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Winner of two 2013 Emmy Awards from the Southeast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

Today in Georgia History
is a joint collaboration of the Georgia Historical Society & Georgia Public Broadcasting.

government

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June 06, 1861

Joseph Terrell

He was known as Georgia’s education governor, though he never attended college himself.

Joseph Terrell was born in Meriwether County in 1861 and b...
January 07, 1861

Robert Toombs

He stood for saving the Union and he later zealously argued for secession, Robert Toombs was one of the most influential Georgians of the 19th century.
November 14, 1860

Alexander Stephens

The threat of secession hung heavy over the land eight days after Abraham Lincoln’s election. Alexander Stephens, who had known Lincoln from his days in Congr...
December 28, 1856

Woodrow Wilson

The first Southerner in the White House after the Civil War grew up in Georgia, and knew the war firsthand.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Virgin...
December 29, 1835

Treaty of New Echota

It cost three men their lives and provided the legal basis for the Trail of Tears, the forcible removal of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia. The Treaty of New E...
December 03, 1832

John Forsyth

Only two Georgians have served as Secretary of State. John Forsyth was one of them.

Born in Virginia in 1780, Forsyth went to school in Wilkes Count...
July 26, 1827

Cherokee Constitution

In the 1820s, the Cherokee nation was carving out a permanent, sovereign home within the United States.

Using Sequoyah’s Cherokee syllabary, the t...
December 01, 1824

William Crawford

A man who killed a political opponent in a duel nearly became the first president from Georgia, long before Jimmy Carter.

William Crawford began his...
April 02, 1814

Henry L. Benning

A U.S. Army fort in Columbus is named for a man who waged war against the U.S. Army.

Henry Benning, born in Columbia County, was one of Georgia’s ...
January 12, 1798

James Jackson

James Jackson was a pugnacious politician with a fiery temper.

Born in England in 1756, he came to Savannah as a teen and fought in the American Rev...

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