March 31

March 31 is the 91st day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1774 to 2023 — a span of 249 years. The entry that anchors it: American President Lyndon B. Johnson speaks to the nation of "Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam" in a television address. At the conclusion of his speech, 1968.

The earliest entries here predate the republic entirely. In 1774, American Revolution — the Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.

The antebellum decades brought the date closer to the country’s central argument. In 1854, U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry and the Tokugawa shogunate signed the Convention of Kanagawa, forcing the opening of Japanese ports to American trade.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1951, Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau. Then, in 1968, American President Lyndon B. Johnson speaks to the nation of "Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam" in a television address. At the conclusion of his speech, he announces: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

The most recent entries fall within living memory. In 1992, USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, was decommissioned in Long Beach, California. Three years on, in 1995, American singer-songwriter Selena, known as the "queen of Tejano music", was murdered by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar, in Corpus Christi, Texas, deeply affecting the Latino community. Then, in 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station. Seven years on, in 2023, a tornado caused the collapse of a venue hosting a sold-out concert in Belvidere, Illinois, United States, resulting in one death and 48 injuries.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on March 31: Thomas McKean Thompson McKennan (1794), American lawyer and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of the Interior; Mary Boykin Chesnut (1823), American author; Mary Abigail Dodge (1833), American writer and essayist; John La Farge (1835), American artist; and Alfred E. Hunt (1855), American businessman.

March 31 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: John C. Calhoun (1850), American lawyer and politician, 7th Vice President of the United States; Galusha A. Grow (1907), American lawyer and politician, 28th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; J. P. Morgan (1913), American banker and financier; and Knute Rockne (1931), American football player and coach.

The date carries formal observance as well — Thomas Mundy Peterson Day (New Jersey, United States). What holds these 8 entries together is nothing more than the calendar, and nothing less. 249 years separate the earliest from the latest, and each was once simply the present day.