LA SALLE, REN-ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR (LORD) DE

born Nov. 22, 1643, Rouen, France died March 19, 1687, near Brazos River [now in Texas, U.S.] French explorer in North America, who led an expedition down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and claimed all the region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for Louis XIV of France, naming the region Louisiana. A few years later, in a luckless expedition seeking the mouth of the Mississippi, he was murdered by his men.