October 7

October 7 is the 281st day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1777 to 2001 — a span of 224 years. The entry that anchors it: American Civil War, 1864.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1777, American Revolutionary War — the Americans defeat British forces under general John Burgoyne in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights, compelling Burgoyne's eventual surrender. Three years on, in 1780, American Revolutionary War — Patriots and Loyalist militias engaged each other at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1849, American writer Edgar Allan Poe died under mysterious circumstances at Washington Medical College four days after being found on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, in a delirious and incoherent state. Then, in 1864, American Civil War — a US Navy ship captures a Confederate raider in a Brazilian seaport.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1940, World War II — the McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1958, the U.S. crewed space-flight project is renamed to Project Mercury.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 1993, the flood of '93 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, as the Mississippi River falls below flood stage. Eight years on, in 2001, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground, starting the longest war in American history.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on October 7: Caesar Rodney (1728), American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 4th Governor of Delaware; William Billings (1746), American composer and educator; Solomon Sibley (1769), American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 1st Mayor of Detroit; Ann Eliza Smith (1819), American author and patriot; and Richard H. Anderson (1821), American general.

October 7 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: John Woolman (1772), American preacher and abolitionist; Henry Muhlenberg (1787), German-American pastor and missionary; George Mason (1792), American lawyer and politician; and Edgar Allan Poe (1849), American short story writer, poet, and critic.

8 entries, 224 years, one square on the calendar. October 7 is a reminder that history is experienced as an ordinary day before it is remembered as a date.