Today in History: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair for spying for the Soviet Union

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on June 19:

1937 – The Scottish dramatist and novelist J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, died.

1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the electric chair for spying for the Soviet Union; they were the first married couple to be executed in the United States.

1997 – Musical “Cats” makes Broadway history, completing longest ever run in New York.

2000 – Dutch police link warehouse to deaths of dozens of illegal Chinese immigrants who suffocated in a truck in the English port of Dover.

2001 – Syria completed a pullout of its troops from Beirut and surrounding areas, ending in six days decades of controversial military presence.

2005 – History enthusiasts re-enact Napoleon’s battle of Waterloo to mark 190th anniversary.

2007 – A suspected al Qaeda bomber killed 78 people in Baghdad when he rammed a truck into a Shi’ite mosque.

2008 – European Union states agreed to scrap sanctions against Cuba in a move aimed at encouraging democratic reforms on the Communist island.

2012 – Wikileaks founder Julian Assange seeks political asylum in Ecuador’s embassy in London.

2014 – Injured cave explorer rescued in Germany after 12 days.

2014 – 1958 prototype for Texas Instruments Inc. microchip is auctioned in New York.