165 years of recession history in the United States

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is the agency that keeps the official records on when recessions occurred in the US. Essentially all economists accept their dating. Although since we're talking about economists, we could never expect 100% agreement. I do recall seeing the NBER dating questioned once or twice.

Here is the current list of US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions (accessed 03/16/2020):

The current expension has gone on longer than most. Notice that the list starts in the decades of the 1850s and every decade since has had a recession going on during it.