1977

Menachem Begin becomes the sixth Prime Minister of Israel on June 21. Begin’s most significant achievement as Prime Minister is the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, for which he and Anwar Sadat share the Nobel Prize for Peace.

1980s

It was discovered that many Vietnam War veterans became homeless after the war due to public scorn and lack of post-war employment. They lose their homes, battle alcoholism and drug addictions, and die of starvation.

Their struggle has been immortalized in many media forms, including movies like Born of the Fourth of July, and songs like Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Billy Joel’s own works reference the struggle of the Vietnam Vet.

1969

On July 16 at exactly 9:32 am EDT, a Saturn V rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida with Apollo 11 and astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on board. The lunar trip takes just over three days. After overcoming several computer malfunctions, Armstrong takes over manual flight-control and guides the Lunar Module to a landing on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility at 4:17 pm EDT on July 20. The first humans on the Moon will wait another six hours before they venture out of their craft.

At 10:56:15 pm EDT, Armstrong becomes the first human to set foot on the Moon. His historic first words on the Moon: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The first step is witnessed by at least 500 million TV viewers on Earth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwZb2mqId0A

1965

The baby boomer era ends with the increased availability and acceptance of contraceptives in the mid-1960’s. The result is a decline of the birth rate in developed countries.

Contraception, particularly oral, hormone-based contraception prescribed for women, remains a controversial topic to this day, with debates continuing over whether pharmacists have the right to refuse to fill a prescription for contraceptives based on their personal religious beliefs, and also whether religion-oriented oraganizations or companies have the right to deny health insurance coverage for oral contraceptives to their female employees.

The first birth control “pill,” based on the Enovid formula, was patented during this year. Mexican scientist Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cárdenas has gone on to receive credit for the invention, however, he recalls history differently:

I’m not the inventor of the contraceptive pill, the inventor was Gregory Pincus, who I meet and was friends with; I am the discoverer of the chemical compound that produced said pill. Some say I am the father of the pill, not the inventor.”

This line is a reworking of a line from the American spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”

I looked over Jordan, and what did I see
Coming for to carry me home?
A band of angels coming after me,
Coming for to carry me home.

Geographically, Jordan is a river flowing to the Dead Sea inside Jordan country. Currently, the river serves as the eastern border of the State of Palestine and the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the western border of Jordan.

In the bible, the River Jordan was crossed by the Israelites in Numbers 33:40-56 on their way to the land promised to them by God (otherwise known as the Promised Land).

In the context of the song, the narrator is warning the sheep that the promised land they are working towards is not what they’re expecting.

1972

The Watergate scandal was the result of the break-in of the Watergate office complex in Washington, DC, and the Nixon administration’s attempts to cover-up their involvement. This lead to the discovery of many abuses of power including “bugging” the offices of political opponents and hiring the CIA, FBI and the IRS to harass activist groups.

The resulting discoveries lead to the incarceration of 43 people, many being Nixon’s top administration officials, and the first (and currently only) resignation of a United States President.

1976

Ronald Reagan, actor, radio personality, and conservative Republican, first attempts a presidential campaign against President Gerald Ford and narrowly loses the presidential nomination. Ford would go on to lose the election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Reagan would later run again, and win, in 1980.

1984

Crack appears primarily in impoverished inner-city neighborhoods in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami in the later part of the year. It is said to be the most addictive form of the narcotic drug cocaine, although this has been contested. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers.

The following verse contains events and important figures that made the news headlines from 1965 – 1989, the year billy Joel turned 40.

Pictured behind Billy Joel is Oliver North, who entered public consciousness as a key player in the Iran-Contra affair (from the “We Didn’t Start the Fire” music video).

The following verse contains events and important figures that made the news headlines from 1961 – 1963.

Pictured behind Billy Joel is the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of John F. Kennedy (from the “We Didn’t Start the Fire” music video).