October 28

October 28 is the 302nd day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1776 to 2014 — a span of 238 years. The entry that anchors it: The U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act over president Woodrow Wilson's veto, 1919.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1776, American Revolutionary War — British troops under General William Howe attack General George Washington's Continental Army and capture Chatterton Hill in the Battle of White Plains during the New York and New Jersey campaign.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1835, the United Tribes of New Zealand are established with the signature of the Declaration of Independence. Then, in 1864, American Civil War — a Union attack on the Confederate capital of Richmond is repulsed.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1886, in New York Harbor, U.S. president Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France commemorating the Declaration of Independence.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act over president Woodrow Wilson's veto, reinforcing Prohibition in the United States.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1965, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., the 630-foot (190 m)-tall steel catenary Gateway Arch was completed.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2009, NASA successfully launches the Ares I-X mission, the only rocket launch for its short-lived Constellation program. Five years on, in 2014, a rocket carrying NASA's Cygnus CRS Orb-3 resupply mission to the International Space Station explodes seconds after taking off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on October 28: John Laurens (1754), American soldier; Eliphalet Remington (1793), American businessman, founded Remington Arms; Edward P. Allen (1839), American captain, lawyer, and politician; Adolfo Camarillo (1864), Mexican-American rancher and philanthropist; and Joe Adams (1877), American baseball player and manager.

October 28 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Artemas Ward (1800), American general and politician; Abigail Adams (1818), American writer and second First Lady of the United States; Ottmar Mergenthaler (1899), German-American engineer, invented the Linotype machine; and Cleveland Abbe (1916), American meteorologist and academic.

The date carries formal observance as well — Ohi Day (Greece, Cyprus and the Greek communities), a national day in Greece.. October 28 carries 8 entries spread across 238 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.