The On’yomi reading of 今日 is こんにち, and は signifies the topic.
Finally, the history of こんにちは was that you would say things about your day afterwards (i.e., こんにちは猫を救いました), but that became excessive, so people just say こんにちは.
Similar as with こんばんは, correct?
Indeed! The kanji for night is 晩, but it could mean late evening.
Just to clarify. You didn’t talk about your day, it was a question. One would ask “こんにちは？” which is a common way to ask questions in Japanese, leaving off the end of the sentence, and the speaking partner was expected to fill in the void. This latter part fell out of fashion, so it’s now just the こんにちは part.
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That’s kind of identical to ‘alright’ as a greeting in English then isn’t it. It would make sense to get a answer back about how things are currently going for them, but instead you just get an ‘alright’ back
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Or the older “How do you do?” (The only correct response is to say “How do you do?” back.)
(Though it’s a little different to “Alright”, because that’s an actual question and answer - “(Are you) alright?” “(Yeah, I’m) alright”.)
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