June 17

June 17 is the 169th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1775 to 2021 — a span of 246 years. The entry that anchors it: Five men were arrested for attempted burglary on the offices of the Democratic National Committee, 1972.

The earliest entries here predate the republic entirely. In 1775, American Revolutionary War — British forces took Bunker Hill outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

The antebellum decades brought the date closer to the country’s central argument. In 1863, American Civil War — Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg campaign.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1932, Bonus Army — around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1963, the United States Supreme Court rules 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools. Eight years on, in 1971, U.S. president Richard Nixon in a televised press conference calls drug abuse "America's public enemy number one", starting the war on drugs. A year later, in 1972, five men were arrested for attempted burglary on the offices of the Democratic National Committee, igniting the Watergate scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of US president Richard Nixon more than two years later.

The most recent entries fall within living memory. In 1992, a "joint understanding" agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. president George Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II) Then, in 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day is signed into law by President Joe Biden, to become the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on June 17: E. G. Squier (1821), American archaeologist and journalist; Eben Sumner Draper (1858), American businessman and politician, 44th Governor of Massachusetts; Pete Browning (1861), American baseball player; Omar Bundy (1861), American general; and Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865), Native American physician.

June 17 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Allen Sothoron (1939), American baseball player, coach, and manager; Jack Parsons (1952), American chemist and engineer; Danny Cedrone (1954), American guitarist and bandleader; and Bob Sweikert (1956), American race car driver.

The date carries formal observance as well — Icelandic National Day, celebrates the independence of Iceland from Kingdom of Denmark in 1944. and National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Forest Fires (Portugal). What holds these 8 entries together is nothing more than the calendar, and nothing less. 246 years separate the earliest from the latest, and each was once simply the present day.