SOLVED - An Historic Puzzle

[Suspence]

What can you get from history?


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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[jesternl]

I can identify maybe 20% at a first scanning. Will look at it at home once work no longer interferes with puzzles

[Suspence]

Should be interesting to see which people get ID'd first. It's like a Sporcle quiz combined with a puzzle.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[jesternl]

Well, here's what I got so far:

Nixon, X, De Gaulle, Castro, Eichmann, X,Truman
X, X, X, X, DiMaggio, Einstein ,Holly
X, Reagan, Dean, Bardot ,X, X, X
X, X, X, X, Khomeini, Monroe, X
X, X, Ride, X, X, X, X
X, X, Kennedy, Omar Sharif?, Gagarin?, X, X
X, X, X, X, X, Stalin, Presley

[Zag]

Ok. I'll take a shot. These are from memory, but I confirmed a few with searches so I don't look too foolish.

Richard Nixon, Menachem Begin, ???, Fidel Castro, ???, ???, Harry Truman

Dwight Eisenhower, Marlon Brando, ???, ???, Joe DiMaggio, Albert Einstein, Buddy Holly

???, Ronald, Reagan, James Dean, ???, ???, ???, ???

???, ???, ???, ???, Ayatollah Khomeini, Marilyn Monroe, ???

???, ???, Sally Ride, ???, ???, ???, ???

???. ???. John F. Kennedy, ???, ???, ???, ???

, ???, ???, ???, Liberace, ???, Josef Stalin, Elvis Presley

Edit: Dang. Too slow.

[Suspence]

Good so far, though both of jesternl's guesses are incorrect.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[jesternl]

OK, let's combine the two..

Richard Nixon, Menachem Begin, Charles De Gaulle, Fidel Castro, Adolf Eichmann, ???, Harry Truman

Dwight Eisenhower, Marlon Brando, ???, ???, Joe DiMaggio, Albert Einstein, Buddy Holly

???, Ronald, Reagan, James Dean, Brigitte Bardot, ???, ???, ???

Rocky Marciano, ???, ???, ???, Ayatollah Khomeini, Marilyn Monroe, ???

???, ???, Sally Ride, ???, ???, ???, ???

???. ???. John F. Kennedy, ???, ???, ???, ???

, ???, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, ???, Liberace, ???, Josef Stalin, Elvis Presley

I'm burning through 'm now, Nice one Suspence!

[Zag]

Bottom left is Bob Dylan

[Suspence]

Still going strong. You ultimately should get a one-word solution that gives an answer to the question in the initial post.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[jesternl]

I just can't figure out the last clue.

"1122314353 in songtitle"

[Suspence]

Use the numbers as an index to the word/letter in the title.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Scurra]

I have to say that I am none the wiser...

Nice puzzle though. I made a guess as to what it was about and turned out to be right.
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_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[jesternl]

Hmmm 9 words in the title and the intro, and 10 digits...

[Suspence]

Nicely solved, Scurra. Full spoiler:

Identify all the historical figures, and use the number below as the index to their last name:

nixOn
begiN
dE gaulle
castrO
eichmaNn
winchEll
Truman
eisenhoWer
brandO
lisTon
hemingWay
dimaggiO
einsTein
Holly
Ray
rEagan
dEan
bardOt
Nasser
rhEe
rockeFeller
marcianO
keroUac
pasteRnak
paTterson
kHomeini
monRoe
kElly
malEnkov
prokoFiev
rIde
khrushcheV
pEron
manTle
cHecker
mccaRthy
campanElla
kEnnedy
robInson
gleNn
Santayana
gOetz
dylaN
rosenberG
sTarkweather
lIberace
Toscanini
staLin
preslEy

This yields:
ONE ONE TWO TWO THREE ONE FOUR THREE FIVE THREE IN SONG TITLE

Each of these historical figures appears in the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel. (I believe the only folks mentioned in the song that aren't included in the puzzle are Doris Day, Malcolm X, Zhou Enlai, Pope Paul VI, and Ho Chi Minh)

Using the numbers above as an index to the song title gives:

1-1 - (W)e
2-2 - d(I)dn't
3-1 - (S)tart
4-3 - th(E)
5-3 - fi(R)e

What can you get from history? WISER
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[jesternl]

I enjoyed this one.
Thanks!

[Zag]

Nice puzzle!

I had the ONE ONE TWO, etc. (or enough of it to realize that was the right direction) but I never would have made the leap to use the song. I know I've heard it, but I can't recall anything more of it than the chorus. Possibly if I googled several of the names together I would stumble on it, but I didn't think to try because there were too many.