November 28 in History
1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage licence
William Shakespeare (1564 –1616) English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist, often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” married Anne Hathaway on this day in 1582, when he was 18 and she was 26 years old. She outlived her husband by seven years. Shakespeare had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later.