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1541 Hernando de Soto
reaches the Mississippi River naming it Rio de Espiritu Santo.
1673 French
explorers Father Jacques Marquette
and Louis Joliet reach the headwaters of Mississippi River and descend to Arkansas
1673 Trader Louis Joliet and Jesuit
missionary-explorer Jacques Marquette
begin exploring the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.
1687 The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River.
1699 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
founds the first European settlement in the Mississippi River Valley.
1716 Natchez
, one of the oldest towns on the Mississippi
, founded.
1839 The University of Missouri is established, becoming the first public university west of the Mississippi River.
1849 Break in the Mississippi River levee at Sauvé's Crevasse which will flood much of New Orleans, Louisiana
1854 The Grand Excursion takes prominent Eastern U.S. inhabitants from Chicago, Illinois to Rock Island, Illinois by railroad, then up the Mississippi River to St. Paul, Minnesota by steamboat
.
1855 The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota
, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
1862 American Civil War: Confederate
troops evacuate Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, leaving the way clear for Union
troops to take Memphis, Tennessee
.
1862 American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge - Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate
troops drive Union
forces back into the city.
1862 American Civil War: The Confederate
ironclad CSS ''Arkansas'' is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with the USS ''Essex'' near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1865 The steamboat
''Sultana'', carrying 2,300 passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing 1,700, most of whom were Union
survivors of the Andersonville Prison.
1865 American Civil War ends - Confederate forces west of the Mississippi
under General Edmund Kirby Smith surrender at Galveston, Texas
, becoming the last to do so.
1976 The Mississippi River ferry
MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, LA to Luling, LA, killing 78 passengers and crew.
1993 The Mississippi
and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American
Midwest.
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