February 7

February 7 is the 38th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1783 to 2013 — a span of 230 years. The entry that anchors it: The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, 2013.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1783, American Revolutionary War — after three years and seven months, Spain and France abandoned their attempt to capture Gibraltar from the British. The same year, American Revolutionary War — French and Spanish forces lift the Great Siege of Gibraltar. Then, in 1795, the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting the ability of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to sue U.S. states in federal courts, was ratified.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1894, the Cripple Creek miner's strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1900, a Chinese immigrant in San Francisco fell ill with the bubonic plague in the first epidemic of the disease in the continental United States.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1964, the Beatles land in the United States for the first time, at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 1995, Ramzi Yousef, one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434, was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan. Then, in 2013, the U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on February 7: Louisa Jane Hall (1802), American poet, essayist, and literary critic; John Deere (1804), American blacksmith and businessman, founded Deere & Company; Arthur Collins (1864), American baritone singer; Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867), American author; and Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1878), Russian-American pianist and conductor.

February 7 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Henry E. Steinway (1871), German-American businessman, founded Steinway & Sons; Marie Louise Andrews (1891), American story writer and journalist; William Halford (1919), English-American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient; and John J. Gardner (1921), American politician.

The date carries formal observance as well — National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (United States). February 7 carries 8 entries spread across 230 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.