1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Ian was born in 1957, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
The biggest hits of 1957
#1 Movie
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Picture
The Bridge on the River Kwai
#1 TV Show
Gunsmoke
The world at every milestone
Sputnik launches the Space Age
Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink
First Earth Day; The Beatles break up
US withdraws from Vietnam; Roe v. Wade decided
Fall of Saigon ends the Vietnam War
First test-tube baby born
Black Monday stock market crash
European Union officially established
“Our blood and soil will outlast their rotten world.”