Augusta was established in 1736 by General James Edward Oglethorpe.

Augusta was named after Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the Princess of Wales.

Augusta was a fur and tobacco trading center in the 18th Century.

Land grants were provided by King George III to settlers from Virginia, Settlers planted cotton on land that one day would be Richmond and Columbia Counties.

Augusta's elite lived along Broad, Greene, and Telfair streets and was known as Pinch Gut for the corseted ladies who inhabited the area.

Augusta was selected as the site of the Confederate Powder Works, a sprawling complex that supplied most of the gunpowder used by Southern troops.

The Augusta Canal, a nine-mile waterway, was constructed in 1845 and once powered dozens of cotton mills along its banks.

In the late 1800s to the early 1920s, Augusta was second only to Memphis, Tennesee, as an inland cotton market.

The Historic Cotton Exchange, built in 1886, once had more than 200 members, many from European countries.

Augusta was twice capital of Georgia.

The Medical College of Georgia was Georgia's first medical school.

In the late 1800s, Augusta staked out a claim as a resort city. Guests included President William H. Taft, John D. Rockefeller and Harvey Firestone.

Bobby Jones built the Augusta National Golf Club and hosted its First Invitational Tournament in 1934.

The great fire of 1916 consumed 25 blocks in downtown Augusta.

At least 10 Confederate generals were either born in the Augusta area, called it home at one time, or are buried here.

Two signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in Augusta.

President Woodrow Wilson lived in Augusta during his childhood. His boyhood home has been fully restored and is open to the public.

Supreme Court Justice Joseph R. Lamar grew up next door to President Woodrow Wilson.

The Augusta Chronicle is the south's oldest newspaper.

The Georgia Republican Party and the Southern Baptist Convention were both started in Augusta.

Augusta's Springfield Baptist Church is the oldest independently formed African-American congregation still meeting on its original site. It is also where Morehouse College originated.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, built in 1749, is the third oldest Episcopal Church in Georgia.

The Emily Tubman monument is the first historic monument dedicated to a woman in Augusta.

Lucy Laney founded Augusta's first school for black students.

Ty Cobb's baseball career began with the Augusta Tourist in 1904.

Novelist Frank Yerby was born in Augusta and attended Paine College before leaving for Europe.

Augusta is the home of the "Godfather of Soul," singer James Brown and the famous Metropolitan Opera star, soprano Jessye Norman.

Oliver Hardy of the famous comic team Laurel & Hardy is also from the Augusta area. Hardy was born in nearby Harlem, GA.