Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
4.3 billion more people have arrived since
You arrived in a world with fewer than 4 billion. It has more than doubled since.
1 in 65 people alive today was born in 1973.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Richard Nixon
President
UK Prime Minister
Edward Heath
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Kurt Waldheim
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1973
Paris Peace Accords signed, ending direct US military involvement in Vietnam after a decade of conflict
Last US combat troops withdraw from Vietnam following the Paris Peace Accords
US-backed military coup overthrows Chile's democratically elected President Salvador Allende, Augusto Pinochet seizes power
Yom Kippur War: Egypt and Syria launch surprise attack on Israel; Arab oil embargo begins targeting US and Western nations
Saturday Night Massacre: Nixon fires Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, triggering constitutional crisis
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1973 (US)
Boys
Michael, Christopher, Jason
Girls
Jennifer, Amy, Melissa
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+92.8 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 28% since 1973. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$10.5k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $74k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $11k in 1973 is worth right now
7% 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 1973
life expectancy at birth in 1973
A 34.0-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 2.8x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 1.9x 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
Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Oscar Best Picture
The Godfather
Directed by Bob Fosse
Grammy Album of the Year
The Concert for Bangla Desh
George Harrison & Friends
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Oakland Athletics
Baseball
F1 Champion
Jackie Stewart
Formula One
Super Bowl
Miami Dolphins
14-7 vs Washington Redskins
NBA Champion
New York Knicks
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
All in the Family
Television
Fiction Bestseller
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Bach
Box Office #1
The Exorcist
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Ethernet invented at Xerox PARC; Skylab, America's first space station, launched
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Xerox Alto developed - first personal computer with graphical user interface and mouse
Ethernet networking technology invented by Robert Metcalfe at Xerox PARC
Skylab space station launched by NASA, hosting three crews
TCP protocol conceived by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, laying foundation for the modern internet
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
212M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$6,726
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
127M
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
Pharrell Williams·Monica Lewinsky·Heidi Klum·Tyra Banks·Carson Daly
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
7 years of progress. Steady gains from better medicine, nutrition, and public health.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
134.2 million times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 134.2 million×.
27 doublings since 1973Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 65 in 2038 · You turn 100 in 2073
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 141 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 141 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 3.9 billion people. Richard Nixon was in the White House. Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree by Tony Orlando and Dawn was on the radio. You grew up in the last decade where being unreachable was normal. No pagers, no cell phones, just the world right in front of you.
In 1973, recording your voice meant pressing play+record on a cassette.
Today, you can clone your own voice with a few minutes of audio.
Hear what that sounds like →keep exploring