Life Timeline

For those born April 1, 1968.

Not your birthday? Find your timeline here.

1967
Before you were born

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

In January 2011, Henry D. Fetter wrote about how the big game got its name.

1968
Year 54

You were born in April of 1968. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 3 times as old as you.

The year you were born, James C. Thompson, who served in the U.S. Department of State under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, examined and condemned the policy decisions behind American involvement in Vietnam.

1968
Beginnings

Around the time you were born, the American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

On April 4, 2013, the 45th anniversary of his death, John Lingan recounted how Nina Simone and James Brown mourned Martin Luther King Jr. at the time of his murder.

1981

Everett Collection

The teenage years

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

Full Moon High was released in 1981.

1986
Coming of age

Around your 18th birthday, the Chernobyl reactor disaster spread radiation across Europe.

In December 1990, Gabriel Schoenfeld wrote about the ghastly situation in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster.

1989

Patrick Hertzog / AFP / Getty Images

After the Fall

At 21 years old, you saw the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

“It was thought that all borders between men had similarly disintegrated, and we were all destined to be free and empowered individuals in a global meeting place,” wrote Robert Kaplan 20 years later.

1990

Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

Contemporaries

In 1990, Will Smith, who was born the same year as you, began starring in the TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

In August 2016, Christopher Orr wrote a review of Suicide Squad, the DC Comics film starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie.

1992
Half a life ago

Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after texting.

In August 2011, Jamie Holmes wrote about how SMS is the driving force behind technology-enabled changes in commerce, crime, political participation, and governing in the developing world.

2010

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

After the Spring

When you turned 42, you saw the rise of the Arab Spring.

People across the world rediscovered the power and peril of revolutions, as Laura Kasinof found in Yemen.

2025
Forecasts

By the time you turn 56, the World Bank predicts that the U.S. dollar will lose its global dominance.

In February 2012, Charles A. Kupchan wrote about the world's emerging economies, and how the world will look by 2050.

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: