On this day in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg—a married couple from New York City—were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, after being convicted of conspiring to pass atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Their deaths marked a grim milestone in American legal history: they became the first civilians in the United States to be executed for espionage during peacetime.
Who were the Rosenbergs?
Julius Rosenberg was an electrical engineer and a committed communist who had worked for the US Army Signal Corps. Ethel, née Greenglass, had worked as a clerk and typist. The couple married in 1939 and had two sons.
Both were active in leftist circles and supporters of the Communist Party USA during a time when anti-communist sentiment in the US was intensifying, particularly under the influence of McCarthyism in the early 1950s. Julius was dismissed from his job with the government in 1945 due to suspicions of his political affiliations.
Why were they executed?
The Rosenbergs were arrested in 1950 on charges of passing classified information about the US atomic bomb project to the Soviet Union. Their alleged espionage was said to have contributed to the Soviet Union’s rapid development of nuclear weapons, particularly their successful detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949—years ahead of what the West had anticipated.
The prosecution’s key witness was David Greenglass, Ethel’s brother and a former machinist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, who claimed that Julius had recruited him and that Ethel had typed up notes containing sensitive information. Greenglass’s testimony was critical to securing a conviction, although he later admitted to lying about his sister’s involvement to protect his own wife from prosecution.
Following a controversial trial in 1951, both Julius and Ethel were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage. Despite numerous appeals and a global campaign for clemency—including interventions from intellectuals, scientists, and even the Pope—the execution went ahead. President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to grant a pardon.
What happened afterward?
On the evening of 19 June 1953, Julius was executed first, followed shortly after by Ethel. The method—electrocution—was harsh and sparked renewed criticism after reports that Ethel required multiple shocks before being pronounced dead.
The Rosenberg case became one of the most controversial in American legal and political history. To supporters, they were martyrs of political hysteria, victims of an unfair trial during a time of national paranoia. To detractors, they were traitors who endangered national security during the Cold War.
In the decades since, declassified documents, including material from the Venona Project, have confirmed Julius’s involvement in espionage, though Ethel’s role remains more ambiguous and widely debated by historians and legal scholars.
The legacy of the Rosenbergs continues to evoke deep questions about justice, loyalty, state power, and civil liberties during one of the tensest periods in modern history.
Also read: ON THIS DAY: Churchill delivers ‘finest hour’ speech (1940)
Featured photo: Getty Images
