April 19

April 19 is the 110th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1775 to 2015 — a span of 240 years. The entry that anchors it: The first bloodshed of the American Civil War took place when Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore, 1861.

The colonial record reaches this date first. In 1775, American Revolutionary War — the war begins during the Battles of Lexington and Concord with a victory of American minutemen and other militia over British forces, later referred to as the "shot heard round the world" The same year, American Revolutionary War — following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Siege of Boston begins with American militias blocking land access to the British-held city.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1782, John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.

By the middle of the nineteenth century the date carries heavier freight. In 1861, the first bloodshed of the American Civil War took place when Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore, Maryland, attacked members of the Massachusetts militia en route to Washington, D.C. The same year, Baltimore riot of 1861 — a pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1989, a gun turret exploded on board the United States Navy battleship Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 1993, the 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, US, ends when a fire breaks out. Seventy-six Davidians, including 18 children under age 10, died in the fire. Then, in 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American, died of injuries sustained while in the custody of the Baltimore Police Department.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on April 19: Roger Sherman (1721), American lawyer and politician; Deaf Smith (1787), American soldier; Sarah Bagley (1806), American labor organizer; Mary Louise Booth (1831), American writer, editor and translator; and Ole Evinrude (1877), Norwegian-American engineer, invented the outboard motor.

April 19 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Benjamin Rush (1813), American physician and educator; Alfred Horatio Belo (1901), American publisher, founded The Dallas Morning News; Charles Sanders Peirce (1914), American mathematician and philosopher; and Ephraim Shay (1916), American engineer, designed the Shay locomotive.

April 19 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.