1541 Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River.

1682 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley region for France.
1699 Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, established the first European settlement in Mississippi at Old Biloxi (now Ocean Springs).

1716 Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, established Fort Rosalie (now Natchez).
1719 The first Negro slaves were brought to Mississippi from West Africa.
1722 The French made New Orleans the capital of the Louisiana Region.
1730 The French put down an uprising of the Natchez.
1736 British troops helped the Chickasaw defeat the French colonists in the northeastern part of Mississippi.
1763 The Treaty of Paris gave Mississippi to the British.
1781 Spain took control of West Florida.
1783 The Mississippi Region north of the 32nd Parallel became part of the United States.
1795 The Spanish government accepted the 31st Parallel as the border between the United States and Florida.
1798 Mississippi Territory was organized, with Natchez as the capital. It was bounded on the south by the 31st Parallel, on the west by the Mississippi River, on the north by a line east from the mouth of the Yazoo River, and on the east by the Chattahoochee River.

1804 Congress extended the Mississippi Territory north to the border of Tennessee.
1806 An improved variety of cotton called Petit Gulf was developed in Claiborne County.
1812 The part of West Florida lying east of the Pearl River was incorporated into the Mississippi River.
1817 The Mississippi Territory was divided into the State of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory.
December 10, 1817 Mississippi was admitted as the 20th state.
1822 The capital was moved to Jackson.
1858 Mississippi began a swamp drainage program in the Mississippi Delta.
January 9, 1861 Mississippi seceded from the Union.
July 4, 1863 Union forces captured Vicksburg.
1870 Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.

1939 Oil was discovered at Timsley.
1940 Oil was discovered at Vaughan.

1969 Charles Evers became the first black mayor in Mississippi since Reconstruction when e was elected in Fayette.

Hernando de Soto
Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle
Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville

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