BILOXI--"Set Sail: Rediscover Biloxi" is the tag line for the
Mississippi Gulf Coast's 300th anniversary celebration, to be held
throughout 1999.
On Feb. 13, 1699, Pierre Le Moyne Sieur d'Iberville landed on
the shore of what today is known as Biloxi and marked the beginning
of the exploration and strategic occupation of the lower
Mississippi Valley by the French.
The city will celebrate by paying tribute to d'Iberville. The
Biloxi Tercentennial will incorporate traditional events and
exhibit with new ones focusing on arts and culture, education,
history and sports.
Biloxi is on a peninsula facing the Gulf of Mexico and extending
to the Back Bay and the Tchoutica-bouffa River. Twenty-six miles of
beach line the coast where 300 years ago d'Iberville and his men
landed.