World book and copyright day: history and coincidences

April 23rd is World Book Day and Copyright Day, a worldwide celebration of literature and reading.

In 1995, during its general conference in Paris, UNESCO announced the 23rd day of April as World Book and Copyright Day. To globally pay tribute to well-known authors and books, this “symbolic date” was particularly chosen due to the following:

10 coincidental births and deaths in literature

• 1616, April 23 – death of Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, also known as El Inca or Inca Garcilaso de la Vega; Spanish-Incan chronicler of Inca and writer of influential books
• 1616, April 22 – death of Miguel de Cervantes, greatest Spanish writer and novelist; author of Don Quixote
• 1616, April 23 – death of William Shakespeare; greatest writer in the English language; author of Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet
• 1850, April 23 – death of William Wordsworth; major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads
• 1899, April 22 – birth of Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov; Russian-born American novelist, poet, translator and entomologist who achieved international prominence after writing (from Russian to) English prose
• 1902, April 23 – birth of Halldór Kiljan Laxness; Icelandic writer and 1955 Nobel Prize winner in literature
• 1918, April 23 – birth of Maurice Druon; French novelist and “Perpetual Secretary” of Académie Française, the pre-eminent French council for matters pertaining to the French language
• 1923, April 23 – birth of Manuel Mejía Vallejo; Colombian writer and journalist
• 1981, April 23 – death of Josep Pla i Casadevall; Catalan journalist and a popular author
• 1996, April 23 – death of Pamela Lyndon Travers; Australian-English writer best known for the Mary Poppins series of children’s books

References:
1. World Book and Copyright Day 23 April. Retriveved April 21, 2019 from https://www.un.org/en/events/bookday/.
2. Wikipedia (author list). Retrieved Spril 21, 2019.

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