Render date pill only on the header of the postbox (not the title)

Author: alshakero

src/wp-admin/css/on-this-day.css

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
    Organised as:
      1. Design tokens (custom properties on the widget root)
      2. Postbox chrome (#dashboard_on_this_day)
-     3. Widget title accents (calendar icon + date pill in `.hndle`)
+     3. Widget title date pill (`.hndle::after`)
      4. Timeline (year headers, vertical line, post rows)
      5. Post row (icon circle, title, excerpt, meta row)
      6. Empty state
@@ -69,15 +69,16 @@
 }
 
 /* -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-   3. Widget title (in .hndle)
-   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
-.on-this-day-title-main {
-	display: inline-flex;
-	align-items: center;
-	gap: 6px;
-}
+   3. Widget title date pill
 
-.on-this-day-title-date {
+   The widget is registered with a plain-text title ("On This Day") so that
+   Screen Options and box-order preferences stay clean. The current date
+   ("F j") is injected into `--otd-today` as a quoted CSS string by PHP and
+   rendered here as a pseudo-element pill. The `none` fallback keeps the
+   pseudo-element hidden in contexts where the variable isn't set.
+   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
+#dashboard_on_this_day .hndle::after {
+	content: var(--otd-today, none);
 	display: inline-block;
 	margin-left: 10px;
 	padding: 2px 9px;

src/wp-admin/includes/dashboard.php

@@ -96,13 +96,15 @@ function wp_dashboard_setup() {
 
 		wp_enqueue_style( 'on-this-day' );
 
-		$on_this_day_title = sprintf(
-			'<span class="on-this-day-title-main dashicons-before dashicons-calendar-alt">%1$s</span><span class="on-this-day-title-date">%2$s</span>',
-			__( 'On This Day' ),
-			esc_html( date_i18n( 'F j' ) )
+		wp_add_inline_style(
+			'on-this-day',
+			sprintf(
+				'#dashboard_on_this_day{--otd-today:%s;}',
+				wp_json_encode( date_i18n( 'F j' ) )
+			)
 		);
 
-		wp_add_dashboard_widget( 'dashboard_on_this_day', $on_this_day_title, array( 'WP_On_This_Day', 'render_dashboard_widget' ) );
+		wp_add_dashboard_widget( 'dashboard_on_this_day', __( 'On This Day' ), array( 'WP_On_This_Day', 'render_dashboard_widget' ) );
 	}
 
 	// WordPress Events and News.