March 19

March 19 is the 79th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1831 to 2003 — a span of 172 years. The entry that anchors it: American Civil War, 1865.

The antebellum decades brought the date closer to the country’s central argument. In 1831, First documented bank heist in U.S. history, when burglars steal $245,000 (1831 values) from the City Bank (now Citibank) on Wall Street. Most of the money was recovered. Then, in 1865, American Civil War — the Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina. The same year, American Civil War — the last battle of the Carolinas Campaign, the Battle of Bentonville, began, which contributed to the ultimate Union victory in the war.

The early twentieth century brought industry, air travel and war to the date. In 1918, the US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time. Two years on, in 1920, the United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919)

After 1945 the date reflects a country operating at global scale. In 1965, the wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction. Then, in 1979, the United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.

The most recent entries fall within living memory. In 2003, United States President George W. Bush addresses the nation, announcing the invasion of Iraq.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on March 19: Thomas McKean (1734), American lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of Pennsylvania; Elias Hicks (1748), American farmer, minister, and theologian; Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847), American painter; Wyatt Earp (1848), American police officer; and William Jennings Bryan (1860), American lawyer and politician, 41st United States Secretary of State.

March 19 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Filippo Mazzei (1816), Italian-American physician and philosopher; John Bingham (1900), American lawyer and politician, 7th United States Ambassador to Japan; Emma Bell Miles (1919), American writer, poet, and artist of Appalachia; and Clinton Hart Merriam (1942), American zoologist, ornithologist, and entomologist.

What holds these 8 entries together is nothing more than the calendar, and nothing less. 172 years separate the earliest from the latest, and each was once simply the present day.