Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
4.6 billion more people have arrived since
You arrived in a world with fewer than 4 billion. It has more than doubled since.
1 in 67 people alive today was born in 1969.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Richard Nixon
President
UK Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
U Thant
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1969
Apollo 11 lands on the Moon - Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the lunar surface, watched by 600 million viewers worldwide
Woodstock Music Festival draws 400,000 people to a farm in upstate New York for three days of music and counterculture
Ho Chi Minh, founder of North Vietnam and symbol of Vietnamese resistance, dies at age 79
The first message sent over ARPANET, the network that will evolve into the internet - the system crashes after 'LO'
Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre, revealing US soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1969 (US)
Boys
Michael, David, James
Girls
Lisa, Michelle, Jennifer
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+97.9 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 30% since 1969. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$8.4k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $72k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $8k in 1969 is worth right now
10% 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 1969
life expectancy at birth in 1969
A 36.3-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 3.1x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 1.7x 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
Sugar Sugar
The Archies
Oscar Best Picture
Oliver!
Directed by Carol Reed
Grammy Album of the Year
By the Time I Get to Phoenix
Glen Campbell
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
New York Mets
Baseball
F1 Champion
Jackie Stewart
Formula One
Super Bowl
New York Jets
16-7 vs Baltimore Colts
NBA Champion
Boston Celtics
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Television
Fiction Bestseller
Portnoy's Complaint
Philip Roth
Box Office #1
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon; ARPANET, the precursor to the internet, sends its first message
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Apollo 11 lands on the Moon - Neil Armstrong takes the first steps on July 20
ARPANET sends its first message between UCLA and Stanford Research Institute on October 29
UNIX operating system created at Bell Labs by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie
Boeing 747 'Jumbo Jet' makes its first commercial flight, transforming air travel
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
203M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$5,019
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
123M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to the moon landing than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Jennifer Aniston·Jay-Z·Marilyn Manson·Renée Zellweger·Matthew Perry
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
536.9 million times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 536.9 million×.
29 doublings since 1969Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 65 in 2034 · You turn 100 in 2069
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 137 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 137 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 3.6 billion people. Richard Nixon was in the White House. Sugar Sugar by The Archies 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 1969, 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