April 10

April 10 is the 101st day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1606 to 2010 — a span of 404 years. The entry that anchors it: The Federal government of the United States approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States, 1816.

The colonial record reaches this date first. In 1606, the Virginia Company of London is established by royal charter by James I of England with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1816, the Federal government of the United States approves the creation of the Second Bank of the United States. Then, in 1865, American Civil War — a day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in New York City by Henry Bergh.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1925, the Great Gatsby, a novel by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published by Scribner's.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1963, the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank with all hands lost during deep-diving tests in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2009, Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced that he had suspended the constitution and assumed all governance in the country after it was ruled that the government of Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was illegal. A year later, in 2010, Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of other senior officials and dignitaries.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on April 10: Leonidas Polk (1806), Scottish-American general and bishop; Lew Wallace (1827), American general, lawyer, author and politician, 11th Governor of New Mexico Territory; Joseph Pulitzer (1847), Hungarian-American journalist, publisher, and politician, founded Pulitzer, Inc.; Jack Miner (1865), American-Canadian farmer, hunter, and environmentalist; and Frances Perkins (1880), American sociologist, academic, and politician, United States Secretary of Labor.

April 10 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Horatio Gates (1806), English-American general; Kahlil Gibran (1931), Lebanese-American poet, painter, and philosopher; King Oliver (1938), American cornet player and bandleader; and Charles Nordhoff (1947), English-American lieutenant and author.

8 entries, 404 years, one square on the calendar. April 10 is a reminder that history is experienced as an ordinary day before it is remembered as a date.