Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
5.4 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 83 people alive today was born in 1955.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
President
UK Prime Minister
Anthony Eden
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Dag Hammarskjöld
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1955
Afro-Asian Bandung Conference held in Indonesia; 29 newly independent nations assert independence from Cold War blocs
Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California, revolutionizing entertainment and theme park culture
West Germany joins NATO as a sovereign state, reintegrating into the Western alliance
James Dean killed in car accident at age 24, becoming an enduring cultural icon
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1955 (US)
Boys
Michael, David, James
Girls
Mary, Deborah, Linda
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+110.0 ppm since your birth
The air has 35% more CO₂ now than the day you took your first breath.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$4.4k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $51k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $4k in 1955 is worth right now
36% 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 1955
life expectancy at birth in 1955
A 36.7-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 2.3x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 2.3x 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
Rock Around the Clock
Bill Haley & His Comets
Oscar Best Picture
On the Waterfront
Directed by Elia Kazan
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Brooklyn Dodgers
Baseball
F1 Champion
Juan Manuel Fangio
Formula One
NBA Champion
Syracuse Nationals
Basketball
Wimbledon Men's
Tony Trabert
Tennis
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
I Love Lucy
Television
Fiction Bestseller
Marjorie Morningstar
Herman Wouk
Box Office #1
Lady and the Tramp
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California - the world's first theme park of its kind
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California
First McDonald's franchise opens in Des Plaines, Illinois
Polio vaccine by Jonas Salk declared safe and effective; mass vaccination begins
First fiber optic cable demonstrated by Narinder Singh Kapany
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
166M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$2,011
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
99M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Steve Jobs·Bill Gates·Bruce Willis·Kevin Costner·Whoopi Goldberg
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
9 years of progress. Steady gains from better medicine, nutrition, and public health.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
68.7 billion times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 68.7 billion×.
36 doublings since 1955Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 100 in 2055
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 123 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 123 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 2.8 billion people. Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House. Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets 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 1955, 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