Life Timeline

For those born August 1, 1952.

Not your birthday? Find your timeline here.

1951
Before you were born

You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without color-TV broadcasting.

In June 2015, Benjamin Gross wrote about the impact of using live models to calibrate color TVs in the 1950s.

1952
Year 70

You were born in August of 1952. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 2 times as old as you.

The year you were born, Arthur E. Sutherland wrote about the obligation of the press to tell the "whole truth," despite growing challenges.

1952
Beginnings

Around the time you were born, the 15th Olympic Games closed in Helsinki, Finland.

In July 2012, Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg published an archival video clip from the 1952 Olympic Games.

1965

AP

The teenage years

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

Beach Blanket Bingo was released in 1965.

1969

NASA

Man on the Moon

At 16 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.

1970
Coming of age

Around your 18th birthday, the Venera 7 was launched, eventually becoming the first spacecraft to transmit data while on another planet.

On August 6, 2012 Max Fisher wrote about the Soviet's Venera 7 probe landing on Venus and about space exploration.

1984
Half a life ago

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

In June 2012, Megan Garber wrote about how Apple computers, once thought to be virus-immune, can now get PC viruses.

2007

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute

Across the Universe

When you turned 54, 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.

2012

ITAR-TASS / Reuters

Contemporaries

In 2012, Vladimir Putin, who was born the same year as you, was reelected to his third term as president of Russia, amid protests and allegations of electoral fraud.

In December 2016, Larry Diamond wrote about how Vladimir Putin is making the world safe for autocracy.

2021
Forecasts

By the time you turn 68, 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: