March 8, 1898

1898 Former Confederate general Edward Lloyd Thomas died in South McAlester, Oklahoma. Born March 23,1825 in Clarke County, Ga., he served in the Mexican War, returning to Georgia to become a planter. After Georgia’s secession, Thomas recruited the 35th Georgia Voluntary Infantry. In the fall of 1861, he was promoted to colonel and served at the Battles of Seven Pines, Seven Days, and Mechanicsville. Thomas commanded Anderson’s Brigade in Hill’s Light Division at Ceder Mountain, Second Manassas, and Sharpsburg. In Nov. 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general and commanded the 3rd Brigade in Hill’s Division at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, followed by the 3rd Brigade in Pender’s Division at Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Appomattox. After the war, Thomas again became a planter before taking federal positions in the Land Department and the Indian Bureau.

March 8, 1937

1937 Gov. E.D. Rivers signed an act of the General Assembly creating the State Planning Board -- Georgia’s first state agency with responsibility for planning for the physical, social, and economic development of Georgia.

March 8, 1945

1945 Gov. Ellis Arnall signed legislation creating the State Department of Veterans Service. The new agency’s purpose was to assist returning veterans with a variety of educational, medical, employment, housing, financial, and other services. One of the first things the new agency did was to publish a booklet for returning veterans outlining the variety of services available to them. The agency also created regional DVS offices around the state to assist the tens of thousands of returning veterans.

March 8, 1945

1945 The General Assembly adopted a joint resolution calling on the governor and other state officials to press for the federal government to cede the land comprising Camp Stewart to the original owners. The resolution further protested any effort to have the military reservation declared waste land, sold for commercial purposes, or converted to other uses -- such as a federal or state park, game preserve, or forest preserve. Camp Stewart was principally located in Liberty and Bryan counties, but also extended into Long, Tattnall, and Evans counties.

March 8, 1949

1949 WAGA-TV, now part of FOX Television Network, began broadcasting on channel 5 as Atlanta’s CBS affiliate.

March 8, 1963

1963 Educator Cosby Smith Hubbard died in Atlanta, Georgia. Born in Calhoun on Dec. 24, 1889, he was raised in the mountains of north Georgia, where he early saw the need for improved educational conditions. Hubbard taught in local schools for over twenty years before being elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1931 and the Georgia Senate in 1933. His focus in the legislature was on education, and while serving on the legislative committee of the Georgia Education Association, he prepared three important bills for consideration: one to provide a seven-month school term, one to institute a lay board of education, and one to provide free textbooks for all students. These bills were passed into law, and in 1937 Hubbard was appointed director of the textbook and library programs of the Georgia Department of Education to help implement the new laws. Hubbard’s plan for providing multiple lists of textbooks and efficiency in distributing them earned praise as the "Georgia Plan" from the U.S Department of Education. Most southeastern states adopted the "Georgia Plan" for their own textbook distribution programs. Hubbard went on to assist in the development of rural public libraries, procuring needed funding and helping them provide better service. He was appointed assistant superintendent of schools in 1958, a position he maintained until his retirement in 1962.

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Today in History

1917 What began as a warm, windy day would end with the most fire destruction to Atlanta since Sherman burned the city in 1864. In a strange set of circumstances, … read more