Today in 1564,  Dramatist and poet William Shakespeare is born. There is no true way to tell the exact day that Shakespeare was born however, guesses have been made based on church documents. Records show that Shakespeare was baptized on April 26th, and with it being customary to wait three days after birth for a baptism everything seems to line up.  Shakespeare was not much of a noble man in his early years, he was not born into any kind of royalty. Shakespeare’s father was a leather trader and the town bailiff.

Because Shakespeare lacked any sort of noble blood, records of his youth and early days are rather scarce and can only be seen in church and marriage documents. The first reference to Shakespeare’s theater work came in 1592 when fellow dramatist Robert Greene wrote poorly of him and his three parts to Henry VI.  By 1593 Shakespeare had published his first official poem, Venus and Adonis.  Shakespeare would continue to write plays, many notable such as: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet.  In 1609, Shakespeare’s large collection of 154 sonnets was published which he most likely wrote in the 1590s. Shakespeare would continue to write until his death in 1616.