René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a prominent 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored regions around the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. La Salle is most renowned for his 1682 expedition, where he traveled down the lower Mississippi from the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico. On April 9, 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France, naming it La Louisiane in honor of Louis XIV and Saint Louis. As one source notes, La Salle "acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent." A later expedition along the Gulf Coast, which included present-day Texas, indirectly contributed to the United States' eventual claim to Texas through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. La Salle was assassinated in 1687 during this expedition. Although explorers Joliet and Marquette had reached the upper Mississippi earlier in 1673–74, La Salle expanded French exploration and territorial claims to the river's mouth. Available historical evidence suggests he did not, however, reach the Ohio or Allegheny Valley.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle - Wikipedia