1540 Hernando de Soto explores Georgia.
1566 Spanish build a fort on Santa Catalina Island.
1721 Fort King George was established at the mouth of the Altahma River.
1732 King George II signed a charter giving James Edward Ogethorpe control over the land between the Savannah and Althamaha Rivers.
1733 Olgethorpe led the first settlers to Georgia. They founded Savannah.
1774 Georgia fails to send delegates to the first continental congress.
1776 Georgia sends delegates to the second who sign the Declaration of Independence.
1778 Savannah is captured by the British.
1793 Eli Whitney invents the Cotton Gin near Savannah.
1819 The SS Savannah become the first steamship to sail the Atlantic.
1831 The Supreme Court rejected the Cherokee plea against the Indian Removal Act and the next year they were forced to migrate to Oklahoma.
1861 George seceded from the Union.
1863 The Confederates win the Battle of Chickamauga.
1864 Union forces under the command of General Sherman captured Atlanta. He then began his march to the sea.
1886 Coca-Cola is invented in Atlanta.
1937 Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer prize for writing Gone with the Wind.
1968 Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was buried in Atlanta.