April 22

April 22 is the 113th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1864 to 2022 — a span of 158 years. The entry that anchors it: The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency, 1864.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1864, the U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency. The same year, U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized the minting of the two-cent piece, the first U.S. coin to bear the phrase "In God We Trust"

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1876, the first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. Then, in 1898, Spanish–American War — President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1930, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1966, American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D crashes on approach to Ardmore Municipal Airport in Ardmore, Oklahoma, killing 83.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2000, in a pre-dawn raid, U.S. federal agents seized six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami and returned him to his Cuban father. Then, in 2022, American climate activist Wynn Bruce set himself on fire outside the United States Supreme Court Building in an apparent protest against the climate crisis.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on April 22: James Sullivan (1744), American lawyer and politician, 7th Governor of Massachusetts; Julius Sterling Morton (1832), American journalist and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Agriculture; Lewis Powell (1844), American soldier, attempted assassin of William H. Seward; Ellen Glasgow (1873), American author; and Otto Rank (1884), Austrian-American psychologist and academic.

April 22 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: James P. Kirkwood (1877), Scottish-American engineer; Charles Hamilton Houston (1950), American lawyer and academic; Will Geer (1978), American actor; and Jane Froman (1980), American actress and singer.

The date carries formal observance as well — From 2018 onwards, a national day of commemoration for the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence (United Kingdom). 8 entries, 158 years, one square on the calendar. April 22 is a reminder that history is experienced as an ordinary day before it is remembered as a date.