October 17

October 17 is the 291st day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1777 to 1989 — a span of 212 years. The entry that anchors it: American Revolutionary War, 1777.

In the founding decades, the date sat close to the business of building a republic. In 1777, American Revolutionary War — British general John Burgoyne's Saratoga campaign ended with his surrender to the Americans, later convincing France to enter the war in alliance with the United States. Four years on, in 1781, American Revolutionary War — British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders at the Siege of Yorktown.

As the country moved into the modern age, the date accumulated new kinds of firsts. In 1931, American gangster Al Capone was convicted on five counts of income-tax evasion. Two years on, in 1933, Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States. Eight years on, in 1941, World War II — the USS Kearny becomes the first U.S. Navy vessel to be torpedoed by a U-boat.

In the postwar decades the date belonged to a nation of enormous reach and unfinished arguments. In 1952, Indonesian Army elements surrounded the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, demanding that President Sukarno disband the Provisional People's Representative Council. Then, in 1979, the Department of Education Organization Act creates the U.S. Department of Education. Ten years on, in 1989, the 6.9 Mw Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast, killing 63.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on October 17: Jupiter Hammon (1711), American poet; Richard Mentor Johnson (1780), American politician, ninth Vice President of the United States; Albertus van Raalte (1811), Dutch-American pastor and educator; John J. Gardner (1845), American politician; and Childe Hassam (1859), American painter and illustrator.

October 17 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Julia Ward Howe (1910), American poet and songwriter; Royal Cortissoz (1948), American art critic; Paul Outerbridge (1958), American photographer; and Bart King (1965), American cricketer.

The date carries formal observance as well — International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Taken together, the 8 entries on October 17 span 212 years of American life. A date is an arbitrary container, but what fills it is not arbitrary at all.