Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

Carl Vinson Institute of Government

The University of Georgia

October 28

1831 Lawyer and historian Charles C. Jones, Jr. was born in Savannah. Obtaining and undergraduate degree from Princeton (1852) and a law degree from Harvard (1855), Jones practiced law in Savannah before being elected mayor in 1860. During the Civil War, he rose to rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war, he practiced law in New York City from 1866 to 1877, during which time he wrote 15 books or articles in history and archaeology. Jones returned to Georgia, where he practiced law in Augusta and continued to write. His most famous volume--History of Georgia (1883)--earned him praise from American historian George Bancroft. After Reconstruction, Jones argued on behalf of the Old South and the Confederate cause, while opposing the New South movement. He died in Augusta on July 19, 1893.

1928 Sportscaster Hall of Famer Keith Jackson was born on a dirt road eight miles from Carrollton, Ga. He attended elementary school in a one-classroom building in Tallapoosa, junior high in Tyus, and in 1946 graduated from high school in Roopville, where he played on a championship basketball team. Jackson wanted to attend Georgia Tech, but when he could not qualify, he entered the military for four years. At Washington State University, Jackson began doing the radio broadcast of school football games. After working at an ABC television station in Seattle, he was invited to join ABC Sports in 1968. During his 31 years with ABC, Jackson was a broadcast announcer for about every sport but hockey. But it was college football and Jackson's distinctive voice and announcing style that led some to call him the "national voice of college football." During his career, Jackson, who has been inducted into two sportscaster hall of fames and is the only sports announcer to win the "Sportscaster of the Year" award five years in a row.

1937 Atlanta Hawks coach and National Basketball Association Hall-of-Famer Lenny Wilkens was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was NBA Coach of the Year in 1994, coach of the U.S. men's basketball team in the 1996 Olympics, and winningest coach in NBA history. He is also one of two players to be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player (1989) and as coach (1998).

1967 Actress Julia Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia. The Campbell High School graduate went on to play starring roles in "Pretty Woman" and numerous other movies.

1976 Governor George Busbee announced that Georgia's burgeoning, $329 million dollar Medicaid program was to be separated from the state Department of Human Resources. In making this announcement Busbee said "the complexities and difficulties of the Medicaid program have sapped the strength and energy of the department's management, have undermined public confidence in the department and threaten to be a continuing barrier to the smooth operation of this department." Medicaid had come to comprise 38% of the department's budget. The General Assembly, in its previous session, had authorized Busbee to take such an executive action if it became necessary, and would act to approve his decision in its next session.

1980 Pres. Jimmy Carter and Republican challenger Ronald Reagan faced off for a 90-minute, nationally televised debate in Cleveland, Ohio. 

1981 Augusta voters elected Edward McIntrye as the city's first black mayor.

1995 Behind the one-hit, eight-inning pitching of Tom Glavine, assisted by a solo home run from David Justice and ninth-inning relief from Mark Wohlers, the Atlanta Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians 1-0 to win the 1995 World Series. This marked the franchise's first World Series win in 38 years, as well as the first-ever during its presence in Atlanta. The win also made the Braves franchise the first in history to win a world series in three different cities -- Boston (1914), Milwaukee (1957), and Atlanta (1995).

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated on acts approved on Oct. 28:

1870 Cairo (Thomas now Grady County) and Subligna (Chattooga County)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1765 After the Seven Year's War (or French and Indian War as it was called in America), the British Parliament began to levy takes on American subjects to help defray the cost of their defense. Many Americans contended this was unfair on the grounds that the colonists were not directly represented in Parliament -- a debate that ultimately led to the American Revolution. In a letter about the Stamp Act to William Knox in London, James Habersham outlined the American argument against such taxation:

". . . I have read with great attention Mr. Campbells Pamphlet, called if I recollect, The Late regulations of the Colonies Considered, and notwithstanding your great enconium of the performance, especially where you say, that he has so fully answered the objection the Colonies make to an internal Tax being imposed, where they are not represented, that you need not add thereon, I cannot my Dear Friend see that either you or he have advanced one real argument in support of the Assertion. It appears to me an insult on the most common understanding to talk of our being virtually represented, and I must own, I cannot fix any precise idea to the word virtual, when we are speaking of the indefeasible Birth Right of a British American Subject . . . We have not yet seen the Stamp Act here, but we are told it empowers the Court of Admiralty (where a jury is not admitted) to take cognizance of causes arising thereupon, --This, to me is not a little alarming, and I may perhaps add, is so to every individual inhabitant of this Province, if not of this Continent . . . I think your Superstructure wants a Foundation, being wholy founded on prescription, and not on any rights invested by the Americans in any Man or body of men in Parliament to represent, and consequently to tax them. . . ."

Source: Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. VI, The Letters of the Hon. James Habersham, 1756-1775 (Savannah, Georgia Historical Society, 1904), pp. 44-45.

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. 28

Go to Georgia History page