Opera Singer Jess Thomas

Events in 1927 and 4-8

Events in US in the birth year of Jess Thomas

• Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are electrocuted at Dedham (Mass.) Prison despite worldwide protesting over weak evidence (Aug. 23).
• The Holland Tunnel opens (Nov. 13) to connect Manhattan and Jersey City, N.J., giving cars a route under the Hudson River and an alternative to ferry boats.

Birthday Jess Thomas (4-8) in history

• Day 4-8 year 1735: Journalist John Peter Zenger, defended by former Pennsylvania House Speaker Andrew Hamilton, was acquitted of defamation in a case that helped promote press freedom.
• Day 4-8 year 1884: Thomas Stevens became the first person to bicycle across the United States. He later bicycled around the world.
• Day 4-8 year 1892: Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother were killed with an axe in Fall River, Mass.
• Day 4-8 year 1914: Germany invaded Belgium and, in response, Britain declared war on Germany.
• Day 4-8 year 1916: Denmark ceded the Danish West Indies, including the Danish Virgin Islands, to the United States for $25 million.
• Day 4-8 year 1944: Anne Frank and her family were found hiding in Amsterdam by Nazis.
• Day 4-8 year 1964: The bodies of three civil-rights workers were found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a federal investigation backed by President Johnson
• Day 4-8 year 1977: President Carter signed a congressional act that established the Department of Energy.