Georgia is a state in the United States. Georgia became the 4th state in the United States on January 2, 1788. The state capital of Georgia is Atlanta.
According to ehangzhou, Georgia borders Florida to the south, the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina to the east, Alabama to the west, and Tennessee and North Carolina to the north. The northern part of the state is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains. The southern part of the state is coastal steppes. The highest point in Georgia is 1,458 masl, the lowest 0.
The earliest evidence of human settlement in Georgia was found on the Georgia side of the Savannah River between Augusta and Savannah, where flint leaves have been found that are dated to be between 18-16,000 years old, the oldest finds in North America since the Clovis arrowhead finds in Bartow County, who were 12,000 years old.
TIMELINE:
1000-1500 – Thousands of American Indians were called “bakkebyggerne” ( Moundbuilders ) and lived in a town about Etowah Indian Mounds south of Cartersville. The highest hill is about 20 meters high and fills three acres of land. Archaeologists believe the hill was a priest’s temple.
1526 – Lucas Vazques de Ayllon establishes the first colony on Sepolo Island.
1540 – The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto travels in and explores the area inland.
1562 – French Huguenots build Charlesfort near Port Royal (Savannah).
1670 – The conflict between Spain and the Kingdom of England over control of Georgia begins, when the English establish the colony of Carolina in what is now South Carolina.
1732 – Georgia is established as the last of the original 13th colonies.
1733 – 113 settlers from England arrive in what is to become the city of Savannah.
1735 – MYTH: Alice Riley was hanged for complicity in the murder of William Wise, making her the first woman executed in the United States. What is interesting about her story is that she had her execution postponed by hanging because she was pregnant – and 8 months later in January 1735, she was brought back to the gallows on Wright Square in Savannah, where she screamed and asked for mercy., and told that she had been raped by William Wise, for which she worked. But no mercy for her, and they let her hang for three whole days to warn people that executions were being carried out in the city. Every year after her death, people saw the sight of a young woman dressed in ragged / tattered clothes in Wright Square shouting for her child. People often saw her standing and crying under the tree where she was hung. Read more about why Savannah claims it is the most haunted city in the United States here.
Augusta was founded, and later the city became the second capital of Georgia from 1785-1795, when Savannah became the capital again.
1741 – Georgia is divided into two counties – Savannah and Frederica. Read more here.
1742 – ” Battle of Bloody Marsh ” between the Spaniards and the English; the English stopped the invasion at St. Simons Island.
1749 – A law banning slavery is withdrawn.
1758 – Georgia is divided into 8 parishes.
1765 – The controversial Stamp Act is approved by the British. The following year, it was withdrawn again.
1775 – The first Continental Congress is held in Philadelphia – Georgia was the only non-participating colony.
1776 – Georgia is one of the 13 original colonies that revolted against British rule during the American Revolutionary War and signed the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, despite the fact that a large proportion of the population was loyal to the throne. During the war, a third of the slaves fled and gained freedom by joining the British forces. After the war, Georgia became the fourth state of the United States.
1779 – British conquest of Augusta ; Savannah was occupied for 3-4 days.
1781 – Augusta is recaptured by patriotic forces. The following year, British troops surrendered to Savannah, and evacuated from the area.
1788 – Georgia was America’s fourth state.
1792 – Eli Whitney invents the cotton machine at Mulberry Grove Plantation. Read more here.
1795 – The Yazoo scandal is a massive fraud committed by several Georgia governors and the state legislature.
1807 – The capital moves to Milledgeville ; the border between Georgia and North Carolina was established.
1812 – British-American War begins.
1815 – The British burnt down Fort Peter in the last battle of the War of 1812.
1817 – First Seminole War begins; the Indians attacked white settlements.
1819 – The damship SS Savannah sails from Savannah to Liverpool, England, as the first damship to cross the Atlantic.
1820 – A wildfire in Savannah destroys 463 buildings, leaving most residents homeless.
1824 – On September 15, a hurricane hits the southern coast of Georgia, killing 83 people on St. Simons Island, while 200 others may also have been killed in the area.
1827 – All land owned by the Creek Indians is ceded to Georgia.
1828 – Gold is discovered and it starts the gold rush.
1835 – The Seminole Indians attack American troops, killing a total of 105, beginning their second war. The following year, they massacred Major Francis Dade and his 103 men.
1837 – The chief of the Seminoles, Osceola, is captured. The following year, the Cherokees and Creek Indians were forced out of Georgia ( Trail of Tears ); Osceola died of disease after 3 months of captivity, January 20, 1838, and he was buried with military honors just outside the Fort Moultries gate, where his tombstone can still be seen.
1842 – Dr. Crawford Long became the first to use anesthesia during surgery.
1861 – Georgia becomes part of the Confederate States of America, and the area becomes a war scene during the American Civil War.
1862 – On April 12, James J. Andrews leads a train to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to destroy the Western and Atlantic Railroad line from Atlanta to Chattanooga. They were pursued by Confederate forces, first on foot and later by train. Read more here.
1863 – The Battle of Chickamauga is fought in September during the American Civil War. The battle marked the end of a union offensive that moved the front from central Tennessee to northern Georgia. The battle was the clearest victory for the Southern States in the Western Area of Operation throughout the war.
1864 – In December, large parts of the state from Atlanta to Savannah are destroyed during General William Tecumseh Sherman’s march to the sea. This event formed the historical background for the novel Gone with the Wind from 1936 and the film from 1939 of the same name.
1868 – Atlanta becomes the capital.
1870 – On July 15, Georgia becomes the last Confederate state to rejoin the Union.
1881 – A hurricane hits the coast, killing 700 and leaving many homeless.
1888 – Coca-Cola is sold for the first time at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta.
1893 – A powerful hurricane hits the coast of southern Georgia, killing 2,000, leaving more than 30,000 homeless; Public hanging was abolished.
1903 – A tornado hits Gainesville and New Holland, killing 106 people; earthquake hit Tybee Island / Savannah.
1906 – Racial unrest in Atlanta lasts for 2 days; 26 killed and many wounded.
1912 – White residents expel the blacks from Forsyth County.
1916 – A fire breaks out in the center of Augusta, destroying 32 blocks, 600 homes and six blocks of shops were burnt down, leaving more than 3,000 homeless. See pictures here.
1918 – The Spanish flu breaks out; thousands died.
1934 – The first Masters Golf Tournament begins at the Augusta National Golf Club.
1936 – Cordele Tornado kills 23, destroys 289 buildings; tornado in Gainesville killed 187, leaving 200 homeless; Margaret Mitchell’s ” Gone with the Wind ” released.
1942 – A German submarine sinks ships and oil tankers off St. Simon’s Island on April 8th. Read more here.
1958 – An explosion of dynamite on October 12 destroys Atlanta’s oldest Jewish temple. No one was injured. Read more here.
1960 – The human rights movement begins, with 200 students demonstrating in Atlanta ; Martin Luther King, Jr., and others were arrested.
1961 – Human rights protests take place in Albany.
1964 – The first person to be convicted under the new human rights was the future governor of Georgia, Lestor Maddox, who was steadfast in his belief in segregation ; On December 10, Martin Luther King, Jr. received Nobel Peace Prize.
1967 – Otis Redding dies in a plane crash on December 10, at the age of 26, a month before the release of (Sittin ‘On) The Dock of the Bay, which became his biggest hit. Listen here.
1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot and killed on April 4 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, 39 years old. King was buried in his hometown of Atlanta on April 7. The perpetrator, James Earl Ray, was arrested on June 8 in London at Heathrow Airport. Riots broke out in Albany, Fort Valley, Macon and Savannah.
1970 – Jimmy Carter becomes governor; riots in Augusta killed 6, and wounded over 60.
1971 – Human rights protests in Columbus, 19 buildings burnt down, and a state of emergency declared.
1973 – Prisoner on the run from Maryland Prison, murders 6 members of the Alday family in Donalsonville. Read more here.
1974 – A tornado in northwestern Georgia kills 16 and wounds 109.
1976 – Jimmy Carter was the US ‘s 39th president d. Jan. 20. He lost the presidential election to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
1987 – Over 20,000 human rights Protestants march in Cumming.
1996 – A bomb blast near the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta kills at least 27 people and injures 111 others. It was the first of four bombs made by Eric Robert Rudolph.
1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the first African American and youngest player ever to win the Masters Golf Tournament.
2001 – The state dismantles the electric chair, switching to lethal injections.
2002 – Police make a gruesome discovery while investigating the Tri-State Crematorium in northwestern Georgia in Noble County. The crematorium never burned the corpses that came in, but were dumped on the site. The police did not find anything the first few times they investigated the place from 2000 to 2001.
2003 – On October 5, a woman shoots and kills her mother and pastor at a church in Atlanta before committing suicide.
2004 – From 8-10, the G8 Coalition holds its annual meeting on Sea Island.
2005 – On March 11, Brian Nichols manages to fight his way out of court, killing the judge, a forensic journalist, a deputy sheriff and later a federal agent.
2006 – Martin Luther King, Jr.’s widow, Coretta Scott King, dies on January 30, at the age of 78.
2009 – Guy Heinze Jr. was found guilty of murdering 8 people, including his father in a trailer. He escaped the death sentence but was given a life sentence.
