August 5

Freedom of the press is one of the cardinal freedoms of the United States and many other nations around the globe. It is however, a freedom that had to be fought for. German immigrant John Peter Zenger learned that first hand. In 1734, Zenger, at the helm of the New York Weekly Journal, was arrested and charged with seditious libel. On the 5th in 1735, Zenger was acquitted of all charges.

This newspaper was America’s first partisan publication