Happy belated birthday Shakespeare! We barely knew ye...

...William Shakespeare the most important literary figure in the history of the world was born on April 23rd 1564. Shakespeare's precise birthdate is not known; he was baptized on 26 April 1564, and over time 23 April has become the accepted date of birth, in part because he also died on 23 April in 1616.

Many argue that Shakespeare's works were not written by one man (crediting Sir Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Edward de Vere for penning some of his works). Regardless of who penned his great works, they are timeless and as vital and current as they were over 400 years ago.

The proof is in the writing:

SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.