August 18, 1903

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 18:

1903 Mystic (Irwin County)

August 18, 1905

1905 Gov. Joseph Terrell signed acts creating:

Jeff Davis County (named for former Confederate president Jefferson Davis) out of areas of Appling and Coffee counties;
Stephens County (named for former governor Alexander Stephens) out of areas of Habersham and Franklin counties;
Toombs County (named for former congressman, U.S. senator, and secessionist Robert Toombs) out of areas of Tattnall, Montgomery, and Emanuel counties; and
Turner County (named for former congressman and Georgia Supreme Court justice Henry Turner) out of areas of Irwin, Wilcox, Dooly, and Worth counties.
Respectively, these become Georgia’s 142nd, 143rd, 144rd, and 145th counties. Because a 1904 constitutional amendment set the maximum number of counties in the state at 145, no new counties could be created in the future without amending the state constitution.

August 18, 1906

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 18:

1906 Chatsworth (Murray County), Epworth (Fannin County), and Oak Park (Emanuel County)

August 18, 1908

1908 The Georgia General Assembly adopted a joint resolution urging Congress to create a U.S. Health Department. The memorial listed a host of reasons why the federal government should act, including the financial cost of treatment and the loss of life from tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and other communicable diseases; the fact that "disease and degeneracy are strong factors in the causation of crime"; that national action is needed since only 23 states then maintained vital statistics; and because "It is more humane and noble to destroy the enemies of health when they touch our territories rather than allow the conditions that are inviting them in and then undertake to fight them when they are bush whacking us from every side of the road as we travel from section to section and from State to State, watching an opportunity when they might leap from the walls of a house or couch at night or streams as they trickle through the forest or food as we feed out bodies." [Yes, that is the actual language used in the joint resolution.]

August 18, 1908

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 18:

1908 Leon (Dodge County)

August 18, 1911

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 18:

1911 Stonewall (Campbell, now Fulton County) and Tyrone (Fayette County)

August 18, 1913

1913 The nineteenth day in the trial of Leo Frank opened with another group of character witnesses on behalf of the defendant. Then, Leo Frank finally took the witness stand. For four hours, he calmly but firmly he told his side of the story. According to Frank, detectives had tried to distort everything he said in order to incriminate him. He freely admitted to being nervous after hearing of the murder, claiming any man in his position would be nervous -- especially after seeing the body of Mary Phagan. He said Mary came in for her pay soon after 12:00 noon on April 26th, returned a few minutes later to ask if the shipment of metal had arrived (Phagan’s job was putting metal tips on pencils), then left his office and he never saw her alive again. He worked on a financial report that afternoon, then went home. Frank said that Jim Conley’s testimony was all lies, and that he never saw Conley that day. Frank concluded by answering those who had questioned why he wouldn’t talk to the police or press: "Some newspaper man has called me ’the silent man in the Tower.’ Gentlemen, this is the time and here is the place! I have told you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Click here for a detailed accounting of the case.

August 18, 1913

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 18:

1913 Helen (White County), Mauk (Taylor County), and Reno (Grady County)

August 18, 1916

1916 State law prohibiting females from holding civil office or performing any civil functions was amended to allow women to serve as clerk to the ordinary (probate judge) or clerk to the court of ordinary by an act signed on this day by Gov. Nathaniel Harris.

August 18, 1916

1916 The General Assembly adopted a joint resolution naming the Cherokee Rose as the official "floral emblem" of Georgia.

August 18, 1916

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 18:

1916 Pearson (Coffee County)

August 18, 1918

1918 Gov. Hugh Dorsey signed an act prohibiting employees of hotels, restaurants, barber shops and other public places from receiving tips, and further prohibiting employers from allowing their employees to receive tips.

August 18, 1919

1919 Gov. Dorsey signed legislation creating a Board of Public Welfare with responsibility for inspecting county jails and state or local institutions "which are an eleemosynary, charitable, correctional or reformatory character, or which are for the care, custody or training of the orphaned, defective, dependent, delinquent or criminal classes" and making an annual report to the governor. On the same day, Dorsey signed companion legislation creating the Community Service Commission, which was entrusted with a broad range of powers -- from investigating "all problems of reconstruction and matters involving the general public welfare" to helping secure employment for returning soldiers and sailors.

August 18, 1919

1919 Gov. Dorsey signed an act regulating architects, setting minimum qualifications and creating a board to examine and license architects.

August 18, 1919

1919 Gov. Dorsey signed an act creating the Georgia Illiteracy Commission, which had the goal conducting research and making recommendations to eliminate adult illiteracy in Georgia.

August 18, 1919

1919 The Georgia General Assembly adopted a joint resolution calling on Congress to designate the Okefenokee Swamp a national park. The action represented an about face from a Feb. 26, 1854 act of the General Assembly that described the Okefenokee as "a large tract of unimproved, and at present worse than useless land" and called on the governor to hire an engineer to study the possibility of draining the Okefenokee in order to make it fit for settlement and cultivation.

August 18, 1919

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on August 18:

1919 Farmington (Oconee County)

August 18, 1924

1924 Gov. Clifford Walker signed legislation repealing the 1918 act (also signed on this day) prohibiting tipping.

August 18, 1924

1924 Gov. Walker signed a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to allow the consolidation of city and county governments in any county with a city of a population of 52,900 or more. (This appears to have been the first serious effort at city-county consolidation in Georgia.)

August 18, 1927

1927 Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains, Ga. A month before her 19th birthday, she would marry Jimmy Carter, thereafter giving birth to three sons and one daughter. Six months shy of her 44th birthday, she became First Lady of Georgia, and six months shy of her 50th birthday, she became the First Lady of the U.S.

August 18, 1952

1952 On her 25th birthday, Rosalynn Carter gave birth to Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff) Carter in New London, Connecticut, where husband U.S. Navy Lt. Jimmy Carter was stationed.

August 18, 1973

1973 Hank Aaron hit his 1,378 extra-base hit surpassing the record previously held by Stan Musial.

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Today in History

1962 In Atlanta, the federal district court for the northern district of Georgia issued a ruling in the case of Toombs v. Fortson that found both houses of the Georgia … read more