Stephen Hawking-Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 in Oxford, England. He is known as one of the greatest scientific minds of all time. At 21, he was diagnosed with a slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease that paralyzed him gradually over decades. When his speech was eventually gone, he communicated through a speech generating device that was controlled by a handheld switch, and then eventually just a single muscle in his cheek. He has written many books on the universe, science, math, time, physics, and many more scientific concepts that he gave us the foundations to expand on today.