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1964

Four million Americans came into the world that year. Here are some who have already made their mark on 2006.

Jeff Bezos, January 12: Founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com; he was Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999.

It was a disaster from the beginning

What we spent to get through 1964

The Home

Just as the year changed the nation, so its World Series changed American sports

It was a very bad year for Andy Richardson.

On what they still called their “home screens,” Americans got to watch the future

January 11 Surgeon General Luther L. Terry releases his report on cigarette smoking. January 16 Hello, Dolly! opens at the St. James Theater in New York City.

Viewing a transformation that still affects all of us—through the prism of a single year

It has been called the “burned-over decade,” a “dream and a nightmare,” the “definitive end of the Dark Ages, and the beginning of a more hopeful and democratic period” in American history.

The Republican party ensured a landslide defeat when it nominated Barry Goldwater in 1964, but the Democrats did far more lasting damage to themselves at their convention that year. In fact, they still haven’t recovered.

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