1. On December 17, 1870, the state of Georgia ratified the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed the right to vote to all male citizens regardless of race or color. This marked an important victory for the civil rights movement in Georgia and throughout the country.

2. In 1903, the first flight in Georgia history took place on December 17. The Wright Brothers' airplane was flown for several minutes by Charles Walden in a pasture near Hapeville.

3. On December 17, 1942, the notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele arrived in Georgia as part of a German Army medical unit. Mengele is known for his horrific experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

4. The Atlanta Hawks, a professional basketball team based in Atlanta, played their first game on December 17, 1949. The team has since won several division titles and made multiple playoff appearances.

5. On December 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 into law. The bill extended unemployment benefits and provided tax relief for millions of Americans during the Great Recession.