April 23

April 23 is the 114th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1635 to 2010 — a span of 375 years. The entry that anchors it: Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law the controversial anti–illegal immigration bill SB 1070, 2010.

Before there was a United States, the date already carried weight in the colonies. In 1635, the first public school in the United States, the Boston Latin School, is founded.

As the country moved into the modern age, the date accumulated new kinds of firsts. In 1942, Second World War — in retaliation for the Royal Air Force's bombing of Lübeck, the Luftwaffe began a series of air raids across England, beginning with Exeter.

In the postwar decades the date belonged to a nation of enormous reach and unfinished arguments. In 1946, Manuel Roxas is elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. Five years on, in 1951, American journalist William N. Oatis was arrested for espionage by the communist government of Czechoslovakia. Ten years on, in 1961, during the Algiers putsch by French generals, President Charles de Gaulle announces he has assumed emergency powers, and calls on troops and civilians to support him. Seven years on, in 1968, Vietnam War — Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university. Eight years on, in 1976, the American band the Ramones released their debut album, which became highly influential on the emerging punk rock movement.

In living memory, the date has kept adding to the record. In 2010, Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law the controversial anti–illegal immigration bill SB 1070, much of which was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on April 23: James Buchanan (1791), American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 15th President of the United States; Stephen A. Douglas (1813), American educator and politician, 7th Illinois Secretary of State; Winthrop M. Crane (1853), American businessman and politician, 40th Governor of Massachusetts; Granville Woods (1856), American inventor and engineer; and John Peltz (1861), American baseball player and manager.

April 23 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: John Joel Glanton (1850), American outlaw, soldier, mercenary, and Texas ranger (born ~1819); Silas Soule (1865), American soldier and whistleblower of the Sand Creek Massacre; Alferd Packer (1907), American prospector and convicted cannibal; and Charles G. Dawes (1951), American banker and politician, 30th Vice President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Read end to end, April 23 is less a list than a cross-section: 8 entries that happen to share a square on the calendar, separated by as much as 375 years. The coincidence is arbitrary; the accumulation is not.