You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without self-service grocery stores.
In May 2014, John Tierney wrote about the increasingly common practice of self check-out in stores and its possible effects in the retail environment.
You were born in August of 1917. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 1.6 times as old as you.
The year you were born, H. L. Mencken wrote about the military career and mythos of Erich Ludendorff, just months after the latter's promotion made him a leader of the German forces in the First World War.
Around the time you were born, the Republic of China declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary.
In September 2015, Graham Allison wrote about the conflict that can occur between established and rising powers.
Around your 18th birthday, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act.
In February 1934, Harold J. Laski wrote about how Roosevelt used state power to readjust the national economy.
Bettmann / Getty
In 1959, Ella Fitzgerald, who was born the same year as you, became the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award at the first annual ceremony.
In the January/February 2006 issue, Francis Davis wrote about the "epidemic" of singers in jazz.
Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after Star Trek.
In November 2015, David Sims wrote about the return of Star Trek to television.
NASA
At 51 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 89, 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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