Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
4.0 billion more people have arrived since
You are part of the last generation born into a world under 5 billion.
1 in 63 people alive today was born in 1976.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Gerald Ford
President
UK Prime Minister
Harold Wilson (to Apr), then James Callaghan
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Kurt Waldheim
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1976
Mao Zedong's Gang of Four loses power struggle following his death; Hua Guofeng becomes Chinese leader
Military coup in Argentina overthrows Isabel Perón, beginning a brutal dictatorship that disappears 30,000 people
US Bicentennial celebrated across America on July 4th with the tallest tall ships gathering in New York Harbor
Mao Zedong dies at age 82, ending an era that transformed China and affected a quarter of humanity
Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford in US presidential election, ending Republican rule after Watergate
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1976 (US)
Boys
Michael, Jason, Christopher
Girls
Jennifer, Amy, Melissa
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+90.5 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 27% since 1976. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$12.7k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $70k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $13k in 1976 is worth right now
13% 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 1976
life expectancy at birth in 1976
A 31.9-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 3.0x 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
Silly Love Songs
Wings
Oscar Best Picture
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Directed by Milos Forman
Grammy Album of the Year
Still Crazy After All These Years
Paul Simon
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Cincinnati Reds
Baseball
F1 Champion
James Hunt
Formula One
Super Bowl
Pittsburgh Steelers
21-17 vs Dallas Cowboys
NBA Champion
Boston Celtics
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
Happy Days
Television
Fiction Bestseller
Trinity
Leon Uris
Box Office #1
Rocky
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak; the Altair 8800 sparks the personal computer revolution
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Apple Computer Company founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1
The Apple I computer kit sold for $666.66, beginning Apple's history
Cray-1 supercomputer installed at Los Alamos, world's fastest computer at 160 MFLOPS
First commercial laser printer (IBM 3800) 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
218M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$8,592
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
130M
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
Reese Witherspoon·Alicia Silverstone·Ryan Reynolds·Colin Farrell·Candace Cameron Bure
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
6 years of progress. Steady gains from better medicine, nutrition, and public health.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
33.6 million times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 33.6 million×.
25 doublings since 1976Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 65 in 2041 · You turn 100 in 2076
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 144 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 144 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 4.2 billion people. Gerald Ford was in the White House. Silly Love Songs by Wings 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 1976, 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