A number of significant historical events have occurred in Georgia during the month of July.
1700-1749
1733
The founders of Congregation Mickve Israel, the South’s oldest Jewish congregation, arrived in Savannah.
1742
The Battle of Bloody Marsh, a skirmish between English and Spanish forces on St. Simons Island, took place on July 7.
1750-1799
1782
Following its defeat in the Revolutionary War, the British army left Savannah on July 11.
1800-1849
1840
Wesleyan College in Macon, the first degree-granting women’s college in the world, graduated its inaugural class.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives.
1850-1899
1851
The Georgia Military Institute opened in Marietta and remained open through the end of the Civil War.
1864
During the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War, the Battle of Atlanta took place on July 22. That same month Union general William T. Sherman ordered approximately 400 mill workers in Roswell, mostly women, to be arrested as traitors and shipped with their children as prisoners to the North.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries.
1869
The Atlanta Constitution published the first Uncle Remus story by Joel Chandler Harris on July 20.
1873
Thomasville native Henry O. Flipper enrolled in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and later became the first African American to graduate from that institution.
Courtesy of U.S Military Academy at West Point
1879
Mormon missionary Joseph Standing was murdered on July 21 in Whitfield County while traveling to a church conference.
1889
Elberton was christened the “Granite City” on July 6 by the Elberton Star newspaper for its role in the granite industry.
1900-1949
1906
The state legislature proposed and approved an amendment to the state constitution creating the Court of Appeals of Georgia.
Photograph by S. Sean Barrett
1913
One of the most notorious trials in Georgia history began when Leo Frank was charged in Fulton County Superior Court with the first-degree murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan.
1914
Asa Candler, former president of the Coca-Cola Company, offered a gift of $1 million to open a new Methodist college. This donation led to the creation of what would become Emory University in Atlanta.
1918
Souther Field, the site of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s first solo flight, was built in Sumter County during World War I.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives.
1930
Golfing great Bobby Jones won the U.S. Open on his way to becoming the first golfer to claim a Grand Slam.
1932
Communist organizer Angelo Herndon was arrested on charges of attempting to incite an insurrection in Atlanta.
1936
Margaret Mitchell sold the movie rights to Gone With the Wind for $50,000, an unprecedented sum for a first novel.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
1944
Primus E. King challenged the white primary system in Georgia by attempting to vote at the Muscogee County Courthouse on July 4 in Columbus.
1946
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was established.
1950-1999
1960
The Atlanta International Raceway (later Atlanta Motor Speedway) hosted its first race on July 31.
Courtesy of Atlanta Motor Speedway
1963
The Americus Movement to protest segregation in that town began with marches against the Martin Theater.
1964
attended the July 2 signing ceremony for the Civil Rights Act at the White House.
1976
The Georiga Agrirama (later the Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village) opened in Tifton.
Hank Aaron, hitting his 755th and final home run, set the all-time record for career home runs on July 20.
1977
U.S. president Jimmy Carter awarded Martin Luther King Jr. the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1978
The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base at St. Marys was commissioned.
Courtesy of Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay
1983
Georgia’s current state constitution went into effect on July 1.
1986
The first Goodwill Games, sponsored by Ted Turner, began in Moscow, Russia.
1993
On July 10 the groundbreaking ceremony for Centennial Olympic Stadium took place in Atlanta, where the 1996 Olympic Games would commence three years and nine days later.
1994
The Flint River overflowed its banks when tropical storm Alberto stalled over western Georgia.
1999
Alton Brown’s television cooking program Good Eats premiered on the Food Network.
Celestine Sibley’s final column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran on July 25.
July Birthdays
July 31, 1782 Oliver H. Prince, politician
July 9, 1793 Charles McDonald, governor
July 1810 Nelson Tift, politician
July 2, 1810 Robert Toombs, politician
July 19, 1814 Patrick Hues Mell, religious figure
July 3, 1827 Logan Bleckley, judge
July 9, 1835 William J. Northen, governor
July 27, 1850 E. K. Love, religious figure
July 31, 1850 Joel Hurt, businessman
July 16, 1851 Mildred Lewis Rutherford, Confederate memorialist
July 27, 1852 George Foster Peabody, philanthropist
July 5, 1858 Will Harben, writer
July 1863 Walter White, civil rights advocate
July 10, 1871 Hugh M. Dorsey, governor
July 4, 1877 Clifford Walker, governor
July 6, 1893 William C. Pauley, landscape architect
July 17, 1897 Elbert Parr Tuttle, judge
July 14, 1898 Alexander Brook, artist
July 1, 1899 “Georgia Tom” Dorsey, musician
July 9, 1899 Ellamae Ellis League, architect
July 4, 1900 Nellie Mae Rowe, artist
July 6, 1901 Charles McCartney (“Goat Man”), religious figure
July 25, 1903 Walter J. Brown, journalist
July 13, 1905 Ben Shute, artist
July 4, 1908 St. EOM, artist
July 22, 1912 R. A. Miller, artist
July 29, 1912 Clarence Jordan, religious figure
July 17, 1914 Culver Kidd, politician
July 3, 1918 Ernest Vandiver Jr., governor
July 17, 1924 Olive Ann Burns, writer
July 11, 1925 Mattiwilda Dobbs, musician
July 18, 1927 Slater King, civil rights advocate
July 22, 1927 Edward J. Cashin, historian
July 29, 1927 Horace T. Ward, civil rights advocate
July 28, 1928 Leroy Johnson, civil rights advocate
July 1, 1933 Jean Childs Young, educator
July 8, 1941 Hamilton Holmes, civil rights advocate
July 22, 1941 James H. Blanchard, businessman
July 11, 1947 Francine Reed, musician
July 5, 1950 Earl T. Shinhoster, civil rights advocate
July 13, 1953 Greg Johnson, writer
July 4, 1961 Margaret Edson, writer
July 30, 1962 Alton Brown, television personality
July 22, 1963 Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, musician
