September 26, 1765

Jean-Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe, a French officer, trader, and explorer, died in St. Malo, France. He was the first European explorer to record the existence of a large rocky bluff on the north bank of the Arkansas River. This major outcrop of rock is just upstream from a smaller rock, where it was possible to ford the river. It was at this location that the settlement of Little Rock (Pulaski County) subsequently developed.