By Ann Boutwell
Jan. 1, 1922: Kirkwood, an incorporated community in DeKalb County since 1899, was annexed into the City of Atlanta, a move unpopular with residents. Some tried to legally block the annexation, but a vote eventually found more in favor of the annexation.
Jan 2, 1940: Georgia Tech football coaches Bill Alexander and Bobby Dodd gave the Yellow Jackets the day off after the team wins its first-ever Orange Bowl Game on New Year’s Day. The Jackets stomped the Missouri Panthers 21-7. Georgia Tech will face Iowa in the FedEx Orange Bowl Friday, Jan. 5, 2010, at 8 pm in Miami.
Jan. 11, 1992: The 18-story Atlanta Gift Mart, designed by John Portman and Associates, opened at 230 Spring St. The structure sits atop a parking lot that architect-developer Portman designed in the late 1960s. The exhibition space remodeled in 2006 is now known as AmericasMart Atlanta.
Jan. 14, 1923: Earl H. Cone opened his fifth drug store at 1073 Peachtree on the southeast corner of 11th Street, in the heart of today’s Midtown. In the 1930s it became Lane’s Drug Store and then Jacob’s Pharmacy in the 1940s. By 1966 the neighborhood was a hippy haven, which transitioned to bikers and strip joints by March 1971. The Peachtree storefront was Brother Juniper’s from 1979 until 1995, when it was transformed into Mani Roy’s Touch of India. The site is currently owned by Dewberry Capital and is earmarked for new development.
Jan. 15, 1986: The Boy King, produced by Atlanta TV station WSB, aired in Atlanta and 77 other stations around the United States. The drama marked the first national observance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a holiday.
Jan 19, 1997: Poet and novelist James Dickey, pictured above, author of Deliverance, died of lung disease complications in Columbia, S.C. The 73-year-old Atlanta native was born Feb. 2, 1923, in old Piedmont Hospital, the son of Eugene and Maibelle Swift Dickey.
Jan. 24, 1988: Made-for-TV movie The Murder of Mary Phagen premiered. The film was based on real-life Atlanta events surrounding the 1913 Leo Frank Case and the murder of 13-year old Mary Phagen at the National Pencil Factory.
Jan 27, 1994: The first Light Up Atlanta was held. Skyscrapers and other buildings switched on their floodlights in sequence. The illumination flowed down Peachtree Street to Atlanta City Hall in 15 minutes. The annual Light Up continued through 1996.