René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetRené-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
French explorer
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Rouen, Normandy, France
About René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
- René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687) was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America.
- He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico.
- He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France. La Salle is often credited with being the first European to traverse the Ohio River, and sometimes the Mississippi as well.
- It has now been established that Joliet and Marquette preceded him on the Mississippi in their journey of 1673–74, and the existing historical evidence does not indicate that La Salle ever reached the Ohio/Allegheny Valley.
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