1. In 1733, James Oglethorpe founded the city of Savannah, Georgia, which became the first settlement of the Georgia Colony. Savannah was designed as a grid of squares, which still remains one of the city's most iconic features.

2. On July 12, 1776, the first Declaration of Independence in the state of Georgia was adopted. This declaration called for the separation of Georgia from British rule and was signed by representatives of the state's eight parishes.

3. In 1862, during the American Civil War, the Battle of John's Island took place near Charleston, South Carolina. Georgia troops fought alongside South Carolina soldiers in this Confederate victory.

4. On July 12, 1946, civil rights activist and writer James Baldwin was arrested for vagrancy in downtown Atlanta. This experience inspired Baldwin's classic work "Notes of a Native Son."

5. In 2003, a gas pipeline explosion in Carrollton, Georgia killed two people and injured several others. The explosion was caused by a contractor striking the pipeline while performing excavation work.