Historical Events From "We Didn't Start The Fire" You Don't Know Anything About By Marina Manoukian/March 2, 2021 4:37 pm EDT When was the last time you actually thought about the lyrics to "We Didn't Start The Fire?" Take a listen and see if you recognize all of the historical events that it lists. In Billy Joel's iconic song, he lists over 100 famous events and people starting in the year 1949, the year that Joel was born, and ending in 1989, the year that the song was released. While the song isn't an exhaustive list of historical events, it shed a light on what was being talked about in the media at the time. And many of the events ended up having lasting impact that can be felt over half a century later. However, although all of the events mentioned in the song were once headline stories, some of them have faded from public memory.