May 7, 1789

1789 A constitutional convention meeting in Augusta ratified a new state constitution -- the Constitution of 1789.

May 7, 1861

1861 A statewide convention in Arkansas adopted an ordinance of secession, making Arkansas the ninth southern state to secede.

May 7, 1861

1861 Pres. Jefferson Davis signed into law an act of the Confederate Congress recognizing a state of war between the U.S. and Confederacy.

May 7, 1913

1913 A second exhumation of Mary Phagan’s body took place, this time to look for fingerprints. A fingerprint expert was called in to help with the case.

May 7, 1968

1968 Gov. Lester Maddox released a strongly worded statement accusing unnamed members of the Georgia Democratic party of trying to gain publicity by attacking him. In his release, Maddox charged: "[A] few so-called Democrats are determined to wreck the party and its structure -- and if necessary, wreck Georgia in their sinister attempt to get Lester Maddox."

May 7, 1968

1968 Georgia’s state auditor charged that thirteen Georgia hospitals were charging from 2 to 50% more for treatment of patients using Medicare and/or Medicaid than that charged private patients. A spokesman St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens -- one of the hospitals listed by the auditor -- responded that it was simply attempting to regain funds lost in the treatment of those patients.

May 7, 1976

1976 As DeKalb County employee members of the Laborers International Union entered the fourth day of a strike, violence broke out. Police had to use tear gas to break up two demonstrations that became near riots. Six strikers were arrested, and one non-striking sanitation truck driver was injured.

May 7, 1996

1996 The Atlanta Constitution reported that Atlanta was the most violent city in the nation according to FBI crime statistics.

May 7, 2003

2003 Carl Isaacs, the leader of the group responsible for the horrendous Alday murders in Donalsonville, GA in 1973, was put to death by lethal injection.