1540 Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto is the first European to visit the region.
1682 Mississippi is part of Louisiana and under the control of France.
1699 Frenchman Pierre d'Iberville builds Fort Maurepas, the first permanent settlement in Mississippi.
1798 The Territory of Mississippi is established with Natchez as the capital.
1817 The U.S. Congress makes Mississippi the 20th state.
1822 Jackson becomes the capital.
1830 The Choctaw give up their land in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. They are forced to move to Indian Territory in the coming years.
1861 Mississippi secedes from the Union and joins the Confederacy. The Civil War begins.
1962 With support of federal troops james Merideth enters the University of Mississippi.
1863 The Battle of Vicksburg is fought. The Union wins and gains control of the Mississippi River.
1963 Medgar Evers a leader of the NAACP is murdered at his home in Jackson Mississippi.
1964 Three young civil rights workers are killed in Neshola County.
1870 Mississippi is readmitted into the Union.
1870 Hiram Revel becomes the first African American Senator.
1907 Boll weevils appear and destroy much of the cotton crop.
1969 The segregation of public schools ends.
2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes the coast causing severe damage.