February 6

February 6 is the 37th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1778 to 1976 — a span of 198 years. The entry that anchors it: American Revolutionary War, 1778.

The revolutionary generation left its own mark on the date. In 1778, American Revolutionary War — in Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic. Ten years on, in 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the constitution of the United States.

The antebellum decades brought the date closer to the country’s central argument. In 1843, the first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels, opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City) Then, in 1862, American Civil War — forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.

Reconstruction and the years that followed added their own entries. In 1899, Spanish–American War — the Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1919, World War I — more than 65,000 workers in Seattle began a five-day general strike to gain higher wages after two years of wage controls in the United States. Three years on, in 1922, the Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1976, in testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admits that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on February 6: Charles Lee (1732), English-American general; Aaron Burr (1756), American colonel and politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States; William M. Evarts (1818), American lawyer and politician, 27th United States Secretary of State; Thomas C. Durant (1820), American railroad tycoon; and John Brown Gordon (1832), American general and politician, 53rd Governor of Georgia.

February 6 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Gabby Street (1951), American baseball player, coach, and manager; Julian Steward (1972), American anthropologist; Vince Guaraldi (1976), American singer-songwriter and pianist; and Hugo Montenegro (1981), American composer and conductor.

The date carries formal observance as well — International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (United Nations); Ronald Reagan Day (California, United States); and Sami National Day (Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden). What holds these 8 entries together is nothing more than the calendar, and nothing less. 198 years separate the earliest from the latest, and each was once simply the present day.