Arkansas Timeline

  • March 13, 1682

    March 13, 1682
    Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, reaches the Arkansas on his way to the mouth of the Mississippi. He visits a Quapaw village and claims the land in the name of King Louis XIV.
  • March 2, 1819

    March 2, 1819
    Arkansas, which has been part of Missouri Territory since 1812, is detached and made a territory.
  • May 28, 1830

    May 28, 1830
    Congress establishes the boundary separating Arkansas from Indian Territory to the west.
  • June 15,1836

    June 15,1836
    Arkansas became the 25th state on June 15, 1836, with Little Rock as its capital.
  • February 12,1859

    February 12,1859
    Signing of legislation ordering all free Negroes out of Arkansas by the end of the year.
  • July 25,1863

    July 25,1863
    Skirmish at Brownsville, AR and Williamsburg, KY
    September 10 - Federal troops occupy Little Rock.
  • March 2, 1867

    March 2, 1867
    Congress passes the Reconstruction Act, which voids the government of Arkansas and nine other southern states.
  • May 15, 1874

    May 15, 1874
    Month-long "Brooks-Baxter War" between rival claimants to the governorship ends when President Ulysses S Grant orders the forces of the former to disperse.
    October 13 - Ratification of a new constitution restoring the franchise to all whites and guaranteeing full civil rights for blacks ends the Reconstruction era
  • August 1, 1906

    August 1, 1906
    Diamonds found near Murfreesboro, which becomes the site of the only diamond mine in the United States.