We Didn’t Start the Fire

The musician put forty years of history into a song, starting from the year nineteen forty-nine of which he was born, and ending at nineteen eighty-nine when the song was written. The term “fire” is metaphorically used for the power to create, and the power to destroy. It has provided a major way of life for humanity, and it is still used today. “Fire” used in Joel’s song relates to the influence of events from times before, and recently. Events in history have made both a positive and negative impact on humanity. The Profumo Affair has become a major impact on humanity’s views of how far politicians can go through corruption.

The Profumo Affair, which was recognized in nineteen sixty-three, is represented in Joel’s Song as “British Politician Sex. ” He obtained his position in the House of Commons in nineteen forty when he was twenty-five. John Profumo was the Secretary of State for War in Great Britain.

He was married to the actress Valerie Hobson, and was well liked in the House of Commons. Profumo was considered a “rising star in Harold Macmillan’s Troy Government, and a regular guest at the Buckingham Palace. ” During his time as Secretary of State for War, he met Christine Keeler, a teenage prostitute, at Lord Astor’s Mansion.

John Profumo first laid eyes on her as she came out of the Mansion’s pool naked. Through he had had an ideal life; Profumo had an affair with Keeler. The only person who knew of the affair was Johnny Edgecombe, an Antiguan immigrant. He knew of the affair because Christine Keeler herself told him. Edgecombe let go of the affair when he was arrested for firing six gunshots outside of Keeler’s home. In March of nineteen sixty-three, Profumo denied any “impropriety whatever” in his relationship with Keeler to the House of Commons.

Three months later John Profumo resigns as Secretary of State for War claiming that he had lied about the affair “in deep remorse. ” It was later known that Keeler also had an affair with Eugene Ivanov, a Soviet Spy, which opened up the threat of blackmail for Profumo. The threat of blackmail threatened the country’s national security. The Profumo Affair is considered one if the twentieth century’s greatest scandals. This scandal interlocks with the recent findings of Ex-Governor Spitzer of New York. During his time as Governor, Eliot Spitzer was found to be a client of a prostitution ring.

This scandal opened Spitzer up to the threat of blackmail by the organized crime that ran the prostitution ring. Spitzer resigned a few days later after his personal business was made public. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination has made an impact upon humanity’s views on how well political figures should be protected. Kennedy is the first Catholic and thirty-fifth president of the United States of America. He was a young and vital president who dealt with many foreign affairs, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Berlin Wall.

He has made famous quotes such as, “Ask not what your country can do for you – Ask what you can do for your country,” and “Ich bin ein Berliner. ” On November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three, President Kennedy participated in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. He was riding in an open-topped car with Texas Governor John Connally, and their wives. From a distance, Lee Harvey Oswald shot an Italian-made 6. 5 mm rifle at Kennedy. The president was hit in the next and in the face. It is known that Lee Harvey Oswald was a “Marxist”, a member of Fair Play for Cuba Committee.

Because of the development of communication, the story of Kennedy’s assassination was spread quickly through television. Half of all Americans heard of the story before Kennedy was pronounced deceased. The majority of Americans proclaimed that they could not remember any other moment in their life when they heard of the president’s assassination. Today, the president of the United States of America is taken through many steps of safety precautions. The Secret Service is stricter upon the president’s safety and precautions such as stunt doubles are used.

John Glenn had a major impact on humanity’s curiosity of space, science, and technology. John Glenn was a United States astronaut in the nineteen sixty’s. Before his space career, Glenn joined the United States Marine Corps in nineteen forty-three and flew fifty-nine missions in World War One. He always flew ninety missions in the Korean War. He became a test pilot in the year nineteen fifty-four. Fives years later in nineteen fifty-nine John Glenn was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and later because one of the seven United States military pilots selected for Project Mercury astronaut training.

On February twentieth, nineteen sixty-two, John Glenn was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in the space capsule Friendship 7. He orbited the planet Earth three times, and then landed in the Atlantic Ocean. The space trip took him five hours. The only person to have done this before Glenn was Yury Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, who was the first person in space. He made one trip around the planet Earth a year before John Glenn. Another American astronaut named Scott Carpenter made three trips around the planet Earth months later after Glenn. The trip around the world continued the “space race” between countries.