The Live Archive. Photo by Benoit Palley.

The Live Archive is a resource center presented on the fifth floor of the New Museum in conjunction with “Younger Than Jesus.” One of its features is a selective historical timeline—the multicolored grid seen in the photo at right—that lists historical and cultural events from 1976 to 2009. The participating artists selected some of these for the importance the events had in their own lives. The timeline also includes a suggestion box in which visitors can write in events or cultural creations of importance to them. Here is a sampling of the suggestions submitted during the exhibition’s first two weeks.

December 15, 1989 – Manuel Noriega was given the title chief executive officer of the Panamanian government, and he declared a state of war with the United States. Two days later, US President George Bush ordered troops to Panama. Noriega took refuge in the Vatican nunciature (embassy) in Panama, until he surrendered on January 3, 1990, and was transpored to Miami, where he was arraigned on criminal charges.

January 22, 2008 – Australian actor Heath Ledger is found dead in his apartment in New York; it was later declared that he died from an accidental overdose of a mixture of prescription drugs.

July 12, 1998 – France defeats Brazil 3-0 in the final at Saint-Denis, near Paris, to win the 16th World Cup.

January 17, 1995 – A large-scale earthquake, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, hits the southern part of Hyogo prefecture in Japan. It causes an estimated 6,400 deaths, injured approximately 40,000 people, displaced 300,000 people from their homes. The city that suffers the worst damage is nearby Kobe.

November 5, 1982 – Jacques Tati, a French filmmaker and actor who gained renown for his comic films, several of which he starred in as Monsieur Hulot, dies.

April 30, 1997 – Actress Ellen DeGeneres reveals she is gay on the television show Oprah. On the same day, ABC airs “The Puppy Episode” of her television show Ellen, in which the main character Ellen Morgan realizes she is gay and comes out.

July 4, 1976 – The United States celebrates its bicentennial with festivities across the country.

September 20, 1985 – EMI releases singer Kate Bush’s album Hounds of Love in the United Kingdom. It is Bush’s fifth studio album and the second to reach No. 1 on the charts.

Be sure to stop by the fifth-floor Live Archive to see if the events of great importance in your own life are on our timeline. If not, please place them in the suggestion box and check back here.