The Week in Math: June

Here are the highlights from the historical world of mathematics for the month of June.  While this list is not meant to be all-encompassing, I have tried to pick out those things that I find most interesting.

June 2:

Math News: In 1913, Robert Millikan announces the results of his famous Oil Drop experiment.  The results of this experiment were used to determine the charge of an electron.  (See MathDL for details.)

June 3:

Birthdays: David Gregory (1659-1708)

June 4:

Math News: In 1919, Emmy Noether is granted the right to teach in Göttingen.  (See MathDL for details.)

June 5:

Math News: In 1873, the term radian is first used by James Thomson in examination questions at Queen’s College, Ireland.  (See MathDLfor details.)

Birthdays: John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), Pierre Wantzel (1814-1848)

Deaths: Roger Cotes (1682-1716)

June 6:

Birthdays: Johann Muller Regiomontanus (1436-1476)

Deaths: Luigi Bianchi (1856-1928)

June 7:

Deaths: Alan Turing (1912-1954)

June 8:

Math News: In 1637, Discourse of the Method, by Rene Descartes, is published.  The highlight of the text includes the appendix onGeometry.  (See MathDL for details.)

Birthdays: Giovanni Cassini (1625-1712), Caspar Wessel (1745-1818)

June 9:

Birthdays: J.E. Littlewood (1885-1977)

Deaths: Harold Davenport (1907-1969)

June 10:

Math News: In 1854, Riemann defends his Habilitation to Gauss (on the foundations of Geometry), qualifying Riemann to supervise doctoral students.  (See MathDL for details.)

Deaths: Andre Marie Ampere (1775-1836)

June 12:

Birthdays: Zygmunt Janiszewski (1888-1920)

June 13:

Math News: In 1676, Newton writes to Leibniz stating for the first time the binomial theorem for fractional and negative exponents.  (See MathDL for details.)

Birthdays: James Maxwell (1831-1879), John Nash (1928-present), Willebrord Snell (1580-1626)

Deaths: Hermann Wiener (1857-1939)

June 14:

Birthdays: Charles Coulomb (1736-1806), Andrei Markov (1856-1922), Atle Selberg (1917-2077)

Deaths: Colin Maclaurin (1698-1746)

June 15:

Math News: In 1752, Benjamin Franklin conducts his kite experiment.  (See MathDL for details.)

June 16:

Math News:  In 1799, at the age of 22, Gauss receives his Ph.D.  His dissertation includes the first correct proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra.  Because of its significance, the oral examination requirement is waived.  (See MathDL for details.)

June 17:

Birthdays: M.C. Escher (1898-1972)

June 18:

Math News: In 1983, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.  (See MathDL for details.)

June 19:

Birthdays: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

June 20:

Deaths: Abraham Kastner (1719-1800)

June 21:

Birthdays: Simeon Poisson (1781-1840)

June 22:

Math News: In 1633, Galileo recants the Heliocentric Model of the Solar System.  (See MathDL for details.)

Birthdays: Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909)

Deaths: Felix Klein (1849-1925)

June 23:

Birthdays: Alan Turing (1912-1954)

Deaths: Wilhelm Weber (1804-1891)

June 24:

Birthdays: Oswald Veblen (1880-1960)

June 26:

Birthdays: William Thomson – Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)

Deaths: David Rittenhouse (1732-1796)

June 27:

Deaths: Sophie Germain (1776-1831)

June 28:

Math News: In 1997, Andrew Wiles is awarded the Wolfskehl Prize for his proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem.  (See MathDL for details.)

Birthdays: Henri Lebesgue (1875-1941)

June 29:

Math News: In 1877, Cantor writes to Dedekind stating that he has proven that there is a one to one correspondence between the points in a square and the points on a line segment.  (See MathDL for details.)

June 30:

Math News: In 1742, Goldbach writes to Euler stating his now famous conjecture, “every even number greater than two is the sum of two primes.”  The conjecture is now known as Goldbach’s Conjecture.  (See MathDL for details.)

References: If you are interested in additional facts or birthdays, please visit the sites that I used to generate these lists:

• http://mathdl.maa.org – general mathematical facts
• http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk:80/~history/Day_files/Now.html – birthdays