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 71 people alive today was born in 1965.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Lyndon B. Johnson
President
UK Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
U Thant
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1965
US begins sustained bombing campaign of North Vietnam (Operation Rolling Thunder), escalating the Vietnam War
First US combat troops - 3,500 Marines - land at Da Nang, Vietnam, marking direct military involvement
Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama - civil rights marchers beaten by police on Edmund Pettus Bridge
Voting Rights Act signed by President Johnson, outlawing discriminatory voting practices
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 erupts over Kashmir, largest tank battles since WWII
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1965 (US)
Boys
Michael, John, David
Girls
Lisa, Mary, Karen
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+102.5 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
$6.9k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $69k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $7k in 1965 is worth right now
14% 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 1965
life expectancy at birth in 1965
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 2.9x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 1.8x 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
Wooly Bully
Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
Oscar Best Picture
My Fair Lady
Directed by George Cukor
Grammy Album of the Year
Getz/Gilberto
Stan Getz & João Gilberto
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Los Angeles Dodgers
Baseball
F1 Champion
Jim Clark
Formula One
NBA Champion
Boston Celtics
Basketball
Wimbledon Men's
Roy Emerson
Tennis
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
Bonanza
Television
Fiction Bestseller
The Source
James Michener
Box Office #1
The Sound of Music
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Gordon Moore publishes paper predicting transistor counts will double every two years (Moore's Law)
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
IBM System/360 mainframe family begins shipping
Gordon Moore articulates Moore's Law in Electronics magazine
First commercial satellite (Early Bird/Intelsat I) launched for transatlantic TV
DEC PDP-8, first mass-produced minicomputer, introduced
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
194M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$3,828
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
116M
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
Robert Downey Jr.·J.K. Rowling·Dr. Dre·Scottie Pippen·Sarah Jessica Parker
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 1965Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 65 in 2030 · You turn 100 in 2065
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 133 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 133 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. Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs 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 1965, 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