July 20

July 20 is the 202nd day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1848 to 2019 — a span of 171 years. The entry that anchors it: Soyuz MS-13 is launched to the International Space Station on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, 2019.

The antebellum decades brought the date closer to the country’s central argument. In 1848, the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, a two-day event, concludes. Then, in 1864, Battle of Peachtree Creek — near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.

Reconstruction and the years that followed added their own entries. In 1867, the United States Congress established the Indian Peace Commission to seek peace treaties with a number of Native American tribes.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1938, the United States Department of Justice files suit in New York City against the motion picture industry charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system. The case would eventually result in a break-up of the industry in 1948.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1969, Apollo program — Apollo 11's crew successfully makes the first human landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.

The most recent entries fall within living memory. In 1997, USS Constitution, one of the United States Navy's original six frigates, sailed for the first time in 116 years after a full restoration. Then, in 2015, the United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades. Four years on, in 2019, Soyuz MS-13 is launched to the International Space Station on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on July 20: Augustin Daly (1838), American playwright and manager; William Paine Lord (1838), American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of Oregon; Robert Anderson Van Wyck (1849), American lawyer and politician, 91st Mayor of New York City; Verna Felton (1890), American actress; and Heinie Manush (1901), American baseball player and manager.

July 20 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Peregrine White (1704), English-American farmer and soldier; Anna Gardie (1798), French-American dancer and actress (born c. 1760); Lew Fields (1941), American actor and producer; and Mildred Harris (1944), American actress.

The record for July 20 runs 171 years deep across 8 entries. Read in sequence, the date stops being a coincidence and starts being a through-line.