January 22

January 22 is the 22nd day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1917 to 2009 — a span of 92 years. The entry that anchors it: The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade struck down laws restricting abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, 1973.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1917, American entry into World War I — President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1947, KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood. Then, in 1968, Apollo 5, the first flight of NASA's Lunar Module, lifted off from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station. Two years on, in 1970, the Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport. Three years on, in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade struck down laws restricting abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. The same year, the crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo Moon landing mission. The same year, the Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states. This decision is subsequently overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022.

The most recent entries fall within living memory. In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; congressional opposition will prevent it being implemented.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on January 22: Noah Phelps (1740), American soldier, lawyer, and judge; Richard Upjohn (1802), English-American architect; Wilbur Scoville (1865), American chemist and pharmacist; Edward Harkness (1874), American philanthropist; and Jay Hughes (1874), American baseball player and coach.

January 22 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Claudius Smith (1779), American guerrilla leader; Lewis Morris (1798), American judge and politician; Joseph P. Bradley (1892), American lawyer and jurist; and David Edward Hughes (1900), Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone.

The record for January 22 runs 92 years deep across 8 entries. Read in sequence, the date stops being a coincidence and starts being a through-line.