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Hernando de Soto of Spain was the first European to explore Arkansas.
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France cedes the Louisiana Territory, including Arkansas, to Spain, but French soldiers continue to man Arkansas Post.
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The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France, which had retaken it from Spain as part of the Treaty of San Ildefonso.
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Bauxite discovered southwest of Little Rock; peak output is reached by 1918, by which time almost all US Bauxite is being mined in Arkansas.
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Diamonds found near Murfreesboro, which becomes the site of the only diamond mine in the United States
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The Mississippi River floods one-fifth of the state.
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President Eisenhower had to send US troops to help African Americans attend Central High School in Little Rock.
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Winthrop Rockefeller became the first Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction.
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The University of Arkansas establishes a multi-campus system.
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Attorney-General Bill Clinton is elected governor.
