World | Stephen Hawking Hawking's Family Offers Ticket Lottery for Service 1K members of the public will get tickets By Newser Editors and Wire Services Posted May 9, 2018 12:21 AM CDT Copied In this July 21, 1999, photo, Stephen Hawking smiles during a news conference at the University of Potsdam near Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File) The family of the late British physicist Stephen Hawking has opened a lottery for 1,000 tickets for a service of thanksgiving in his honor at Westminster Abbey. Hawking's ashes are to be interred June 15 at the London church between the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. The cosmologist's account of the mysteries of space, time, and black holes in A Brief History of Time won him international acclaim. In a nod to the public, Hawking's foundation will select 1,000 applicants at random to attend, the AP reports. The abbey will be open for free afterward for the public to pay their respects at his grave. Ticket applications can be made until May 15 by visiting www.stephenhawkinginterment.com. (Hawking, who died March 14, was explicit about what he wanted on his tombstone.) Read These Next It's a survival story fit for a sea shanty. Off-roading crash claims life of influencer couple Dee from the show What's Happening!! is dead at 60. For first time, SCOTUS is asked to overturn gay marriage ruling. Report an error