Mississippi History Timeline

Events 1 - 100 of 142

• 1673-05-17 Frenchmen Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit, set out from the Saint-Ignace mission on an expedition to explore the Mississippi river (reach border of Louisiana and Arkansas)
• 1679-07-02 Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi in an expedition led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth
• 1682-04-09 French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claims lower Mississippi (Louisiana) for France [1]
• 1687-03-19 Explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men
• 1729-11-28 Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi.
• 1795-10-27 Pinckney's Treaty [Treaty of San Lorenzo] signed by Spain and US, establishing the southern boundary of the US and giving Americans right to navigate the Mississippi River
• 1798-04-07 Mississippi Territory organized
• 1804-03-26 Congress orders removal of Indians east of Mississippi to Louisiana
• 1817-03-03 Mississippi Territory is divided into Alabama Territory & Mississippi
• 1817-05-16 Mississippi River steamboat service begins
• 1817-10-20 1st Mississippi "Showboat" leaves Nashville on maiden voyage
• 1817-12-10 Mississippi admitted as 20th state of the Union
• 1823-05-10 1st steamboat to navigate the Mississippi River arrives at Fort Snelling

• 1834-11-01 First published reference to poker (as Mississippi riverboat game)

• 1837-05-09 "Sherrod" burns in the Mississippi River below Natchez, Mississippi; 175 die
• 1837-10-31 Collision of river boat Monmouth & Trement on Mississippi; 300 die
• 1840-05-07 Tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi, killing 317
• 1855-01-23 1st bridge over the Mississippi River in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, opens; today made by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge
• 1855-04-21 1st train crosses Mississippi River's 1st bridge, from Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa
• 1861-01-09 US Civil War: Mississippi secedes from the Union
• 1861-01-10 US forts & property seized by Mississippi

• 1861-10-12 Confederate ironclad Manassas attack Union's Richmond on Mississippi

• 1862-03-31 Civil War action at Island #10 on Mississippi River
• 1862-04-29 100,000 federal troops prepare to march into Corinth, Mississippi
• 1862-05-09 Battle of Farmington, Mississippi
• 1862-07-01 Battle at Booneville Mississippi: Confederate superior power driven out
• 1862-07-17 Naval Engagement at Pascagoula River Mississippi: USS Potomac Expedition
• 1862-09-19 Battle at Iuka Mississippi (1,700 casualties)
• 1862-10-03 -10] Battle of Corinth, Mississippi
• 1862-11-20 Confederate armies of Mississippi and Kentucky merge as Army of Tennessee, under General Braxton Bragg
• 1862-12-20 Confederate raid on Union supplies at Holly Springs, Mississippi
• 1863-03-31 Battle of Grand Gulf, Mississippi and Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia
• 1863-04-24 Skirmish at Okolona and Birmingham, Mississippi (Grierson's Raid)
• 1863-04-29 Battle of Grand Gulf, Mississippi: Union navy ironclad warships attack Confederate fortifications
• 1863-05-01 Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi
• 1863-05-12 Battle of Raymond, Mississippi
• 1863-05-14 American Civil War: The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi takes place
• 1863-05-16 Battle of Champion's Hill, Mississippi - bloodiest action of Vicksburg Campaign
• 1863-05-17 Battle of Big Black River Bridge, Mississippi
• 1863-07-04 Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Union forces
• 1863-07-05 Battle of Jackson, Mississippi and Battle of Birdsong Ferry, Mississippi
• 1863-07-10 Battle of Jackson, Mississippi - captured by federals [->JUL 16]
• 1863-07-13 Battle of Tupelo, Mississippi (Harrisburg) [->JUL 15]
• 1863-11-14 Skirmish at Danville, Mississippi
• 1864-02-03 Sherman's march through Mississippi
• 1864-02-04 Skirmish at Big Black River Bridge, Mississippi
• 1864-02-05 Federals occupy Jackson, Mississippi
• 1864-02-13 Miridian Campaign fighting at Chunky Creek & Wyatt, Mississippi
• 1864-02-21 -22] Battle at Okolona, Mississippi
• 1864-02-22 2nd and last day of Battle of Okolona, Mississippi
• 1864-07-05 Battle of Smith's Expedition, Mississippi (Tupelo, Harrisburg)
• 1864-12-28 Battle of Egypt Station, Mississippi
• 1865-04-27 Steamboat "SS Sultana" explodes in the Mississippi River, killing up to 1,800 of the 2,427 passengers in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Most were paroled Union POWs on their way home.
• 1865-06-02 Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith surrenders his Trans-Mississippi Department to Union forces at Galveston, Texas; he then flees to Mexico to avoid charges of treason

• 1868-01-07 Mississippi constitutional convention meets in Jackson

• 1870-02-23 Mississippi is readmitted to US after the Civil War
• 1871-06-20 Ku Klux Klan trials began in federal court in Oxford, Mississippi
• 1874-01-14 I. D. Shadd elected Speaker of lower house of Mississippi legislature
• 1875-01-05 President Grant sends federal troops to Vicksburg, Mississippi
• 1883-05-04 John Gordon Cashmans publishes 1st edition "Vicksburg Evening Post" (Mississippi)
• 1884-02-19 "Enigma Outbreak" of over 60 tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana kill hundreds, if not over a thousand (hence the "enigma") people
• 1884-03-12 Mississippi establishes 1st US state college for women
• 1886-03-17 Carrollton Massacre (Mississippi) 20 African Americans killed
• 1893-10-02 Cheniere Caminada hurricane (Great October Storm) - 3rd worst hurricane in US history kills 1,800 in Louisiana (one of the 1st to be classified as a category 4 storm)

• 1898-06-01 Trans-Mississippi International Exposition opens in Omaha
• 1900-04-30 Casey Jones dies heroically in a train wreck at Vaughn, Mississippi, while driving Cannonball Express (immortalized in "Ballad of Casey Jones")
• 1910-03-30 Mississippi Legislature founded The University of Southern Mississippi
• 1915-02-04 Experiments to find cause of pellagra begin at Mississippi State Penitentiary
• 1915-09-29 Hurricane claims 275 in Mississippi Delta

• 1920-04-20 Tornadoes kill 219 in Alabama & Mississippi
• 1921-05-21 Oldest radio station west of Mississippi River licensed in Greeley Co.
• 1930-07-29 115°F (46°C), Holly Springs, Mississippi (state record)
• 1930-12-29 Fred P. Newton completes longest swim ever (1826 miles), when he swam in the Mississippi River from Ford Dam, Minnesota, to New Orleans
• 1935-09-24 Earl Bascom and Weldon Bascom produce the first rodeo ever held outdoors under electric lights at Columbia, Mississippi
• 1936-04-05 Tupelo, Mississippi virtually annihilated by a tornado, 216 die
• 1940-04-23 Dance hall fires kills 198 in Natchez, Mississippi
• 1940-07-25 American John Sigmund begins swimming for 89 hours, 46 minutes from St. Louis to Caruthersville, Missouri in the Mississippi River; 292 miles, longest solo swim of all time
• 1942-05-12 Nazi U-boat sinks American cargo ship at mouth of Mississippi River
• 1942-12-01 With WWII travel restrictions in mind, MLB owners decide to restrict travel to a 3-trip schedule rather than customary 4; Spring training in 1943 limited to locations north of Potomac or Ohio rivers and east of the Mississippi
• 1947-01-22 1st commercial TV station west of Mississippi, KTLA (channel 5) in Los Angeles, California begins broadcasting
• 1947-05-05 Mississippi Valley flooding kills 16 and causes $850M in damage
• 1950-02-19 Groundbreaking ceremony held for Mississippi Vocational College (later Mississippi Valley State University)
• 1951-07-13 Great Flood: 2.000,000 acres in Kansas and Missouri in central US are flooded from rain swollen Missouri and Kansas Rivers
• 1952-03-21 -22] Tornadoes in Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky cause 343 deaths

• 1954-07-11 1st White Citizens Council organizes in Indianola, Mississippi

• 1961-05-24 27 Freedom Riders arrested in Jackson, Mississippi

• 1962-09-20 Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett refuses to admit an African-American, James Meredith, to Mississippi University
• 1962-09-24 US Circuit Court of Appeals orders Meredith admitted to University of Mississippi

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Birthdays 1 - 100 of 262

• 1645-09-21 Louis Jolliet, Canadian explorer (explored the origins of the Mississippi River helped by Native Americans), born in Quebec, Canada (d. 1700)
• 1808-08-26 Benjamin Grubb Humphreys, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Claiborne County, Mississippi (d. 1882)
• 1815-09-06 St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General, born in Wilkinson County, Mississippi (d. 1870)
• 1815-11-01 Douglas H. Cooper, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Amite County, Mississippi (d. 1879)
• 1820-09-17 Earl Van Dorn, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Claiborne County, Mississippi (d. 1863)
• 1824-03-22 William Henry Chase Whiting, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Biloxi, Mississippi (d. 1865)
• 1826-05-07 Varina Howell Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States (1862-65), born in Natchez, Mississippi (d. 1906)
• 1834-08-22 Nathaniel Harrison Harris, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Natchez, Mississippi (d. 1900)
• 1862-07-16 Ida B. Wells (-Barnett), American journalist, civil rights activist, and co-founder of the NAACP, born in Holly Springs, Mississippi (d. 1931)
• 1865-03-09 Margaret Murray Washington, Wife of Booker T. Washington and Lady Principal of Tuskegee, born in Macon, Mississippi (d. 1925)
• 1871-03-06 Ben Harney, American composer and "Father of Ragtime Piano" (You've Been a Good Old Wagon, But You Done Broke Down), born on the Mississippi River (d. 1938) [1]
• 1880-06-15 Mahlon Hamilton, American actor (Honky Tonk, High School Girl, Mississippi), born at Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1960)
• 1881-10-11 Stark Young, American writer (So Red the Rose), born in Como, Mississippi (d. 1963)
• 1889-02-09 Larry Semon, American silent film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (The Wizard of Oz (1925)), born in West Point, Mississippi (d. 1928) [Note: many sources erroneously cite July 16]
• 1892-01-10 Dumas Malone, American historian (Jefferson & His Time), born in Coldwater, Mississippi (d. 1986)
• 1892-04-12 Johnny Dodds, American early jazz clarinetist, born in Waveland, Mississippi (d. 1940)

• 1892-10-28 Ollie "Dink" Johnson, American Dixieland jazz clarinetist, pianist, and drummer, born in Biloxi, Mississippi (d. 1954)
• 1893-03-08 Mississippi John Hurt, American country blues singer and guitarist, born in Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi (d. 1966)
• 1893-06-26 "Big" Bill Broonzy, American blues singer and guitarist (Blues by Broonzy), born in Scott, Mississippi (d. 1958)
• 1895-01-20 Roscoe Ates, American actor (Freaks, Cimarron, Marshal of Gunsight Pass), born in Grange, Mississippi (d. 1962)
• 1895-05-11 William Grant Still, American composer ("Afro-American" Symphony), born in Woodville, Mississippi (d. 1978)

• 1899-12-05 Sonny Boy Williamson II [Aleck Miller], American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, born in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi (d. 1965) (year of birth disputed)
• 1900-09-17 Hughie Critz, American MLB baseball player (Cincinnati Reds), born in Starkville, Mississippi (d. 1980)
• 1901-08-03 John Stennis, American politician, Mississippi Senator, born in Kemper County, Mississippi (d. 1995)
• 1902-06-06 Jimmie Lunceford, American swing jazz saxophonist and bandleader (Rhythm Is Our Business; For Dancers Only), born in Fulton, Mississippi (d. 1947) [1] [2]

• 1904-01-12 "Mississippi" Fred McDowell, American blues singer and guitarist, born in Rossville, Tennessee (d. 1972)
• 1904-11-28 James Eastland, American politician (Sen-D-Miss 1943-68), born in Doddsville, Mississippi (d. 1986)
• 1905-08-24 Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist ("That's Alright"), born in Forest, Mississippi (d. 1974)
• 1905-08-27 Frederick O'Neal, American actor, theatre producer and television director (Pinky, Car 54 Where Are You), born in Brooksville, Mississippi (d. 1992)
• 1906-11-12 (Booker T. Washington) "Bukka" White, American country and Delta blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter ("Shake'Em On Down"; "Parchman Farm Blues"), born near Aberdeen, Mississippi (d. 1977)
• 1907-09-05 Sunnyland Slim [Albert Luandrew], American blues pianist, born in Vance, Mississippi (d. 1995)
• 1908-07-01 Ed Gordon Jr, American athlete (Olympic gold long jump 1932), born in Jackson, Mississippi (d. 1971)
• 1908-09-04 Richard Wright, American author (Native Son, Uncle Tom's Children), born in Roxie, Mississippi (d. 1960)
• 1909-01-01 Dana Andrews, American actor (Battle of the Bulge, Laura), born in Covington County, Mississippi (d. 1992)
• 1909-04-13 Eudora Welty, American novelist (Optimist's Daughter-Pulitzer 1973), born in Jackson, Mississippi (d. 2001)
• 1909-08-27 Lester Young, American jazz saxophonist, born in Woodville, Mississippi (d. 1959)
• 1909-11-19 Rose Isabel Williams, sister of Tennessee Williams, born in Gulfport, Mississippi (d. 1996)
• 1909-12-08 Cleo Brown, American jazz pianist, born in Meridian, Mississippi (d. 1995)
• 1910-02-03 Robert Earl Jones, American actor (The Sting, Witness, Sleepaway Camp), born in Senatobia, Mississippi (d. 2006)
• 1910-04-18 Jamie Whitten, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi), born in Cascilla, Mississippi (d. 1995)
• 1910-06-10 Howlin' Wolf [Chester Arthur Burnett], American blues singer, guitarist, and harmonica player ("Smokestack Lightnin'"; "Killing Floor"), born in White Station, Mississippi (d. 1976)
• 1910-07-01 Glen Hardin, American athlete (Olympic gold 1936 400m hurdles), born in Derma, Mississippi (d. 1975)
• 1910-09-14 Lehman Engel, American conductor and composer (A Streetcar Named Desire), born in Jackson, Mississippi (d. 1982)

• 1911-08-09 Eddie Futch, American boxing trainer, born in Hillsboro, Mississippi (d. 2001)
• 1912-12-22 Henry Armstrong, American boxer (world featherweight, lightweight, welterweight [19 x title defences] champion), born in Columbus, Mississippi (d. 1988)

• 1914-07-29 Dovie Hudson, American community activist in rural Mississippi (filed lawsuit to desegregate the public schools) (d. 1994)
• 1914-11-25 Eddie Boyd, American blues pianist and singer ("Five Long Years"), born in Mississippi (d. 1994)
• 1915-01-30 Dorothy Dell [Goff], American child actress (Little Miss Marker, Wharf Angel), born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (d. 1934)
• 1915-04-12 Hound Dog Taylor [Theodore Roosevelt], American Chicago blues guitarist and singer, born in Natchez, Mississippi (d. 1975)
• 1915-04-19 Harry Craft, American MLB baseball player and manager, born in Ellisville, Mississippi (d. 1995)
• 1915-06-28 David "Honeyboy" Edwards, American delta blues guitarist, born in Shaw, Mississippi (d. 2011)
• 1915-07-01 Willie Dixon, American blues musician ("Hoochie Coochie Man"), born in Vicksburg, Mississippi (d. 1992)
• 1915-08-16 Al Hibbler, American singer (Unchained Melody), born in Tyro, Mississippi (d. 2001)
• 1915-12-28 Roebuck "Pops" Staples, American gospel singer (The Staple Singers), born in Winona, Mississippi (d. 2000)
• 1916-11-17 Winson Hudson, American civil rights activist (rural Mississippi), born in Harmony, Mississippi (d. 2004)
• 1917-03-26 Rufus Thomas, American vaudevillian, singer-songwriter, and R&B musician known as "Mr. Swing" ("Walking the Dog", "Do the Funky Chicken"), born in Cayce, Mississippi (d. 2001)
• 1917-08-22 John Lee Hooker, American blues guitarist ("Boogie Chillen"'; "Boom Boom"), born in Clarksdale, Mississippi (d. 2001)

• 1918-07-31 Hank Jones, American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer, born in Vicksburg, Mississippi (d. 2010)
• 1918-09-04 Gerald Wilson, American jazz trumpeter, arranger (Jimmie Lunceford; Duke Ellington), orchestra leader, and teacher, born in Shelby, Mississippi (d. 2014)
• 1919-06-15 Van T. Barfoot, American Army colonel and Medal of Honour recipient, born in Edinburg, Mississippi (d. 2012)
• 1919-10-01 Bob Boyd, American baseball first baseman (NgL All-Star 1947, 48, 49; first black player to sign with Chicago WS), born in Potts Camp, Mississippi (d. 2004)
• 1920-07-12 Beah Richards, American actress, poet, playwright and author (Roots, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), born in Vicksburg, Mississippi (d. 2000)
• 1920-08-05 Sonny Montgomery, American politician (Rep-D-Mississippi, 1967-97), born in Meridian, Mississippi (d. 2006)
• 1920-09-04 Craig Claiborne, American food columnist (NY Times Cookbook), born in Sunflower, Mississippi (d. 2000)
• 1921-11-13 Eddie Calhoun, American jazz bassist, born in Clarksdale, Mississippi (d. 1994)
• 1922-09-11 Charles Evers, American civil rights leader (1st Black mayor in Mississippi since Reconstruction), born in Decatur, Mississippi (d. 2020)
• 1923-04-25 Albert King [Nelson], American blues guitarist and singer ("Born Under A Bad Sign"; "That's What The Blues Is About"), born in Indianola, Mississippi (d. 1992)
• 1924-06-03 Jimmy Rogers, American blues musician (Muddy Waters' Band), born in Ruleville, Mississippi (d. 1997)
• 1925-01-17 Edgar Ray Killen, American convict, former preacher, K.K.K. member and murderer, born in Philadelphia, Mississippi (d. 2018)
• 1925-03-02 Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis [Charles Thompson], American blues musician (Cold Hands), born in Tippo, Mississippi (d. 1995)

• 1925-09-06 Jimmy Reed, American blues singer (Soulin', Big Boss Man), born in Dunleith, Mississippi (d. 1976)

• 1926-11-23 R. L. Burnside, American blues musician (Deep Blues), born in Harmontown, Mississippi (d. 2005)
• 1926-12-10 Guitar Slim [Eddie Jones], blues guitarist ("The Things That I Used to Do"), born in Greenwood, Mississippi (d. 1959)

• 1927-11-11 Mose Allison, American jazz and blues piano player, singer, and composer ("Everybody's Cryin' Mercy"; "Your Mind Is on Vacation"), born in Tippo, Mississippi (d. 2016)
• 1928-11-25 James "Jimmy" Johnson, American gospel and blues singer and guitarist, born in Holly Springs, Mississippi (d. 2022) [1]

• 1929-03-05 J. B. Lenoir, African American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, active in the 1950s, born in Monticello, Mississippi (d. 1967)
• 1929-09-18 Louis Myers, American blues guitarist and harmonica player, born in Byhalia, Mississippi (d. 1994)
• 1929-11-13 Fred Phelps, American Baptist minister and civil rights attorney, born in Meridian, Mississippi (d. 2014)
• 1930-07-28 David "Junior" Kimbrough, American bluesman, born in Hudsonville, Mississippi (d. 1998)

• 1931-09-26 George Chambers, American rock bassist and vocalist (Chambers Brothers - "Time Has Come Today"), born in Carthage, Mississippi (d. 2019)
• 1931-11-05 Ike Turner, American musician ("Rocket 88"; Ike and Tina Turner - "River Deep, Mountain High"; "Proud Mary"), born in Clarksdale, Mississippi (d. 2007)
• 1931-11-16 Hubert Sumlin, American blues guitarist (Howlin' Wolf), born in Greenwood, Mississippi (d. 2011)
• 1932-01-01 Jackie Parker, American College and Canadian Football Hall of Fame utility (Mississippi State University; Grey Cup 1954-56; Edmonton Eskimos), born in Knoxville, Tennessee (d. 2006)
• 1932-03-27 (Herman) "Junior" Parker, American blues and soul singer and musician ("Mystery Train"), born in Bobo, Mississippi (d. 1971)
• 1933-02-23 Lee Calhoun, American athlete (Olympic gold 110m hurdles 1956, 60), born in Laurel, Mississippi (d. 1989)
• 1933-03-17 Myrlie Evers-Williams (née Beasley), American civil rights activist (NAACP chair), born in Vicksburg, Mississippi

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