September 7

September 7 is the 251st day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1778 to 2008 — a span of 230 years. The entry that anchors it: American Revolutionary War, 1778.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1778, American Revolutionary War — France invades Dominica in the British West Indies, before Britain is even aware of France's involvement in the war. The same year, Anglo-French War — Having established an alliance with the United States, France invaded the Caribbean island of Dominica and captured its British fort.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1864, American Civil War — Atlanta is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1945, World War II — Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1965, Vietnam War — in a follow-up to August's Operation Starlite, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula. Then, in 1977, the Torrijos–Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century. Two years on, in 1979, the Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for US$1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 2008, the United States government takes control of the two largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on September 7: Thomas Talbot (1818), American businessman and politician, 31st Governor of Massachusetts; Thomas A. Hendricks (1819), American lawyer and politician, 21st Vice President of the United States; Edward Asahel Birge (1851), American zoologist and academic; Grandma Moses (1860), American painter; and Edgar Speyer (1862), American-English financier and philanthropist.

September 7 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: William Carpenter (1685), English-American settler, co-founded Rhode Island and Providence Plantations; William Burnet (1729), Dutch-American civil servant and politician, 21st Governor of the province of New York; Sidney Lanier (1881), American poet and academic; and Lorenzo Sawyer (1891), American lawyer and judge.

8 entries, 230 years, one square on the calendar. September 7 is a reminder that history is experienced as an ordinary day before it is remembered as a date.