Timeline of Tennessee

• c. 10,000 BC – Paleo-Indians are known to exist in Tennessee, as evidenced by a mastodon skeleton with cut marks found in Williamson County.^[1]
• c. 7500 BC – Icehouse Bottom in Monroe County is used as a hunting camp, making it one of the oldest known habitation areas in the state.^[2]
• c. 1-500 AD – The Pinson Mounds complex, one of the largest Middle Woodland sites in the United States, is created in Madison County.^[3]
• c. 800-1600 AD – During the Mississippian period, many sites are created in Tennessee, including Chucalissa, Mound Bottom, Shiloh Mounds, and Toqua.

• 1540 – Hernando de Soto's expedition arrives from modern day North Carolina and enters East Tennessee in June. The expedition stays at Chiaha in Sevier County for several weeks before leaving to the south.^[4]

  

• 1559 – Part of Tristán de Luna's expedition under Mateo del Sauz moves into the Chattanooga area in August in order to return the Napochie tribe to vassal status under the Coosa chiefdom so that the Spaniards could receive food from the Coosa. Sauz's expedition succeeds and returns south around August 1560.^[5]
• 1567 – Part of Juan Pardo's expedition under Hernando Moyano de Morales moves into Tennessee and stays at Chiaha, building a fort called San Pedro. Pardo later came to Moyano at Chiaha before the expedition returned to Santa Elena in modern South Carolina.^[6]
• 1682 – A French expedition down the Mississippi River under René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle stops in West Tennessee and builds a simple fortification called Fort Prudhomme while looking for a missing crew member before continuing downriver.^[7]

• 1739
  • August 15 – During the Chickasaw Wars, Frenchmen under Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville venture into Shelby County, building Fort Assumption in present-day Downtown Memphis. The fort is abandoned on March 31, 1740.^[8]
• 1756
  • October 5 – During the French and Indian War, the British begin construction of Fort Loudoun in modern-day Monroe County to protect the local Cherokee, making the fort one of the first British structures in modern-day Tennessee.^[9]
• 1760
  • February–August – Relations between the British and the Cherokee worsen, leading to the Anglo-Cherokee War. Fort Loudoun is besieged, and surrenders with most of its garrison killed or captured.
• 1763
  • October 7 – King George III issues the Royal Proclamation of 1763, forbidding settlement in Tennessee and making it an Indian Reserve.
• c. 1768 – The first white settlers begin moving into the Watauga, Nolichucky, and Holston areas in violation of the Royal Proclamation of 1763. They believe they are in Virginia.^[10]
• 1771
  • May 16 – The Battle of Alamance ends the War of the Regulation in North Carolina, and many former Regulators (those opposed to the North Carolina government) settle in Tennessee.
• 1772
  • May – Watauga and Nolichucky settlers negotiate a 10-year lease with the Cherokee and create a constitution called the Articles of the Watauga Association based on the laws of Virginia. The settlers build a courthouse and jail at Sycamore Shoals, and their government becomes known as the Watauga Association.^[11]

    

• 1775
  • March 19 – Richard Henderson and the Cherokee agree to the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, also known as the Transylvania Purchase, in which the Cherokee transfer the Path Grant, with land in northern East Tennessee, and the Great Grant, with the land north of the Cumberland River, including the site of modern Nashville.^[12]
  • April – With the outbreak of war with Britain, the Watauga Association declares itself loyal to the united colonies as the Washington District.
• 1776
  • Longhunter and pioneer William Bean establishes the town of Bean Station in Grainger County, becoming the first reported permanent settlement in Tennessee.^[13]
  • May – Dragging Canoe and the Chickamauga break from the Cherokee due to opposition to white settlement and begin the Chickamauga Wars.^[14]
  • November – After unsuccessfully asking Virginia to annex the Washington District, the settlers are admitted to North Carolina.
• 1777
  • November 15 – Washington County is created from the Washington District, making it the oldest county in what is now Tennessee.
• 1779
  • February – James Robertson establishes Fort Nashborough, which would become Nashville. John Donelson later arrives with more settlers, who sign the Cumberland Compact.
  • October 18 – Sullivan County is created from Washington County, making it the second-oldest county in what is now Tennessee.
• 1780
  • October 7 – Overmountain Men from Washington and Sullivan Counties win the pivotal Battle of Kings Mountain near Kings Mountain, North Carolina, after a march over the mountains.
  • Surveyors from Virginia and North Carolina survey the modern Tennessee–Virginia border. The North Carolinians' "Henderson Line" is two miles north of the Virginians' "Walker Line", creating a disputed area between the states.^[15]
• 1783
  • April 18 – Greene County is created from Washington County.
  • October 6 – Davidson County is created from Washington County, making it the oldest county in Middle Tennessee.
• 1791
  • The Knoxville Gazette, first Tennessee newspaper, begun.
• 1794
  • Blount College, a predecessor of the University of Tennessee, founded in Knoxville, first American nondenominational institution of higher learning.
• 1796
  • February 6 - Tennessee adopts a constitution.
  • June 1 - Tennessee becomes the 16th of the United States.
  • John Sevier elected the first governor of Tennessee.
  • Andrew Jackson elected first congressman of Tennessee.

On June 8, 1861, Tennessee seceded from the United States to join The confederacy, becoming the last state to do so