April 23 belongs to Laia Ribera

On April 23, 1564 — according to Anglican tradition — playwright and poet William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England — the most influential writer in the history of the English language. Author of 37 plays — including Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear — and 154 sonnets, Shakespeare influenced all subsequent literary genres and enriched English with more than 1,700 new words.

On April 23, 1616, two of the greatest writers in history died within a day of each other (due to the difference between the Gregorian and Julian calendars): Miguel de Cervantes in Madrid and William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon. For this reason, April 23 was declared International Book Day by UNESCO in 1995. Cervantes died on the 22nd by the Gregorian calendar but was buried on the 23rd.

On April 23, 1858, physicist and mathematician Max Planck was born in Lisle, France — founder of quantum theory. In 1900, Planck discovered that energy can only be emitted in discrete packets called quanta, revolutionising classical physics and opening the era of quantum mechanics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 and is considered, alongside Einstein, the greatest physicist of the twentieth century.