History . Just For FunOn December 31, 2019 by Adam

 

I recently came across a post on social media that read, “If you were born in the ’80s, raised in the ’90s and lived to 2020, you have lived in four different decades, two different centuries, two different millenniums and your not even 40 yet.”

This is a cool life achievement but as we get ready to celebrate the New Year, I wanted to share a thought experiment on what a lifetime of experiences means. The oldest person ever whose age has been independently verified is Jeanne Calment of France who lived from 1875–1997. What can 122 years of life experience hold?

If you were born in 1864, you would have been born into the Civil War and alive during the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. While you would be too young to remember these events, you certainly would remember other major events from your life. For example, you pre-date the Statue of Liberty, and the invention of radio and television lived through the Wright Brothers first flight at Kittyhawk, prohibition, the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, two World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement including Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech and assassination, the assassination of President JFK, the Moon Landing, the introduction of the modern internet and the Challenger explosion to mention a few.

A single lifetime of experience, from the Civil War to the Challenger explosion! What wondrous things will your life story tell?

Happy New Year!