The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.




**Julius and Ethel Rosenberg** were American citizens who became one of the most famous espionage cases of the Cold War. Julius Rosenberg worked as an electrical engineer and had connections to individuals involved in the United States’ atomic research during World War II. U.S. authorities accused him of passing secret information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Ethel Rosenberg, his wife, was accused of helping him coordinate the spy network and allegedly typing notes that contained stolen information. Their arrest in 1950 came during a period of intense fear of communist infiltration in the United States.

The Rosenbergs were tried in 1951 in a highly publicized federal court case. Much of the prosecution’s evidence came from testimony by Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass, who had worked at Los Alamos and admitted to giving atomic secrets to Julius. Greenglass claimed that Ethel helped type the information, which the prosecution used to argue she was an active participant. The trial occurred during the height of anti-communist tensions, sometimes called the “Red Scare,” and public opinion was strongly influenced by fears of Soviet espionage. Both Julius and Ethel maintained their innocence throughout the trial.

In 1951 the couple were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and sentenced to death, becoming the first American civilians executed for espionage during peacetime. After several appeals and international protests from supporters who believed the punishment was too harsh or that the evidence against Ethel was weak, they were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing prison in 1953. Decades later, declassified documents and historical research suggested Julius had indeed been involved in passing information to the Soviets, though historians continue to debate the extent of Ethel’s role in the spy network.