November 26

November 26 is the 331st day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1789 to 2000 — a span of 211 years. The entry that anchors it: A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as proclaimed by President George Washington at the request of Congress, 1789.

The revolutionary generation left its own mark on the date. In 1789, a national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as proclaimed by President George Washington at the request of Congress.

The antebellum decades brought the date closer to the country’s central argument. In 1842, the University of Notre Dame was founded by Edward Sorin of the Congregation of Holy Cross as an all-male institution in the U.S. state of Indiana. Then, in 1863, United States President Abraham Lincoln proclaims November 26 as a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November. Following the Franksgiving controversy from 1939 to 1941, it has been observed on the fourth Thursday in 1942 and subsequent years.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1941, World War II — the Hull note is given to the Japanese ambassador, demanding that Japan withdraw from China and French Indochina, in return for which the United States would lift economic sanctions. On the same day, Japan's 1st Air Fleet departs Hitokappu Bay for Hawaii. A year later, in 1942, a riot involving infantrymen, military police, and local law enforcement officers occurs in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, leading to three deaths.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1968, Vietnam War — United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire. He is later awarded the Medal of Honor. Then, in 1986, Iran–Contra affair — U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.

The most recent entries fall within living memory. In 2000, George W. Bush is certified the winner of Florida's electoral votes by Katherine Harris, going on to win the United States presidential election, despite losing in the national popular vote.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on November 26: Henry Dunster (1609), English-American clergyman and academic; Artemas Ward (1727), American general and politician; Sarah Moore Grimké (1792), American author and activist; Ellen G. White (1827), American religious leader and author, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church; and Robert Battey (1828), American surgeon and academic.

November 26 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Thomas Buck Reed (1829), American lawyer and politician; Sojourner Truth (1883), American activist; John Browning (1926), American weapons designer, founded the Browning Arms Company; and Edward O'Hare (1943), American lieutenant and pilot.

What holds these 8 entries together is nothing more than the calendar, and nothing less. 211 years separate the earliest from the latest, and each was once simply the present day.