1951 American citizens Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted and sentenced to death for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union

Biography: Ethel Rosenberg was an American citizen who, along with her husband Julius Rosenberg, became a central figure in a Cold War espionage trial. The Rosenbergs were accused of passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union and were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.

Born in New York City to immigrant parents, Ethel became involved in labor and political movements, including the Communist Party. She married Julius Rosenberg in 1939, and they were both arrested in the early 1950s, during the height of McCarthyism. Their trial in 1951 became a global sensation and has remained a subject of controversy.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair on June 19, 1953, at Sing Sing Prison in New York. They were the first American civilians to be executed for espionage during peacetime.

Source: onthisday.com