September 22

September 22 is the 266th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1776 to 1995 — a span of 219 years. The entry that anchors it: A preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released by Abraham Lincoln, 1862.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1776, Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during the American Revolution. Then, in 1789, the office of United States Postmaster General was formally established.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1862, a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation is released by Abraham Lincoln.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1919, the steel strike of 1919, led by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across the United States.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1948, Led by Gail Halvorsen, the United States Air Force began Operation "Little Vittles", delivering candy to children as part of the Berlin Airlift. Then, in 1975, Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford, but is foiled by the Secret Service.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 1993, a tugboat towing a barge collided with a rail bridge in Mobile, Alabama, U.S., deforming the tracks and causing the derailment of a passenger train eight minutes later, which killed 47 people and injured an additional 103. Two years on, in 1995, an E-3B AWACS crashes outside Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska after multiple bird strikes to two of the four engines soon after takeoff; all 24 on board are killed.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on September 22: John Quincy Adams II (1833), American politician and grandson of President John Quincy Adams; Stephen D. Lee (1833), American general and academic; Arthur Pryor (1870), American trombonist, composer, and bandleader; Erich von Stroheim (1885), Austrian-American actor, director, and screenwriter; and Hooks Dauss (1889), American baseball player.

September 22 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Martha Corey (1692), American woman accused of witchcraft; Nathan Hale (1776), American soldier; John Bartram (1777), American botanist and explorer; and Frederick Townsend Ward (1862), American sailor and mercenary.

The date carries formal observance as well — American Business Women's Day (United States). September 22 carries 8 entries spread across 219 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.