Georgia Trivia & Tidbits

Looking for Georgia trivia? Try our list Georgia little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

In 1929, at a carnival near Atlanta, toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe watched an excited crowd play a game with dried beans placed on cards stamped with numbers that were called out by a pitchman. When a player filled a line with beans, he shouted "Beano!" Back home in New York, Lowe invited friends to play the game and an excited winner shouted "Bingo!" instead, giving a name to one of America's favorite games.

first appeared: 11/1/2009

Musician Tommy Durden (1919-1999), who was born in Morgan County (pop. 15,457), played steel guitar for Tex Ritter and Johnny Cash, sang and wrote many songs, but is best remembered as the man who, with Mae Boren Axton and Elvis Presley, wrote Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956. The idea for the song came to Durden after reading a newspaper article about a hotel guest who committed suicide and left a one-line note: "I walk a lonely street."

first appeared: 10/18/2009

Gymnast Courtney Kupets, a student at the University of Georgia in Athens, won the 2009 Honda-Broderick Cup, given to the top female college athlete in the United States. After missing part of the 2008 season with an Achilles injury, Kupets returned and led her team to its fifth consecutive NCAA championship, and she also won four individual titles.

first appeared: 10/4/2009

In 1953, Priscilla the Pink Pig monorail ride debuted at Rich's department store in Atlanta to the delight of children who enjoyed an elevated view of the store's toy department. Today, the tradition continues during the holiday season when children ride The Pink Pig train outside Macy's at Lenox Square Mall.

first appeared: 9/20/2009

On Valentine's Day, the post offices in Juliette and Romeo, Mich. (pop. 3,721), team up for a postage cancellation representing the Shakespearean sweethearts.

first appeared: 9/6/2009

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta formerly were called the Communicable Disease Center, which was founded in 1946 and focused on fighting malaria by killing mosquitoes. Today, the CDC is the nation's premier health promotion, prevention and preparedness agency, and a global leader in public health.

first appeared: 8/23/2009

Completed in 1839, Bulloch Hall in Roswell (pop. 79,334) was built by Maj. James Stephens Bulloch, one of Roswell's first settlers. Bulloch's youngest daughter, Mittie, married Theodore Roosevelt Sr. in 1853 in the house. Their son, Theodore, became the nation's 26th president.

first appeared: 8/9/2009

In May 2008, Joshua Packwood, 22, became the first white valedictorian in the 141-year history of Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta.

first appeared: 7/26/2009

—An 1802 bell that originally hung in the bell tower of the City Exchange Building in Savannah and was used to announce important occasions, council meetings and fires is believed to be the state's oldest bell. Today, it's housed in a replica bell tower near City Hall.

first appeared: 7/12/2009

—Clarks Hill Lake, also known as J. Strom Thurmond Lake, is the largest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project east of the Mississippi River. The lake was created by Thurmond Dam, located on the Savannah River north of Augusta.

first appeared: 6/28/2009

—The Adelphean Society, now Alpha Delta Pi, is believed to be the first sorority for college women. It was founded in 1851 at Wesleyan College in Macon (pop. 97,255).

first appeared: 6/14/2009

—Called the "black Babe Ruth," Josh Gibson was famous in the Negro League for hitting 500-foot and greater home runs. The National Baseball Hall of Famer, who hit "almost 800 home runs," was born in 1911 in Buena Vista (pop. 1,664) and died in 1947, three months before Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball. Gibson played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays in Pennsylvania.

first appeared: 5/17/2009

—Hoschton (pop. 1,070) residents scared up some fun last fall by making 5,441 scarecrows and setting a world record for having the most scarecrows in one location, according to the World Records Academy. Some scarecrows were dressed as University of Georgia football players, Elvis and the cast of The Wizard of Oz.

first appeared: 5/3/2009

–More than 300 photos of babies, known as the "eggplant babies," decorate a wall at Scalini's Italian Restaurant in Smyrna (pop. 40,999). According to restaurant lore, the eggplant parmigiana dish induces labor in mothers–to–be within 48 hours.

first appeared: 4/19/2009

—Hiawassee (pop. 808) is applauded as the state's "country music capital" because of its many music and folk festivals, including the state fiddlers convention and Georgia Mountain Fair.

first appeared: 4/5/2009

—The first transcontinental telephone call took place in 1915. It was a four-way call among Theodore N. Vail, president of American Telephone and Telegraph Co., on Jekyll Island; Alexander Graham Bell, telephone inventor in New York; Thomas A. Watson, assistant to Bell, in San Francisco; and President Woodrow Wilson, in Washington, D.C.

first appeared: 3/22/2009

—In the early 1900s, Consolidated Gold Mines in Dahlonega (pop. 3,638) employed up to 1,200 miners and was the largest gold-mining operation east of the Mississippi River. Today, visitors can tour the abandoned mineshaft 60 feet underground and pan for gold.

first appeared: 3/8/2009

—The state’s official marine mammal is the right whale, which was adopted in 1985 and is the only whale native to the state’s waters.

first appeared: 2/22/2009

—The first Georgian to build and operate an airplane was Ben Epps, who flew his first plane over an open field in Athens in 1907. He was born in 1888 in Oconee County (pop. 26,225).

first appeared: 2/8/2009

—The Waffle House Museum opened in September in the original Waffle House diner near Decatur (pop. 18,417) where the chain began in 1955. Menus, uniforms and other memorabilia are displayed.

first appeared: 1/11/2009

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