William Shakespeare Born: The Bard's Legacy Begins
William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon — his exact birthdate isn't known. He left school at around 14, married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and she was 26 and pregnant, had three children, and then disappeared from the historical record for seven years. He reappears in London in the 1590s as a shareholder in the Globe Theatre and a writer whose work was already attracting attention. He wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and two long poems in roughly 20 years. He retired to Stratford at 49 and died at 52. He left Anne his 'second-best bed' in his will. Scholars have spent 400 years arguing about what that meant.
April 23, 1564
462 years ago
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