On this Day...

[News Crew]

On this date in history in 1542, Hernando de Soto, a Spanish explorer who was credited as the first European to discover the Mississippi River in 1541, died.  Here is an excerpt from WIKIPEDIA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) hitting on some of the career highlights of this famed explorer and conquistador: Hernando De Soto (c.1496/1497 - 1542) was a Spanish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_people) explorer and conquistador (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conquistador) who, while leading the first European (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe) expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States), was the first European to discover the Mississippi River (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River).A vast undertaking, de Soto's expedition ranged throughout the southeastern United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_United_States) searching for gold and a passage to China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China). De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River) at present-day Lake Village, Arkansas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Village,_Arkansas).Hernando de Soto was born to parents who were hidalgos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidalgo_(Spanish_nobility)) of modest means in Extremadura (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremadura), a region of poverty and hardship from which many young people looked for ways to seek their fortune elsewhere. Two towns—Badajoz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badajoz) and Bacarrota (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bacarrota&action=edit&redlink=1)—claim to be his birthplace. All that is known with certainty is that he spent time as a child at both places, and he stipulated in his will that his body be interred at Jerez de los Caballeros, where other members of his family were also interred.reconquest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquista) of the Iberian peninsula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberian_peninsula) from Islamic forces. Spain and Portugal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal) were filled with young men begging for a chance to find military fame after the Moors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors) were defeated. With discovery of new lands to the west (which seemed at the time to be East Asia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia)), the whispers of glory and wealth were too compelling for the poor.De Soto sailed to the New World (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World) in 1514 with the first Governor of Panama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama), Pedrarias Dávila (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedrarias_D%C3%A1vila). Brave leadership, unwavering loyalty, and clever schemes for the extortion of native villages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas) for their captured chiefs became de Soto's hallmark during the Conquest of Ce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Panama)ntral America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Panama). He gained fame as an excellent horseman, fighter, and tactician, but was notorious for the extreme brutality with which he wielded these gifts. Read more about de Soto HERE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto_(explorer)) 

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[Old Salt]

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