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William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-upon-Avon to John and Mary Arden Shakespeare.
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The Bishop of Worcester issues a marriage license to "William Shagspere" and "Ann Hathwey," formalizing the marriage of 18-year-old William Shakespeare and 26-year-old Anne Hathaway.
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Six months after their marriage, the Shakespeare's first child, Susanna, is born and baptized.
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Anne Hathaway gives birth to twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith. The babies are named after Shakespeare's close friends, Hamnet and Judith Sadler.
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Around this time, Shakespeare writes Henry VI, Part One—his very first play. Like all of Shakespeare's plays, the precise year of its authorship is now unclear. Also around the same time, Shakespeare leaves Stratford to begin work as a playwright and actor in London.
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Shakespeare has become successful enough as a playwright by 1592 to make his peers jealous.
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London theaters are closed due to an outbreak of bubonic plague that eventually kills about five percent of the city's residents. Shakespeare uses the break to write poetry.
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In the spring of 1594, the London theaters reopen to the public. Over the next five years Shakespeare's troupe, the Chamberlain's Men, becomes one of the most popular acting groups in London. They accept frequent invitations to perform in the royal court of Queen Elizabeth I.
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The Chamberlain's Men build the Globe, a wooden theater in London. Many of Shakespeare's most famous plays are performed for the first time here, Plays Shakespeare is believed to have written in this amazingly productive year include "Much Ado About Nothing", "As You Like It", "Julius Caesar", and "The Merry Wives of Windsor".
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The King's Men begin performing at Blackfriars, an indoor theater in London. In contrast to the somber mood of the last seven years, Shakespeare's work takes on a lighter tone in plays like Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest.
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Publisher Thomas Thorpe prints a collection of 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets.
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Return to Stratford Shakespeare leaves London and moves back to Stratford, where his wife and married daughters live. (The exact date of this move remains in some dispute, with historians placing it anywhere between 1610 and 1613.)
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Shakespeare composes his final plays— Henry VIII, Two Noble Kinsmen (possibly written in 1614), and the now-lost Cardenio—in collaboration with John Fletcher, replacement playwright for the King's Men. The Globe catches fire during a performance of Henry VIII and burns to the ground.
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Sufferning from an unknown illness, William Shakespeare dies on his 52nd birthday.
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Shakespeare is buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, the same church where he was baptized. His marker orders a curse on anyone who disturbs his grave.
