January 5

January 5 is the 5th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1781 to 2008 — a span of 227 years. The entry that anchors it: In a speech given to the United States Congress, 1957.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1781, American Revolutionary War — Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by former American general Benedict Arnold.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross was inaugurated as Governor of Wyoming, the first woman to serve as the governor of a U.S. state.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1949, in his State of the Union speech, U.S. president Harry S. Truman announced: "Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal." Eight years on, in 1957, in a speech given to the United States Congress, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine. Then, in 1972, US President Richard Nixon announces the Space Shuttle program.

Closer to the present, the date is still accumulating. In 1991, the embassy of the United States to Somalia was evacuated by helicopter airlift days after violence enveloped Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War. Nine years on, in 2000, Sri Lankan Tamil politician Kumar Ponnambalam was killed in an assassination suspected to have been sanctioned by President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Eight years on, in 2008, Mikheil Saakashvili was decisively re-elected as President of Georgia in "the first genuinely competitive presidential election" in the history of the country.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on January 5: Stephen Decatur (1779), American commander; Zebulon Pike (1779), American general and explorer; Harvey Putnam (1793), American lawyer and politician; King Camp Gillette (1855), American businessman, founded the Gillette Company; and Bob Caruthers (1864), American baseball player and manager.

January 5 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Samuel Huntington (1796), American jurist and politician, 18th Governor of Connecticut; Alfred Thomas Agate (1846), American painter and illustrator; John Neumann (1860), Czech-American bishop and saint; and Ezra Otis Kendall (1899), American professor, astronomer and mathematician.

The date carries formal observance as well — National Bird Day (United States). 8 entries, 227 years, one square on the calendar. January 5 is a reminder that history is experienced as an ordinary day before it is remembered as a date.