Life Timeline

For those born February 15, 1956.

Not your birthday? Find your timeline here.

1955
Before you were born

You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without Disneyland.

In December 2008, P.J. O'Rourke wrote about Disneyland's vision of domesticity in the park's renewed House of the Future.

1956
Beginnings

Around the time you were born, Elvis Presley entered U.S. music charts.

On July 8, 2014, Noah Berlatsky wrote that Elvis's cultural legacy is complicated by appropriation.

1956
Year 67

You were born in February of 1956. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 2 times as old as you.

The year you were born, Ishaq Husseini wrote about the effort to reconcile the traditional religion of Islam with the realities of modern life.

1969

Bettmann / Getty

The teenage years

This is what Hollywood thought teenagers looked like the year you became one.

Easy Rider was released in 1969.

1969

NASA

Man on the Moon

At 13 years old, you were alive to behold people walking on the moon.

Over the years, the moon landing has come to be lauded as the pinnacle of human achievement, although it was often derided at the time. In 1963, NASA astronauts took to The Atlantic to plead the case for landing on the moon.

1974
Coming of age

Around your 18th birthday, the television show Happy Days began its decade-long run.

In July 2015, David Sims wrote about series creator Garry Marshall and the nostalgia his work produced.

1979

Peter Southwick / AP

Contemporaries

In 1979, Larry Bird, who was born the same year as you, started his career in professional basketball for the Boston Celtics.

In September 2012, Conor Friedersdorf wrote about assembling a roster of the best basketball players of all time.

1986
Half a life ago

Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In January 2011, Sharmin T.M. Kent wrote about Oprah launching her own television network, Oxygen.

2007

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute

Across the Universe

When you turned 51, you watched humankind reach the outer solar system.

With NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission in 2005, humans landed a probe in the outer reaches of the solar system for the first time, a moment Ross Andersen called the most glorious mission in the history of planetary science.

2021
Forecasts

By the time you turn 64, scientists estimate it will no longer be possible to keep global temperatures from rising at least 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In December 2015, Robinson Meyer wrote about why scientists had accepted this fact.

Today
History in the making

History is happening all around you, every day.

The Atlantic is here to help you process it, in stories like these: