Who was alive at the same time as Stephen Hawking?

British theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author

Stephen Hawking lived 1942–2018. Here are the famous people whose lives overlapped with theirs.

Portrait of Stephen Hawking — Image: Wikimedia Commons

Lived: 1942–2018
Lifespan: about 76 years
Born in, as it was then: Oxford
On today’s map: United Kingdom

Explore Stephen Hawking’s world on the timeline →

Did you know?

When Stephen Hawking was born, Adolf Hitler was already about 53 years old.
Stephen Hawking was about 3 when Bob Marley was born.
Stephen Hawking and Pablo Picasso (Spanish painter and sculptor) shared about 31 years on Earth, one born in the United Kingdom and the other in Spain.
Pelé outlived Stephen Hawking by about 4 years.

Famous contemporaries of Stephen Hawking

Rulers and commanders

Adolf Hitler 1889–1945 · 3 yrs shared
Joseph Stalin 1878–1953 · 11 yrs shared
Benito Mussolini 1883–1945 · 3 yrs shared
Mao Zedong 1893–1976 · 34 yrs shared
Winston Churchill 1874–1965 · 23 yrs shared
Charles de Gaulle 1890–1970 · 28 yrs shared

Philosophers and scientists

Albert Einstein 1879–1955 · 13 yrs shared
John Maynard Keynes 1883–1946 · 4 yrs shared
Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889–1951 · 9 yrs shared
Bertrand Russell 1872–1970 · 28 yrs shared
Henry Ford 1863–1947 · 5 yrs shared
Nikola Tesla 1856–1943 · 1 yrs shared

Religion

Pope John Paul II 1920–2005 · 63 yrs shared

Writers and artists

Pablo Picasso 1881–1973 · 31 yrs shared
Elvis Presley 1935–1977 · 35 yrs shared
Salvador Dalí 1904–1989 · 47 yrs shared
Marilyn Monroe 1926–1962 · 20 yrs shared
Le Corbusier 1887–1965 · 23 yrs shared
Jean-Paul Sartre 1905–1980 · 38 yrs shared

Explorers and others

Che Guevara 1928–1967 · 25 yrs shared
Mahatma Gandhi 1869–1948 · 6 yrs shared
Martin Luther King Jr. 1929–1968 · 26 yrs shared
Walt Disney 1901–1966 · 24 yrs shared
Mother Teresa 1910–1997 · 55 yrs shared
Pelé 1940–2022 · 76 yrs shared

Born within five years of Stephen Hawking

Jimi Hendrix (1942) · Bob Marley (1945) · Bruce Lee (1940) · Bob Dylan (1941) · Saddam Hussein (1937) · John Lennon (1940) · Pelé (1940) · Stephen King (1947)

About Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical astrophysicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

More people

Adolf Hitler · Albert Einstein · Che Guevara · Mahatma Gandhi · Joseph Stalin · Martin Luther King Jr. · Elvis Presley · Benito Mussolini