This Day in History: William Shakespeare Is Born

This Day in History: William Shakespeare Is Born April 23, 1564 The most-performed dramatist of all-time was most likely born on this day in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

Little is known about Shakespeare's early years, mainly because of his unremarkable living situation.

He would have studied Latin and the classics in grammar school, but Shakespeare received no university education.

Instead, he married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18, who gave birth to their first child six months later.

Shakespeare emerged as a playwright of note in London in the 1590s.

Over the next twenty years, he would pen some of the most significant works of the English language, including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and King Lear.

Shakespeare died in the place of his birth, on the day he is thought to have been born, in 1616.