CSS Date Field <div> issue

Howdy everyone,

First time here setting up my website integrating WP into PHP/CSS, and running into a strange issue with a div container for my date field. Below is the batch of code where the loop is setup within the containers, but the issue occurs ONLY with identical dates (i.e. Jan 11, 2009 will appear, but another article of the same date will display no date field). You can see it directly on my home page at https://www.zachmcqueary.com.

Any thoughts or suggestions are VERY MUCH appreciated, and thoughts/suggestions are also welcome.

<!-- Begin Blog -->

	  <div id="templatemo_main_content_top"></div>
      <div id="templatemo_main_coontent">

        <div id="main_column"> <!-- Open main column -->

      <?php
      require('./blog/wp-blog-header.php');
      ?>  

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

            <div class="post_box"> <!-- Open post -->
				<div class="date_box">
<?php the_date('','<p>','</p>'); ?>
                </div> <!-- end of date box -->

<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
	                 <div class="post_body"> <!-- Open post body -->

                     <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
                       	<div class="post_info">
	<div class="meta"><?php _e("Filed under:"); ?> <?php the_category(',') ?> — <?php the_tags(__('Tags: '), ', ', ' — '); ?> <?php the_author() ?> @ <?php the_time() ?> <?php edit_post_link(__('Edit This')); ?></div>
						</div><!-- End post info -->
	                        <div class="post_content">
								<div class="storycontent">
									<?php the_content(__('(more...)')); ?>
								</div>

								<div class="feedback">
									<?php wp_link_pages(); ?>
									<?php comments_popup_link(__('Comments (0)'), __('Comments (1)'), __('Comments (%)')); ?>
								</div>
							</div> <!-- End post content -->
						</div>

              </div> <!-- end of post body -->

            </div> <!-- end of a post -->

			<?php comments_template(); // Get wp-comments.php template ?>

<?php endwhile; else: ?>
<p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>

<?php posts_nav_link(' — ', __('&laquo; Newer Posts'), __('Older Posts &raquo;')); ?>
<!-- END OF BLOG -->

Thanks for your help!

-Zach