You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without mass-produced personal computers.
In June 2015, David Sims wrote about how Apple and IBM convinced people to buy home computers in the 1970s and '80s.
You were born in April of 1978. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 4 times as old as you.
The year you were born, Adam Smith™ wrote about the economic questions he was left with after traveling to the Middle East with the United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Around the time you were born, Communist activist Henri Curiel was murdered in Paris.
In February 1978, Patricia Painton wrote about France during the decline of Gaullism.
Patrick Hertzog / AFP / Getty Images
At 11 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.
Nickelodeon
This is what Hollywood thought teenagers looked like the year you became one.
Clarissa Explains it All premiered in 1991.
Around your 18th birthday, Theodore Kaczynski, known as "the Unabomber," was arrested in the United States.
In June 2000, Alston Chase wrote about how Kaczynski’s experiences at Harvard drove his later crimes.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after Harry Potter.
In November 2010, Alyssa Rosenberg wrote about why it was so difficult for readers who grew up reading the series to say goodbye to Harry Potter.
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
When you turned 32, 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.
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
In 2016, Rachel McAdams, who was born the same year as you, was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as a journalist in Spotlight.
In November 2015, David Sims reviewed Spotlight.
By the time you turn 56, NASA says it will send humans to explore Mars.
In August 2015, Alakananda Mookerjee wrote about what new Mars colonists would be able to eat—and how they'd grow it.
History is happening all around you, every day.
The Atlantic is here to help you process it, in stories like these:
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