In January 2016, Megan Garber wrote about Mattel's move to introduce new Barbie dolls in varied sizes and skin colors.
The year you were born, Eliza Paschall wrote about how participating in the struggle for racial equality affected her identity as a Southerner.
In December 2010, Peggy Kidwell wrote about the birth of COBOL.
NASA
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.
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American Graffiti was released in 1973.
Benjamin J. Myers / Reuters
In September 2012, Ashley Fetters wrote about U2's 1997 concert in Bosnia.
In June 2014, Uri Friedman wrote about the Spanish monarchy and its help transitioning Spain to a constitutional democracy.
In August 2012, Ashley Fetters traced the history of cable television's longest-running programming event.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute
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.
In December 2015, Robinson Meyer wrote about why scientists had accepted this fact.
The Atlantic is here to help you process it, in stories like these: