1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought on June 25, 1876, between federal troops led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, a popular Civil War figure, and a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Sitting Bull. Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands, and when several tribes did not move to reservations per US demands, Custer and his 7th Calvary, confronted them at Little Bighorn. But the Army was outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer’s Last Stand. When news of the federal defeat reached east, many Americans demanded an intensified military campaign against the Native Americans. Gen. Ranald Mackenzie led an expeditionary force to a village of Cheyenne living with Chief Dull Knife, who himself was likely not involved in the battle at Little Bighorn. Mackenzie and over 1,000 soldiers and 400 Indian scouts opened fire on the sleeping village, killing many Natives within the first few minutes. The surviving Cheyenne began an 11-day walk north to the Tongue River where Crazy Horse’s camp of Oglalas took them in.
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