Short answers, pulled from the story.
Louisiana uses parishes rather than counties because of its French Catholic colonial heritage, making it the only U.S. state organized this way. Parishes are equivalent to counties and reflect the administrative and religious structure established during French rule. Alaska is the only other state not divided into counties, using boroughs instead.
Louisiana became the 18th U.S. state on the 30th of April 1812, following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The United States bought the entire Louisiana Territory of 828,000 square miles from Napoleon for sixty million francs, roughly $15 million. The deal was negotiated by Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe after French foreign minister Talleyrand unexpectedly offered the full territory on the 11th of April 1803.
The Louisiana Territory was purchased for less than three cents an acre. The total price was approximately $15 million for 828,000 square miles, though France ultimately received only $8,831,250 in cash after Napoleon sold the American bonds at a discount to European banking houses.
Louisiana lost 1,800 square miles of land between 1932 and 2010 due to rising sea levels and erosion. Some researchers estimate the state is currently losing land equivalent to 30 football fields every day. The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority spends around $1 billion per year in combined federal and state funding to address the problem.
Natchitoches, established in 1714 along the Red River in present-day northwest Louisiana, is the oldest permanent European settlement in the state. It was founded by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis and quickly grew into a flourishing river port and trade crossroads.
Hurricane Katrina struck on the 29th of August 2005, causing levee breaches that flooded more than 80% of New Orleans. Tens of thousands of people, many of them African American, were unable to evacuate and were stranded during the catastrophic flooding. The storm caused widespread death and displacement across New Orleans and other low-lying parts of the Gulf coast.