October 23

October 23 is the 297th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1850 to 2022 — a span of 172 years. The entry that anchors it: All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard American Airlines Flight 28 are killed when it collides with a U.S. Army Air Force bomber near Palm Springs, 1942.

Through the nineteenth century the date gathered the tensions that would define the era. In 1850, the inaugural National Women's Rights Convention, presided over by American activist Paulina Wright Davis, began in Worcester, Massachusetts. Then, in 1864, American Civil War — the Battle of Westport is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River, ending in a Union victory.

As the country moved into the modern age, the date accumulated new kinds of firsts. In 1942, all 12 passengers and crewmen aboard American Airlines Flight 28 are killed when it collides with a U.S. Army Air Force bomber near Palm Springs, California. The same year, World War II — Japanese troops began an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Henderson Field on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands from American forces.

In the postwar decades the date belonged to a nation of enormous reach and unfinished arguments. In 1957, a screening of Mother India, one of the most influential Indian films in history, was held for President Rajendra Prasad and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru two days before its release. Then, in 1972, Vietnam War — operation Linebacker, a U.S. bombing campaign against North Vietnam in response to its Easter Offensive, ended after five months. Then, in 1983, Lebanese Civil War — the U.S. Marines Corps barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French Army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.

In living memory, the date has kept adding to the record. In 2022, Myanmar Air Force airstrikes a concert in Hpakant Township, Kachin state killing at least 80 people, including senior Kachin Independence Organisation officials, in the Hpakant massacre.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on October 23: Samuel Morey (1762), American engineer; Chauncey Allen Goodrich (1790), American minister, lexicographer, and educator; John Russell Bartlett (1805), American linguist and historian; Adlai Stevenson I (1835), American lawyer and politician, 23rd Vice President of the United States; and Neltje Blanchan (1865), American historian and author.

October 23 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Charles S. West (1885), American lawyer, jurist, and politician, Secretary of State of Texas; Charles Demuth (1935), American painter and educator; Zane Grey (1939), American dentist and author; and Ralph Rainger (1942), American pianist and composer.

Taken together, the 8 entries on October 23 span 172 years of American life. A date is an arbitrary container, but what fills it is not arbitrary at all.