He is the first African-American to play Othello in a major movie, following in the footsteps of Lawrence Olivier and Orson Welles. Laurence Fishburne was born in Augusta in 1961. His mother moved the family to Brooklyn, where Fishburne grew up. He’s been acting almost all his life, beginning with the soap opera One Life […]
The good work of Habitat for Humanity can be traced back to a progressive religious leader born on this day in 1912. Clarence Jordan was born in Talbotton. After studying agriculture at the University of Georgia, he became an ordained Baptist minister. Believing that God regarded people of all races as equals, Jordan combined his […]
Leo Frank went on trial for his life on this day in 1913. Frank, a New York Jew, was manager of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta, accused of raping and murdering a 13-year-old employee named Mary Phagan. He was the last person to acknowledge having seen Phagan alive, and police arrested him despite strong […]
John Smoltz was a major part of the Atlanta Braves championship teams of the 1990s. Smoltz was born in Michigan in 1967. His favorite team, the Detroit Tigers, drafted him in 1985 but traded him to the Braves two years later, a move they’d regret many times. For 21 seasons, he was one of the […]
The Butler did it: a familiar phrase when Kevin Butler was kicking footballs. Butler was born in Savannah in 1962 and attended Redan High School in Stone Mountain, where he was a four-year letterman in both football and soccer. As a two-time football All American at the University of Georgia, Butler kicked the Dawgs to […]
Baseball fans, how about this for an outfield trio? Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Willie Stargell. That’s who started for the National League in the first All-Star Game ever played in Atlanta at the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on this day in 1972. Although the Braves had hosted the mid-summer classic two times before- once […]
The Democratic Party came to Atlanta in 1988 to choose its champion to take on Vice President George Bush, the shoo-in republican nominee as President Reagan’s heir apparent. By the time Democrats gathered at the Omni in Atlanta for four days in July 1988, former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis had won a hotly contested nomination […]
For 17 days in 1996, Atlanta was the center of the world. In 1990, the International Olympic Committee chose Atlanta for the site of the centennial Olympics over five other cities. The games were the brainchild of Atlanta attorney Billy Payne. He and Mayor Andrew Young were the prime architects of the winning bid. The […]
He was the first Republican Senator from Georgia since Reconstruction, but he made sure he wouldn’t be the last. Paul Coverdell was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1939 and moved to Atlanta in his teens. After graduating from the University of Missouri, Coverdell served in the Army and returned to Atlanta to work for […]
Cold Sassy Tree, a coming of age tale set in turn of the century Georgia, was inspired by some bad news. Olive Ann Burns was a writer for the Atlanta Constitution in 1975 when she was diagnosed with cancer. She walked out of the doctor’s office determined to write a novel. Born in Banks County […]
