December 12

December 12 is the 347th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1787 to 2000 — a span of 213 years. The entry that anchors it: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bush v. Gore that the recount of ballots cast in Florida for the presidential election be stopped, 2000.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1787, Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the US Constitution.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1862, American Civil War — USS Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1870, Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1937, USS Panay incident — Japanese aircraft bomb and sink U.S. gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze river in China. Eight years on, in 1945, the People's Republic of Korea is outlawed in the South, by order of the United States Army Military Government in Korea.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1964, Jomo Kenyatta became the first president of the Republic of Kenya. Then, in 1985, Arrow Air Flight 1285R, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8, crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing all 256 people on board, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bush v. Gore that the recount of ballots cast in Florida for the presidential election be stopped, effectively making George W. Bush the winner.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on December 12: William L. Marcy (1786), American lawyer, judge, and politician, 21st United States Secretary of State; Henry Wells (1805), American businessman, co-founded Wells Fargo and American Express; Stand Watie (1806), American general; Bruce Price (1845), American architect, designed the American Surety Building and Bank of the Metropolis; and Walter Benona Sharp (1870), American businessman, co-founded Hughes Tool Company.

December 12 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1921), American astronomer and academic; Mildred Bailey (1951), American singer; Karl Ruberl (1966), Austrian-American swimmer; and Tallulah Bankhead (1968), American actress.

8 entries, 213 years, one square on the calendar. December 12 is a reminder that history is experienced as an ordinary day before it is remembered as a date.