Fermat's Last Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem is introduced

1637

Pierre de Fermat writes his theorem in the margins of his copy of "Arithmetica."

Many mathematicians attempt to prove Fermat's last theorem

Period: 1700 to 1899

In the 18th and 19th centuries several mathematicians attempted to prove Fermat's last theorem. Some of these Mathematicians included Leonard Euler, Ernst Kummer, Adrien Marie Legendre, and Sophie Germain.

Taniyama's conjecture about elliptic curves

1954

Yutaka Tinayama's theorem would eventually be proved to imply Fermat's Last Theorem.

Ribet proves Taniyama's conjecture implies Fermat's last theorem

1986

Proving a version of the Taniyama conjecture would eventually be the method Andrew Wiles would use to prove Fermat's last theorem.

Theorem confirmed for certain values.

1993

Computers had helped confirm the theorem for values of n<4,000,000

Wiles presents proof of Shimura-Taniyama-Weil Conjecture

1993

English mathematician Andrew Wiles presents a proof of the Shimura-Taniyama-Weil Conjecture, which is equivalent to proving Fermat's Last Theorem. However, an error was found in this proof.

Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem is published

1995

With help from Richard Taylor, Andrew Wiles creates a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem in 1994. The theorem gets published in the journal "Annals of Mathematics."