On April 13, 2008, the American physicist John Archibald Wheeler died at the age of 96

American physicist John Archibald Wheeler was born on July 9, 1911 in Jacksonville, Florida. The son of librarians, he was the eldest of four brothers.

Wheeler served as a professor from 1938 to 1976 at Princeton University, New Jersey.

Considered one of the foremost theoretical physicists of the 20th century in the United States. He worked with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr and had a great influence on the development of the theory of general relativity.

In 1939, together with Bohr, he developed a model to explain nuclear fission. Richard Feynman was his most recognized student and together they wrote articles on electromagnetic radiation.

Feynman would win the Nobel Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics.

He is known above all for being the creator of the name 'black hole', which he invented in 1967. This is what the theory of the development of the stars refers to the black bodies that exist in space, around which gravity is so strong that they don't even reflect light. In 1973, together with two colleagues, he published the book 'Gravitation', of almost 1,300 pages, through which very complex phenomena have been popularized.

After retirement, he took up a professorship in Texas, but was always associated with Princeton.

John Archibald Wheeler died on April 13, 2008 at his residence in Hightstown, in the state of New Jersey as a result of pneumonia.