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Today is Father Marin Mersenne's Birthday!
Happy Birthday
Father!

Born:  September 8, 1588
in Oize in Maine, France

Died:  September 1, 1648
in Paris, France

Mersenne's parlor in the cloister of the Minims, just ourside Paris, became the center for exchange of mathematical ideas.  In particular, Mersenne collected an amazing array of prime, perfect and amicable numbers.  We especially remember him for numbers of the form

and should the number be prime, we still call it a Mersenne prime.