March 25, 1740

1740 George Whitefield laid the first brick on the central building of the Bethesda Orphan House near Savannah.

March 25, 1765

1765 Following Britain’s victory in the French and Indian War, King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763. One of its provisions was to extend Georgia’s southern boundary from the Altamaha River to the St. Marys River. Two years later, on March 25, 1765, Gov. James Wright approved an act of the General Assembly creating four new parishes -- St. David, St. Patrick, St. Thomas, and St. Mary -- in the newly acquired land, and further assigning Jekyll Island to St. James Parish. Twelve years later, the Constitution of 1777 combined St. David and St. Patrick parishes into the new county of Glynn, and St. Thomas and St. Mary into the new county of Camden.

March 25, 1925

1925 Noted writer Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah. She later attended Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, graduating in 1945. In 1947, O’Conner obtained her Master of Fine Arts degree from the State University of Iowa, then moved to New York, where she lived in an artists’ retreat. In 1950, O’Connor was stricken with lupus, the same disease that killed her father. Her widely acclaimed first novel -- Wise Blood -- was published in 1952. For the rest of her brief life, she would battle her disease while continuing to write. A Good Man is Hard to Find, a collection of short stories, was published in 1955. Her second novel, The Violent Bear it Away, was published in 1960. She had completed the stories for another collection when she died in Milledgeville on August 3, 1964 at age 39. This collection was published posthumously as Everything That Rises Must Converge. In 1971 her collected works -- The Complete Stories -- won the National Book Award.

March 25, 1934

1934 Horton Smith won the first Masters golf tournament in Augusta, defeating Craig Wood by one stroke.

March 25, 1937

1937 Gov. E.D. Rivers signed an act of the General Assembly abolishing the Department of Industrial Relations and creating in its place a new Department of Labor. The act also provided for a Commissioner of Labor to be elected by the voters of the state. Later, the Constitution of 1945 elevated the Commissioner of Labor from the status of statutory to constitutional officer.

March 25, 1947

1947 Singer Reginald Kenneth Dwight was born in Pinner, Middlesex, England. After a long string of hits, Dwight moved to the U.S., where he became a part-time resident of Atlanta, Ga. Continuing his recording and concert career in this country, Dwight -- better known as Elton John -- was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998.

March 25, 1947

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved by the governor on March 25:

1947 Lambert (Liberty County)

March 25, 1958

1958 Gov. Marvin Griffin signed an act authorizing a $250,000 award for the first commercial oil well drilled in Georgia that produces at least 100 barrels of oil per day. The award would be distributed as follows: $50,000 to the owner of the property or mineral rights where the well was drilled; $100,000 to the company or individual responsible that financed the drilling of the well; $87,500 to the contractor who furnished the equipment; and $12,500 to be divided among the work crew that actually drilled the well. [To date, this award has never been claimed.]

March 25, 1962

1962 Arnold Palmer won the second of his three Masters victories (1958, 1962, and 1964)

March 25, 1963

1963 Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the University of Virginia on "The Future of Integration."

March 25, 1965

1965 The civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala, ended as Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers into Alabama’s capital city.

March 25, 1966

1966 Atlanta Braves pitcher and 1991 and 1998 National League Cy Young Award winner Tom Glavine was born in Concord, Mass.

March 25, 1971

1971 At Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga., the six-member jury in the court martial trial of Lt. William Calley, accused of murdering over one-hundred Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in 1968, entered the tenth day of deliberations. For the first time, jurors had no questions for the judge in the case. Previously, they had asked that the testimony of twelve witnesses be read back, and asked for color slides of some evidence. The lack of questions led to speculation that the jury was nearing a verdict -- correctly as it turned out. A guilty verdict would be announced on March 29th.

March 25, 1973

1973 Tommy Aaron became the second Georgia-born golfer to win the Masters. The first Georgian to win the Masters was Claude Harmon from Savannah in 1948. In 1987, Augusta-born Larry Mize won the prized Green Jacket given the tournament winner.

March 25, 1981

1981 Atlanta Braves outfielder Gary Matthews was traded to Philadelphia for pitcher Bob Walk.

March 25, 1983

1983 The Georgia Bulldog basketball team defeated third-ranked St. John’s 70-67 to advance to the finals of the East Regional in the NCAA championship tournament. Terry Fair led the way for Georgia with 27 points.

March 25, 1983

1983 Ollie Davidson pled guilty to two federal misdemeanor counts of extorting money from employees for the reelection campaign of State Labor Commissioner Sam Caldwell. Davidson, a manager in the department’s Tifton office, had plea bargained; in exchange for her plea she would not be prosecuted further and agreed to testify for the government in future trials involving this case. Caldwell eventually was convicted and forced to resign.

March 25, 1996

1996 The Georgia Lady Bulldog basketball team defeated top-ranked Louisiana Tech 90-76 to win the Midwestern Regional and advance to the Final Four of the NCAA championship tournament. Georgia was led by national player of the year Saudia Roundtree, who scored a career high 37 points.

March 25, 2001

2001 Smyrna native Julia Roberts won the Oscar for best actress for her title role in the movie Erin Brockovich.

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Today in History

1894 Former Confederate general Philip Cook died in Atlanta (some sources incorrectly say May 24). Born July 31, 1817 in Twiggs County, Ga., he became a lawyer. With the outbreak … read more