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Niels Henrik Abel (August 5, 1802–April 6, 1829), Norwegian mathematician, was born in Nedstrand, near Finnøy where his father acted as rector. In 1815 he entered the cathedral school at Christiania (as Oslo was then called), and three years later he gave proof of his mathematical genius by his brilliant solutions of the original problems proposed by Bernt Holmboe. About this time, his father, Søren Georg Abel, a poor Protestant minister, died, and the family was left in straitened circumstances; but a small pension from the state allowed Abel to enter Royal Frederick University in 1821.