1212 – The Moslems were crushed in the Spanish crusade.

1453 – France defeated England at Castillon, France, which ended the 100 Years’ War.

1785 – France limited the importation of goods from Britain.

1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to the British at Rochefort, France.

1821 – Spain ceded Florida to the U.S.

1862 – National cemeteries were authorized by the U.S. government.

1866 – Authorization was given to build a tunnel beneath the Chicago River. The three-year project cost $512,709.

1867 – Harvard School of Dental Medicine was established in Boston, MA. It was the first dental school in the U.S.

1898 – U.S. troops under General William R. Shafter took Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1917 – The British royal family adopted the Windsor name.

1920 – Sinclair Lewis finished his novel “Main Street.”

1941 – The longest hitting streak in baseball history ended when the Cleveland Indians pitchers held New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio hitless for the first time in 57 games.

1941 – Brigadier General Soervell directed Architect G. Edwin Bergstrom to have basic plans and architectural perspectives for an office building that could house 40,000 War Department employees on his desk by the following Monday morning. The building became known as the Pentagon.

1945 – U.S. President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World War II. During the meeting Stalin made the comment that “Hitler had escaped.” 

1946 – Chinese communists opened a drive against the Nationalist army on the Yangtze River.

1950 – The television show “The Colgate Comedy Hour” debuted featuring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

1954 – The Brooklyn Dodgers made history as the first team with a majority of black players.

1955 – Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA.

1960 – Francis Gary Powers pled guilty to spying charges in a Moscow court after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.

1966 – Ho Chi Minh ordered a partial mobilization of North Vietnam forces to defend against American air strikes.

1975 – An Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit. It was the first link up between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

1979 – Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled to Miami in exile. (Florida)

1986 – The largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history took place when LTV Corporation asked for court protection from more than 20,000 creditors. LTV Corp. had debts in excess of $4 billion.

1987 – Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and rear Admiral John Poindexter begin testifying to Congress at the “Iran-Contra” hearings.

1995 – The Nasdaq composite stock index rose above 1,000 for the first time.

1997 – After 117 years, the Woolworth Corp. closed its last 400 stores.

1998 – Biologists reported that they had deciphered the genome (genetic map) of the syphilis bacterium.

2008 – In China, construction of the Shanghai World Financial Center was completed.

On July 15, 1978, the “Longest Walk”—a 2,800-mile trek for Native American justice that had started with several hundred marchers in California—ends in Washington, D.C., accompanied by thousands of supporters. The intent of the event was to call attention to issues affecting Native Americans, such as a lack of jobs and housing, and legislation before Congress that could dramatically change their rights.

The route of marchers and their supporters took them past the White House. Some carried the flags of Indian nations. Native Americans camped on the Washington Monument grounds. While in the nation’s capital, they held rallies and meetings at the Capitol, Supreme Court and White House.

Native Americans of many different tribes were especially concerned about proposed legislation that would eliminate treaties and shut down federal programs for hospitals, schools and housing projects. The proposed legislation also would eliminate Native American reservations and end hunting and fishing rights in areas outside reservations.

Source: history.com

Citation Information

Article Title2,800 mile-long walk for Native American justice concludes in Washington, D.C.AuthorHistory.com EditorsWebsite NameHISTORYURLhttps://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-longest-walk-1978-end-washington-dcDate AccessedJuly 14, 2023PublisherA&E Television NetworksLast UpdatedApril 29, 2022Original Published DateApril 29, 2022

1099 – Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders.

1410 – Poles and Lithuanians defeated the Teutonic knights at Tannenburg, Prussia.

1789 – The electors of Paris set up a “Commune” to live without the authority of the government.

1806 – Lieutenant Zebulon Pike began his western expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine, near St. Louis, MO.

1813 – Napoleon Bonaparte’s representatives met with the Allies in Prague to discuss peace terms.

1834 – Lord Napier of England arrived in Macao, China as the first chief superintendent of trade.

1870 – Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

1876 – George Washington Bradley of St. Louis pitched the first no-hitter in baseball in a 2-0 win over Hartford.

1885 – In New York, the Niagara Reservation State Park opened.

1888 – “Printers’ Ink” was first sold.

1895 – Ex-prime minister of Bulgaria, Stephen Stambulov, was murdered by Macedonian rebels.

1901 – Over 74,000 Pittsburgh steel workers went on strike. 

1904 – The first Buddhist temple in the U.S. was established in Los Angeles, CA.

1916 – In Seattle, WA, Pacific Aero Products was incorporated by William Boeing. The company was later renamed Boeing Co.

1918 – The Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I.

1922 – The duck-billed platypus arrived in America, direct from Australia. It was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

1942 – The first supply flight from India to China over the ‘Hump’ was carried to help China’s war effort.

1958 – Five thousand U.S. Marines landed in Beirut, Lebanon, to protect the pro-Western government. The troops withdrew October 25, 1958.

1965 – The spacecraft Mariner IV sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Mars. 

1968 – Commercial air travel began between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., when the first plane, a Soviet Aeroflot jet, landed at Kennedy International Airport in New York. 

1971 – U.S. President Nixon announced he would visit the People’s Republic of China to seek a “normalization of relations.”

1972 – NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft became the first to enter the asteroid belt. 

1973 – Nolan Ryan (California Angels) became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season. (California)

1985 – Baseball players voted to strike on August 6th if no contract was reached with baseball owners. The strike turned out to be just a one-day interruption.

1987 – Taiwan ended thirty-seven years of martial law.

2006 – The social networking service Twitter was launched.

2009 – “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was released in theaters in the U.S. It was the sixth movie in the series.

2011 – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” was released in theaters in the U.S. and U.K. It was the final film in the Harry Potter series.