1935 lAlbert Einstein writes Noether’s obituary, and lauds her as a
mathematical genius.1938 lDame MARY CARTWRIGHTand John Littlewood begin
work for the Radio Research Board of the Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research. Through their efforts
the chaos theory is born.1960 lAn obscure Arabic text by A1 Uqlidisi is rediscovered and
translated, and is found to include the earliest examples of a
DECIMALplace, dating from ca. 950.1963 lANDREW JOHN WILESfinds a book on Fermat’s Last
Theorem in his local library, and he decides that he is going
to solve the theorem. He is 10 years old.1968 lAn Arabic manuscript is found in the Astan-I Quds library in
Iran by F. Sezgin, which proves to be a translation of the lost
Books IV to VII of Diophantus’s Arithmetic.1975 lTJALLING CHARLES KOOPMANSand Leonid Kantrovich share
the Nobel Prize in economics for their real-world application
of mathematics in scheduling and allocating resources,
which is known as linear programming.1979 lThe Roman Catholic Church, under the orders of Pope John
Paul II, opens the file on Galileo to consider reversal of his
condemnation. The church will officially acknowledge its
mistake in 1992.1990 lJapanese mathematician SHIGEFUMI MORIwins the
prestigious Fields Medal and the Cole Prize in Algebra for
his work on algebraic geometry.1993 lWiles claims to have proved Fermat’s Last Theorem, and later
in the year recants his claim due to problems with the proof.1994 lWiles once again claims that he has proved Fermat’s Last
Theorem. This time, he is right, solving a problem that has
plagued mathematicians for 350 years.1998 lWith the use of computers, Goldbach’s Conjecture was shown
to hold true in calculations up to 400,000,000,000,000.1935 – 1998 CHRONOLOGY
1935 – 1998 CHRONOLOGY