Science history: Stephen Hawking writes a tiny paper — and turns our understanding of black holes inside out — March 1, 1974

An artist's illustration of a black hole in yellow, blue and pink light.

Milestone: Black hole radiation theorized

Date: March 1, 1974

Where: Cambridge, England

Who: Stephen Hawking

In 1974, a brilliant 32-year-old physicist published a not-quite-two-page paper in the journal Nature — and blew up one of our fundamental assumptions about black holes.