April 23 Birthday

Famous Birthdays on April 23

• William Shakespeare (1564)

  English playwright and poet widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language; his actual birth date is not recorded, but April 23 is the traditionally observed date, based on his baptism on April 26, 1564.

• Shirley Temple (1928)

  American child actress and later diplomat, one of the most popular film stars of the 1930s.

• Roy Orbison (1936)

  American singer-songwriter known for hits including 'Oh, Pretty Woman' and his distinctive operatic vocal range.

This Day in History

• 1616 — William Shakespeare died at Stratford-upon-Avon, England — traditionally recorded on the same calendar date as his traditionally observed birthday, though by the Julian calendar then in use in England, a detail complicated by Spain's use of the Gregorian calendar at the time.

• 1985 — The Coca-Cola Company announced a reformulated version of its flagship soft drink, popularly known as 'New Coke,' which was withdrawn within three months following intense public backlash.

• 1789 — George Washington and his wife Martha moved into the first presidential residence in New York City, days before his formal inauguration.

What April 23 Says About You

April 23 carries one of literary history's strangest coincidences, real but layered with genuine uncertainty worth stating plainly: William Shakespeare's actual birth date was never recorded, only his baptism on April 26, 1564, which scholars traditionally worked backward from to estimate an April 23 birth, following the era's common baptismal timing. What is documented is his death, which occurred on April 23, 1616 — meaning the date most associated with Shakespeare's birth is, at minimum, a well-established convention rather than a certainty, while his death date is the one solidly attested fact anchoring the date to his life. It's a fittingly ambiguous legacy for the writer most responsible for English literature's enduring interest in mistaken identity and uncertain origins. Shirley Temple, born on this date in 1928, brought a very different kind of stagecraft to the world, becoming one of the biggest box-office draws of the Depression era before the age of ten, and later building a genuinely separate career as a U.S. diplomat. Roy Orbison, born in 1936, brought an operatic vocal range to rock and roll at a time when the genre rarely reached for that kind of technical drama, and 'Oh, Pretty Woman' remains one of the most recognizable pop songs of the era. History added a very different kind of drama to the date in 1985, when the Coca-Cola Company announced the reformulated 'New Coke,' a decision that produced such intense public backlash the company reversed course within three months — a rare case of a major corporation publicly and quickly admitting a large-scale misstep. And in 1789, George Washington and Martha Washington moved into New York City's first presidential residence just days ahead of his formal inauguration as the nation's first president. April 23 sits within Taurus, and the sign's association with tradition and enduring cultural weight fits neatly with a date whose most famous association — Shakespeare — has survived and shaped the English language for more than four centuries despite the very uncertainty around its own founding fact. This date's digit-sum reduction lands on 5, a number conventionally associated with change and unexpected turns, a fitting number for a date whose corporate history (New Coke) is essentially a case study in unexpected public reaction. Diamond for the stone, daisy and sweet pea for the flowers, close out a date that manages to hold genuine literary reverence and a genuinely uncertain historical record side by side. Shirley Temple's later diplomatic career included ambassadorial postings to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, a second act few former child stars have matched in substance or duration. The Washingtons' first executive residence stood at 3 Cherry Street in Manhattan, a modest address for a role the Constitution had only just begun to define in practice.