TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Sep. 28, 1915	Ethel Greenglass is born in New York’s Lower East Side to a poor, immigrant family.
May 12, 1918	Julius Rosenberg is born in New York’s Lower East Side to an immigrant family.
1931	Ethel graduates Seward Park High School.
1934	Julius graduates Seward Park High School; enters City College as an engineering student.
1935	Ethel participates in strike activities of the Ladies Apparel Shipping Clerks Union.
1936	Ethel sings to strikers picketing Ohrbach’s department store.
Jul. 17, 1936	The Spanish Civil War erupts.
Nov. 1936	Germany and Japan sign a five-year anti-Communist pact.
Dec. 1936	Ethel and Julius meet at a labor union benefit.
Nov. 1937	Germany, Italy, and Japan sign an anti-Communist agreement.
Dec. 12, 1939	Julius joins the Communist Party.
Jun. 18, 1939	Ethel and Julius marry after Julius graduates from City College.
Aug. 23, 1939	Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact.

Sep. 1, 1939	Germany invades Poland, starting World War II.
Jun. 1940	Ethel and Julius move to Washington, DC, for Ethel’s job at the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sep. 1940	Julius gets a job in the New York area with the U.S. Signal Corps. They move back to New York.
Sep. 1940	Japan signs a pact with Nazi Germany and Italy to form the Axis Powers.
Jan. 21, 1941	Julius is called in for a U.S. Signal Corps loyalty hearing.
Jun. 22, 1941	Hitler invades the Soviet Union; non-aggression pact invalidated.
Dec. 7, 1941	Japan attacks the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; America enters World War II within days and joins the Allies (Britain, France, Soviet Union).
Apr. 15, 1942	Ethel and Julius move into their new Knickerbocker Village apartment.
1942	The Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb commences.
Mar. 10, 1943	Ethel gives birth to their first child, Michael Rosenberg.
Aug. 1944	David Greenglass is transferred to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to work on a secret project.
Early 1945	Julius’s Communist affiliation again sparks a U.S. Signal Corps hearing.
Mar. 26, 1945	Julius no longer works for the U.S. Signal Corps.
May 1945	Germany surrenders after Adolf Hitler’s suicide.
Aug. 1945	U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan; World War II ends.
1947	The Truman Doctrine aids countries threatened by Soviet control and triggers the Cold War between United States and former ally Soviet Union.
May 14, 1947	Ethel gives birth to son Robert Rosenberg.
1949	The Soviet Union detonates its own atomic bomb.
Jan. 1950	German-born physicist from the Manhattan Project Klaus Fuchs confesses to Soviet espionage.
June 1950	Soviet spy liaison Harry Gold recognizes David Greenglass in a photograph.
Jun. 16, 1950	David Greenglass is arrested and signs a confession.
Jun. 25, 1950	Korean War begins.
Jul. 17, 1950	Julius Rosenberg is arrested.
Aug. 11, 1950	Ethel Rosenberg is arrested after her second appearance at the federal courthouse before a grand jury.
Oct. 18, 1950	Greenglass pleads guilty.
Jan. 31, 1951	Indictment charges Ethel and Julius Rosenberg with conspiracy to commit espionage.
Mar. 6, 1951	The trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, United States v. Rosenberg et al., begins.
Mar. 29, 1951	Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are found guilty.
Apr. 1951	Judge Irving Kaufman sentences the Rosenbergs to death.
Apr. 6, 1951	Manny Bloch files the notice of appeal; Greenglass sentenced to fifteen years.
May 21, 1951	The initial week set for the Rosenbergs’ execution.
Feb. 25, 1952	Conviction affirmed by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Apr. 8, 1952	The Second Circuit denies petition for re-hearing.
Oct. 13, 1952	U.S. Supreme Court denies petition for writ of certiorari.
Nov. 17, 1952	U.S. Supreme Court denies petition for rehearing.
Dec. 10, 1952	Judge Sylvester Ryan of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denies stay of execution.
Dec. 30, 1952	Judge Kaufman hears motion to reduce sentence.
Dec. 31, 1952	U.S. Circuit Court affirms lower court’s decision.
Jan. 2, 1953	Judge Kaufman denies motion for reduced sentence.
Jan. 5, 1953	Court of Appeals denies motion for stay of execution.
Jan. 10, 1953	Petition for executive clemency filed with Pardon Attorney of Department of Justice. Execution stayed five days after determination by President.
Jan. 12, 1953	Rescheduled execution set for this week.
Feb. 11, 1953	President denies petition for executive clemency.
Feb. 16, 1953	Judge Kaufman sets week of March 9 for execution.
Feb. 17, 1953	Court of Appeals stays execution pending action by Supreme Court.
May 25, 1953	U.S. Supreme Court denies petitions for certiorari and vacates stay.
May 29, 1953	Judge Kaufman now sets week of June 15 for execution.
Jun. 15, 1953	U.S. Supreme Court decides 5 to 4 to deny new appeals for a review and a stay.
Jun. 16, 1953	New appeal filed with U.S. Supreme Court for a stay.
Jun. 17, 1953	Stay granted.
Jun. 19, 1953	U.S. Supreme Court vacates stay. President Eisenhower denies clemency pleas. The Rosenbergs die in the electric chair at Sing Sing federal prison in Ossining, New York.
Jun. 21, 1953	The Rosenbergs are buried at a Long Island cemetery.
Jul. 27, 1953	Korean War ends.
Jan. 1954	Manny Bloch, the Rosenbergs’ defense attorney and the Rosenberg boys’ guardian, dies.
Sep. 1954	Michael and Robert move in with Abel and Anne Meeropol.
1957	Abel and Anne Meeropol legally adopt Michael and Robert Rosenberg, now Michael and Robert Meeropol.
1960	David Greenglass is released from prison after only ten years of his fifteen-year sentence.
2001	David Greenglass announces on TV news show 60 Minutes that his grand jury testimony may not have been true.
2008	The grand jury testimony of 43 of 46 witnesses in the Rosenberg case is released to the public.
2014	David Greenglass dies.