Birthday of John Edensor Littlewood (1885)

John Edensor Littlewood and G.H. Hardy formed the most celebrated mathematical partnership in history, collaborating for 35 years mostly through letters — rarely in the same room. Their work on the Riemann zeta function, prime gaps, and the theory of functions was profound. Littlewood proved that the difference π(x) − Li(x) changes sign infinitely often — contradicting the numerical evidence of every computation done at the time. His three precepts for a mathematician's life: read widely, pose good problems, and do not be afraid of elementary mathematics.