Wow, this will be a shock to the world, especially the scientific world, but from all accounts his health had been failing over the years. Lately most reconnected with his many appearances on TV shows, in particular The Big Bang Theory.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/stephen-ha ... -1.4575341Stephen Hawking dead at 76
Best-known theoretical physicist of his time wrote international bestseller A Brief History of Time
The Associated Press Posted: Mar 13, 2018 11:59 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 14, 2018 12:32 AM ET
Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died, a family spokesperson said early Wednesday.
"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years," his children Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement.
The best-known theoretical physicist of his time, Hawking wrote so lucidly of the mysteries of space, time and black holes that his book, A Brief History of Time, became an international bestseller, making him one of science's biggest celebrities since Albert Einstein.
Even though his body was attacked by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, when Hawking was 21, he stunned doctors by living with the normally fatal illness for more than 50 years. A severe attack of pneumonia in 1985 left him breathing through a tube, forcing him to communicate through an electronic voice synthesizer that gave him his distinctive robotic monotone.