Early Life and Years Before the Wheelchair in Stephen Hawking's Journey

UPDATE - follow-up to Hawking, the celebrity theoretical physicist: English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking did not use a wheelchair for more than a quarter of his life. He was born on January 8, 1942, as the eldest of four siblings while the world was in a war. Hawking grew up in St Albans, England as a normal boy, teenager, and young man without any extraordinary signs marking him out as a child prodigy.

Context

This piece looks back at the early life of the famous scientist before his health conditions changed his daily life. Such biographical details help show how even the most celebrated minds often had ordinary beginnings.