Life Timeline

For those born July 7, 1942.

Not your birthday? Find your timeline here.

1941
Before you were born

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.

1942
Beginnings

Around the time you were born, German Nazi forces began the mass extermination of all Warsaw Jews.

In October 2011, Alan Taylor published a photo essay on the horrors of the Holocaust.

1942
Year 83

You were born in July 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.

1960
Coming of age

Around your 18th birthday, the lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, served its first black customer.

The sit-in that led to the desegregation of Woolworth's was one of the first iconic moments of the black civil rights movement, as Andrew Cohen recounted in 2014.

1969

Ed Widdis / AP

Contemporaries

In 1969, Barbra Streisand, who was born the same year as you, won her first Academy Award for the movie Funny Girl.

In October 2010, Stephen Cooke wrote about the band Duck Sauce's song "Barbra Streisand."

1969

NASA

Man on the Moon

At 27 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.

1979
Half a life ago

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.

2007

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute

Across the Universe

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.

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: