May 21, 1542

1542 Hernando de Soto, the first European to explore Georgia’s interior, died of fever near the Mississippi River while leading an army of soldiers and adventurers across the Southeast in search of riches.

May 21, 1733

1733 Meeting in Savannah, delegates from each of the eight principal towns of the Lower Creeks signed the Treaty of Savannah officially allowing Oglethorpe’s colonists to "make use of and possess all those lands which our nation hath not occasion to use . . . provided always that they, upon settling every new town shall set out for the use of ourselves and the people of our nation such lands as shall be agreed upon between their beloved men and the head men of our nation and that those lands shall remain to us forever." The treaty did not mention granting title to all lands between the Savannah and Altamaha inland as far as the tide flowed, which is how many historians describe the extent of land ceded by the 1733 treaty. Likely, this was an oral agreement to better define the vague language of the treaty.

May 21, 1739

1739 On the day after the first anniversary of his conversion to Methodism, Charles Wesley composed the hymn, "O for a Thousand Tongues." Three years earlier, Wesley had served on St. Simons Island as an Anglican minister and as James Oglethorpe’s secretary for Indian affairs.

May 21, 1791

1791 At 6 a.m., Gov. Edward Telfair and Augusta’s leading citizens gave their farewells to Pres. George Washington at the bridge crossing the Savannah River. Here, the president was met by a South Carolina delegation that would escort him to Columbia, the new capital of South Carolina.

May 21, 1861

1861 Meeting in Montgomery, Ala., the Confederate Congress voted to change the capital of the Confederacy from Montgomery to Richmond, Va. -- and then adjourned. This was somewhat of a risky action, as Virginians would not vote in a statewide referendum on whether to secede until May 24. [That referendum would pass.]

May 21, 1866

1866 Gen. Pope issued order prescribing arrangements for registration of voters in Georgia and Alabama. In each state senatorial district, a board of registrars would be appointed consisting of two whites and one black

May 21, 1894

1894 Former Confederate general Philip Cook died in Atlanta (some sources incorrectly say May 24). Born July 31, 1817 in Twiggs County, Ga., he became a lawyer. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Cook joined the 4th Georgia Regiment as a private. He was wounded in the Battle of Seven Days. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he served as the battles of Second Manassas and Sharpsburg. In Nov. 1862, Cook was promoted to colonel, subsequently serving in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville (where he was again wounded). In Aug. 1864, Cook was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a brigade in the battles of Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Cedar Creek, and Fort Stedman. Wounded twice more, he was capture while in the hospital. After the war, Cook returned to the practice of law. Subsequently, he was elected to Congress, where he served in the House of Representatives from 1873-1883. Later, Cook served as Georgia’s Secretary of State.

May 21, 1913

1913 Prosecutor Hugh Dorsey announced that he would go before the grand jury on May 23rd and ask for indictments against both Newt Lee and Leo Frank, but that the evidence presented would concentrate on Frank.

May 21, 1917

1917 What began as a warm, windy day would end with the most fire destruction to Atlanta since Sherman burned the city in 1864. In a strange set of circumstances, four different fires broke out in Atlanta -- all in about an hour’s time. The first three did damage but were put out. The fourth fire was reported at 12:46 p.m. At a storage building used by Grady Hospital, the first Atlanta firemen on the scene found a stack of mattresses ablaze. Unfortunately, they did not have a fire hose and had to watch helplessly as the wind spread the fire to neighboring buildings. Over the next nine hours, almost 2,000 homes were destroyed. Ten thousand Atlanta residents -- mostly blacks -- were left homeless. Amazingly, only one person died -- and that a woman who suffered a heart attack after seeing her house burn. Interestingly, of the 1,938 buildings that burned, all but 250 had shingle roofs -- which led the Atlanta city council to pass an ordinance prohibiting use of wood shingles on new buildings.

May 21, 1936

1936 President Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. He directly attributed this legislation to a 1924 visit to Georgia for treatment of his polio at Warm Springs. Staying at a small cottage, Roosevelt couldn’t believe it when he saw his first month’s power bill. Residents of Warm Springs were being charged approximately four times the rate per kilowatt-hour as charged in New York. Roosevelt credited this shocking discovery as the reason he became interested in power rates and the need to provide electricity to rural America.