| 1756 |
Laussat is born in Pau, France to a family of distinguished lineage. He is intelligent enough to serve under the French monarchy, survive the revolution to serve on Napoleon s legislature and then with the Bourbon kings afterward. |
| 1803 March 23 |
Laussat arrives in New Orleans as Napoleon's Colonial Prefect, the French Commissioner appointed to reclaim Louisiana for France. |
| 1803 April 1 |
Laussat is met by William E. Hullings who is acting as the unofficial American consul. Hullings sends dispatches to Secretary of State Madison which say that Laussat denies that the order to close the port last year was a French decision. Laussat does not recognize any consuls in New Orleans at this time and declares that he expects a large number of French troops to arrive soon. Eleven days later Hullings writes that the troops are in Saint Domingue to quell the slave rebellion there. The rumor mill in New Orleans now believes that Spain will not cede Louisiana after all. |
| 1803 August |
Laussat hears nothing official about the sale of Louisiana to the U. S. until August, although rumors had reached New York and Washington months previously. |
| 1803 November 30 |
Laussat accepts possession of Louisiana from Spain in a retrocession ceremony at noon of November 30. |
| 1803 December 20 |
Laussat represents France in the formal transfer of Louisiana to the United States. His brief stay in New Orleans is filled with balls and soirees and parties through the night with his wife, three daughters and the many Creole, French, Spanish and American dignitaries. |
| 1804 |
Laussat leaves New Orleans in April of 1804 to take the post of colonial prefect of Martinique. |
| 1823 |
Later he serves Napoleon in Belgium and the Bourbon rulers as colonial prefect to French Guiana until 1923. |
| 1835 |
Laussat retires to the ancestral chateau in France and dies in 1835. |