This document contains 30 multiple choice questions about people and events from the 20th century mentioned in Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire". The questions test knowledge about topics referenced in the lyrics such as presidents, wars, inventions, pop culture figures and events between 1949-1989.

1. A QUIZ ON 20TH
CENTURY

2. 1. “It was done to save 125,000
youngsters on the American side and
125,000 on the Japanese side from
getting killed and that is what it did. It
probably also saved a half million
youngsters on both sides from being
maimed for life.”
Whose words?

3. Harry S
Truman
The American
President
justifying
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki

4. 2. The death of this great leader of China led to a war
between communists and nationalists.
He is venerated as a Saint in Đạo Cao Đài, a religion
established in Vietnam in 1926 along with two other
Saints including Victor Hugo
Name him.

6. 3
__________ is a broadway
musical, the fifth by the
legendary team of Rodgers and
Hammerstein based on the
memoirs of Anna Leonowens,
governess to the children of
King Mongkut of Siam in the
early 1860s.
Interestingly a BBC
documentary on Romulus
Whitaker’s quest to save the
world's largest venomous snake
also have a similar name.
Identify .

8. 4
Joe Dimaggio, a baseball legend
was voted the sport's greatest
living player in a poll taken
during the baseball centennial
year of 1969.
Numerous works of arts
including musicals and DC
comics were made on him and
his more famous life partner
from the field of glamour ,one
of which include a Jon Bon Jovi
song “Captain Crash & the
Beauty Queen from mars“.
Identify the lady in his life.

9. Marilyn Monroe

10. 5. Which war is referred as The
Forgotten War, 6–2–5 Upheaval, and
Fatherland Liberation War?
There was a cease fire agreement , but
no peace treaty has been signed, and
the two countries are technically still
at war.

11. The Korean war

12. 6. Carl Bernstein is the author or co-author
of six books: All the President's Men, Final
Days, and The Secret Man, with Bob
Woodward; His Holiness: John Paul II and
the History of Our Time, with Marco Politi;
Loyalties; and A Woman in Charge: The Life
of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
What was his claim to fame?

13. Along with Bob Woodward
at The Washington Post, he
did the majority of the
most important news
reporting on the Watergate
scandal. These scandals led
to numerous government
investigations and the
eventual resignation of
President Richard Nixon.

14. 7. He was one of only three professional
actors, along with Charlie Chaplin and
Marilyn Monroe, named in 1999 by Time
magazine as one of its 100 Most Important
People of the Century . Identify him.

15. Marlon Brando

16. 8.Identify
the person

18. 9
______went undefeated
in his boxing career and
defended his title six
times.
________was the
inspiration for the name,
iconography, and fighting
style of the title character
Rocky Balboa from
Sylvester Stallone's
American classic Rocky
movie series.
Name him

19. ROCKY MARCIANO

20. 10.”On the Cult of Personality and Its
Consequences” was a report by X which was
sharply critical of the reign of deceased leader
Y. A story says that in a meeting somebody
send a piece of paper asking X why he has not
said these things while Y was alive.
X took out a gun and shouted “who send
this?”.
After moments of silence, he smiled and
replied “ now you know why”.
Identify X and Y.

21. Nikita Krushchev and Stalin

22. 11.Kadesh Operation, was an invasion by
Israel, followed by the United Kingdom
and France . After the fighting had started,
the United States, the Soviet Union, and
the United Nations forced the three
invaders to withdraw. The episode
humiliated Great Britain and France. What
is the more popular name of this incident?

23. The Suez Crisis

24. 12._______ is a city in the north-west region of
Vietnam. The city is best known for the events which
occurred there during the First Indochina War,during
which the region was a breadbasket for the region.
The city was formerly called Thaeng. Name the city.

26. 13. J.M. Barrie created this character
based on his brother, David, who died
in an ice-skating accident the day
before his 14th birthday.
The character rescued princess tiger lily
and is friend of Wendy darling and
Tinker bell.
Who is he?

28. 14
The phrase originally described the
movement of a ship on the ocean, but
was used by the early twentieth
century to describe the spiritual fervor
of black church ritual.
It was used to describe rhythm and
blues music aimed at a black audience.
Later any upbeat music was called by
this name.
Elvis Presly the all time most selling
solo artist was often called the king of
_____.
Name the phrase

30. 15. “To all who come to this happy place:
Welcome. ______is your land. Here age
relives fond memories of the past, and
here youth may savour the challenge and
promise of the future. _______is dedicated
to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard
facts that have created America, with the
hope that it will be a source of joy and
inspiration to all the world.”
Where will you find this dedication?

31. Disneyland

32. 16.This famous lady has the unique
achievement of two days named after
her; Her birthday, February 4, is
celebrated in California and Missouri
and the day she was arrested,
December 1, is commemorated in
Ohio and Oregon.
Identify her.

34. 17.Identify this Nobel laureate and explain
what was special about his award.

35. Boris Pasternak who had to decline it in 1958
and his descendants accepted it 30 years later.

36. 18
Director and
cinematographer Balu
Mahendra often tells about
how he got attracted to film
making after watching the
iconic David lean. “When he
tells rain , it rains; I was so
surprised”.
By watching which classical
movie’s shooting Balu
Mahendra was inspired?

38. 19. Which leader founded the
Fifth republic, the current
constitution of the country and
whose War Memoirs, which
quickly became a classic of
modern literature?

39. Charles de Gaulle

40. 20.Identify

42. 21.One of the stories regarding the
origin of this word is from the name of
an Arab tribe that ruled Palermo.
In America they call themselves Cosa
Nostra,
the Mexican calls itself La Eme,
and the Russians are termed Bratva.
Identify the word.

44. 22. When the leaders of the
United States and Cuba held
their first formal meeting in
more than half a century in
2015, which prediction made
by Fidel Castro in 1973 became
true?

46. 23. When a nightclub operator
in Dallas, Texas shot down an
American sniper with a Russian
wife on 24th November
1963,how does that became a
global news?

47. Jack Ruby fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald, who was
in police custody after being charged with the
murder of President John F. Kennedy

48. 24.The Natural Law Party (NLP) was a transnational party
founded in 1992 on "the principles of Transcendental
Meditation“ ,the laws of nature, and their application to all
levels of government.
Prominent candidates included John Hagelin for U.S.
president and Doug Henning as representative of Rosedale,
Toronto, Canada.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , the founder of Transcendental
Meditation and was able to attract artists to perform for the
Parties benefit concerts include _______ of _______
who wrote songs like my sweet lord during his stay in
Maharishi’s Ashram in Rishikesh.
Identify the artist and Band.

50. 25.X’s advertising has historically focused on
wholesomeness and nostalgia for childhood often
characterized as "family-friendly" and often relies on
"cute" characters e.g., the polar bear mascot and
Santa Claus around Christmas
Y came up with showing people in blind taste tests
and introduced a system called stuff to collect points
which could be redeemed. Y outperformed X during
the summer of the Atlanta Olympics - held in X's
hometown - where X was a lead sponsor of the
Games.
Identify X and Y and also name this aggressive
campaign by the two

52. 26.He used to play Mozart’s sonatas in his violin
named Lina. Mozart’s work, _____ wrote, “was so
pure that it seemed to have been ever-present in the
universe, waiting to be discovered by the master.” In
this respect, he saw Mozart as a kind of musical
physicist—someone who seemed to find his
distinctive sound in the most cosmic essence of
harmony. Even though he was trained in piano also
by his mother, he took to violin because of Mozart.
Identify the man.

54. 27. Which Oscar
winner female
actor’s father
was a three time
Olympic gold
medallist in
rowing?

56. 28. U2 crisis of 1960
involves Francis Gary
Powers—a pilot whose
spy plane was shot down
over the Soviet Union. He
was later exchanged for
Rudolf Abel, a captive
Soviet KGB spy held
under the custody of the
United States.
Which 2015 movie is the
film adaptation of this
incident?

58. 29.The Kashmir Princess was a chartered
Lockheed L-749A Constellation aircraft owned
by Air India. On 11 April 1955, it was damaged
in mid air by a bomb explosion and crashed into
the South China Sea while en route from
Bombay, India, and Hong Kong to Jakarta,
Indonesia. Sixteen of those on board were
killed, while three survived.
The captain of the plane, D.K. Jatar who
perished in the crash, later along with Co-Pilot,
M.C Dixit and ground maintenance engineer
Anant Karnik, became the first civilians to be
awarded the Ashoka Chakra Award for "most
conspicuous bravery, daring and self-sacrifice.
Who was the target of the assassination
attempt who miraculously missed the flight?

59. CHINESE PREMIER CHOU EN LAI

60. 30.Paul Newman turned it down
because he said he didn't have the
legs to wear a tunic. Marlon Brando,
and Rock Hudson were also offered
the role, as were a number of
muscular, handsome Italian actors.
In the end the role went to someone
with a theatre experience playing
shakesperean characters and who
already got a golden globe
nomination playing Moses.
The rest is history.
Identify the actor.

61. Charlton Heston

62. There is a connect
other than the
obvious between
all the questions

63. All the questions was taken from the song
“We didn’t start the fire” by Billy Joel

64. Thank you