Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
4.9 billion more people have arrived since
You arrived in a world with fewer than 4 billion. It has more than doubled since.
1 in 77 people alive today was born in 1964.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Lyndon B. Johnson
President
UK Prime Minister
Alec Douglas-Home (to Oct), then Harold Wilson
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
U Thant
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1964
24th Amendment to the US Constitution ratified, abolishing poll taxes that had disenfranchised Black voters in the South
Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law by President Johnson, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
Gulf of Tonkin incident leads US Congress to authorize military force in Vietnam, dramatically escalating American involvement
Nikita Khrushchev ousted as Soviet leader, replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary
China conducts its first successful nuclear weapons test in the Gobi Desert, becoming the fifth nuclear power
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1964 (US)
Boys
Michael, John, David
Girls
Lisa, Mary, Susan
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+102.9 ppm since your birth
The air has 32% more CO₂ now than the day you took your first breath.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$6.6k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $67k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $7k in 1964 is worth right now
17% 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 1964
life expectancy at birth in 1964
A 36.2-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 2.1x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 2.5x 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
I Want to Hold Your Hand
The Beatles
Oscar Best Picture
Tom Jones
Directed by Tony Richardson
Grammy Album of the Year
The Barbra Streisand Album
Barbra Streisand
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
St. Louis Cardinals
Baseball
F1 Champion
John Surtees
Formula One
NBA Champion
Boston Celtics
Basketball
Wimbledon Men's
Roy Emerson
Tennis
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
The Beverly Hillbillies
Television
Fiction Bestseller
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John le Carré
Box Office #1
Mary Poppins
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
IBM introduces the System/360, defining the mainframe era; the first Ford Mustang rolls off the assembly line
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
IBM System/360 mainframe announced, revolutionizing business computing
BASIC programming language created at Dartmouth College
Ford Mustang introduced, selling 418,000 in its first year
Tokyo Olympics broadcast globally via satellite for the first time
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
192M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$3,573
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
107M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to the assassination of JFK than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Nicolas Cage·Courteney Cox·Keanu Reeves·Sandra Bullock·Rob Lowe
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
8 years of progress. Steady gains from better medicine, nutrition, and public health.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
2.1 billion times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 2.1 billion×.
31 doublings since 1964Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 65 in 2029 · You turn 100 in 2064
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 132 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 132 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 3.3 billion people. Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House. I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles was on the radio. You arrived in a decade of upheaval. Civil rights, the space race, a world on the brink. And somehow, here you are.
In 1964, hearing a new voice meant tuning into the radio.
Today, you can clone your own voice with a few minutes of audio.
Hear what that sounds like →keep exploring