Mississippi has a long history of writers, dating back more than 400 years to the earliest European explorers such as Hernando De Soto. Nevertheless, it wasn't until the nineteenth century, when the territory now called Mississippi became part of the United States, that it began to hit its stride in literary endeavors. Below is a brief history of significant events in the history, both literary and otherwise, of Mississippi. To jump quickly to a specific year, you may use the pull-down menu at the left, or you may want to view individual decades from the links below. You may also browse by a specific date in Mississippi literary history.

Note: In most cases, timeline entries are added as articles on individual authors are added to the writer listings.

				1540s	1550s
				1540 1541 1542 -- -- -- -- -- -- --	-- -- -- -- -- -- -- 1557 -- --
							1670s	1680s	1690s
							-- -- -- 1673 -- -- -- -- -- --	-- -- 1682 -- 1684 1685 -- -- -- --	-- -- -- 1693 -- -- -- -- -- 1699
1700s	1710s	1720s	1730s	1740s	1750s	1760s	1770s	1780s	1790s
1700 1701 1702 -- 1704 -- 1706 -- -- --	-- -- 1712 1713 -- -- 1716 1717 1718 1719	1720 -- 1722 -- 1724 1725 -- -- -- 1729	-- 1731 1732 -- 1734 -- 1736 -- -- 1739	1740 -- -- -- 1744 -- 1746 -- -- --	1750 -- -- 1753 1754 -- -- -- -- --	-- -- 1762 1763 1764 1765 -- 1767 -- --	1770 1771 -- -- 1774 -- 1776 -- 1778 1779	-- -- -- 1783 -- 1785 -- 1787 -- --	1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799
1800s	1810s	1820s	1830s	1840s	1850s	1860s	1870s	1880s	1890s
1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809	1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819	1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829	1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839	1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849	1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859	1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869	1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879	1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889	1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900s	1910s	1920s	1930s	1940s	1950s	1960s	1970s	1980s	1990s
1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909	1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919	1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929	1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939	1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949	1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959	1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969	1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979	1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000s	2010s
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009	2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019