A Revolutionary War hero, born on this day, played a critical role in helping Georgia defeat the British. Nathanael Greene, George Washington’s top lieutenant, was an unlikely warrior. Born in Rhode Island, he was raised a pacifist Quaker. But when the war began, he helped form a militia unit. Greene fought in many of the […]

On this day in 1774, revolutionaries were plotting at Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah. Thirty men, calling themselves the “Sons of Liberty,” gathered to plan Georgia’s opposition to British colonial policy. This was Georgia’s first participation in what would become the American Revolution. Nine months earlier, a group in Boston protested British policies by throwing 342 […]

On August 2, 1776, Georgia joined the United States. Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia that day. Approved on July 4, the declaration was signed by only one man that day, John Hancock. Fifty other delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress signed on August 2. Later that […]

Getting the stuff to do it yourself got a lot easier on this day in 1979 when the first two Home Depots opened. Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank started a chain of large home improvement warehouses that would stock more products, often at lower prices than any competitor or hardware store. Employees knew what was […]

He watched America being born and was its last king. On this day in 1738 at Windsor Castle, Frederick, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Princess Augusta had their first son, George William Frederick. In 1751, the Prince of Wales died. That put 12-year-old George in line for the throne, which he ascended as […]

Georgians might have been speaking with a different accent had it not been for a key Patriot victory in Augusta during the American Revolution. In 1778, the British launched their southern campaign, hoping to break the stalemate in the northern states and rally loyalists to their cause. Savannah fell and later, Charleston. Augusta then became […]

When the Cherokees were removed from Georgia along the infamous Trail Of Tears, the man in charge was General Winfield Scott. The man known as old “Fuss and Feathers” was the foremost American soldier between the Revolution and the Civil War. Born in Virginia in 1786, Scott served as a general in three wars. He […]

Detractors called it the Chicken Noodle Network, but it revolutionized the way the world gets its news. Ted Turner launched the Cable News Network—CNN—in Atlanta as the world’s first 24-hour all news network. Turner had already revolutionized cable television by beaming Superstation TBS around the globe by satellite. Convinced there was a market for an […]

Georgia’s lottery is nothing new. Between 1805 and 1833, the state held eight land lotteries. Seventy-five percent of Georgia was sold to roughly 100,000 people for bargain prices. As land-hungry Georgians began migrating westward after the American Revolution, the state negotiated treaties with the Creek and Cherokee tribes—or simply took their land—and then distributed the […]