Hernando de Soto – circa 1496/97–1542

This Spanish explorer and conquistador was one of the conquerors of Central America and Peru, then ventured into the region that is now the southeastern United States. He explored Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee, reaching the Mississippi River (at present-day Memphis) on May 21, 1541—the first white man to do so. Stricken by fever here, Soto was buried on the river’s bank.