the kicker

And that’s the way it was: April 5, 1951

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for conspiring to commit espionage
April 5, 2013

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were the first American civilians to be executed for espionage. They were charged with transmitting secret information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union, and convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war.

On April 5, 1951, the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death. The couple was executed by electric chair just before sunset on June 19, 1953.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

New York Times

Washington Post

The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.