April 15

April 15 is the 106th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1861 to 1986 — a span of 125 years. The entry that anchors it: President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75, 1861.

The antebellum decades brought the date closer to the country’s central argument. In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 militiamen to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War. Four years on, in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth. Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes president.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1900, Philippine–American War — Filipino guerrillas launch a surprise attack on U.S. infantry and begin a four-day siege of Catubig, Philippines. Then, in 1922, U.S. senator John B. Kendrick introduced a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal involving U.S. president Warren G. Harding's administration, leading to the Teapot Dome scandal. Five years on, in 1927, Torrential rains caused the Mississippi River to break out of its levee system in at least 145 places, resulting in the worst flooding in the history of the United States.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1952, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered, strategic bomber operated by the U.S. Air Force for most of the aircraft's history, made its first flight. Six years on, in 1958, on Walter O'Malley's initiative, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants played the first Major League Baseball game on the U.S. West Coast. Then, in 1986, the United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a discotheque bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on April 15: Charles Willson Peale (1741), American painter and soldier; Henry James (1843), American novelist, short story writer, and critic; George Harrison Shull (1874), American botanist and geneticist; James J. Jeffries (1875), American boxer and promoter; and Melville Henry Cane (1879), American lawyer and poet.

April 15 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Wallace Beery (1949), American actor, director, and screenwriter; Clara Blandick (1962), American actress; Raymond Bailey (1980), American actor and soldier; and Greta Garbo (1990), Swedish-American actress.

The date carries formal observance as well — Jackie Robinson Day (United States); National American Sign Language Day (United States); and Tax Day, the official deadline for filing an individual tax return (or requesting an extension). (United States, Philippines). The record for April 15 runs 125 years deep across 8 entries. Read in sequence, the date stops being a coincidence and starts being a through-line.