Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford,England.His parents' house was in north London,but during the second world war Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies.When he was eight,his family moved to St Albans,a town about 20 miles north of London.At eleven Stephen went to St Albans School,and then on to University College,Oxford,his father's old college.Stephen wanted to do Mathematics,although his father would have preferred medicine.Mathematics was not available at University College,so he did Physics instead.After three years and not very much work he was awarded a first class honours degree in Natural Science.