René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle,…
March 1682 CE
René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, travels the Joliet-Marquette route in 1682 to the mouth of the great river and claims the lands of the river and all its tributaries for France, naming it Louisiana in honor of his sovereign, Louis XIV.
At what will later become the site of Memphis, Tennessee, La Salle builds the small Fort Prudhomme.