In [1] there is a rather nice story regarding the coming into being of the hook-length formula. The year was 1953, and the Canadian mathematician Gilbert Robinson was visiting a fellow mathematician, James Frame, at Michigan State University. One of their discussions concerned the work of Ralph Staal [2], an ex-student of Robinson, and this led to Frame conjecturing the formula. Apparently, Robinson was not at all convinced initially that the formula could be as simple as the one Frame was proposing. He was, however, eventually won over, and the combined efforts of these two mathematicians soon elicited a proof. Two days later Frame gave a presentation of their result at the university. To one person in the audience, Robert Thrall, the announcement of the hook-length formula came as rather a shock. This was because on that very day he had proved exactly the same result! Needless to say, the subsequent paper [3] listed all three mathematicians as joint authors.
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