Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
2.6 billion more people have arrived since
The world crossed 6 billion around the time you were born. It will likely never reach 12.
1 in 59 people alive today was born in 1993.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Bill Clinton
President
UK Prime Minister
John Major
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1993
Bill Clinton inaugurated as 42nd US President; the White House launches a website for the first time
World Trade Center bombed by Islamic terrorists, killing 6 and injuring 1,000 in a parking garage explosion
Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas stormed by FBI; fire kills 76 including cult leader David Koresh
Oslo Accords signed by Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn, creating a framework for Palestinian-Israeli peace
Battle of Mogadishu: US soldiers killed in Somalia in the 'Black Hawk Down' incident, shown live on CNN
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1993 (US)
Boys
Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Girls
Jessica, Ashley, Sarah
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+65.4 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 18% since 1993. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$31.2k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $68k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $31k in 1993 is worth right now
15% 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 1993
life expectancy at birth in 1993
A 33.8-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 3.4x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 1.6x 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
I Will Always Love You
Whitney Houston
Oscar Best Picture
Unforgiven
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Grammy Album of the Year
Unplugged
Eric Clapton
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Toronto Blue Jays
Baseball
F1 Champion
Alain Prost
Formula One
Super Bowl
Dallas Cowboys
52-17 vs Buffalo Bills
NBA Champion
Chicago Bulls
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
60 Minutes
Television
Fiction Bestseller
The Bridges of Madison County
Robert James Waller
Box Office #1
Jurassic Park
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
NCSA Mosaic web browser released, making the World Wide Web accessible to ordinary people for the first time
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
NCSA Mosaic web browser released in April, making the internet accessible to non-technical users
Intel Pentium processor released, bringing 60 MHz processing power to consumers
DOOM released by id Software, establishing the modern first-person shooter and gaming culture
Apple Newton MessagePad released as the first mainstream PDA
Social Media Timeline
How old were you when these launched?
The Universe
Worlds discovered beyond our solar system
confirmed exoplanets
confirmed and counting
We've gone from 3 to 5,800. Most of these worlds were found by a single space telescope called Kepler.
Act V
Your Place in Time
🇺🇸 United States
Your country the year you arrived
Population
258M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$26k
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
140M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to Nelson Mandela becoming South Africa's president than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Ariana Grande·Zayn Malik·Niall Horan·Perrie Edwards·Liam Payne
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
A small gain, but every year counts.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
131,072 times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 131,072×.
17 doublings since 1993Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 40 in 2033 · You turn 65 in 2058 · You turn 100 in 2093
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 161 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 161 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 5.5 billion people. Bill Clinton was in the White House. I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston was on the radio. You came of age as the internet rewired everything - and you were young enough to adapt.
In 1993, capturing your voice meant a voicemail or a camcorder.
Today, you can clone your own voice with a few minutes of audio.
Hear what that sounds like →keep exploring