July 29, 1866

1866 Former Confederate general Martin L. Smith died in Savannah. Born Sept. 9 1819, in Danby, N.Y., Smith graduated from West Point in 1842, after which he was assigned to survey coasts and rivers. During the Mexican War, he served as a civil engineer. In April 1861, Smith resigned his U.S. Army commission and served as a major of engineers planning the defenses of New Orleans. In 1862, Smith had a phenomenal rise in rank, in February being promoted to colonel, in April to brigadier general, and in November to major general. Smith became Robert E. Lee’s chief engineer. In 1864, he served as chief engineer for Gen. Hood’s defense of Atlanta. After the war, Smith practiced civil engineering briefly before his death.

July 29, 1904

Georgia cities and towns first incorporated by acts approved on July 29:

1904 Ashburn (Worth County)

July 29, 1912

1912 Religious leader Clarence Jordan was born in Talbotton, Georgia. Majoring in agriculture at the University of Georgia, he went on to obtain a masters and doctorate in theology from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. While in school, Jordan began to minister to the inner city poor, which greatly affected his views on society and religion. In 1941, he met Baptist missionary Martin England. Together they had a dream of creating an interracial Christian community in the South that would be dedicated to peace, brotherhood, and sharing. In 1942, they decided to create Koinonia Farm (the term comes from a Greek word for sharing used by early Christians) on 440 acres of land eight miles southwest of Americus, Georgia. Expectedly, many local citizens were not happy with what they saw as an interracial commune, and the KKK began a campaign to intimidate Jordan and his follows. However, they refused to leave, and the size of the farm more than doubled in subsequent years. Jordon later prepared the Cotton Patch Version of the New Testament as a common folks’ version of the scriptures. Publicity from this helped revitalize Jordan’s efforts. Then, in 1968, Millard Fuller joined forces with Jordan to try to eliminate substandard housing in the Sumter County area by loaning money to the poor at no interest and building homes at no profit. Thus was begun the Habitat for Humanity idea, though Jordan unexpectedly died of a heart attack the next year and was not able to see it to fruition.

July 29, 1913

1913 This was the second day of the trial of Leo Frank. Newt Lee, the night watchman who discovered Mary Phagan’s body, concluded his testimony by repeating his story for the defense. Altogether Lee spent four hours and forty-five minutes on the stand. The next witness was police Sgt. L.S. Dobbs, who took Lee’s phone call and rushed to the factory. He said he found the body in the basement, face down, with a cord tied tightly around the neck, and a pair of women’s underpants tied loosely around the neck. The back of the head was covered in blood. He also found two notes, her shoes, and a trail where the body was dragged to its location. Detective John Starnes then took the stand. He had called Leo Frank to inform him of the murder, and said Frank appeared extremely nervous when he arrived at the factory. The highlight of the day was strong verbal clashes between prosecutor Hugh Dorsey and defense attorney Luther Rosser over Rosser’s attempts to discredit the testimony of Starnes.

July 29, 1927

1927 - Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived in Warm Springs, Ga. for his eighth visit to the state that was becoming his "second home."

July 29, 1977

1977 Atlanta Braves knuckle ball pitcher Phil Niekro struck out four Pittsburgh Pirates in one inning -- the first pitcher in Brave history to do so. This was possible because baseball rules provide that if a catcher fails to catch the ball on a batter’s third strike, that batter can try to make first base. In such a case, if the batter makes first base, the pitcher is credited with a strike out, but the out doesn’t count against the team at bat.

July 29, 1994

1994 Officials of the U.S. Postal Service and the Kennesaw Civil War Museum held "second day of issue" ceremonies at the museum for a U.S. commemorative stamp honoring the locomotive "General" released the previous day. First day of issue ceremonies had been held on July 28 in New Mexico and the stamp was only available at that site. So, on July 29 a special ceremony for the new stamp was held at the Kennesaw museum where the General is on permanent display. To mark the occasion, the Postal Service prepared a special pictorial cancel, and the museum sold souvenir covers using the new stamp and cancel.