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Spaniard Hernando de Soto leads the first European expedition into what is now Tennessee.
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Great Britain gains lands east of the Mississippi, including Tennessee, at the end of the French and Indian War.
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Tennessee becomes the 16th state.
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Cherokees are forced west on the Trail of Tears.
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The Civil War begins, and Tennessee joins the Confederacy.
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Boll weevils destroy Tennessee’s cotton crop.
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Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis.
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Tennessee becomes a center of automobile manufacturing.
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Dolly Parton buys a small tourist attraction and turns it into Dollywood.
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Tennessee’s Al Gore wins the Noble Peace Prize.