Build it and they will come. Atlanta Stadium was the city’s field of dreams, the brainchild of Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., who promised in his 1961 mayoral campaign to bring major league sports to Atlanta. With financial support from C&S Bank president Mills B. Lane, Jr., they chose a 62-acre site that had been a […]
His teammates called him “Mad Dog” or “Professor.” We can’t say what opposing batters called him. He was unhittable, one of the best pitchers in Major League history. Greg Maddux was born in San Angelo, Texas, in 1966. Drafted by the Chicago Cubs, he struggled after making his Major League debut in 1986, so he […]
Everyone remembered where they were when they heard the news: the president is dead. On this day in 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt died at the Little White House in warm springs. Roosevelt had come to Warm Springs 41 times since 1924. FDR was sitting for a portrait when he complained of a headache. He fainted […]
When it comes to Vidalias, no one ever says “hold the onions.” Looking for a new cash crop during the Great Depression, Mose Coleman of Toombs County tried onions, thinking they would be hot. Instead they turned out sweet….and popular. Other farmers followed his lead and an industry was born. During the 1940s, the state […]
Was he an actor? Not hardly. Could he read cue cards and remember lines? Not so hot. Was he a Hee Haw star anyhow? Just mention BR-549. Alvin “Junior” Samples was born in Cumming, Georgia, in 1926 and spent the first 40 years of his life doing carpentry, driving race cars, and fishing. And lyin’ […]
Peyton Anderson was born in 1907 in Macon with newspaper ink in his veins. His uncle edited and published the Macon Telegraph and later the Macon News; his father was vice president of the company; another uncle was a columnist. Anderson began working at the paper at age 9 sweeping floors. After earning a Bronze […]
The Nazis brought World War II to Georgia, when a German U-boat sank three ships off the coast in 1942. The state seemed an unlikely target; it had a short coastline, shallow waters, and numerous military bases nearby. But it also had prime targets that were poorly protected. Antisubmarine patrols were uncoordinated, and many coastal […]
Georgia is called the Peach State, but the fruit has been part of our history long before there was a Georgia. Franciscan monks introduced peaches to St. Simons and Cumberland Island in the 16th century. Cherokee Indians grew peaches here in the 18th century. Raphael Moses, a Columbus planter, was marketing peaches in Georgia in […]
His basketball skills were so great that he was called the “human highlight film.” Dominique Wilkins was born in 1960 in France, where his father was serving in the Air Force. After playing high school basketball in North Carolina, Wilkins came to the University of Georgia in 1979 to play for coach Hugh Durham. Wilkins […]
The Bell Bomber plant transformed Marietta—and helped the Allies win World War II. On this day in 1942, construction began on the Bell Aircraft Corporation plant that built more than 600 B-29s during the war. The Roosevelt administration wanted to build aircraft away from the coast, and Atlanta was a prime location. Cobb County boosters […]
