June 9

June 9 is the 161st day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1732 to 1973 — a span of 241 years. The entry that anchors it: American Civil War, 1862.

The colonial record reaches this date first. In 1732, James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of the future U.S. state of Georgia. Then, in 1772, in an act of defiance against the Navigation Acts, American colonists led by Abraham Whipple attacked and burned the British schooner Gaspee.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1862, American Civil War — Confederate General Stonewall Jackson concluded his successful Shenandoah Valley campaign with a victory in the Battle of Port Republic. A year later, in 1863, American Civil War — the Battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, the largest cavalry battle on American soil, ends Confederate cavalry dominance in the eastern theater.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1915, William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States' handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1954, during hearings investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy, Army lawyer Joseph N. Welch asked McCarthy: "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" Then, in 1968, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Five years on, in 1973, in horse racing, Secretariat wins the U.S. Triple Crown.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on June 9: Samuel Slater (1768), English-American engineer and businessman; Hazard Stevens (1842), American military officer, mountaineer, politician and writer; Frank Norton (1845), American baseball player; Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851), American lawyer and politician, 46th United States Attorney General; and Harry DeBaecke (1879), American rower.

June 9 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Mike Burke (1889), American baseball player; Victoria Woodhull (1927), American activist for women's rights; Louis Bennison (1929), American stage and silent film actor; and Margaret Lawrence (1929), American stage actress.

The date carries formal observance as well — Don Young Day (Alaska, United States). 8 entries, 241 years, one square on the calendar. June 9 is a reminder that history is experienced as an ordinary day before it is remembered as a date.