June 30, 1665

1665 Two years after creating the colony of Carolina to consist of all land in North America between 36th and 31st parallels (an area that included over 90 percent of present-day Georgia), King Charles II issued a second Carolina charter. The northern boundary was now extended a half degree north to 36??30’. Carolina’s southern boundary was extended two full degrees southward to 29?? -- which lay 60 miles south of St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida. For the first time, England exerted a formal claim to all of present-day Georgia. The claim also put England and Spain on an eventual collision course over control of what would be called "the debatable land."

June 30, 1785

1785 After a short illness, Georgia founder James Edward Oglethorpe died at age 88 1/2. At his side was Elizabeth, his wife of 41 years. His death came at Cranham Hall, an Essex estate inherited by his wife prior to their marriage. Only 100 feet away from Cranham Hall is the Parish Church of All Saints, where the Oglethorpes were members for four decades. Not only was the general’s funeral service held here, but a burial vault for the church’s most famous parishioner was created beneath the floor at the center front of the church.

June 30, 1906

1906 John Hope became the first black president of Atlanta’s Morehouse College.

June 30, 1918

1918 Actress Susan Hayward was born in Brooklyn, New York. Nominated for an Academy Award for best actress in 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1955, she would win the 1958 Oscar for her performance of Barbara Graham in the movie, "I WANT TO LIVE!" -- the story of a woman is sentenced to die in the gas chamber for murder. In her later life, Hayward spent several years in Carrollton, Georgia. She returned to Hollywood, where she died on March 14, 1975. Her body was returned to Carrollton, where she was buried next to her husband, who had died in 1966.

June 30, 1928

1928 Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in Warm Springs, Georgia for a brief visit before returning to work on Democratic candidate Al Smith’s presidential election campaign. Ultimately Smith would lose the election, but Roosevelt would be persuaded to run for governor of New York, an election he narrowly won. This marked Roosevelt’s thirteenth Georgia visit.

June 30, 1936

1936 Margaret Mitchell’s epic novel Gone With the Wind first went on sale to the public in New York City.

June 30, 1937

1937 The Atlanta Constitution carried a story announcing that work would soon begin on Georgia’s first four-lane highway -- a freeway that would connect Atlanta with Marietta. A contract subsequently was awarded on July 16, and the first link of the new highway completed by mid-May of 1938.

June 30, 1965

1965 The National Football League awarded Rankin Smith, Sr. an NFL football franchise for the Atlanta Falcons.

June 30, 1968

1968 The first C-5A completed its initial flight from the Dobbins runways in Marietta. Almost three years earlier, in September 1965, Lockheed had been chosen to develop this extra-large airlifter. With the war in Vietnam raging, the work force at Lockheed-Georgia was nearing peak strength. Maximum employment would come in September 1969 when 32,945 were on the payroll in Marietta, with a thousand additional employees at six subassembly plants. [Contributed by Dr. Tom Scott, Kennesaw State University]

June 30, 1974

1974 Martin Luther King Jr.’s mother was killed while playing the organ at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

June 30, 1979

1979 MARTA, in operation as a bus service since 1972, opened its first rapid rail service with the East Line. The fare was 25 cents.

June 30, 1986

1986 Georgia’s anti-sodomy law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme court in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick.

June 30, 1986

1986 The U.S. Postal Service issued a Margaret Mitchell stamp honoring the Georgia author on the 50th anniversary of the public release of her novel, Gone With the Wind.First day of issue ceremonies were held in Atlanta, Ga.

Atlanta Office:
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Atlanta, GA 30318
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Savannah, GA 31401
Tel 912.651.2125
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Today in History

1861 By a vote of 132,201 to 37,451, Virginia voters approved the Ordinance of Secession adopted by the secession convention on April 17. Assuming that the popular ratification is what … read more