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Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has died at 76

(AP Photo/Matt Dunham, file) In this Monday, March 6, 2017 file photo, Britain's Professor Stephen Hawking receives the Honorary Freedom of the City of London during a ceremony at the Guildhall in the City of London. Cambridge University has put Stephen Hawking's doctoral thesis online on Monday, Oct. 23, 2017, triggering such interest that it crashed the university's website. Completed in 1966 when Hawking was 24, "Properties of Expanding Universes" explores ideas about the origins of the universe that have resonated through the scientist’s career.

(AP Photo/Matt Dunham, file) In this Monday, March 6, 2017 file photo, Britain's Professor Stephen Hawking receives the Honorary Freedom of the City of London during a ceremony at the Guildhall in the City of London. Cambridge University has put Stephen Hawking's doctoral thesis online on Monday, Oct. 23, 2017, triggering such interest that it crashed the university's website. Completed in 1966 when Hawking was 24, "Properties of Expanding Universes" explores ideas about the origins of the universe that have resonated through the scientist’s career.

London • Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died, a family spokesman said.

"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..

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By The Associated Press