January 3, 1739

1739 In light of the malcontents’ efforts to get the Trustees to allow slavery in Georgia, Scotch Highlanders in Darien sent a petition to the Trustees to continue the prohibition.

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January 3, 1766

1766 The first (and only) British representative to administer the Stamp Act in Georgia arrived by ship at Tybee. Fearing for his safety, royal governor James Wright sent an armed party to have him escorted to the governor’s house in Savannah. After two weeks, the official left Georgia without having done his job. And though Parliament would shortly repeal the Stamp Act, Georgia would have the unhappy distinction being the only colony in which revenue was collected under the act. On Dec. 5, 1765, when the stamps first arrived in Georgia, Savannah’s port had been clogged with over 60 ships still bearing their cargoes. To reopen the port, merchants agreed to pay the tax so the ships could be unloaded. Though this was the only case where Georgians paid the stamp tax, the action resulted in other American colonies condemning Georgia -- and a call by some for boycotting "that infamous colony."

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January 3, 1861

1861 Under orders by Gov. Joseph E. Brown, Col. A.R. Lawton and Maj. Charles Olmstead led a force of 134 members of Savannah volunteer militia units to take Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, which was located a mile upstream from the mouth of the Savannah River. The capture was accomplished without gunfire, as the fort was only defended by a U.S. artillery sergeant and a caretaker. Still, Georgia’s action in seizing a federal fort generated considerable attention across the South.

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January 3, 1863

1863 In what is apparently the first recorded baseball score in Georgia, in a game played in Savannah by Union troops occupying Fort Pulaski, the 48th New York defeated the 47th New York by a score of 20-7.

January 3, 1947

1947 Fifth district congresswoman Helen Douglas Mankin, ended her first and only term in Congress. Mankin is often credited as being the first woman elected to Congress from Georgia. Following the resignation of Atlanta Robert Ramspeck on Dec. 31, 1945, Mankin had been elected in a special election to fill his remaining term. In 1946, she unsuccessfully campaigned for reelection. Mankin was born Sept. 11, 1894 in Atlanta and died in College Park, Ga. after an accident on July 25, 1956.

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January 3, 1955

1955 Iris Faircloth Blitch was sworn into office as representative of Georgia’s 8th congressional district. She was the first woman from Georgia to win a regularly scheduled election and to serve a full term in Congress, where she served in the U.S. House from 1955 to 1963. Blitch was born in Vidalia, Ga. on April 25, 1912.

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January 3, 1973

1973 Andrew Young was sworn into office as Georgia’s first black congressman since 1871. Young represented Georgia’s 5th congressional district until 1977, when he was appointed as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

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January 3, 1981

1981 Fourteen year old Lubie Geter disappeared; his strangled body was found a month later. He was the latest victim in the Atlanta Child Murders case.

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Today in History

1861 At the Provisional Confederate Congress meeting in Montgomery, Ala. Georgia delegate Augustus Wright introduced a bill "to form a Volunteer Division in the Army of the Confederate States of … read more