You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without cell phones.
In April 2013, Megan Garber wrote about the swift and spiteful final push to invent the cell phone.
You were born in August of 1974. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 3 times as old as you.
The year you were born, Fred Harris wrote about Harlan County, Kentucky, home of some of America's richest natural resources—and some of its poorest people.
Around the time you were born, President Richard Nixon resigned from his position following the Watergate scandal.
In August 2014, David Graham wrote a retrospective on Nixon's resignation 40 years later.
Paramount
This is what Hollywood thought teenagers looked like the year you became one.
Some Kind of Wonderful was released in 1987.
Patrick Hertzog / AFP / Getty Images
At 15 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.
Around your 18th birthday, New York City's public transit system, MTA, voted to ban cigarette ads.
In September 1965, Elizabeth Drew wrote about the cigarette lobby's successful efforts to stop states from regulating cigarette advertising.
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
In 1995, Derek Jeter, who was born the same year as you, made his Major League Baseball debut with the New York Yankees.
In February 2014, Derek Thompson wrote about the career of Derek Jeter.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after Toy Story.
In June 2014, Megan Garber wrote about the complicated creative process that shaped the film.
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
When you turned 36, 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.
By the time you turn 57, the collective GDP of the four leading developing countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) is likely to match that of today's leading Western nations.
In February 2012, Charles A. Kupchan wrote about the world's emerging economies, and how the world will look by 2050.
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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