Alan Turing, born June 23, 1912 in London, England, was the gay man who helped break Germany's Enigma code during WWII and went on to pioneer today's modern computing.
Frm an early age, Turing showed signs of genius, especially at mathematics, but did not exactly earn him respect from his teachers at Sherbourne, the independent school he attended. While there, he had his first love, with Christopher Morcom, but their relationship was cut short by Morcom's death.
When England entered WWII, Turing went to work for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Britain's codebreaking center. He devised techniques that could break the German ciphers faster than before. He deciphered coded messages that helped the Allies defeat the Nazis in many engagements. Estimates say his work shortened the year in Europe by more than two years and saved over fourteen million lives.
After the war, he went to work at the National Physical Laboratory where he designed on of the first stored-program computers.
In 1952, he started a relationship with Arnold Murray, who was just 19 (Turing was 39). Shortly afterwards, Turing's house was burgled and Murray said it was an acquaintance of his. During the police investigation, Turing admitted have a sexual relationship with Murray, which was illegal. Given the options of prison or hormonal castration. He chose the latter and was subjected to horrible injections of a synthetic estrogen. His conviction led to the removal of his security clearance and barred him from continuing to work for British intelligence.
On June 8, 1954, he was found dead of an apparent suicide, although there has been some speculation to that conclusion.
In September 2009, the British government formally apologized to Turing's prosecution for being gay.
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