William Shanks

Amateur calculator, school owner

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Born: January 25, 1812
Died: June 13, 1882
Zodiac sign: Aquarius
Birth year: 1812

About William Shanks

William Shanks (; 25 January 1812 – June 1882) was an English amateur mathematician. He is famous for his calculation of π to 707 decimal places in 1873, which was correct up to the first 527 places. The error was discovered in 1944 by D. F. Ferguson (using a mechanical desk calculator). Nevertheless, Shanks's approximation was the longest expansion of π until the advent of the digital electronic computer in the 1940s.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The error was discovered in 1944 by D. F. Ferguson.

The world when William Shanks was born

William Shanks was born in 1812. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

Top headlineWar of 1812 — US declares war on Britain
Technology milestoneFirst canned food sold commercially
World population~960M

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderJames Madison
U.S. population7.7M

1812 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in William Shanks's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1812	2026
Population	7.7M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MacTutor History of Mathematics, IdRef. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.