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Alger Hiss is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
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In an interview with Assistant Secretary of State, Whittaker Chambers names Hiss and his brother Donald as having being targeted for possible recruitment by members of the communist underground.
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Hiss leaves the government to become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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Chambers testifies before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) that Hiss was a member of an underground Communist Party group. (He says the purpose of the group was not espionage and also testifies that he left the Party in 1937.)
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Hiss appears before HUAC at his own request to deny the charge.
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The committee interviews Chambers. Chambers offers a number of details about the Hisses’ lives (some correct and others incorrect).
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In a public hearing that is in essence a staged event for television cameras, Hiss and Chambers both testify. This is the first Congressional hearing ever televised.
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Chambers appears on Meet the Press and repeats his charges. Hiss sues him for libel.
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The Justice Department investigates Chambers’ story and concludes there is no basis for any charges in the case.
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Chambers testifies Hiss supplied him with documents and says he read State Department documents at Hiss’s home.
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In its last day of service, the grand jury indicts Hiss on two counts of perjury
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Hiss’s first perjury trial opens in New York
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The trial ends with the jury deadlocked (8-4 for conviction).
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Hiss is convicted on both counts.
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Hiss is sentenced to five years in prison but is released on $10,000 bail, pending appeal.
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Hiss goes to prison. Most of his sentence is served at the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, a medium-security facility 100 miles west of New York City.
