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On This Day

  • 1-16-1801

    Birthdate of Thomas Clausen. In 1854 he factored the Fermat number F(6) = 2^(2^6) +1 (Euler factored F(5) in 1732), thus providing another counterexample to a conjecture of Fermat.

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    Thomas Clausen
    Fermat Numbers

  • 1-16-1826

    Abel wrote Holmboe: "The divergent series are the invention of the devil."

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    Niels Abel
    Bernt Holmboe

  • 1-16-1831

    In an audience with the King of Sardinia, Cauchy answered five questions with "I expected Your Majesty would ask me this, so I have prepared to answer it." Then he took a memoir from his pocket and read it.

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    Augustin-Louis Cauchy

  • 1-16-1865

    Founding of the London Mathematical Society.

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    London Mathematical Society