File photo taken on April 16, 2013 shows British physicist Stephen Hawking attending an activity at California Institute of Technology, the United States. Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking has died at age 76, a family spokesman said on March 14, 2018. The professor died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Cambridge, the spokesman said. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)

London, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76, a family spokesman said Wednesday.

The professor died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Cambridge in London, the spokesman said.

Hawking, a lengendary figure in the modern history of physics, has authored several best-sellers on science, including "A Brief History of Time," despite being bound to wheelchair after contracting a motor neurone disease in 1963.