January 20

January 20 is the 20th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1783 to 2009 — a span of 226 years. The entry that anchors it: Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States of America, 1981.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1783, the Kingdom of Great Britain signs preliminary articles of peace with the Kingdom of France, setting the stage for the official end of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War later that year.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1887, the United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1954, in the United States, the National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations. Then, in 1968, the Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins in what became known as the "Game of the Century", ending the Bruins' 47-game winning streak and establishing college basketball as a sports commodity on American television. Then, in 1981, Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States of America, Iran releases 52 American hostages. Five years on, in 1986, in the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2001, President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent four-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Eight years on, in 2009, in Washington, D.C., Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African-American president of the United States.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on January 20: Richard Henry Lee (1732), American lawyer and politician, President of the Continental Congress; Anson Jones (1799), American physician and politician, 5th President of the Republic of Texas; David Wilmot (1814), American politician, sponsor of Wilmot Proviso; George D. Robinson (1834), American lawyer and politician, 34th Governor of Massachusetts; and Harriot Stanton Blatch (1856), American suffragist and organizer.

January 20 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Benjamin Chew (1810), American lawyer and judge; John Ordronaux (1908), American surgeon and academic; Mary Watson Whitney (1921), American astronomer and academic; and Omar Bundy (1940), American general.

The date carries formal observance as well — Presidential inaugurations (United States). January 20 carries 8 entries spread across 226 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.