By: HISTORY.com Editors

Kit Carson begins his campaign against Native Americans

Published: November 13, 2009Last Updated: January 31, 2025

On July 7, 1863, the Union’s Lt. Colonel Christopher “Kit” Carson leaves Santa Fe with his troops, beginning his campaign against the Native Americans of New Mexico and Arizona. A mountain man before the Civil War, Kit Carson was responsible for waging a destructive war against the Navajo that resulted in their removal from the Four Corners area to southeastern New Mexico.

Carson was perhaps the most famous trapper and guide in the West. He traveled with the expeditions of John C. Fremont in the 1840s, leading Fremont through the Great Basin. Fremont’s flattering portrayal of Carson made the mountain man a hero when the reports were published and widely read in the east. Later, Carson guided Stephen Watts Kearney to New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. In the 1850s he became the Indian agent for New Mexico, a position he left in 1861 to accept a commission as lieutenant colonel in the 1st New Mexico Volunteers.

Although Carson’s unit saw action in the New Mexico battles of 1862, he was most famous for his campaign against Native Americans. Despite his reputation for being sympathetic and accommodating to tribes such as the Mescaleros, Kiowas and Navajo, Carson waged a brutal campaign against the Navajo in 1863. When bands of Navajo refused to accept confinement on reservations, Carson terrorized the Navajo lands—burning crops, destroying villages and slaughtering livestock. Carson rounded up some 8,000 Navajo and marched them across New Mexico for imprisonment on the Bosque Redondo Reservation, over 300 miles from their homes, where they remained for the duration of the war.

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1797

First impeachment of a U.S. Senator

For the first time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives exercises its constitutional power of impeachment and votes to charge Senator William Blount of Tennessee with “a high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public duty and trust as a Senator.” In 1790, President George Washington appointed Blount, who had fought in the American Revolution, […]

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1798

U.S. launches the Quasi-War with France, the first conflict since the Revolution

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1865

Mary Surratt is first woman executed by U.S. federal government

Mary Surratt is executed for her role as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. She is the first woman put to death by the U.S. government. Surratt, who owned a tavern in Surrattsville (now Clinton), Maryland, had to convert her row house in Washington, D.C., into a boardinghouse as a result of financial difficulties. Located […]

1912

Jim Thorpe begins Olympic pentathlon

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1917

British Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps is officially established

On July 7, 1917, British Army Council Instruction Number 1069 formally establishes the British Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), authorizing female volunteers to serve alongside their male counterparts in France during World War I. By 1917, large numbers of women were already working in munitions factories throughout Britain, serving the crucial function of supplying sufficient […]

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1930

Preliminary work begins on the Hoover Dam

Construction of the Hoover Dam begins. Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest manmade structures in the world.

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1942

Himmler decides to begin medical experiments on Auschwitz prisoners

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1946

Future President Jimmy Carter marries

On July 7, 1946, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter marries Eleanor Rosalynn Smith at the Plains Methodist Church in Plains, Georgia. When the couple met, she was 18 and working in a hair salon. He was 21 and a recent graduate of the Annapolis Naval Academy. During the first seven years of their marriage, Jimmy and […]

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1976

Female cadets enrolled at West Point

For the first time in history, women are enrolled into the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. On May 28, 1980, 62 of these female cadets graduated and were commissioned as second lieutenants. The United States Military Academy—the first military school in America—was founded by Congress in 1802 for the purpose of […]

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1981

Reagan announces Sandra Day O’Connor as pick for the Supreme Court

On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan announces his intention to nominate Sandra Day O’Connor, an Arizona court of appeals judge, to be the first woman Supreme Court justice in U.S. history, pending her clearing FBI checks. On September 21, the Senate unanimously approved her appointment to the nation’s highest court, and on September 25 […]

1983

11-year-old Samantha Smith leaves for visit to the USSR

Samantha Smith, an 11-year-old American girl, begins a two-week visit to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Soviet leader Yuri Andropov. Some American observers believed that Smith was merely being used by the Soviets for their own propaganda purposes, while others saw her visit as a positive step toward improving U.S.-Russian relations. In April […]

1986

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter spend wedding anniversary building Habitat for Humanity home

On July 7, 1986, former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter spend a hot summer day in Chicago, celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary while building a home in the West Garfield Park neighborhood for the Georgia-based nonprofit Habitat for Humanity. The Carters helped build a new, four-unit townhouse, located at the southeast corner […]

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2005

Terrorists attack London transit system at rush hour

On the morning of July 7, 2005, bombs are detonated in three crowded London subways and one bus during the peak of the city’s rush hour. The synchronized suicide bombings, which were thought to be the work of al-Qaeda, killed 56 people including the bombers and injured another 700. It was the largest attack on […]

2019

U.S. women’s soccer team wins record 4th World Cup title

On July 7, 2019, after a dominating tournament showing, the U.S. women’s national team brings home a record fourth FIFA World Cup title—its second in a row. Held in host country France, the 2-0 final saw the United States facing the Netherlands, with the first goal scored in the match’s 61st minute. Following a video […]

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