Timeline - Recreation -

Fort Peachtree - <Where the Peachtree Creek Flows Into the Chattahooche River ..... This Fort used to be the border between the Creek Indians' land to the South and the Cherokee Territory which lay to the North. Thereupon stood a gigantic peach tree. (this was argued about I believe even by Garrett as to whether this could have been a "pitch" or pine tree and incorrectly pronounced, however we southerners would prefer it to be known as a Peach Tree. Anyway, this tree provided the name for Peachtree Creek which was nearby and then to the main Indian Trail and to the street and therefore it continued on. Therefore in 1814 the Americans built Fort Peachtree to provide coverage during the War in 1812. For a time this spot was chosen to be the location where all the railroads would come together to form the City of Atlanta - but later it was decided to locate the terminus a few miles towards the East.

• 1782	The Indian Village of "Standing Peachtree" exists at the junction of the Chattahoochee River and Peachtree Creek.
  1813	Fort Gilmer (later called Fort Peachtree) built near site of "Standing Peachtree" village.
  1826	Wilson Lumpkin and Hamilton Fulton survey possible railroad route between future site of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Milledgeville (then the capital of Georgia).
  1833	Then Governor Lumpkin prods the legislature to charter three railroad lines, but none of them between middle Georgia and the northern USA.
  1835	White Hall Tavern established by Charner Humphries near Atlanta at the corner of present-day Gordon and Lee Streets. Hardy Ivey becomes Atlanta's first permanent white settler, building his cabin at present corner of Courtland Avenue and International Blvd.
  1836	The state-financed Western & Atlantic Railroad, tying mid-Goergia to the north, is founded by the legislature and signed by the Governor.
  1837	Work to build the southern terminus of the line begins in July at Pittman Ferry, near Hog Mountain in present-day Norcross, which would be the location of present-day Atlanta had the site not been abandoned because of too many creeks, valleys, and unsatisfactory gradients. The engineers switch the terminus site to Montgomery's Ferry at Ft. Gilmer, where Peachtree Creek runs into the Chattahoochee River, for a savings of $18,000 per mile. The legislature changes the terminus again by extending the line several miles to what is now where Foundry St. crosses the railroad tracks, next to the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. (They felt the land at that point was more "eligible for running branch roads" of the railroads.) The town of Roswell, to the north of Atlanta, is founded when Roswell King moves there with friends John Dunwody and James Bulloch families.
  1838	The forced march west known as the "Trail of Tears" begins when General Winfield Scott arrives to remove 15,000 Cherokee Indians to Arkansas, per an 1802 agreement between the state and the US government. Over 4,000 don't survive the trip. Henry Irby buys about 200 acres north of Atlanta and erects a tavern and grocery at the northwest corner of what is now Roswell Road and West Paces Ferry Road. (Two years later, the head of a local buck was mounted on a post nearby, giving the tavern and then the area the name "Buckhead.)
  1839	John Thrasher and a partner named Johnson open a general store, the first store in Terminus, on land that is now the Federal Reserve Bank on Marietta Street in downtown Atlanta.
  1840	The chief engineer of the W&A railroad resigns, declining a half share in land along present Marietta Street, saying that "Terminus will be a good location for one tavern, a blacksmith shop, a grocery store, and nothing else."
  1842	Willis and Julia Carlisle move to Terminus from Marietta, putting their grocery store/home across from what is now the Federal Reserve Bank. Their child, Julia, born in August, is the first Atlanta baby. (She died in 1919.) The settlement of six buildings and 30 inhabitants gets a name change, from "Terminus" to "Marthasville," after the daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin. The new depot, now the tallest building in town, is built. It is two stories tall. Ether's first-ever use as an anesthetic for surgery is performed by Dr. Crawford Long of Georgia.
  1843	Thirty-three miles of track north of Marthasville are reported as having been laid.
  1844	William T. Sherman, a 23-year old Army lieutenant, passes through Marthasville on his way to his assignment in Marietta. Marthasville commissioners try to levy a tax to open new streets but are turned down by residents, who say their seven streets (Marietta, Decatur, Peachtree, Whitehall, Pryor, Alabama and Loyd) are enough.
  1845	The name "Atlanta" is suggested to replace "Marthasville" by John Thomson, chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad. The name, shortened from the mouthful "Atlantica-Pacifica," becomes popular with residents, and the name change becomes official later in the year. The first train to reach Atlanta, a Georgia Railroad freight, arrives after a one-hour journey from Decatur to the east. The next day, the first passenger train arrives, from Augusta, carrying Georgia Railroad president John P. King, who then stepped off the train in the dark and fell into a well. According to one observer, he was "highly disgusted and for years would not buy Atlanta real estate." George Washington Collier opens a grocery at what is now Five Points, which later serves as Atlanta's first post office in 1846. The first Jewish families, of Jacob Haas and Herman Levi, arrive and open a dry goods store on Whitehall St.
  1846	A third railroad, the Macon & Western, enters Atlanta. Atlanta's first and second hotels, the Atlanta Hotel, between Whitehall, Pryor, Decatur and Wall Streets, and Washington Hall, facing Loyd (now Central) Street, open. (Both were later destroyed in the war.) Atlanta's first and second newspapers, "The Luminary" and the weekly "Enterprise," begin publication, both lasting only a year or two.
  1847	The town of Atlanta is incorporated, with town limits defined as a one-mile radius from the mile marker at the depot. A movement had already begun to move the state capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta. Atlanta has 30 stores, several hotels and private schools, at least one house of worship, and a population of about 2,500 . William Howell builds a bridge across Nancy Creek on Paces Ferry Road.
  1848	Moses Formwalt becomes Atlanta's first mayor, defeating Jonathan Norcross for the job. The polling place is Thomas Kil's grocery at present Five Points; 215 voters show up. The first Atlanta city council meeting approves wooden sidewalks, a ban on Sunday business, and a marshal. September Crime Spree: Atlanta's first homicide, end of a family feud, occurs when William Terrell stabs James McWilliams; Terrell gets four years hard labor. Also, Judge Francis Cone stabs Alexander Stephens at the Atlanta Hotel; Stephens survives, later becomes Governor of the state, then Vice President of the Confederacy. The first town jail, so flimsy that prisoners could tip it over to escape, is erected at Pryor and Alabama Streets.
  1849	The W&A Railroad track to Chattanooga, 138 miles to the north, is completed. The City Council okays a 30 cents per $100 value property tax, little of which ever gets collected. The town also issues six-month $500 municipal bonds. Atlanta gets its first telegraph line, connecting the town to Macon. P.T. Barnum and his huge elephant, Tipo Sultan, are star attractions at the Southern Central Agricultural Society Fair held at Stone Mountain.
  1850	The "fast passenger train" to Dalton makes the 99-mile trip in a mere seven hours. Every slave sale in Atlanta is taxed $1. The City Council hires two night watchmen at $20 per month each to patrol the town from 10 p.m. to dawn. The city buys land that becomes Oakland Cemetary. (According to tradition, its first occupant feared being buried alive and arranged for a doctor to slit his body's throat before it was put in the ground.) Atlanta Census: 2058 whites, 18 free blacks, 493 slaves. Among main jobs: 70 carpenters, 38 merchants, 11 clerks, 10 farmers, 10 grocers, eight clergymen.
  1851	Suspected slave uprising halted with the arrest of nine men. Mayor Norcross, who had run on "law & order" platform, cleans up the town and survives personal threats from town ruffians.
  1852	Bank of Atlanta becomes first bank chartered in Atlanta. (It goes out of business three years later.) Slaves must have written permission to possess liguor or suffer 39 lashes to the back, according to City Council. Union Democrats, led by Howell Cobb in Atlanta meeting, choose to remain in Democratic Party rather than join Southern Rights movement. Freight cars are being manufactured in Atlanta at the factory of Joseph Winship.
  1853	City Council forms three-man police force and approves oil-burning street lamps, the oil to be supplied by residents. Grand openings: Atlanta gets its first hospital (mostly to deal with smallpox), its first public school (The Holland Free School, which did not survive past the war), and a central market on Market Street. Atlanta exceeds 6,000 population and outgrows Dekalb County (Decatur being county seat) and Fulton County is formed, with Atlanta its seat. Mittie Bulloch marries Theodore Roosevelt Sr. in Roswell's Bulloch Hall. They later become parents of President Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Elliott Roosevelt, who becomes father of Eleanor (and later Mrs. Franklin) Roosevelt.
  1854	City Council okays plan for gas-lighting, bans hogs from streets, and continues attempts to make Atlanta the state capital. City Hall opens on four acres of land bought the year before (land that now sits under the state capitol building.) The Examiner, Atlanta's first daily newspaper, launches. One week later, the Intelligencer goes daily. Atlanta's first theatre, the Athenaeum, opens on the second floor of a brick building on Decatur Street, between Peachtree and Prior Streets. A new 100-by-300 foot passenger depot made of brick opens to serve all four railroads. (It is destroyed in the war in 1864.)
  1855	Philadelphian William Helme erects a gas works (using coal) to illuminate streets and buildings of Atlanta, talking City Council into buying 40% of his $50,000 worth of stock. The first lights go on Christmas day. The Fulton County Grand Jury warns of an "evil of vast magnitude, the herds of unruly and vicious boys who infest the streets of the city ... by day and night, especially on the Sabbath, to the great annoyance of (the) citizens..." The founding of Atlanta Medical College which, in 1915, joins with other medical schools to form part of Emory University.
  1856	Atlanta population: About 8,000. Helme's gas works granted corporate charter as Atlanta Gas Light Company, which still exists today. A rally is held to support sending settlers to "Bleeding Kansas" to support the Southern viewpoint in the strife there. A black man is denied permission to open an ice cream parlor by City Council, which pronounces the idea "unwise."
  1857	The "National American" newspaper begins publication. (In 1861, after seccession, it changes it will change its name to the "Gate City Guardian.")
  1858	Two hundred Atlantans present a petition to City Council protesting use of slave labor in industrial plants, arguing that the "Negro mechanics can afford to underbid the regular resident citizen mechanics..." The state legislature agrees to set aside $100,000 a year from W&A Railroad earnings for public schools for white children ages 8 to 18. Atlanta's first public park is built on land bounded by the streets of Decatur, Pryor, Loyd (now Central) and the passenger depot.
  1859	The "Southern Confederacy" newspaper begins publication. Although the City Council orders free blacks to post $200 bonds to live in city (or be liable to indenture), it also ignores petition of white dentists to prohibit the practice of black dentist Roderick D. Badger. (Badger practiced until his death in 1891.)

  
  
  
  

  *** A SHORT HISTORY OF ATLANTA *** 1860-1864 1860 A Mercantile Association meets to remedy discrimination against the city, by boycotting northern merchants. The group is the forefunner of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, candidate for President, comes to Atlanta and speaks against seccession. Presidential votes cast by Atlantans: 1,070 for John Bell of Tennessee and VP Edward Everett of Massuchusetts (Consitutional Union Party), 835 for John Breckinridge of Kentucky and VP Joseph Lane of Oregon (Southern Democrat), 336 for Stephen Douglas of Illinois and VP Herschel Johnson of Georgia (Democrat). The winners, Republicans Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and VP Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, were not on the ballot. The "Minute Men Association" of Fulton County, organized to defend against "a black Republican government," meets to announce readiness "to second any action that the sovereign State of Georgia may take in asserting her independence by separate State action, or in unison with her sister States of the South in forming a Southern Confederacy." City Council donates six 15-by-30 foot lots to Atlanta's Jews for burials in the Atlanta City (Oakland) Cemetary. 1861 Atlanta has a ten-second earthquake on the afternoon of January 3. Seccession Convention at Milledgeville votes 208 to 89 in favor, making Georgia the fourth state to leave the union. In Montgomery, Alabama, Georgia's Alexander H. Stephens is named Vice-President of the Confederacy, under President Jefferson Davis. Jefferson Davis visits Atlanta and is given a party at the Trout House hotel, near Five Points. By August, 11 companies of Atlanta and Fulton County volunteers are in Confederate military service. 1862 James J. Andrews and 21 other northern soldiers, wearing plain clothes over their uniforms, commandeer the locomotive "General" at Big Shanty, near Kennesaw, and drive it north toward Chattanooga, attempting to sabotage rail lines behind them. They are chased by the locomotive "Texas," driven backwards by "General's" engineer William A. Fuller, who along with help from Rebel soldiers, capture the Yankees just five miles short of their goal. Andrews escapes from jail but is recaptured, and days later, is hanged near the corner of present day Juniper and Third Streets (a block or so from the Fox Theater). His body is buried under a nearby pine. (In the 1880s, his body will be moved to the National Cemetery in Chattanooga.) Seven of the Andrews Raiders are hanged near what is now Memorial Drive and Park Avenue. Eight others escape Fulton Country jail and make it back to Union lines. The other six will be exchanged early the following year. All of the Andrews Raiders will later be awarded the USA's first Medals of Honor. (Two movies made about the incident: "The General," starring Buster Keaton, and Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase," starring Fess Parker.) Atlanta becomes the war supplier of the south, manufacturing railroad cars, revolvers, cannon, knives, saddles and spurs, buttons and belt buckles, tents and canteens. Atlanta now being a military post, martial law is established. Smallpox hospital constructed to deal with the epidemic in the city. 1863 Col. L.P. Grant begins supervising construction of fortifications around the city, including the ferries on the Chattahoochee River. He authorizes hiring slaves for the work, paying their owners $1 per slave per day. By the end of October, the forts are nearly complete. Mayor James Calhoun issues a proclamation noting "the more than probability of an early raid on this city," (Federals having two months earlier raided Rome, Georgia), "...I do now request every citizen able to bear arms ... to enroll their names upon some company list..." By military order, whiskey can no longer be sold in retail stores. Entered into the city code this year: "Sec.292. No man slave or person of color shall walk with cane, club or stick (unless blind or infirm), nor smoke a pipe or cigar in any street, lane, alley, or on the square used by the State; and, upon conviction of a violation of any part of this section, such slave or person of color shall receive not exceeding thirty-nine lashes." Gen. Howell Cobb is named commander of Georgia state troops, headquartered in Atlanta. A private female institute, located on corner of Courtland and Ellis streets since 1860, is taken over for a Confederate hospital, relocating the school to the Neal home at Washington and Mitchell streets, now the site of Atlanta City Hall. (In the following year, Yankee Gen. Sherman will take over the Neal house for his Atlanta headquarters.) 1864 In early May, union Gen. William T. Sherman begins moving his troops out of Chattanooga, along the railroad route toward Atlanta. Mayor Calhoun calls on all capable males to report for induction into military units, adding "All male citizens who are not willing to defend their home and families are requested to leave the city at their earliest convenisnce, as their presence only embarrasses the authorities and tends to the demoralization of others." After a series of battles through northern Georgia in which Sherman's army beats back the lesser forces of Confederate General Joseph Johnston, the Rebels take a stand at Kennesaw Mountain (just northwest of Atlanta) that lasts for several days and results in the death of Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk, an Episcopal bishop. Sherman troops cross over the Chattahoochee and a frustrated President Davis replaces Gen. Joe Johnston with Gen. John Bell Hood. The Battle of Peachtree Creek (in present-day Tanyard Park on Collier Road, near Piedmont Hospital) is a victory for the north. A Union colonel in that battle, Benjamin Harrison, will go on to be a US President. While shells are lobbed into the city from the north of town, Hood's army strikes out south in the darkness of night, then northeast in vain hopes of dividing the Federals approaching from Decatur. The armies meet in what becomes known as the Battle of Atlanta, which results in the death of Confederate General William Walker and one of Sherman's top generals, James B. McPherson. West of Atlanta, the battle of Ezra Church ends in what some historians called the most one-sided victory of the war for the Yankees, who sustained 600 casualties to the Rebels' three-to-five thousand. Down in Jonesboro, Union soldiers succeed in totally isolating Atlanta by destroying the rails from the south. Hood is forced to evacuate Atlanta, setting fire to major supply dumps on the way out of town. On September 2, Mayor Calhoun leads a city delegation northwest on Marietta Street to seek out Union troops to surrender the city. He finds some and does so at what is now the corner of Marietta and Northside Drive. Civilians are ordered out of the city by Sherman, despite the protests of Gen. Hood. Up north, Abraham Lincoln wins reelection on November 8. More than two months after taking the town, Sherman orders it burned, leaving only 400 structures. This includes five churches, thanks to the personal pleadings of Father Thomas O'Reilly. The next day, Sherman marches his troops to the south, beginning the "march to the sea," planning to live off the land on the journey rather than maintaining a supply line back to Union territory. About a week later, the Confederates reoccupy the burned city, and civilians begin returning. Newly re-elected Mayor Calhoun looks into the city treasury and finds $1.64.

  
  

  1865 Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, Lincoln is shot less than a week later and dies. On May 16, the American flag is officially raised over Atlanta and immediately lowered to honor the assassinated president. Union Col. B.B. Egleston orders the arrest of jailing of any black found with passes within Atlanta city limits. Mayor Calhoun, leading first public meeting since Sherman captured the town, deplores Lincoln's assassination, and calls for restoration of commercial ties with the north. Union Brig.-Gen. Salm-Salm, a Prussian, is named military governor of Atlanta. City Council vows equal application of laws to whites and blacks. The Atlanta National Bank is chartered, which will later become First National Bank of Atlanta, then First Atlanta, and finally Wachovia. A school for black children, the first in Atlanta, opens in an old church building on Armstrong Street. 1866 By the end of the year, Atlanta boasts 22 private schools but no public schools. The legislature approves a public-school system, but lacking funds, none exists until 1873. The legislature also approves convict labor being hired out to private firms, thrie first contract being to the Georgia and Alabama Railroad. The "chain-gang" system was to be abolished in 1909. Gold is discoverd in Randall Mill Road area, but not enough to justify mining. Atlanta's population: 10,940 whites, 9,288 blacks. The city limits are extended one-half mile outward from the zero-mile post (near present Underground Atlanta), making Atlanta three miles across. Atlanta Gas Light Co starts lighting the streets again for the first time since Sherman burned the place. Italian opera is performed in Atlanta for the first time, and opera becomes all the rage. 1867 Morris Rich, 19 years old, opens a small store on Whitehall Street. (It is the precursor of the Rich's department store chain, bought out 100 years later by rival Macy's.) The first soda fountain in Atlanta opens in the Redwine & Fox drug store at Whitehall & Alabama Streets. Atlanta University is chartered. The Federal Government leases property southwest of the city for encamping soldiers. The location, at that time a race track, later became site of Ft. McPherson and Spelman College. Atlanta is named headquarters of the Third Military District under the U.S. Reconstruction Act, and Gen. John S. Pope is put in command. Gen. Pope issues orders allowing blacks to serve on juries, ordering Mayor James Williams to remain in office another year, and banning city advertising in newspapers that don't favor reconstruction. President Andrew Johnson issues order removing Gen. Pope from his Atlanta command. He is soon replaced by Gen. George G. Meade. A convention convenes in Atlanta to draw up a new constitution for the state. 1868 Gen. Meade removes Gov. Jenkins and the State treasurer from office for refusing to pay $40,000 toward costs of the Constitutional Convention. In April, elections are held, approving Atlanta as the new state capital and naming as governor Republican Rufus Bullock, who defeated the Democratic candidate, former Confederate Gen. John B. Gordon. On June 16, the Atlanta Constitution puts out its first edition. The following month, it editorializes that "We return to the Union ... under a Constitution and a state government which has no foundations in the affection of our people ... By the enfranchisement of the lowest class ... and the wholesale disenfranchisement of our best citizens, we have certainly taken a retrograde movement..." Thousands cheer five hours of anti-reconstruction government speeches in what became known as the "Bush Arbor" meeting of Democrats near present Underground Atlanta. Speakers include Robert Toombs and Benjamin H. Hill. Direct miliary rule having been withdrawn, Gen. Meade departs the city. In defiance of Gov. Bullock, the legislature expels its black members ... 25 from House, three from Senate ... on grounds that the constitution prohibits blacks from holding office. (The State Supreme Court will reinstate the legislators the following year.) Kimball opera house chosen as temporary state Capitol. The building, at the southeast corner of Marietta and Forsyth streets, served until the present capitol building opened in 1889. 1869 The Legislature votes against ratifying the 15th Amendment (right to vote not to be abridged based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"), and then adjourns. Gov. Bullock heads for Washington to seek return of the state to military rule. The Federal government does so in December, saying the state will not enter until the Legislature ratifies the 15th Amendment. In an editorial, the Atlanta Constitution pronounces that "We regard the measure as an unspeakable evil..." Georgia Railroad freight depot opens at what is now the entrance to Underground Atlanta. Dr. Albert Hape and Prof. Samuel A. King become the first locals to go up in a balloon. (Hape's brother later will found Hapeville, future home the Atlanta's airport.) A coeducational black school that will later become Clark College is founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Freedman's Aid Society. 1870 Gov. Bullock convenes the Legislature which includes black members removed in 1868. Legislature again expels newly elected blacks. The governor names a military board to review eligibilty of his opponents in the legislature. The Legislature ratifies the 15th Amendment and Georgia is readmitted to the Union. Oglethorpe University, which was once located in Milledgeville, reopens in Atlanta with 11 instructors. A new hotel with central heat and elevators is built by Hannibal Kimball. Radical Republican Dennis Hammond is elected mayor and the new City Council gets its first two black members. Atlanta population: 21,789 residents living on about nine square miles. 1871 A street railway company , owned by George Adair and Richard Peters, starts up with the first line running two miles to the barracks at Ft. McPherson, from 7 am to 10 pm. Gov. Bullock resigns and flees the state to escape prosecution of corruption. A survey of city businesses shows Atlanta has 76 doctors, 46 lawyers, 20 billiard tables and a skating rink. 1872 Robert Toombs heads a team of attorneys to prosecute ex-Gov. Bullock on corruption charges. The city school system opens. By the end of the year, the Boys and Girls high schools and seven grade schools will have 2,075 students enrolled. A water company begins delivering bottled water by wagon from Ponce de Leon Springs (near today's City Hall East, the old Sears building on Ponce De Leon Avenue). The street railway as of this year includes lines on Peachtree and Decatur Streets and Ponce De Leon Avenue. 1873 Citizens Bank of Georgia opens. Free mail delivery begins in Atlanta with the first letter going to grocer John C. Hallman. At the insistence of Postmaster J.L. Dunning and at city expense, all houses are suppled with enamel signs with streets numbers painted on them. Thomas Jones is named the first chief of police to head a force numbering 26 tin-helmeted men. 1874 The term "The New South" is used in a published statement by Daily Herald Editor Henry W. Grady. Having fled when the Reconstruction government collapsed, Hotel owner H.I. Kimball returns to Atlanta and faces a grand jury. With support from Henry Grady, who says Atlanta needs skilled businessmen, Kimball is exonerated. Whitehall Street Railway opens and, with the completion of a bridge over Clear Creek, the Peachtree Street Railway extends all the way to Ponce de Leon Springs. 1875 Police Chief Jones urges pay raises to $100 per month for lieutenants and $75 for patrolmen, and is then fired. A dam is raised 51-feet over over Poole's Creek to supply the city water system. Firemen testing it shoot a stream of water over the 153-foot flagstaff of the Kimball House hotel. 1876 Evan Howell buys half of the Atlanta Constitution and then names Henry W. Grady its managing editor, who himself then hires Joel Chandler Harris (who will later create the Uncle Remus stories) as a $25 per week "paragrapher." John Wilkes Booth's brother, Edwin, plays "Hamlet" to a standing-room-only crowd. The Park Medical Institute, at Marietta and Peachtree Streets, advertises a guaranteed "Painless and Permanent Cure for The Opium and Morphine Habit..." 1877 Reconstruction ends with the inauguration of President Rutherford B. Hayes who, the year before, won the electoral vote but lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden. President Hayes becomes first sitting American president to visit Atlanta. The city's first telephone line runs from Union Station to the Western & Atlantic Railroad depot.

  
  

  1878 A weather bureau begins operation in the Kimball House hotel. A baptist college moves from Augusta to Atlanta. It will go through several name changes and eventually become Morehouse College. 1879 Fifteen years after you-know-what, Gen. Billy Sherman revisits the town in January, attending a ball at McPherson Army Barracks. A street linking Decatur Street with Ponce is opened, later to be named Boulevard. The Constitution calls it "Atlanta's best drive." Martin and Susan DeFoor, for which Defoors Ferry Road in northwest Atlanta will be named, are axed to death in a murder never to be solved. 1880 Morris Brown College founded. By threatening to cut off the street lights, the city forces a rate reduction on coal gas to $23 per light per year. Atlanta population: 37,409, making it the largest city in Georgia. When school opens in September, 3,328 students attend, while 300 six and seven year olds are turned away for lack of room. Joel Chandler Harris publishes the first in his Uncle Remus series. 1881 The International Cotton Exposition, America's first "World's Fair" of a sort, is held in Atlanta's Oglethorpe Park. Headed by the once-discredited Hannibal Kimball, it features a model cotton factory 720 feet in length and has seven foreign countries participating. Southern Bell buys out a small telephone operation and opens the first telephone switchboard exchange. Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary opens. It later moves to McPherson Barracks and becomes Spelman Seminary, later to become Spelman College. 1882 Former Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens is inaugurated governor. (He will die less than four months later.) Amid public demand for more city parks, Col. L.P. Grant offers 100 acres just east of town, later to become Grant Park, home of Zoo Atlanta and the Cyclorama, and a surrounding neighborhood to bear its name. Young Woodrow Wilson moves to town, is admitted to the bar, and sets his up office at 48 Marietta Street. 1883 The Atlanta Journal, an evening paper, is launched by Edward Hoge. A subscription costs 10 cents a week. In what some called the "biggest blaze since Sherman," the huge Kimball House hotel is gutted by fire. The Atlanta Journal hits the streets with the city's first "extra" edition. A new Kimball house is planned and construction begins. 1884 Plans are announced for a Southern baseball league to include Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock and Atlanta. The telephone company says it has 450 customers. The only long distance service available is to Decatur and costs 15 cents per five minutes. City Hall is demolished and the ground is broken on that site for the new (and present) state Capitol. Grover Cleveland becomes the first Democrat to be elected president since pre-Civil War days. Henry Grady, who had a small brass cannon made in anticipation of the occasion, fires it and leads a cheering crowd to the Capitol. 1885 Prohibitionists win a referendum barring liquor from Fulton County. (Two years later, another referendum will make the country wet again.) Fearing Fulton going dry will hurt sales of his French Wine Cola, pharmacist John Pemberton goes into his lab at his 107 Marietta St home and comes out with a new headache remedy he calls Coca-Cola. 1886 Jefferson Davis comes to town and joins a crowd estimated at 100,000 for the dedication of a monument to the recently-departed Georgia statesman, Benjamin Hill. Pemberton's Coca-Cola formula is dispensed for the first time at Jacobs Pharmacy at the southwest corner of Peachtree and Marietta streets (the site of what is now the Wachovia tower). The state establishes a technological school and Atlanta beats out other cities for what will become Georga Tech. Henry Grady declares the reality of "The New South," thus popularizing the phrase, in a speech at Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City also attended by Gen. William Sherman. 1887 A circular painting of the Battle of Atlanta by a group of German artists goes on display in Detroit. The picture is 50 feet high, 400 feet around, and cost $40,000. The Piedmont Exposition opens on the property of the newly-formed Driving Club, later to become Piedmont Park. Hoke Smith, a 37-year-old attorney, buys into the Atlanta Journal for $10,000 and becomes its president. 1888 Steam-powered street cars begin service to Grant Park. The city contracts for 400 electric street lights for $30 per light per year. 1889 The new Capitol building is delivered for $188.43 under the $1-million appropriation. George Gress buys a bakrupt circus and donates the animals to the city to found a zoo. The city's first electic street cars are used on Joel Hurt's new Edgewood Avenue line to Inman Park. Decatur Female Seminary opens in Decatur with 57 day students and three boarders. It will later become Agnes Scott College. Henry Grady dies. 1890 The circular painting of the Battle of Atlanta is auctioned to Paul Atkinson of Georgia. Atlanta population: 65,533. (Blacks make up 43%). Atlanta toilet census:2,829 indoor; about 9,000 in outhouses. 1891 The water commission recommends plan for delivering "10 million gallons of Chattahoochee river water daily" to Atlanta, two replace the aging artesian well system at Five Points. Before speculators get word, Mayor William Hemphill quietly buys up the 200 acres for the new site and a strip of land from it to the city (which will later become Hemphill Avenue). The water will begin flowing two years later. President Benjamin Harrison comes to town. When he asks to visit the site of the Battle of Peachtree Creek in which he fought, the guide takes him to the wrong creek, so he never gets to see it. Asa Candler buys Coca-Cola for $2,300. (Next year, he will incorporate it.) 1892 Score of the city's first intercollegiate football game: Auburn 10, University of Georgia 0. The new Grady Memorial Hospital on Butler Street is dedicated with 100 beds and 10 rooms for "pay patients." 1893 A new opera house, DeGive's Grand Theatre, opens on Peachtree. (It will become the first theatre in town with electric lights, the host of the world premiere of "Gone With The Wind" in 1939, and will burn in 1978.) Wheat Street is renamed Auburn Avenue. Georgia Tech and University of Georgia meet for the first time on a football field: Tech wins, 22-6, with help from Leonard Wood, who will later command Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. 1894 A replica of the Lion of Lucerne, Switzerland, is unveiled in Oakland Cemetary to honor the unknown Confederate dead. The waterworks property and lake on the southside is converted for recreational use, including rowboats and launches on the lake, a bath house, a music stand and open-air theatre, and a "large and elegant pavilion." It will open the next year as Lakewood Park (but for whites only.) Several rail systems serving Atlanta are reorganized (by J.P. Morgan and others) as the Southern Railway. 1895 The huge Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895 opens in Piedmont Park with a switch thrown long-distance by Pres. Cleveland in Buzzard's Bay, Mass. Before the 6,000-exhibit fair closes in December (after running up a nearly $3-million tab), it will be the temporary home of the Liberty Bell, and will be visited by over 800,000 visitors, including the president and his cabinet. One expo attraction: Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. John Philip Sousa will compose "King Cotton March" in honor of the fair and premiere it there. Among speeches at the exposition is the famous "Atlanta Compromise" address of Booker T. Washington, who pleas that blacks compromise their demands for the sake of getting jobs. Whites cheer while many blacks are critical. 1896 Atlanta University Professor W.E.B. DuBois begins leading conferences on living conditions of urban blacks. DuBois will later be a founder of the NAACP. Atlanta's first golf course built: seven-holes laid out on the grounds of the Piedmont Driving Club. 1897 The English-American Building, now known as the Flatiron Building, is erected on Peachtree north of Five Points. (At this writing, it still stands.) 1898 The city accepts the Battle of Atlanta painting as a gift, provided it spend at least $1,000 to house it. Named headquarters of the new military Department of the Gulf in anticipation of the invasion of Cuba, Atlanta devotes the entire year to participation of the Spanish-American War, culminating in the December visit of Pres. William McKinley and some of his cabinet for a post-war Peace Jubilee. 1899 Eugene Mitchell, president of the Young Men's Library Association, reads in a newspaper that Andrew Carnegie is giving away money to cities, and writes him a letter. As a result, Carnegie offers $145,000 for a free public library in Atlanta if the city provides the land and $5,000 per year upkeep. The Retail Credit Company begins operation in a one-room office in the Gould Building. It will later become Equifax Corporation, one of the three major American credit services.

  
  
  

  1900 The Atlanta Coca-Cola Bottling Company is licensed by Coca-Cola to bottle the beverage locally. It begins operation in a building that still stands at 125 Edgewood Ave. 1901 Bicycle dealer William Dawson Alexander builds three 650-pound "Locomobile Steamers," Atlanta's first horseless carriages. He then joins with partner C.L. Elyea and forms Atlanta's Oldsmobile dealership. After years of traffic dodging trains where Peachtree and Whitehall Streets meet, a bridge is finally built over the tracks. (This bridge begins the process that will result in Underground Atlanta.) Baptist Tabernacle Infirmary and Training School for Christan Nurses is founded, later to become Georgia Baptist Medical Center. 1902 The Atlanta Federal Penitentiary opens with the transfer of six convicts from Sing Sing in New York. Carnegie Library opens. After a settlement of the rivalry between street car operators Joel Hurt and Harry Atkinson, the Georgia Railway and Electric Company is formerd, which will later become Georgia Power. A race riot, later known as the "Pittsburgh Riot" after that section of the city, leaves three policemen, two black and one white civilian dead. 1903 George Washington Collier, Atlanta's longest surviving early settler, dies. Edwin Ansley begins developing a neighborhood that will bear his name. The Independent begins publication. It is Atlanta's first black newspaper. 1904 A bad year for cars: After one of Atlanta's first auto accidents (car collides with trolley and horse-drawn surrey on Peachtree; car wrecked, horse fine), the City Council says drivers must get license from city clerk and sets speed limit of 8 MPH. Less than two months later, a Marietta chemist dies after losing control of his car on Marietta Street, becoming Atlanta's first auto accident fatality. Rhodes Hall is erected by furniture chain founder A.G. Rhodes at 1516 Peachtree St. The building still stands at this writing. 1905 The new Terminal Station opens at Mitchell Street and Madison Avenue with the playing of "Dixie" by the 16th US Infantry Band. Pres. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt arrive in Atlanta after a visit to his mother's home in Roswell. Under leadership of former slave and ex-barber Alonzo Herndon, the Atlanta Life Insurance Company is formed. Herndon is Atlanta's first black millionaire. His home still stands near Morris Brown College and is open to visitors. 1906 The 17-story Candler Building (still standing today) is dedicated on Peachtree and Houston Streets. Four days of race rioting in September leave ten blacks and two whites dead. A report issued by the Chamber of Commerce blames whites for the disturbances. The riot began after a gubernatorial campaign in which one candidate, Hoke Smith (of Atlanta Journal and Grover Cleveland cabinet fame), promised to take away the black vote. 1907 Governor Hoke Smith is inauguarated. 1908 Prohibition wins a state referendum but Atlanta bars win right to sell "near beer." Joel Chandler Harris dies at age 59. The Uncle Remus Memorial Association is formed and will eventually buy his home, "Wren's Nest," and keep it up in his honor. 1909 Atlanta Taxicab Company introduces the city to taxis, eight of them. The fare is 30 cents for the first half-mile, then 10 cents each additional quarter mile. The Atlanta Crackers win the pennant of the Southern League. Atlanta's first black-owned bank, Atlanta State Savings Bank, is formed. 1910 Atlanta's population: 154,839, 33.5 percent being black. 1911 Winner of the city junior golf championship: Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones, 9. It would be the beginning of a great golf career. Grand opening of the Georgian Terrace Hotel on Peachtree and Ponce. 1912 A report that "all cases of infection, smallbpox possibly excepted, among colored people are allowed to spread" is received by the Chamber of Commerce. Among reforms demanded by the organization is inspection of city milk. 1913 On April 26, at the National Pencil Factory, Mary Phagan is murdered. Leo Frank is arrested for the nationally famous crime, he will be convicted and later lynched by an anti-semitic mob in 1915. About sixty years later, Frank will be pardoned. The Winecoff Hotel opens on Peachtree Street. 1914 The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta opens on the second floor of the Hurt Building, with $4-million in gold. 1915 The Educational Commission of the Methodist Church having announced its decision the previous summer to establish a university, Emory University is granted a charter. Coke's Asa Candler had pledged $1-million to the school. Gutzon Borglum of New York visits Atlanta to see if Stone Mountain is suitable for a huge sculpture of Confederate heroes. D.W. Griffith's movie, "Birth of a Nation," opens at the Atlanta Theatre, and 34 men meet atop Stone Mountain to revive the long-dormant Ku Klux Klan. 1916 Trucks begin replacing some of the horses in the Atlanta Fire Department. With the urging of citizens, Asa Candler of Coca-Cola runs for mayor and wins. 1917 The "Hanson Six" automobile, selling for about $1,000, is manufactured in Atlanta. Camp Gordon opens in Dekalb County, later to become the site of Dekalb-Peachtree Airport. By the end of World War I, over a quarter-million men (including the legendary Sgt. York) will pass through the camp. Fires start all over Atlanta, burning almost two thousand houses and leaving one person dead and 10,000 (mostly blacks) homeless. 1918 The Federal Reserve Bank opens on Marietta Street. 1919 Isadore M. Weinstein, an Atlanta war vet, opens a shop on Walker Street to supply lines to restaurants. The company later becomes the National Linen Service. Asa Candler sells the Coca-Cola Company to a group led by Ernest Woodruff for $25-million. One year before the nation ratifies the 19th Amendment, 4,000 women vote in the primaries in Atlanta. 1920 A referendum for reading the Bible in public schools passes 7,631 to 1,865. Atlanta population: 200,616. 1921 The Cyclorama building is dedicated in Grant Park. The fireproof building houses the circular painting of the Battle of Atlanta. 1922 WSB, the first commercial broadcast station licensed in the South, is granted. The radio station is owned The Atlanta Journal. The Constitution soon begins broadcasting on its WGM, but later donates it to Georgia Tech, renamed WGST. Rebecca Latimer Felton of Dekalb County is selected to fill the office of late Sen. Tom Watson, thereby becoming the first woman member of the U.S. Senate. She served one day. Atlanta Constitution reporter Bessie Kempton becomes the first woman to win a seat in the Georgia Legislature. 1923 Robert Woodruff named president of Coca-Cola. The million-dollar Spring Street viaduct opens. Borglum beings carving the face of Robert E. Lee on the side of Stone Mountain. 1924 The Biltmore Hotel opens at a cost of $6-million. A municipal farmers' market opens on Edgewood Avenue, next to what is now the entrance to the interstate. The new governors' mansion is opened at 205 Prado in Ansley Park. The first occupants are Gov. and Mrs. Clifford Walker. The Dekalb County town of Ingleside, near Decatur, is bought by George Willis, who plans to develop a model suburb there. It will become Avondale Estates. 1925 The Stone Mountain Memorial Association cancels Gutzon Borglum's contract. He then destroys the models and flees the town. He is replaced by Augustus Lukeman, who begins his work by blasting away Borglum's work. (Borglum later went on to carve Mt. Rushmore.) 1926 Joel Hurt dies. Mrs. H.M. High donates her home to Atlanta on the condition it become an art museum. It opens in October. Air Mail service begins between Atlanta and Miami. Asa Candler donates 53 acres to the city, which becomes Candler Park. The Sears Roebuck building begins construction on Ponce de Leon. It later becomes City Hall East. 1927 R.H. Macy, having purchased Davison-Paxon-Stokes two years prior, opens the six-story Davison's department store at Peachtree and Ellis streets. Columbia Seminary moves from Columbia, SC, to its present 7-acre campus on Columbia Drive south of the city of Decatur. 1928 The Stone Mountain carving design is unveiled but the project is put on hold due to lack of funds, and Stone Mountain's owners, the Venable family, reclaim the mountain, unfinished carving and all. Egleston Hospital for Children opens. General Motors opens a plant in Lakewood. 1929 Georgia Tech wins the Rose Bowl. Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler dies. The Fox Theatre opens. The city buys the airport, Candler Field. Daily flights between Atlanta and Birmingham begin. 1930 The new 14-story City Hall opens at a cost of $1-million. Manufactured gas is replaced by natural gas, which begins arriving in pipelines from Louisiana. Air passenger service between New York and Atlanta begins, followed next year by Atlanta-Miami service. Atlanta is added to the coast-to-coast airmail route. The Fulton County Grand Jury probe of Atlanta municipal graft results in 15 convictions and ousting of many office-holders at the polls. Bryan "Bitsy" Grant wins the U.S. Clay Court Championship.

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• 1931 Southern Bell installs dial service. Atlanta votes to keep itself on Central Standard Time. 1932 Fulton County is enlarged by the merger into it of Milton and Campbell counties. Anticipating that the whites-only primary will be someday declared unconstitutional, black leaders set up citizenship schools to teach blacks how to register to vote. Atlanta's first air terminal, at Candler Field, is dedicated. 1933 It's the depression, and the city finance committee cuts municipal salaries by 20 percent. City banks deny credit to City Hall unless it cuts the $14-million budget by $1-million. Eastern Air Transport moves its headquarters to Atlanta (and will soon change its name to Eastern Airlines). 1934 Construction of Atlanta's new sewer system, financed by the federal Public Works Administration, is begun. Prior, half of all sewage was dumped in streams leading to the Chattahoochee River. Coca-Cola helps bail out Atlanta from its $1-million-plus deficit by advancing it $800,000. Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, leads a voter registration march to City Hall. Retired railroad mail celrk John Wesley Dobbs organizes the Atlanta Civil and Political League to encourage black involvement in politics. 1935 Techwood Homes, the nation's first federally-assisted public housing project, is dedicated by President Roosevelt. He then visits University Homes, Techwood's black counterpart. 1936 Gone With The Wind is published. Coca-Cola says it will back Atlanta's payroll, allowing city scrip to be honored at face value by banks. 1937 GWTW author Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer for her book. Radio station WAGA is opened by the Atlanta Journal. 1938 The nation's first air traffic control tower opens for business at the Atlanta Airport. U.S. 41, Georgia's first four-lane highway, opens between Atlanta and Marietta. Ralph McGill is named executive editor and columnist of the Constitution. 1939 The movie "Gone With The Wind" has its world premiere at Leow's Grand Theatre on Peachtree. Former 1920 Democratic presidential candidate James M. Cox buys The Atlanta Journal and its WSB radio station. He also buys out the Journal's competitors and closes them down. The Catholic Co-Cathedral of Christ the King is dedicated on land once owned by the Ku Klux Klan, who's Imperial Wizard is invited to the ceremony. 1940 Atlanta's population: 302,288, of which about one-third are black. Work to build the Atlanta Naval Air Station, today's Peachtree DeKalb Airport, begins. A series of floggings in Fulton County are traced to the KKK, ten members of which are indicted. 1941 Delta Airlines moves its headquarters to Atlanta. Four New Deal housing projects -- Capitol Homes, Egan, Grady, and Herndon -- are completed, bringing the number of Atlanta federally-funded projects to eight. Governor Eugene Talmadge says he will withhold newsworthy information from The Journal and The Constitution unless they "correct their attitude." 1942 Marietta named as home of the Bell assembly plant of B-29 bombers, predicted to bring 40,000 jobs. Atlanta Mayor Roy LeCraw resigns to enlist in the army. William Hartsfield is elected to replace him (and will be at that post through 1961.) Atlanta population in December: 473,800, according to the Chamber of Commerce. 1943 Mayor Hartsfield proposes the city subsidize development of unused residential neighborhoods in hopes of pursuading residents not to move away after the war. 1944 Atlanta pays the lowest wages in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Among prominent Atlanta blacks who failed an attempt to vote in Georgia's all-white primary are Martin Luther King Sr. and Professor Clarence Bacote, head of Atlanta University's history department, although all of them were registered to vote in the general election. 1945 A train carrying the body of FDR north passes through Atlanta a day after his death in Warm Springs, GA. 1946 119 people die when the Winecoff Hotel burns, even now listed as one of the worst fire tragedies in the nation's history. The hotel will reopen in 1951 as the Peachtree Hotel. The U.S. Supreme Court rules the Georgia all-white primary unconstitutional in the case of Chapman vs King. A massive two-month voter drive raises the number of Atlanta blacks registered from under 7,000 to over twenty-four thousand. Imperial Wizard Samuel Green estimates Atlanta KKK members at 20,000. Governor-elect Eugene Talmadge dies before taking office, leaving the state in confusion as to who legally succeeds him. 1947 The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is formed. New Police Chief Herbert Jenkins says he'll reduce KKK influence in the department. Mayor Hartsfield's plan to annex Buckhead and Cascade Heights is defeated by voters in those communities. The city's high schools end their gender segregation. Tech High and Boys High combine to become coed Grady High, while Girls High becomes coed Roosevelt High. The City Council okays hiring black policemen, but the police union wins a stay order preventing it. 1948 The stay order is overturned and eight black policemen are hired. They are assigned only to black neighborhoods, prohibited from arresting whites, and told to report to the Butler Street YMCA rather than police headquarters on Decatur Street. WSB-TV, the South's first TV station, goes on the air. The Rich Foundation gives WABE to the Atlanta Public Schools. General Motors opens a plant in Doraville, Ford having opened its Hapeville plant the year before. 1949 Margaret Mitchell is run over by a taxi on Peachtree Street and dies five days later. Atlanta City Council moves against the KKK by banning wearing of masks in public except on festive occasions. Blacks vote in a mayoral primary for the first time since the whites-only primary was ruled unconsititutional. 1950 Atlanta Journal owner James Cox takes over The Atlanta Constitution and merges the two papers' production, ad sales and Sunday editions. Two hundred black children and their parents petition to end segregation in the city schools. The petition will be denied. 1951 Marietta Bell Bomber plant, closed after WWII, reopens to meet Korean War needs. Power struggle between Gov. Herman Talmadge & Atlanta Journal & Constitution ends when state Legislature adjourns without restricting paper's right to publish. WSB-TV becomes most powerful station in the U.S. after increasing power and moving from channel 8 to channel 2. John "Fat" Hardy arrested for distributing poisoned whiskey to black community, resulting in 45 deaths. He will later be convicted of murder and sentenced to life. 1952 The city triples in square miles, from 33 to 118, due to Plan of Improvement. The first parking meter in Atlanta is installed. 1953 White residents near Bankhead Avenue protest two black families moving into the neighborhood, and police patrols are called in. Theatre of the Stars begins offering Broadway road shows. Carver Community opens, becoming Atlanta's first post-war housing project. 1954 City does away with bicameral system of city council and board of aldermen, becomes just one body with two aldermen from each district. 1955 Judge lifts Atlanta censor Christine Smith Gilliam's ban on the movie "The Blackboard Jungle," which she dubbed "lewd, obscene and salacious." U.S. Supreme Court says segregation of city's golf courses is unconstitutional and they are integrated without incident, but Atlanta library defies court orders and denies petitions to desegregate. 1956 Lake Lanier is formed with the completion of Buford Dam, a six-year project of the U.S. Corps of Engineers. The Atlanta Public Teachers Association leaves the American Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO) to avoid having to admit black members. 1957 In January, sixty blacks from 10 states attend an integration strategy meeting in Atlanta that will eventually evolve into the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Mayor Hartsfield trounces Lester Maddox's petition campaign and is reelected to a sixth term. Female police officers walk the beat for the first time in Atlanta. 1958 The Temple of the Hebrew Benevolent Association on Peachtree is bombed, the suspected motive being the rabbi's support for school desegregation. The trial of suspects, members of the National States Rights Party, ends with no verdict. Mayor Hartsfield asks the state for "local option" to allow Atlantans to decide to keep integrated schools open. State law forbids all public funding of integrated schools. Nearly 13% of total wholesale transactions in the South are made in Atlanta. 1959 The Atlanta Public Library is integrated with the issuing of a library card to Mrs. Maynard Jackson. (Three days later, it removes from the shelves a children's book about a black and a white bunny rabbit getting married.) Lenox Square mall opens with 47 shops. Atlanta population passes the million mark. 1960 Martin Luther King Jr gives his first sermon at Ebenezer Baptist as co-pastor. The University of Georgia in Athens is desegregated with the court-ordered admission of Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes. Atlanta University students stage a series of sit-ins at government building lunch counters and transportation terminals. The protests lead to several arrests, including that of Martin Luther King at Rich's department store. A state-formed Committee on Schools visits Atlanta and finds overwhelming local support for keeping schools open, integrated or not. They go back to the legislature and recommend local-option. The Atlanta Inquirer, with Julian Bond one of its editors, is founded as an alternative to the Daily World, which the students regard as too conservative.

  
  

  1961 The Chamber of Commerce and black leaders announce an agreement that would end segregation at downtown lunch counters (and protests thereof) within 30 days of desegregation of Atlanta public schools. All charges against the students would be dropped. Four white high schools are integrated by nine black kids. Georgia Tech desegregates with the admission of three black students. "Atlanta" magazine, designed to promote the city, is launched in association with the Chamber of Commerce's Forward Atlanta Program. Mayor Harsfield retires and Ivan Allen Jr becomes mayor, after defeating Lester Maddox in the primary. The Merchandise Mart, a project of Edwards & Portman Architects, opens. So does a new $20-million air terminal. 1962 On urging of the Police Chief, Mayor Allen removes restrictions on black cops that have been in effect since 1947. Twenty-three students are arrested at Grady Hospital for protesting segregation of its facilities. The feds rule Georgia's "county unit" system unconsitutional, thus increasing Atlanta's legislators from one to 12, one of whom (LeRoy Johnson) is black. One hundred eleven Atlanta art patrons die in a plane crash at Orly field in Paris. The shock of the tragedy will lead to the creation of the Woodruff Arts Center. 1963 Among Atlanta area schools agreeing to accept blacks this year: Agnes Scott, Atlanta Speech School, DeKalb Area Trade Schools, Emory, Oglethorpe, Smith-Hughes Vocational School, Trinity Presyterian. Georgia State College did so in 1962. In July, area movie theatre owners meet and agree to admit six black patrons per performance through August 5, and open to as many who want after that, assuming there are no incidents. But if integration causes trouble, the theatres claim the right to resegregate. On August 28, Martin Luther King Jr gives his "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington. In December, Martin Luther King Jr has his first public appearance in Atlanta, his home town. 1964 Lester Maddox, wielding gun and ax handle, chases blacks from his Pickrick restaurant in early July. Among those ordered to desegregate after the U.S. Supreme Court upholds non-discrimination in public accomodations later that month, Maddox closes the restaurant in August. Work resumes on the Stone Mountain carving. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Martin Luther King Jr. 1965 Grady Hospital begins desegregrating. The new Atlanta Stadium opens and will be the home of the Atlanta Crackers for one year. (Although the Braves play one three-game series there with the Detroit Tigers, they officially finish that season back in Milwaukee.) Atlanta has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation with 2.2 percent. 1966 In January, Julian Bond is refused a seat in the Georgia House because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. In April, the Braves play their first official game in the new stadium and Stone Mountain Park opens. The Atlanta Historical Society purchases Swan House as its headquarters. The NFL comes to Atlanta on the wings of the Falcons. (No other city ever got both pro baseball and football teams in the same year.) There's a race riot in the Summerhill neighborhood from September 6-11. One Hundred thirty-eight arrested, 35 injured, as Blacks riot after a suspected car thief is shot escaping a white cop. Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC's) Stokely Carmichael is indicted for inciting a riot, and Julian Bond resigns from SNCC. Although Bo Callaway grabs the popular vote for Governor, he lacks a majority and the Legislature picks Lester Maddox as governor. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Julian Bond's right to be a Georgia legislator. 1967 Atlanta Constitution editor Eugene Patterson wins Pulitzer Prize for editorials. Six Flags Over Georgia opens. In June, Stokely Carmichael is arrested, followed by racial unrest in which one black dies and three are wounded. Mayor Allen declares a curfew. Governor's Mansion on West Paces Ferry Road opens, with Lester Maddox as its first occupant. 1968 On April 4, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is shot to death in Memphis. On April 9, he's buried after a march through Atlanta streets that is televised nationwide. Four convicts attempt to escape the Federal Penitentiary, taking 25 hostages. The Atlanta Journal prints the prisoners' list of complaints, and the hostages are freed. The "Memorial Arts Center," later the "Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center," opens. The NBA comes to Atlanta with the purchase of St. Louis Hawks, brought in by Tom Cousins. First games played at Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum. November Elections: Fulton and DeKalb voters reject MARTA bonds, Herman Talmadge defeats Maynard Jackson for U.S. Senator. The Greater Atlanta Council on Human Relations, a very active white group promoting racial change in Atlanta, goes out of existence with the Civil Rights laws and the elimination of legal segregation. 1969 Underground Atlanta opens. With its first production of the satire of "Red, White and Maddox," the Atlanta Municipal Theatre discontinues in January, but starts up again in March. The Justice Department sues the West Peachtree Corporation for discriminatory rent policy, and eighty Georgia school systems for racial segregation, including Decatur's. In August, there are altercations as police arrest hippies for drugs near Piedmont Park. Sam Massell becomes first Jewish Mayor of Atlanta. Maynard Jackson, a black, becomes vice mayor, with black aldermanen increased from one to five, and Benjamin Mays elected to Board of Education. 1970 Mayor Sam Massell takes office, appoints blacks as chairmen of Finance and Police Committees. The Stone Mountain carving, a Confederate Memorial, is finally finished and dedicated, after 50 years. Jimmy Carter, a former state senator, is elected governor. 1971 Former Mayor William B. Hartsfield dies, and within a month, they name the airport after him. (In July, Hartsfield Airport becomes Hartsfield International Airport after Eastern Airlines inaugurates daily non-stop flights to Mexico City.) Mayor Massell says he'll propose legislation to expand the city by 50,000 (mostly white) residents, citing loss of inner-city businesses. Blacks call it racist; Governor Maddox kills it in the Senate. Last year, Massell had also called for all city departments to "change with a goal of 50 percent minority employment" within 40 months. In accordance, the Water Department desegregates itself. Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb residents give thumbs up to four percent sales tax for MARTA bonds. Gwinnett and Clayton voters defeat it for their counties. 1972 MARTA buys the Atlanta Transit Company for $12.8-million. Ted Turner begins broadcasting Braves games. On behalf of 26 black parents, the ACLU sues nine metro-area school boards (cities of Atlanta, Decatur, Marietta, and Buford, and the counties of Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton) to develop a desegregation plan. The Omni Stadium opens at a costs of $17-million. Andy Young becomes the Souths' first black U.S. Congressman since reconstruction. Mayor Massell names Lt. John Inman Chief of Police on the retirement of Herbert Jenkins, chief since 1947. 1973 There's a settlement in the Atlanta desegregation lawsuit: busing will assure at least 30 percent blacks in all schools, the black-white faculty ratio will change, and a black superintendent will oversee an integrated board. Later, Dr. Alonzo Crim is named superintendent, and a federal court orders busing of 2,761 white students. Maynard Jackson, first black Atlanta mayor, defeats first Jewish mayor Sam Massell in a contest filled with charges of racism on both sides. Under the new city charter approved by voters, Wyche Flowler defeats Hosea Williams for City Council President. 1974 As Maynard Jackson is sworn in, his new city council is 50 percent black. Hank Aaron, of the Atlanta Braves, hits 714 home runs, breaking Babe Ruth's record. The nation watches on TV and cheers him on. Mayor Jackson tries to fire Police Chief Inman, who is accused of corruption, mismanagement and racism. Inman, claiming that the new city charter is unconstitutional, refuses to leave and stays until his retirement. Meanwhile, Reginald Eaves (Inman's replacement) is named Public Safety Commissioner, with authority above that of Police Chief. The Fox Theatre, almost sold to Southern Bell as site of the phone company's new headquarters, is saved from destruction with pressure from Fox supporters and the cooperation of Southern Bell. Martin Luther King Junior's mother is murdered while attending church services at Ebenezer Baptist Church. (Her husband, MLK's father, is pastor. He retires the following year.) George Busbee elected governor. White businessmen denounce "black racism as a coequal threat to the city," and a group of downtown business people write a letter to Jackson and Fowler warning that some businesses are considering moving, partly because of crime, racial imbalance, and "percieved attitude that the mayor is anti-white." (Atlanta now estimated to be 55 percent black.) 1975 The house where Martin Luther King was born is placed on the National Registry of Historic Places. Nearby, ground breaks for the MLK Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. In late March, a Tornado hits Atlanta, killing three. Richard Rich dies. He was head of Rich's Department Store and grandson of the founder. White enrollment in Atlanta schools drops to 13 percent. The Georgia Legislature receives proposals to allow the city to annex nearby white suburbs. The U.S. Justice Department sues Atlanta's Fire Department for discrimination against black fire fighters. 1976 Ted Turner says he'll buy the Braves for $12-million. In spite of controversy, Reginald Eaves' term as Public Safety Commissioner sees a reduction in crime. The number of police officers grew by 50 percent, from just under 1,000 in 1970 to over 1,500 in 1975. The Georgia World Congress Center opens at a cost of $35-million. It contains the world's largest exhibition hall (352,000 square feet). Across the street in Omni Center (now CNN Center), "The World of Sid & Marty Krofft," an indoor amusement park, opens for business but closes a few months later. (The space is, at this writing, occupied by CNN's world headquarters.) Governor Jimmy Carter is elected president. Georgians Griffin Bell and Andrew Young are nominated to be Attorney General and U.N. Ambassador respectively. 1977 Ted Turner buys the Hawks, his second pro team. In September, he wins the America's Cup yacht race. Rather than proclaim a "Gay Pride" day on June 24, Mayor Jackson proclaims "Liberties Day" to honor all minorities. (In the Fall, Jackson is re-elected.) 1978 Loew's Grand Theatre, where Gone With The Wind premiered in 1939, burns down in January. Five months later, the land is sold to a real-estate company. Mayor Jackson fires Reginald Eaves after reports that he knew of, and possibly authorized, cheating on the 1975 police promotion exams. The City Council names Lee Brown to the post and George Napper as new Police Chief. (Former Police Chief Inman stays on as "Director of the Bureau of Police Service.") Citing Georgia's not having ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, the American Psychological Association relocates its 1979 convention from Atlanta to New York. 1979 MARTA bus fares, until now the lowest in the nation, go up from 15 to 25 cents. A Federal Court strikes down Atlanta's right to license adult entertainment establishments, finding the ordinance too vague. Three-Hundred Klansmen hold a cross-burning ceremony at Stone Mountain. 1980 Bert Lance, of the Carter Administration, found not guilty of all bank fraud charges but three, and those were later dropped. On June 1, Ted Turner's 24-hour Cable News Network (CNN) begins cablecasting for the first time, with about 250 employees working out of the old Progressive Club on Techwood Drive near Georgia Tech. MARTA fares double, over the protests of Atlanta officials, from 25 to 50 cents. Hartsfield International Airport reopens in a huge, new facility. WSB-TV (channel 2) switches networks from NBC to ABC. WXIA-TV (channel 11) switches from ABC to NBC. The Falcons win the Western Division of the NFC. Atlanta's pro hockey team, the Flames, are sold and move to Calgary. 1981 Metro Atlanta's population tops 2 million, making it the nation's 16th most populous area. Figures also show Atlanta is now 66 percent black. The Chiefs win the North American Soccer League's eastern division indoor championship for the second straight season. The nation is stunned by the story of Atlanta's "murdered and missing children." President Reagan allocates funds to the investigation. In June, 23-year-old black cameraman Wayne Williams is arrested and indicted for some of the killings. MARTA fares up again, this time from 50 to 60 cents. Hartsfield briefly bumps Chicago's O'Hare and becomes the world's busiest airport in terms of passengers served. Andrew Young elected Mayor, Marvin Arrington elected City Council President. 1982 The "Great Park" Authority, overseeing the proposed conversion of 219 acres of Atlanta land into a park, endorses that it include the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and a Presidential Parkway leading to it. Opponents of the road march on the Capitol. The Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution say they'll combine news gathering in Metro Atlanta. Wayne Williams is convicted and sentenced to two life terms for the murders of two of the "missing and murdered children." Twenty-six other such cases are closed. The Braves win the Western Division title, the team's first since 1969. 1983 Atlanta Public Library system is handed over to Fulton County to run it. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra goes on strike for seven weeks, finally settling on musician's 1984-85 salary levels of $585 per week. President Reagan signs a law making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday. 1984 The Grant Park Zoo is called one of the nation's worst by the American Humane Society. Later in the year, Mayor Young calls for an investigation of the zoo after the deaths of a tiger, a lioness, and Twinkles, a young elephant that had illegally showed up in a travelling circus. Governor Joe Frank Harris signs into law the bill making MLK's birthday a state holiday. Georgia authorizes the widening of Georgia 400 from I-285 to North Fulton County. The previous year, the City Council deadlocked on having the parkway run south of I-285. Tensions increase at Atlanta's Federal Penitentiary, culminating in November with an eight-hour siege by Cuban prisoners protesting conditions and treatment. Early the next year, some are released while others are deported. 1985 Coca-Cola philanthropist Robert W. Woodruff dies at the age of 95. Atlanta and Fulton agree to pay to fix up the zoo, later renaming it the Atlanta-Fulton County Zoo. The City Council halts construction of the Presidential Parkway, but later, the Georgia Supreme Court -- and the next year, a federal court -- say the state can continue. 1986 Underground Atlanta gets the the City Council's okay for a $135-million renovation. The City Council tries to put a moratorium on demolishing historic structures, but Mayor Young vetoes the resolution. The Carter Presidential Center is dedicated. In the Democratic run-off, John Lewis defeats Julian Bond for the 5th Congressional seat in a race that deeply divides Atlanta's black community.

  
  Fulton County GaGenWeb Page
  Updated April 27, 2002
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