Life Timeline

For those born May 26, 1928.

Not your birthday? Find your timeline here.

1927
Before you were born

You're one of the first people who's never lived in a world without "talking" movies.

A 1929 cartoon from the Prelinger Archive explained how films spoke.

1928
Year 97

You were born in May of 1928. This year, The Atlantic celebrates its 160th birthday, making it 1.7 times as old as you.

The year you were born, Neon wrote about how wind, gravity, and other forces would ultimately limit the scope of aviation.

1928
Beginnings

Around the time you were born, Charles Francis Jenkins publicly demonstrated his radio moving-picture receiver.

In the May 1937 issue, Gilbert Seldes speculated about the future of television.

1946
Coming of age

Around your 18th birthday, the League of Nations transferred its assets to the United Nations and disbanded.

In January 1919, H.G. Wells called for the formation of a league of nations.

1967

Bill Chaplis / AP

Contemporaries

In 1967, Anne Sexton, who was born the same year as you, received the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry Live or Die.

In the July/August 2001 issue, Alex Beam wrote about the famous writers who stayed at McLean Hospital.

1969

NASA

Man on the Moon

At 41 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
Half a life ago

Your life can be divided into two halves: before and after The Godfather.

In September 2015, David Sims argued that Martin Scorcese's Goodfellas endures as a more realistic, if not more beloved, portrayal of the mafia than even the Francis Ford Coppola classic.

2007

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute

Across the Universe

When you turned 79, 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: