April 13

April 13 is the 104th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1777 to 2017 — a span of 240 years. The entry that anchors it: American Civil War, 1861.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1777, American Revolutionary War — British and Hessian forces conducted a surprise attack against a Continental Army outpost at Bound Brook, New Jersey.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1849, Lajos Kossuth presents the Hungarian Declaration of Independence in a closed session of the National Assembly. Then, in 1861, American Civil War — Union forces surrender Fort Sumter to Confederate forces. Four years on, in 1865, American Civil War — Raleigh, North Carolina is occupied by Union forces.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1873, The Colfax massacre — more than 60 to 150 black men are murdered in Colfax, Louisiana, while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1943, the Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1976, the United States Treasury Department reintroduces the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2017, War in Afghanistan — in an airstrike in Nangarhar Province, the U.S. military dropped the most powerful conventional bomb used in combat.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on April 13: Isaac Low (1735), American merchant and politician, founded the New York Chamber of Commerce; Thomas Jefferson (1743), American lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the United States; John Robertson (1787), American lawyer and politician; Antonio Meucci (1808), Italian-American engineer; and Robert Abbe (1851), American surgeon and radiologist.

April 13 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: John Humphrey Noyes (1886), American religious leader, founded the Oneida Community; Samuel J. Randall (1890), American captain, lawyer, and politician, 33rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; John McLane (1911), Scottish-American politician, 50th Governor of New Hampshire; and George Washington Glick (1911), American lawyer and politician, 9th Governor of Kansas.

April 13 carries 8 entries spread across 240 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.