You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without scuba gear.
In February 2011, Alexis C. Madrigal surfaced footage from an early dive that featured a Lambertsen Underwater Respiratory Unit in action.
You were born in June of 1944. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 2 times as old as you.
The year you were born, Justina Hill wrote about the fight against influenza, as the number of cases swelled nationwide.
Around the time you were born, the U.S. military landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, during D-Day's Operation Overlord.
In the November 1960 issue, veteran and military historian S.L.A. Marshall described landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy, drawn from his notes taken on that day.
Around your 18th birthday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state officials could not impose prayer in public schools.
In January 2012, Wendy Kaminer wrote about that Supreme Court decision (Engel v. Vitale), and how school prayer affected U.S. politics.
NASA
At 25 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.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after the 24-hour news cycle.
In October 2009, Mark Bowden wrote about the toll of constant coverage.
AP
In 1982, Alice Walker, who was born the same year as you, released the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning novel The Color Purple.
In December 2013, Philip Bump wrote about Alice Walker's "Best of 2013" list.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute
When you turned 63, 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.
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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