September 23

September 23 is the 267th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1779 to 2020 — a span of 241 years. The entry that anchors it: U.S. President John F. Kennedy nominates African American civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1961.

In the founding decades, the date sat close to the business of building a republic. In 1779, American Revolutionary War — John Paul Jones, naval commander of the United States, on board the USS Bonhomme Richard, wins the Battle of Flamborough Head. A year later, in 1780, American Revolutionary War — British officer John André was captured by Patriot forces, thereby revealing a plot by Continental Army general Benedict Arnold to hand over West Point, New York.

As the country moved into the modern age, the date accumulated new kinds of firsts. In 1942, The Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins — U.S. Marines attack Japanese units along the Matanikau River.

In the postwar decades the date belonged to a nation of enormous reach and unfinished arguments. In 1952, U.S. vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon delivered the Checkers speech, one of the first political uses of television to appeal directly to the populace. Five years on, in 1957, Little Rock schools integration crisis — President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, and federalizes the Arkansas National Guard, ordering both to support the integration of Little Rock Central High School. Four years on, in 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy nominates African American civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, although pro-segregation Southern senators manage to delay his confirmation until September 11, 1962.

In living memory, the date has kept adding to the record. In 2010, Teresa Lewis became the first woman to be executed by the U.S. state of Virginia since 1912, and the first woman in the state to be executed via lethal injection. Ten years on, in 2020, a grand jury in Kentucky declines to indict three police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in a drug raid gone wrong, leading to nationwide protests in the U.S.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on September 23: William Holmes McGuffey (1800), American author and academic; Victoria Woodhull (1838), American journalist and activist; Ellen Hayes (1851), American mathematician and astronomer; James Carroll Beckwith (1852), American painter and academic; and William Stewart Halsted (1852), American physician and surgeon.

September 23 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: John Rogers (1789), American lawyer and politician; William Marsh Rice (1900), American businessman, founded Rice University; Hale Holden (1940), American businessman; and Sam Barry (1950), American basketball player and coach.

The date carries formal observance as well — National Day (Saudi Arabia) and International Day of Sign Languages. Taken together, the 8 entries on September 23 span 241 years of American life. A date is an arbitrary container, but what fills it is not arbitrary at all.