July 24

July 24 is the 206th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1864 to 1998 — a span of 134 years. The entry that anchors it: Watergate scandal, 1974.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1864, Battle of Kernstown — Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1866, Reconstruction — Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to Congress following the American Civil War.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1959, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. vice president Richard Nixon held an impromptu debate at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow. Ten years on, in 1969, Apollo program — Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean. Five years on, in 1974, Watergate scandal — the United States Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Richard Nixon does not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor. Six years on, in 1980, the Australian swimming team, nicknamed the Quietly Confident Quartet, won the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay at the Moscow Olympics, the only time that the United States, which boycotted the games, has not won the event at the Olympics. Three years on, in 1983, George Brett, playing for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident"

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 1998, a gunman entered the United States Capitol and opened fire, killing two police officers.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on July 24: Alexander J. Davis (1803), American architect; William Poole (1821), American boxer and gangster; Tommy McCarthy (1863), American baseball player; Ernest Bloch (1880), Swiss-American composer and educator; and Agnes Meyer Driscoll (1889), American cryptanalyst.

July 24 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Martin Van Buren (1862), American lawyer and politician, eighth President of the United States; Hermann Raster (1891), German-American journalist and politician; Constance Bennett (1965), American actress and producer; and Tony Lema (1966), American golfer.

July 24 carries 8 entries spread across 134 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.