from theatlantic.com: Via The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff comes this incredible chart from the New England Journal of Medicine comparing the reasons we die now to the way Americans went to their graves a century ago. The chart ranks the top ten causes of death for each year. In addition to the remarkable decline in mortality overall, it’s also noticeable how heart disease and cancer have surged to become two of America’s top killers. In 1900, cancer and heart disease accounted for 18 percent of all deaths. Today, that figure’s jumped to 63 percent. In addition to being responsible for a greater share of deaths overall, the absolute number of people being killed by these chronic conditions has also grown, from 201 people out of every 100,000 in 1900 to nearly 380 per 100,000 today.