Number 134 (Story #1), June 24, 1993 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM HAS BEEN PROVED . Posed in 1637 by the French mathematician and physicist Pierre de Fermat just before he died, the theorem states that the equation x**n + y**n = z**n (where x, y, and z are positive integers and n in an integer greater than 2) has no solution. Andrew Wiles of Princeton University announced the proof (yet to be published and checked by others) yesterday at the end of a lecture at Cambridge University in the UK. (The New York Times, 24 June 1993.)