located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge
and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties
. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish.
Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural
, multilingual
heritage, being so strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century French
, Spanish
, Native American (Indian) and African
cultures that they are considered to be somewhat exceptional in the U.S.
1682 Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
1736 Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw soldiers repel a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France.
1755 British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council order the deportation of the Acadians. Thousands of Acadians are sent to the British Colonies in America, France and England. Some later move to Louisiana, while others resettle in New Brunswick.
1766 Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
1804 Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
1812 The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.
1812 Following Louisiana's admittance as a U.S. state, the Louisiana Territory is renamed the Missouri Territory.
1861 American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
1872 In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.
1935 US Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed "Kingfish", is fatally shot in the Louisiana capitol building.