Happy Birthday to Stephen Hawking!
The celebrated physicist is 71 years old today. One of our era’s most brilliant minds, he has contributed both to cosmological science as well as to the public’s understanding of the natural world. All this despite being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease 50 years ago, a diagnosis that usually means one has years to live, not decades. He is an example of both the strength of the human spirit and the power of the human mind.
Celebrate by watching his 1992 film A Brief History of Time, free in its entirety, at Open Culture.
Oh, and it’s also Elvis Presley’s birthday or something.