On May 8, 1541, south of present-day Memphis, Tennessee, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, one of the first European explorers to ever do so.
france discovered it about 10 years later: in 1682, a Frenchman by the name of Robert de La Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi and claimed the entire valley in the name of France. the first Europeans to ever set eyes on the river were Hernando De Soto and his group of explorers in 1541.
