Birth of Georg Cantor

Georg Cantor was born on 3 March 1845 in Saint Petersburg. A German mathematician, Cantor created set theory, which became a foundation of modern mathematics. He showed that infinite sets can have different sizes, proving that the real numbers are uncountable and thus a larger infinity than the natural numbers, and developed a hierarchy of transfinite numbers. He posed the continuum hypothesis, which asks whether there is a set of intermediate size, and was later shown to be independent of the standard axioms. His ideas were resisted by some leading mathematicians, notably Leopold Kronecker. He suffered from episodes of depression and spent time in a sanatorium.

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