THE TRIAL OF ETHEL ROSENBERG

TIMELINE

1944-1945 Julius Rosenberg works as an engineer for the U.S. Signal Corps, a security and communications branch of the U.S. Army; in 1945, he is fired on suspicion of being a member of the Communist Party.
AUGUST 1944 David Greenglass begins work as a machinist on the Manhattan Project in New Mexico.
1945 According to Greenglass’s testimony at trial, Julius engages in espionage activities; in particular, according to Greenglass, at the Rosenbergs’ New York apartment in September, he presented sketches and notes about the atomic bomb and the Manhattan Project to Julius; the notes are typed.
1947 Senator Joseph McCarthy is elected to the U.S. Senate; he aggressively seeks to identify and punish suspected communists and Soviet spies.
AUGUST 1949 The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb.
1950 American cryptologists decipher the Venona cables, triggering FBI investigations that uncover a Soviet spy ring.
JUNE 16, 1950 David Greenglass is arrested and confesses to his involvement in a spy ring; Julius is arrested the next day, and Ethel Rosenberg is arrested on August 11.
JUNE 25, 1950 North Korea invades South Korea.
AUGUST 17, 1950 A federal grand jury indicts the Rosenbergs on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage.
MARCH 6, 1951 Trial commences before Judge Irving R. Kaufman and a jury, in the Southern District of New York; the trial last three weeks; the jury finds the Rosenbergs guilty on March 29.
APRIL 5, 1951 Judge Kaufman sentences the Rosenbergs to death.
FEBRUARY 25, 1952 The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirms the convictions.
JUNE 19, 1953 Julius and Ethel are electrocuted by electric chair at Sing Sing.
1955 The U.S. Government releases the decryption of the Venona cables, which reveal that Julius was a Soviet spy (who operated under the code name “Liberal”).
1997 Former KGB agent Alexander Feklisov reveals that he met with Julius at least fifty times between 1943 and 1946.
2001 Sam Roberts publishes The Brother, in which he quotes Greenglass as saying: “I frankly think [Ruth Greenglass] did the typing, but I don’t remember”.
2017 The U.S. Government releases Greenglass’s grand jury testimony, which does not mention any involvement by Ethel in the typing of notes or the delivery of atomic secrets to the Soviets.

See also Federal Judicial Center, The Rosenberg Trial — The Judicial Process: A Chronology, at http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_rosenberg_chronology.html

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