1. In 1870, the Georgia legislature readmitted Georgia to the Union after the state seceded and was part of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Georgia was the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

2. In 1948, songwriter and musician Clarence Carter was born in Montgomery, Alabama, but his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, when he was young. He began playing the guitar at the age of 11 and went on to write and perform hits such as "Patches" and "Slip Away."

3. In 1963, civil rights leader and founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) John Lewis spoke alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta at a rally for civil rights. Lewis would go on to serve as a U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020.

4. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. The decision was controversial and continues to be debated in Georgia and across the country.

5. In 2004, former president Jimmy Carter announced that he would resign from the Southern Baptist Convention due to the group's move to the right on social and political issues. Carter, a devout Baptist, had already been critical of the organization's stance on women's rights and other issues.