October 4

October 4 is the 278th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1777 to 2017 — a span of 240 years. The entry that anchors it: American Revolutionary War, 1777.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1777, American Revolutionary War — troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under William Howe.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1862, American Civil War — after a naval battle in Galveston Harbor, Texas, Confederate commanders negotiated the surrender of the city to Union forces. The same year, American Civil War — the two-day Second Battle of Corinth ends in a Union victory, with General William Rosecrans protecting the critical rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi from Confederate forces under General Earl Van Dorn.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1876, Texas A&M University opened as the first public institution of higher education in the U.S. state. Then, in 1895, Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 1993, Battle of Mogadishu occurs killing 18 U.S. Special Forces, two UN Peacekeepers and at least 600 Somalian militia men and civilians. Four years on, in 1997, the second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs in North Carolina. Then, in 2017, Joint Nigerien-American Special Forces are ambushed by Islamic State militants outside the village of Tongo Tongo.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on October 4: Rutherford B. Hayes (1822), American general, lawyer, and politician, 19th President of the United States; Jenny Twitchell Kempton (1835), American opera singer and educator; Walter Rauschenbusch (1861), American pastor and theologian; Frederic Remington (1861), American painter, sculptor, and illustrator; and Edward Stratemeyer (1862), American author and publisher.

October 4 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: James Whitcomb (1852), American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Indiana; Francis Xavier Seelos (1867), German-American priest and missionary; Al Smith (1944), American lawyer and politician, 42nd Governor of New York; and Barney Oldfield (1946), American race car driver and actor.

October 4 carries 8 entries spread across 240 years. None of the people in them knew they were sharing a date; that is a pattern only visible looking back.