As the last of the original 13 Colonies, Georgia holds a historic place in the South and the nation. To commemorate its founding in 1733, each year the Peach State celebrates Georgia Day.
Georgia Day was created by the state’s General Assembly in 1981. According to National Today, the holiday is observed on Feb. 12 every year as “the anniversary of the landing of the first colonists in Georgia under (James) Oglethorpe.”
To celebrate this year’s anniversary, the Georgia Historical Society will premiere a new video exploring the 13th Colony’s founding and early development.
Featuring greetings from friends and leaders across the state, the video will premiere at 8 a.m. today on WTOC.com and WTOC+. You can also watch the full video at georgiahistoryfestival.org/georgiaday. but here the trailer.
Georgia Day, which became a holiday in 1981, celebrates a history that runs much deeper than the state’s founding as a British Colony, however.
What is now known as the state of Georgia was first inhabited by Native American tribes for thousands of years. And there was a Spanish presence in the area before James Oglethorpe’s English settlement was founded in 1733.
“By the 18th century, the Spanish settlers had mostly left the area,” National Today wrote. “The English settlers arrived in Georgia sometime in the 1730s, led by James Oglethorpe. As of April 8, 1776, royal officials had been removed from the region and Georgia’s Provincial Congress issued a constitutional document that served as an interim constitution until the following year, 1777, when the state constitution was adopted.”
So if you’re looking for a reason to have cake and ice cream today, now you have one.
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