In the history of cryptography, the Enigma machine was a portable
cipher machine used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages. More
precisely, Enigma was a family of related electro-mechanical rotor
machines — there are a variety of different models. The Enigma was
used commercially from the early 1920s on, and was also adopted by
military and governmental services of a number of nations — most
famously, by Nazi Germany before and during World War II. The German
military model, the Wehrmacht Enigma, is the version most commonly
discussed. Allied codebreakers were, in many cases, able to decrypt
messages protected by the machine (see cryptanalysis of the Enigma).
The intelligence gained through this source — codenamed ULTRA — was a
significant aid to the Allied war effort. Some historians have
suggested that the end of the European war was hastened by up to a
year or more because of the decryption of German ciphers.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
Today's selected anniversaries:
54 Claudius I was fatally poisoned by his wife Agrippina the
younger, making her 17-year old son Nero the next Roman
Emperor.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero)
1307 Grand Master Jacques de Molay and thousands of members of
the Knights Templar, a monastic military order, were
simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair and
subsequently tortured into "admitting" heresy. From that
Friday on, Friday the 13th was considered by followers of
the Templars as an evil and unlucky day.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar)
1843 The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, the oldest
continually-operating Jewish service organization in the
world, was founded in New York City.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_B%27rith)
1845 Voters in the Republic of Texas approved a proposed
constitution, that if accepted by the United States
Congress, would make Texas a U.S. state.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Texas)
1943 World War II: With a new government led by General Pietro
Badoglio, parts of Italy switched sides to the Allies and
declared war on Germany and Japan as well as Northern Italy.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Badoglio)
Wikiquote of the day:
"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem
improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become
inevitable." ~ Christopher Reeve
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve)