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1721: Colonel John BARNWELL, of South Carolina, builds Fort King George at the mouth of the Altamaha River. This is the first British settlement in what will be Georgia.
13 Feb 1730: First written mention of Georgia. Earl of Egmont's journal. Georgia purchased Egmont's Journal of the Transaction of the Trustees for $16,000 in 1946. It is known as Georgia's birth certificate.
17 Nov 1732: James Oglethorpe and the 114 chosen colonists embark on the Ann from Gravesend, England. Two children die on the voyage. Four are born.
12 Feb 1733: English colonists led by James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, Georgia. General James Edward Oglethorpe sailed up the Savannah River with 144 English men, women and children and in the name of King George II chartered the Georgia Crown Colony. He created the town of Savannah, based on a grid of streets around six large squares.
6 Apr 1733: The death of Dr. William COX is the first recorded English death in Georgia.
8 Jan 1734: The Purrysburg sailed from Dover, England carrying 73 new Georgia colonists. Of the group, most were German Lutherans who had fled persecution in the Catholic region of Salzburg, which was located between Bavaria and upper Austria. This was the first of three shiploads of Salzburgers that would settle in Georgia.
10 Jan 1736: The Prince of Wales arrived at Savannah. Aboard were Hugh MACKAY and a group of Highlanders he had recruited in Scotland to erect a settlement on Barnwell Bluff on the north banks of the mouth of the Altamaha River. Here, near the site where Fort King George had been built 15 years earlier, the Highlanders laid out what would become known as Darien.
Oct 1739: England declares war on Spain.
15 Apr 1741: Trustees divide Georgia into two counties: Savannah and Frederica. William STEPHENS is appointed president of Savannah at a salary of £80 per year.
7 Jul 1742: A Spanish force invading Georgia ran headlong into the colony's British defenders. A handful of British and Spanish colonial troops faced each other on a Georgia coastal island and decided the fate of a colony. General James Edward Oglethorpe led a victory over the Spanish at Bloody Marsh on St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia.
25 Jul 1742: First Thanksgiving Day in Georgia.
11 Jul 1743: William Stephens becomes President of Georgia.
1749: The law prohibiting the importation of slaves repealed. Georgia planters were hiring South Carolina slaves for life and even openly purchasing slaves at the dock in Savannah.
Apr 1751: William Stephens retires and becomes the first person to receive a pension from Georgia.
8 Apr 1751: Henry PARKER is appointed president of Georgia.
6 Dec 1752: Patrick GRAHAM appointed president of Georgia on Henry Parker's death.
5 Mar 1754: A plan for establishing a civil government in Georgia is submitted.
May 1754: Benjamin Franklin draws up a plan of union and publishes his famous Unite or Die cartoon. The cartoon supposedly shows a serpent divided into 10 pieces with the head labeled NE for New England and the other segments labeled NY, NJ, P, M, V, NC, SC, and G. The plan of union is rejected.
21 Jun 1754: Seal for Georgia approved by George II.
29 Oct 1754: Georgia's first royal governor, REYNOLDS, arrives at Savannah.
16 Feb 1757: Reynolds is relieved by Lieutenant Governor Henry ELLIS and ordered to London for an investigation of his governorship.
17 Mar 1758: Georgia organized into eight parishes: Christ Church, Saint Andrew, Saint George, Saint James, Saint John, Saint Matthew, Saint Paul, and Saint Philip.
25 Oct 1760: George II dies after a 33-year reign at the age of 77. George III begins a disastrous 60-year reign.
4 May 1761: James WRIGHT appointed governor.
7 Apr 1763: The Georgia Gazette, the first newspaper in Georgia, begins publication.
5 Apr 1764: Sugar Act passed. First serious dispute between the colonies and Great Britain.
1765: Four additional parishes created: Saint Mary, Saint Thomas, Saint David, and Saint Patrick.
2 May 1765: The Georgia Gazette suspends publication due to Stamp Act passed a little over a month earlier.
1766: South Carolina denounces Georgia and resolves to burn all vessels trading with Georgia and to hang all persons trafficking with Georgia. South Carolina threatens to invade Georgia in order to teach Georgians to love liberty.
21 May 1766: The Georgia Gazette resumes publication.
29 Jun 1767: The Townshend Revenue Act passed by Parliament. It imposes duties on tea, glass, paint, oil, lead, and paper imported into the colonies.
5 Mar 1770: The date of the Boston Massacre. British troops fire into a rioting mob killing five men and wounding six. The British Captain and his men are tried for murder and acquitted. The prosecutor is Robert Treat PAINE and the defense attorneys are John ADAMS and Josiah QUINCY.
5 Sep 1774: First Continental Congress in Philadelphia is attended by twelve of the nineteen continental colonies. Georgia did not attend.
20 Oct 1774: The Continental Congress adopts "The Association," an agreement to import nothing from Great Britain after 1 December 1774 and to export nothing to Great Britain, Ireland, or the British West Indies after 10 September 1775, unless grievances against the Crown are redressed. The Association is ratified within six months by all colonies except Georgia and New York.
Dec 1774: St. Johns Parish ratifies the acts of the Continental Congress and attempts to secede from Georgia and join South Carolina. St. Johns elects its own delegate, Lyman HALL, to the Continental Congress. The Continental Congress banned all intercourse with Georgia except for St. Johns Parish.
13 Aug 1775: George III proclaims the Americas in a State of Rebellion.
1776: South Carolina adopts a resolution to annex Georgia and threatens to destroy Georgia by constructing a town opposite Savannah and drying up Georgia's commerce.
Feb 1776: The Georgia Gazette ceases publication.
2 Jul 1776: The Continental Congress, with New York abstaining, declared the United Colonies free and independent states.
5 Feb 1777: The twelve parishes are organized into eight counties: Burke, Camden, Chatham, Effingham, Glynn, Liberty, Richmond, and Wilkes.
29 Dec 1778: British troops captured Savannah.
1779: The Georgia Gazette resumes publication as the Royal Georgia Gazette.
31 Jan 1779: British take Augusta.
11 Oct 1779: Polish nobleman Casimir PULASKI was killed while fighting for American independence during the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah, Georgia.
3 Feb 1780: Heard's Fort designated as Capital of Georgia.
1 Mar 1781: Articles of Confederation signed.
3 Jan 1782: John MARTIN is appointed governor.
1783: The Georgia Gazette resumes publication as the Gazette of the State of Georgia.
8 Jan 1783: Lyman HALL is appointed governor.
9 Jan 1784: John HOUSTOUN is appointed governor.
25 Feb 1784: Franklin and Washington Counties are created.
6 Jan 1785: Samuel ELBERT is appointed governor.
28 Jan 1785: University of Georgia is founded.
7 Feb 1785: Bourbon County, Georgia is created.
9 Jan 1786: Edward TELFAIR is appointed governor.
3 Feb 1786: Greene County is created.
5 Jan 1787: George MATHEWS is appointed governor.
1788: Bourbon County Act repealed.
2 Jan 1788: Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the US Constitution.
25 Jan 1788: George HANDLEY is appointed governor.
7 Jan 1789: George WALTON is appointed governor.
9 Nov 1789: Edward Telfair is appointed governor.
10 Dec 1790: Columbia and Elbert Counties created.
1792: Eli WHITNEY, 27, invents a gin capable of handling short stapled upland cotton at Mulberry Grove Plantation in Georgia.
1793: George Mathews appointed governor.
19 Dec 1793: Hancock, Bryan, McIntosh, Montgomery, Oglethorpe, and Warren Counties created.
7 Jan 1795: Yazoo Land Act signed into law by Governor George Mathews.
15 Jan 1796: Jared IRWIN is appointed governor.
8 Feb 1796: Bullock County is created.
11 Feb 1796: Jackson County is created.
18 Feb 1796: Yazoo Land Act rescinded.
20 Feb 1796: Lincoln County is created.
1798: Georgia forbids further importation of slaves.
12 Jan 1798: James JACKSON is appointed governor.
7 Nov 1801: Joshia TATTNALL, Jr. is appointed governor.
5 Dec 1801: Clarke and Tatnall Counties created.
4 Nov 1802: John MILLEDGE is appointed governor.
11 May 1803: Baldwin, Wayne, and Wilkinson Counties are created.
9 Jan 1805: Politician and doctor Noble Wimberly JONES died in Savannah. Born in England around 1723, he and his family were among the original Georgia colonists who arrived with James Oglethorpe in 1733. At age 16, Jones became a cadet and subsequently an officer in Oglethorpe's military force. By the late 1740's, he had learned the practice of medicine from his father and partly from his own experiences. In 1755, after Georgia became a royal colony, Jones was elected to the Commons House of Assembly, where he was elected speaker (1768-69). Soon, however, Jones became part of the Whig movement, and by 1774 was an active patriot. During the American Revolution, he was captured by the British and imprisoned at St. Augustine. After the war, Jones moved to Charleston, but in 1788 returned to Savannah. Here, he practiced medicine the rest of his life, getting involved with politics one more time to preside over Georgia's 1795 constitutional convention. As a measure of his reputation as a doctor, Jones was elected first president of the Georgia Medical Society in 1804.
10 Dec 1807: Jasper, Jones, Laurens, Morgan, Putnam, and Telfair Counties are created.
13 Dec 1808: Pulaski County is created.
10 Nov 1809: David B. MITCHELL is appointed governor.
14 Dec 1809: Twiggs County is created.
5 Dec 1811: Madison County is created.
1812: Alexander Hamilton STEPHENS was born near Crawfordville, Georgia. He is best known as Vice President of the Confederate States of America. Stephens, who served in the US House of Representatives from 1843 to 1859, was a delegate at the Montgomery meeting that formed a new union of the seceded states. He was elected vice president to Jefferson DAVIS on 9 Feb 1861. Stephens was later elected governor of Georgia in 1882 but died after serving just a few months.
10 Dec 1812: Emanual County is created.
5 Nov 1813: Peter EARLY is appointed governor.
1816: William H. CRAWFORD of Georgia, last Federalist candidate for president, loses to James MONROE 183 to 34 electoral votes.
1817: First Seminole War battle begins as Georgia backwoodsmen attack Indians just north of the Florida border.
4 Nov 1817: William RABUN is appointed governor.
15 Dec 1818: Appling, Early, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Irwin, and Walton Counties are created.
26 May 1819: The first steam-propelled vessel to attempt a trans-Atlantic crossing, the Savannah, departed from Savannah, Georgia, 26 May and arrived in Liverpool, England, 20 Jun.
5 Nov 1819: John CLARK is appointed governor.
21 Dec 1819: Rabun County is created.
11 Jan 1820: Sometime after 1 AM, a fire broke out in a livery stable behind a boarding house in Savannah. The fire spread to Bay Street and then on the city market, where illegal kegs of gunpowder were stored. There was a massive explosion, resulting in the fire spreading throughout the city. By the next afternoon, 463 buildings had been burned to the ground, and two out of every three Savannah residents were homeless. The cause of the fire was never officially determined, though it was believed to have been arson.
8 Jan 1821: Meeting at Chief William MCINTOSH's settlement at Indian Springs, Creek and US representatives signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, in which the Creeks ceded their lands between the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers. For the first time, Georgia's boundaries extended westward beyond the Ocmulgee River.
15 May 1821: Dooly, Fayette, Henry, Houston, Monroe, and Newton Counties are created.
15 Dec 1821: Governor John Clark signs a bill establishing Clinton Female Academy.
9 Dec 1822: Bibb, Dekalb, and Pike Counties are created.
7 Nov 1823: George M. TROUP is appointed governor.
8 Dec 1823: Decatur County is created.
15 Dec 1824: Upson and Ware Counties are created.
9 Jun 1825: Carroll, Coweta, Lee, Muscogee, and Troup Counties are created.
12 Dec 1825: Baker County is created.
23 Dec 1825: Lowndes and Thomas Counties are created.
24 Dec 1825: Butts and Taliaferro Counties are created.
7 Nov 1827: John FORSYTH is appointed governor.
1828: Gold is discovered in Georgia.
4 Nov 1829: George R. GILMER is appointed governor.
21 Dec 1830: Cherokee County is created.
22 Dec 1830: Heard County is created.
23 Dec 1830: Stewart County is created.
1831: The 16 1/2 mile Savannah-Ogeechee Canal was built by slaves and Irish workers to transport cotton and timber between the 2 rivers.
18 Mar 1831: US Supreme Court rules that an Indian tribe may not sue in federal court in Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia.
9 Nov 1831: Wilson LUMPKIN is appointed governor.
26 Dec 1831: Sumter County is created.
3 Mar 1832: US Supreme Court rules that the US Government has exclusive authority over tribal Indians and their lands within any state in Worcester vs. Georgia.
3 Dec 1832: Bartow, Cobb, Floyd, Forsyth, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Murray, Paulding, and Union Counties are created.
9 Dec 1832: Crawford County is created.
1833: Hardy IVY builds a cabin on land that will become Atlanta.
18 Dec 1833: Walker County is created.
9 Jul 1834: The S.S. John Randolph, the first successful iron steamship, is launched in Savannah.
4 Nov 1835: William SCHLEY is appointed governor.
19 Dec 1836: Emory College is established.
14 Dec 1837: Macon County is created.
25 Dec 1837: Dade County is created.
1838: Trail of Tears. Cherokees are expelled from Georgia. The Undergound Railroad starts.
28 Dec 1838: Chattooga County is created.
7 Jan 1839: The Georgia Female College opened in Macon with ninety students in the initial class. Chartered by the General Assembly on 23 Dec 1836, it was the first female college with degree-granting powers to be chartered by any state. In 1919, the school's name was changed to Wesleyan College.
12 May 1839: Georgia Historical Society is founded.
6 Nov 1839: Charles J. MCDONALD is appointed governor.
1842: Crawford W. LONG performs first recorded operation under general anesthesia. Ether parties are a trend, and Long notices the absence of pain in guests that fall down and bruise themselves. He removes a cyst from James VENABLE's neck while Venable is under the influence of ether. Sidney LANIER, poet, was born in Macon. He died in 1881.
1844: Crawford W. Long uses ether in childbirth at Jefferson, Georgia. He administers ether to his wife during the birth of their second child.
1845: The Methodist Episcopal Church in America splits into northern and southern conferences after Georgia Bishop James O. ANDREWS resists an order to give up his slaves or resign his Bishopric.
1847: Atlanta, Georgia is incorporated. It was formally Marthasville,
named for Martha Wilson LUMPKIN daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin. [For more information, click here.]
3 Nov 1847: George W.B. TOWNS is appointed governor.
1849: Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute established in Forsyth. This institution will become Tiff College.
13 Feb 1850: Gordon County is created.
14 Feb 1850: Clinch County is created.
16 Feb 1851: Clay County is created.
14 Aug 1851: Doc HOLLIDAY was born in Griffin, Georgia.
5 Nov 1851: Howell COBB is appointed governor.
20 Dec 1851: Polk and Spalding Counties are created.
30 Dec 1851: Whitfield County is created.
1852: Male and Female Seminary established in Barnesville. This school will become Gordon Military College in 1927.
15 Jan 1852: Taylor County is created.
9 Nov 1853: Hershel V. JOHNSON is appointed governor.
5 December 1853: Catoosa and Pickens Counties are created.
7 Dec 1853: Hart County is created.
15 Dec 1853: Dougherty County is created.
16 Dec 1853: Webster County is created.
20 Dec 1853: Fulton and Worth Counties are created.
21 Jan 1854: Fannin County is created.
9 Feb 1854: Coffee County is created.
13 Feb 1854: Chattahooche County is created.
18 Feb 1854: Charlton County is created.
20 Feb 1854: Calhoun County is created.
1 Jan 1856: Lawyer and well-known Georgia politician John Macpherson BERRIEN died in Savannah. He was born on 23 Aug 1781 in Princeton, New Jersey. Two years later, his parents moved to Savannah, where at age 18 he began the practice of law. In 1822, Berrien served a term in the Georgia Senate, and in 1824 the General Assembly elected him to serve in the US Senate. In 1829, Berrien resigned to serve as President Andrew Jackson's attorney general. In 1831, he returned to practice law in Savannah, where he helped form the Georgia State Rights party. In 1840, Berrien was reelected to the Georgia Senate, where he served for the next 12 years. Afterwards, he practiced law in Savannah until his death. The next month, the General Assembly created a new county and named it in his honor.
26 Jan 1856: Haralson County is created.
16 Feb 1856: Terrell County is created.
25 Feb 1856: Berrien and Colquit Counties are created.
26 Feb 1856: Miller County is created.
6 Mar 1856: Towns County is created.
6 Nov 1857: Joseph E. BROWN is appointed governor.
3 Dec 1857: Dawson County is created.
18 Dec 1857: Milton and Pierce Counties are created.
19 Dec 1857: Glascock County is created.
21 Dec 1857: Mitchell County is created.
22 Dec 1857: Schley, White, and Wilcox Counties are created.
30 Nov 1858: Clayton County is created.
10 Dec 1858: Quitman County is created.
11 Dec 1858: Banks, Brooks, and Johnson Counties are created.
13 Dec 1858: Echols County is created.
1859: Georgia prohibits the post-mortum freeing of slaves by last will and testament. The state legislature votes to permit free blacks to be sold into slavery if they have been indicted as criminals.
19 Jan 1861: Georgia seceded from the Union.
1862: The C.S. Arsenal at Findlay Iron Works in Macon begins the manufacture of about 80 1,500-pound bronze canon.
9 Mar 1862: US forces occupy Jekyll Island.
10 Apr 1862: Union forces began the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia along the Tybee River.
12 Apr 1862: Union volunteers led by James J. Andrews stole a Confederate train near Marietta, Georgia, but were later caught.
28 Feb 1863: Four Union gunboats destroyed the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Georgia.
11 Apr 1863: Fort Pulaski, Georgia captured by US forces.
18 Sep 1863: Union cavalry troops clashed with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
19 Sep 1863: In Georgia, the two-day Battle of Chickamauga began as Union troops under George Thomas clashed with Confederates under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
1864: During the Battle of Dunlap Hill a Union cannonball lodged into the side of a house in Macon that later became known as the Cannonball House.
27 Feb 1864: First Union prisoners arrived at Andersonville Prison in Georgia.
8 May 1864: The Atlanta Campaign saw severe fighting at Rocky Face Ridge.
17 May 1864: The Battle of Adairsville, Georgia resulted in a Confederate retreat.
4 Jun 1864: With General Sherman again flanking them, Confederates under General Joseph Johnston retreated to the mountains before Marietta, Georgia.
14 Jun 1864: At the Battle of Pine Mountain, Georgia, Confederate General Leonidas Polk was killed by a Union shell.
19 Jun 1864: Skirmish at Pine Knob, Georgia.
27 Jun 1864: Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.
8 Jul 1864: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreated into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by Union General William T. Sherman.
20 Jul 1864: Confederate General John Bell Hood attacked Union forces under General William T. Sherman outside Atlanta. General Hood lashed out against the Union right wing north of the city. Repulsed but undaunted, Hood turned to strike the Federal left wing, Major General James B. McPherson's Army of the Tennessee, east of Atlanta. He deployed Major General Benjamin F. Chatham's corps northeast of the city and sent Lieutenant General William J. Hardee's corps around McPherson's left flank with orders to crush the Army of the Tennessee on the morning of July 22. Both corps were then to assail the rest of Sherman's host.
22 Jul 1864: The Battle of Atlanta reached its peak when Confederate General John Bell Hood launched an all-out attack on Union General William T. Sherman's Army. Union General James McPherson was killed repulsing a Confederate attack. The Federal officer who sent his men naked against the enemy was Colonel James P. Brownlow of the 1st (Union) Tennessee Cavalry.
10 Aug 1864: Confederate Commander John Bell HOOD sent his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union General William SHERMAN's supply lines.
18 Aug 1864: Union General William T. Sherman sent General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of communication outside Atlanta. The raid was unsuccessful. Union General William Sherman considered Judson Kilpatrick, his cavalry chief, "a hell of a damn fool."
2 Sep 1864: Union General William T. Sherman's forces occupied Atlanta.
11 Sep 1864: A 10-day truce was declared between generals Sherman and Hood so civilians could leave Atlanta, Georgia.
5 Oct 1864: Battle of Allatoona, Georgia.
15 Nov 1864: Union Major General William T. Sherman's troops set fires that destroyed much of Atlanta.
23 Nov 1864: US troops enter Milledgeville. Secretary of State Nathan C. BARNETT hides the Great Seal of State under his house and the legislature minutes in a hog pen.
12 Dec 1864: Battle between Confederate Gunboats on the Savannah River and US field artillery.
13 Dec 1864: US troops capture Fort McAllister, Georgia.
20 Dec 1864: Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Georgia, as Union General William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."
22 Dec 1864: General Sherman telegraphed President Lincoln from Georgia, saying: "I beg to present to you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah with 150 guns and plenty of ammunition."
16 Jan 1865: General Sherman began a march through the Carolinas. Sherman issued an order that set aside land in Georgia and South Carolina for freed slaves.
10 May 1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops near Irvinville, Georgia.
10 Nov 1865: Commandant of Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, Georgia is hanged in Washington's Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C.
1866: Kentucky sends Georgia 100,000 bushels of corn.
1867: Atlanta University is founded.
30 Mar 1867: General John POPE, appointed to take command of the 3rd military district, arrives in Georgia.
May 1867: General Pope closes the University of Georgia.
9 Dec 1867: Constitutional Convention meets in Atlanta. 169 total delegates attend.
25 Jun 1868: Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were re-admitted to the Union.
13 Jul 1868: General Thomas KRUGER appointed military governor of Georgia. He's the last governor to live in Milledgevile.
28 Jun 1869: Governor Rufus B. BULLOCK, leases Grant, Alexander and Co. all convicts in the Georgia penitentiary for two years.
Dec 1869: Third Reconstruction. US army reoccupies Georgia. General Alfred H. TERRY is appointed military governor.
Oct 1870: Bullock secretly resigns and flees Georgia.
17 Oct 1870: Douglas County is created.
18 Oct 1870: McDuffie and Rockdale Counties are created.
26 Oct 1870: Dodge County is created.
Feb 1871: Georgia is finally represented in both houses of congress.
Jefferson LONG of Macon was the lone African American congressman.
1872: US forces evacuate Georgia.
12 Jan 1872: James M. SMITH is appointed governor.
25 Feb 1875: Oconee County is created.
1876: The state capital was moved from Milledgeville, originally designed to be the state capital, to Atlanta.
1881: The M. Rich Dry Goods Store is opened on Whitehall Street in Atlanta by Moris RICH. It will become Rich's of Atlanta.
13 Aug 1881: The first African American nursing school opened at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
1882: Alexander Hamilton Stephens was elected governor of Georgia but died after serving just a few months.
1883: New capitol building approved. It will be constructed of Indiana limestone rather than Georgia marble and completed in 1889.
10 May 1883: Henry D. MCDANIEL is appointed governor.
13 Oct 1885: The Georgia Institute of Technology is established by Act of the General Assembly.
29 Mar 1886: Coca-Cola went on sale for the first time at a drugstore in Atlanta. Its inventor, Dr. John PEMBERTON, claimed it could cure anything from hysteria to the common cold. Pemberton, a pharmacist, concocted a bath of a dark, sugary syrup meant to be mixed with carbonated water and sold at the city's soda fountains. This was the beginning of Coca Cola, which then contained enough cocaine to give the a drinker a buzz and more caffeine than the drink contains today. Sales at the soda fountain of Jacob's Pharmacy averaged 9 drinks a day in the first year. The story is told by Frederick Allen in his book Secret Formula. The drink was named by Frank ROBINSON and he created its signature script logo.
9 Nov 1886: John B. GORDON is appointed governor.
8 Nov 1887: John Henry "Doc" Holiday, Atlanta dentist and gunfighter dies at Glenwood Springs, Colorado from tuberculosis at the ripe old age of 35. Doc Holiday had went west in 1873 after being given two years to live. Just before dying he downed a large glass of whiskey, glanced at his bootless feet and exclaimed, "I'll be dammed!" He had always expected to die with his boots on.
5 Aug 1889: Conrad Potter AIKEN, American poet, was born in Savannah. He died 17 Aug 1973 in Savannah, and was buried in the Boneventure Cemetery.
1 Jan 1897: Atlanta University and Tuskegee Institute played the first African American collegiate football game. The game, played in Atlanta, was won by Atlanta University.
23 Apr 1899: Some 2000 people gathered near Atlanta to watch the lynching of Sam HOSE, a black man questionably accused of murdering a white planter and raping his wife. His ears and fingers were cut off and his face was skinned before he was burned in kerosene soaked wood. His and other stories were later told in the book: Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow by Leon F. Litwack.
8 Nov 1890: William J. NORTHERN is appointed governor.
1891: Jim Crow laws enacted in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee. First Garden Club founded in Athens.
1893: Public hangings are abolished.
1894: Georgia sends food to assist farmers in the midwest. Two trainloads of flour, corn meal, and cattle food are sent to Nebraska.
27 Oct 1894: William Y. ATKINSON is appointed governor.
29 Oct 1898: Allen D. CANDLER is appointed governor.
1 Jun 1903: A devastating tornado tore through Gainesville and New Holland (a mill village) killing 98 people and injuring 300. This is still considered one of the 25 deadliest tornadoes.
2 Jan 1904: Opera tenor, recording artist, and actor James MELTON was born in Moultrie, Georgia. He would die 21 April 1961 in New York City. Former Confederate general James LONGSTREET died in Gainesville, Georgia.
28 Dec 1904: Farmers in Georgia burned two million bales of cotton to prop up falling prices.
1905: Royal Crown Cola is bottled in Columbus, Georgia by Claude A. HATCHER, a local grocery wholesaler.
17 Aug 1905: Crisp, Grady, Jenkins, and Tift Counties are created.
18 Aug 1905: Jeff Davis, Stephens, Toombs, and Turner Counties are created.
31 Jul 1906: Ben Hill County is created.
22 Sep 1906: Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 21 people.
29 Jun 1907: Hoke Smith is appointed governor.
1908: Convict lease system abolished. It was replaced by the notorious "Chain Gangs."
18 Nov 1909: John Herndon MERCER (Johnny Mercer), songwriter, was born. He died on 25 Jun 1976, and was buried in Boneventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.
4 Jul 1910: Three blacks killed at Uvalda, Georgia over James JEFFRIES loss to Jack Johnson in a boxing match. Riots ensue in Boston, Cincinnati, Houston, New York, and Norfolk.
1912: White residents of Forsyth County, Georgia drive the African American population out.
12 Mar 1912: Juliette Gordon LOW organized the Girl Guides, the first Girl Scouts troop in America, at the 1848 Andrew Low House in Savannah.
26 Apr 1913: Mary PHAGAN (13) was killed at an Atlanta pencil factory. She had stopped to pick up her check on her way to Peachtree Street to see a Confederate Memorial Day Parade. Leo FRANK (29), a Jewish factory manager, was falsely accused of raping and murdering the young working-class girl. The story is covered in the novel The Old Religion by David Mamet. In addition to the novel, click here to learn more of this story.
28 Jun 1913: John M. SLAYTON is appointed governor.
7 Jul 1914: Barrow County is created.
27 Jul 1914: Bacon County is created.
11 Aug 1914: Evans County is created.
26 Jun 1915: Nathaniel E. HARRIS is appointed governor.
18 Nov 1915: A new Ku Klux Klan is started on Stone Mountain by William Joseph SIMMONS.
30 Jun 1917: Hugh M. DORSEY is appointed governor.
5 Aug 1917: Atkinson County is created.
30 Jul 1918: Cook County is created.
8 Jul 1920: Seminole County is created.
7 Aug 1920: Lanier County is created.
14 Aug 1920: Brantley and Long Counties are created.
17 Aug 1920: Lamar County is created.
1921: Boll weevil cuts Georgia and South Carolina Cotton production in half.
25 Jun 1921: Thomas W. HARDWICK is appointed governor.
3 Oct 1922: Rebecca L. FELTON, D-Ga., became the first woman to be seated in the US Senate.
30 Jun 1923: George Washington CARVER testifies before House Ways and Means Committee on the value of peanuts which are being planted in greater quantities by Georgia and South Carolina farmers.
1924: The 600-room Biltmore Hotel opened in Atlanta. It was developed by William Candler. It was designed in a neo-Georgian style by New York architect Leonard Schultze. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The electric chair replaced hanging as the means of execution.
18 Jul 1924: Peach County is created.
1 Oct 1924: Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States, was born in Plains, Georgia.
15 Jan 1929: Martin Luther King Jr., American Baptist Minister and Civil Rights leader, was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. King began his involvement in the civil rights movement in 1955 with his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which ended segregated seating on city buses. Adopting Mohandas K. Gandhi's principles of nonviolence, King led demonstrations, sit-ins and boycotts in cities throughout the South to show the injustice of racist policies. He explained his belief in nonviolence in a letter written during one of his many incarcerations: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored...." King's efforts helped to bring about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Dr. King's leadership of the civil rights movement brought many threats against his life and on 4 Apr 1968, he was killed by a sniper's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin Luther King Day was established by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, for the third Monday in January.
1 Jan 1932: Campbell and Milton counties officially merged with Fulton County, thus reducing the number of Georgia counties from 161 to 159.
4 May 1932: Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
2 Jun 1932: George W. PERRY, a Georgia farmer, caught a record 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass with a Chubb Wiggle Fish lure at Montgomery Lake, near Jacksonville, Telfair County, Georgia [Photo]. For more information on the history of Jacksonville, please visit here. (Thank-you, Julian Williams!)
1934: The Masters golf tournament for professionals begins at Georgia's Augusta National Golf Club.
1937: Dr. Leroy BURNEY set up the country's first mobile venereal disease clinic in Brunswick, Georgia.
18 Mar 1939: Georgia finally ratified the Bill of Rights, 150 years after the birth of the federal government.
15 Dec 1939: The motion picture "Gone With the Wind" had its world premiere in Atlanta.
8 Jan 1942: One month and one day from the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the first buildings of the new Georgia Air Depot were completed. Located on a former dairy farm in Wellston, Georgia, these were used as headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers, which was building a new base for the Army Air Corps. Later, facility would become Robins Air Force Base.
28 Jan 1942: The Eighth Air Force is activated in Savannah.
12 Apr 1945: The 32nd president of the US, Franklin Delano ROOSEVELT, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, at age 63. Roosevelt, a polio victim confined to a wheelchair, spent a great deal of time in the soothing waters of the resort. He succumbed to the cerebral hemorrhage while posing for a portrait by Elizabeth SHOUMATOFF at what came to be known as the Little White House in Warm Springs, where the unfinished portrait remains on display. Lucy Rutherford Mercer, his secret companion, was at his bedside. He was succeeded by his Vice-President, Harry S. TRUMAN. The 63-year-old president had been at Warm Springs, Georgia, since March 28, resting from the rigors of leading a nation at war. Roosevelt, left paralyzed by polio in 1921, was elected to the nation's highest office four times and is judged by historians to be among the greatest American presidents. He was buried at the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, New York. The period is covered in Mr. Truman's War by Robert Moskin.
7 Dec 1946: America's worst hotel fire broke out at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, killing 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank WINECOFF.
9 Jan 1952: Georgia-born Jackie Robinson became the highest paid baseball player in Brooklyn Dodger history to that time.
20 Apr 1956: First Midas Muffler shop opens in Macon, Georgia.
14 Feb 1957: The Georgia Senate outlawed interracial athletics.
13 May 1957: The first commercial jet airliner, a French Caravelle, lands at Atlanta.
5 Frb 1958: A B-47 accidentally dropped an unarmed thermonuclear bomb at the mouth of Georgia's Savannah River. It has never been found.
4 Jan 1960: John Michael STIPE, lead singer of R.E.M., was born in Decatur, Georgia. He enrolled at the University of Georgia in 1978 intending to major in art. Soon, however, music became the important force in his life. In 1980, Stipe helped form the band that would become known as R.E.M. Quickly, the band became the most famous group to emerge from the Athens music scene, gaining national and international fame.
10 Jan 1961: The University of Georgia enrolls two African American students, Charlayne HUNTER and Hamilton HOLMES, under federal court order.
26 May 1961: Civil rights activist group Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee was established in Atlanta.
18 Sep 1961: Georgia Tech admits three African American students.
26 Jan 1964: Eighty-four people were arrested in a segregation protest in Atlanta.
20 Dec 1965: In one of the largest U.S. drug bust to date, 209 pounds of heroin was seized in Georgia.
4 Apr 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots ensue in Albany, Fort Valley, Macon, and Savannah.
12 May 1970: In Augusta, Georgia, 6 blacks were killed, 5 of them by the police.
1973: The Atlanta school system agreed to desegregate, and Alonzo A. Crim (died 2000) became its first African-American superintendent.
4 Apr 1974: Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's home-run record by hitting his 714th in Cincinnati.
2 Jul 1976: The US Supreme Court upholds Georgia's death penalty.
2 Nov 1976: Former Georgia Governor James Earl "Jimmy" Carter defeated Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford, becoming the 39th president of the US, and the first from the Deep South since the Civil War.
6 Nov 1977: 39 people were killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls Bible College in north Georgia.
1 Jan 1981: Undefeated Georgia beat Notre Dame 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.
2 May 1981: In Savannah, Georgia, Jim Williams shot and killed his younger boyfriend. Clint Eastwood based his 1997 film Midnite in the Garden of Good and Evil on this event.
Dec 1981: Evelyn Joy Ludlum, 19, of Perry, Georgia, was raped and murdered. In 1996, Ellis Wayne Felker was executed for the murder. Felker maintained his innocence. DNA evidence was available but not used. In 2000, a judge authorized DNA testing.
27 Feb 1982: Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period. Click here to read more about this case.
11 Jan 1983: Joe Frank Harris is appointed governor.
May 1983: A 40 million year-old whale fossil was found along the Savannah River in Georgia during the building of a nuclear power facility.
1983-1998: Georgia tape recorded 23 prison executions.
1 Oct 1986: Former President Jimmy Carter's presidential library and museum were dedicated in Atlanta with help from President Reagan.
1987: Billy Payne founded the Georgia Amateur Athletic Foundation to bid for the 1996 Olympic Games.
1987: Some 13,000 people fell ill in Carrollton, Georgia, from the cryptosporidium parasite in contaminated tap water.
24 Jan 1987: About 20,000 civil rights demonstrators marched through predominantly white Forsyth County, Georgia a week after a smaller march was disrupted by Ku Klux Klan members and supporters.
23 Nov 1987: Two days after a riot by Cuban inmates erupted at a detention center in Oakdale, Louisiana, Cuban detainees at a federal prison in Atlanta also rioted, seizing hostages in a drama that was not resolved until 4 December 1987.
25 Sep 1988: Former first brother Billy Carter died in Plains, Georgia, at age 51.
1991: Coca-Cola established a corporate museum in Atlanta. Zell MILLER is appointed governor.
13 Jul 1994: President Clinton visited flood-stricken Georgia, where he announced more than $60 million in aid for Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
14 Oct 1995: The Atlanta Braves won the National League pennant by beating the Cincinnati Reds and completing a four-game sweep.
28 Oct 1995: The Atlanta Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series.
1996: The funeral of the BAILEY family, killed in a tragic auto accident, was held at the all-white Southern Baptist Church, the first black funeral there since slave members departed to form their own congregation in 1862.
1997: The town of Stone Mountain elected its first black mayor, Chuck BURRIS.
20 Mar 1998: A tornado killed 11 people in northeast Georgia and 2 people in North Carolina.
8 Apr 1998: A line of storms struck the southeast and killed at least 41 people. 32 were left dead in Alabama, 8 in Georgia, and 1 in Mississippi.
25 Jan 1999: Robert Shaw, the dean of American choral conducting, died in Atlanta at age 82. He was the musical director and conductor of the Atlanta Symphony from 1967-1988.
20 May 1999: In Conyers, Georgia, a 15-year-old boy shot and wounded 6 fellow students at Heritage High School. In 2000 the boy was sentenced to 40 years in prison and 65 years of probation.
Feb 2000: Tornadoes struck southwest Georgia, and 22 people were killed.
16 Nov 2000: Hosea Williams, civil rights leader, died in Atlanta at age 74.
30 Jan 2001: Georgia lawmakers agreed to downsize the Confederate emblem on the state flag to a small symbol.
17 Feb 2001: Khalid Abdul Muhammad (born as Harold Moore), national chairman of the New Black Panther Party, died at age 53 in Marietta.
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6 Nov 1839: Charles J. MCDONALD is appointed governor.
1842: Crawford W. LONG performs first recorded operation under general anesthesia. Ether parties are a trend, and Long notices the absence of pain in guests that fall down and bruise themselves. He removes a cyst from James VENABLE's neck while Venable is under the influence of ether. Sidney LANIER, poet, was born in Macon. He died in 1881.
1844: Crawford W. Long uses ether in childbirth at Jefferson, Georgia. He administers ether to his wife during the birth of their second child.
1845: The Methodist Episcopal Church in America splits into northern and southern conferences after Georgia Bishop James O. ANDREWS resists an order to give up his slaves or resign his Bishopric.
1847: Atlanta, Georgia is incorporated. It was formally Marthasville, named for Martha Wilson LUMPKIN daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin. [For more information, click here.]
3 Nov 1847: George W.B. TOWNS is appointed governor.
1849: Forsyth Female Collegiate Institute established in Forsyth. This institution will become Tiff College.
13 Feb 1850: Gordon County is created.
14 Feb 1850: Clinch County is created.
16 Feb 1851: Clay County is created.
14 Aug 1851: Doc HOLLIDAY was born in Griffin, Georgia.
5 Nov 1851: Howell COBB is appointed governor.
20 Dec 1851: Polk and Spalding Counties are created.
30 Dec 1851: Whitfield County is created.
1852: Male and Female Seminary established in Barnesville. This school will become Gordon Military College in 1927.
15 Jan 1852: Taylor County is created.
9 Nov 1853: Hershel V. JOHNSON is appointed governor.
5 December 1853: Catoosa and Pickens Counties are created.
7 Dec 1853: Hart County is created.
15 Dec 1853: Dougherty County is created.
16 Dec 1853: Webster County is created.
20 Dec 1853: Fulton and Worth Counties are created.
21 Jan 1854: Fannin County is created.
9 Feb 1854: Coffee County is created.
13 Feb 1854: Chattahooche County is created.
18 Feb 1854: Charlton County is created.
20 Feb 1854: Calhoun County is created.
1 Jan 1856: Lawyer and well-known Georgia politician John Macpherson BERRIEN died in Savannah. He was born on 23 Aug 1781 in Princeton, New Jersey. Two years later, his parents moved to Savannah, where at age 18 he began the practice of law. In 1822, Berrien served a term in the Georgia Senate, and in 1824 the General Assembly elected him to serve in the US Senate. In 1829, Berrien resigned to serve as President Andrew Jackson's attorney general. In 1831, he returned to practice law in Savannah, where he helped form the Georgia State Rights party. In 1840, Berrien was reelected to the Georgia Senate, where he served for the next 12 years. Afterwards, he practiced law in Savannah until his death. The next month, the General Assembly created a new county and named it in his honor.
26 Jan 1856: Haralson County is created.
16 Feb 1856: Terrell County is created.
25 Feb 1856: Berrien and Colquit Counties are created.
26 Feb 1856: Miller County is created.
6 Mar 1856: Towns County is created.
6 Nov 1857: Joseph E. BROWN is appointed governor.
3 Dec 1857: Dawson County is created.
18 Dec 1857: Milton and Pierce Counties are created.
19 Dec 1857: Glascock County is created.
21 Dec 1857: Mitchell County is created.
22 Dec 1857: Schley, White, and Wilcox Counties are created.
30 Nov 1858: Clayton County is created.
10 Dec 1858: Quitman County is created.
11 Dec 1858: Banks, Brooks, and Johnson Counties are created.
13 Dec 1858: Echols County is created.
1859: Georgia prohibits the post-mortum freeing of slaves by last will and testament. The state legislature votes to permit free blacks to be sold into slavery if they have been indicted as criminals.
19 Jan 1861: Georgia seceded from the Union.
1862: The C.S. Arsenal at Findlay Iron Works in Macon begins the manufacture of about 80 1,500-pound bronze canon.
9 Mar 1862: US forces occupy Jekyll Island.
10 Apr 1862: Union forces began the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia along the Tybee River.
12 Apr 1862: Union volunteers led by James J. Andrews stole a Confederate train near Marietta, Georgia, but were later caught.
28 Feb 1863: Four Union gunboats destroyed the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Georgia.
11 Apr 1863: Fort Pulaski, Georgia captured by US forces.
18 Sep 1863: Union cavalry troops clashed with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
19 Sep 1863: In Georgia, the two-day Battle of Chickamauga began as Union troops under George Thomas clashed with Confederates under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
1864: During the Battle of Dunlap Hill a Union cannonball lodged into the side of a house in Macon that later became known as the Cannonball House.
27 Feb 1864: First Union prisoners arrived at Andersonville Prison in Georgia.
8 May 1864: The Atlanta Campaign saw severe fighting at Rocky Face Ridge.
17 May 1864: The Battle of Adairsville, Georgia resulted in a Confederate retreat.
4 Jun 1864: With General Sherman again flanking them, Confederates under General Joseph Johnston retreated to the mountains before Marietta, Georgia.
14 Jun 1864: At the Battle of Pine Mountain, Georgia, Confederate General Leonidas Polk was killed by a Union shell.
19 Jun 1864: Skirmish at Pine Knob, Georgia.
27 Jun 1864: Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.
8 Jul 1864: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreated into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by Union General William T. Sherman.
20 Jul 1864: Confederate General John Bell Hood attacked Union forces under General William T. Sherman outside Atlanta. General Hood lashed out against the Union right wing north of the city. Repulsed but undaunted, Hood turned to strike the Federal left wing, Major General James B. McPherson's Army of the Tennessee, east of Atlanta. He deployed Major General Benjamin F. Chatham's corps northeast of the city and sent Lieutenant General William J. Hardee's corps around McPherson's left flank with orders to crush the Army of the Tennessee on the morning of July 22. Both corps were then to assail the rest of Sherman's host.
22 Jul 1864: The Battle of Atlanta reached its peak when Confederate General John Bell Hood launched an all-out attack on Union General William T. Sherman's Army. Union General James McPherson was killed repulsing a Confederate attack. The Federal officer who sent his men naked against the enemy was Colonel James P. Brownlow of the 1st (Union) Tennessee Cavalry.
10 Aug 1864: Confederate Commander John Bell HOOD sent his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union General William SHERMAN's supply lines.
18 Aug 1864: Union General William T. Sherman sent General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of communication outside Atlanta. The raid was unsuccessful. Union General William Sherman considered Judson Kilpatrick, his cavalry chief, "a hell of a damn fool."
2 Sep 1864: Union General William T. Sherman's forces occupied Atlanta.
11 Sep 1864: A 10-day truce was declared between generals Sherman and Hood so civilians could leave Atlanta, Georgia.
5 Oct 1864: Battle of Allatoona, Georgia.
15 Nov 1864: Union Major General William T. Sherman's troops set fires that destroyed much of Atlanta.
23 Nov 1864: US troops enter Milledgeville. Secretary of State Nathan C. BARNETT hides the Great Seal of State under his house and the legislature minutes in a hog pen.
12 Dec 1864: Battle between Confederate Gunboats on the Savannah River and US field artillery.
13 Dec 1864: US troops capture Fort McAllister, Georgia.
20 Dec 1864: Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Georgia, as Union General William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."
22 Dec 1864: General Sherman telegraphed President Lincoln from Georgia, saying: "I beg to present to you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah with 150 guns and plenty of ammunition."
16 Jan 1865: General Sherman began a march through the Carolinas. Sherman issued an order that set aside land in Georgia and South Carolina for freed slaves.
10 May 1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops near Irvinville, Georgia.
10 Nov 1865: Commandant of Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, Georgia is hanged in Washington's Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C.
1866: Kentucky sends Georgia 100,000 bushels of corn.
1867: Atlanta University is founded.
30 Mar 1867: General John POPE, appointed to take command of the 3rd military district, arrives in Georgia.
May 1867: General Pope closes the University of Georgia.
9 Dec 1867: Constitutional Convention meets in Atlanta. 169 total delegates attend.
25 Jun 1868: Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were re-admitted to the Union.
13 Jul 1868: General Thomas KRUGER appointed military governor of Georgia. He's the last governor to live in Milledgevile.
28 Jun 1869: Governor Rufus B. BULLOCK, leases Grant, Alexander and Co. all convicts in the Georgia penitentiary for two years.
Dec 1869: Third Reconstruction. US army reoccupies Georgia. General Alfred H. TERRY is appointed military governor.
Oct 1870: Bullock secretly resigns and flees Georgia.
17 Oct 1870: Douglas County is created.
18 Oct 1870: McDuffie and Rockdale Counties are created.
26 Oct 1870: Dodge County is created.
Feb 1871: Georgia is finally represented in both houses of congress. Jefferson LONG of Macon was the lone African American congressman.
1872: US forces evacuate Georgia.
12 Jan 1872: James M. SMITH is appointed governor.
25 Feb 1875: Oconee County is created.
1876: The state capital was moved from Milledgeville, originally designed to be the state capital, to Atlanta.
1881: The M. Rich Dry Goods Store is opened on Whitehall Street in Atlanta by Moris RICH. It will become Rich's of Atlanta.
13 Aug 1881: The first African American nursing school opened at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
1882: Alexander Hamilton Stephens was elected governor of Georgia but died after serving just a few months.
1883: New capitol building approved. It will be constructed of Indiana limestone rather than Georgia marble and completed in 1889.
10 May 1883: Henry D. MCDANIEL is appointed governor.
13 Oct 1885: The Georgia Institute of Technology is established by Act of the General Assembly.
29 Mar 1886: Coca-Cola went on sale for the first time at a drugstore in Atlanta. Its inventor, Dr. John PEMBERTON, claimed it could cure anything from hysteria to the common cold. Pemberton, a pharmacist, concocted a bath of a dark, sugary syrup meant to be mixed with carbonated water and sold at the city's soda fountains. This was the beginning of Coca Cola, which then contained enough cocaine to give the a drinker a buzz and more caffeine than the drink contains today. Sales at the soda fountain of Jacob's Pharmacy averaged 9 drinks a day in the first year. The story is told by Frederick Allen in his book Secret Formula. The drink was named by Frank ROBINSON and he created its signature script logo.
9 Nov 1886: John B. GORDON is appointed governor.
8 Nov 1887: John Henry "Doc" Holiday, Atlanta dentist and gunfighter dies at Glenwood Springs, Colorado from tuberculosis at the ripe old age of 35. Doc Holiday had went west in 1873 after being given two years to live. Just before dying he downed a large glass of whiskey, glanced at his bootless feet and exclaimed, "I'll be dammed!" He had always expected to die with his boots on.
5 Aug 1889: Conrad Potter AIKEN, American poet, was born in Savannah. He died 17 Aug 1973 in Savannah, and was buried in the Boneventure Cemetery.
1 Jan 1897: Atlanta University and Tuskegee Institute played the first African American collegiate football game. The game, played in Atlanta, was won by Atlanta University.
23 Apr 1899: Some 2000 people gathered near Atlanta to watch the lynching of Sam HOSE, a black man questionably accused of murdering a white planter and raping his wife. His ears and fingers were cut off and his face was skinned before he was burned in kerosene soaked wood. His and other stories were later told in the book: Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow by Leon F. Litwack.
8 Nov 1890: William J. NORTHERN is appointed governor.
1891: Jim Crow laws enacted in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee. First Garden Club founded in Athens.
1893: Public hangings are abolished.
1894: Georgia sends food to assist farmers in the midwest. Two trainloads of flour, corn meal, and cattle food are sent to Nebraska.
27 Oct 1894: William Y. ATKINSON is appointed governor.
29 Oct 1898: Allen D. CANDLER is appointed governor.
1 Jun 1903: A devastating tornado tore through Gainesville and New Holland (a mill village) killing 98 people and injuring 300. This is still considered one of the 25 deadliest tornadoes.
2 Jan 1904: Opera tenor, recording artist, and actor James MELTON was born in Moultrie, Georgia. He would die 21 April 1961 in New York City. Former Confederate general James LONGSTREET died in Gainesville, Georgia.
28 Dec 1904: Farmers in Georgia burned two million bales of cotton to prop up falling prices.
1905: Royal Crown Cola is bottled in Columbus, Georgia by Claude A. HATCHER, a local grocery wholesaler.
17 Aug 1905: Crisp, Grady, Jenkins, and Tift Counties are created.
18 Aug 1905: Jeff Davis, Stephens, Toombs, and Turner Counties are created.
31 Jul 1906: Ben Hill County is created.
22 Sep 1906: Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 21 people.
29 Jun 1907: Hoke Smith is appointed governor.
1908: Convict lease system abolished. It was replaced by the notorious "Chain Gangs."
18 Nov 1909: John Herndon MERCER (Johnny Mercer), songwriter, was born. He died on 25 Jun 1976, and was buried in Boneventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.
4 Jul 1910: Three blacks killed at Uvalda, Georgia over James JEFFRIES loss to Jack Johnson in a boxing match. Riots ensue in Boston, Cincinnati, Houston, New York, and Norfolk.
1912: White residents of Forsyth County, Georgia drive the African American population out.
12 Mar 1912: Juliette Gordon LOW organized the Girl Guides, the first Girl Scouts troop in America, at the 1848 Andrew Low House in Savannah.
26 Apr 1913: Mary PHAGAN (13) was killed at an Atlanta pencil factory. She had stopped to pick up her check on her way to Peachtree Street to see a Confederate Memorial Day Parade. Leo FRANK (29), a Jewish factory manager, was falsely accused of raping and murdering the young working-class girl. The story is covered in the novel The Old Religion by David Mamet. In addition to the novel, click here to learn more of this story.
28 Jun 1913: John M. SLAYTON is appointed governor.
7 Jul 1914: Barrow County is created.
27 Jul 1914: Bacon County is created.
11 Aug 1914: Evans County is created.
26 Jun 1915: Nathaniel E. HARRIS is appointed governor.
18 Nov 1915: A new Ku Klux Klan is started on Stone Mountain by William Joseph SIMMONS.
30 Jun 1917: Hugh M. DORSEY is appointed governor.
5 Aug 1917: Atkinson County is created.
30 Jul 1918: Cook County is created.
8 Jul 1920: Seminole County is created.
7 Aug 1920: Lanier County is created.
14 Aug 1920: Brantley and Long Counties are created.
17 Aug 1920: Lamar County is created.
1921: Boll weevil cuts Georgia and South Carolina Cotton production in half.
25 Jun 1921: Thomas W. HARDWICK is appointed governor.
3 Oct 1922: Rebecca L. FELTON, D-Ga., became the first woman to be seated in the US Senate.
30 Jun 1923: George Washington CARVER testifies before House Ways and Means Committee on the value of peanuts which are being planted in greater quantities by Georgia and South Carolina farmers.
1924: The 600-room Biltmore Hotel opened in Atlanta. It was developed by William Candler. It was designed in a neo-Georgian style by New York architect Leonard Schultze. It is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The electric chair replaced hanging as the means of execution.
18 Jul 1924: Peach County is created.
1 Oct 1924: Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States, was born in Plains, Georgia.
15 Jan 1929: Martin Luther King Jr., American Baptist Minister and Civil Rights leader, was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. King began his involvement in the civil rights movement in 1955 with his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which ended segregated seating on city buses. Adopting Mohandas K. Gandhi's principles of nonviolence, King led demonstrations, sit-ins and boycotts in cities throughout the South to show the injustice of racist policies. He explained his belief in nonviolence in a letter written during one of his many incarcerations: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored...." King's efforts helped to bring about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Dr. King's leadership of the civil rights movement brought many threats against his life and on 4 Apr 1968, he was killed by a sniper's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin Luther King Day was established by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, for the third Monday in January.
1 Jan 1932: Campbell and Milton counties officially merged with Fulton County, thus reducing the number of Georgia counties from 161 to 159.
4 May 1932: Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
2 Jun 1932: George W. PERRY, a Georgia farmer, caught a record 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass with a Chubb Wiggle Fish lure at Montgomery Lake, near Jacksonville, Telfair County, Georgia [Photo]. For more information on the history of Jacksonville, please visit here. (Thank-you, Julian Williams!)
1934: The Masters golf tournament for professionals begins at Georgia's Augusta National Golf Club.
1937: Dr. Leroy BURNEY set up the country's first mobile venereal disease clinic in Brunswick, Georgia.
18 Mar 1939: Georgia finally ratified the Bill of Rights, 150 years after the birth of the federal government.
15 Dec 1939: The motion picture "Gone With the Wind" had its world premiere in Atlanta.
8 Jan 1942: One month and one day from the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the first buildings of the new Georgia Air Depot were completed. Located on a former dairy farm in Wellston, Georgia, these were used as headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers, which was building a new base for the Army Air Corps. Later, facility would become Robins Air Force Base.
28 Jan 1942: The Eighth Air Force is activated in Savannah.
12 Apr 1945: The 32nd president of the US, Franklin Delano ROOSEVELT, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, at age 63. Roosevelt, a polio victim confined to a wheelchair, spent a great deal of time in the soothing waters of the resort. He succumbed to the cerebral hemorrhage while posing for a portrait by Elizabeth SHOUMATOFF at what came to be known as the Little White House in Warm Springs, where the unfinished portrait remains on display. Lucy Rutherford Mercer, his secret companion, was at his bedside. He was succeeded by his Vice-President, Harry S. TRUMAN. The 63-year-old president had been at Warm Springs, Georgia, since March 28, resting from the rigors of leading a nation at war. Roosevelt, left paralyzed by polio in 1921, was elected to the nation's highest office four times and is judged by historians to be among the greatest American presidents. He was buried at the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park, New York. The period is covered in Mr. Truman's War by Robert Moskin.
7 Dec 1946: America's worst hotel fire broke out at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, killing 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank WINECOFF.
9 Jan 1952: Georgia-born Jackie Robinson became the highest paid baseball player in Brooklyn Dodger history to that time.
20 Apr 1956: First Midas Muffler shop opens in Macon, Georgia.
14 Feb 1957: The Georgia Senate outlawed interracial athletics.
13 May 1957: The first commercial jet airliner, a French Caravelle, lands at Atlanta.
5 Frb 1958: A B-47 accidentally dropped an unarmed thermonuclear bomb at the mouth of Georgia's Savannah River. It has never been found.
4 Jan 1960: John Michael STIPE, lead singer of R.E.M., was born in Decatur, Georgia. He enrolled at the University of Georgia in 1978 intending to major in art. Soon, however, music became the important force in his life. In 1980, Stipe helped form the band that would become known as R.E.M. Quickly, the band became the most famous group to emerge from the Athens music scene, gaining national and international fame.
10 Jan 1961: The University of Georgia enrolls two African American students, Charlayne HUNTER and Hamilton HOLMES, under federal court order.
26 May 1961: Civil rights activist group Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee was established in Atlanta.
18 Sep 1961: Georgia Tech admits three African American students.
26 Jan 1964: Eighty-four people were arrested in a segregation protest in Atlanta.
20 Dec 1965: In one of the largest U.S. drug bust to date, 209 pounds of heroin was seized in Georgia.
4 Apr 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots ensue in Albany, Fort Valley, Macon, and Savannah.
12 May 1970: In Augusta, Georgia, 6 blacks were killed, 5 of them by the police.
1973: The Atlanta school system agreed to desegregate, and Alonzo A. Crim (died 2000) became its first African-American superintendent.
4 Apr 1974: Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's home-run record by hitting his 714th in Cincinnati.
2 Jul 1976: The US Supreme Court upholds Georgia's death penalty.
2 Nov 1976: Former Georgia Governor James Earl "Jimmy" Carter defeated Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford, becoming the 39th president of the US, and the first from the Deep South since the Civil War.
6 Nov 1977: 39 people were killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls Bible College in north Georgia.
1 Jan 1981: Undefeated Georgia beat Notre Dame 17-10 in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.
2 May 1981: In Savannah, Georgia, Jim Williams shot and killed his younger boyfriend. Clint Eastwood based his 1997 film Midnite in the Garden of Good and Evil on this event.
Dec 1981: Evelyn Joy Ludlum, 19, of Perry, Georgia, was raped and murdered. In 1996, Ellis Wayne Felker was executed for the murder. Felker maintained his innocence. DNA evidence was available but not used. In 2000, a judge authorized DNA testing.
27 Feb 1982: Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period. Click here to read more about this case.
11 Jan 1983: Joe Frank Harris is appointed governor.
May 1983: A 40 million year-old whale fossil was found along the Savannah River in Georgia during the building of a nuclear power facility.
1983-1998: Georgia tape recorded 23 prison executions.
1 Oct 1986: Former President Jimmy Carter's presidential library and museum were dedicated in Atlanta with help from President Reagan.
1987: Billy Payne founded the Georgia Amateur Athletic Foundation to bid for the 1996 Olympic Games.
1987: Some 13,000 people fell ill in Carrollton, Georgia, from the cryptosporidium parasite in contaminated tap water.
24 Jan 1987: About 20,000 civil rights demonstrators marched through predominantly white Forsyth County, Georgia a week after a smaller march was disrupted by Ku Klux Klan members and supporters.
23 Nov 1987: Two days after a riot by Cuban inmates erupted at a detention center in Oakdale, Louisiana, Cuban detainees at a federal prison in Atlanta also rioted, seizing hostages in a drama that was not resolved until 4 December 1987.
25 Sep 1988: Former first brother Billy Carter died in Plains, Georgia, at age 51.
1991: Coca-Cola established a corporate museum in Atlanta. Zell MILLER is appointed governor.
13 Jul 1994: President Clinton visited flood-stricken Georgia, where he announced more than $60 million in aid for Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
14 Oct 1995: The Atlanta Braves won the National League pennant by beating the Cincinnati Reds and completing a four-game sweep.
28 Oct 1995: The Atlanta Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series.
1996: The funeral of the BAILEY family, killed in a tragic auto accident, was held at the all-white Southern Baptist Church, the first black funeral there since slave members departed to form their own congregation in 1862.
1997: The town of Stone Mountain elected its first black mayor, Chuck BURRIS.
20 Mar 1998: A tornado killed 11 people in northeast Georgia and 2 people in North Carolina.
8 Apr 1998: A line of storms struck the southeast and killed at least 41 people. 32 were left dead in Alabama, 8 in Georgia, and 1 in Mississippi.
25 Jan 1999: Robert Shaw, the dean of American choral conducting, died in Atlanta at age 82. He was the musical director and conductor of the Atlanta Symphony from 1967-1988.
20 May 1999: In Conyers, Georgia, a 15-year-old boy shot and wounded 6 fellow students at Heritage High School. In 2000 the boy was sentenced to 40 years in prison and 65 years of probation.
Feb 2000: Tornadoes struck southwest Georgia, and 22 people were killed.
16 Nov 2000: Hosea Williams, civil rights leader, died in Atlanta at age 74.
30 Jan 2001: Georgia lawmakers agreed to downsize the Confederate emblem on the state flag to a small symbol.
17 Feb 2001: Khalid Abdul Muhammad (born as Harold Moore), national chairman of the New Black Panther Party, died at age 53 in Marietta.
Return to Georgia History Home
Genealogy Links for Georgia Researchers
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Copyright © 2002, 2003 - 2005, 2006 S. Lincecum
This page may be freely linked to, but never reproduced!