[Cryptography] A little crypto-related history today

[Dave Horsfall]

I maintain an historical "On this Day" list; here are a couple of snippets 
that may interest the bods here (yes, they're crypto-related):

The German battle cruiser SMS Scharnhorst was sent to the bottom in 1943 
by the battleship HMS "Duke of York" in the Battle of North Cape, with the 
loss of 2,000 crew; the breaking of Enigma had a bit of a role in this, as 
the Royal Navy knew where she was...

Charles Babbage KH FRS was born in 1791; pretty much the father of the 
computer, a model of his "difference engine" built to the standards of the 
day worked, complete with its printer.  What is not so well known about 
him was that he dabbled in cryptography, and broke the Vigenère cipher; 
unfortunately for him it was classified as a military secret, so one 
Friedrich Kasiski got the credit instead.

-- 
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU)  "Those who don't understand security will suffer."