On April 23, 1564, a baby boy was born in the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon, the son of a glove-maker named John Shakespeare. The baby's name was William, and he would grow up to write some of the most famous words in the English language. Stratford parish records show he was baptized on April 26, and tradition picks April 23 as his birthday - three days earlier was customary at the time.
Shakespeare wrote 39 plays and 154 sonnets over about 24 years. His tragedies - Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear - broke hearts. His comedies - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing - made audiences howl with laughter. He worked at the Globe Theatre in London, an open-air wooden theater where common Londoners stood in a packed pit and shouted at the actors, while wealthier people sat in roofed balconies. The whole thing burned down in 1613 when a cannon used in a performance accidentally set the thatched roof on fire.
Shakespeare also invented or popularized about 1,700 English words, including 'eyeball,' 'lonely,' 'bedroom,' and 'fashionable.' Phrases like 'break the ice,' 'wild goose chase,' and 'heart of gold' all came from his pen. Strangely, he died on April 23, 1616 - his 52nd birthday. More than 400 years later, his plays are still performed every single night somewhere in the world, in dozens of languages. Few writers have ever shaped a language the way one boy from Stratford did.
