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UK Pardons Alan Turing for Being Gay

He was chemically castrated in 1952.

Alan Turing, the computer scientist who managed to crack the Nazi’s previously unbreakable code machine called “enigma” during World War II, was officially pronounced pardoned on Tuesday. Turing was convicted of homosexuality in 1952, then a crime in Britain. He chose chemical castration over a prison sentence and is believed to have killed himself two years later. "A pardon from the queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man," British Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said in a statement Tuesday. "Dr. Turing deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science."