  It is well known that, following the emergence of the first evidence for an
expanding universe, Albert Einstein banished the cosmological constant term
from his cosmology. Indeed, he is reputed to have labelled the term, originally
introduced to the field equations of general relativity in 1917 in order to
predict a static universe, his "biggest blunder". However serious doubts about
this reported statement have been raised in recent years. In this paper, we
interrogate the legend of Einstein's "biggest blunder" statement in the context
of our recent studies of Einstein's cosmology in his later years. We find that
the remark is highly compatible with Einstein's cosmic models of the 1930s,
with his later writings on cosmology, and with independent reports by at least
three physicists. We conclude that there is little doubt that Einstein came to
view the introduction of the cosmological constant term a serious error and
that it is very likely that he labelled the term his "biggest blunder" on at
least one occasion. This finding may be of some relevance for those
theoreticians today who seek to describe the recently-discovered acceleration
in cosmic expansion without the use of a cosmological constant term.
