History of Prime number in Timeline

Prime numbers are natural numbers greater than 1 that cannot be formed by multiplying two smaller natural numbers. Numbers larger than 1 that aren't prime are called composite numbers. The number 5 is prime, as its only factors are 1 and itself, while 4 is composite because it can be factored into 2 x 2. Prime numbers are essential to number theory due to the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, which states that every natural number greater than 1 is either a prime number itself or can be uniquely factored into a product of prime numbers.

1912: Landau's problems

In 1912, all four of Landau's problems were posed and remain unsolved.

1914: Derrick Norman Lehmer included 1 in his list of primes

In 1914, Derrick Norman Lehmer included 1 in his list of primes less than ten million.

1935: La Nativité du Seigneur composed

In 1935, the French composer Olivier Messiaen composed "La Nativité du Seigneur", using prime numbers to create ametrical music.

1949: Quatre études de rythme composed

Between 1949 and 1950, the French composer Olivier Messiaen composed "Quatre études de rythme", using prime numbers to create unpredictable rhythms.

1950: Quatre études de rythme composed

Between 1949 and 1950, the French composer Olivier Messiaen composed "Quatre études de rythme", using prime numbers to create unpredictable rhythms.

1951: Largest known primes found using computer tests

Since 1951, all the largest known primes have been found using tests on computers.

1956: Lists of primes including 1 were published

Lists of primes that included 1 continued to be published as recently as 1956.

1975: Carl Sagan and Frank Drake developed image plane idea

In 1975, scientist Carl Sagan and astronomer Frank Drake informally developed the idea that prime factorization could be used as a means of establishing two-dimensional image planes in communications with aliens.

1992: Largest known prime has always been a Mersenne prime

Since 1992, the largest known prime has always been a Mersenne prime.

2004: Green–Tao theorem

In 2004, the Green–Tao theorem stated that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of prime numbers.

2009: Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search project awarded prize

In 2009, the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search project was awarded a US$100,000 prize for first discovering a prime with at least 10 million digits.

October 2012: Largest number factored by a quantum computer

As of October 2012, the largest number that has been factored by a quantum computer running Shor's algorithm is 21.

2013: Yitang Zhang's Proof

In 2013, Yitang Zhang proved that there exist infinitely many prime gaps of bounded size.

2014: Goldbach's conjecture verified

As of 2014, Goldbach's conjecture, which asserts that every even integer greater than 2 can be written as a sum of two primes, has been verified for all numbers up to n = 4 * 10^18.

2017: Fermat numbers composite

As of 2017, all Fermat numbers that have been verified are composite.

December 2019: RSA-240 factored

As of December 2019, the largest number known to have been factored by a general-purpose algorithm is RSA-240, which has 240 decimal digits (795 bits) and is the product of two large primes.