December 9

December 9 is the 344th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1775 to 2008 — a span of 233 years. The entry that anchors it: American Revolutionary War, 1775.

The colonial record reaches this date first. In 1775, American Revolutionary War — after their loss in the Battle of Great Bridge, British authorities were forced to evacuate from the Colony of Virginia. The same year, American Revolutionary War — British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1861, American Civil War — the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by Congress.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1872, in Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1911, a mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, killed 84 miners despite a well-organized rescue effort led by the United States Bureau of Mines.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1950, Cold War — Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Then, in 1981, Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner; his subsequent conviction and death sentence generated controversy in the United States.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2008, Rod Blagojevich, the governor of Illinois, was arrested on corruption charges, including for attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by president-elect Barack Obama.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on December 9: Peter Pelham (1721), English-American organist and composer; Joseph Desha (1768), American politician; Tabitha Babbitt (1779), American tool maker and inventor; Joel Chandler Harris (1845), American journalist and author; and Emma Abbott (1850), American soprano and actress.

December 9 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Rube Foster (1930), American baseball player and manager; Walter Liggett (1935), American journalist and activist; Laird Cregar (1944), American actor; and Perry Miller (1963), American historian, author, and academic.

December 9 carries 8 entries spread across 233 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.