November 21

November 21 is the 326th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1789 to 1985 — a span of 196 years. The entry that anchors it: American Civil War, 1861.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1789, North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1861, American Civil War — Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin Secretary of War.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1902, the Philadelphia Football Athletics defeat the Kanaweola Athletic Club of Elmira, New York, 39–0, in the first-ever professional American football night game. Then, in 1922, Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1961, La Ronde, the first revolving restaurant in the United States, was inaugurated. Eight years on, in 1969, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Satō agree on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. The U.S. retains rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free. A year later, in 1970, Operation Ivory Coast — a joint United States Air Force and Army team raids the Sơn Tây prisoner-of-war camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there. Then, in 1985, United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on November 21: Josiah Bartlett (1729), American physician and politician, 6th Governor of New Hampshire; Joseph Plumb Martin (1760), American sergeant; William Beaumont (1785), American surgeon, "Father of Gastric Physiology"; Lewis H. Morgan (1818), American lawyer, anthropologist, and theorist; and Hetty Green (1834), American businesswoman and financier.

November 21 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Garret Hobart (1899), American lawyer and politician, 24th Vice President of the United States; Edward Cummins (1926), American golfer; Leopold Godowsky (1938), Polish-American pianist and composer; and Henrietta Vinton Davis (1941), American actress and playwright.

November 21 carries 8 entries spread across 196 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.