April 5, 1977
Wyche Fowler, Jr. was once known as the “night mayor of City Hall” working as a troubleshooter for Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. As a 29-year-old law student, Fowler won election to Atlanta’s City Council in 1970. He lost a congressional bid to Andrew Young in 1972. But when Young became ambassador to the United […]
July 14, 1976
Jimmy who? Jimmy Carter, the original “Washington outsider” to run for the presidency, was still governor of Georgia when he announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president in December 1974. Constitutionally barred from a second term as governor and still young at 50, Carter thought his outsider status, strong principles, and reform agenda […]
October 23, 1972
Its unmatched beauty has been around for millennia, but the largest of Georgia’s Barrier Islands only became a national seashore on this day in 1972. Cumberland Island is the southernmost of Georgia’s Sea Islands. This magical place is noted for having several unique ecological systems: beaches and dunes, inland maritime forests, and saltwater marshes. The […]
July 25, 1972
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 […]
October 26, 1971
He would box, but he would not fight. At the height of the Vietnam War in 1967, Muhammad Ali was drafted. Declaring himself a conscientious objector, he refused to serve. With his case on appeal, Ali was banned from boxing by several of the sport’s governing bodies. He hadn’t floated like a butterfly nor stung […]
October 29, 1971
He was the leader of the band that helped spark the Southern rock movement of the 1970s. Duane Allman was born in 1946 in Nashville and his family moved to Florida when he was 11. Duane started playing guitar and he and his brother Gregg formed a band called the Allman Joys. It would be […]
May 31, 1971
Jimmy Carter first ran for governor in 1966 as a moderate, losing to Lester Maddox. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. In 1970, Carter ran as the candidate of the ordinary guy, making not-so-subtle racial appeals to white conservative Georgians. In the Democratic primary, he denounced former Governor Carl Sanders as a crony of […]
July 4, 1970
It’s big now, but not to begin with. In 1970, 110 runners lined up for the Atlanta Track Club’s first Peachtree Road Race. The starting line was at the old Sears building at Peachtree and Roswell Road. The finish was 6.2 miles away at Central City Park, now Woodruff Park. Carling Brewery sponsored the first […]
July 5, 1969
Woodstock may have gotten the headlines but Atlanta was rockin’ a whole month earlier. The Atlanta International Pop Festival of 1969 was a two-day music festival at the Atlanta International Raceway over the Fourth of July weekend. The brainchild of promoter Alex Cooley, tickets cost only $12.50 & $16, and a crowd of 120,000 drank, […]
June 16, 1967
If you love roller coasters, you probably should thank Six Flags. Opened in 1967, the park takes its name from the six flags that have flown over some part of Georgia during its long history—Spain, France, Great Britain, the United States, the Confederacy, and the state of Georgia. Angus Wynne had opened Six Flags over […]