Timeline Georgia
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The Etowa Indian Mounds was a ceremonial center
for thousands of American Indians. http://www.gastateparks.org
(WSJ, 7/9/99, p.W2)
Stone Mountain was carved with depictions of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall
Jackson and Jefferson Davis.
(SFC,11/28/97, p.B6)
77 Million BP In 2005 it was
reported that paleontologists had identified a new dinosaur species, an
early relative of Tyrannosaurus rex that roamed what is now the
Southeastern US about this time. The scientists made the identification
from hundreds of fossilized fragments collected mostly in Montgomery
County, Ala., and southwestern Georgia. They named the new dinosaur
Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis, which means "the Appalachian lizard
from Montgomery County." The 25-foot-long creature roamed the earth 10
million years before T. rex and was smaller and more primitive, with a
narrower snout.
(AP, 4/16/05)
1540 Mar 9, Hernando de Soto
reached southern Georgia. He found the Indians there raising tame
turkeys, caged opossums, corn, beans, pumpkins, cucumbers and plums.
(ON, 4/01, p.5)(www.floridahistory.com/inset7.html)
1541 May 8, Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto discovered and crossed the Mississippi River, which he
called Rio de Espiritu Santo. He encountered the Cherokee Indians, who
numbered about 25,000 and inhabited the area from the Ohio River to the
north to the Chattahoochee in present day Georgia, and from the valley
of the Tennessee east across the Great Smoky Mountains to the Piedmont
of the Carolinas.
(NG, 5/95, p.78)(AP, 5/8/97)(HN, 5/8/99)
1606 Dona Maria, a Timucuan Indian
woman, inherited the position of chief of San Pedro de Mocama on
Cumberland Island, Georgia. She had been chief of Nombre de Dios, a
Spanish Franciscan mission town in Florida.
(AM, 7/01, p.22)
1696 Dec 22, James Oglethorpe,
General, author, colonizer of Georgia, was born in England.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1732 Jun 9, Royal charter for
Georgia was granted to James Oglethorpe.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1733 Feb 12, English colonists led
by James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, Ga. Gen. 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, to establish an ideal colony where
silk and wine would be produced, based on a grid of streets around six
large squares.
(SFC, 6/25/95, p.T-7)(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)(AP,
2/12/98)
1742 Jul 7, 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.
(HN, 5/3/98)(HN, 7/7/99)
1742 General James Edward
Oglethorpe led a victory over the Spanish at Bloody Marsh on St. Simons
Island off the coast of Georgia.
(SFC, 4/28/96, p.T-7)
1743 Gen’l. James Oglethorpe of
England departed Georgia following some small scandal.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)
1749 Oct 26, The Georgia Colony
reversed itself and ruled slavery to be legal.
(MC, 10/26/01)
1763 A Crown grant was made to
Henry Laurens of Georgia, who later succeeded John Hancock as president
of the Continental Congress in 1777. Laurens obtained control of the
South Altamaha river lands and named it New Hope Plantation.
(AP, 8/30/09)
1778 Dec 29, British troops,
attempting a new strategy to defeat the colonials in America, captured
Savannah, the capital of Georgia.
(HN, 12/29/98)
1779 Feb 14, American Loyalists
were defeated by Patriots at Kettle Creek, Ga.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1779 Oct 11, Polish nobleman
General Casimir Pulaski was killed while fighting for American
independence during the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah, Ga. Brig.
Gen. Casimir Pulaski had come to America in 1777. In 2005 an attempt to
confirm his remains using DNA was inconclusive.
(AP, 10/11/97)(AH, 10/04, p.15)(AP, 6/24/05)
1785 The University of Georgia was
the first state university chartered, in 1785, but was not established
until 1801. The University of North Carolina was chartered in 1789 and
was the first state university in the U.S. to begin instruction, in
1795.
(HNQ, 12/3/01)
1786 Jun 19, Gen. Nathanael Greene
died of sunstroke at his Georgia plantation. In 1960 Theodore Thayer
authored “Nathanael Greene, Strategist of the American Revolution.” In
1973 William Johnson authored “Life and Correspondence of Nathanael
Greene.”
(ON, 12/01, p.12)
1788 Jan 2, Georgia became the
fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 1/2/98)
1788 Jan 20, The pioneer African
Baptist church was organized in Savannah, Ga.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1801 Mar 3, 1st US Jewish
Governor, David Emanuel, took office in Georgia.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1812 Feb 11, Alexander Hamilton
Stephens (d.1883), Vice Pres (Confederacy), was born near
Crawfordville, Georgia. Stephens, who served in the U.S. 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 February 9, 1861. Stephens was
later elected governor of Georgia in 1882 but died after serving just a
few months.
(HNQ, 5/24/98)(MC, 2/11/02)
1817 Dec 16, The Georgia
legislature enacted laws that defined the common boundary with
Tennessee and created a boundary commission to jointly survey and mark
the state border.
(www.profsurv.com/archive.php?article=1215&issue=86)
1818 Jun 1, Mathematician James
Camak demarcated the border between Georgia and Tennessee. Due to a
faulty sextant and bad astronomical charts he drew the line a mile
south of the intended boundary, the 35th parallel.
(Econ, 3/15/08,
p.42)(www.profsurv.com/archive.php?article=1215&issue=86)
1819 May 26, The first
steam-propelled vessel to attempt a trans-Atlantic crossing, the
Savannah, departed from Savannah, Ga., May 26 and arrived in Liverpool,
England, Jun 20.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1819 Jun 20, The paddle-wheel
steamship Savannah arrives in Liverpool, England, after a voyage of 27
days and 11 hours--the first steamship to successfully cross the
Atlantic.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1819 In Savannah Chatham Artillery
Punch was served to Pres. James Monroe. It was a concoction of Catawba,
rum, gin, brandy, rye whiskey, strong tea, brown sugar, Benedictine,
juices of oranges and lemons, Maraschino cherries and champagne.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)
1823 Dec 19, Georgia passed the
1st US state birth registration law.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1825 Feb 12, Creek Indian treaty
signed. Tribal chiefs agreed to turn over all their land in Georgia to
the government and migrate west by Sept 1, 1826.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1831-1892 The 16 1/2 mile Savannah-Ogeechee
Canal was built by slaves and Irish workers to transport cotton and
timber between the 2 rivers. Plans for restoration of the canal were
made in 1998.
(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.T3)
1835 Dec 30, Cherokees were forced
to move across the Mississippi River after gold was discovered in
Georgia. A minority faction of Cherokee agreed to the emigration of the
whole tribe from their lands by signing the Treaty of New Echota. The
Treaty of New Echota resulted in the cession of all Cherokee land to
the U.S. and provided for the transportation of the Cherokee Indians to
land beyond the Mississippi. The removal of the Cherokee was completed
by 1838.
(NG, 5/95, p.86)(HNQ, 6/21/98)(MC, 12/30/01)
1842 Sidney Lanier (d.1881), poet,
was born in Macon.
(WSJ, 3/13/00, p.A24)
1845 Dec 27, Ether was 1st used in
childbirth in US at Jefferson, Ga.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1848 Dec 21, William Craft and his
wife Ellen, slaves to separate masters, escaped under disguise from
Macon, Georgia, and made there way to Philadelphia. In 1860 Craft
authored “Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom.”
(ON, 10/04, p.10)
1848 The Andrew Low House was
built on Abercorn St. of stuccoed brick, elaborate iron-caste railings
and shuttered piazzas.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T5)
1851 Aug 14, Doc Holliday was born
in Griffin, GA.
(MesWP)
1857 Sep 12, A wooden-hulled
steamship, the SS Central America under Capt. William L. Herndon, sank
off the coast of Georgia. The ship carried 21 tons of gold from
California to New York and 425 of 528 passengers were drowned. The
wreck was in 8,000 feet of water and in 1987-1988 salvage operations
were begun by Tommy Thompson. He hauled in $500 million worth of gold
bars, coins and nuggets. After a court battle he was awarded 92% of the
gold. The story is told in the 1998 book “Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue
sea” by Gary Kinder. The loss of the gold sparked “The Panic of 1857.”
The SS Central America sank off Cape Romain, SC.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W3)(WSJ, 6/19/98, p.W9)(SFEC,
6/28/98, BR p.3)(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.W16)(WSJ, 1/28/00, p.B1)(ON, 7/01,
p.2)(MC, 9/12/01)
1857 Nov 9, Atlantic Monthly
magazine was 1st published.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1860 Nov, Abraham Lincoln won the
US presidential elections with a majority of the electoral votes in a
4-way race. Following his election South Carolina seceded from the
Union followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and
Texas.
(WSJ, 9/19/97, p.A13)
1861 Jan 3, US Ft. Pulaski &
Ft. Jackson, Savannah, were seized by Georgia.
(MC, 1/3/02)
1861 Jan 19, Georgia became the
5th state to secede from the Union.
(AP, 1/19/98)(HN, 1/19/99)
1861 Feb 4, Delegates from six
southern states met in Montgomery, Ala., to form the Confederate States
of America. They included Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana and Texas. They elected Jefferson Davis as president of
Confederacy.
(AP, 2/4/97)(ON, 11/00, p.1)
1862 Apr 10, Union forces began
the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia along the Tybee River.
(HN, 4/10/99)
1862 Apr 11, Rebels surrendered Ft
Pulaski, Georgia.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1862 Apr 12, Union volunteers from
Ohio, led by Lt. James J. Andrews, stole a Confederate train near
Marietta, Ga. They were caught 89 miles up the track. 8 of the 24
raiders were hanged that summer. 8 others escaped and made their way
north. The episode inspired Buster Keaton’s 1927 comedy "The General."
In 1956 Disney retold the story in “The Great Locomotive Chase” with
Fess Parker. In 2006 Russell S. Bonds authored “Stealing the General.”
(AP, 4/12/00)(WSJ, 11/10/06, p.W4)(ON, 8/08, p.10)
1862 Apr 12, Union troops occupied
Fort Pulaski, Georgia.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1862 Jun 7, James J. Andrews
(b.1829), civilian Union spy, was hanged in Atlanta for leading the
April 12 Union raid in Georgia that stole the locomotive “General” in
an effort to disrupt Confederate transport. On June 18 seven other
Union men were hanged for the raid.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Andrews)
1862 Jul 20-Sep 20, A guerrilla
campaign in GA (Porter's & Poindexter's) left US 580 and CS 2,866
casualties.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1862-1864 The C.S. Arsenal at Findlay Iron Works in
Macon manufactured about 80 1,500-pound bronze canon.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A6)
1863 Feb 28, Four Union gunboats
destroyed the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Ga. Popular during
the Crimean War, the floating battery was revived by hard-pressed
Confederates because the popular gunboats were not capable of doing the
things that the batteries could do.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1863 Mar 3, Federal ironclad ships
bombed Fort McAllister, Georgia.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Aug 16, Chickamauga campaign
took place in GA. Union General William S. Rosecrans moved his army
south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in
Chattanooga.
(HN, 8/16/99)(MC, 8/16/02)
1863 Sep 9, The Union Army of the
Cumberland passed through Chattanooga as they chased after the
retreating Confederates.
(HN, 9/9/98)
1863 Sep 18, Union cavalry troops
clashed with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
(HN, 9/18/99)
1863 Sep 19, In Georgia, the
two-day Battle of Chickamauga began as Union troops under George Thomas
clashed with Confederates under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
(HN, 9/19/98)
1863 Sep 20, Union troops under
George Thomas prevented the Union defeat at Chickamauga from becoming a
rout, earning him the nickname “the Rock of Chickamauga.” Thomas stayed
and fought even after his commander, William Rosecrans, retreated to
Chattanooga. President Abraham Lincoln later appointed Thomas as
Rosecrans‘ successor. Armed with their new, lethal seven-shot Spencer
rifles, Wilder’s Lightning Brigade was all that stood between the Union
Army and the looming disaster at Chickamauga Creek. The bloody battle
of Chickamauga was the costliest two-day battle of the entire war.
(HN, 9/20/98)(HN, 11/4/98)(HNQ, 9/29/00)
1864 Feb 22-27, Battle at Dalton,
Georgia.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1864 Feb 24-25, Battle of Tunnel
Hill, GA (Buzzard's Roost).
(MC, 2/24/02)
1864 Feb 27, The 6th and last day
of battle at Dalton, Georgia, (about 600 casualties).
(MC, 2/27/02)
1864 Feb 27, The first Union
prisoners arrived at Camp Sumter prison near Andersonville, Georgia. It
was designed for 6,000 prisoners but by summer’s end held 33,000. After
enduring the hardship of being held in the South's Andersonville and
Cahaba prison camps, A terrible disaster befell hundreds of Union
soldiers who were being shipped home on the steamer Sultana at the end
of the Civil War. The setting was made into a film for TV by John
Frankheimer in 1996 based on an original script by David Rintels. Of
the 45,000 Union prisoners of war that were brought to Andersonville,
29% i.e. 12,914, died there. In 1971 it became a National Park Service
site.
(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/28/96, p.T-10)(HN,
2/27/98)(AH, 10/02, p.20)
1864 Apr 17, There was a bread
revolt in Savannah, Georgia.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1864 May 1, Atlanta campaign, GA.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1864 May 5, Atlanta Campaign: 5
days fighting began at Rocky Face Ridge.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1864 May 6, General Sherman began
to advance on Atlanta.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1864 May 8, The Atlanta Campaign
saw severe fighting at Rocky Face Ridge.
(HN, 5/8/98)
1864 May 9, Battle of Dalton, GA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 13, Battle of Resaca
commenced as Union General Sherman fought towards Atlanta.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)(HN, 5/13/98)
1864 May 16, In the Atlanta
Campaign, the battle of Resaca, begun May 13, ended.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1864 May 17, The Battle of
Adairsville, Georgia, resulted in a Confederate retreat.
(HN, 5/17/98)
1864 May 25, Battle of New Hope
Church, Ga. Joseph E. Johnston tried to halt Sherman’s advance on
Atlanta at the Hell Hole.
(SC, 5/25/02)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1864 Jun 4, With Gen. Sherman
again flanking them, Confederates under General Joseph Johnston
retreated to the mountains before Marietta, Georgia.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1864 Jun 9, Battle of Kenesaw
Mountain, GA (Pine Mt, Pine Knob, Golgotha).
(MC, 6/9/02)
1864 Jun 14, At the Battle of Pine
Mountain, Georgia, Confederate General Leonidas Polk was killed by a
Union shell.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1864 Jun 17, General John B. Hood
replaced General Johnston as head of CSA troops around Atlanta.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1864 Jun 19, Skirmish at Pine
Knob, Georgia.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1864 Jun 27, General Sherman was
repulsed by Confederates at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the
Atlanta Campaign.
(HN, 6/27/98)(SC, 6/27/02)
1864 Jul 3, Battle of
Chattahoochee River, GA, began and lasted until Jul 9.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1864 Jul 4-9, Battle at
Chattahoochee River, Georgia.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1864 Jul 6, Battle of
Chattahoochee River, GA.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1864 Jul 8, Confederate General
Joseph E. Johnston retreated into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by
Union General William T. Sherman.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1864 Jul 17, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis replaced General Joseph E. Johnston with General John
Bell Hood in hopes of defeating Union General William T. Sherman
outside Atlanta.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1864 Jul 20, Confederate General
John Bell Hood attacked Union forces under General William T. Sherman
outside Atlanta. Gen. 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. Battle of Peachtree
Creek was part of the Atlanta Campaign.
(HN, 7/20/98)(HNQ, 7/19/01)(MC, 7/20/02)
1864 Jul 18, Confederate Brig.
Gen. John Bell Hood (33), commanding a corps under Gen. Johnston, was
promoted to the temporary rank of full general, and given command of
the Army of Tennessee just outside the gates of Atlanta.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bell_Hood)
1864 Jul 22, 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. Casualties
numbered 8449 conf, 3641 US.
(HN, 7/22/98)(MC, 7/22/02)
1864 Jul 26, Battle at Ezra Chapel
(Church), Georgia [Hood's Third Sortie].
(MC, 7/26/02)
1864 Jul 26-31, Riots took place
at McCook's to Lovejoy Station, and Stoneman's to Macon, Georgia.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1864 Jul 28, Atlanta
Campaign-Battle of Ezra Church.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1864 Jul 29, Battle of Macon, GA
(Stoneman's Raid).
(MC, 7/29/02)
1864 Aug 10, Confederate Commander
John Bell Hood sent his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union
General William Sherman's supply lines.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1864 Aug 14-16, Confederate
General Joe Wheeler besieged Dalton, Georgia.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1864 Aug 18, 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.'
(HN, 8/18/98)
1864 Aug 31, Atlanta
Campaign-Battle of Jonesboro Georgia, 1900 casualties.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1864 Sep 1, Confederate forces
under General John Bell Hood evacuated Atlanta in anticipation of the
arrival of Union General William T. Sherman's troops.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1864 Sep 1, 2nd day of battle at
Jonesboro, Georgia, left some 3,000 casualties.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1864 Sep 2, During the Civil War,
Union Gen. William T. Sherman's forces occupied Atlanta.
(AP, 9/2/97)
1864 Sep 11, A 10-day truce was
declared between generals Sherman and Hood so civilians could leave
Atlanta, Georgia.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1864 Sep 28, Union General William
Rosecrans blamed his defeat at Chickamauga on two of his subordinate
generals. They were later exonerated by a court of inquiry.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1864 Nov
10, Kingston, Ga., was burned as the first act of Sherman's March to
Sea. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had made the city his headquarters
as he planned to lay waste the south over the next six weeks.
(www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/chronpop/2606)
1864 Nov
11, Sherman's troops destroyed Rome, Georgia. Gen. Sherman (1820-1891)
ordered Gen. John Murray Corse’s (1835-1893) troops to destroy Rome,
Georgia, and “everything that could be useful to an enemy.”
(www.civilwarhome.com/shermangeorgia.htm)
1864 Nov 15, Union Major General
William T. Sherman’s troops set fires that destroyed much of Atlanta.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1864 Nov 16, Union Gen. William T.
Sherman and his troops departed Atlanta and began their "March to the
Sea" during the Civil War.
(AP, 11/1697)(HN, 11/16/98)
1864 Nov 21-22, Battle at
Griswoldville, Georgia.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1864 Nov 22, Battle at
Griswoldville, Georgia, ended after 650 casualties.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1864 Nov 23-25, The Battle at
Ball's Ferry, Georgia, left 30 casualties.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1864 Nov 25, Confederates
retreated at Sandersville, Georgia.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1864 Nov 26, Skirmish at Sylvan
Brutal and Waynesboro, Georgia.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1864 Nov 27, 2nd day of Battles at
Waynesboro, Georgia.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1864 Nov 28, 3rd day of Battles at
Waynesboro and Jones's Plantation, Georgia.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1864 Nov 29, 4th and last day of
skirmishes took place at Waynesboro, Georgia.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1864 Dec 1, Skirmish at Millen
Brutal, Georgia.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1864 Dec 2, Skirmish at Rocky
Creek Church, Georgia.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1864 Dec 4, Battle of
Waynesborough (Brier Creek) Ga.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1864 Dec 10, General Sherman's
armies reached Savannah and a 12 day siege began.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1864 Dec 13, Battle of Ft.
McAllister, Ga.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1864 Dec 20, Confederate forces
evacuated Savannah, Ga., as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his
"March to the Sea."
(AP, 12/20/97)
1864 Dec 22, During the Civil War,
Gen’l. Sherman telegraphed Pres. 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." In 2008 Noah Andre Trudeau authored
“Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea.”
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)(AP, 12/22/97)(WSJ, 8/4/08,
p.A11)
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 and Museum.
(SFC, 5/30/00, p.A6)
1865 Jan 16, General Sherman began
a march through the Carolinas. Sherman issued an order that set aside
land in Georgia and South Carolina for freed slaves.
(HN, 1/16/99)(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A6)
1865 Feb, Major General William
Tecumseh Sherman had made a swift and steady advance through Georgia
and South Carolina, and by late February 1865, his army was approaching
Charlotte, North Carolina.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1865 Mar 22, Raid at Wilson's:
Chickasaw, AL, to Macon, GA.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1865 Apr 13, Union forces under
Gen. Sherman began their devastating march through Georgia.
Overconfident and overextended, the Union Army of the Cumberland
advanced into the deep woods of northwest Georgia.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1865 May 10, Confederate Pres.
Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops in Irwinville, Georgia.
(HN, 5/10/98)(AP, 5/10/08)
1865 May, The Confederate prison
at Camp Sumter, Georgia, was shut down, but stories about it sparked
outrage in the North.
(AH, 10/02, p.71)
1865 Aug, A national military
cemetery was dedicated at Andersonville, Georgia, by Clara Barton and
the Red Cross for the 13,000 men who died at Camp Sumter.
(AHHT, 10/02, p.22)
1865 Nov
10, Captain Henry Wirz (b.1822), commandment of Camp Sumter, Ga.,
(known as “Andersonville” by the North) was hanged outside Washington,
D.C., after being found guilty of war crimes.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWwirz.htm)(AHHT,
10/02, p.22)
1866 Apr 2, Pres. ended war in
Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Ten & Va.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1868 Jun 25, Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were re-admitted
to the Union.
(AP, 6/25/97)
1870 Jul 15, Georgia became the
last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
(AP, 7/15/97)
1872 A brick lighthouse was
erected on St. Simons Island off the US coast of Georgia. The island is
one of 4 barrier islands called the Golden Isles.
(SSFC, 2/11/07, p.G7)
1875 Amos G. Rhodes opened his
first retail furniture store in Atlanta, Ga. The company expanded to 80
stores in 13 states, but went bankrupt in 2005.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.G3)
1876 The state capital was moved
from Milledgeville, originally designed to be the state capital, to
Atlanta.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, Z1 p.2)
1881 Aug 13, The first
African-American nursing school opened at Spelman College in Atlanta,
Georgia.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1882 Alexander Hamilton Stephens
was elected governor of Georgia but died after serving just a few
months.
(HNQ, 5/24/98)
1885 Nov, Atlanta, Georgia, voted
to become a dry city effective July, 1886.
(www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=1)
1885 "Pemberton’s French Wine
Coca" made its premier In Dr. Jacob's pharmacy in Atlanta. John Stith
Pemberton refined the wine-based drink and Coca-Cola, the future symbol
of "the American way of life," made its debut in 1886.
(AP, 5/3/03)(http://cocaine.org/coca-cola/)
1886 Mar 29, Coca-Cola was
advertised for the first time in the Atlanta Daily. Its inventor, Dr.
John Pemberton, claimed it could cure anything from hysteria to the
common cold. John Stith (Doc) Pemberton, 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. [see May 8]
(www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=1)
1886 May 8, Atlanta pharmacist
John Stith Pemberton invented the flavor syrup for Coca-Cola, which
contained cocaine. The name for the soft drink came from his
bookkeeper, Frank Robinson. Sales of Coca-Cola at the soda fountain of
Jacob‘s Pharmacy averaged 9 drinks a day in the first year. [see Mar 29]
(AP, 5/8/97)(HN,
5/8/98)(www.sodamuseum.bigstep.com/generic.jhtml?pid=1)
1889-1973 Conrad Potter Aiken, American poet, was
born (Aug 5) and died (Aug 17) in Savannah, and was buried in the
Boneventure Cemetery.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T5)
1892 Jan 18, Oliver Hardy, member
of Laurel and Hardy comedy duo who starred in numerous films, was born
in Harlem, Ga.
(HN, 1/18/99)(MC, 1/18/02)
1893 Oct 27, Hurricane hit the US
coast between Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, SC.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1893 Dec 20, The 1st state
anti-lynching statute was approved in Georgia.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1895 Mar 18, Some 200 blacks left
Savannah, Ga., for Liberia.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1899 Apr 23, Some 2000 people
gathered to watch the lynching Sam Hose, a black man questionably
accused of murdering a white planter and raping his wife. His ears,
fingers, and genitals 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 1998 book: “Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age
of Jim Crow” by Leon F. Litwack.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, BR p.4)
1901 Apr 5, Melvyn Douglas,
[Hesselberg], actor (Hud, Ghost Story), was born in Macon, Ga.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1904 Dec 28, Farmers in Georgia
burned two million bales of cotton to prop up falling prices.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1905 Sep 22, Race riot in Atlanta,
Georgia killed 10 blacks and 2 whites.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1905 Alonzo Herndon, a former
slave, purchased two black benevolent associations for $140 and created
Atlanta Mutual, which sold burial insurance to Atlanta’s black
community. The company grew to become Atlanta Life Financial Group.
(WSJ, 5/3/08, p.A8)
1906 Sep 22, Race riots in
Atlanta, Georgia, killed 21 people. In 2001 Mark Bauerlein authored
“Negrophobia,” an account of the riots.
(HN, 9/22/98)(WSJ, 6/12/01, p.A20)
1908 Oct, Georgia’s nearly
all-white electorate voted by a 2 to 1 margin to abolish its system of
peonage as of March 1909.
(WSJ, 3/29/08, p.W8)
1909 May 17, White firemen on
Georgia RR struck to protest the hiring of blacks.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1909 Nov 18, John Herndon Mercer
[Johnny Mercer] (d.1976), songwriter, was born in Savannah, Ga. John
Herndon Mercer died on Jun 25, 1976, and was buried in Boneventure
Cemetery in Savannah, Ga.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T5)(HN, 11/18/00)
1911 The will of Sen Augustus
Bacon called for a whites-only park on donated land. In 1970 a court
ruled that the park should revert to Bacon's heirs.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)
1912 Mar 12, Juliette Gordon Low
organized the Girl Guides, which later became the Girl Scouts of
America, at the 1848 Andrew Low House in Savannah, Ga. The US Congress
chartered the Girl Scouts in 1950.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T5)(USAT, 3/23/04, p.1D)(AP,
3/12/08)
1913 Apr 14, Mary Phagan (13) was
found 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 girl. Georgia Gov. John M.
Slaton later commuted Frank’s sentence to life, but a vigilante crowd
dragged him out of prison and lynched him on Aug 17. In 1968 Leonard
Dinnerstein authored “The Leo Frank Case.” The story is covered in the
1997 novel "The Old Religion" by David Mamet. In 1998 the musical
"Parade" was produced based on the Frank lynching.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.6)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)(WSJ,
6/9/00, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/17/09, p.W8)
1913 Aug 9, Herman Eugene Talmadge
(d.2002), later state governor and US Senator, was born.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
1914 Dec 30, Bert Parks,
[Jacobson], TV host (Miss America), was born in Atlanta, Ga.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1915 Aug 17, Leo Frank, a Jewish
factory manager, was lynched by a mob of anti-Semites in Cob County,
Georgia. He had been convicted in the killing of Mary Phagan, a
13-year-old girl who worked at his pencil factory. The governor
believed him innocent and commuted his death sentence in June. The
state of Georgia pardoned Frank in 1986. In 2000 Stephen Goldfarb
posted the names of some 2 dozen men believed to have participated in
the murder.
(WSJ, 6/9/00, p.A1)(AP, 8/17/02)(AP, 3/11/06)
1915 Sep 30, Lester Garfield
Maddox, (Gov-D-Ga) restaurant owner and ax handle wielder
segregationist, was born.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1915 Dec 4, Ku Klux Klan received
a charter from Fulton County, Ga.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1915 Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941)
signed on about this time with the United Daughter of the Confederacy
to carve a memorial at Stone Mountain in Georgia and soon rose to the
high ranks of the newly resurgent KKK. He was later fired from the
project and in 1927 began the Mount Rushmore presidential memorial.
(SSFC, 9/9/07, p.C4)
1915 The Knights of Mary Phagan
set fire to a cross atop a granite mountain 16 miles east of Atlanta.
The event became a rallying cry for the KKK.
(WSJ, 6/9/00, p.A12)
1915 Ku Klux Klansmen held a
formative assembly at the town of Stone Mountain.
(SFC,11/28/97, p.B6)
1916 Oct 7, In the most lopsided
victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland
University of Lebanon, Tennessee, 222-0 in Atlanta.
(http://gtalumni.org/Publications/magazine/spr98/div11.html)
1917 Sep 8, Eugene Bullard,
aviator, was born in Columbus, Georgia. He emigrated to France and
became the first African-American combat aviator when he flew a
reconnaissance mission over the city of Metz, France. He was credited
with one confirmed "kill," a German Pfalz he shot down over Verdun.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1917 Dec 18, Ossie Davis, actor,
playwright (Hot Stuff, Man Called Adam), was born in Cogdell, Ga.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1920s In the early 1920s Col. J.G.
Boswell, a cotton farmer from Georgia whose business was ruined by the
boll weevil, arrived in California and began to acquire land in the
central valley. The Boswell family took advantage of federal programs
to stop droughts and floods and helped get the Army Corps of Engineers
to drain Lake Tulare. In 2003 Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman authored "The
King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American
Empire."
(Econ, 10/18/03, p.82) (SFC, 11/11/03, p.D1)
1922 Oct 3, Rebecca L. Felton,
D-Ga., became the first woman to be seated in the U.S. Senate. (Mrs.
Felton had been appointed to serve out the remaining term of Sen.
Thomas E. Watson.)
(AP, 10/3/97)
1922 Nov 21, Rebecca L. Felton of
Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.
(AP, 11/21/97)
1924 Oct 1, Jimmy Carter (James
Earl), 39th president of the U.S. (1977-1981), was born in Plains,
Georgia.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, Z3 p.3)(HN, 10/1/98)(MC,
10/1/01)
1924 The 600-room Biltmore Hotel
in Atlanta opened. It was developed by William Candler, the youngest
son of Coca Cola founder Asa Candler. It was designed in a neo-Georgian
style by New York architect Leonard Schultze. It closed in 1982 and was
planned for renovation as an office complex in 1998. It was listed on
the National Registry of Historic Places.
(WSJ, 2/4/98, p.B8)
1924 The electric chair replaced
hanging as the means of execution.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A5)
1925 Feb 8, Marcus Garvey entered
federal prison in Atlanta.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1925 Mar 25, Flannery O'Connor
(d.1964), novelist and short story writer, was born in Savannah,
Georgia.
(www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-498)(WUD, 1994 p.997)
1926 Feb 9, Teaching theory of
evolution was forbidden in Atlanta, Georgia, schools.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1927 Aug 18, Rosalynn Smith
Carter, 1st lady (1977-1981), was born in Plains, Georgia.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1927 Alonzo Herndon, black Atlanta
businessman, died. In 2002 Carole Merritt authored “The Herndons: An
Atlanta Family.”
(WSJ, 8/28/02, p.D8)
1928 May 3, James Brown, "The
Godfather of Soul," was born in Augusta, Georgia. The singer is best
remembered for the song "I Feel Good." [see May 3, 1933]
(HN, 5/3/99)(MC, 5/3/02)
1929 Jan 15, Martin Luther King
Jr. (d1968), American Baptist Minister and Civil Rights leader, was
born in Atlanta, Georgia. He won the Nobel Peace prize in 1964 and was
assassinated in 1968. 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 April 4, 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. "Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." "A man can't ride your
back unless it's bent."
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AHD, p.721)(AP, 4/3/97)(AP,
1/15/98)(HNPD, 1/15/99)
1929 Aug 7, Ruth Carter-Stapleton,
Pres. Carter’s sister, evangelist, was born in Plains, Ga.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1930 Sep 23, Ray Charles (d.2004),
rhythm ‘n’ blues piano player and singer best known for "Hit the Road
Jack" and "Georgia on My Mind" was born in Albany, Georgia. Stuart
Gorrell wrote the lyrics for the hit song "Georgia on My Mind" in 1930
with music by Hoagy Carmichael. It was declared the state song of
Georgia on April 24, 1979.
(HN, 9/23/98)(WSJ, 2/2/00,
p.W8)(www.promotega.org/vsu00011/georgia_book.htm)
1932 Feb 2, Al Capone was sent to
prison at Atlanta, Georgia, for "tax evasion."
(MC, 2/2/02)
1932 May 4,
Mobster Al Capone, convicted of income-tax evasion, entered the federal
penitentiary in Atlanta. Capone was later transferred to Alcatraz
Island in San Francisco Bay.
(AP, 5/4/08)
1932 Jun 2, George W. Perry (19),
a Georgia farmer, caught a record 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass
with a Chubb Wiggle Fish lure. The record still stood in 2001.
(WSJ, 5/18/01, p.A1)
1933 May 3, James Brown, American
singer and songwriter, was born. [see May 3, 1928]
(HN, 5/3/01)
1933 Sep 25, 1st state poorhouse
opened in Smyrna, Georgia.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1936 Feb 17, Jim Brown, NFL
fullback (Cleveland Browns), actor (Dirty Dozen), was born in Ga.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1936 Apr 6, A tornado killed 203
and injures 1,800 in Gainesville, Georgia.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1937 Mar 20, Jerry Reed, singer,
actor (Bat 21, Smokey & the Bandit), was born in Atlanta, GA.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1937 Mar 29, Billy Carter, brother
of Pres Carter, was born in Plains, Georgia.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1937 Dr. Leroy Burney set up the
country’s first mobile venereal disease clinic in Brunswick, Ga.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A17)
1939 Mar 18, Georgia finally
ratified the Bill of Rights, 150 years after the birth of the federal
government. Connecticut and Massachusetts, the only other states to
hold out, also accepted the Bill of Rights in this year.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1939 Dec 15, The motion picture
"Gone With the Wind" had its world premiere in Atlanta.
(AP, 12/15/97)
1940 Oglethorpe Univ. planted a
time capsule called the "Crypt of Civilization" that was scheduled to
be opened May 28, 8113. Souvenir medals were sold for $1 granted
holders free admittance to the 8113 opening. Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, the
"father of the modern time capsule,” and president of Oglethorpe,
calculated this date from the first fixed date in history, 4241 B.C.
when most historians believe the Egyptian calendar was established.
Exactly 6177 years had passed between 4241 B.C. and 1936 A.D., when Dr.
Jacobs 1st proposed the project. He projected the same period of time
forward from 1936, arriving at the year 8113 A.D. for the Crypt's
opening.
(www.oglethorpe.edu/about_us/crypt_of_civilization/international_time_capsule_society.asp)
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.D4)(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.B1)
1941 Jun 2, William Guest, singer
(Gladys Knight Show), was born in Atlanta, Ga.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1941 Jun 2, Stacy Keach, actor
(Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer), was born in Savannah, Ga.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1941 Sep 9, Otis Redding, rock
bassist (Sitting on the Dock of the Bay), was born in Dawson, Ga.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1945 Apr 12, Pres. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt the 32nd president of the United States, died of a
cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., 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 a 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" (1996) by Robert Moskin. In 2001 "The New Dealer’s
War," the 5th and last volume of the Roosevelt biography by Thomas
Fleming (d.1999) was published. In 2001 Kenneth S. Davis authored "FDR:
The War President." In 2003 Conrad Black, aka Lord Black of
Crossharbour, authored "Franklin Delano Roosevelt." In 2008 H. W.
Brands authored “”Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical
Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
(A & IP., ESM, p.167)(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A8)(SFC,
9/6.96, p.A10)(AP, 4/12/97)(HN, 4/11/99)(HNQ, 6/16/00)(WSJ, 4/26/01,
p.A18)(WSJ, 12/3/03, p.D12)(Econ, 11/1/08, p.95)
1945 Sep 11, Leo Kottke, guitarist
(Ice Water, Greenhouse), was born in Athens, Ga.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1945 Oct 26, Pat Conroy,
American writer (Great Santini, Prince of Tides), was born in Atlanta,
Georgia. His work included "Conrack" (1973; film, 1974; stage musical,
1987); "The Great Santini" (1976; film, 1979); "The Lords of
Discipline" (1980; film, 1983); "The Prince of Tides" (1986; film,
1991); and "Beach Music" (1995; film, 1997).
(www.patconroy.com/patconroy/biography.htm)
1945 Georgia denied clemency and
executed Lena Baker (44), a black maid, for the murder of E.B. Knight.
Knight had held her against her will in a grist mill and threatened to
shoot her if she tried to leave. She had been sentenced to die
following a one-day trial before an all-male jury. In 2005 the Georgia
Board of Pardons decided to pardon her.
(SFC, 8/16/05, p.A4)
1946 Jul 25, In Monroe, Georgia, 2
black couples were killed by Ku Klux Klansmen. Pres. Truman ordered an
FBI investigation and 55 suspects were named in the lynching of Roger
and Dorothy Malcolm and George and Mae Murray Dorsey, but no one was
ever charged. Dorothy Malcolm was pregnant.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A5)
1946 Dec 7, A fire broke out at
the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 119 people, including
hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff.
(AP, 12/7/04)
1946 Herman E. Talmadge took over
as state governor following the death of his father, a strident racist.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
1946 Lawrence D. Duke Sr. (d.1999
at 86), ass't. state attorney general, successfully campaigned against
the state charter for the KKK and the Columbians Inc., a virulent
anti-black and anti-Jewish Klan offshoot.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.D6)
1947 May, Sam Turner shot and
killed Charlie Lipford and was sentenced to 5 years for voluntary
manslaughter. He was paroled after a year and jailed again for
burglary. In 1951 he walked off a work camp and never looked back until
a routine check rounded him up in 1997.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A3)
1948 Herman E. Talmadge, was
elected governor.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
1948 Herman E. Talmadge, was
re-elected governor to a full 4-year term.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
1950s Marvin Griffin was the
governor in the late 50s.
(SFC,11/5/97, p.C5)
1953 Feb 19, Georgia approved the
1st US literature censorship board.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1953 Dec 13, Ben Bernanke, later
head of the US Federal Reserve (2006), was born in Augusta, Ga.
(SSFC, 1/29/06, p.J1)
1956 The Georgia state flag with
its Confederate emblem was adopted under Gov. Marvin Griffin. The
emblem was added in part to protest federal attacks on segregation.
(http://tinyurl.com/9b6pd)
1956 Herman E. Talmadge, former
governor, 1st ran for the US Senate and proclaimed: “God advocates
segregation.”
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
1957 Feb 14, The Georgia Senate
approved Sen Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with
whites.
(HN, 2/14/98)(MC, 2/14/02)
1958 Feb 5, A B-47 accidentally
dropped an unarmed thermonuclear bomb at the mouth of Georgia’s
Savannah River. It was never found.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, Par p.22)
1959 Levi Strauss set up a jeans
factory in Blue Ridge. It closed in 2002 and 400 jobs were lost.
(SSFC, 6/16/02, p.G1)
1959 S. Ernest Vandiver began
serving as governor of Georgia (1959-1963). His campaign motto was “No,
not one,” meaning not one black child in a white school.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A3)
1960 Aug 7, Students staged
kneel-in demonstrations in Atlanta churches.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1960 Oct 19, Martin Luther King
Jr. was arrested in an Atlanta sit-in.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1960 Ray Charles made a hit with
"Georgia on My Mind."
(SSFC, 7/28/02, Par p.20)
1960 In Georgia the Cathedral of
the Holy Spirit began as a small church in the Little Five Points
neighborhood of Atlanta. Membership peaked at about 10,000 in the
1990s. By 2007 membership had fallen to about 1,500 in the wake of sex
scandals associated with founding Archbishop Earl Paulk (80).
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.A7)
1961 Jan 11, There was a race riot
at the University of Georgia.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1961 May 26, Civil rights activist
group Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee was established in Atlanta.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1961 Dec 12, Martin Luther King Jr
& 700 demonstrators were arrested in Albany, Ga.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1962 Feb 12, A bus boycott started
in Macon, Georgia.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1962 Jul 10, Martin Luther King
Jr. was arrested during a demonstration in Georgia.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1962 Jul 21, 160 civil right
activists were jailed after demonstration in Albany, Ga.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1962 Jul 27, Martin Luther King
Jr. was jailed in Albany, Georgia.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1962 Aug 15, Shady Grove Baptist
Church was burned in Leesburg, Georgia.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1962 Aug 22, Savannah, world's 1st
nuclear powered ship, completed here maiden voyage from Yorktown, Va.,
to Savannah, Ga.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1962 Sep 25, A Black church was
destroyed by fire in Macon, Georgia.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1962-1970 Ivan Allen Jr. (d.2003 at 92) served as
mayor of Atlanta following the retirement of William Hartsfield. Allen
desegregated city government the day he took office.
(SFC, 7/3/03, p.A25)
1963 Georgia Gov. S. Ernest
Vandiver Jr. (d.2005) left office. His decision not to defy federal
courts cleared the way for a peaceful integration of state schools.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.B7)
1964 Jan 26, Eighty-four people
were arrested in a segregation protest in Atlanta.
(HN, 1/26/99)
1964 Aug 3, Flannery O'Connor
(b.1925), novelist and short story writer, died in Georgia of lupus, an
incurable, autoimmune disease. In 2009 Brad Gooch authored “Flannery: A
Life of Flannery O’Connor.”
(www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-498)(Econ, 2/28/09,
p.89)
1965 Dec 20, In the largest U.S.
drug bust to date, 209 lb. of heroin was seized in Georgia.
(HN, 12/20/98)
1966 Jan 10, Julian Bond was
denied a seat in Georgia legislature for opposing Vietnam War.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1966 Sep 6, A race riot took place
in the Summerhill neighborhood of Atlanta, Ga., from Sep 6-11. Blacks
rioted after a suspected car thief is shot escaping a white cop and 138
people were arrested with 35 injured. Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee's (SNCC's) Stokely Carmichael is indicted for inciting a
riot, and Julian Bond resigns from SNCC.
(www.theprimeone.com/archives/000113.html)
1966 Lester Maddox (d.2003) ran
for governor of Georgia against incumbent Howard H. Callaway. The
legislature voted 182-66 to give Maddux the governor's job after
neither received a majority.
(BS, 6/26/03, 5A)
1967 Jan 10, Segregationist Lester
Maddox was inaugurated as governor of Georgia.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1969 Apr 7, The
US Supreme Court in Stanley v. Georgia unanimously struck down laws
prohibiting private possession of obscene material.
(AP, 4/7/07)
1969 Jul 4, Some 140,000 attended
the Atlanta Pop Festival featuring Led Zeppelin & Janis Joplin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_International_Pop_Festival_(1969))
1970 May 12, In Augusta, Georgia,
an overnight riot left 6 black men dead. Autopsies confirmed that the
six men killed were all shot in the back with police-issued shotguns.
(www.socyberty.com/History/Augusta-Georgia-Riot-of-1970.237549)
1970 Ted Turner (b.1938) bought an
Atlanta UHF station and built it into the Turner Broadcasting System.
He had inherited his father’s billboard business in 1962.
(WSJ, 10/21/04,
p.D8)(www.wordiq.com/definition/Ted_Turner)
1971 Jan 12, Jimmy Carter (b.1924)
was sworn in as the 76th governor of Georgia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter)
1972 Mar 3, Sculpted figures of
Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and Stonewall Jackson were completed at
Stone Mountain, GA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Mountain)
1972 Jun 29, The US Supreme Court
ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty could constitute
"cruel and unusual punishment." The ruling prompted states to revise
their capital punishment laws. Four years later, the Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty for murder cases.
{USA, Supreme Court, GeorgiaUS}
(AP,
6/29/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furman_v._Georgia)
1972 Oct 23, Cumberland Island off
the coast of Georgia was established as a National Seashore.
(SFC, 4/28/96,
p.T-8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_Island_National_Seashore)
1973 Oct 16, Maynard Jackson
(1938-2003) was the elected 1st black mayor of Atlanta.
(www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/jackson-jr-maynard-1938-2003)
1973 Oct 18, Walt Kelly (b.1913),
US comic strip artist, died. He was notable for his comic strip Pogo
featuring characters that inhabited a portion of the Okefenokee Swamp
in Georgia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Kelly)
1973 The Atlanta school system
agreed to desegregate and Alonzo A. Crim (d.2000 at 71) became its
first African-American superintendent.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.D5)
1973 The 6 members of the Alday
family were killed on their farm during a robbery in southwest Georgia.
In 2003 Carl Isaacs (49) was executed for his role in the killings.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A7)
1974 Apr 3, A series of 148 deadly
tornadoes struck wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping
across the border into Canada; some 330 people were killed in 13 states
(Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West
Virginia. Total property damage was estimated at $600 million. In 2007
Mark Levine authored “F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent
Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century.”
(AP, 4/3/99)(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(SSFC, 9/4/05,
p.A7)(WSJ, 6/16/07, p.P10)
1974 Apr 4, Hank Aaron of the
Atlanta Braves tied Babe Ruth's home-run record by hitting his 714th
round-tripper in Cincinnati.
(HN, 4/4/98)(AP, 4/4/99)
1974 Apr 8, Hank Aaron of the
Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a game against the Los
Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth's record. The round-tripper was off
pitcher Al Downing.
(HN, 4/8/98)(AP, 4/8/07)
1974 Jun 30, Alberta King
(b.1903), mother of Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in
Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia by Marcus Chenault, a
twenty-one year old from Ohio who claimed that "all Christians are my
enemies."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Williams_King)
1976 Jan 6, Ted Turner purchased
the Atlanta Braves for reported $12 million.
(www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/S-Z/Turner-Ted-1938.html)
1976 Jun 25, John Herndon Mercer
[Johnny Mercer] (b.1909), songwriter, died. He was buried in
Boneventure Cemetery in Savannah, Ga. In 2004 Gene Lees authored the
biography “Portrait of Johnny.”
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T5)(HN, 11/18/00)(WSJ, 11/26/04,
p.W4)
1976 Nov 2, Former Georgia Gov.
(James Earl) Jimmy Carter defeated Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford,
becoming the 39th president and the first from the Deep South since the
Civil War.
(AP, 11/2/97)(HN, 11/2/98)
1976 The B-52 band formed in
Athens, Georgia. Cindy Wilson, Keith Strickland, Fred Schneider, Kate
Pierson and Ricky Wilson formed the band following a rum-buzzed jam
session.
(SSFC, 8/10/03, p.C10)
1976 Ronald Spivey killed an
off-duty Columbus police officer during a robbery. Spivey was executed
by injection in 2002.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A3)
1976 Bennigan’s, an Irish-themed
restaurant was founded in Atlanta. During the 1990s it expanded across
the country and became part of the Metromedia Restaurant Group. In 2008
Metromedia filed for bankruptcy.
(WSJ, 7/30/08, p.B1)
1977 Nov 6, In Georgia, USA, 39
people were killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water
through Toccoa Falls Bible College.
(AP, 11/6/97)
1978 Mar 6, Larry Flynt, founder
of “Hustler Magazine,” was shot and wounded outside a Georgia
courtroom. His story was told in a 1996 film “The People vs. Larry
Flynt.”
(SFEC, 12/15/96, DB p.41)(MC, 3/6/02)
1979 Jan 10, Billy Carter, the
brother of US Pres. Jimmy Carter, made allegedly anti-Semitic remarks.
Billy eventually registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government
and received a $220,000 loan. This led to a Senate hearing over alleged
influence peddling which some in the press dubbed "Billygate."
(http://tinyurl.com/2krnv2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Carter)
1979 Apr 24, The hit song "Georgia
on My Mind," written in 1930 with lyrics by Stuart Gorrell and music by
Hoagy Carmichael, was declared the state song of Georgia. Georgia-born
singer Ray Charles (1930-2004) made the song famous.
(www.promotega.org/vsu00011/georgia_book.htm)
1979 Jul 6, The B-52s, a New Wave
band based in Athens, Georgia, released "Planet Claire."
(SFEC, 1/3/99, DB
p.29)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_B-52's_(album))
1980 Jul 23, The US Senator
Judiciary Committee was reported to be officially joining those
investigating allegations of misconduct in Billy Carter's relationship
with Libya.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1980-7/1980-07-23-ABC-2.html)
1980 Oct 10, The Martin Luther
King, Jr. Historic Site, a 23 acre area in Atlanta, Ga., listed as a
National Historic Landmark on May 5, 1977, was made a National Historic
Site by the US Department of the Interior. The area where Dr. King was
entombed is located on Freedom Plaza and surrounded by the Freedom Hall
Complex of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social
Change, Inc.
(www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/mlk/srs218.html)
1980 Nov 19, T.J. Palmer and her
husband Bill opened the first Applebee’s restaurant in Atlanta,
Georgia. T.J. Applebee’s Rx for Edibles & Elixirs became popular
and they soon opened a second one. In 1983 they sold them to W.R. Grace
which passed the brand in 1988 to franchisees in Kansas City, who took
the chain public.
(WSJ, 6/28/07,
p.A13)(http://applebees-founder.com/history2.htm)
1980 Sen. Herman E. Talmadge lost
his bid for 5th term as US Senator. He lost to Republican Matt
Mattingly.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
1980 Sue Savage-Rumbaugh in 1998
wrote “Apes, Language, and the Human Mind.” It was based on her work
with Kanzi, a bonobo ape, that began in 1980 at the Georgia State Univ.
Language Research Center.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, BR p.8)
1981 May 2, In Savannah, Ga., Jim
Williams shot and killed his younger, redneck boyfriend. Clint Eastwood
based his 1997 film “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” on this
event.
(SFC, 6/5/98, p.C14)
1981 Mar 13, Pres. Reagan granted
Atlanta $1.5 million to search for the murderer of some 20 black
children.
(http://tinyurl.com/3ytusv)
1981 Dec, Evelyn Joy Ludlum (19)
of Perry, Ga., was raped and murdered. Her body was found after 2
weeks. In 1996 Ellis Wayne Felker was executed for the murder. Felker
maintained his innocence and DNA evidence was available but not used.
In 2000 a judge authorized DNA testing.
(SFC, 7/27/00, p.A2)
1981 An official memorial to Rev.
Martin Luther King opened in Atlanta, Ga.
(WSJ, 1/14/06, p.A1)
1981-1997 Mike Bowers was the state Attorney-General.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A14)
1982 Feb 27, 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.
(AP, 2/27/99)
1983 Apr, The first Black College
Spring Break festival was held in Atlanta.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, p.A17)
1983 May, A 40 million year-old
whale fossil of this age was found along the Savannah River in Georgia
during the building of the Plant Vogtle nuclear power facility.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A10)
1983 Sep 25, Leslie Michelle
English (2) was raped and murdered in Griffin, Georgia. Her uncle,
Eddie Albert Crawford was convicted of the murder and sentenced to
death. After 20 years on death row Crawford was executed July 19, 2004.
(SFC, 7/19/04, p.A4)
1983 Nov, Calvin Johnson Jr. (25)
was convicted of rape by an all-white jury in Clayton Ct. In 1999 DNA
evidence proved he was innocent.
(SFC, 6/16/99, p.A3)
1983 The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.
was formed with the purchase of the Ritz-Carlton in Boston. In 2001 the
Atlanta-based company owned 26 city hotels and 12 resorts.
Host-Marriott held a 49% ownership.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.B6)
1983-1998 Georgia tape recorded 23 prison executions
over this period.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.A3)
1984 Nov 11, The Rev. Martin
Luther King Sr. (84), father of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther
King Jr., died in Atlanta.
(AP, 11/11/04)
1984 The US Army School of the
Americas, a training center for Latin American military officers, was
moved from Panama to Fort Benning, Ga.
(WSJ, 6/14/96, p.B10)(SFC, 9/21/96,
p.A3)(SFC,11/17/97, p.A3)
1986 Mar 4, Aleta Carol Bunch (16)
was kidnapped, raped and murdered in Augusta, Georgia, by Alexander E.
Williams IV (17). Williams was convicted and sentenced to death. In
2000 the state Supreme Court stayed the execution to see if
electrocution violated the state constitution. Williams, a chronic
paranoid schizophrenic, was kept synthetically sane with forced
medication. His execution, set for Feb 20, was stayed on Feb 19.
Williams was granted clemency Feb 25 and his sentence was commuted to
life in prison.
(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A7)(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A3)(SFC,
2/20/02, p.A7)(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A5)
1986 Mar 11, The state of Georgia
pardoned Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman who had been lynched in 1915
for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan.
(AP, 3/11/06)
1986 Jun 30, In a 5-4 decision,
the Supreme Court ruled that states could outlaw homosexual acts
between consenting adults. The Georgia sodomy law upheld by Supreme
Court.
(AP, 6/30/97)(MC, 6/30/02)
1986 Oct 1, Former President Jimmy
Carter's presidential library and museum were dedicated in Atlanta with
help from President Reagan.
(AP, 10/1/97)
1986 Mike Bowers successfully
defended the state’s anti-sodomy law before the US Supreme Court.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A14)
1987 Jan 24, About 20,000 civil
rights demonstrators marched through predominantly white Forsyth
County, Ga., a week after a smaller march was disrupted by Ku Klux Klan
members and supporters.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1987 Jan 16, Lita McClinton
Sullivan was shot to death at her home in Atlanta by a man with roses
posing as a delivery person. Florida millionaire James Vincent Sullivan
paid a man $25,000 to kill Lita McClinton Sullivan to avoid losing
property in a divorce. In 2003 a Thai court ruled to extradite Sullivan
(61). In 2004 James Vincent Sullivan arrived in Atlanta, Ga., for
prosecution. In 2006 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life
in prison.
(AP, 2/15/03)(WSJ, 4/13/04, p.A1)(SFC, 3/15/06, p.A3)
1987 Apr 11, Erskine Caldwell
(83), Georgia-born novelist (Tobacco Road), died.
(www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-497)
1987 Nov 23, Two days after a riot
by Cuban inmates erupted at a detention center in Oakdale, La., Cuban
detainees at a federal prison in Atlanta also rioted, seizing hostages
in a drama that was not resolved until Dec. 4.
(AP, 11/23/97)
1987 Nov 26, Cuban detainees
concerned about the possibility of being sent back to Cuba continued to
hold hostages at a prison in Atlanta and a detention center in Oakdale,
La.
(AP, 11/26/97)
1987 Dec 4, Cuban inmates at a
federal prison in Atlanta freed their 89 hostages, peacefully ending an
11-day uprising. The agreement provided for a nationwide moratorium on
deportations of Mariel detainees.
(AP, 12/4/97)
1987 Dec 5, FBI agents searched a
federal prison where Cuban inmates had peacefully ended an 11-day
hostage siege the day before. The agents reported finding bottle bombs
and homemade machetes, but no booby-traps or bodies.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1987 Herman Eugene Talmadge
(1913-2002), former state governor and US Senator, authored his
biography “Talmadge.”
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
1987 Billy Payne founded the
Georgia Amateur Athletic Foundation to bid for the 1996 Olympic Games.
He later sold to the foundation his collection of Olympics memorabilia
for $975,000.
(SFC, 4/28/00, p.A11)
1987 Some 13,000 people fell ill
in Carrollton, Ga., from the cryptosporidium parasite in contaminated
tap water.
(SFC, 6/24/98, Z1 p.5)
1988 Jul 16, The Rev. Jesse
Jackson arrived in Atlanta for the Democratic national convention,
telling cheering supporters he was seeking "shared responsibility" with
nominee-apparent Michael Dukakis.
(AP, 7/16/98)
1988 Jul 17, Michael Dukakis
arrived in Atlanta to claim the Democratic nomination for president,
saying, "We're working hard to make sure we have a good convention, a
strong and united party."
(AP, 7/17/98)
1988 Jul 18, Texas Treasurer Ann
Richards delivered the keynote address at the Democratic national
convention in Atlanta, needling Republican nominee-apparent George Bush
as having been "born with a silver foot in his mouth."
(HN, 7/18/98)
1988 Jul 21, Massachusetts Gov.
Michael Dukakis accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the
party's convention in Atlanta, declaring, "this election isn't about
ideology; it's about competence."
(AP, 7/21/98)
1988 Sep 25, Former first brother
Billy Carter died in Plains, Ga., at 51.
(AP, 9/25/98)
1989 Aug 19, Mark MacPhail, an off
duty police officer was killed in Savannah, Georgia. Troy Davis was
convicted and sentenced to death in 1991 for killing MacPhail. In 2008
his execution was reprieved for a 3rd time after 7 of 9 witnesses had
recanted their testimony.
(SFC, 10/25/08,
p.A3)(www.fop9.net/markmacphail/)(Econ, 11/29/08, p.35)
1989 Dec 18, Robert E. Robinson,
an attorney and alderman in Savannah, Ga., was killed by a mail bomb
similar to a device that had claimed the life of a federal judge in
Alabama two days earlier. Walter Leroy Moody Junior was later convicted
of both bombings, and is on Alabama's death row.
(AP, 12/18/99)
1990 Sep 18, The city of Atlanta
was named the site of the 1996 Summer Olympics.
(AP, 9/18/97)
1990 Jun, Rev. Eugene Marino
(d.2000 at 66) resigned as archbishop of Atlanta following a scandal in
which he admitted to a sexual relationship with parishioner Vicki Long.
He had led the diocese for 26 months and was the 1st black Roman
Catholic archbishop in the US.
(SFC, 11/17/00, p.D7)
1990 The Atlanta-based
International Time Capsule Society was established at Oglethorpe Univ.
to promote the study of time capsules. It held a time capsule from 1940
that was scheduled to be opened in 8113.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.D4)
1991 Swamp Gravy, the Official
Folk Life Play of Georgia, began when Joy Jinks was at a meeting in
NYC. She was talking about how she wanted to preserve Colquitt's
heritage and record stories about the community. Richard Geer, a
student who was working on his doctorate degree, overheard this
conversation, and he approached Joy Jinks and said that he wanted to be
involved in the project. The group produced plays with universal appeal
steeped in Southern tradition.
(www.swampgravy.com/index.cfm/id:21)
1991 Mike Bowers withdrew a job
offer from a lesbian who planned to marry another woman. He held that
the marriage would violate Georgia’s anti-sodomy laws.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A14)
1991 Coca-Cola established a
corporate museum in Atlanta.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A1)
1992 Oct 18, The visiting Toronto
Blue Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves in game two of the World Series,
5-to-4, evening the series at one game apiece. The pre-game ceremony
was marred by a U.S. Marine Corps color guard that mistakenly presented
the Canadian flag upside-down.
(AP, 10/18/97)
1992 Oct 24, The Toronto Blue Jays
became the first non-U.S. team to win the World Series as they defeated
the Atlanta Braves, 4-3, in game six.
(AP, 10/24/97)
1993 Feb 4, A jury in Atlanta
found General Motors negligent in the fuel-tank design of a pickup
truck and awarded $105.2 million to the parents of a teen-ager killed
in a fiery 1989 crash. The negligence verdict was later overturned, and
the parents of Shannon Moseley reached an out-of-court settlement with
GM.
(AP, 2/4/03)
1994 Jul 13, President Clinton
visited flood-stricken Georgia, where he announced more than $60
million in aid for Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
(AP, 7/13/99)
1994 John Berendt published
“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” his personal impressions on
the city of Savannah, Ga.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T8)
1994 The Christian Sportsmen's
Fellowship was founded in Atlanta with the motto "On target to catch
men for Christ."
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A10)
1995 Jan, In Georgia Andrew Cook
(21) shot and killed Michele Cartagena (19) and Grant Hendrickson (22)
in a lover’s lane. Cook, the son of a former FBI agent, was convicted
and sentenced to death in 1998.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A3)
1995 Aug 21, A commuter plane
crashed near Carrollton, Georgia. Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight
529 enroute to Gulfport, Miss., crashed with 29 people aboard. 10 died.
In 2001 Gary M. Pomerantz authored "Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds: The
Tragedy & Triumph of ASA Flight 529."
(AP, 8/21/00)(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.R4)
1995 Sep 27-Oct 6, Hurricane Opal
caused at least 50 deaths in Guatemala and Mexico and 20 deaths in the
United States. The storm hit Central America before striking Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina.
(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1995 Oct 14, The Atlanta Braves
won the National League pennant by beating the Cincinnati Reds, 6-to-0,
to complete a four-game sweep.
(AP, 10/14/00)
1995 Oct 22, The Atlanta Braves
defeated the Cleveland Indians, 4-3, to win the first two games of the
World Series.
(AP, 10/22/05)
1995 Oct 28, The Atlanta Braves
defeated the Cleveland Indians, 1-0, to win the World Series in Game 6.
(AP, 10/28/00)
1995 In Georgia Lynn Turner
murdered her police officer husband, Glenn Turner, to get his life
insurance money. In 2001 she killed her boyfriend, Randy Thompson, by
poisoning him with antifreeze. In 2007 Turner (38), convicted in 2004
for her husband’s death, was convicted again for the Thompson’s murder.
(SSFC, 3/25/07, p.A3)
1996 Jul 19, The 26th summer
Olympics opening ceremonies began in Atlanta, Georgia. The photo finish
was computerized and in color for track and field events. Beach
volleyball was inaugurated as an Olympic sport.
(WSJ, 7/19/96, p.A1)(AP, 7/19/97)(SFC, 8/23/04,
p.C3)(NG, 8/04, Geographica)
1996 Jul 27, A pipe bomb was set
off at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. One person, Alice Stubbs
Hawthorne (44), was killed and 111 injured. Eric Rudolph was later
charged with the bombing. He was arrested May 31, 2003. Rudolph later
pleaded guilty to the bombing.
(WSJ, 7/29/96, p.A1,3)(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A10)(SSFC,
6/1/03, p.A1)(AP, 7/27/08)
1996 Jul 28, Federal investigators
reported "very good leads" in the hunt for the Olympic bomber, a day
after the explosion in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.
(AP, 7/28/97)
1996 Jul 30, A federal law
enforcement source said security guard Richard Jewell had become a
focus of the investigation into the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park.
Jewell was later cleared as a suspect, and Eric Rudolph eventually
pleaded guilty.
(AP, 7/30/06)
1996 Dec 9-1996 Dec 10, David
Coffin Jr., heir to a Connecticut family that founded the Dexter Corp.,
was killed. In 2005 Scott Winfield Davis (40), was arrested in Palo
Alto, Ca., for the Atlanta shooting death of David Coffin Jr. Initial
charges against Davis were dropped in 1998 due to insufficient evidence.
(SFC, 11/19/05, p.B3)
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.
(WSJ, 6/23/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 21, There was a bombing
at an Atlanta lesbian nightclub that injured five people. It was
similar to the previous recent bombings at an abortion clinic and at
the Olympics. Eric Rudolph was later charged with the bombing. He was
arrested May 31, 2003.
(WSJ, 2/21/97, p.A12)(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.A1)
1997 Apr 20, In Atlanta Timmie
Sinclair (27) was beaten by police officers in a scene that was
captured on videotape and showed excessive use of force and baton
beating.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A6)
1997 Nov 16, Some 600 protestors
at Fort Benning, Ga., called for the closing of the Army’s School of
the Americas, which trains Latin American soldiers.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A3)
1997 Dec 4, In Santa Claus Jerry
Scott Heidler (20) was arrested for the murder of a couple and their
two children and the kidnapping of three foster children.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.A3)
1997 Mike Bowers admitted to
having had an affair with a woman he once employed for more than ten
years. He planed to run for state governor.
(SFC, 6/6/97, p.A14)
1997 The town of Stone Mountain
elected its first black mayor, Chuck Burris.
(SFC,11/28/97, p.B6)
1998 Feb 9, It was reported that
Steuart and Jane Dewar were attempting to set up a Gorilla Haven for
retired gorillas in the area of Morgantown on part of 275 acres they
owned in Fannin County. There was substantial neighbor opposition.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A11)
1998 Mar 20, A twister killed 11
people in northeast Georgia and 2 people in North Carolina.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 4, Two small planes
collided over Marietta and at least 5 people were killed.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 8, 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.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.A3)(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
4/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 12, Mark O’Meara won the
Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga. with a 9-under-par score of 279.
(WSJ, 4/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 7, In Atlanta the 4-day
Million Youth Movement ended with a march of less than 10,000 black
youths.
(SFC, 9/8/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 12, In Tucker 3 men were
found shot inside a parked van. A drug deal was suspected.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A6)
1998 Oct 14, The San Diego Padres
won the National League championship over the Atlanta Braves in 4 games
to 2.
(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 18, In Atlanta 3 men were
found shot to death, execution-style, on the 24th floor of the Atlanta
Hilton & Towers.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A6)
1998 Oct 20, State Senator Ralph
David Abernathy III (39) was indicted by a grand jury for stealing some
$13,000 from Georgia taxpayers by billing for false expenses.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 23, The state Supreme
Court invalidated Georgia’s anti-sodomy law.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A4)
1998 The new Cousins Properties
tower in Atlanta was scheduled to be completed. It was designed by Jon
Pickard and featured a sweeping glass bonnet on the roof over a rooftop
garden.
(WSJ, 1/6/98, p.B10)
1999 Jan 25, 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.
(SFC, 1/26/99, p.A24)
1999 Feb 5, The Dupont Co., based
in Wilmington, Del., agreed to a $90 million settlement with
environmentalists to abandon plans to mine titanium along the edge of
the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A9)
1999 May 20, In Conyers, Ga., 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.
(SFC, 5/21/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A4)
1999 Jul 12, In Atlanta 7 people,
5 adults and 2 children, were found shot to death with one 11-year-old
boy as the only survivor.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A2)
1999 Jul 24, In Austell, Greg
Smith, shot and killed 2 SWAT officers when they stormed his house
following a fight with neighbors. Smith was in turn killed by a police
sniper.
1999 Jul 29, In Atlanta Mark O.
Barton (44) shot and killed 9 people in 2 day-trading offices in the
Buckhead district of Atlanta. Police also found the dead bodies of his
wife Leigh Ann Barton (27) and 2 children, Matthew (11) and Elizabeth
Mychelle (7) in suburban Stockbridge. Barton had been a suspect in the
1993 murders of his first wife and mother-in-law.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug, The new $325 million
Mall of Georgia at Mills Creek was due to open. It was to feature a 1.4
million-sq.-foot mall curving around a 300,000 sq.-foot open-air
“village.”
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.B12)
1999 Oct 28, Two Navy Blue Angel
aviators, Kieron O'Connor (35) and Kevin Colling (32), were killed when
their F/A-18 Hornet crashed during a training flight near Moody Air
Force Base in Georgia.
(SFC, 10/29/99, p.A3)
1999 Nov 5, Two Chinese pandas,
Lun-Lun and Yang-Yang, arrived in Atlanta for a 10 year visit. They
were part of a project to study mating problems related to captivity.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A6)
1999 Nov 21, Some 3,000 of 8,000
demonstrators crossed onto the Fort Benning army base in Georgia to
protest against the School of the Americas and the 10 year anniversary
of Jesuit priests killed in El Salvador by soldiers trained at the
school.
(SFC, 11/22/99, p.A2)
1999 Dec 22, In Atlanta, Georgia,
federal drug police seized $72 million worth of cocaine in "Operation
Juno," a 3 year sting operation that also netted $10-26 million
laundered through a fake brokerage firm. 5 people were arrested in
Tucker and another 47 nationwide.
(SFC, 12/23/99, p.A2)(WSJ, 12/23/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb, In Georgia tornadoes
struck the southwest part of the state and 22 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/15/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 16, In Georgia a gunman
shot and wounded 2 sheriff's deputies while being served a warrant in
Atlanta at the home of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap
Brown. The gunman was later identified as Brown. Deputy Ricky Kinchen
(35) died the next day. Al-Amin (56) was arrested in Alabama on Mar 20.
he was convicted of murder on Mar 9, 2002.
(SFC, 3/17/00, p.A5)(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A3)(SFC,
3/21/00, p.A3)(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A6)
2000 Mar 28, Jordan with US
intelligence help indicted 28 followers of Osama bin Laden for plotting
attacks against American tourists in Dec.
(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar, The
IntercontinentalExchange was founded in Atlanta, Ga., as an
Internet-based trading platform for OTC precious metals and oil.
(www.duke-energy.com/news/releases/2000/Jul/2000072601.htm)
2000 Apr 26, Sparkle Rai (22), a
black woman, was found dead in her Georgia apartment. She had recently
married Ricky Rai (20), the manager of a grocery store in which she
worked. In 2008 Chiman Rai (68) was convicted of felony murder.
Prosecutors charged that Rai teamed up with Willie Fred Evans and
Herbert Green to serve as middlemen. The two men passed along $10,000
to brothers Cleveland and Carl Clark. Carl Clark allegedly drove the
car and Cleveland Clark, a 300-pound ex-con who also faces the death
penalty, carried out the killing.
(http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles_n26/idn2008.06.25.13.17.14.html)
2000 Jul 14, Attorney Warren
Bailey (88) died and left $60 million to St. Mary’s United Methodist
Church. The fortune came from the Camden Telephone Co. The 715-member
congregation used $40 million to set up a foundation to award grants to
nonprofit groups.
(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.C8)
2000 Jul 18, Sen. Paul Coverdell
(Republican, Georgia) died in Atlanta at age 61 from a cerebral
hemorrhage.
(SFC, 7/19/00, p.A3)(AP, 7/18/01)
2000 Jul 24, Georgia’s Democratic
Governor Zell Miller was appointed to the late Republican Paul
Coverdell’s Senate seat. In 2003 Miler authored "A National Party No
More."
(AP, 7/24/01)(WSJ, 11/4/03, p.D8)
2000 Nov 16, Hosea Williams, civil
rights leader and Lt. to Martin Luther King Jr., died in Atlanta at age
74.
(SFC, 11/17/00, p.A18)
2000 Dec 14, Police shot Devin
Grant at least 16 times following a car chase from Atlanta to
Douglasville. Grant survived the shooting that began at a roadblock
over a minor traffic warrant.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 15, The US Army planned
to hold closing ceremonies for the School of the Americas in Fort
Benning, Ga. The school planned to reopen in January as the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B8)
2000 Dec 15, Derwin Brown (46),
the sheriff-elect of DeKalb County, Georgia, was gunned down in
what police called an assassination. Brown had promised to clean up the
sheriff’s dept. and fire 38 employees. Former Sheriff Sidney Dorsey and
2 other men were charged for the murder on Nov 30, 2001. 2 other men
involved in the slaying were given immunity for testifying. A 19-count
indictment against Dorsey was handed down Feb 22, 2002. Melvin Walker
and David Ramsey were acquitted Mar 25, 2002. Dorsey was convicted Jul
10. Dorsey was sentenced to life in prison on Aug 15, 2002. In 2005 a
federal jury found Melvin Walker and David Ramsey guilty of conspiracy.
(SSFC, 12/17/00, p.A2)(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A3)(SFC,
2/23/02, p.A5)(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A5)(SFC, 7/11/02, p.A3)(SFC, 8/16/02,
p.A7)(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A3)
2000 Bruce Wilkinson, Georgia
preacher, authored “The Prayer of Jabez,” a 93-page, $10 tract based on
a passage from the Bible. Sales made him a rich man and in 2002 he
embarked on a mission to save children in Swaziland orphaned by AIDS.
(WSJ, 12/19/05, p.A1)
2001 Jan 30, Georgia lawmakers
agreed to downsize the Confederate emblem on the state flag to a small
symbol.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 17, Khalid Abdul Muhammad
(born as Harold Moore), national chairman of the New Black Panther
Party and former Nation of Islam official, died at age 53 in Marietta,
Ga. He was known for his harsh rhetoric about Jews and whites
(SSFC, 2/18/01, p.A2)(AP, 2/17/02)
2001 Mar 3, A US National Guard
C-23 Sherpa plane crashed in Georgia and 21 people were killed.
(SSFC, 3/4/01, p.A5)
2001 Mar 13, A BP Amoco chemical
plant explosion near Augusta killed 3 workers.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A1)
2001 May 14, In Atlanta the
federal government began its racketeering case against The Gold Club
owned by Steve Kaplan and 6 associates. The club grossed some $20
million annually off of business travelers.
(SFC, 5/14/01, p.A2)
2001 Jul 5, The US spy plane from
China arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia aboard a Russian
Antonov-124 transport plane.
(SFC, 7/6/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 11, A woman (71) who
lived near downtown Atlanta died of the West Nile virus, the first
reported death from the disease outside the Northeast since the virus
emerged on the East Coast in 1999. Tests done by the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the cause of death. The virus,
which can cause deadly swelling of the brain, has killed nine people in
New York and New Jersey since 1999.
(AP, 8/17/01)(SFC, 8/18/01, p.A6)
2001 Oct 5, Georgia’s Supreme
Court ruled that electrocution is an unconstitutionally cruel and
unusual punishment. 441 Georgia inmates had died in the electric chair
since 1924.
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.E1)
2001 Oct 25, Terry Mincey (41),
convicted of killing a convenience store clerk in 1982, became the 1st
Georgia inmate to die by lethal injection.
(SFC, 10/26/01, p.D6)
2001 Nov 18, Thousands
demonstrated outside Fort Benning during the annual march to the post
to protest the School of the Americas training for Latin America
soldiers.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A15)
2001 Shirley Franklin was elected
mayor of Atlanta, Ga.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.27)
2002 Feb 16, In Noble, Ga.,
officials found 334 decomposing bodies at the Tri-State Crematory,
where the furnace had not worked for years. Ray Brent Marsh (28),
manager of the family operation, was arrested and charged with 5 counts
of theft by deception. In 2004 families of the dead settled a
class-action suit for $80 million. Marsh pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to twelve years in prison, with credit for the time he had
served before making bond, plus seventy-five years of probation.
(SSFC, 2/17/02,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Crematory#Criminal_prosecution)
2002 Mar 8, The parents and sister
of Ray Brent Marsh were arrested for signing death certificates even
though they were not licensed. The number of corpses found at the
Tri-State Crematory rose to 339.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 9, Jamil Abdullah
al-Amin, aka H. Rap Brown (58), was convicted by an Atlanta jury for
the murder of a sheriff’s deputy on Mar 16, 2000. Brown was sentenced
to life in prison without parole on Mar 13.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A6)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A4)(AP, 3/9/07)
2002 Mar 14, A 125-vehicle pileup
left 4 people dead on foggy I-75 near Ringgold.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 20, In Valdosta Bobby
Blake (44), assistant dean at Valdosta State Univ., was found dead in
the trunk of his car. Charles Anthony Pascal (18) and Shimon Sanders
(23) were soon arrested and charged with murder.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 21, Herman Eugene
Talmadge (b.1913), later state governor and US Senator, died in Hampton.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A27)
2002 Apr 17, Erika Greene (20)
collected $58.9 million in the Big Game lottery.
(USAT, 4/18/02, p.3A)
2002 Jun 9, A Georgia woman (63)
shot to death 2 sons dying of Huntington’s disease at a nursing home.
She was charged with murder.
(WSJ, 6/11/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 1, In Atlanta, Georgia, a
35,000 pound billboard collapsed at a suburban shopping center and 3
construction workers were killed.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A6)
2002 Nov 5, In Georgia Democratic
Gov. Roy Barnes (b.1948) was voted out of office. He had been the main
sponsor for legislation to make it easier to sack incompetent teachers.
(Econ, 3/3/07, SR
p.11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Barnes)
2003 Mar 20, Tornadoes hit rural
Georgia and 6 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 23, Adrian O’Neill
Robinson (25) allegedly shot and killed his father (56) in Hamilton,
Georgia. He then kidnapped 2 nuns, one of whom was found 3 days later,
mutilated in a Norfolk, Va., parking lot. The other nun was found ok.
Robinson was arrested Mar 27.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A7)(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A20)
2003 May 8, Georgia's governor
signed legislation redesigning the state flag without a Confederate
emblem.
(WSJ, 5/9/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 23, Maynard Jackson Jr.
(65), former black mayor of Atlanta (1973-1993), died.
(SFC, 6/24/03, p.A21)
2003 Jun 25, Lester Maddox (87),
segregationist and former Georgia governor (1967-1970), died in Atlanta.
(BS, 6/26/03, 5A)(AP, 6/25/08)
2003 Sep 19, Five of six children
riding on an all-terrain vehicle in Coffee County, Ga., were killed
when they were hit by a motorist.
(AP, 9/21/04)
2003 Oct 5, In Atlanta, Georgia,
Shelia Chaney Wilson (43), shot and killed her mother, minister and
herself in the sanctuary of the Turner Monumental AME Church.
(SFC, 10/6/03, p.A3)
2003 Former Pres. Jimmy Carter
authored his novel "The Hornet's Nest," set in Georgia and the
Carolinas during the US war for independence.
(WSJ, 11/7/03, p.W9)
2004 Jan 7, In Georgia Jerry
William Jones (31) killed 3 former in-laws and his infant daughter and
fled with 3 girl hostages. The girls were found safe and Jones shot
himself following a police chase.
(SFC, 1/9/04, p.A3)
2004 Apr 22, Malachi York (58),
master teacher of the Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, was sentenced to 135
years in prison for molesting boys and girls at the group's 476-acre
compound. The sect, founded as a Muslim commune in NY, moved to
Eatonton in 1993.
(SFC, 4/23/04, p.A2)
2004 Jun 9, G-8 Summit leaders at
Sea Island Resort near Savannah, Georgia, called for Middle East reform
and a broader role for NATO in Iraq.
(WSJ, 6/11/04, p.A7)
2004 Jun 10, A G-8 summit at Sea
Island Resort near Savannah, Georgia, ended without an agreement on
Iraq. The group agreed to extend through 2006 the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries Initiative.
(WSJ, 6/11/04, p.A7)
2004 Jun, In Georgia Chris Griffin
reportedly killed a 1,000-pound hog with 9-inch tusks at the River Oak
Plantation. Only a photo portrayed the “Hogzilla” kill. In 2005 experts
from National Geographic confirmed the kill but reduced the size to
about 800 pounds.
(AP, 7/29/04)(SFC, 3/22/05, p.A2)
2004 Jul 16, George Busbee 76,
former Georgia Gov., died in Savannah.
(AP, 7/16/05)
2004 Sep 17, The violent remains
of Hurricane Ivan pounded a large swath of the eastern United States,
drenching an area from Georgia to Ohio. Ivan left 70 dead in the
Caribbean and 40 dead in the US including 4 in Alabama, 16 in Florida,
4 in Georgia, 4 in Louisiana, 3 in Mississippi, and 8 in North Carolina.
(AP, 9/17/04)(SFC, 9/18/04, p.A16)
2004 Oct 25, The Georgia Supreme
Court unanimously threw out the state's hate crimes law, calling it
overbroad and "unconstitutionally vague."
(AP, 10/25/04)
2005 Jan 3, Victor Hill, the newly
elected Clayton County Sheriff, fired 27 mostly white officers from his
staff as the Georgia county opened the year with its 1st black-majority
government.
(SFC, 1/10/05, p.A6)
2005 Jan 30, In Georgia more than
300,000 customers had no electricity as crews worked to repair power
lines snapped by an ice storm.
(AP, 1/30/05)
2005 Feb 21, S. Ernest Vandiver
Jr., former Georgia governor (1959-1963), died.
(SFC, 2/24/05, p.B7)
2005 Mar 11, In Georgia Brian
Nichols (33), on trial for rape, shot and killed Superior Court Judge
Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and Deputy Hoyt
Teasley at the Fulton County Courthouse. He then killed deferral agent
David Wilhelm in Atlanta’s posh Buckhead neighborhood. Nichols was
captured the next day. In 2008 Nichols pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity. On Nov 7, 2008, Nichols was convicted of murder. On Dec 13 he
was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
(AP, 3/12/05)(SFC, 3/12/05, p.A1)(SFC, 9/23/08,
p.A4)(SFC, 11/7/08, p.A5)(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A6)
2005 Apr 28, More than 100
volunteers joined police in Duluth, Ga., in searching for Jennifer
Wilbanks, a bride-to-be who had vanished two days earlier. Wilbanks
turned up in Albuquerque, N.M., having run away on her own.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2005 Apr 30, Jennifer Wilbanks
(32) of Duluth, Georgia, turned up in Albuquerque, NM, after being
missing for 4 days. She was scheduled to be married Apr 30, and got
“cold feet.”
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.A2)
2005 Jul 4, The General Synod of
the United Church of Christ, meeting in Georgia, endorsed same-sex
marriage with a resolution that called for equal marriage rights for
all.
(SFC, 7/5/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 5, At its Synod in
Georgia(US) the United Church of Christ voted to use "economic
leverage" to promote peace between Israel and Palestinians and to call
for the dismantling of the Jewish state's security fence.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 23, Kristina Miller (27)
of Peachtree City, Ga., was the only American killed in the
blasts at the Egyptian resort at Sharm el-Sheik.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Aug 24, In Dublin, Ga., a
girl shot, killed and robbed Fredrick Williams (25) and Reante Stanley
(26) after they had given her and a 14-year-old friend a ride to a
motel. The girls stole about $200 from the men. Lakeisha Davis (15) of
Dublin was charged with murder and armed robbery. The 14-year-old, who
was not immediately identified, was tried in juvenile court on a charge
of theft. In 2008 Davis was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 8/26/05,
p.A3)(www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-143798.html)
2005 Sep 30, In Georgia 6 men were
killed in a string of robberies targeting Hispanic immigrants at
trailer parks in and around Tifton. Four suspects were arrested and
charged with murder and other offenses.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2005 Oct 15, Jason Collier (28),
Atlanta Hawks center, died, possibly of cardiac arrest.
(AP, 10/15/05)
2005 Nov 18, Scott Winfield Davis
(40), was arrested in Palo Alto, Ca., for the 1996 Atlanta shooting
death of David Coffin Jr., heir to a Connecticut family that founded
the Dexter Corp. Initial charges against Davis were dropped in 1998 due
to insufficient evidence. David Coffin Jr. On December 4, 2006, a jury
in Fulton County, Georgia, found Davis guilty on all counts of malice
murder and felony murder.
(SFC, 11/19/05,
p.B3)(www.atlantada.org/featuredarticle/ScottDavis.htm)
2006 Jan 30, Coretta Scott King
(78), the widow of Martin Luther King Jr, died in Mexico. She had
turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted
to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Georgia Judge T.
Jackson Bedford Jr. of Fulton County Superior Court issued a bench
warrant for Kirk S. Wright (35), a hedge fund manager, for fraud.
Wright’s Int’l. Management Associates LLC was suspected of up to $185
million in losses.
(WSJ, 3/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 10, Bill Campbell (52),
former mayor if Atlanta, Georgia (1994-2002), was convicted of tax
evasion, but acquitted for corruption charges. In June he was sentenced
to 2 ½ years in prison and fined $6,300.
(WSJ, 6/14/06,
p.A1)(http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=nation_world&id=4267799)
2006 Mar 13, South Korea’s Kia
Motors Corp. said it will build a $1.2 billion factory in West Point,
Ga., its first in the US. Toyota said it will build a plant in
Lafayette, Ind.
(SFC, 3/14/06, p.D3)
2006 Apr 10, Tens of thousands of
immigrants spilled into the streets of Atlanta and other US cities in a
national day of action billed as a "campaign for immigrants' dignity."
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 17, Georgia's Gov. Sonny
Perdue signed a sweeping immigration bill that supporters and critics
say gives the state some of the toughest measures against illegal
immigrants in the nation.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 20, Georgia’s Gov. Sonny
Perdue signed a bill into law that offered government-sanctioned
elective classes on the Bible in public high schools. He also signed a
bill permitting the display of the Ten Commandments at courthouses.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 20, Scott Crossfield, the
hotshot test pilot who in 1953 became the first man to fly at twice the
speed of sound, was killed in the crash of his small plane in Georgia.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2006 Apr 21, The US Justice Dept.
gave assent to a Georgia law requiring photo IDs to vote.
(WSJ, 4/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 8, Georgia police found
the decomposed body of Carlnell Walker (23), a Morehouse student from
Richmond, Ca., in the trunk of his car in Riverdale. On July 21, 2006,
3 men were arrested for his murder. In 2007 4 men were indicted for the
murder.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B1)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A1)(SFC,
3/23/07, p.A2)
2006 Aug 28, Columbus, Ga., beat
Kawaguchi City, Japan, 2-1 to win the Little League World Series
championship game.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2006 Sep 1, US federal agents
began rounding up illegal immigrants in Stillmore, Georgia. More than
120 illegal immigrants were loaded onto buses bound for immigration
courts in Atlanta. Hundreds more fled Emanuel County. The Crider
poultry plant was left scrambling for workers.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 19, A Georgia judge
struck down the state’s photo ID requirement to vote.
(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 6, The US Centers for
Disease Control said 3 people from Washington County, Ga., had
experienced respiratory failure and remained hospitalized on
ventilators following a meal they shared on Sept. 7 that included
carrot juice made by Bolthouse Farms. A woman in Florida was
hospitalized mid-September and botulism toxin from bottled carrot juice
was suspected.
(AP, 10/7/06)
2006 Oct 17, Pres. Bush signed
into law a bill to provide grant money for the Gullah/Geechee Cultural
Heritage Corridor. In September Congress had declared a swathe of
coastline from North Carolina to Florida the Gullah/Geechee Cultural
Heritage Corridor, in an effort to preserve the region’s distinctive
black culture and creole language.
(Econ, 2/2/08,
p.42)(www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6283153)
2006 Nov 1, In Lawrenceville, Ga.,
Khalid Adem (30), an Ethiopian immigrant, was convicted of genital
mutilation of his 2-year-old daughter. He was sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
(SFC, 11/2/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 21, In Atlanta, Ga.,
Kathryn Johnston (92) was shot to death by police after she fired at
narcotics investigators as they stormed her house in a no-knock raid.
In 2007 2 officers pleaded guilty to killing Johnston. One of the
officers had planted marijuana there as part of a cover story. In 2009
a judge sentenced 3 former Atlanta police officers to prison for their
role in the botched raid.
(AP, 11/22/06)(SFC, 4/27/07, p.A4)(SFC, 2/25/09,
p.A4)
2007 Feb 13, Charles Norwood
(b.1941), tobacco-chewing conservative Georgia congressman, died of
cancer and lung disease.
(SFC, 2/14/07, p.B9)
2007 Feb 14, ConAgra recalled all
Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter made at a Georgia plant because
of a salmonella outbreak.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2007 Feb 15, Scientists gathered
in Atlanta, Ga., to find a way to stop a fungus killing the world’s
frogs. Up to 170 species have gone extinct in the past decade.
(WSJ, 2/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 2, A charter bus carrying
a college baseball team from Ohio’s Mennonite-affiliated Bluffton
University plunged off a highway ramp in Georgia and slammed into the
pavement below, killing six people, injuring 29 and scattering sports
equipment across the road. A 7th player died from his injuries on Mar 9.
(AP, 3/2/07)(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 7, At least two people
woke on their way to becoming millionaires. Someone bought a winning
ticket for the record $370 million Mega Millions jackpot in Dalton,
Ga., and another winning ticket was purchased in Woodbine, N.J. Ed
Nabors (52), a Georgia truck driver, stepped forward to claim half of a
$390 million jackpot, the richest lottery prize in US history. He
elected to take his winnings in a lump sum instead of annual
installments, and will get over $80 million after taxes.
(AP, 3/7/07)(AP, 3/8/07)
2007 Apr 3, An ex-con shot and
killed his ex-girlfriend at the CNN headquarters complex in Atlanta
before being wounded by a security guard. Arthur Mann was later
convicted of murdering Clara Riddles and sentenced to life without
parole.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2007 May 25, Atlanta attorney
Andrew Speaker, infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis, was
quarantined by the federal government after returning from his European
wedding and honeymoon.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2007 Jun 25, Chris Benoit (40), a
professional wrestling superstar, was found dead alongside the bodies
of his wife and retarded son (7) in Fayetteville, Georgia. Police
treated the case as a possible murder-suicide. Anabolic steroids
thought to be a contributing factor. The Canadian-born wrestler won the
world heavyweight championship in 2004. Doctors later reported that
Chris Benoit had injected steroids not long before he died.
(Reuters, 6/26/07)(SFC, 6/28/07, p.A4)(Reuters,
7/17/07)
2007 Jun 27, Under the banner, "If
another world is possible, another US is necessary," 10,000 civil
society activists gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, for the beginning of
the first US Social Forum (USSF).
(IPS, 6/30/07)
2007 Jul 20, On the Caribbean
island of St. Maarten Georgia state athletes Randy Newton and Bryan
Kilgore were killed. Michael Registe was later accused of the murders
and faced extradition.
(SSFC, 7/19/09, p.A6)
2007 Jul 23, The US FDA said
people should immediately throw away more than 90 different products,
from chili sauce to corned beef hash to dog food, produced at a
Castleberry plant in Augusta, Ga., linked to a botulism outbreak.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Aug 20, The lawyer for
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick said Vick will plead guilty to
federal dogfighting conspiracy charges. Vick could spend the next few
American football seasons behind bars.
(AFP, 8/20/07)(WSJ, 8/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 24, Atlanta Falcons
quarterback Michael Vick admitted he participated in an illegal
dogfighting operation and was suspended indefinitely by the National
Football League.
(Reuters, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 29, Richard Jewell,
the former security guard who was wrongly linked to the 1996 Olympic
bombing, was found dead in his west Georgia home; he was 44.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Sep 19, Julian Walker (34) of
Atlanta, Georgia, suspected in the slayings of his ex-wife and his
girlfriend’s father, shot and killed himself after he was surrounded by
police in Fairview Heights, Ill.
(SFC, 9/20/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 20,
With water supplies rapidly shrinking during a drought of
historic proportions, Gov. Sonny Perdue declared a state of emergency
for the northern third of Georgia and asked President Bush to declare
it a major disaster area. The 38,000-acre Lake Lanier reservoir, which
supplies more than 3 million residents with water, was down to 3 months
from depletion.
(AP, 10/20/07)(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 26, Georgia's Supreme
Court ordered the release of a young man who has been imprisoned for
more than two years for having consensual oral sex with another
teenager. The court ruled 4-3 that Genarlow Wilson's 10-year sentence
was cruel and unusual punishment.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Nov 16, US federal biologists
signed off on a plan to reduce the flow of water from Lake Lanier,
Atlanta’s main water source, as the southeast contends with a historic
drought.
(WSJ, 11/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 29, In Richmond County,
Georgia, Jeanette Michelle Hawes (22) fatally stabbed her two young
children in a Food Mart convenience store bathroom.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007-2008 Georgia issued bonds to fund a plan by Gov.
Sonny Perdue for a $19 million project to make the state the most
popular fishing destination in the country.
(WSJ, 1/5/09, p.A1)
2008 Jan 5, Georgia authorities
served a warrant charging Gary Michael Hilton (61) with the kidnapping
with bodily injury of Meredith Emerson (24). Emerson was last seen on
New Year's Day hiking with her black Labrador retriever, Ella, in Vogel
State Park. On Jan 7 he led investigators to a spot in a wooded area in
north Georgia where they found her body. In March Hilton was sentenced
to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 1/6/08)(AP, 1/8/08)(SFC, 3/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Jan 16, In Georgia 2 off-duty
DeKalb County police officers were killed in what appeared to be an
ambush at an apartment complex in what residents described as a
high-crime neighborhood.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Feb 1, In Loganville, Ga.,
Darryl Spearman (55) and Cherri Spearman (52) were found dead in their
home by relatives. Investigators said they were beaten to death. The
next day police arrested their son, Joshua Spearman (18), on two counts
of murder.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 5, A US Court of Appeals
rejected a decision giving Georgia a quarter of Lake Lanier’s capacity
over the coming decades. It said such changes require congressional
approval. Alabama and Florida had challenged the initial 2003 agreement.
(WSJ, 2/6/08, p.A10)
2008 Feb 7, In Port Wentworth,
Georgia, an explosion and fire at a sugar refinery owned by Imperial
Sugar, based in Sugar Land, Texas, left 11 people dead. Imperial had
acquired Savannah Foods & Industries, the producer of Dixie
Crystals, in 1997. The acquisition doubled the size of the company,
making it the largest processor and refiner of sugar in the US.
(AP, 2/8/08)(SFC, 2/11/08, p.A10)(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Mar 14, A tornado his
downtown Atlanta, Georgia, and left 27 people injured. Workers cleaning
debris found one dead body on March 22.
(SSFC, 3/23/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 27, In Columbus, Georgia,
Charles Johnston (63) stormed a hospital and killed 3 people including
a nurse he blamed for his mother’s death in 2004. Johnston was wounded
and taken into custody.
(SFC, 3/29/08, p.A2)
2008 May 6, In Georgia William
Earl Lynd (53) was executed for the murder of his live-in girlfriend.
He was the first inmate executed since the Supreme Court upheld lethal
injections on April 16.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A2)
2008 May 10, A tornado rumbled
through Picher, Okla., killing at least 7 people. The same storm system
then moved into southwest Missouri, where tornadoes killed at least 15
others. The storms moved eastward and killed at least one person the
next day in Georgia.
(AP, 5/11/08)(SFC, 5/12/08, p.A2)
2008 May 14, In Georgia Gov. Sonny
Perdue signed a new law allowing permitted gun owners to carry
concealed weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol, aboard public
transportation and in parks.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A3)
2008 May 20, Hamilton Jordan
(b.1944), former strategist and chief of staff for Pres. Jimmy Carter,
died in Atlanta, Georgia.
(SFC, 5/21/08, p.A5)
2008 May 24, In Georgia Kirk
Wright (37), convicted of leading an investment scheme, hanged himself
in the Union City jail. He faced up to 710 years in prison and a fine
up to $16 million. An SEC suit had already hit him with a $20 million
judgment for fraud and money laundering related to the 2006 collapse of
his Int’l. Management Associates hedge fund.
(WSJ, 5/27/08, p.C12)
2008 Jun 9, In Georgia Linda
Yancey (44) and Marcial Cax Puluc (20), a Guatemalan day laborer, were
shot and killed in Atlanta’s Stone Mountain suburban community. In 2009
Linda’s husband Derrick Yancey (49), a former sheriff’s deputy, fled
Georgia in April and was captured in September in Belize.
(http://tinyurl.com/mqavw6)(SFC, 9/22/09, p.A5)
2008 Aug 29, US banking regulators
shut down Integrity Bancshares Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., and sold all
deposits to Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala. This marked the
10th US bank to fail this year.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.B3)
2008 Nov 18, A judge in Georgia
sentenced 25-year-old Rico Todriquez Wright to spend the next 20 years
in prison after his victim mentioned a hip hop confession to police.
Wright shot a man twice and felt so good about it, the rapper wrote a
song describing the shooting and calling out the victim by name.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Dec 2, Georgia Sen. Saxby
Chambliss trounced Democrat Jim Martin, winning his second term by a
margin of more than 10 percentage points. The victory in the runoff
denied Democrats a filibuster-proof majority and cemented the state's
reputation as a GOP bastion.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 19, In Atlanta, Georgia,
one worker died and at least 18 others were injured when a walkway
being built collapsed at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
(SFC, 12/20/08, p.A2)
2009 Jan 14, In Atlanta, Georgia,
a federal appeals court upheld the state’s voter ID law.
(WSJ, 1/30/09, p.A13)
2009 Jan 16, Kellogg Co. of Battle
Creek, Mich., recalled 16 products containing peanut butter due to
possible salmonella contamination as federal officials confirmed
contamination at a Georgia facility that ships peanut products to 85
food companies. On Jan 21 federal health authorities confirmed that
peanut butter and paste made by a Virginia company were the sole
sources of the outbreak. The Blakely, Ga., facility was owned by Peanut
Corp. of America, based in Lynchburg, Va.
(SFC, 1/17/09, p.A2)(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 28, Peanut Corp. expanded
its recall to all peanut products produced at its Blakely, Ga., plant
since Jan 1, 2007, due to a salmonella outbreak.
(SFC, 1/29/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 17, In Atlanta, Georgia,
Eugenia Calle (57), a prominent researcher who studied links between
cancer and obesity, was found beaten to death in her condominium. Jamal
Thompson (22) was soon arrested and charged with her murder.
(SFC, 2/20/09,
p.A10)(www.inquisitr.com/18407/dr-eugenia-calle-murder/)
2009 Apr 9, The SEC charged
Atlanta attorney Robert P. Copeland (48) for running a Ponzi scheme
from about 2004-2009. He was alleged to have raised over $35 million
from at least 140 investors and owed over $28 million to the victims.
(WSJ, 4/10/09,
p.C3)(www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr20994.htm)
2009 Apr 25, In Athens, Georgia,
Prof. George Zinkhan (57) shot and killed his wife and 2 other people
outside the Athens Community Theater. Zinkhan fled the scene. Cadaver
dogs found Zinkhan’s body "beneath the earth" in the north Georgia
woods on May 9, two weeks after police say he shot his wife and two
other people to death outside a community theater.
(SSFC, 4/26/09, p.A7)(SFC, 4/27/09, p.A4)(AP,
5/10/09)(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 Apr 27, Five members of the
US Congress were arrested while protesting the expulsion of aid groups
from Darfur in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC. The
included Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Jim McGovern of
Massachusetts, John Lewis of Georgia, Donna Edwards of Maryland and
Lynn Woolsey of California.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 May 9, Federal drug
enforcement agents began seizing about 351 pounds of meth from two
houses in Duluth, in suburban Atlanta. The 2-day operation included the
arrest of four Mexican nationals, three of whom were in the US
illegally. It was the biggest seizure of Mexican crystal
methamphetamine ever recorded east of the Mississippi River.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 Jun 15, Georgia’s Supreme
Court ordered Expedia Inc. and its Hotwire.com subsidiary to collect
and pay hotel occupancy taxes to the west Georgia city of Columbus in a
possible precedent for cities across the country.
(SFC, 6/17/09, p.C1)
2009 Jun 26, In Georgia regulators
shut down the Community Bank of West Georgia, marking the 41st failure
this year of a federally insured bank.
(SFC, 6/27/09, p.B1)
2009 Jul 17, In Douglas, Georgia,
federal authorities arrested Cecil Stephen Haire (51), the so-called
“limping bandit.” He was said to have robbed 23 banks across the
Southwest over the last 3 years.
(SFC, 7/22/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 12, In Atlanta, Georgia,
Ehsanul Islam (23) was convicted of aiding terrorist groups by sending
videotapes of US landmarks overseas and plotting to support “violent
jihad.” He faced a maximum of 60 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 15, In Georgia former
college professor Lothar Karl Schweder (77) and his wife Sherry (65)
were found mauled to death by dogs near their home in Lexington.
(SFC, 8/18/09, p.A7)
2009 Aug 21, Guaranty Bank became
the 2nd-largest US bank to fail this year after the Texas lender was
shut down by regulators and most of its operations sold at a loss of
billions of dollars for the US government to a major Spanish bank.
Guaranty's failure, along with those of three small banks in Georgia
and Alabama, brought to 81 the number of US bank failures this year.
(AP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 29, In southeast Georgia
7 people were found dead inside a dingy mobile home at a trailer park
built on the grounds of a historic US plantation near Brunswick. One of
two critically injured survivors died soon after. Police arrested Guy
Heinze Jr. (22), a family member who called 911 to report finding the
people slain, but the charges were drug-related and police wouldn't say
if the man was a suspect in the killings. On Sep 4 police Heinze on 8
counts of first-degree murder.
(AP, 8/30/09)(SFC, 8/31/09, p.A5)(SFC, 9/5/09, p.A6)
2009 Sep 22, In Georgia washed-out
roads and flooded interstate highways around Atlanta added to the
misery after days of torrential rain in the Southeast claimed at least
eight lives.
(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 25, US regulators shut
down Atlanta-based Georgian Bank, the 95th US bank to fail this year as
loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Oct 23, US regulators shut
down 3 small banks in Florida and one each in Georgia, Illinois,
Minnesota and Wisconsin bringing the total for the year of failed US
banks to 106.
(SFC, 10/24/09, p.A6)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = GeorgiaUS
End of file.