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 December 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 Egyptian Expeditionary Force secured victory at the Battle of Jerusalem.
In March 2003, Christopher Hitchens wrote about the political and literary legacy of Britain's policy of "divide and quit."
Around your 18th birthday, Mary McLeod Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in Washington, D.C.
In October 2015, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote about the lasting effects of mass incarceration on African American families.
AP
In 1961, John F. Kennedy, who was born the same year as you, became the 35th president of the United States. He was assassinated less than two years later, before he could complete his full term in office.
In a special commemorative issue published in 2013, Alan Brinkley wrote about the enduring popularity of JFK.
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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