Life Timeline

For those born December 4, 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 December 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, Christine Jorgensen's sexual reassignment operation, the first successful surgery of its kind, made headlines.

In the November 2008 issue, Hanna Rosin wrote about how societal mores around sex-change operations had changed since Jorgensen's procedure.

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 Environmental Protection Agency opened as a way to monitor environmental impacts.

In December 2010, Alexis C. Madrigal wrote a pictoral retrospective of Nixon's rationale for creating the EPA.

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.

1995

STR New / AP

Contemporaries

In 1995, Christine Baranski, who was born the same year as you, received her first of 15 Emmy nominations for her role in the sitcom Cybill, and won.

In August 2014, Esther Zuckerman wrote about the dramatic performances given by the women in the Best Supporting Actress category of that year's Emmys.

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.

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: