Metro Atlanta

For Atlanta Braves fans, the phrase “Braves win” will always belong to one voice—Skip Caray. Caray was born in 1939 in St. Louis, and grew up in baseball as the son of legendary announcer Harry Caray. After graduating from the University of Missouri, he began his broadcasting career calling St. Louis Hawks basketball and moved […]

“Peachtree Bart” was the Atlanta Falcons answer to Broadway Joe and he was just what the struggling team needed. Steve Bartkowski was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1952 and was a two-sport star at the University of California. The Atlanta Falcons made the All-American the first pick in the 1975 draft—ahead of Walter Payton—and […]

It was a whale of a deal for Georgia. It holds 10 million gallons of water and is the largest one of its kind in the world, and it was a gift to the people of Georgia. The Georgia Aquarium opened in 2005, thanks to a $250 million gift from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus. […]

From DIY to the NFL, Arthur Blank has scored big. Born in Flushing, New York In 1942, he went to work for his father’s small pharmaceutical company. He wound up in Los Angeles as CFO of a home improvement company called Handy Dan. Bernie Marcus was CEO. Fired by that chain in 1978, the enterprising […]

The arts, he said, are not the privilege of the few, but the necessity of us all. Robert Shaw put the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – and Chorus – on the international map. As a choral director, he was an innovator who had no equal. He singlehandedly elevated the symphonic chorus to parity with the symphonic […]

If Atlanta loses one more hockey team, it will be a hat trick. Hockey and the Deep South have always been something of a forced marriage. The Flames arrived in Atlanta in 1972 and reached the NHL playoffs six times in eight years playing at the Omni. But after years of low attendance and financial […]

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 […]

Ted Turner called them “America’s Team,” but for most of their time in Atlanta they were lovable losers. The Braves played their first Atlanta season in 1966. In 25 years, they made the playoffs twice. There were a few highlights, some great players, like Hank Aaron, Dale Murphy, and Phil Niekro, but the Braves lost […]

She was the first African-American woman elected to the Georgia Legislature. Grace Towns Hamilton was born in Atlanta in 1907. She graduated from Atlanta University in 1927 before earning a masters degree in psychology from Ohio State. Hamilton taught college for the next decade before she was appointed executive director of the Atlanta Urban League […]

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 […]