What America was like in 1956
You were born in…
1956
This is where your story begins.
You’ve been here for
70
years
That’s about 25,600 days of history.
A first-class stamp in 1956 cost
3¢
Today the same stamp costs 82¢.
A dollar from 1956 would be worth
$12.40
today
Measured by the government’s Consumer Price Index.
The federal minimum wage in 1956 was
$1.00
an hour
Today it’s $7.25.
The president in 1956
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Since then you’ve lived under 13 presidents.
The 1960 census counted
179 million
Americans
By 2020 there were 331 million of us.
You’ve been around for
60
Super Bowls
Every single one of them. From Super Bowl I in 1967 to Super Bowl LX in 2026.
You’re older than…
- NASA was founded1958. You were 2.
- Barbie went on sale1959. You were 3.
- The first Walmart opened in Rogers, Arkansas1962. You were 6.
- ZIP codes arrived1963. You were 7.
- The Ford Mustang went on sale1964. You were 8.
- Medicare became law1965. You were 9.
…and 17 more on our list.
So yes,
you’ve seen the worldchange a lot.
And you remember it.
Your 1956 story
That was 1956.
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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.