June 8

June 8 is the 160th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1776 to 1995 — a span of 219 years. The entry that anchors it: American Civil War, 1862.

The revolutionary generation left its own mark on the date. In 1776, American Revolutionary War — British forces defeated the Continental Army at the Battle of Trois-Rivières, the last battle of the American invasion of Quebec. Then, in 1789, James Madison introduces twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in Congress.

The antebellum decades brought the date closer to the country’s central argument. In 1862, American Civil War — a Confederate victory by forces under General Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Cross Keys, along with the Battle of Port Republic the next day, prevents Union forces from reinforcing General George B. McClellan in his Peninsula campaign.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1953, the United States Supreme Court rules in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. that restaurants in Washington, D.C., cannot refuse to serve black patrons. Then, in 1966, an F-104 Starfighter collides with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype no. 2, destroying both aircraft during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base. Joseph A. Walker, a NASA test pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, are both killed. A year later, in 1967, the Israeli Air Force attacked the U.S. Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty in international waters, killing 34 people and wounding 171 others.

The most recent entries fall within living memory. In 1995, Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on June 8: John Collins (1717), American lawyer and politician, 3rd Governor of Rhode Island; Charles A. Wickliffe (1788), American politician, 14th Governor of Kentucky; Thomas J. Higgins (1831), Canadian-American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient; John Q. A. Brackett (1842), American lawyer and politician, 36th Governor of Massachusetts; and Frank Lloyd Wright (1867), American architect, designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater.

June 8 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Thomas Paine (1809), English-American theorist and author; Andrew Jackson (1845), American general, judge, and politician, 7th President of the United States; Cochise (1874), American tribal chief; and Cora Agnes Benneson (1919), American attorney.

The date carries formal observance as well — Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The record for June 8 runs 219 years deep across 8 entries. Read in sequence, the date stops being a coincidence and starts being a through-line.