August 3, 1904

1904 Atlanta experienced its first recorded automobile fatality. Returning home from Atlanta, prominent Marietta resident Frank Reynolds lost control of his White Steamer on a downhill curve in Fulton County. The car turned over throwing Reynolds, his wife, and two passengers into the road. Reynolds died at the scene of the accident and his wife was critically injured, though the other two passengers escaped serious injury.

August 3, 1910

1910 The General Assembly ratified the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, making Georgia the ninth state to approve a national income tax.

August 3, 1913

1913 This was a Sunday and the trial of Leo Frank took a break. Numerous friends and relatives came by the Fulton County jail to visit Frank. Jail officials said Frank was showing little evidence of stress from the trial.

August 3, 1920

Georgia cities and towns incorporated by acts approved on Aug. 3:

1920 Blythe (Richmond and Burke counties)

August 3, 1964

1964 Noted writer Flannery O’Connor died in Milledgeville at age 39 . Born in Savannah in 1925, O’Connor attended Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, graduating in 1945. In 1947, she graduated with a masters from Iowa State, publishing her first novel the same year. In 1950, O’Connor was stricken with lupus, the same disease that killed her father. For the rest of her brief life, she would battle the disease while continuing to write.