History^[5]

• 18th century White settlers began moving into the area near the end of the eighteenth century, settling along Wolf Creek, which flows from northwest of Delight in a southeasterly direction.
• 1832, January 18 The settlement became known as Wolf Creek and a post Office is opened. The area becomes a mail stop between Little Rock, AR, and the Hempstead County Courthouse, then at Washington, AR.
• 1897; A sawmill and planer, built by B. F. Key begins operations.
• 1903; Dr. Rice becomes the areas first permanent doctor.
• 1904; Delight, Arkansas was named by landowner W.H. Kirkham, who was well pleased with his surroundings.^[3]
• 1904, July 25; The incorporation petition goes before the court.
• 1903, September 15; The name Delight becomes official and John Brock becomes the towns first mayor.
• 1948-49; Billstown and Delight's schools consolidate in the 1948-49 school year.

State History ^[1]

Ancient times

• ca. 40,000–15,000 B.C. - People migrate to North America from Asia at irregular intervals by way of the Bering Land Bridge.^[5]
• 12,000 years ago - As glaciers from the last Ice Age recede, flood waters carve the channel of the Mississippi river.
• 10,000 to 9,000 years ago - First evidence of human habitation in Upper Mississippi region.
• 8,000 years ago - Hunters slaughter giant bison in what is now Itasca State Park, Minnesota, leaving evidence of their presence.
• 2,000 years ago - The Hopewell (Mound building) culture dominates area.

• 1541, June 18; Hernando De Soto of Spain was the first European to explore Arkansas.
• 1673, July; French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette descend the Mississippi to the mouth of the Arkansas River. Warned by the Quapaw (Arkansas) Indians of hostile tribes farther south they turn back.
• 1682, Mar 13; 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.
• 1686; Henri de Tonti founded Arkansas Post, the first settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley. It served as a trading post, a way-station for Mississippi River travel, and the home of a Jesuit mission for a few years.

• 1721; A group of 1,300 half-starved colonists - whites and black slaves - abandons Arkansas Post after John Law's scheme to develop the Mississippi Valley collapses.
• 1762; France cedes the Louisiana Territory, including Arkansas, to Spain, but French soldiers continue to man Arkansas Post.
• 1803; The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France, which had retaken it from Spain as part of the Treaty of San Ildefonso.
• 1818; The Quapaw cede their lands between the Red and Arkansas rivers.
• 1819, March 2; Arkansas, which has been part of Missouri Territory since 1812, is detached and made a territory.
• 1819, November 20; Arkansas Gazette, the first newspaper in Arkansas, published.
• 1821, October 25; The capital moves from Arkansas Post to Little Rock.
• 1822, March 16; The Eagle, first steamboat to ascend the Arkansas River, arrives at Little Rock.
• 1830, May 28; Congress establishes the boundary separating Arkansas from Indian Territory to the west.
• 1832-1839; Removal of the "Five Civilized Tribes" of Indians from the Southeast through Arkansas to Indian Territory.
• 1836, June 15; Arkansas became the 25th state with Little Rockas its capital.
• 1846; Disillusioned by the collapse of two state-chartered banks, legislators ratify a constitutional amendment barring any banking institution from being established in the state.
• 1858; Edward Payson Washburn paints The Arkansas Traveler.
• 1859, February 12; Signing of legislation ordering all free Negroes out of Arkansas by the end of the year.
• 1860; On the eve of the Civil War, Arkansas has a population of 435,450, of whom 111,115 are black slaves, 4,086 are free blacks and 11,481 are slave owners.
• 1861 - 1865 American Civil War. [More Information]
• 1861, January 10: First Shot of the Civil War fired at the Union Ship "Star of the West" as it attempted to reinforce Major Anderson at Fort Sumter.
• 1861, February 18: Jefferson Davis becomes the President of the Confederate States of America.
• 1861, March 4: Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States.
1861, February Provisional Confederate Constitution is adopted (Confederate Constitution Day). Arsenal at Little Rock, AR occupied by State Troops. 1861, Feb. 8 Arsenal at Little Rock, AR occupied by State Troops. 1861, April 23 Arkansas troops occupy Fort Smith. General Robert E. Lee assumes command of State troops in Virginia. 1861, May 6 A convention votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. The first of some 60,000 Arkansas residents join the confederate troops, but some 9,000 whites and more than 5,000 blacks fight on the Union side during the war. 1861, May 13 Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch is appointed to the command of the district embracing the Indian Territory lying west of Arkansas and south of Kansas. CSA Major Douglas H. Cooper, of the Choctaw Nation is authorized to raise a mounted regiment of Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians.
• 1861, April 9: The Confederate cabinet at a meeting in Montgomery, AL, decides to open fire on Ft. Sumter. President Jefferson Davis orders General P. T. Beauregard to "reduce" Fort Sumter.
• 1861, April 12: Bombardment of Fort Sumter begins at 4:30 A.M. The bombardment lasts 33 hours and the Confederates fire 3,000 shells. No one on either side is killed and only one injured at Fort Sumter. Edmund Ruffin is credited with the first shot. Captain James fired the signal shell from a ten inch mortar on Johnson's Island but the first gun from the iron clad battery on Morris Island is generally considered the first shot. Roger A. Pryor declined the honor of firing the signal shell. Ruffin later wraps himself in the Confederate Flag and commits suicide.
• 1861, April 13: Fort Sumter surrenders at 2:30 PM on Saturday. Major Robert Anderson is allowed to fire a 100 gun salute to the United States Flag but only 50 guns are fired. One of the guns explodes and Private Daniel Hough is killed and five are injured. Some authors say two were killed. Perhaps one died of wounds.
• 1861, April 15: Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers for three months service.
  
1861, April 23 Arkansas troops occupy Fort Smith. General Robert E. Lee assumes command of State troops in Virginia. 1861, May 6 A convention votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. The first of some 60,000 Arkansas residents join the confederate troops, but some 9,000 whites and more than 5,000 blacks fight on the Union side during the war. 1861, May 13 Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch is appointed to the command of the district embracing the Indian Territory lying west of Arkansas and south of Kansas. CSA Major Douglas H. Cooper, of the Choctaw Nation is authorized to raise a mounted regiment of Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians.
• 1861: Construction begins on the Confederate submarine, H.L. Hunley in Mobile, Alabama. For more information; visit the Online Library; SHIPS of the CONFEDERATE STATES, Submarine H.L. Hunley (1863-1864).
• 1862 , March 7-8: Battle of Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas. A Confederate advance north is rebuffed. CSA Generals Benjamin McCulloch and James M. McIntosh are killed in action.
• 1862, June 16: In early June Major General David Hunter transports Horatio G. Wright's and Isaac I. Stevens's Union divisions under immediate direction of Brigadier General Henry Benham to James Island where they entrenched at Grimball's Landing near the southern flank of the Confederate defenses around Charleston, SC. Without orders, Benham launched an unsuccessful frontal assault against Fort Lamar at Secessionville.
• 1862, July 14: The CSS Arkansas, Confederate Ironclad attacks and damages three Yankee ships at Vicksburg, MS.
• 1862, August 2: Skirmish at Jonesboro, AR.
• 1862, September 22: President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863.
• 1862, December 7: Battle of Prairie Grove. Federal forces suffered 1,251 casualties and Confederate forces suffered 1,317 casualties.
• 1862, December 7: Battle of Fayetteville - Thomas Hindman [CS] attacks Francis "Frank" Herron [US] advancing from Wilson's Creek in an attempt to defeat him before joining he could join up with Brig. Gen.James G. Blunt's [US] men. Blunt reached the Confederate line just as Herron was considering withdrawal, resulting in a Union victory.
• 1863, January 9-11: Battle of Fort Hindman - General John McClernand [US] defeats Brigadier General T. J. Churchill [CS] at Fort Hindman or Arkansas Post. Defending the outpost on the Arkansas River, 5,000 Confederates are surrounded by a force of 50,000 Union troops, and a U. S. Naval squadron under the command of Admiral David D. Porter. The Navy silenced the Confederate artillery and McClernand attacked, gaining the outer walls. The Confederates then surrendered.
• 1863, July 1-3: Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1863. July 4: Battle of Helena, AR.
• 1863, July 13-16: Draft Riots in New York City.
• 1863, July 25: Skirmish at Brownsville, AR and Williamsburg, KY.
• 1863, August 12: the Hunley arrived by train in Charleston.
• 1863, September 10: Federal troops occupy Little Rock.
• 1863, September 19 - 20: Confederate Victory at the Battle of Chickamauga, GA. The battle is the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
• 1863, November 15: William T. Sherman arrives in Chattanooga, TN.
• 1863, November 19: President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1864: A unionist convention abolishes slavery in Arkansas and adopts a new constitution for the state. Abraham Lincoln instructs Arkansas commander General Frederick Steele to permit elections following the proposed anti-slavery constitution of the state.
• 1864. April 9-13: The Battle of Prairie D'Ane (also known as Prairie De Ann, Gum Grove, and Moscow) was fought April 9-13, 1864, in Nevada County, Arkansas as part of the Camden Expedition.
• 1864, April 10: Moving south through Arkansas, General Frederick Steeleengages Confederate forces before being driven back to Little Rock.
• 1864, April 18: Battle of Poison Spring - Sterling Price* [CS] and John Marmaduke [CS] raid US supply wagons heading for Grand Ecore to relieve Nathaniel Banks [US] failed expedition. After heavy fighting the federals were forced to withdraw.
   * Wikipedia has Samuel B. Maxey´s and John Marmaduke in command of the confederate forces, not Sterling Price.
• 1864, July 25: Skirmish at Benton, AR and Pleasant Hill, MO.
• 1864, December 21: United States troops occupy Savannah, GA.
• 1865, April 8: General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Station, VA.
• 1865, April 14: Lincoln shot by John Wilks Booth at Fords Theater on Good Friday.
• 1865, April 14: General Robert Anderson raises the same flag over Fort Sumter that he lowered 4 years before.
• 1865 May 26: Civil War ends; when General Kirby Smith surrendered Confederate forces west of the Mississippi River.
• 1865, December 6; The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified by Gerogia, thus officially abolishing slavery.
• 1866, August; Ex-Confederates sweep control of the legislature and pass laws denying blacks the right to sit on juries, serve in the militia, or attend white public schools.
• 1867, March 2; Congress passes the Reconstruction Act, which voids the government of Arkansas and nine other southern states.
• 1868, March 13; A new constitution adopted by referendum enfranchises Negroes and disenfranchises ex-Confederate soldiers.
• 1868, June 22; Arkansas re-admitted to the Union.
• 1868, November; Governor Powell Clayton declares martial law in much of the state; a mostly black militia battles the Ku Klux Klan.
• 1871; Completion of a railroad between Memphis and Little Rock.
• 1872; University of Arkansas opens in Fayetteville.
• 1874, May 15; 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.
• 1874, October 13; Ratification of a new constitution restoring the franchise to all whites and guaranteeing full civil rights for blacks ends the Reconstruction era.
• 1887; Bauxite discovered southwest of Little Rock; peak output is reached by 1918, by which time almost all U.S. Bauxite is being mined in Arkansas.
• 1891; Jim Crow legislation segregates railroad coaches and waiting stations.
• 1892; Adoption of a constitutional amendment imposing a poll tax restricts the electorate.
• 1896; Plessy v. Ferguson decision by U.S. Supreme Court establishes "separate but equal" doctrine in racial policy.
• 1898; The Democratic Party adopts whites-only primary elections.
• 1898, February 15; The USS Maine (ACR-1) exploded and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba.
• 1899; Bauxite mining began in 1899 and Arkansas soon led all other states in production.
• 1898; Spanish-American War.

• 1904; Near Ulm, William H Fuller grows a 70 acre stand of rice, establishing one of the state's leading crops.
• 1906, August 1; Diamonds found near Murfreesboro, which becomes the site of the only diamond mine in the United States.
• 1909; Lumber production is Arkansas leading industry.
• 1912, September 17; The Wyoming-class battleship USS Arkansas (BB-33) is commissioned.
• 1914 - 1920 The First World War. [More Information]
• 1917, February 3: US severs diplomatic ties with Germany.
• 1917, April 6: The US declares war on Germany.
• 1918, March 3: Russia and Germany sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk.
• 1918, May 28: US forces make their first offensive, at Cantigny, France.
• 1918, November 11: Armistice Day. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Germany signs an armistice with the Allies. The war is officially over. More than 8.5 million have been killed and over twice as many wounded from across the globe. New technology has been created, America has risen to prominence as an economic power and new countries are forming in Europe and the Middle East.
• 1917-1918: More than 72,000 troops from Arkansas serve during World War I.
^[2]
• 1920, August 18; Women win the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified by Tennessee.
• 1915; The General Assembly of 1915 enacted a statewide game and fish law and created the Game and Fish Commission.
• 1920; Over 40 percent of land under cultivation is in cotton, the state's leading crop.
• 1921; The first radio station, WOK in Pine Bluff, began broadcasting in 1921.
• 1921, January 10; Discovery of oil near El Dorado triggers a boom; Arkansas is fourth among states in oil in 1924, but production peaks in 1925.
• 1929 - 1940; The Great Depression and New Deal.
• The beginning of the Great Depression in the United States is associated with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The depression had devastating effects in both the industrialized countries and those which exported raw materials.
• 1933; The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is created as part of the The New Deal to develop resources of poor Appalachian South, including large parts of north Alabama.
• The New Deal is the title President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to a sequence of programs and promises he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of giving relief, reform and recovery to the people and economy of the United States during the Great Depression.
• 1927; The Mississippi River floods one-fifth of Arkansas.
• 1931, September 18, Japan invades Manchuria.
• 1931, November 13; Hattie W. Caraway First woman elected to the Senate
• 1939 - 1945 World War II. [More Information]
• Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) versus Allies (U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia).
• 1939: Germany invades Poland.

1941, September: Construction of Camp Chaffee is started. During World War II, in addition to providing a training facility for US soldiers, Fort Chaffee served as a POW camp, housing 3000 German prisoners of war.
• 1941, December 7: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
• 1942, April: American and Filipino prisoners of war are forced to endure World War II Bataan Death March in the Philippines.
• 1945, April 12: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Georgia.
• 1945, May 8: Victory in Europe, V-E Day.
• 1945, September 2: Victory over Japan, V-J Day Japanese sign surrender terms aboard battleship Missouri (BB-63).
  
• 1944; J. William Fulbright is elected to the United States Senate.
• 1946; In an early round of the "GI Revolt," decorated former Marine Sidney P. McMath runs against the Hot Springs political machine for Garland County prosecuting attorney and wins.
• 1948; Sid McMath is elected governor on a reform platform. Although hampered in some efforts, McMath places African-Americans on state boards for the first time since Reconstruction, promotes highway construction and encourages industries to move to Arkansas.
• 1950 - 1953; The Korean War is fought in Korea.
• 1953; The Hot Springs Bathers baseball team signs Negro League stars Jim and Leander Tugerson, the first African-Americans to play professional ball in Arkansas. The team is evicted from the Cotton States league, and then readmitted after the Tugersons are declared ineligible to play.
• 1953; Television station KATV in Little Rock went on the air in 1953.
• 1954; U.S. Supreme Court decides in Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka that "separate" schools cannot be "equal." This paved the way for desegregation and the civil rights movement.
• 1955-1967; Orval E. Faubus was the first Arkansas governor to be elected to six terms (1955-67).
• 1955; Orval E. Faubus is elected governor. Winthrop Rockefeller, veteran and grandson of John D. Rockefeller, is tapped to head the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission.
• 1957; President Dwight D. Eisenhower had to send US troops to help African Americans attend Central High School in Little Rock.
• 1957; The Little Rock school desegregation brings international attention to the American civil rights movement and to the divided community of Little Rock.
• 1958; Little Rock high schools are closed for the academic year while political and social controversy over desegregation continues.
• 1964; Winthrop Rockefelleris the Republican gubernatorial nominee but loses to Orval E. Faubus. Rockefeller promises to try again.
• 1966; Winthrop Rockefeller is elected governor. He becomes Arkansas´ first Republican governor elected since 1874.
• 1967; Winthrop Rockefeller became the first Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction.
• 1968; In a special session in February, the General Assembly passes 67 bills, including a freedom of information act and the state´s first general minimum-wage act. In November, Arkansans ratify Amendment 53, authorizing kindergartens in the state´s free public schools.
• 1969; The University of Arkansas establishes a multi-campus system.
• 1970; Dale Bumpers of Charleston is elected governor, promising to rid Arkansas of ";the old machine and the money machine." In February, a federal judge declares the Arkansas prison system unconstitutional.
• 1974; Dale Bumperssuccessfully challenges J. William Fulbright in the Democratic primary and wins election to the U.S. Senate. David Pryor of Camden is elected Governor. University of Arkansas Law School professor William J. Clinton loses his race for the Third District Congressional seat.
• 1975; Following the end of the Vietnam conflict, significant numbers of Vietnamese immigrants are relocated to Camp Chaffee, near Fort Smith, where many eventually settle. On October 11, Professor William J. Clinton marries Hillary Rodham.
• 1976; William J. Clinton is elected attorney-general, advocating victim compensation, the rights of the elderly, tough ethics laws for public officials, tighter oversight of utilities and opposing the twenty-five-cent pay phone call.
• 1978; Attorney-General William J. Clinton is elected governor.
• 1980; Arkansas is ranked in the top five states in percentage of population over the age of 65, due to the "Retiree Movement." In May, the Federal government informs Governor Clinton that Camp Chaffee will house 120,000 Cuban "Freedom flotilla" refugees. Bill Clinton is defeated by Frank White, once a Democrat, in his bid for a second term as governor.
• 1982; Arkansas´ "creation science" law is overturned in Federal District Court; Bill Clinton is re-elected governor.
• 1983; The Quality Education Act is passed by the General Assembly; education once again becomes a widely-discussed issue within Arkansas.
• 1984; William J. Clinton is re-elected governor.
• 1984 Voters approve Amendment 63 giving statewide officials four-year, rather than two-year, terms.
• 1986; William J. Clinton again is re-elected, this time for a four-year term.
• 1988; The Mississippi Delta Commission is created with the mission of investigating and improving Delta life.
• 1990; William J. Clinton wins a fifth term as governor. Latinos are Arkansas´ the fastest-growing minority population. Tyson Foods of Springdale is the largest broiler chicken processor in the nation.
• 1991, October 3; Governor Clinton announces he will run for the presidency of the United States. Lt. Governor Jim Guy Tucker becomes acting Governor in Clinton´s absence. October 18 sees the last issue of the Arkansas Gazette, the "oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi."
• 1992; Bill Clinton is elected the 42nd President of the United States. Lieutenant Governor Jim Guy Tucker becomes governor.
• 1994; Jim Guy Tucker is elected governor; Sharon Priest is the first woman elected to the office of Arkansas Secretary of State.
• 1996; Republican Tim Hutchinson is elected to the U.S. Senate, the first of his party in over 100 years to represent the state in Washington. Governor Tucker resigns his office in July and is succeeded by Republican Lieutenant Governor Mike Huckabee. In November, Bill Clinton wins re-election to the Presidency.
• 1997; Ceremonies at Little Rock Central High School mark the fortieth anniversary of the desegregation crisis.
• 1998; Mike Huckabee is elected Governor.
• 2000; Arkansas returns a Republican majority in the Presidential vote.
• 2002; Bentonville-based Wal-Mart is identified as the world´s largest corporation.

For more information about The History of Arkansas, visit the following sites:

• Wikipedia - History of Arkansas
• Arkansas History & Heritage
• The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
• Arkansas History - Timeline
• Historic Sites & Points of Interest in the South
• Chronological History of Arkansas
• Facts about the History of Arkansa
• The Impact of the Civil War in the Ozarks