Nolan Bushnell

Nolan Bushnell, American engineer and businessman, founded Atari, Inc.

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Born: February 5, 1943
Age in 2026: 83
Zodiac sign: Aquarius
Birth year: 1943

About Nolan Bushnell

Nolan Kay Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc., and the Chuck E. Cheese chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News "Innovator of the Year" award and was named one of Newsweek's "50 Men Who Changed America". He has started more than 20 companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. He is on the board of Anti-Aging Games. In 2012, he founded an educational software company called Brainrush that uses video game technology in educational software. He is credited with Bushnell's Law, an aphorism about games that are "easy to learn and difficult to master" being rewarding.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Nolan Bushnell was born

Nolan Bushnell was born in 1943. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1943

#1 song"As Time Goes By" – Dooley Wilson
Top movieFor Whom the Bell Tolls
Best-selling bookThe Robe – Lloyd C. Douglas

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League founded
Top headlineAllies invade Italy
Technology milestoneLSD accidentally discovered by Albert Hofmann
Defining fadZoot suits
Notable inventionSlinky
World population2.38 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
U.S. population136.7M

1943 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Nolan Bushnell's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1943	2026
Gas	$0.21	$3.45/gal
Average home	$5,700	$435,000
Average income	$4,100	$67,500
Minimum wage	$0.30	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.27	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	136.7M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.