310th day of 2026 marks 49th anniversary of Georgia dam disaster
On this date in 1977, a burst dam killed 39 people, mostly students, in Georgia.
By Neha Kapoor ·
The 310th day of 2026 arrives on a Friday with 55 days remaining in the year. The date marks the 49th anniversary of a catastrophic failure in Georgia that claimed 39 lives. The event involved the Kelly Barnes Dam and the community of Toccoa Falls College.
On Nov. 6, 1977, the dam structure gave way. A wall of water rushed through the campus of Toccoa Falls College. The flood killed 39 people. Most of the victims were students.
This date has seen numerous pivotal moments in American and global history. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. He defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen Douglas. Lincoln had previously served as a congressman from Illinois. In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederate States of America. He served much of that year as its provisional president before winning an unopposed election.
The 1888 presidential election saw Benjamin Harrison win the electoral vote. He defeated incumbent Democrat Grover Cleveland. Cleveland received 90,000 more total votes than Harrison. This was the last time the popular vote winner lost the election until 2000. In 1947, the television program Meet the Press debuted on NBC. Martha Rountree, the show's co-creator, served as the first host. The program became the longest-running television show in the United States.
Presidential elections have also occurred on this date in recent decades. In 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower won reelection against Adlai Stevenson II for the second time. In 1984, Ronald Reagan won reelection by a landslide over Walter Mondale. Mondale won only his home state of Minnesota. In 2012, Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney with 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.
More recent events include a 2018 report by the U.N. Human Rights Office. The office stated that more than 200 mass graves had been found in Iraq. These graves were in areas formerly controlled by the Islamic State group and contained the remains of thousands of victims. In 2022, a passenger plane crashed into Lake Victoria while approaching an airport in Tanzania. The crash killed 19 people aboard. In 2025, Nancy Pelosi announced she would not seek reelection to the U.S. House. She closed a career that included serving as the first woman in the speaker's office.
Several public figures have birthdays on Nov. 6. Actor Sally Field turned 80. Jazz musician Arturo Sandoval is 77. Author Michael Cunningham is 74. Journalist and author Maria Shriver is 71. Author Colson Whitehead is 57. Actors Ethan Hawke, Thandiwe Newton, and Rebecca Romijn are among those celebrating their birthdays. Baseball player Alejandro Kirk and swimmer Bobby Finke also have birthdays on this date.
