714/Historical Note

Historical Note on $714$ (Seven Hundred and Fourteen)

On April 8, 1974, in Atlanta, Georgia, Henry Aaron hit his $715$th major league homerun, thus eclipsing the previous mark of $714$ long held by Babe Ruth. This event received so much advance publicity that the numbers $714$ and $715$ were on millions of lips. Questions like, 'When do you think he'll get $715$?' were perfectly understood, even with no mention made of Aaron, Ruth or homerun. In all the hubbub it appears certain interesting properties of $714$ and $715$ were overlooked ...

-- C. Nelson, D.E. Penney and C. Pomerance

The whimsical paper so authored was noticed by Paul Erdős. This led to a long and fruitful collaboration between Erdős and Pomerance.

Sources

• 1974: C. Nelson, D.E. Penney and C. Pomerance: 714 and 715 (J. Recr. Math. Vol. 7, no. 2: pp. 87 – 89)
• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $714$
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $714$