“We have met the enemy and he is us.” The cartoonist who gave us that famous quote was born on this day in 1913 in Philadelphia. Walt Kelly worked as a Disney animator before launching Pogo in 1948, the comic strip set in Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp. It ran nationally for 25 years and was the […]
The first Georgian to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction was a woman who never went to college. Caroline Miller was born in Waycross and published her first novel, Lamb in His Bosom, in 1933. It won the Pulitzer the next year. While Miller worked every day as a housewife and raised three children, she […]
Wyomia Tyus was born to run. The Griffin native became the first athlete to win gold medals in the 100-yard dash in consecutive Olympics. As a fifteen–year–old African-American competing in the state track championships, she caught the eye of coach Ed Temple of the legendary Tigerbelles, Tennessee State University’s women’s track team. Two years later, […]
He created the pause that refreshes. John Stith Pemberton was born in Knoxville, Georgia, in 1831 and grew up in Rome. In 1850, he graduated from a College of Herbal Medicine in Macon and then went to pharmacy school in Philadelphia. Returning to Georgia, Pemberton set up shop as a druggist in Columbus. During the […]
On August 18, 1965, the Beatles made their only Georgia appearance at a concert in Atlanta Stadium. Beatlemania was in full swing that summer and Atlanta’s anticipation was high. The Atlanta Journal had a story about how to give a Beatle haircut. At a pre–concert press conference, Mayor Ivan Allen gave the Beatles the keys […]
The man known as “the Georgia Peach” reached a major milestone on this day in 1921. At age 34, baseball great and Georgia native Ty Cobb got career hit number 3,000, the youngest player to reach that plateau. Cobb was born in Narrows, Georgia, in 1886 and grew up in nearby Royston. He joined the […]
On August 20, 1933, Governor Eugene Talmadge led 500 Georgians to Chicago’s Second World’s Fair, where it was Georgia Day. The fair was officially known as the “Century of Progress Exposition.” With the country mired in the Great Depression, Governor Talmadge predicted “events of this kind will surely turn the trick and bring back prosperity.” […]
A childhood tragedy would haunt poet and author Conrad Aiken all of his life, and provide the psychological foundation for much of his writing. Perhaps Georgia’s most famous poet, Aiken was born in Savannah. When he was only eleven years old, his father killed his mother and then committed suicide. Later, Aiken attended Harvard and […]
One of the most gifted and versatile athletes in Georgia sports history was born on this day in Fort Myers, Florida. Former Atlanta Brave and Atlanta Falcon Deion Sanders earned the nicknames “Neon Deion” and “Primetime.” His athletic talent was matched only by his flair for self-promotion and showmanship. Sanders was drafted out of Florida […]
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 […]
