What is Atlanta?
A: Atlanta is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of
Georgia.
Atlanta was originally founded as the what?
A: The terminus of a major state-sponsored railroad.
It soon became the convergence point among several
what?
A: Railroads.
Where did the name “Atlanta” come from?
A: Western and Atlantic Railroad.
During the American Civil War, it served as a what?
A: As a strategically important role for the Confederacy until it was
captured in 1864.
The city was almost entirely what during General
William T. Sherman's March to the Sea?
A: Burnt to the ground.
However, the city rebounded dramatically in the
post-war period and quickly became a what?
A: A national industrial center and the unofficial capital of the "New
South".
During the 1950s and 1960s, it became a major
organizing center of what?
A: The American Civil Rights Movement, with Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph
David Abernathy, and many other locals becoming prominent figures in the
movement's leadership.
For thousands of years prior to the arrival of European
settlers in north Georgia, who inhabited the area?
A: The indigenous Creek people and their ancestors.
Through the early 19th century, European Americans
systematically encroached on the Creek of northern Georgia until what?
A: Until forcing them out of the area from 1802 to 1825.
In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build
what?
A: The Western and Atlantic Railroad.
By 1860, Atlanta's population had grown to what?
A: 9,554.
During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple
railroads in Atlanta made the city a strategic hub for the distribution of
what?
A: Military supplies.
The region surrounding Atlanta was the location of
several major army battles, culminating with what?
A: The Battle of Atlanta and a four-month-long siege of the city by the
Union Army under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman.
On September 1, 1864, Confederate General John Bell
Hood decided to retreat from Atlanta, and he ordered what?
A: The destruction of all public buildings and possible assets that could be
of use to the Union Army.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was
gradually rebuilt and the work attracted many new what?
A: Residents.
The state capital was moved from Milledgeville to
Atlanta in what year?
A: 1868.
In the 1880 Census, Atlanta had surpassed Savannah as
Georgia's what?
A: Largest city.
On December 15, 1939, Atlanta hosted the premiere of
what?
A: Gone with the Wind, the epic film based on the best-selling novel by
Atlanta's Margaret Mitchell.
Atlanta played a vital role in the Allied effort during
World War II due to what?
A: The city's war-related manufacturing companies, railroad network and
military bases.