HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL~JUN19

     1953  Rosenbergs Executed

On this day in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths, by the electric chair. The Rosenbergs were the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime and their case remains controversial to this day.

  The couple met as members of the Young Communist League, married in 1939 and had two sons. Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage on June 17, 1950, and accused of heading a spy ring that passed top-secret information concerning the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Ethel was arrested two months later. The Rosenbergs were implicated by David Greenglass, Ethel's younger brother and a former army sergeant and machinist at Los Alamos, the secret atomic bomb lab in New Mexico. Greenglass, who himself had confessed to providing nuclear secrets to the Soviets through an intermediary, testified against his sister and brother-in-law in court. He later served 10 years in prison.

 

 

 

 

  1945  "Who's on First"

On this day in 1945, Abbott and Costello's classic comedy routine "Who's on First?" is seen in the film The Naughty Nineties. The duo had already made the routine famous in live performances and on the radio, and a shorter version had been seen in the 1940 film One Night in the Tropics.

 

  1977  Elvis' Last Concert Recordings

On this day in 1977, Elvis Presley makes his final live concert recordings, at a series of concerts in Nebraska between June 19 and June 21. Elvis died on August 16, 1977, of congestive heart failure, but doctors suspected that drug abuse had contributed to his death.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: rosenbergs, Abbott and Costello, Who's on First, Elvis, Elvis Last Recording