A number of significant historical events have occurred in Georgia during the month of November.
1700-1749
1732
The Anne set sail from England, carrying James Oglethorpe and Georgia’s first colonists.
1750-1799
1790
A charter was granted to Congregation Mickve Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the South.
Courtesy of Georgia Archives.
1800-1849
1808
The first steamboat appeared on the Savannah River.
1827
The final cession of Creek Indian land in Georgia was signed.
1838
The Okefenokee Campaign of the Second Seminole War began.
1846
The headgates of the Augusta Canal were opened for the first time.
1847
The Columbus canal was completed.
1850-1899
1858
The last ship to bring enslaved Africans to Georgia, the Wanderer, arrived at Jekyll Island.
Courtesy of U.S. Naval Historical Center
1863
During the Civil War, the Battle of Ringgold Gap took place.
1864
Union general William T. Sherman set fire to Atlanta on November 15, before embarking on his destructive March to the Sea.
1865
Captain Henry Wirz, the commander of Andersonville Prison, became one of the few Confederates executed for crimes committed during the Civil War.
1880
Joel Chandler Harris published his first book of Uncle Remus tales.
1884
Construction began on the new capitol building in Atlanta.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
1895
The Georgia division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy formed.
1899
The Georgia Woman Suffrage Association held its first suffrage convention in Atlanta.
1900-1949
1914
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta opened.
1922
Rebecca Latimer Felton was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
1935
U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke at the opening in Atlanta of Techwood Homes, the nation’s first public housing project.
1936
Thornwell Jacobs, the president of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, published his concept for a “crypt of civilization” in Scientific American magazine.
1942
Frank Sinkwich, a halfback for the UGA football team, won the Heisman Trophy.
1946
The Walt Disney film Song of the South, based on the Uncle Remus tales, premiered at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
1950-1999
1957
Eighty members of the Atlanta Christian Council issued a statement, known as the Ministers’ Manifesto, providing tenets for the city to follow during its struggles with integration.
1960
Albany native Ray Charles’s recording of “Georgia on My Mind” reached number one on the charts for the first time.
1961
The Albany Movement began after demonstrators were arrested for attempting to integrate the municipal bus station in Albany.
Courtesy of Cochran Studios/A. E. Jenkins Photography
1966
The Atlanta Falcons football team won its first game on November 30.
1972
Andrew Young became the first Black U.S. congressman elected from the Deep South since Reconstruction.
1976
Jimmy Carter became the first Georgian to be elected president of the United States.
Courtesy of the Carter Center
1977
The Atlanta Braves hired Bobby Cox to manage and rebuild the baseball team.
1983
U.S. president Ronald Reagan designated a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
1988
Spelman College in Atlanta received a $20 million donation from actor/comedian Bill Cosby.
1989
The groundbreaking for the Georgia Dome, the home of the Atlanta Falcons, took place.
Image from Valerie
1992
Georgia voters approved a statewide lottery to help fund public education.
1997
The film adaptation of John Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil premiered in Savannah.
1998
The Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum (later the Albany Civil Rights Institute) opened to commemorate the civil rights movement in southwest Georgia.
Dalton-based World Carpets merged with Mohawk Industries to become one of the largest tufted-carpet companies in the United States.
2000-Present
2001
The Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution newspapers merged to publish a single newspaper under the masthead of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
2021
The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros in game six of the World Series to win their second championship title.
November Birthdays
- November [?], 1740 Stephen Heard, Revolutionary War patriot
- November 22, 1754 Abraham Baldwin, founder of the University of Georgia
- November 9, 1795 Josiah Tattnall, Civil War naval officer
- November [?], 1809 Fanny Kemble, author and actress
- November 1, 1815 Crawford Long, physician
- November 4, 1834 Allen D. Candler, Georgia governor
- November 19, 1839 Atticus G. Haygood, educator
- November 20, 1849 Amanda America Dickson, wealthy landowner
- November 11, 1854 William Y. Atkinson, politician
- November 17, 1867 George Stallings, baseball player and manager
- November 24, 1868 Robert Sengstacke Abbott, journalist
- November 24, 1870 Alexander Hamilton, builder
- November 21, 1875 Julia Collier Harris, journalist
- November 4, 1877 Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, historian
- November 27, 1881 C. Mildred Thompson, historian
- November 18, 1883 Carl Vinson, politician
- November 26, 1885 Andrew Jenkins, musician
- November 18, 1894 Thomas Brewer, civil rights activist
- November 2, 1897 Richard B. Russell Jr., politician
- November 8, 1900 Margaret Mitchell, writer
- November 7, 1902 Ed Dodd, cartoonist
- November 8, 1904 Horace Mann Bond, educator
- November 11, 1908 Bobby Dodd, football coach
- November 18, 1909 Johnny Mercer, musician
- November 29, 1912 Albert B. Saye, historian
- November 21, 1915 Wessie Connell, librarian
- November 4, 1918 Furman Bisher, sportswriter
- November 13, 1930 Benny Andrews, artist
- November 13, 1930 Frank Manley, writer
- November 18, 1931 Roberto Goizueta, businessman
- November 3, 1933 Mildred McDaniel, athlete
- November 3, 1933 Louis Sullivan, medical scholar
- November 29, 1935 Rosemary Daniell, writer
- November 19, 1938 Ted Turner, businessman
- November 18, 1939 Stanley Lindberg, editor
- November 5, 1946 Gram Parsons, musician
- November 20, 1946 Duane Allman, musician
- November 3, 1949 Larry Holmes, athlete
- November 18, 1949 Tina McElroy Ansa, writer
- November 25, 1960 Amy Grant, musician
- November 12, 1964 Vic Chesnutt, musician
- November 12, 1945 Michael Bishop, writer
