Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

George Santayana

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

Juan Domingo Peron

-President of Argentina from 1946-1955, leader of the Peronist political movemen

The Bridge on the River Kwai

1957 war movie col saito says "be happy in your work"

Richard Nixon

1969-1964; Republican; Ended Vietnam War; Recognized China/ Watergate scandal; First president to resign

Winthrop Rockefeller

1st republican governor since reconstruction

Harry Truman

33rd President of the United States. Led the U.S. to victory in WWII making the ultimate decision to use atomic weapons for the first time. Shaped U.S. foreign policy regarding the Soviet Union after the war.

Nikita Khrushchev

A Soviet leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also famous for denouncing Stalin and allowed criticism of Stalin within Russia.

The Edsel

A brand of car that was manufactured by the Ford motor company from 1958-1960. The car never gained popularity with American car buyers and sold poorly. Because of this unpopularity Ford lost millions of dollars on the development, manufacturing, and marketing of this product. The name "Edsel" became known as and associated with a failure.

Children of Thalidomide

A drug developed to prevent morning sickness during pregnancy

Jack Kerouac

A key author of the Beat movement whose best selling novel, On the Road helped define the movement with it's featured frenzied prose and plotless ramblings.

Zhou Enlai

A prominent and influential member of the Chinese Communist Party during the time of Mao. He played a large role in China's reestablishing ties with the West.

James Dean

Actor who starred in "Rebel Without a Cause" in 1955. Embodied the new generation's "moral decay", teen angst, and dysfunctional families.

Malcolm X

African-American activist killed in 1965

Studebaker

All American family car of the 1950s

Roy Campanella

All-star catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. His career was cut short by a paralyzing car accident. (1953)

Dwight D. Eisenhower

American General who began in North Africa and became the Commander of Allied forces in Europe.

Doris Day

American actress in movies and TV, was known as the girl next door

Roy Cohn

Angels - lawyer with AIDs, married but has sex with men

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Arab leader, set out to modernize Egypt and end western domination, nationalized the Suez canal, led two wars against the Zionist state, remained a symbol of independence and pride, returned to socialism, nationalized banks and businesses, limited economic policies

Stranger in a Strange Land

Award winning fictional book by a Robert A. Heilein in 196o, is a breakthrough best-seller with themes of sexual freedom and liberation.

Rock and Roller cola wars

Battle between Coke and Pepsi launched in the mid 1980s

"Rock Around the Clock"

Bill Haley and the Comets- New York City 1954. Back beat, sax& electric guitar, 12-bar-blues, boogie boogie styl

Sugar Ray

Boxer. Full name is Sugar Ray Robenson

The King and I

Broadway musical about the king of Siam

Red China

Communist China beginning in 1949.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of North Vietnam

Rosenbergs

Couple executed for giving military secrets to the Soviets in the 1950's

Johnnie Ray

Deaf singer, Wrote the song called "Cry"

Ben-Hur

Epic American movie that won the most academy awards

Davy Crockett

Famous frontiersman, left Tennessee to help Texas fight Mexico for independence. Died at the Alamo.

Liberace

Famous pianist known for his extravagant dress

Sally Ride

First American woman in space

Charles de Gaulle

French general and statesman who became very popular during World War II as the leader of the Free French forces in exile (1890-1970)

Rocky Marciano

Heavyweight champion who retired undefeated

H-bomb

Hydrogen bomb

Profumo Affair

In March 1963, it was revealed that Macmillan's Minister for War, John Profumo had a sexual liaison with Christine Keeler- a prostitute with Soviet embassy members among her client

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger

Syngman Rhee

Korean leader who became president of South Korea after World War II and led Korea during Korean War.

The Little Rock Nine

Name given to the 9 black teenagers integrated Central High school in Little Rock. They went to school with armed guards for a year.

Bernard Goetz

New York City man who shot four young black men who supposedly tried to mug him in a subway in Manhattan

payola

Occurs when record companies give bribes to DJs to get their records played

Dacron

Polyester, non-absorbable, synthetic suture material

Boris Pasternak

Russian author of Dr. Zhivago, a novel condemning the brutality of the Stalin era (1890-1960)

The Watergate scandal

Scandal involving illegal activities that led ultimately to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974.

Georgy Malenkov

Soviet leader who tried to improve relations with the West by reducing arms through his New Course, though he developed nuclear weapons during World War II. He was forced to resign however due to his closeness to Western leaders

Charles Starkweather

Spree killer from NE- 1957. Captured in WY- executed in 1959

Lawrence of Arabia

T.E. Lawrence; a British officer who, in 1917, urged Arab princes to revolt against their Ottoman overlords; by 1918, the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East was destroyed by the British

Micky Mantle

Who hit 3 home runs the night before Alice overheard her parents talking on the porch?

Joe McCarthy

Winsconsin Senator that created a national witch hunt for socialist and communists inside the United States after WWII

Otto Adolf Eichmann

a "most wanted" Nazi war criminal, is captured by Mossad operatives in Argentina and taken to Israel to be tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Dien Bien Phu

a French garrison town in North-Western Vietnam, all of Vietnam having been under French administration since 1887.

Buddy Holly

an American musician singer and song-write who died with Ritchie Valens

The Syringe Tide

an environmental disaster in which medical waste is found washed up on beaches in New Jersey after being illegally dumped at sea. Before this event, waste dumped in the oceans was an "out of sight, out of mind" affair.

Arturo Toscanini

artistic director and principal conductor of La Scala in 1898

Sergei Prokofiev

composed music for 1934 satirical film Lieutenant Kij

John Glenn

first American to orbit the earth

South Pacific

highly popular Broadway musical and hit movie

Walter Winchel

is an aggressive radio and newspaper journalist credited with inventing the gossip column.

Peyton Place

the best-selling novel by Grace Metalious and is published in this year. Though mild in comparison to today's primetime, it shocked the reserved values of the 1950s

Ole Miss

the school that accepted James Meredith but there was still much discrimination

Panmunjon

where the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement that paused the Korean War was signed.

Joe DiMaggio

yankees baseball player, married Marilyn Monroe