You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without Captain America.
In April 2014, Charles Moss wrote about how Captain America became a McCarthy-esque warrior against Communism in the 1950s.
You were born in November of 1942. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 2 times as old as you.
The year you were born, Bernard Iddings Bell wrote about how the Christian church must adapt to maintain a foothold in mainstream culture.
Around the time you were born, Germany invaded Vichy, France, in violation of a 1940 armistice.
In October 2001, Eugen Weber wrote about France's occupation.
Around your 18th birthday, John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States.
In August 2013, The Atlantic published a special issue chronicling the historic presidency of JFK.
NASA
At 26 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.
Andreas Meier / Reuters
In 1975, Muhammad Ali, who was born the same year as you, beat Joe Frazier and reclaimed the world heavyweight championship in the "Thrilla in Manila" fight—the last in a trilogy of matches between the legend and his biggest rival.
In June 2016, Vann Newkirk II wrote that to understand Ali's greatness as a boxer, one has to understand his identity as a black man and a public intellectual in the wake of his death.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after hip-hop records.
In March 2015, Irvin Weathersby Jr. wrote about what hip-hop can teach Americans.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute
When you turned 64, 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:
Tell your story.
