As the sun rose over the mountain range to the east on the morning of 8 January 1877, exactly one hundred years before Elvis Presley celebrated his 42nd and final birthday, Chief Crazy Horse of the Northern Plains Indians and his warriors looked over their old outdated weapons, their meager supply of ammunition, had a little breakfast accompanied by prayer, and prepared for that day's final, and losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.

The citizens of the United States, whose ancestors had steadily encroached upon native American holdings since about 1620, wanted revenge this chilly Montana morning. You see, it'd been barely six months since Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull had teamed up Sioux and Cheyenne warriors to wipe out Lt Col George Custer and over 200 of his men at the Little Big Horn river.

Custer had been a popular cavalry commander, decorated in the American Civil War (1862-65) for bravery and daring (some would argue foolishness and recklessness) he was also popular in American literature and newspapers of the day. Custer was in many ways courting the public for an eventual run at the presidency when his poor style of communication caused him to get his ass handed to him at Little Big Horn.

The Indians were resisting US efforts to herd them onto Reservations.

The people of the US wanted revenge now as unbelievably their hero had been taken from them in his prime, and they wanted the plains Indians bottled up on reservations forever afterward and on this day the cavalry went out and finished the job.

General Nelson Miles found the camp along the Tongue River, Miles spoke peace at first and actually got some of the Indians to surrender, but Sitting Bull fled for Canada and Miles troops opened fire from their wagon mounted cannons.

On January 8th, 1977 the morning in Memphis, Tennesee started like so many others at Graceland, Elvis Presley's famous mansion. The weather in the foothills was a little foggy to go along with the cooler January morning temperatures. A breakfast of eggs, bacon, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, pancakes, and syrup was being prepared for the King of Rock and Roll who was still upstairs fidgeting through his morning routines on his final birthday.

Getty Images President Richard Nixon meets with Elvis Presley 1972

Elvis came down for his last birthday breakfast that morning and after this day in 1877 the plains Indians were finally herded back onto the reservations to live until now in a sort of Peace only the free but kept can understand.

Elvis and Crazy Horse, it sounds like a modern band name, but they're only connected by a date in history; 8 January. The day Elvis was born, the day the American Plains Indian tribes ceased to exist.

An ordinary day by most accounts but one comprised of events that affected America then and to this day.