March 27, 1970

1970 Gov. Lester Maddox signed Georgia’s first legislation designed to protect the state’s coastal marshlands. The law prohibited any person from removing, filling, dredging, draining, or otherwise altering any marshland in Georgia without first obtaining a permit from the newly created Coastal Marshlands Protection Agency.

March 27, 1947

1947 Gov. Thompson signed legislation prohibiting two or more people from setting up picket lines or engaging in other activities at or near a place where a labor dispute is underway that block or otherwise attempt to keep workers from their jobs.

March 27, 1941

1941 Gov. Eugene Talmadge signed an act of the General Assembly making it a felony for any person -- including a minister --from handling or possessing a poisonous snake in a manner that would endanger any other person. The act also made it illegal to advise or encourage any other person to handle a poisonous snake in a manner that would endanger the life or safety of such person. The act, however, did not prevent any person from voluntarily handling a poisonous snake so long as no one else was endangered.

March 27, 1836

1836 After two days of battle, 300 Georgia volunteers fighting in the war for Texas independence under Col. James W. Fannin and Lt. Col. William Ward (who also were Georgians) were forced to surrender to a Mexican Army three times as large. Fannin had negotiated a surrender that would allow the troops in his command to be paroled. However, on March 27, all of the prisoners were marched to Goliad, where on Santa Anna’s order, the entire command of Georgia volunteers was massacred. This tragedy so inflamed Georgians that a decade later many volunteered to fight with U.S. forces during the Mexican War.

March 27, 1926

1926 - Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in Warm Springs, Georgia, prepared to purchase much of the resort property there. He had visited Warm Springs twice previously, and was convinced a haven for patients paralyzed by polio, or any other accident or disease, could be established there. This was Roosevelt’s fourth visit overall to Georgia.

March 27, 1970

1970 After having rejected it on July 24, 1919, the Georgia General Assembly ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which granted women the right to vote.

March 27, 1947

1947 Georgia became a "Right to Work" state when Gov. Thompson signed legislation prohibiting any employee from have to join or pay dues or fees to any labor organization as a condition of employment.

March 27, 1814

1814 About 30 miles west of the Georgia-Alabama border, a U.S. military force under Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the Upper Creeks at Horeshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River. As a result of the loss, the Creeks in Aug. 1814 ceded most of their lands in southern Georgia to Georgia in the Treaty of Fort Jackson.

March 27, 1941

1941 Gov. Talmadge signed a concurrent resolution of the Georgia General Assembly urging Congress to direct the U.S. Postmaster General to issue a stamp commemorating former Georgia congressman and U.S. senator Tom Watson. As one reason for the stamp, the resolution cited Watson as "the author of the first resolution ever passed providing for the free delivery of rural mail . . . ."

March 27, 1947

1947 Gov. Thompson signed legislation making it illegal to gamble or bet on any sporting event, or to offer or accept anything of value in an effort to influence the outcome of any sporting event.

March 27, 1983

1983 The Georgia Bulldog basketball team defeated top seed and defending national champion North Carolina 82-77 to win the East Regional and advance to the Final Fur of the NCAA championship tournament. This marked only the second time in tournament history that a team making its first appearance had advanced to the Final Four.

March 27, 1947

1947 Gov. M.E. Thompson signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly creating the Eugene Talmadge Monument Commission to oversee design and placement of a monument to the former governor on the grounds of the state capitol. It was Talmadge’s death three months earlier that launched the "Three Governors Controversy" that eventually ended with Georgia’s Supreme Court ruling then Lt. Gov. Thompson was the lawful successor.