What America was like in 1968
You were born in…
1968
This is where your story begins.
You’ve been here for
58
years
That’s about 21,200 days of history.
A first-class stamp in 1968 cost
6¢
Today the same stamp costs 82¢.
A dollar from 1968 would be worth
$9.69
today
Measured by the government’s Consumer Price Index.
The federal minimum wage in 1968 was
$1.60
an hour
Today it’s $7.25.
The president in 1968
Lyndon B. Johnson
Since then you’ve lived under 11 presidents.
The 1970 census counted
203 million
Americans
By 2020 there were 331 million of us.
You’ve been around for
58
Super Bowls
From Super Bowl III in 1969 to Super Bowl LX in 2026.
You’re older than…
- Astronauts walked on the Moon1969. You were 1.
- Walt Disney World opened in Florida1971. You were 3.
- Pong arrived in arcades1972. You were 4.
- A barcode was scanned at a store checkout for the first time1974. You were 6.
- Star Wars opened in theaters1977. You were 9.
- The Sony Walkman went on sale in Japan1979. You were 11.
…and 9 more on our list.
So yes,
you’ve seen the worldchange a lot.
And you remember it.
Your 1968 story
That was 1968.
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Where these numbers come from
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items, 1982-84=100
- U.S. Postal Service, Rates for Domestic Letters Since 1863
- U.S. Department of Labor, history of federal minimum wage rates
- U.S. Census Bureau, decennial census resident population
- Presidents and milestones: widely documented public records.