1918 Dr. Arthur Scherbius, born in 1878, was an expert in asynchronous motors, known also as the induction motor or "AC motor". He was an engineer who invented electrical pillows, ceramic heaters and motors. That was not his true legacy. In 1918 he patented a machine with rotating wired wheels, a rotor machine. A machine for hiding secrets. The product was called "Enigma", named after English composer Edward Edgar's "Variations on an Original Theme", or "Enigma Variations", for Edgar&apo...

1918 Dr. Arthur Scherbius, born in 1878, was an expert in asynchronous motors, known also as the induction motor or "AC motor". He was an engineer who invented electrical pillows, ceramic heaters and motors. That was not his true legacy. In 1918 he patented a machine with rotating wired wheels, a rotor machine. A machine for hiding secrets. The product was called "Enigma", named after English composer Edward Edgar's "Variations on an Original Theme", or "Enigma Variations", for Edgar&apo...

1790 New York City The British left. The United States, a startup country, was born. The War for Independence was won. The work to keep it began. The first State of the Union address requested a “competent fund designated for... expenses incident to the conduct of foreign affairs”. POTUS 1 asked Congress for funding of a new intelligence service. As soon as he assumed command of the Continental Army in 1775, the country’s first intelligence agent infiltrated Boston to monitor British forces. ...

1790 New York City The British left. The United States, a startup country, was born. The War for Independence was won. The work to keep it began. The first State of the Union address requested a “competent fund designated for... expenses incident to the conduct of foreign affairs”. POTUS 1 asked Congress for funding of a new intelligence service. As soon as he assumed command of the Continental Army in 1775, the country’s first intelligence agent infiltrated Boston to monitor British forces. ...

1963 Houston In 1960, a U-2 Spy-plane was shot down while deep inside USSR airspace, on the eve of an East-West summit in Paris. A thaw in the Cold War, from a 1959 meeting at Camp David, had frozen over. The Cold War called for a new kind of spy in the sky out of the reach of conventional missiles. An Earth-bound spacecraft was designed in the middle of a Space Race to the moon. It would take pictures of the Earth from orbit, for Soviets and secrets. In 1957, years before anyone was launched...

1963 Houston In 1960, a U-2 Spy-plane was shot down while deep inside USSR airspace, on the eve of an East-West summit in Paris. A thaw in the Cold War, from a 1959 meeting at Camp David, had frozen over. The Cold War called for a new kind of spy in the sky out of the reach of conventional missiles. An Earth-bound spacecraft was designed in the middle of a Space Race to the moon. It would take pictures of the Earth from orbit, for Soviets and secrets. In 1957, years before anyone was launched...

1946 Pennsylvania During the "Great War" in the early years of the 20th Century, some of the first computers used for warfare were for artillery guidance. They were mechanical control systems. The firing control computers controlled the height and lateral movement of the banks of weapons, such as 30 caliber machine guns. These mechanical gunnery computers had limited success. At the same time, the field of physics was moving past Newton and straight to Einstein. A mechanical world gave way to...

1946 Pennsylvania During the "Great War" in the early years of the 20th Century, some of the first computers used for warfare were for artillery guidance. They were mechanical control systems. The firing control computers controlled the height and lateral movement of the banks of weapons, such as 30 caliber machine guns. These mechanical gunnery computers had limited success. At the same time, the field of physics was moving past Newton and straight to Einstein. A mechanical world gave way to...

July 1941 Washington D.C. A Great War veteran, Silver Star and Purple Heart recipient. The recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal. It was said that he, along with his surviving siblings, got from their mother, "style and etiquette and the dreams of poets", and from their father, "toughness and duty and honor to country". He became a lawyer in 1909. He spent months in Berlin, in 1916, on behalf of the R...

July 1941 Washington D.C. A Great War veteran, Silver Star and Purple Heart recipient. The recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Security Medal. It was said that he, along with his surviving siblings, got from their mother, "style and etiquette and the dreams of poets", and from their father, "toughness and duty and honor to country". He became a lawyer in 1909. He spent months in Berlin, in 1916, on behalf of the R...

1961 East Berlin On paper, he was the perfect recruit. He was the son of an officer of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, 'NKVD' for short (secret police) and a graduate of a top university in Moscow. At the NKVD, he learned 4 languages and trained in spycraft. His first posting was with the foreign service in 1961, right before the Berlin Wall was completed. He was repelled by the wall but kept silent. He returned to Moscow, and in 1963 he joined the KGB. In 1966,...

1961 East Berlin On paper, he was the perfect recruit. He was the son of an officer of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, 'NKVD' for short (secret police) and a graduate of a top university in Moscow. At the NKVD, he learned 4 languages and trained in spycraft. His first posting was with the foreign service in 1961, right before the Berlin Wall was completed. He was repelled by the wall but kept silent. He returned to Moscow, and in 1963 he joined the KGB. In 1966,...

1940 Suez Canal Commander David Stirling, of His Majesty's Scots Guards, a descendant of King Charles II, and the son of Brigadier General Archibald Stirling, was restless. He dropped out of Trinity College after a year, went to Paris to become an artist, and was training to climb Mount Everest when the war began. Bored at the Suez Canal, Stirling strapped parachutes to a chair in a plane, and dove out of a plane. The parachute tangled with the tail section, and he broke his back. Recove...

1940 Suez Canal Commander David Stirling, of His Majesty's Scots Guards, a descendant of King Charles II, and the son of Brigadier General Archibald Stirling, was restless. He dropped out of Trinity College after a year, went to Paris to become an artist, and was training to climb Mount Everest when the war began. Bored at the Suez Canal, Stirling strapped parachutes to a chair in a plane, and dove out of a plane. The parachute tangled with the tail section, and he broke his back. Recove...

1956 The war against the fascists was long over, half of Europe was under the sway of the Warsaw Pact, and there was new secret war. A secret war waged by keeping secrets, while breaking others. The Germans' Enigma machine was no use. The Americans were selling them to developing nations as good enough but the USSR needed a new machine, one that could encrypt messages in several languages. As the USSR's reach expanded during the Cold War, new secrets grew. They created "Fialka", or ...

1956 The war against the fascists was long over, half of Europe was under the sway of the Warsaw Pact, and there was new secret war. A secret war waged by keeping secrets, while breaking others. The Germans' Enigma machine was no use. The Americans were selling them to developing nations as good enough but the USSR needed a new machine, one that could encrypt messages in several languages. As the USSR's reach expanded during the Cold War, new secrets grew. They created "Fialka", or ...

1990 In 1990, the newspaper Pravda disclosed, that couple of years before in 1988, someone was executed for espionage. It was unusual news as the Cold War had begun to end. The Iron Curtain was falling, rusted away by years of containment, and post-WW II dominoes tilted backwards. That collapse was helped in part by 25 years of a double-agent’s work. Dmitry Polyakov was born in Ukraine in 1921. After serving in WW II, he was recruited by the GRU, Soviet military intelligence. As a loyal son o...

1990 In 1990, the newspaper Pravda disclosed, that couple of years before in 1988, someone was executed for espionage. It was unusual news as the Cold War had begun to end. The Iron Curtain was falling, rusted away by years of containment, and post-WW II dominoes tilted backwards. That collapse was helped in part by 25 years of a double-agent’s work. Dmitry Polyakov was born in Ukraine in 1921. After serving in WW II, he was recruited by the GRU, Soviet military intelligence. As a loyal son o...

1945 It was called 'TEAMHOUGH' - an intelligence unit with special passes from Allied Supreme HQ. The team’s leader surveyed Latin America for oil companies, and included specialists, from the Military Intelligence Training Center in Ft. Ritchie, Maryland, trained in PsyOps. One operative was an affable German who ran a deli in NYC before the War. He was a formidable interrogator known to disappear, for days at a time on orders, and reappear like a ghost at prearranged times and pla...

1945 It was called 'TEAMHOUGH' - an intelligence unit with special passes from Allied Supreme HQ. The team’s leader surveyed Latin America for oil companies, and included specialists, from the Military Intelligence Training Center in Ft. Ritchie, Maryland, trained in PsyOps. One operative was an affable German who ran a deli in NYC before the War. He was a formidable interrogator known to disappear, for days at a time on orders, and reappear like a ghost at prearranged times and pla...

1946 Many know about Apollo 11, it's a milestone in history, marking the period of humanity before and after landing on the Moon. Its origin was the end of WW II. The Americans got Von Braun and his team. A new secret war began. A Cold War. The German team's past was blotted out by the glare of a Space Race and ballistic missiles upgraded for the moon. America was determined to win the next battlefield, Space. There was another team however. Stalin pulled Sergei Korolev out of impri...

1946 Many know about Apollo 11, it's a milestone in history, marking the period of humanity before and after landing on the Moon. Its origin was the end of WW II. The Americans got Von Braun and his team. A new secret war began. A Cold War. The German team's past was blotted out by the glare of a Space Race and ballistic missiles upgraded for the moon. America was determined to win the next battlefield, Space. There was another team however. Stalin pulled Sergei Korolev out of impri...

April 1945 Germany The Germans' V1 and V2 rockets rained destruction on England. What other threats were next? The "wonder weapons" the Third Reich had in store might also be the ultimate, the atomic bomb. An allied secret team, "Mission Alsos", was sent through enemy lines to look for Werner Heisenberg. Heisenberg, a Nobel prize winner, was the head of the Third Reich's nuclear research. "Mission Alsos" was led by the man who oversaw security for the "Manhattan Project", America&ap...

April 1945 Germany The Germans' V1 and V2 rockets rained destruction on England. What other threats were next? The "wonder weapons" the Third Reich had in store might also be the ultimate, the atomic bomb. An allied secret team, "Mission Alsos", was sent through enemy lines to look for Werner Heisenberg. Heisenberg, a Nobel prize winner, was the head of the Third Reich's nuclear research. "Mission Alsos" was led by the man who oversaw security for the "Manhattan Project", America&ap...