Portal:Georgia (U.S. state)

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The Georgia (U.S. state) Portal

Georgia /ˈɔːrə/ is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. Named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 21, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870.

Georgia is the 24th most extensive and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South. Atlanta is the state's capital and its most populous city.

Georgia is bordered on the south by Florida; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina; on the west by Alabama; and on the north by Tennessee and North Carolina. The northern part of the state is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a mountain range in the vast Appalachian Mountains system. The central piedmont extends from the foothills to the fall line, where the rivers cascade down in elevation to the continental coastal plain of the southern part of the state. The highest point in Georgia is Brasstown Bald, 4,784 feet (1,458 m); the lowest point is the Atlantic Ocean.

Georgia is the most extensive state east of the Mississippi River in terms of land area, although it is the fourth most extensive (after Michigan, Florida, and Wisconsin) in total area, a term which includes expanses of water which are part of state territory.

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Dawson Forest is a 10,130-acre (41.0 km2) public-use forest located in Dawson County, Georgia, southwest of Dawsonville. It is owned by the city of Atlanta, but is considered a state forest, as it is managed by the Georgia Forestry Commission.

It was purchased in 1971 from Lockheed, and was the previous site of the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory (GNAL). The property is currently referred to as the Dawson Forest City of Atlanta Tract and managed by the Georgia Forestry Commission with a trail system open to the public. The tract is located approximately ten miles from the end of limited access on Georgia 400 in Cumming. An area of 3 acres (12,000 m2) previously occupied by GNAL was restricted following 1978 testing which found residual nuclear radiation from the experiments performed there. Subsequent studies in 1991 and 1997 found radiation levels to be at or slightly above normal background radiation levels. The property also encompasses Amicalola Creek, which various groups are lobbying to be designated as a scenic river, and which flows over Amicalola Falls within Amicalola Falls State Park.

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Near the top of Blood Mountain
Near the top of Blood Mountain
Credit: Allen Lyons

Blood Mountain is the highest peak on the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail and the sixth-tallest mountain in Georgia, with an elevation of 4,458 feet (1,359 m). It is located on the border of Lumpkin County with Union County and is within the boundaries of the Chattahoochee National Forest and the Blood Mountain Wilderness. There are several waterfalls, hiking trails and other recreational areas in the vicinity.

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Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich (/ˈɡɪŋɡrɪ/; born Newton Leroy McPherson; June 17, 1943) is an American politician, author, and political consultant, who served as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. He represented Georgia's 6th congressional district as a Republican from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. He is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination. Born in south central Pennsylvania, Gingrich was adopted in infancy by his stepfather, a career soldier. Gingrich received his undergraduate degree from Emory University and then earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Tulane University. In the 1970s he taught history and geography at West Georgia College. During this period he ran several times for the United States House of Representatives before winning in November 1978. He served as House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995. A co-author and architect of the "Contract with America", Gingrich was a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional election. In 1995, Time named him "Man of the Year" for his role in ending 40 years of majority control by the Democratic Party. While he was House speaker, the House enacted welfare reform, passed a capital gains tax cut in 1997, and in 1998 passed the first balanced budget since 1969. As House speaker his popularity declined in Congress gradually due to controversies he was attached to. In 1997 84 House ethics charges made were made against Gingrich; all of which but one were dropped when he received a reprimand for making inaccurate statements to a fourteen-month House investigation of his alleged misuse of tax-exempt donations. The poor showing of Republican candidates in the 1998 Congressional election and pressure from Republican colleagues preceded Gingrich's November 5, 1998, resignation from the speakership and from the House, effective January 3, 1999. Since leaving the House, Gingrich has remained active in public policy debates and worked as a political consultant. He founded and chaired several policy think tanks, including American Solutions for Winning the Future and the Center for Health Transformation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has written or co-authored 27 books. In May 2011, he announced his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Gingrich converted to Roman Catholicism in 2009, after being raised Lutheran and spending most of his adult life as a Southern Baptist. He has been married three times, with the first two marriages ending in divorce. He has two children from his first marriage and has been married to Callista (Bisek) Gingrich since 2000.

Selected anniversaries for June

  • June 1, 1980 - The Cable News Network (CNN) is officially launched.
  • June 8, 2004 - The G8 Summit takes place over the next 2 days on Sea Island, in Georgia, United States.
  • June 20, 1908 - The Georgia Tech Alumni Association is chartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
  • June 29, 1981 - Morris Edwin Robert, armed with a machine gun, holds hostages in the FBI section at the Atlanta, Georgia Federal Building. After three hours the hostages are rescued and Robert is killed in a shootout with Federal Agents.
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You are invited to participate in WikiProject Georgia of the United States, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about the State of Georgia.
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Georgia (U.S. state)
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Panoramic view of Fort James Jackson
Panoramic view of Fort James Jackson
Credit: Ebyabe

Fort James Jackson (usually shortened to Fort Jackson) is a restored nineteenth-century fort located one mile east of Savannah, Georgia, on the Savannah River. It hosts the Fort Jackson Maritime Museum. Fort Jackson was constructed between 1808 and 1812 to protect the city of Savannah from attack by sea. During the American Civil War, it became one of three Confederate forts that defended Savannah from Union forces (the other two were Fort McAllister and Fort Pulaski). In 1862, Fort Jackson came under shelling from a ship captained by an escaped slave, Robert Smalls.

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I think if I had my life to live over again, I'd do things a little different. I was aggressive, perhaps too aggressive. Maybe I went too far. I always had to be right in any argument I was in, I always had to be first in everything. I do indeed think I would have done some things different. And if I had I believe I would have had more friends.
Ty Cobb

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