You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without jazz records.
In December 1972, Robert Palmer wrote about the thoughts, influences, and unconventional musical stylings of jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman.
You were born in December of 1918. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 1.6 times as old as you.
The year you were born, Madeleine Z. Doty wrote about her experiences in Russia during the country’s revolution a year earlier.
Around the time you were born, the Danish Parliament passed an act to grant Iceland independence under the Danish crown.
In August 2012, Robert Lavine wrote about the high level of happiness in Iceland.
Around your 18th birthday, the Rome-Berlin Axis was declared between Italy and Germany.
In July 2000, Francis X. Rocca wrote about Galeazzo Ciano's account of the political side of the Axis war efforts.
Juda Ngwenya / Reuters
In 1964, Nelson Mandela, who was born the same year as you, was sentenced to life in prison for committing sabotage against South Africa’s apartheid government. He served 27 years before being released.
In December 2013, Natasha Joseph wrote about South Africa's next challenge as a young democracy in the wake of Mandela's death.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after the Super Bowl.
In January 2011, Henry D. Fetter wrote about how the big game got its name.
NASA
At 50 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.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute
When you turned 88, 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:
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