Computer Pioneer, Subjected to Homophobic Prosecution, Pardoned by Queen

Alan Turing, a British man whose code-breaking prowess helped thwart Nazi Germany in World War II, was pardoned this week by Queen Elizabeth for his decades-old "crime." Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for "gross indecency" for having a sexual relationship with another man, a ruling that resulted in the loss of his security clearance and compulsory hormone treatment. Two years later, he died from cyanide poisoning in what was ruled a suicide. In 1936, Turing described the "Turing Machine" -- a strip of tape with characters written on it -- which was a theoretical ancestor to the computer.