This number was discovered in 1859 by the mathematician Charles Hermite.[6] In a 1975 April Fool article in Scientific American magazine,[7] "Mathematical Games" columnist Martin Gardner made the (hoax) claim that the number was in fact an integer, and that the Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan had predicted it—hence its name.
This coincidence is explained by complex multiplication and the q-expansion of the j-invariant.