1. In 1839, the Cherokee Nation signed the Treaty of New Echota which required the tribe to give up their land to the United States government and move westward to present-day Oklahoma. The forced relocation, known as the Trail of Tears, resulted in the deaths of thousands.

2. On June 17, 1864, during the Civil War, Union troops under the command of General William T. Sherman began their march across Georgia from their base in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The campaign would eventually lead to the capture of Atlanta and help secure President Abraham Lincoln's re-election.

3. In 1885, Georgia's first professional baseball team, the Atlanta Atlantics, played their first game at Piedmont Park. The team would later become the Atlanta Crackers and play in various leagues until their disbandment in 1965.

4. In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Gray v. Sanders that Georgia's county unit system, which gave disproportionate voting power to rural counties, was unconstitutional and violated the principle of "one person, one vote."

5. On June 17, 2015, nine people were killed in a shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The tragedy prompted calls for the removal of Confederate symbols, including the Confederate battle flag, from public spaces throughout the South. Georgia ultimately removed the Confederate emblem from its state flag in 2003, but controversy over its display continues to this day.