$162 million. That’s the economic impact that Dobbins Air Force Base brings to Marietta. Not bad for what started out in 1941 as a small airstrip called Rickenbacker Field, as America prepared for World War II. Then, during the war, it became Marietta Army Air Field when the Bell Bomber plant was located there. With […]
“Remember the Maine” – three simple words that helped propel the United States into a major conflict with Spain. And Georgians played an important role in it. The Spanish-American War grew out of American support for Cuba’s rebellion against Spain. After the American battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, Americans clamored for war. Georgia […]
When America entered World War I, Georgia entered a new era in which the military began to loom large in our state. In 1917, Georgia already had five major federal military installations: Fort McPherson, south of Atlanta; Fort Oglethorpe near the Tennessee border; Augusta’s arsenal and Camp Hancock, and Fort Screven on Tybee Island. The […]
She is one of the strongest women in the world, becoming a national champion and Olympic medalist while still a teenager. Cheryl Haworth was born in Savannah and began lifting weights at age 13 to improve at softball. Her father took her to a gym, where she power-cleaned 110 pounds. She trained daily and began […]
He was the architect of one of the most remarkable logistical feats in history — and one of the most humane. Lucius Clay was born in Marietta in 1897, the son of U.S. Senator Alexander Stephens Clay. He graduated from West Point in 1918 and was assigned to the engineers. During World War II, Clay […]
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 […]
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 […]
Georgia Indians traveling to London in 1734 was hardly an everyday thing. One year after James Oglethorpe founded the Georgia colony, he returned to London to report to the Trustees–and took a group of Georgia’s Yamacraw Indians with him. Led by Chief Tomochichi, they wanted to make requests for education and fair trade directly to […]
Their arrival in Georgia on this date in 1734 heralded the beginning of one of the most culturally distinctive communities in Georgia. The Catholic Archbishop of Salzburg expelled German Protestants from the region in present-day Austria in 1731, and England’s King George II offered them refuge in the new colony of Georgia. Some 300 Salzburgers […]
“Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” are among the greatest hymns ever written. All are the work of Charles Wesley. He was born in England in 1707 and was educated at Christ Church College at Oxford along with his brother John, where they started the […]
