160 years ago today - Feb 22, 1861

Apostle Orson Pratt submits to the MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY (Cambridge, Massachusetts) a series of problems concerning mathematical laws relating to the origin of the solar system. He later recalls: "I prepared a series of problems relating to this subject, and forwarded the same to the editor of the Mathematical Monthly, . . . But in the consequence of the war then pending, the paper ceased its publication, and I heard nothing further from the manuscript. But as it was hastily and somewhat imperfectly prepared, it is perhaps better that it remained unpublished," In a letter to the editor of the Mathematical Monthly accompanying the articles, Pratt notes that his work was done without the aid of "any mathematical works." Pratt publishes CUBIC AND BIQUARATIC EQUATIONS and writes texts on differential calculus and determinants which he doesn't publish.