Ed Jackson and Charly Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

March 16

1749 In London, James Oglethorpe attended his last meeting of the Trustees of Georgia. Disillusioned by the Trustees' decision to allow slavery and to make other changes in Georgia, Oglethorpe decided he could no longer participate.

1861 In Savannah, delegates to Georgia's secession convention unanimously ratified the proposed Confederate Constitution adopted five days earlier by the Confederate Congress. On the same day, convention delegates voted to instruct the Committee on Constitution and Laws, chaired by Thomas R.R. Cobb, to revise Georgia's state constitution. Cobb, however, already had a draft a new state constitution for Georgia ready.

1922 The Atlanta Journal began operation of the first commercial radio station in the South. Under the call letters WSB, the new radio station began a daily program of broadcasting that started at noon with a weather forecast, followed by an afternoon of crop and market information. At 6 p.m., there were 90 minutes of sports and news. From 7:30 until 9 p.m., when the station signed off, WSB observed quiet time in order to allow Atlanta radio owners to listen to concerts aired from stations outside the South. Though it is not clear how long this policy remained in effect, the Journal announced that it would be operating WSB "purely for the benefit and enjoyment of the public, and there will be no commercial features connected with it." As it turned out, the station's emphasis on weather forecasts and crop news became very important to farmers, many of whom had no other access to such news. Eventually, WSB-AM was given authority to operate a 50,000-watt transmitter. Because no other radio station could operate on its frequency at night, WSB's AM signal could be heard nightly across much of the South. And, despite the tradition that the call letters "WSB" stood for "Welcome South Brother," in reality the Atlanta station was the second in the "WS" series of radio call letters, following station WSA in Hampton, N.Y.

1950 The Girls Scouts of America, founded by Georgian Juliette Gordon Low, was officially charted by the U.S. Congress.

1954 Professional golfer Hollis Stacy was born in Savannah, Georgia. In 1969, she became the youngest player to ever win the U.S. Golf Association Junior Girls Championship. She also won the event in 1970 and 1971, becoming one of only two golfers to win the championship three years in succession. Stacey joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1974 and went on to successful career, winning the U.S. Open three times (1977, 1978, and 1984). She has designed a golf course in Austin, Texas and works with the Scleraderma Foundation. Currently she is associate golf coach at the University of Southern California.

1976 Jimmy Carter's presidential race was buoyed with a decisive victory in the Illinois Democratic Primary, proving to be his largest win to date in the 1976 presidential primary campaign.

1976 Two days of heavy rain caused over $1.7 million in floor damage in the Atlanta area. One of the casualties was the Cyclorama's painting of the Battle of Atlanta. In the past, the Grant Park building housing the painting had leaked frequently, but this was the first time there was actual water damage to the painting itself.

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1734 Continuing the search for a place to settle the first group of Salzburgers, Baron von Reck described the land he and James Oglethorpe traversed:

"...If you ask, how a Country that is covered with Wood, and cut with Rivers and Morasses, is passable; I must acquaint you, that since the colony was settled, the Ways were marked by Barking of the Trees, to shew where the Roads should go, and where the Rivers were passable. After passing through a Morass covered with Canes, we came to an unfordable River, through which the Indians swam our Horses, and we crossed over upon a great Tree, cut down for that purpose: The Tree was cut down so as to lie across the River, and serve for a Bridge. And after riding some Leagues in the Woods, we passed another River. Night overtaking us, we were obliged to take up our Quarters upon a little Hill, round a Fire with the Indians, who brought us a wild Turkey for our supper."

Source: [no author or editor cited], Our First Visit in America: Early Reports from the Colony of Georgia, 1732-1740 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1974), pp. 48-49.

1736 On St. Simons Island, construction was underway of the new town of Frederica, as noted in the following letter from James Oglethorpe to the Trustees:

"I have at last got all the people to Saint Simon's . . . . We have built bowers thatched with palmetto for about half the inhabitants and by the end of this week I hope every family where women are will have a bower wind and water tight upon their lot. A party of people are sowing for the next year's crop. I have already shown every man his town lot. About forty of the workmen are already come up and some are joining us every day. The man of war and the King's Independent Company are not yet arrived. But the Indian king Tomochichi and his nephew Toonahowi and the beloved man Umpechee, who were in England with me, have joined us with a party of Indians and declared that they will live and die by us. They agreed that we shall possess the Island of Saint Simon's but reserve that of Saint Catherine's to themselves. . .

"Tomochichi and I at his desire go out tomorrow to hunt the buffalo as far as the utmost extent of his dominions towards Augustine. We shall then know how far the lands possessed by the English confederate Indians extend. Tomochichi is willing that we should settle upon any place within his lands provided the Lower Creek Nations agree to it. God be praised there is not so much as one of the persons dead that come from Europe with us. . . ."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), General Oglethorpe's Georgia: Colonial Letters, 1733-1743 (Savannah: Beehive Press, 1990), Vol. I, pp. 251-252.

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© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

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