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: 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
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
1904: First crop of rice grown
1906: Diamonds discovered near Murfreesboro
1915: General Assembly passed statewide prohibition of liquor sales; capitol building completed
1919: Race riot in Elaine
1920: Oil discovered near Smackover
1927: Over one-fifth of state flooded by Mississippi River
1932: Hattie Caraway became first woman elected to U. S. Senate
1942: Internment camps established for west coast Japanese-Americans
1957: School desegregation in Little Rock brought national attention to civil rights movement
1958: Little Rock high schools closed for academic year due to political and social controversy over desegregation
1967: Winthrop Rockefeller elected as first Republic governor since Reconstruction
1992: Bill Clinton elected 42nd President of U. S.
1996: Bill Clinton re-elected President of U. S.
2002: Bentonville-based Wal-Mart identified as world's largest corporation.
Arkansas Timeline History