September 11

September 11 is the 255th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1775 to 2012 — a span of 237 years. The entry that anchors it: Nineteen members of al-Qaeda execute the September 11 attacks, 2001.

Before there was a United States, the date already carried weight in the colonies. In 1775, American Revolutionary War — Benedict Arnold's expedition departed from Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of the invasion of Quebec.

In the founding decades, the date sat close to the business of building a republic. In 1776, British and American leaders held a peace conference on Staten Island, New York, in the hopes of bringing an end to the nascent American Revolutionary War. Four years on, in 1780, American Revolutionary War — approximately ten American soldiers were killed by Loyalists and their Native American allies in the Sugarloaf massacre in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

As the country moved into the modern age, the date accumulated new kinds of firsts. In 1941, in Des Moines, Iowa, American aviator Charles Lindbergh delivered an antisemitic speech accusing Jews of controlling the media and manipulating the United States into joining World War II.

In living memory, the date has kept adding to the record. In 1995, the first game of the PCA World Chess Championship 1995, pitting incumbent champion Garry Kasparov against challenger Viswanathan Anand, takes place on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower in New York City. Six years on, in 2001, Nineteen members of al-Qaeda execute the September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people using four hijacked aircraft. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Ten years on, in 2011, a dedication ceremony is held at the United States National September 11 Memorial on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York City, and the memorial opens to family members. A year later, in 2012, the American consulate and CIA annex in Libya were attacked by a heavily armed group, resulting in the deaths of U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on September 11: Daniel S. Dickinson (1800), American lawyer and politician, 13th Lieutenant Governor of New York; Thomas Hill (1829), American painter; Fitz Hugh Ludlow (1836), American journalist, author, and explorer; John Ireland (1838), Irish-American archbishop; and Mary Watson Whitney (1847), American astronomer and academic.

September 11 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Sylvester Graham (1851), American minister and dietary reformer, namesake of the graham cracker; Francis James Child (1896), American scholar and educator; William Sprague IV (1915), American businessman and politician, 27th Governor of Rhode Island; and Charles Norris (1935), American coroner.

The date carries formal observance as well — Emergency Number Day (United States); National Day (Catalonia); September 11 attacks-related observances (United States): — National Day of Service and Remembrance; and September 11 attacks-related observances (United States): — Patriot Day. Taken together, the 8 entries on September 11 span 237 years of American life. A date is an arbitrary container, but what fills it is not arbitrary at all.