November 24, 1780

1780 Planter and entrepreneur Farish Carter was born in South Carolina. Little is known of his childhood, although his father--a major in the Patriot army--was killed two months before his son’s birth while trying to retake Augusta from the British. Likely, the state of Georgia awarded Maj. Carter’s family with a land grant after the Revolution. Farish Carter became a successful merchant in Sandersville and served as the Georgia contractor for the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. With the profits thus gained, Carter bought a plantation near Milledgeville, which became his home, though he continued to travel and conduct business throughout the South and ultimately into other parts of the country. By 1845 he owned over thirty-three thousand acres in Baldwin County alone. Carter kept a summer home in north Georgia at Rock Spring, purchased during the Indian removal. In the process of traveling between his two homes, he was a frequent visitor to a small settlement in Cass County (later renamed Bartow County). For whatever reason, the town ultimately was named for him -- Cartersville.

Carter defied the stereotype of the typical southern planter who had all his money invested in land and slaves. Carter had large numbers of both to be sure, but his financial empire also encompassed gold mines, textile factories, bank and railroad stocks, grist mills, a cigar factory,marble quarries, toll bridges and ferries, and steamboats. Altogether Carter owned assets in eight different states. More accurately, Carter represented American capitalism instead of southern elitism. Just as little is known of his childhood, little is known of what became of his many and diversified financial holdings -- no records of his philanthropy survive. He did help establish the Milledgeville Female Academy (now Georgia College and State University) near his home. Carter died in Milledgeville on July 2, 1861.

November 24, 1863

1863 Just south of Chattanooga, Tenn., Confederate forces defending Lookout Mountain watched as Union forces under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker launched an assault up the moutain’s steep slopes. During the Battle of Lookout Mountain (also known as the Battle Above the Clouds), there was fierce fighting by both sides. However, by nightfall, Union troops had taken the northern crest of the long plateau that extends southward into Georgia. No longer would Confederate batteries be able to control traffic on the Tennessee River below.

November 24, 1864

1864 On this Thanksgiving Day, Union forces departed Milledgeville at 10 a.m. Sherman accompanied Slocum’s 20th Corps, which took the southern road to Sandersville, while the 14th Corps takes a more northerly road. Meanwhile, Milledgeville’s mayor sent the following message by courier to the mayor of Macon: "Our citizens have been utterly despoiled by the Yankee army. Send us bread and meat, or there will be great suffering among us. We have no mules or horses. What you send must be brought by wagon trains. The railroad bridge and the bridge across the Oconee have been burned. The State House and Executive Mansion and Factory are sill left to us. Send us relief at once."

November 24, 1888

1888 Historian Margaret Davis Cate was born in Brunswick, Ga. Davis lived her entire life in the Georgia coastal region and chronicled its history and traditions in a body of work spanning a study of Georgia’s colonial records in London to the study of oral traditions and native crafts of the region’s African-Americans. Her interviews with and photographs of ex-slaves and their crafts remain an invaluable historical resource. In 1941, largely through Cate’s efforts the Fort Frederica Association was formed; it raised close to one-hundred thousand dollars to buy and preserve the fort’s site. Given to the National Park Service, Fort Frederica was designated as a national monument in 1947. Working through the local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and United Daughters of the Confederacy, Cate was largely responsible for placing the area’s many historical markers and listing its Revolutionary and Civil War grave sites.

In addition to her work as a historian, Cate served as a teacher, school board member, postmistress, planning and zoning committee member, as well as being a successful farmer. She wrote numerous newspaper articles and delivered many lectures on the unique history and folklore of the Golden Isles. Her official publications included Our Todays and Yesterdays, Early Days of Coastal Georgia, Fort Frederica Color Book, and three articles in the Georgia Historical Quarterly. In 1956 she received the Georgia Writers’ Special Award. She is listed in American Women, Principal Women of America, and Women of Distinction in America. She remained active until suffering a stroke in 1961. She died on Nov. 29, 1961 in Brunswick, Ga.

November 24, 1933

1933 In Warm Springs, GA President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address [see text] dedicating Georgia Hall on the grounds of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. Georgia Hall would become a centerpiece for the Foundation - and the spot where FDR greeted his fellow companions when he arrived in Warm Springs, and where he did then farewell upon leaving.

November 24, 1976

1976 The Atlanta Hawks ended a 28-game road losing streak.

November 24, 1980

1980 The bus drivers’ strike against the National Transportation Service continued, though schools were open. A federal mediator was called in to help resolve the dispute.

November 24, 1992

1992 Georgia Senator Wyche Fowler Jr. lost a runoff against former Peace Corps Director Paul D. Coverdell. It was the only general election runoff in Georgia history, as the General Assembly later repealed the law providing for runoff if no one in the general election wins a majority of the votes cast.

November 24, 1997

1997 Dedication ceremonies were held on the grounds of Georgia’s state capitol for a bronze statue of former governor Ellis Arnall. After Georgia state colleges and universities lost their accreditation in 1941 because of interference by Gov. Eugene Talmadge, Arnall--then state attorney general--successfully challenged Talmadge in the governor’s race of 1942. Born in Newnan on Mar. 20, 1907, Arnall is remembered for a progressive and reform-minded administration. He successfully pushed for constitutional amendments or legislation to reduce the powers of the governor (e.g., taking away the governor’s power to grant pardons and paroles, removing the governor from public and higher education boards, and taking away the governor’s power to veto proposed constitutional amendments). Arnall also pushed for prison reform and the elimination of chain gangs. With his strong support, Georgia became the first state to allow 18-year-olds to vote in 1943. In 1943-44, Arnall chaired the commission set up to draft new Georgia’s Constitution of 1945. The next year, he pushed the legislature into dropping the poll tax (the fourth southern state to do so). Arnall was also nationally known for his success in getting the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw railroad freight rates that discriminated against the South. He died in 1992.

November 24, 2003

2003 Former Brave pitcher Warren Spahn died at age 82. Spahn was an ace for the Boston, and later Milwaukee, Braves, winning more games than any other left-hander in the history of professional baseball. Although he never pitched for the Braves after the franchise moved to Atlanta, he was honored earlier in 2003 with a statue at Turner Field showing his characteristic high leg delivery windup. In 1973, in his first year of eligibility, Spahn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.