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Apr 23, 1564
BIRTH
He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. -
1571
EDUCATION
he most likely attended the King's New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics -
MARRIAGE
Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne was 26. -
DAUGHTER'S BIRTH
Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born -
TWINS' BIRTH
Twins Hamnet and Judith were born -
LONDON
He arrived in London in the mid- to late 1580s and may have found work as a horse attendant at some of London's finer theaters -
MANAGER IN ACTING COMPANY
By the early 1590s, Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company in London with which he was connected for most of his career. -
SON'S DEATH
Hamnet died of unknown causes at age 11. -
PLAYS
By 1597, Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37 plays. -
GLOBE THEATRE
Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater. -
HIS GREATEST PLAYS
It was in Shakespeare's later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeare's characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. -
EXTRA INCOME
Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. This made him an entrepreneur as well as an artist, and scholars believe these investments gave him the time to write his plays uninterrupted. -
DEATH
Tradition holds that Shakespeare died on his 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616, but some scholars believe this is a myth. Church records show he was interred at Trinity Church on April 25, 1616.
The exact cause of Shakespeare's death is unknown, though many believe he died following a brief illness.
