Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

October 22

1736 James Oglethorpe signed a treaty with Spanish Florida Gov. Francisco del Moral Sanchez in which both sides agreed to control their Indian allies and stop molesting each other.

1766 Future Georgia governor David B. Mitchell was born in Muthill, Scotland. [See Apr. 22 entry for biographical information on Mitchell.]

1780 Georgia and U.S. politician John Forsyth was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. [See Oct. 21 entry for biographical information on Forsyth.]

1816 President James Monroe appointed Georgian William H. Crawford, then U.S. Secretary of War, to be U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Crawford would head the Treasury Department -- at the time the largest agency in the federal government -- for the next eight and one-half years.

1832 In Milledgeville, then state capital of Georgia, the Cherokee land lottery began. In the first part, approximately 85,000 Georgians were competing for 18,309 160-acre land lots, while in part two of the lottery, 133,000 participants were in the drawing for 35,000 40-acre gold lots. Lottery participants had filled out registration tickets at their county seat, and these had been forwarded to Milledgeville. For the lottery, the registration tickets were placed in one large wooden drum. In a second drum were land lot tickets plus a sufficient number of blank tickets to equal the number of names in the lottery. Simultaneously, tickets were drawn from each barrel. Just under than one in four lottery participants became a "fortunate drawer" -- that is one who received a land lot. The ratio would be about the same in the lottery for gold lots.

1887 Gov. John B. Gordon signed a proposed constitutional amendment enlarging the Georgia Supreme Court from 3 to 5 justices.

1895 President Cleveland, along with his vice president and cabinet, arrived in Atlanta aboard a special Southern Railway train to attend the Cotton States and International Exposition. They were then escorted to the Aragon Hotel, where Atlanta Mayor King hosted a special dinner in their honor.

1951 A deadly moonshine mixture poisoned 433 people in Atlanta.

1976 Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford engaged in their third (and final) presidential debate in Williamsburg, VA [click here for transcript of debate]. This debate was rather mild, with little of the personal attacks so prevalent in the preceding days of the campaign. Neither was there a notable error as Ford had committed in the previous debate when he asserted that eastern Europe was not under Soviet domination.

1990 Former UGA football great Frankie Sinkwich died in Athens, GA.

1991 In the third game of the the 1991 World Series, Mark Lemke singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning, giving the Atlanta Braves a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Twins. The game was the first World Series game ever to be played in Atlanta.

1992 Playing the Toronto Blue Jays in Canada in the fifth game of the World Series, the Atlanta Braves won 7-2. In the game, Lonnie Smith hit a grand slam home run helping the Braves become the first professional team to win a World Series game played outside the U.S.

1995 In Atlanta, the Braves beat the Cleveland Indians 4-3 in the second game of the 1995 World Series to go ahead 0-2 in the series.

2001 Folk artist Howard Finster died in Rome, Georgia. One of thirteen children, he was born in rural Alabama and had unique visions from the age of three. He became a preacher and traveled the South, establishing several churches. Ultimately his visions led him to art, and he became world famous for his sacred and folk images. He established Paradise Gardens, a haven for artists and a majour tourist attraction, in Summerville, Georgia. He would frequently house and encourage budding artists, and was there to greet visitors to home - especially the young children of which he was so fond. He was living at Paradise Gardens when he was struck with congestivc heart failure and died in a hospital in nearby Rome.  For more biographical information on Finster, click here.

Georgia towns and cities incorporated by acts approved on Oct. 22:

1887 Cornelia (Habersham County) and Hillman (Taliaferro County)
 
 
 
 

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1864 From his plantation near Rockbridge, Thomas Maguire wrote of the occupation of the Atlanta area by Union troops:

"Yankees at Lithonia and may be here today or tomorrow. Are getting things put away from them. . . . With sheep and cattle being out of the way, we are now ready to stand a trial with the Yankees."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Its Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of original 1954 volume), p. 648.

January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October / November / December
 
 

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia

If you have a date related to Georgia history or people that ought to be included, or if know of entries that should be corrected, send a note to Ed Jackson or Charles Pou.

Go to Yahoo/The History Channel's "This Day in History" page for Oct. 22

Go to Georgia History page