November 3

November 3 is the 308th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1868 to 2014 — a span of 146 years. The entry that anchors it: The Chicago Daily Tribune published the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" in its early morning edition shortly after incumbent U.S. president Harry S. Truman officially upset the heavily favored governor of New York Thomas Dewey in the presidential election, 1948.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1868, John Willis Menard (R-LA) becomes the first African American elected to the United States Congress. Because of an electoral challenge, he is never seated.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected as President of the United States.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1948, the Chicago Daily Tribune published the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" in its early morning edition shortly after incumbent U.S. president Harry S. Truman officially upset the heavily favored governor of New York Thomas Dewey in the presidential election. Then, in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson is elected to a full term as U.S. president, winning 61% of the vote and 44 states, while Washington D.C. residents are able to vote in a presidential election for the first time, casting the majority of their votes for Lyndon Johnson. Five years on, in 1969, U.S. president Richard Nixon made a plea for support from the "silent majority", referring to those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time. Seven years on, in 1976, Carrie, an American supernatural horror film directed by Brian De Palma, is premiered in 17 theaters in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 1992, Democratic Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton defeats Republican President George H. W. Bush and Independent candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 United States presidential election. Then, in 2014, one World Trade Center officially opens in New York City, replacing the Twin Towers after they were destroyed during the September 11 attacks.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on November 3: Robert Smith (1757), American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 6th United States Secretary of State; Stephen F. Austin (1793), American businessman and politician; William Cullen Bryant (1794), American poet and journalist; William Sprague III (1799), American lawyer and politician, 14th governor of Rhode Island; and Jubal Early (1816), American general and lawyer.

November 3 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Carrie Steele Logan (1900), American philanthropist, founder of the oldest black orphanage in the United States (born ~1829); Annie Oakley (1926), American entertainer and target shooter; Solomon R. Guggenheim (1949), American art collector and philanthropist, founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and Paul Willis (1960), American actor and director.

The date carries formal observance as well — Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Federated States of Micronesia from the United States in 1986.. November 3 carries 8 entries spread across 146 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.