History

Atlanta began its his­tory in 1782 at the con­ver­gence of the Chat­ta­hoochee River and the Peachtree Creek. This is where the Indian Vil­lage called “Stand­ing Peachtree” was located. In 1822 a par­cel of land includ­ing the Atlanta area was sold by the Chero­kee and Creek Indi­ans to white colonists. Atlanta was ori­nally called “Ter­mi­nus” in 1837 after begin­ning of con­struc­tion of the east­ern ter­mi­nus of the rail­road trav­el­ing to the midwest.

In 1842, the set­tle­ment known as Ter­mi­nus was renamed “Marthasville” after the daugh­ter of Gov­er­nor Wil­son Lump­kin. Even­tu­ally in 1847 the town was incor­po­rated and the name changed to Atlanta — the fem­i­nine ver­sion of Atlantic (rail­road).

Atlanta became a major focus point dur­ing the Civil War and hosted sev­eral bat­tles. In 1864 Union Gen­eral William “Tecum­seh” Sher­man began his march from Chat­tanooga to Atlanta. Gen­eral Sher­man con­sis­tently defeated the under­manned Con­fed­er­ate Army under the lead­er­ship of Gen­eral Joseph John­ston. A long fought bat­tle took place at Ken­ne­saw Moun­tain where Con­fed­er­ates are victorious.

In an effort to slow down the advanc­ing Union troops after cross­ing the Chat­ta­hoochee River Pres­i­dent Andrew Davis orders the replace­ment of Gen­eral Joe John­ston with Gen­eral John Bell Hood. Mayor James Cal­houn sur­ren­ders the city after los­ing a series of fights that included the Bat­tle Of Peachtree Creek, the Bat­tle Of Ezra Church, and the Bat­tle of Atlanta where over 10,000 peo­ple died.

On Novem­ber 11, 1864 civil­ians were ordered out of the city taken over by Gen­eral Sher­man in order to pre­pare for his infa­mous “March to the Sea”. Despite order­ing Atlanta burned to the ground, Sher­man spares 400 struc­tures includ­ing churches and hos­pi­tals. Con­fed­er­ate sol­diers and civil­ians began arriv­ing to the city about a week later.

The edi­tor of the Atlanta Jour­nal Con­sti­tu­tion Henry Grady began pro­mot­ing Atlanta as the “New South” . In 1868 through hard work and deter­mi­na­tion Atlanta becomes the Cap­i­tal of Geor­gia.

In 1885 the first glass of Coca-Cola is dis­pensed from a soda foun­tain at Jacob’s Phar­macy. The syrupy con­coc­tion invented by Dr. John Pem­ber­ton orig­i­nally con­tained cocaine anda lot more caf­feine than today’s recipe. Dr. Pem­ber­ton stated his drink could cure the com­mon cold as well as other ailments.

Asa Can­dler buys the Coca-Cola brand and for­mula in 1889 and incor­po­rates the Coca-Cola Com­pany in 1892. Coca-Cola goes on to become the world’s most pop­u­lar brand as well as the largest bev­er­age com­pany in the world.

Race Riots in Atlanta erupt in 1906 killing 28 peo­ple includ­ing 26 African Amer­i­cans. Com­pe­ti­tion for employ­ment and civil rights were the main causes for ten­sions between black and whites.

On Jan­u­ary 15, 1929 the Rev­erend Mar­tin Luther King Jr. is born in Atlanta and ush­ers in the Civil Rights Move­ment. Later on Dr. King becomes the most famous civil rights leader in our nations his­tory.

On Decem­ber 15, 1939 the Loew’s Grand The­atre in Atlanta hosts the world pre­mier of the motion pic­ture “Gone With the Wind” . Along with a crowd of 300,000 were movie stars Clark Cable, Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Hav­i­land. Atlanta Native Mar­garet Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the novel she wrote depict­ing the Ante­bel­lum South.

In 1963 Dr. Mar­tin Luther King Jr. makes his first pub­lic appear­ance in Atlanta and also gives his “I Have a Dream” speech in Wash­ing­ton D.C.

Dr. Mar­tin Luther Kings actions help pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and then the Vot­ing Rights act of 1965. In 1964 Dr. Mar­tin Luther King Jr. becomes the youngest per­son ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize .

In April 1966 the Atlanta Braves play their first game at the new Ful­ton County Sta­dium. Atlanta also gets the Fal­cons foot­ball team and becomes the only city to ever get both a base­ball and a foot­ball team in the same year. Stone Moun­tain Park opens for the first time.

On April 4th, 1968 Dr Mar­tin Luther King Jr. is assas­si­nated by a sniper’s bul­let in Mem­phis, Ten­nessee. On April 9, a nation­ally tele­vised march takes place through the streets of Atlanta and Dr. King is buried.

Tom Cousins pur­chases the St Louis Hawks in 1968 and brings Atlanta their first NBA Team, the Atlanta Hawks.

After sev­eral decades of work the Stone Moun­tain Memo­r­ial Carv­ing is com­pleted in 1972 and is the largest bas relief sculp­ture in the world. The carv­ing on Stone Moun­tain con­sists of three Con­fed­er­ate lead­ers of the Amer­i­can Civil War, Pres­i­dent Jef­fer­son Davis, Gen­er­als Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

In 1972 the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Atlanta Rapid Tran­sit Author­ity (MARTA) pur­chases the Atlanta Tran­sit Com­pany for $12 mil­lion and puts in place a new rail sys­tem, new buses and bus routes. MARTA even­tu­ally becomes the 7th largest pub­lic tran­sit sys­tem in the nation.

Hank Aaron hits his 715th home run in 1974 as the nation watches on live tele­vi­sion. “Ham­mer­ing” Hank breaks one of  base­balls most cher­ished records.

In 1983 Pres­i­dent Reagen estab­lishes a fed­eral hol­i­day named Dr. Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day and is observed on the third Mon­day of each January.

Atlanta hosts the Demo­c­ra­tic National Con­ven­tion in 1988.

Although con­sid­ered a long shot, Atlanta is selected as the site for the Games of the XXVI Olympiad. Also known as the Cen­ten­nial Olympics, Atlanta wins over Toronto, Athens and Tokyo as the host city.

Atlanta Braves win the World Series in 1995 by defeat­ing the Cleve­land Indians.

In 1996 Atlanta opens its doors to the world by host­ing the Cen­ten­nial Olympic Games. The Olympics changed Atlanta as new sports venues were added, streets and side­walks were improved. A major part of the down­town revi­tal­iza­tion occurred when Cen­ten­nial Olympic Park was created.

All said the Cen­ten­nial Olympic Games brought in over $5 bil­lion dol­lars to the local econ­omy. Over two mil­lion vis­i­tors came to Atlanta while 3.5 bil­lion watched the Olympics on tv. The pro­found impact of 1996 Cen­ten­nial Olympics can­not be under­stated as they cat­a­pulted Atlanta as an inter­na­tional des­ti­na­tion to mil­lions around the globe.

Today Atlanta Geor­gia is not only a boom­ing Metrop­o­lis and but a trans­porta­tion hub to the world. Atlanta is the third largest city in the coun­try and ranks num­ber one as the fastest grow­ing city in the coun­try since 2000. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Inter­na­tional Air­port is the busiest air­port in the world. Atlanta is indeed the “New South” as evi­denced by its bustling sky­line like a phoenix ris­ing from the ashes and its his­tory is still being written!