June 29, 1565

1565 Pedro Menendez de Aviles and a large force of Spanish soldiers and colonists sailed from Spain to drive out French Huguenots who had built Fort Caroline at the mouth of the St. Johns River (site of present-day Jacksonville) and to begin Spanish colonization of the Southeast -- a region then known as "La Florida." Menendez captured Fort Caroline. executed the French defenders, built St. Augustine, and then directed establishment of a chain of missions northward along Georgia’s coast to Santa Elena (present-day Port Royal, South Carolina).

June 29, 1721

1721 Johann De Kalb was born in Germany. In 1777, De Kalb accompanied the Marquis de Lafayette and a group of French soldiers to America to fight the British. The Continental Congress made De Kalb a major general in the Continental Army. In 1780, DeKalb was fatally wounded in battle at Camden, South Carolina. In 1822, the Georgia General Assembly recognized the Revolutionary War hero by creating DeKalb County.

June 29, 1785

1785 Six months away from his 89th birthday, James Edward Oglethorpe lay near death in his Cranham Hall estate east of London. Just over 3 weeks earlier, he had met with U.S. Ambassador John Adams in London. Now, his condition weakened by the hour, as doctors were unable to help the aged general. Interestingly, London-area newspapers had yet to mention Oglethorpe’s illness, which suggests his sickness or condition struck suddenly.

June 29, 1796

1796 U.S. Indian commissioners and Creek chiefs signed the treaty Treaty of Colerain on the St. Marys River in Camden County, Georgia. No new territory was ceded to Georgia, but the Creeks reaffirmed earlier sessions and agreed to relinquish all claims to lands east of the Appalachee River branch of the Oconee River.

June 29, 1825

1825 At the Lower Creek town of Broken Arrow just south of present-day Columbus, various factions of the Creek Nation -- led by Upper Creeks -- signed the Broken Arrow Resolution. This was not a treaty, as only the Creeks signed it, but in the document the Creeks forgave William McIntosh for having ceded away their land, but also called on the U.S. to return all the land ceded by the Treat of Indian Springs.

June 29, 1886

1886 William F. Ogburn was born in Butler, Georgia. He went on to become one of the early American sociologists to use statistical analysis in social science research. He is most noted for his research on culture and social change.

June 29, 1972

1972 In a landmark case by the U.S. Supreme Court, justices in a 5-4 decision in the case of Furman v. Georgia ruled that the death penalty as then applied by the states amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The decision did not declare the death penalty per se cruel and unusual punishment but rather the arbitrariness with which it had been applied. Justice Douglas, speaking for the majority, noted that "we deal with a system of law and of justice that leaves to the uncontrolled discretion of judges or juries the determination whether defendants committing these crimes should die or be imprisoned. Under these laws no standards govern the selection of the penalty. People live or die, dependent on the whim of one man or of 12." Every justice contributed a separate concurring or dissenting opinion, making Furman v. Georgia the longest decision in the history of the Supreme Court.

June 29, 1993

1993 The new Georgia Lottery, provided for by the Georgia Lottery for Education Act of 1992 and approved by the voters in a constitutional amendment that fall, was officially launched. Then-governor Zell Miller, who had made an education lottery one of the top issues in his campaign, bought the first ticket. And, in case you wonder, he didn’t win anything.

June 29, 1995

1995 The U.S. Postal Service released a set of 20 Civil War commemorative stamps. Three of the stamps featured Georgia-related subjects: Georgia-born Cherokee Indian and Confederate general Stand Watie, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (who commanded most of the Confederate defense during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign and who later was Confederate commander for Georgia and the Carolinas), and Gen. William T. Sherman (who in 1844 as a young Army officer was stationed in Marietta for six weeks but is better remembered for his march through Georgia 20 years later).

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Today in History

1739 On the day after the first anniversary of his conversion to Methodism, Charles Wesley composed the hymn, "O for a Thousand Tongues." Three years earlier, Wesley had served on … read more