Rosenberg, Julius

Rosenberg, Julius

convicted spies; both born in New York City. Julius worked as a U.S. army engineer (1940–45) and was fired for lying about his membership in the Communist Party. Julius and Ethel were arrested (1950) and convicted (1951) of passing on atomic secrets to the Soviet Union (partly on testimony of Ethel's brother David Greenglass). Despite clemency appeals from leaders and protests around the world, they were both electrocuted, the first Americans ever to be executed for espionage during peacetime.