June 25 · This Day in America
On a hot Sunday in Montana Territory, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer divides his 7th Cavalry and attacks the largest gathering of Plains peoples anyone has ever seen. Thousands of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho are camped along the river they call the Greasy Grass, drawn together under the spiritual leadership of Sitting Bull. They have refused the order to go to the reservations. The fight is brief and total. Crazy Horse and the warriors turn Custer's columns, surround the five companies under his command, and within an hour every one of them is dead. Some 268 soldiers fall. For the tribes it is the greatest victory of the Plains wars. It is also the high-water mark. The army that loses here will return relentless, and the way of life being defended will be hunted down within a year. A people won the day and felt the future closing anyway.
Source: www.nps.gov
Also on this day · 1950
At dawn, North Korean divisions pour across the line that split a country, and the Korean War begins. Within two days President Truman commits American air and naval power without asking Congress for a declaration, calling it a police action. It will not be quick or small. For three years, in a war that never officially ends, Americans fight on ground most have never heard of, holding a line that still holds today.
Source: www.archives.gov