC live and in color. It made history as the first Broadway musical, with the same cast and crew, to be turned into a TV movie. •
Elvis Presley signs with
RCA Records, going on to earn a reputation as the "King of Rock and Roll". •
Disneyland opens as
Walt Disney's first theme park.
1956 •
Brigitte Bardot stars in
And God Created Woman, the film that establishes her international reputation as a French "sex kitten". •
Budapest, is the site of the
Hungarian Revolution. •
Alabama is the site of the
Montgomery bus boycott, one of the pivotal events in the
civil rights movement. •
Nikita Khrushchev makes his famous
Secret Speech denouncing Stalin's "
cult of personality". •
Princess Grace Kelly appears in her last film
High Society and marries
Prince Rainier III of Monaco. •
Peyton Place, the best-selling socially scandalous novel by
Grace Metalious, is published. •
Trouble in the Suez: Crisis intensifies after
Egypt nationalizes the
Suez Canal.
1957 •
Little Rock,
Arkansas, is the site of a standoff between
Governor Orval Faubus and President Eisenhower over the
Little Rock Nine attending a previously whites-only high school. •
Boris Pasternak, the Russian author, publishes his novel
Doctor Zhivago. •
Mickey Mantle is in the middle of his career as a famous
New York Yankees outfielder and American League
All-Star for the sixth year in a row. •
Jack Kerouac publishes his novel
On the Road, a defining work of the
Beat Generation. •
Sputnik becomes the first
artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union, marking the start of the
space race. •
Zhou Enlai,
Premier of the People's Republic of China, survives an
assassination attempt. •
The Bridge on the River Kwai is released, and receives seven
Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
1958 •
Lebanon is engulfed in a
political and religious crisis that eventually involves U.S. intervention. •
Charles de Gaulle is
elected first president of the
French Fifth Republic following the
Algerian Crisis. •
California baseball begins as the
Brooklyn Dodgers and
New York Giants move, respectively, to
Los Angeles and
San Francisco. •
Starkweather homicide:
Charles Starkweather killed eleven people, mostly in
Lincoln, Nebraska. •
Children of Thalidomide: Many pregnant women taking the drug
Thalidomide had children born with congenital
birth defects.
1959 •
Buddy Holly dies in
a plane crash with
Ritchie Valens and
The Big Bopper. Joel prefaces the lyric with a Holly signature
vocal hiccup: "Uh-huh, uh-huh." •
Ben-Hur, starring
Charlton Heston, wins eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. •
Space Monkey: A rhesus macaque and a squirrel monkey become the first two animals to be launched by
NASA into space and survive. •
Mafia leaders are convicted in the
Apalachin meeting trial, confirming it as a nationwide conspiracy. •
Hula hoops sales reach 100 million in just two years as the latest toy fad. •
Fidel Castro comes to power after a
revolution in Cuba. •
Edsel is a no-go: Production of this much-advertised car marque ends after only three years due to poor sales.
1960s 1960 • A
U-2 spy plane flown by American
CIA pilot
Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing the
U-2 Crisis of 1960. It does not refer to the Irish rock band
U2 which did not form until 1976. •
Syngman Rhee is rescued by the
CIA after being forced to resign as leader of
South Korea. •
Payola, illegal payments for radio broadcasting of songs, are publicized by
Dick Clark's testimony before Congress and
Alan Freed's public disgrace. •
John F. Kennedy, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, beats Vice President
Richard Nixon in the
1960 U.S. presidential election. •
Chubby Checker popularizes the dance
The Twist with his cover of the
song of the same name. •
Psycho, an
Alfred Hitchcock thriller, becomes a landmark in graphic violence and cinema
sensationalism. The screeching violins heard at this point in the song are a trademark of the film's soundtrack. •
Belgians in the Congo: The
Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) was declared independent of Belgium.
1961 •
Ernest Hemingway dies by suicide after a long battle with depression. •
Adolf Eichmann, a "most wanted" Nazi
war criminal, is
convicted in Israel for
crimes against humanity during World War II. •
Stranger in a Strange Land, written by
Robert A. Heinlein, is a breakthrough best-seller with themes of sexual freedom and liberation. •
Bob Dylan (then known as Robert Zimmerman) is signed to
Columbia Records after a
New York Times review by critic
Robert Shelton. •
Berlins
separation into
West Berlin and
East Berlin is cemented when the
Berlin Wall is erected. • The
Bay of Pigs Invasion, an attempt by United States-trained
Cuban exiles to invade
Cuba and overthrow
Fidel Castro, fails.
1962 •
Lawrence of Arabia, an
Academy Award-winning film starring
Peter O'Toole, premiered. •
British Beatlemania starts as
The Beatles become one of the world's most popular rock bands. •
Ole Miss: Southern
segregationists
rioted over the enrollment of black student
James Meredith at the
University of Mississippi. •
John Glenn flew the first American-crewed orbital mission termed "
Friendship 7". •
Sonny Liston knocks out and
beats the rarely defeated
Floyd Patterson in the first round of the world
heavyweight boxing championship.
1963 •
Pope Paul VI becomes
pope when Cardinal Giovanni Montini
is elected to the title. •
Malcolm X incites controversy, including his statement that "the chickens have come home to roost" about John F. Kennedy's assassination. •
British politician sex scandal: British Secretary of State for War
John Profumo has a scandalous sexual relationship with showgirl
Christine Keeler. •
JFK blown away: US President
John F. Kennedy is assassinated in
Dallas,
Texas.
1965 •
Birth control:
Griswold v. Connecticut challenges a Connecticut law prohibiting contraceptives. •
Ho Chi Minh: In opposition to
North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh, the
United States deploys troops in
South Vietnam.
1968 •
Richard Nixon back again: After losing to Kennedy in 1960, former Vice President Nixon is
elected president in 1968.
1969 •
Moonshot:
Apollo 11 involves the first human landing on the Moon by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins •
Woodstock music festival attracts 400,000, as a touchstone of the
counterculture of the 1960s.
1970s 1972–1975 •
Watergate: The Republican burglary of the
Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the
Watergate office complex leads to the resignation of President Nixon. •
Punk rock is birthed with the formation of bands such as the
Ramones and the
Sex Pistols.
1976–1977 •
Menachem Begin becomes
Prime Minister of Israel and negotiates the
Camp David Accords with
Egypt's president. •
Ronald Reagan, former governor of California, begins his US presidential campaign
in 1976, and is
elected in 1980. •
Palestine: The ongoing
Israeli–Palestinian conflict escalates as Israelis establish
settlements in the
West Bank. •
Terror on the airline: Numerous
aircraft hijackings take place, including an Air France flight diverted to Uganda, where the plane was stormed in
Operation Entebbe.
1979 • The
Ayatollah restored to leadership
in Iran: The
Iranian Revolution replaces secular
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with Islamic rule by Ayatollahs led by former exile
Ruhollah Khomeini. •
Russians invade Afghanistan: The Soviet Union deploys its army into
Afghanistan, beginning a decade-long war.
1980s 1981–1982 •
Wheel of Fortune, an American television game show, debuted in 1975, hires
Pat Sajak and
Vanna White before becoming widely popular in syndication. Pat Sajak retired in 2024 after 41 seasons.
1983 •
Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space by flying aboard
Challenger on the
STS-7 shuttle mission.
1984 •
Heavy metal suicide: A 19-year-old man commits suicide after listening to "
Suicide Solution" and the family files a lawsuit against
Ozzy Osbourne. •
Foreign debts: Persistent trade and
budget deficits lead to numerous countries defaulting on their debts. •
Homeless vets: Veterans of the
Vietnam War, including many disabled in the service, are becoming homeless and impoverished. •
AIDS: The immunodeficiency disease caused by
HIV emerges as a pandemic. •
Crack cocaine became a widely used form of the drug in impoverished
inner cities. •
Bernie Goetz shoots four young black men who were trying to mug him on a New York City subway train, and is acquitted of charges.
1987–1988 •
Hypodermics on the shores:
Medical waste was found washed up on the beaches of
Long Island,
New Jersey, and
Connecticut after being illegally dumped at sea.
1989 •
China under martial law: China declares martial law, resulting in the use of military forces against protesting students to end the
Tiananmen protests. •
Rock and roller sponsored
cola wars: Soft drink giants
Coke and
Pepsi each run marketing campaigns using
rock & roll and popular music stars, including
Michael Jackson and
Whitney Houston. ==See also==