A timeline of Stephen Hawking’s life

CELEBRATED astrophycisist Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, died last week. He was 76. Here are key events in the life of a one-of-a-kind human being.

Jan. 8, 1942

Born in Oxford, England, the eldest of four children of Frank Hawking, a biologist, and Isobel Hawking, a medical research secretary.

1952

Attends St. Albans School.

1959

Receives a 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.

1965

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

1967

The couple’s first son, Robert, is born.

1970

Jane gives birth to a daughter, Lucy.

1974

Elected as a fellow of the Royal Society at age 32, one of the youngest people to receive the honor.

1979

Becomes Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a prestigious position once held by Isaac Newton. Hawking holds the post until 2009. Jane gives birth to a third child, Timothy.

1985

Admitted to a hospital in Geneva with pneumonia. He survives after an operation, but loses what remained of his speech. The next year he begins communicating through an electronic voice synthesizer that gives him his trademark robotic “voice.”

1988

Publishes “A Brief History of Time,” a book on cosmology aimed at the general public that becomes an instant best-seller.

1989

Made a Companion of Honor by Queen Elizabeth II.

1995

Marries his nurse, Elaine Mason.

2007

Divorces Elaine Mason.

2014

His life is celebrated in the Oscar-winning biopic “The Theory of Everything,” based on the memoir “Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen,” by Jane Hawking.

March 14, 2018

Stephen Hawking dies. (AP)