Key Influences On Baby Boomer Generation
The first baby boomers reached the standard retirement age of 65 in 2011. There are about 76 million boomers in the U.S., representing about 29 percent of the population. In Canada, they are known as 'Boomies;' six million reside there. In Britain, the boomer generation is known as 'the bulge.' How it got started. World War II. Aug 16, 2016 More millennials (55%) than baby boomers (39%) believe that team consensus is important in making decisions—but gen X employees are actually the most likely to think consensus is key (61%). Keep your promises. If you promise a baby boomer that your product or service will help solve a specific problem, you need to build trust by following through. Focus on customer service. Boomers love one-on-one interactions in stores, on the phone, or online. Encourage online purchases. This generation actually outspends younger adults online 2. Studies on the baby boomer generation revealed several differences among the incomes of Hispanic, Asian, African-American, and white Americans. For example, the black baby boomers were considered to be inferior to the whites, although all the baby boomers did extremely well in school. “Boomers are the first generation on the planet to get to age 60 and still see a long runway ahead,” says Matt Thornhill, president of Generations Matter, a think tank in Richmond, Virginia.
- Key Influences On Baby Boomer Generation Age Range
- Generation Between Boomers And X
- Millennial Generation
The years 1946 to 1964 define the post-war baby boomer generation, when the United States saw a spike in its birth rate. The American economy flourished and supported larger families, advances in technology made it easier to share ideas and culture, and space exploration took off. But the boomers’ era was also marked by great unrest. Americans born during this period were shaped by a world ravaged by a World War that included unimaginable mass genocide and the atom bomb. The hypocrisy of American freedom and democracy was exposed by African-Americans who stood up against shameful racial injustice and inequality. And just as boomers were coming of age into adulthood, drafts for the Vietnam War began.
This timeline looks at events and people that made the news in each year of the boomer generation.
President Truman proclaims end of World War II (combat ended in 1945 but the hostilities were considered over once war crime trials in 1946 ended)
Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces he is not a god
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with approximately 20 employees
ENIAC (for “Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer”), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania
AT&T announces their first car phones
Benjamin Spock’s influential The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care is published
The V-2 rocket launched into space
Kenneth Arnold makes first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington; a downed extraterrestrial spacecraft is reportedly found near Roswell, New Mexico
The first practical electronic transistor is demonstrated
Edwin Land, founder of the Polaroid Corporation, makes first “instant camera”, the Polaroid Land Camera
The first tape recorder is sold
Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools is unconstitutional Wow battle chest cd key generator.
The U.S. State Department announces plans to place objects into Earth’s orbit
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the F.B.I., gives actress Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen
President Truman establishes rocket test range at Cape Canaveral, Florida
President Truman increases minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents.
President Truman orders development of the hydrogen bomb in response to detonation of Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb in 1949. He sends U.S. military advisors to Vietnam to aid French forces
The first TV remote control, Zenith Radio’s Lazy Bones, is marketed
The Mattachine Society, the first gay liberation organization, is founded in Los Angeles, California
The Ninth Street Show, featuring notable Abstract Expressionist artists, marks debut of post-war New York City avant-garde, known as the New York School
Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the U.S.
First regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin operation
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and sentenced to death
Word generation series 1 word list answer key. The Lever House skyscraper opens in New York City, heralding a new age of commercial architecture
Newspapers report that a fleet of UFOs hovered over Washington, D.C. and were tracked on multiple radar. Fighter planes were scrambled and the Air Force holds a press conference
A mechanical heart is used for first time in a human patient
Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark, becomes the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation
Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the U.S.
68 percent of all television sets in the U.S. are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch the character Lucy (Lucille Ball) give birth
The CIA helps overthrow government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran; CIA Technical Services approves use of the synthetic drug LSD in a MKULTRA subproject (MKULTRA was a covert, illegal CIA human research program investigating mind control)
The first meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place in Southern California
The U.S. Census indicates 239,000 farmers gave up farming
The first shopping mall opens in Southfield, Michigan
Ground breaking begins on Disneyland in Anaheim, California
President Eisenhower reports detonation of first H-bomb (done in 1952)
President Eisenhower warns against U.S. intervention in Vietnam
The first microbiology laboratory opens
The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Racial segregation is forbidden on trains and buses in U.S. interstate commerce
The American Civil Liberties Union defends Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem “Howl” against obscenity charges
The Pentagon announces plan to develop ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) armed with nuclear weapons
The first electric power generated from atomic energy is sold commercially
Elvis Presley appears on Ed Sullivan Show
Dick Clark appears as host of American Bandstand
Ninety-six U.S. Congressmen sign “Southern Manifesto,” a protest against the 1954 Supreme Court ruling desegregating public education
The first transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation
Videotape is used for the first time on television
The first pre-frontal lobotomy is performed
IBM introduces the first computer disk storage unit, the RAMAC 305
President Eisenhower orders U.S. troops to desegregate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas
Key Influences On Baby Boomer Generation Age Range
Georgia State Senate unanimously approves Sen Butts’ bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites
New York City is first to legislate a Fair Housing Practices Law against racial or religious discrimination
The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel car
Toyota begins exporting vehicles to the U.S.
The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters
Elvis Presley is drafted into the U.S. Army
President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a stroke
The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, is launched into orbit
A 7,600-pound hydrogen bomb is lost in the waters off Savannah, Georgia
A U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on a house in South Carolina—but no nuclear fission occurs
The U.S. Army launches the Explorer 3 satellite
CBS Labs announce stereophonic records
Actress Betsy Palmer joins The Today Show
Mao Tse Tung starts the “Great Leap Forward” movement in China
Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union
The Habana Hilton opens in Havana, Cuba
Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba for the Dominican Republic
The Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India
A Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics to vote for Communists
Nikita Khrushchev is denied access to Disneyland
The Barbie Doll debuts and begins domination of the toy market
Allen Ginsberg writes his poem “Lysergic Acid”
Generation Between Boomers And X
Congress passes a bill authorizing food stamps for poor Americans
Pan Am begins regular passenger flights around the world
Soviet Luna 3, the first successful photographic spacecraft, impacts the Moon
NASA announces selection of seven military pilots to become the first U.S. astronauts
The United Nations Committee On Peaceful Use of Outer Space is established
Four students stage the first civil rights sit-in at a Woolworth counter in Greensboro, North Carolina
Elvis Presley ends his 2-year stint in the U.S. Army
U.S. announces 3,500 American soldiers will be sent to Vietnam
U.S. Senate passes the Civil Rights Bill
The Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve in Florida establishes the first protected underwater park
The first guided missile is launched from a nuclear powered submarine
The U.S. Court of Appeals rules that D. H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterly’s Lover (1928) is not obscene
The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market
Chubby Checker releases his song, “The Twist”
John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th President of The United States
President Eisenhower delivers farewell address warning against the “military-industrial complex”
President Kennedy accepts “sole responsibility” for The Bay of Pigs invasion and declares national goal to reach the Moon
Astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space
Betty and Barney Hill claim they were abducted by aliens in New Hampshire
Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan hitchhikes to New York City
The Supremes are signed by Motown Records
Judy Garland makes a comeback at Carnegie Hall
Barbra Streisand appears on The Jack Paar Show
FCC Chairman Newton Minow criticizes TV as a “vast wasteland”
The Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse’s Le Bateau upside down for 47 days
TWA shows the first in-flight movie
A U.S. commercial plane is hijacked to Cuba
Construction of the Berlin Wall begins in East Germany
Former Nazi sympathizer B. Johannes Vorster, known as John Vorster, becomes South Africa’s Minister of Justice. (He becomes Prime Minister in 1966.)
President John F. Kennedy begins blockade of Cuba, introducing “duck and cover” into the vernacular
Astronaut John Glenn is first American to orbit Earth
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts tour of newly refurbished White House on TV
Vaughn Meader’s “First Family” comedy album goes #1
Marilyn Monroe found dead in her bed
Actress Elizabeth Taylor is condemned by Vatican for “moral vagrancy,” and is wildly cheered by thousands of Catholic extras during the filming of Cleopatra in Rome
The Beach Boys introduce a new musical style with their hit “Surfin”
Folk singers Peter, Paul & Mary release their premier hit “If I Had a Hammer”
No less than five research groups announce the discovery of anti-matter
The drug Thalidomide is banned in The Netherlands
The first Wal-Mart and K-Mart stores open
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee wins the Tony Award for Best Play
Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, relaunching Women’s Movement
Coca-Cola Company debuts Tab, its first diet drink
Millennial Generation
American Heart Association is first agency to campaign against cigarettes
Los Angeles ends streetcar service after 90 years
Push-button telephones and Instant Replay are introduced
Nuclear submarine USS Thresher sinks 220 miles east of Boston, Massachusetts
Cancellation of Mercury 10 effectively ends U.S. manned space flight
After signing a nuclear test ban treaty, John F. Kennedy proposes a joint U.S.-Soviet voyage to the Moon
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC
President John F. Kennedy promises a Civil Rights Bill
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas
Census records U.S. population at 190,000,000
CIA’s Domestic Operations Division is created
Civil Rights Act of 1964 passes in the U.S. Senate 73-27
Dr. Martin Luther King, described by J. Edgar Hoover as “a most notorious liar,” is awarded The Nobel Peace Prize
Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations, while an unknown terrorist fires a mortar shell at the building
Plans are announced to build the New York City World Trade Center
Beatles debut to mass ‘tween “Beatlemania” on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” launching pop “British Invasion” of America
Bob Dylan introduces The Beatles to cannabis for the first time
Twelve young men in New York City publicly burn their draft cards
Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity
China becomes fifth nuclear power
NASA launches its first Orbital Geophysical Observatory (OGO-1)
The World’s Fair opens in Flushing Meadows, Queens, in New York City
U.S. report titled “Smoking & Health” connects smoking to lung cancer
Federal Trade Commission rules health warnings must appear on all cigarette packages
Who and What Was Meaningful to You?
Do you remember these people and events or did your parents or grandparents talk about them? Share your take on Boomer generation timeline events in the comments section, below.
American Masters: The Boomer List premieres nationwide Tuesday, September 23, 9-10:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), telling the story of this influential generation through the lives of 19 iconic boomers—one born each year of the baby boom.
Image credits: Polaroid Land Camera 320, Michele M.F., Creative Commons; 1958 Edsel Citation, Michael Barera, Creative Commons
Every January, across New York City and Los Angeles, there is a flurry of lunches, dinners, special screenings, red carpets, Q&As, and celebrity meet-and-greets as studio executives court the rarified Oscar voter. An Academy Award nomination can increase a movie’s profit by tens of millions, sire new Hollywood royalty, and establish fresh templates for future generations of filmmakers to copy.
So what’s the average age of these kingmakers? Sixty-three.
Baby boomers made up the first consumer generation. They grew up in the television age, watching mass media emerge from their living rooms, embracing sex-driven, racially integrated rock and roll—Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles—all of it fueled by the world’s first true mass audiences. But then they grew up. They bought houses, had kids, and sent those kids to college.
Now, boomers’ kids are having kids of their own, and for the first time in decades, boomers are finding themselves dependent-free, once again able to focus on themselves.
This is a generation entering its twilight years, whose primary concern is quality of life, and it controls, by some estimates, up to 75 percent of America’s wealth. So how are boomers spending their retirement savings? Partially on the realities of life—health care, mortgages, millennial children—but also on living out the fantasies of their youth.
The generation defined by Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” has single-handedly fueled a Winnebago renaissance as retirees have retaken America’s highways. And the same men once obsessed with 1960s-era muscle cars have in their retirement become the 21st century’s most likely car buyers, when everyone else seems to be moving toward car-free urban life. (Most surprisingly, as America’s leading spenders on technology, they’re also making the science fiction they once pioneered a reality.)
As their invigorated spending power is helping them reshape industries from Detroit to Silicon Valley, it’s becoming increasingly clear that boomers’ renewed influence has also allowed them to reclaim what was once rightfully theirs: pop culture.
Many of this year’s Oscar-bait films were greenlighted by boomers, deal with themes of interest to boomers, and star boomers. Boyhood, written and directed by 54-year-old Richard Linklater, follows a man through the various stages of his life from raising his kids, to divorcing his wife, and eventually taking his son to college. The Theory of Everything, directed by 51-year-old James Marsh, chronicles the life, love, and career of the now-71-year-old physicist Stephen Hawking. Selma charts the fight of Martin Luther King, Jr., during the Civil Rights Movement, and Birdman stars Michael Keaton, age 64, as an aging actor hoping to reignite his career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway play.
“Boomers are the first generation on the planet to get to age 60 and still see a long runway ahead,” says Matt Thornhill, president of Generations Matter, a think tank in Richmond, Virginia. “My prediction is we will see more content built around the topic of still having dreams at 50 and beyond, and still wanting to accomplish something, and what your legacy is and how will you have left the world a better place.”
Perhaps the strongest validation of the boomer renaissance is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a comedy starring Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and Maggie Smith as a pack of British retirees relocating to India. The 2011 film was made for $11 million and grossed $45 million, inspiring the ultimate Hollywood seal of approval: a sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Boomers are the first generation on the planet to get to age 60 and still see a long runway ahead.“Fifty is the new thirty, and this group is a lot more active than previous generations have been, and they are a lot more involved in pop culture than previous generations have been,” says Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President of research at Horizon Media.
And so, in 2015, boomers are in the midst of a 21st-century revival of the entertainment that defined their youth: film, rock and roll, and TV. James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, and the Rolling Stones tour regularly. Bruce Springsteen, 65, continues to release new albums about his experiences of getting older and his refusal to be pushed aside. Rolling Stone, whose editor-in-chief Jann Wenner is 70, continues to chronicle these rockers religiously.
“Bruce Springsteen, more than any boomer rocker, has managed to grow as an artist and age as an artist. That is something we haven’t seen in a rock star before, someone that has aged with his audience,” says Chris Kelly, Associate Professor of Gerontology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. “He is challenging his audience to embrace him as he is now.”
His album Wrecking Ball topped the charts, and Springsteen has earned $347 million on the album’s tour—topping tween idol Justin Bieber’s $209 million Believe tour. (Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters made nearly $460 million, and the Eagles made just over $250 million.)
Meanwhile, when television networks like CBS created more boomer-friendly content, their ratings shot up. “The median age of the broadcast television viewer is in their 50s, so they fish where the fish are,” says Adgate. “The people starring in TV shows are older […] Ten years ago networks were always looking for the next Friends. You are starting to see more people who the networks really wouldn’t have cast in a show 10, 15, or 20 years ago.”
We’re likely to only see these trends gain steam as boomers’ annual spending power of $7.1 trillion is estimated to hit $13.5 trillion by 2032. But for now—because supply tends to pace behind demand—industries from entertainment and technology to consumer goods and hospitality are still in transition mode as they wean themselves off of the traditionally dominant 18-49 demographic.
Boomers’ annual spending power of $7.1 trillion is estimated to hit $13.5 trillion by 2032.Until recently, the business community has generally ignored seniors, according to Thornhill. “Once you turn 55 you become invisible to marketers,” he says. “It is really hard to find marketers who are interested in someone over 55 unless they are trying to sell Geritol or a Cadillac, and that’s a mistake.”
New companies, such as the Ohio-based Link-Age, a research firm that also invests in companies catering to the aging marketplace, say their goal is to convince more marketers to take this population seriously.
“This idea of a massively aging population should be looked at as an opportunity rather than a liability,” says Link-Age CEO Scott Collins. “Much of the conversation is how are we going to address the needs of Medicare and Social Security, but there is a way to look at this as a vibrant force for economic growth.”
What we’re witnessing is a first-time shift in who controls the American economy, from parents to grandparents. And unlike their geriatric predecessors, baby boomers are not just using their savings on canes and denture cream—they’re using it to keep up the vibrant lifestyle of their younger years.
This idea of a massively aging population should be looked at as an opportunity rather than a liability.. there is a way to look at this as a vibrant force for economic growth.Baby boomers are increasingly active in their old age, traveling more and forcing transportation and urban planners to rethink the places we live. Already, cities like Arlington, Virginia, have remodeled themselves with updates like wider sidewalks to better accommodate the elderly and bus routes more tailored to have access to common senior needs, like pharmacies or medical centers. They’re also more likely to own homes and face different living needs in old age, so the way houses are designed will have to adjust accordingly.
Simply by living longer and healthier lives than any generation before them, boomers are reshaping the world around them so that they can enjoy it in their old age. Or, as Judi Dench says in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the sequel of which stars a 65-year-old Richard Gere as the heartthrob, “This is a new and different world, the challenge is to cope with it, and not just cope, but thrive.”