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Hernando de Soto of Spain was the first European to Explore Arkansas. Hernando de Soto began his career in exploration at age 14.
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French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette descended the Mississippi to the mouth of Arkansas River.Warned by the Quapaw (Arkansas) Indians of hostile tribes farther South they turned back.
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Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, reaches the Arkansas on his way to the mouth of the Mississippi.
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Henri de Tonti founded Arkansas Post, the first settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley. It served as a trading post, a way-station for Mississippi River travel, and the home of a Jesuit mission for a few years.
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A group of 1,300 half-starved colonists-whites and black slaves-abandon Arkansas after John Law's scheme to develop the Mississippi Valley collapses.
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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 lldefonso.
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The Quapaw cede their lands between their lands between the Red and Arkansas Rivers.
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Arkansas, which has been part of Missouri Territory since 1812, is detached and made a territory. November 20: Arkansas Gazette, the first newspaper in Arkansas, published.
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The capital moves from Arkansas Post to Little Rock.
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The Eagle, first steamboat to ascend the Arkansas River, arrives at Little Rock.
