The percentage of Americans who smoke cigarettes has fallen below 20% for the first time since at least the mid-1960s. According to the CDC, the percentage is still far too high for the nation's overall good health.

The CDC says cigarette smoking prevalence has been dropping steadily among Americans 18 and older since it began keeping records in 1965, when 42.4 percent smoked. The proportion dropped below 30 percent for the first time in 1987, when 28.8 percent of Americans smoked.

The percentage still places one in five Americans at risk of lung cancer, emphysema and many other health ailments that come with smoking cigarettes.

Thursday is the 34th Great American Smokeout. Please join the brave people across the country in a death-defying act: quitting smoking, even for just one day - Nov. 19.