Life Timeline

For those born August 16, 1985.

Not your birthday? Find your timeline here.

1984
Before you were born

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

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

1985
Beginnings

Around the time you were born, an international treaty regulating the extradition and rehabilitation of prisoners, known as the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, went into force.

On April 2013, Abby Ohlheiser wrote about the case of the U.S. wanting Mexico to rearrest a drug kingpin to be extradited.

1985
Year 37

You were born in August of 1985. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 4 times as old as you.

The year you were born, John Keegan wrote about the history and geopolitical significance of the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

1998

Everett Collection

The teenage years

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

Can't Hardly Wait was released in 1998.

2000
Half a life ago

Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after the International Space Station.

In our January/February 2015 issue, Charles Fishman wrote about the oddity of daily life on the station and the value of its continued operation.

2001

Jason Redmond / AP

The 9/11 Attacks

At 16 years old, you were part of the generation most shaped by 9/11.

The conflicts and displacements touched off around the world by the attacks have been reverberating for the majority of your life. “This ‘war’ [on terrorism] will never be over,” wrote James Fallows, a few years after the towers fell.

2003
Coming of age

Around your 18th birthday, a magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck just off the shore of Hokkaidō, Japan.

In September 2015, David A. Graham wrote about major disasters.

2010

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

The Arab Spring

When you turned 25, you witnessed the revolutionary fervor that transformed the Arab world in 2010, a movement led by your generation.

When 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire, he ignited a tinderbox of protests that continue to roil the Middle East, and kindled the beginnings of democracy in Tunisia.

2011

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

Contemporaries

In 2011, Bruno Mars, who was born the same year as you, won a Grammy Award for his song "Just the Way You Are."

In February 2014, Abby Ohlheiser wrote about conspiracy theories surrounding Bruno Mars's Super Bowl performance.

2050
Forecasts

By the time you turn 64, economist Jim O'Neill predicts that drug-resistant infections will kill one person every three seconds.

But it's possible to prevent that. In May 2016, Ed Yong wrote about the recommended steps to avert a post-antibiotic apocalypse.

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: