Stephen Hawking celebrated on new British coin

Timeline of Stephen Hawking's life

Jan 8, 1942 — Born in Oxford, England, the eldest of four children born to Frank Hawking, a biologist, and Isobel Hawking, a medical research secretary.

1952 — Attends St. Albans School.

1959 — Receives scholarship to attend University College, Oxford, from which he graduates with a degree in Natural Science.

1962 — Begins graduate research in cosmology at Cambridge University.

1963 — Diagnosed with the degenerative nerve disorder ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, at the age of 21. He is given two years to live.

July, 14, 1965 — Marries his first wife, Jane Wilde, a modern languages student he met at Cambridge.