November 11, 1904
November 15, 1996
Accused Spy
Alger Hiss was a prominent public figure when he was accused, in 1939, of spying for the Soviets. His accuser was Whittaker Chambers, a notable journalist and reformed communist. Hiss served a five-year sentence for perjury (lying under oath), and spent many of his remaining years trying to clear his name.
The fourth of five children, Hiss was born into an upper-middle-class family in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, an executive at a dry goods company, committed suicide when Hiss was just two-and-a-half years old. Raised in a Presbyterian (Protestant church governed by priests traditionally emphasizing the predestination of souls to heaven and hell) household, he lived with his mother and aunt, and did not learn of his father’s suicide until he was ten.
Having first attended public schools, Hiss enrolled in Powder Point Academy in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Later, as a student at Johns Hopkins, a prestigious university in Maryland, he became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society (an honor society) and was voted the most popular student by his class. He was also a cadet commander of the school’s ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) unit.
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