Alan Turing

Every entry, with its source

At 0

1. Jun 23, 1912

   Born in Maida Vale, London

   His father worked in the Indian Civil Service, so the boys were left with a retired couple in England.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 14

1. c. 1926

   Started at Sherborne School

   The General Strike stopped the trains on his first day, so he cycled about 60 miles to get there.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 17

1. Feb 13, 1930

   His close friend Christopher Morcom died

   Turing was 17. The loss pushed him toward questions about mind and matter.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 19

1. c. 1931

   Went up to King's College, Cambridge

   He graduated with first-class honours in mathematics in 1934.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 23

1. c. 1935

   Elected a Fellow of King's at 22

   On the strength of a dissertation proving a version of the central limit theorem.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 24

1. Nov 1936

   Published On Computable Numbers at 24

   It described an abstract machine that could compute anything computable: the idea behind every computer.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 25

1. Jun 1938

   PhD from Princeton under Alonzo Church

   He turned down an offer to stay and went home as war approached.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 27

1. Sep 4, 1939

   Reported to Bletchley Park the day after war was declared

   He led Hut 8, the team attacking German naval Enigma.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org
2. Mar 18, 1940

   The first bombe, his codebreaking machine, was installed

   It searched Enigma settings mechanically. Improved versions cracked messages daily.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 29

1. Oct 28, 1941

   Wrote to Churchill asking for more staff

   Churchill's reply: action this day. The resources came.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 34

1. c. 1946

   Appointed OBE for wartime work that stayed secret

   That year he also designed the ACE, an early stored-program computer.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 36

1. c. 1948

   Joined the University of Manchester at 36

   He wrote software for one of the first working stored-program computers.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 38

1. Oct 1950

   Proposed the Turing test

   In Computing Machinery and Intelligence, he asked whether machines can think.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 39

1. Mar 31, 1952

   Convicted of gross indecency for a relationship with a man

   He chose hormone treatment over prison and lost his security clearance.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org

At 41

1. Jun 7, 1954

   Died of cyanide poisoning at 41

   The inquest ruled suicide. He received a royal pardon in 2013.

   Source: en.wikipedia.org