You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without commercial bar-code scanning.
In November 2014, Sarah Laskow described the decades-long development of the modern bar code.
Around the time you were born, three high-ranking members of President Richard Nixon's administration were found guilty of obstruction of justice in relation to the Watergate scandal.
In August 2013, Geoff Shepard wrote about the lack of due process for the defendants in the Watergate trial.
You were born in January of 1975. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 3 times as old as you.
The year you were born, Midge Decter wrote about what went wrong for a generation that was supposed to be the brightest and most gifted in American history.
Everett Collection
This is what Hollywood thought teenagers looked like the year you became one.
Heathers was released in 1988.
Patrick Hertzog / AFP / Getty Images
At 14 years old, you saw the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
“It was thought that all borders between men had similarly disintegrated, and we were all destined to be free and empowered individuals in a global meeting place,” wrote Robert Kaplan 20 years later.
Around your 18th birthday, the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty was signed.
In September 2013, Ben W. Heineman Jr. wrote about the ban on chemical weapons.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after Pokémon.
In July 2016, David Sims described the path from Pokémon Red and Blue to Pokémon Go.
Luke MacGregor / Reuters
In 2000, Angelina Jolie, who was born the same year as you, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film Girl, Interrupted.
In September 2016, Spencer Kornhaber wrote about "Brangelina" and public fascination with the celebrity couple.
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
When you turned 35, you saw the rise of the Arab Spring.
People across the world rediscovered the power and peril of revolutions, as Laura Kasinof found in Yemen.
By the time you turn 57, the collective GDP of the four leading developing countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) is likely to match that of today's leading Western nations.
In February 2012, Charles A. Kupchan wrote about the world's emerging economies, and how the world will look by 2050.
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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