Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
4.2 billion more people have arrived since
You are part of the last generation born into a world under 5 billion.
1 in 64 people alive today was born in 1974.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Richard Nixon (to Aug), then Gerald Ford
President
UK Prime Minister
Edward Heath (to Mar), then Harold Wilson
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Kurt Waldheim
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1974
Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, later joining her captors in bank robbery
Carnation Revolution in Portugal ends 48 years of dictatorship peacefully, beginning transition to democracy
Impeachment hearings against President Nixon begin in the House Judiciary Committee over Watergate
President Richard Nixon resigns the presidency after the Watergate scandal, the first US president to do so; Gerald Ford sworn in
Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia for 44 years, deposed by a Marxist military junta as famine ravages the country
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1974 (US)
Boys
Michael, Jason, Christopher
Girls
Jennifer, Amy, Michelle
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+92.3 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 28% since 1974. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$11.1k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $71k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $11k in 1974 is worth right now
12% 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 1974
life expectancy at birth in 1974
A 33.4-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
The Way We Were
Barbra Streisand
Oscar Best Picture
The Sting
Directed by George Roy Hill
Grammy Album of the Year
Innervisions
Stevie Wonder
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Oakland Athletics
Baseball
FIFA World Cup
West Germany
Football
F1 Champion
Emerson Fittipaldi
Formula One
Super Bowl
Miami Dolphins
24-7 vs Minnesota Vikings
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
All in the Family
Television
Fiction Bestseller
Centennial
James Michener
Box Office #1
Blazing Saddles
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Intel releases the 8080 microprocessor; the Altair 8800 concept begins, ushering in the personal computer era
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Intel 8080 microprocessor released, becoming the basis for the first personal computers
Xerox Alto operational with GUI, mouse, and ethernet - the model for modern PCs
First commercial barcode scanner installed in a Troy, Ohio supermarket
Dungeons & Dragons published by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, founding tabletop RPGs
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
214M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$7,226
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
128M
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
Joaquin Phoenix·Leonardo DiCaprio·Ryan Seacrest·Robbie Williams·Christian Bale
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
67.1 million times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 67.1 million×.
26 doublings since 1974Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 65 in 2039 · You turn 100 in 2074
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 142 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 142 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 4.0 billion people. Richard Nixon (to Aug), then Gerald Ford was in the White House. The Way We Were by Barbra Streisand 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 1974, 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