September 27

September 27 is the 271st day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1777 to 2007 — a span of 230 years. The entry that anchors it: American Revolution, 1777.

The revolutionary generation left its own mark on the date. In 1777, American Revolution — Lancaster, Pennsylvania becomes the capital of the United States for one day after Congress evacuates Philadelphia.

Reconstruction and the years that followed added their own entries. In 1875, the merchant ship Ellen Southard was wrecked in a storm at Liverpool, England; the U.S. Congress subsequently awarded 27 Gold Lifesaving Medals to the men who rescued her crew.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1908, the first production Ford Model T, the car credited with initiating the mass use of automobiles in the United States, was completed at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan. Then, in 1928, the Republic of China is recognized by the United States. Then, in 1941, SS Patrick Henry, the first of 2,710 Liberty ships built during World War II by the United States, was launched. A year later, in 1942, World War II — Last day of the Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marines barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1962, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The most recent entries fall within living memory. In 2007, NASA launches the Dawn probe to the asteroid belt.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on September 27: Solomon Stoddard (1643), American pastor and librarian; Samuel Adams (1722), American philosopher and politician, fourth Governor of Massachusetts; Samuel Francis Du Pont (1803), American admiral; William "Bull" Nelson (1824), American general; and William Babcock Hazen (1830), American general.

September 27 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Braxton Bragg (1876), American general; Charles Gordon Greene (1886), American journalist and politician; Aimee Semple McPherson (1944), Canadian-American evangelist, founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; and Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1956), American basketball player and golfer.

The date carries formal observance as well — National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (United States). What holds these 8 entries together is nothing more than the calendar, and nothing less. 230 years separate the earliest from the latest, and each was once simply the present day.