(1541)Spanish conqueror Hernando De Soto led first European expedition into Arkansas
(1673) Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, trader Louis Jolliet reached Quapaw villages of "Akansae" and "Kappa"
(1682) Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed Mississippi valley for King Louis XIV of France; La Salle's party built Fort Prud'homme
(1686) Arkansas Post founded as first settlement on Mississippi River
1700's
(1700)French Catholic missionaries arrived to convert local Natives
(1721) Colonists abandoned Arkansas Post
(1738)French began two year war against Chickasaw Indians
(1762) France ceded Louisiana Territory to Spain
1800's
(1803) U.S. purchased Louisiana Territory
(1806) Louisiana Territory split, District of Arkansaw formed
(1811) New Madrid earthquake struck, many left homeless
(1812) Missouri Territory, including Arkansas, created by Congress
(1817) First post office established at Davidsonville; Cherokee given land in northwest Arkansas; Fort Smith established
(1818) Quapaw Indians ceded land between Red and Arkansas Rivers
(1819) Territory of Arkansas created
(1821) Territory capital moved from Arkansas Post to Little Rock
(1822) First steamboat on Arkansas River reached Little Rock
(1824) Quapaw Indians forced to cede lands south of Arkansas River
(1826) Smallpox epidemic reached Arkansas
(1836) Arkansas became twenty-fifth state
(1859) Legislation signed freeing all slaves
(1861) Arkansas seceded from Union; admitted to Confederate States of America
(1862) Battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove; Union victorious
(1864) Teenaged Confederate soldier executed for spying; unionist convention abolished slavery, adopted new constitution
(1866) Ex-Confederates gained control of legislature; laws passed denying blacks right to sit on juries, serve in militia or attend white public schools
(1867) Congress passed Reconstruction Act, voided government of Arkansas and nine other southern states
(1868) Arkansas re-admitted to Union; Ku Klux Klan violence led to martial law in most of state
(1877) Hot Springs Reservation established
(1887) Bauxite discovered southwest of Little Rock
(1891) First "Jim Crow" law passed segregating blacks and whites on trains and trams
