One way to place your story in historical context is to include an appendix listing important news headlines; sports trivia; fads; new technology; best sellers, popular songs, singers, television shows and movies; the cost of a home or car; average salaries; typical prices of groceries, gas, etc. I can compile this information for you and place it in an easy-to-read document (below). A chronology list (right) can also be used to pair significant life events to important events in history.
President: Dwight D. Eisenhower Vice President: Richard M. Nixon African-Americans stages sit-ins at segregated lunch counters President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960 Food and Drug Administration approves contraceptive pill
Grandma Moses celebrated her 100th birthday
OPEC ( Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ) formed American Heart Association links smoking to heart disease and death in middle aged men Soviet missile shoots down the US U2 spy plane The United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers are going to be sent to Vietnam John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon meet in first televised debate John F. Kennedy wins presidential election
Sports Venetian Way won Kentucky Derby with W. Hartack in the saddle Pirates beat Yankees in World Series 10-9 in seventh game In Louisville, Ky., Cassius Clay (who later took the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight after having won the gold medal in Rome in the Olympic games Outfielder Willie Mays signed with Giants for $85,000
Academy Award Winners
Actress: Elizabeth Taylor, “Butterfield 8 Actor: Burt Lancaster, “Elmer Gantry” Picture: “The Apartment”
Popular Films “Ben-Hur” Alfred Hitchcock's “Psycho” “Operation Petticoat”
Popular Culture The Flintstones cartoon premiers Rawhide Chubby Chequer and The Twist start a new dance craze Prices
Bread (pound loaf) ... $ .20 Milk (half gallon) ... $.26 Gas (gallon) ... $ .31 Postage stamp ... $ .04 Car ... $2,853 Minimum Wage ... $1.00 Median family income ... $5,620 Average cost of a new house ....$12,700
Technology
France tests its first atomic bomb in Sahara and joins the US, UK and USSR as nuclear power Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh in the bathyscaph USS Trieste break a depth record when they descend to the bottom of Challenger Deep 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) below sea level in the Pacific Ocean Over one hundred million television sets in use worldwide Aluminum cans used for the first time U.S. experimental rocket powered airplane travels at 2,200 miles per hour Xerox introduces the first commercial document reproduction machine The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1 Dr. Kazuo Hashimoto Invents the Ansafone sold in the USA as the Automatic Telephone Answering Machine
I can help you compile a checklist of important events and changes in your life and then pair them with historical events of the time. This can put your story into perspective and would be a nice appendix to your narrative.
Example of life events
1. Your birth 2. Entering your first school 3. Moving 4. Graduation from elementary school 5. Moving again 6. Entering another school 7. An important birthday 8. An accident, injury, or illness 9. A death in family 10. Moving again 11. Entering another school 12. Graduation (high school, college) 13. Your first job 14. Another job 15. Another death in the family 16. Births in the family 17. Marriage 18. An award 19. Another job 20. Births of children and grandchildren 21. Military service 22. Volunteer service 23. A promotion 24. A commendation 25. Buying a house 26. Buying first car 27. Moving again 28. Anniversaries 29. Special birthdays 30. Special holidays 31. Retirement
