Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
5.7 billion more people have arrived since
You are among the last humans who will ever know a world with fewer than 3 billion people.
1 in 85 people alive today was born in 1950.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Harry S. Truman
President
UK Prime Minister
Clement Attlee
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Trygve Lie
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1950
President Truman authorizes development of the hydrogen bomb, escalating the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union
North Korea invades South Korea, triggering the Korean War and US-led UN military intervention
US Senator Joseph McCarthy claims to have a list of 205 Communists in the State Department, launching the Red Scare
UN forces led by General MacArthur land at Inchon, turning the tide of the Korean War
China enters the Korean War, pushing UN forces back below the 38th parallel
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1950 (US)
Boys
James, Robert, John
Girls
Linda, Mary, Patricia
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+112.0 ppm since your birth
The air has 36% more CO₂ now than the day you took your first breath.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$3.3k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $43k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $3k in 1950 is worth right now
46% less purchasing power than today's median
Wages have grown, but housing, healthcare, and education have grown faster. The math isn't in your favor.
The Birth Lottery
Same year. Different world.
life expectancy at birth in 1950
life expectancy at birth in 1950
A 37.7-year gap, decided entirely by where you happened to be born. Same year, different world.
Everyday Prices
What things cost
Housing
Homes vs. salaries - then and now
Median home cost 2.2x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 2.4x harder to afford relative to income. Your parents weren't exaggerating about how cheap houses were.
Act III
What Was Playing
Billboard Year-End #1
Goodnight, Irene
Gordon Jenkins & The Weavers
Oscar Best Picture
All the King's Men
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
New York Yankees
Baseball
FIFA World Cup
Uruguay
Football
F1 Champion
Giuseppe Farina
Formula One
NBA Champion
Minneapolis Lakers
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
Texaco Star Theatre
Television
Fiction Bestseller
The Cardinal
Henry Morton Robinson
Box Office #1
Cinderella
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
ENIAC, the world's first general-purpose computer, made available for scientific calculations
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Diners Club issues the first credit card
RCA introduces color television system
UNIVAC I computer nearly complete, commissioned by US Census Bureau
First organ transplants attempted by medical researchers
Social Media Timeline
How old were you when these launched?
The Universe
Worlds discovered beyond our solar system
No exoplanets confirmed yet
confirmed and counting
When you were born, humanity had no proof that planets existed outside our solar system. Now we know they're everywhere.
Act V
Your Place in Time
🇺🇸 United States
Your country the year you arrived
Population
152M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$1,501
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
97M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to India's independence than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Stevie Wonder·Peter Gabriel·Bill Murray·Cybill Shepherd·Robbie Coltrane
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
That's 10 more years of life gained in a single generation. Vaccines, antibiotics, and cleaner water changed everything.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
274.9 billion times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 274.9 billion×.
38 doublings since 1950Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 100 in 2050
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 118 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 118 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 2.5 billion people. Harry S. Truman was in the White House. Goodnight, Irene by Gordon Jenkins & The Weavers was on the radio. The world you were born into would be unrecognizable today. Television was new, air travel was rare, and your parents had never heard the word 'computer.'
In 1950, recording your voice meant a reel-to-reel tape recorder.
Today, you can clone your own voice with a few minutes of audio.
Hear what that sounds like →keep exploring