November 27

November 27 is the 332nd day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1839 to 1973 — a span of 134 years. The entry that anchors it: President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the "Let Us Continue" speech, 1963.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1839, in Boston, Massachusetts, the American Statistical Association is founded. Then, in 1863, American Civil War — Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and several of his men escape the Ohio Penitentiary and return safely to the South.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1868, Battle of Washita River — United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on Cheyenne living on reservation land.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1901, the U.S. Army War College is established. Then, in 1945, a consortium of twenty-two U.S. charities founded CARE with the mission of delivering food aid to Europe in the aftermath of World War II.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the "Let Us Continue" speech, in which he advocated for civil-rights legislation and national cohesion, to a joint session of the U.S. Congress five days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Two years on, in 1965, Vietnam War — the Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000. Eight years on, in 1973, Twenty-fifth Amendment — the United States Senate votes 92–3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On December 6, the House will confirm him 387–35)

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on November 27: Robert R. Livingston (1746), American lawyer and politician, 1st United States Secretary for Foreign Affairs; Increase Sumner (1746), American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 5th Governor of Massachusetts; Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843), American businessman; Frederic Crowninshield (1845), American artist and author; and William Bliss Baker (1859), American painter.

November 27 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: André Parmentier (1830), Belgian-American architect; Clement Studebaker (1901), American businessman, co-founded Studebaker; Lya De Putti (1931), Slovak-American actress; and Baby Face Nelson (1934), American criminal.

November 27 carries 8 entries spread across 134 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.