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Jan 1, 1000
Paleo
The initial human settlement of Georgia took place during one of the most dramatic periods of climate change in recent earth history, toward the end of the Ice Age, in the Late Pleistocene epoch. No large Paleoindian sites have yet been excavated in Georgia, and much of our knowledge about these peoples is based on discoveries elsewhere in the region and beyond. The first fluted points were identified in Georgia in the mid-1930s, soon after the great age and distinctive appearance of these point -
Jan 1, 1000
Archaic
The Early Archaic Period in Georgia and elsewhere in the eastern United States was approximately 10,000 to 8,000 years ago. At that time most of Georgia was covered with oak-hickory hardwood forests. Large Pleistocene animals such as bison, horses, mastodons, mammoths, and camels had become extinct. -
Jan 1, 1000
Woodland
The Woodland Period of Georgia prehistory is broadly dated from around 1000 B.C. to A.D. 900. This period witnessed the development of many trends that began during the preceding Late Archaic Period (3000–1000 B.C.) and reached a climax during the subsequent Mississippian Period (A.D. 800–1600). These trends included increases in sedentariness and social stratification, an elaboration of ritual and ceremony, and an intensification of horticulture. The period is divided into Early, Middle, and La -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to May 21, 1542
Hernando de Soto
The first European to explore the interior of what is now the state of Georgia was Hernando de Soto. In fact, De Soto entered the state on two occasions during the course of his expedition.Hernando de Soto was born c. 1500 in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. In the early 1530s, while on Francisco Pizarro's expedition, de Soto helped conquer Peru. In 1539 he set out for North America, where he discovered the Mississippi River. De Soto died of fever on May 21, 1542, in Ferriday, Louisiana. In his w -
charter of 1732
The first twenty years of Georgia history are referred to as Trustee Georgia because during that time a Board of Trustees governed the colony. England's King George signed a charter establishing the colony and creating its governing board on April 21, 1732. -
salzburgers arrive
The first twenty years of Georgia history are referred to as Trustee Georgia because during that time a Board of Trustees governed the colony. England's King George signed a charter establishing the colony and creating its governing board on April 21, 1732. -
Georgia Founded
February 12, 1733 - Savannah
After years of planning and two months crossing the Atlantic, James Oglethorpe and 114 colonists climbed 40 feet up the bluff from the Savannah River on this day in 1733 and founded the colony of Georgia. -
Elijah Clarke
Among the few heroes of the Revolutionary War from Georgia, Elijah Clarke (sometimes spelled "Clark") was born in 1742, the son of John Clarke of Anson County, North Carolina. He married Hannah Harrington around 1763. As an impoverished, illiterate frontiersman, he appeared in the ceded lands, on what was then the northwestern frontier of Georgia, in 1773.
Clarke's name appears on a petition in support of the king's government in 1774. However, he subsequently joined the rebels and, as a militia -
John Reynolds
John Reynolds, a captain in the British royal navy, served as Georgia's first royal governor from late 1754 to early 1757.
Little is known about Reynolds's early life except that his birth occurred in England circa 1713 and that at fifteen years of age he volunteered for service in the British navy. His career advanced slowly but steadily. He obtained command of his first vessel, the fireship Scipio, in 1745, and the next year he served as captain of the Arundel, a forty-gun vessel. His naval ca -
Highlaind Scots Arrive
Georgia came from a vast array of regions around the Atlantic basin—including the British Isles, northern Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Caribbean, and a host of American colonies. They arrived in very different social and economic circumstances, bringing preconceptions and cultural practices from their homelands. Each wave of migrants changed the character of the colony—its size, composition, and economy—and brought new opportunities and new challenges to the people already there. A maj -
Austin Dabney
Austin Dabney was a slave who became a private in the Georgia militia and fought against the British during the Revolutionary War (1775-83). He was the only African American to be granted land by the state of Georgia in recognition of his bravery and service during the Revolution and one of the few to receive a federal military pension.
Born in Wake County, North Carolina, in the 1760s, Austin Dabney moved with his master, Richard Aycock, to Wilkes County, Georgia, in the late 1770s. In order to -
AMERICAN REVOLUTION HISTORY
The American Revolution (1775-83) is also known as the American Revolutionary War and the U.S. War of Independence. The conflict arose from growing tensions between residents of Great Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. Skirmishes between British troops and colonial militiamen in Lexington and Concord in April 1775 kicked off the armed conflict, and by the following summer, the rebels were waging a full-scale war for their indepe -
January 27, 1785, Athens, GA
The University of Georgia (UGA) is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive educational institution in Georgia. Chartered by the Georgia General Assembly in 1785, UGA was the first university in America to be created by a state government, and the principles undergirding its charter helped lay the foundation for the American system of public higher education. UGA strives for excellence in three fundamental missions: providing students with outstanding instruction in classrooms and laboratorie -
constitutional convention
Constitutional Convention and Ratification, 1787–1789 The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met between May and September of 1787 to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The United States Constitution that emerged from the convention established a federal government with more specific powers, including those related to conducting relations with foreign governments. Under the reformed federal system, many of the responsibil -
capital moved to louisville
After the British left, the capital was moved to Augusta, then Louisville while a new city was being built on the Oconee River, reflecting the western move of Georgia's populace. But by 1847 some were unhappy with Milledgeville and called for an election to move the capital to Atlanta. -
KKK
The white supremacist Ku Klux Klan has received approval from South Carolina officials to hold a pro-Confederate flag rally at the state capitol, a newspaper reported on Monday, less than two weeks after a white man shot dead nine people in a black church. The suspect in the church shooting, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, has confessed to the killing. He had previously posted a racist manifesto online as well as photos of him posing with a Confederate flag, a Civil-War era banner associated with sla -
sherman march to the sea
Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the military Savannah Campaign in the American Civil War, conducted through Georgia from November 15 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. -
Henry Ellis
Henry Ellis, the second royal governor of Georgia, has been called "Georgia's second founder." Georgia had no self-government under the Trustees (1732-52), and the first royal governor, John Reynolds (1754-57), failed as an administrator. Under the leadership of Ellis (1757-60) Georgians learned how to govern themselves, and they have been doing so ever since.
As a teenager Ellis left his irascible father in Monaghan County, Ireland, to take to the sea. Gifted with intelligence and ability, Elli -
constitutional convention
In Convention; Wednesday, January the second, one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight: To all to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting. Whereas the form of a Constitution for the Government of the United States of America, was, on the seventeenth day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, agreed upon and reported to Congress by the Deputies of the said United States convened in Philiadelphia; which said Constitution is written in the words following, to wit; And Whe -
Period: to
Mississippian
The Mississippian Period in the midwestern and southeastern United States, which lasted from about A.D. 800 to 1600, saw the development of some of the most complex societies that ever existed in North America.
