Parish records at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon show William Shakespeare's baptism on this date, though his actual birth date remains unknown, traditionally celebrated three days earlier on April 23. The entry is the first solid evidence of the future playwright's existence, born to glove-maker John Shakespeare and Mary Arden.
No birth certificate survives for William Shakespeare, so historians rely on the baptismal register of Holy Trinity Church, which notes 'Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere' was christened on April 26, 1564. Elizabethan custom held that infants be baptized within a few days of birth, which is why English tradition settled on April 23 as his likely birthday, conveniently also St. George's Day, England's patron saint.
Shakespeare grew up the third of eight children in a modestly prosperous household; his father dealt in wool and leather and held local civic offices before falling into debt. Little else is documented about William's early years, no school records survive, and the next solid trace of him appears only with his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582.
That such scant paperwork exists for the man who would give the English language 'star-crossed lovers,' 'method in the madness,' and thousands of other phrases is one of literary history's great ironies. Scholars have spent centuries filling the gaps in his biography with speculation, while his baptismal entry remains one of the few undisputed facts.