November 13, 1838

1838 Doctor and politician George Jones died in Savannah, Ga. Born there on Feb. 25, 1766, he had no formal education but was taught medicine by his father, Noble Wymberly Jones, patriarch of the famous Wormsloe plantation. In 1786, the Georgia legislature elected Jones as state treasurer. After one term, he resigned and served a variety of offices, such as justice of the peace, inferior court judge, superior court judge, state representative, state senator, Savannah city councilman, and Savannah mayor. Jones served several weeks in the U.S. Senate in 1807 to fill out the unexpired term after the death of Abraham Baldwin.After his father died, Jones inherited Wormsloe and became involved in various enterprises--including planting, banking, and railroad promotion. He prospered in many of these undertakings and helped establish the philanthropic reputation of the Jones family and the Wormsloe Foundation.

November 13, 1864

1864 Union soldiers fought a fire that spread through downtime Marietta -- apparently set without orders. Sherman, however, did order the the burning of a large steam mill -- which he considered a military target.

November 13, 1866

1866 The Georgia General Assembly adopted a resolution declining to ratify the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The action followed the recommendation of President Andrew Johnson, whose theory of reconstruction was based on the premise that the southern states had never been out of the Union--which would mean that they could not be forced to ratifiy a constitutional amendment. In deciding not to ratify the 14th Amendment, the General Assembly adopted a committee report explaining that: "1. If Georgia is not a State composing part of the Federal Government known as the Government of the United States, amendments to the Constitution of the United States are not properly before this body. 2. If Georgia is a State composing part of the Federal Government. . . , these these amendments are not proposed according to the requirements of the Federal Constitution, and are proposed in such a manner as to forbid the legislature from discussing the merits of the amendments without an implied surrender of the rights of the State."

November 13, 1884

1884 With the ground cleared of the old Atlanta City Hall-Fulton County Courthouse, excavation for the new Georgia State Capitol began. Construction of the new statehouse would take over four years.

November 13, 1889

Georgia cities and towns created by acts approved on Nov. 13:

1889 Demorest (Habersham County), Harrisonville (Richmond County), Hillsboro (Jasper County), Porter Mills (Habersham County), Shady Dale (Jasper County), Stillmore (Emanuel County), and Waleska (Cherokee County)

November 13, 1944

1944 During deliberations by the Constitutional Commission of 1943-44 (which had been created to revise Georgia’s Constitution of 1877), commission chairman (and governor) Ellis Arnall made a motion proposing that the new constitution include a local government home rule provision that he and the League of Women Voters had been working on. After much discussion, the motion passed by a narrow 8-7 vote. However, the question of how much power Georgia cities and counties should have to govern themselves from from legislative control would prove to be a controversial issue for the constitutional commission.

November 13, 1983

1983 Comic television actor Alvin "Junior" Samples -- best remembered as the slow-thinking country bumpkin on the TV series Hee Haw -- died at age 56 . Born Apr. 10, 1926 in Cummings, Ga., Samples introduction to television came as a result of his famous big bass story.

November 13, 1992

1992 Riddick Bowe won a unanimous decision over Atlanta’s Evander Hollyfield to win the undisputed heavyweight boxing title in boxing heavyweight title in Las Vegas.

November 13, 1995

1995 Atlanta Brave Greg Maddux became the first major league pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young Awards.

November 13, 1999

1999 Fighting in Las Vegas, Atlanta’s Evander Hollyfield lost a unanimous decision to Lennox Lewis. The 15-round fight went the distance, but the 37-year-old Hollyfield was unable to defeat the younger, taller, and heavier British champion. Lewis’ victory gave him the undisuputed world heavyweight boxing championship -- a title Hollyfield had hoped to regain.

November 13, 2006

2006 Ground breaking ceremonies were held for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. When completed, the monument will be the first on the mall honoring an African-American and someone who was not a United States President. Former U.S. Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton spoke at the ceremonies.