Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

November 18

1883 Politician Carl Vinson was born in Baldwin County, Georgia. One of the most influential national legislators of the twentieth century, Vinson's legislative career spanned fifty years and one month--a record of longevity that stood until 1994. Vinson was noted particularly for his dedication to the United States Armed Services. To honor him, the Institute of Government at the University of Georgia was formally named the Carl Vinson Institute of Government in 1983. For a more extensive biography of Vinson, including photographs, click here.

1895 John Phillip Sousa and his fifty-piece band premiered at the Cotton States and International Exposition, playing two concerts to enthusiastic, cheering audiences.

1909 Song writer Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah. Mercer was fascinated with music as a youth and at age fifteen wrote his first song--a piece for his sister. Hoping to become an actor, he went to New York with an amateur theater group in 1928. While auditioning for a show the next year, he met Elizabeth "Ginger" Meehan, who became his wife in 1931. Mercer did not earn an acting role in the show, but did write a song that was used -- "Out of Breath and Scared to Death." With the contacts he had made in New York and his remarkable song writing talents, Mercer was soon collaborating with some of the nation's most prominent musicians, such as Hoagy Carmichael, Benny Goodman, Tony Bennett, and Bing Crosby. In the 1935 he moved to Hollywood where his career soared, writing songs for both popular musicians and for film scores.

While Mercer lived in California from 1935, he never forgot his ties to Georgia. He kept a country home near the Wormsloe plantation on Burnside Island near Savannah. In 1962, the Chatham County Commission renamed Black River (near his home) after one of Mercer's biggest hits--Moon River. Mercer died June 25, 1976 in Bel Aire, Calif., but his ashes were buried in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah. President Gerald Ford eulogized him as a man whose "mellow voice revealed that he was a child of the South; but his phrases were full of affection for people everywhere." The following are some of Mercer's famous works:

• "On the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe" (Academy Award winner)
• "I'm an Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande"
• "Too Marvelous for Words"
• "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby"
• "I'm Old Fashioned"
• "Accentuate the Positive"
• "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (Academy Award winner)
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (film score)
• "Moon River" (Academy Award winner)
• "Days of Wine and Roses" (Academy Award winner)
• Star Spangled Rhythm (film score)
• "That Old Black Magic"
• "Blues in the Night"
• "One for My Baby"
• "My Shining Hour"
• "G.I. Jive"
• "Something's Gotta Give"
• "Goody, Goody"
• "Jeepers, Creepers"
• "P.S. I Love You"

1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a speech in Savannah [see text] commemorating Georgia's bicentennial.

1949 Cairo, Ga.-born Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers was named the National League's Most Valuable Player.

1964 A host of Georgia Congressman Carl Vinson's friends gathered in Milledgeville to honor him on his 81st birthday. Vinson was retiring after fifty years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaking at the occasion were Georgia senators Richard B. Russell, Jr. and Herman Talmadge, and Govenor Carl Sanders. Additionally, president Lyndon Johnson sent a congratulatory telegram.

1973 President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon and party arrived in the Spirit of '76 at Warner Robins Air Force Base for a three-hour visit at Mercer University in Macon to honor the 90th birthday of former Georgia Congressman Carl Vinson and to pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of Mercer's Walter F. George School of Law. At the ceremonies, President Richard Nixon announced that the next American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would be named the USS Carl Vinson. [For a more complete story and photos, click here.]

1976 The Atlanta Braves signed free agent outfielder Gary Matthews.

1978 The NAACP presented its Spingarn Medal to United Nations Ambassador Andrew J. Young "in recognition of the deftness with which he has handled relations between this nation and other countries" and "for his major role in raising the consciousness of American citizens to the significance in world affairs of the massive African continent." Instituted in 1914, the Spingarn Medal is awarded annually "for the highest or noblest achievement by an American Negro during the preceding year or years."

1997 The Atlanta Braves allowed shortstop Jeff Blauser to become a free agent, instead signing Colorado Rockies shortstop Walt Weiss to a three-year contract. Blauser's departure came on the same day as the Braves lost pitcher Terrell Wade and two lesser-known players to the new Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball team.

1997 The Atlanta Hawks beat the Washington Wizards in overtime 98-89 winning their 11th consecutive game since the opening of the season. The win was a club record for consecutive wins to open a season--and the 6th best start in the history of professional basketball. The all-time record is 15 straight wins to open a seasion--a mark held by the Houston Rockets (1993) and the Washington Capitols (1948)
 
 2007 The Atlanta Braves agreed to contract terms with free agent pitcher Tom Glavine. Glavine spent his first sixteen major league seasons pitching for the Braves, before a five year stint with the New York Mets - where he won his 300th career game in 2007. The highlight of Glavine's career in Atlanta was pitching one hit, shutout baseball for eight innings in the sixth game of the 1995 World Series, in which the Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians 1-0 to become world champions.
 
 

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1766 Over three decades after the founding of Georgia, colonists were still almost totally dependent upon manufactured goods made in, or shipped from, Britain, as noted in a letter from royal governor James Wright to the British Board of Trade:

". . . [T]here has not been any Manufactures of any kind set up or carried on in this Province; but we are supplied with every thing from & through Great Britain. Some few of the poorer & more industrious People make a triffling Quantity of coarse home Spun Cloth for their own families, & knit a few Cotton & Yarn Stockings for their own use, & this done but by very few; & I don't know, that there is, or had been a yard of Linen Cloth of any Kind manufactured within this Province.

"Hitherto my Lords, & untill the Province becomes much more populous than it just now is, the People can employ their time to much better purpose than manufacturing, as they can be a great deal cheaper & better supplied from Great Britain; & from whence my Lords, all our supplies of silks, Linens, & Woolen of every kind is brought; & all our Tools, Nails, Locks, Hinges & Utensils of every sort and great quantities of Shoes, are likewise Imported, although we have some Tanners & Shoemakers here, but chiefly employed in making Shoes for the Negroes. Also Blacksmith who work up Bar Iron imported from the Northern Colonies for building & repairs of Vessels, & such other work as is not usually or indeed cannot be Imported from Great Britain, as no particular orders or directions can well be given to suit occasional necessary demands, & uses. We have built one Ship, one Snow, one Brigantine & five or six Schooners, & a number of Coasting Vessels since I have presided here. Our whole time & strength my Lords, is applied in planting Rice, Corn, Pease, & a small quantity of wheat & rye, & in making pitch, Tar & Turpentine & in making Shingles & Staves, & sawing Lumber & Scantling & Boards of every kind; & in raising stocks of Cattle, Mules, Horses s& Hogs; & next year I hope some essays will be made towards planting & making Hemp . . . ."

Source: Kenneth Coleman and Milton Ready (eds.), Colonial Records of the State of Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1979), Vol. 28, Part 2, pp. 1, p. 221.

1864 After numerous letters and telegrams were sent to the Confederate War Department pleading for troops to be sent to Georgia to stop Sherman's March to the Sea, Confederate president Jefferson Davis telegraphed Gen. Howell Cobb in Macon. His message followed by eleven days his controversial proposal to the Confederate Congress for "the enrollment of 40,000 negroes to be employed as pioneer and engineer laborers." Davis also proposed using explosive mines (then known as "subterra shells") to impede Sherman's progress:

"In addition to the troops of all kinds you should endeavor to get out every man who can render any service, even for a short period, and employ negroes in obstructing roads by every practicable means. Colonel Rains, at Augusta, can furnish you with shells prepared to explode by pressure, and these will be effective to check an advance. General Hardee has, I hope, brought some re-enforcements, and General Taylor will probably join you with some further aid. You have a difficult task, but will realize the necessity for the greatest exertion."

Source: U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1893, reprinted by The National Historical Society, 1971), Series I, Vol. XLIV, p. 865.

1864 In his memoirs, General Sherman wrote of this day:

"We passed through the handsome town of Covington, the soldiers closing up their ranks, the color-bearers unfurling their flags, and the bands striking up patriotic airs. The white people came out of their houses to behold the sight, in spite of their deep hatred of the invaders, and the Negroes were simply frantic with joy. From Covington the Fourteenth Corps, with which I was traveling, turned to the right for Milledgeville, via Shady Dale. General Slocum was ahead at Madison, with the Twentieth Corps, having torn up the railroad as far as that place, and thence had sent Geary's division on to the Oconee, to burn the bridges across that stream . . . ."

Source: Mills Lane (ed.), Marching Through Georgia: William T. Sherman's Personal Narrative of His March Through Georgia (New York: Arno Press, 1978), p. 149-150.

1864 From her plantation near Covington, Ga., Dolly Lunt Burge wrote of Sherman's arrival in her journal:

"Slept very little last night. Went out doors several times and could see large fires like burning buildings. Am I not in the hands of a merciful God who has promised to take care of the widow and orphan? Sent off two of my mules in the night. Mr. Ward and Frank [a slave] took them away and hid them. In the morning took a barrel of salt, which had cost me two hundred dollars, into one of the black women's gardens, put a paper over it, and then on the top of that leached ashes. Fixed it on a board as a leach tub, daubing it with ashes [the old-fashioned way of making lye for soap]. Had some few pieces of meat taken from my smoke-house carried to the Old Place [a distant part of the plantation] and hidden under some fodder. Bid them hide the wagon and gear and then go on plowing. Went to packing up mine and Sadai's clothes. I fear that we shall be homeless. The boys came back and wished to hide their mules. They say that the Yankees camped at Mr. Gibson's last night and are taking all the stock in the county. Seeing them so eager, I told them to do as they pleased. They took them off, and Elbert [the black coachman] took his forty fattening hogs to the Old Place Swamp and turned them in. We have done nothing all day - that is, my people have not. I made a pair of pants for Jack [a slave]. Sent Nute [a slave] up to Mrs. Perry's on an errand. On his way back, he said, two Yankees met him and begged him to go with them. They asked if we had livestock, and came up the road as far as Mrs. Laura Perry's. I sat for an hour Page 20 expecting them, but they must have gone back. Oh, how I trust I am safe! Mr. Ward is very much alarmed. "

Source: A Woman's Wartime Journal: an Account of the Passage over a Georgia Plantation of Sherman's Army on the March to the Sea, as recorded in the Diary of Dolly Sumner Lunt (Mrs. Thomas Burge)

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