Can you name the things mentioned in We Didn't Start the Fire?

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Correctly named answers will show up in the table below
Answers do not have to be guessed in order
Answers are the actual lyrics from the song, so first name will be required sometimes

40's

50's

60's

70's

80's

You have 15 minutes to guess after you click the button below.

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We Didn't Start the Fire Quiz

Rating:	Report a mistake
Published: June 9th, 2008
Category: Music
Plays: 120,659

Tags: Lyrics Quizzes, Billy Joel, fire, didnt, We Didnt, start, thing

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	tlundy:	Sep 6th, 2008 at 19:49 GMT	3 points
	Khrushchev, with three "h"s

	Bob:	Sep 17th, 2008 at 23:54 GMT	4 points
	There are alot of things to remember here. They should write another song dealing with present things to the same tune.

	mschessplayer:	Sep 21st, 2008 at 19:29 GMT	6 points
	Billy Joel's last line: "... cola wars, I can't take it anymore!" Is very appropriate to guessing this game. You can tell I've done poorly each time I take it. LOL

	jimmy:	Sep 24th, 2008 at 17:58 GMT	6 points
	One day, I'll get them all. In 20 or 30 years, I'll get them all.

	jessbowen:	Oct 1st, 2008 at 09:56 GMT	38 points
	I enjoyed this one a lot! Shouldn't Starkweather homicide be the same line?

	Lulu:	Oct 14th, 2008 at 17:03 GMT	16 points
	Some of the things mentioned are very hard to spell - probably why I didn't get them!

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	Brobert2:	Oct 19th, 2008 at 17:10 GMT	64 points
	I always heard the line as "Hypodermics on the shore", the quiz insists it's "shores" and that continued to throw me off.

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	Father_Time:	Nov 17th, 2008 at 03:21 GMT	14 points
	I Love this song.

	MrEnglishman:	Nov 30th, 2008 at 07:02 GMT	6 points
	OK - so Sporcle says 120 items - but Wikipedia says 121. anyone know which one is the bone of contention?

	Pmd669:	Dec 1st, 2008 at 04:57 GMT	17 points
	On wiki, there are 118 bullet points, but 121 links. To get to the 121 number, they are counting the links, not the bullets. The 3 bullets with two links are: North Korea/South Korea; Liston beats Patterson; and Heavy Metal/Suicides. Sporcle combines the latter two (correctly in my opinion), but for some inexplicable reason (as someone has already noted) separates Starkweather & homicides. The number that most closely matches the lyrics is 119. I would also argue that the correct line for the JFK assassination should be "JFK Blown Away", instead of simply "JFK".

	MPG:	Dec 11th, 2008 at 23:41 GMT	8 points
	its zhou en lai not chou en lai

	raggedyanne:	Dec 14th, 2008 at 06:01 GMT	10 points
	I remember when the song came out thinking that it was quite a history lesson and looking at it written out I still say the same. I also remember an interview with Billy Joel in which he said he often looked to Liberty DeVitto, his drummer, to remind him of lyrics during concerts, but Mr. DeVitto told him he was on his own with this song.

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	Adam:	Jan 27th, 2009 at 05:04 GMT	4 points
	FYI: "ayatollah" is a title, not the name of a person. i.e. multiple ayatollahs. just so you know. And I agree about Starkweather Homicides. But great quiz!!! Love it! Love the song! Agreed there should be a sequel song!

	meghanOHPLEASE:	Jan 29th, 2009 at 15:03 GMT	5 points
	spelling was the hardest thing for me. i know the lyrics but my spelling sucks.

	Ryan Jones:	Feb 7th, 2009 at 17:58 GMT	1 point
	Great song! I got all of them after a few times. The spelling is what got me, as I kept making mistakes.

	Jessie:	Feb 8th, 2009 at 00:54 GMT	-2 points
	hahah is it sad that i got all of these with still like 10 minutes left? i think i'm obsessed with billy joel. except i could not spell khruschev to save my life. i had to google it haha

	Arthur:	Feb 22nd, 2009 at 21:40 GMT	34 points
	"Hypodermics on the shore" should be accepted for "Hypodermics on the shores"

	Dodge:	Feb 24th, 2009 at 19:59 GMT	7 points
	the only thing that really bugged me was the hypodermics line, as has been mentioned.

	queenofnerds:	Mar 15th, 2009 at 01:44 GMT	14 points
	SHORE should be acceptable as well as shores. GOD DAMMIT.

	randalljames09:	Mar 30th, 2009 at 03:30 GMT	-2 points
	Starkweather homicides was one thing, it isn't supposed to be split up. And the man's name was Ayatollah Khomeni or someting Adam, so it was a person.

	MusicNutMeggie:	Apr 3rd, 2009 at 04:45 GMT	4 points
	@randalljames09-- Yes, the Ayatollah at the head of the Iranian Revolution was Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, and he is the one mentioned in the song, but "Ayatollah" is a title given to high-ranking Muslim clerics (and there can even be multiple "Grand Ayatollahs" at the same time). It's somewhat analogous to having many rabbis (i.e. Rabbi Goldberg) and the Chief Rabbi of Israel (i.e. current Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger).

	y2jdilemma:	Apr 10th, 2009 at 12:53 GMT	9 points
	either go by strict adherence to the lyrics or dont. Some, just the last name give it to you (i.e. Truman for Harry Truman) some not (i.e. Marilyn Monroe not Monroe) when the song says the full name. Suez works for "trouble in the suez" but you have to type out all of "belgians in the congo". Make up your mind.

	y2jdilemma:	Apr 10th, 2009 at 13:03 GMT	-2 points
	Even so, got em all the 2nd time around, once i figured out how it wanted them

	acadec:	Apr 15th, 2009 at 17:31 GMT	7 points
	zhou enlai should be acceptable as well as chou en-lai; the former is the pinyin romanization (officially used by china), while the latter is wade-giles (hasn't been officially used in 60 years).

	Father_Time:	Apr 29th, 2009 at 07:37 GMT	-1 points
	trying to understand what they are saying in the song is hard I thought British beatlemania was 'british beat romania' everytime I heard it. Spelling this stuff is a pain as well. Perhaps if I had lived through it.

	bobotheclown:	Apr 29th, 2009 at 20:57 GMT	6 points
	Getting all the answers was so worth the time I spent memorizing this song.

	Iceberg:	May 7th, 2009 at 23:35 GMT	-1 points
	Hardest . . . quiz . . . ever. At least in terms of spelling. I can sing the whole song in my head but can't spell half of it.

	skudrafan1:	May 12th, 2009 at 00:00 GMT	3 points
	I've found it -- the single greatest Sporcle quiz. Proud to say I got 91/120 on the first try...totally blanked out on the entire portion in the mid '50s. Can't wait to come back in a week or two and try this one again!

	Lin:	Jun 12th, 2009 at 23:12 GMT	1 point
	This is an awesome quiz. They should do one like this for "La Vie Boheme" from the musical RENT. There's just as much stuff to name in that song!

	sophicmuse:	Jun 14th, 2009 at 01:30 GMT	2 points
	Finally, my arcane knowledge of this song comes in handy for something! (Well, it got me through all my US history classes, too.)

	explainingsound:	Jun 26th, 2009 at 05:02 GMT	1 point
	In my personal opinion, heavy metal and suicide should be separated. I always assumed "suicide" to be a reference to Jonestown. the other corrections I'd make have already been noted though...

	explainingsound:	Jun 26th, 2009 at 05:25 GMT	1 point
	Oh wait, I did forget something: the chronology seems a bit off here, and this is part of why I think "suicide" ought to refer to Jonestown. That happened in 1978. If we assume your timeline for when the '80s begin is accurate, then it would be fair to say that "heavy metal suicide" is one thing. However, Wheel of Fortune premiered in the mid-70's. While Sally Ride didn't enter space until 1983, she did join NASA in 1977 - a year before Jonestown. This is obviously a completely frivolous argument that I'm making here.. I just thought I'd "plead my case."

	newenglander:	Jun 28th, 2009 at 21:07 GMT	0 points
	whys hemmingway in the 70s?

	nhrafan:	Jun 29th, 2009 at 07:12 GMT	1 point
	@ John2- he isn't. The light blue is for the sixties, which is when he died.

	Octoman:	Jun 29th, 2009 at 22:48 GMT	10 points
	technically it is JFK blown away and not just JFK.

	canyr12:	Jul 14th, 2009 at 03:34 GMT	6 points
	Agree that "hypodermics on the Shore" should be accepted, since that's the portion of NJ that had to deal with the syringe tide that the song refers to.

	Lemonpudding:	Aug 18th, 2009 at 04:42 GMT	1 point
	damn. 75 of 120 and i knew the song pretty well