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Stephen Hawking: A Timeline
An interactive timeline of Stephen Hawking's life and science, from his birth in Oxford in 1942 to his interment at Westminster Abbey in 2018. Filter by theme and explore each moment.
Last updated 23 May 2026 · How we research
An interactive guide to the key moments of his life and science. Filter by theme, and tap any event to read more.
Born on 8 January, three centuries to the day after Galileo died. His parents had moved from London to escape the wartime bombing.
Read more →Goes up to University College, Oxford, to read physics, aged just seventeen.
Read more →Begins postgraduate research in cosmology under Dennis Sciama. The first signs of illness appear.
Read more →Diagnosed at twenty-one and given roughly two years to live. See his diagnosis.
Read more →Marries and completes his doctorate, with a future once again worth planning for. See family and personal life.
Read more →'Properties of Expanding Universes' lays the groundwork for everything that follows.
Read more →With Roger Penrose, proves that the universe must have begun from a singularity.
Read more →Discovers that black holes are not entirely black but slowly radiate. See Hawking radiation. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at thirty-two.
Read more →Appointed to the Cambridge chair once held by Isaac Newton.
Read more →A tracheotomy ends his ability to speak. He adopts the speech synthesiser that becomes his trademark.
Read more →Publishes A Brief History of Time, the book that makes him a global celebrity, selling in the tens of millions.
Read more →Floats free of his wheelchair on a zero-gravity flight, and speaks of his hope for humanity in space.
Read more →Retires from the Lucasian Chair and receives the highest US civilian honour. See his honours and awards.
Read more →The film of his life is released; Eddie Redmayne wins an Academy Award for playing him.
Read more →Cambridge releases his thesis free online; public demand crashes the university's servers.
Read more →Dies at home in Cambridge on 14 March, aged 76. His ashes are interred at Westminster Abbey. See death and interment.
Read more →His final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, is published posthumously.
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