Life Timeline

For those born December 12, 1954.

Not your birthday? Find your timeline here.

1953
Before you were born

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

In March 2014, Benjamin Welton wrote about the charismatic spy's World War I roots.

1954
Year 68

You were born in December of 1954. 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 history that influenced the Supreme Court ruling on school segregation.

1954
Beginnings

Around the time you were born, the U.S. Senate voted in favor of censuring Senator Joseph McCarthy's "McCarthyism" behavior relating to the Red Scare.

In the October 1998 issue, James T. Patterson linked McCarthyism to the tactics of J. Edgar Hoover.

1967

United Artists / Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images

The teenage years

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

The Graduate was released in 1967.

1969

NASA

Man on the Moon

At 14 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.

1972
Coming of age

Around your 18th birthday, a train crashed near Saltillo in Mexico, killing 208 people and injuring more than 700.

In May 2012, Alan Taylor compiled photos from Mexico's drug war, many of which were taken in Saltillo, Mexico.

1985
Half a life ago

Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after Microsoft Windows.

In December 2006, James Fallows wrote about Microsoft's efforts to improve the influential operating system.

1999

Jorge Silva / Reuters

Contemporaries

In 1999, Hugo Chávez, who was born the same year as you, was sworn in as president of Venezuela after an earlier unsuccessful coup, eventually serving for 14 years.

In May 2006, Franklin Foer wrote about the presidency of Hugo Chávez.

2007

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute

Across the Universe

When you turned 52, 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 66, 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: