  In 1956 Hirzebruch found an explicit formula for the denominators of the Todd
polynomials, which was proved later in his joint work with Atiyah. We present a
new formula for the Todd polynomials in terms of the ``forgotten symmetric
functions", which follows from our previous work on complex cobordisms. In
particular, this leads to a simpler proof of the Hirzebruch formula and
provides new interpretations for the Hirzebruch numbers.
