Reality check. This fall, the incoming class of 2018 will begin their freshman year of college. If that doesn’t make you feel old enough, here’s a look back at the timeline of cultural events they experienced along the way. Prepare to be fascinated.
1995-1996 – Born
November 22, 1995 — Pixar released the first feature-length, computer-generated film, Toy Story.
1996-1997 – One
July 27, 1996 —Two people died in a terrorist bombing in Centennial Olympic Park at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Ga.
1997-1998 – Two
August 31, 1997 — Princess Diana died in a car crash trying to escape paparazzi.
1998-1999 – Three
January 1, 1999 — Eleven European countries embraced the euro as their official currency.
1999-2000 – Four
July 14, 2000 — Google displayed their first Google Doodle in celebration of Bastille Day.
2000-2001 – Five
January 15, 2001 — Wikipedia became available to the public. There are now 4.4 million articles.
2001-2002 – Kindergarten
September 11, 2001 – Al-Qaida extremists attacked the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Penn., in an act of terrorism.
2002-2003 – First Grade
March 1, 2003 — Congress passed the Homeland Security Act in November 2002 and the Department of Homeland Security was formally created the following March.
2003-2004 – Second Grade
February 4, 2004 — Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard sophomore at the time, launched Facebook as a Harvard-only social network.
2004-2005 – Third Grade
February 14, 2005 — YouTube launched. Seven months later Nike created the first viral video, an ad with more than one million hits.
2005-2006 – Fourth Grade
August 29, 2005 — Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast.
2006-2007 – Fifth Grade
January 9, 2007 — Steve Jobs announced the iPhone and declared, “Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.”
2007-2008 – Sixth Grade
March 12, 2008 — Hulu opened to the public. It initially provided “free streams of hit TV shows, movies and clips from more than 50 providers.”
2008-2009 – Seventh Grade
November 4, 2008 — The United States of America elected Barack Obama as the 44th president and first African-American president.
2009-2010 – Eighth Grade
April 20, 2010 — The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, killing 11 people and spilling 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
2010-2011 – Ninth Grade
May 2, 2011 — U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid of his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
2011-2012 – Tenth Grade
March 13, 2012 — Encyclopedia Britannica announced it would stop production of print volumes.
2012-2013 – Eleventh Grade
June 5, 2013 — A former government contractor, Edward Snowden, leaked classified data revealing U.S. surveillance programs.
2013-2014 – Twelfth Grade
March 8, 2014 — Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared over the Indian Ocean and is still missing after more than 100 days.
Erica Davis is a transmedia design specialist at Lifeway. A graduate of the college class of 2011, this timeline already makes her feel old. Keep up with Erica’s technology wisdom via Twitter.