He was born on this date in 1547, the son of a surgeon; his mother may have been of Jewish descent.

He was a soldier, wounded in battle by a shot to his left hand. Because of his wound, he gained the nickname, “El manco de Lepanto.”

He was captured by pirates and spent five years as a slave in Algiers. He was finally ransomed and returned home.

He wrote poems, plays, and novels and worked as a tax collector.

However, because of some dispute over money with the government, he was thrown into jail in Seville–twice. He was also jailed briefly as a murder suspect.

He died on April 23, 1616, the same date that is recorded for Shakespeare’s death. However, he actually died ten days before Shakespeare; they have the same date of death because England and Spain used different calendars in the seventeenth century.

“It seems to me,” said Sancho, “that the knights who did all these things were driven to them… but… why should you go crazy? What lady has rejected you…?
“That is exactly it,” replied Don Quixote, “that’s just how beautifully I’ve worked it all out – because for a knight errant to go crazy for good reason, how much is that worth? My idea is to become a lunatic for no reason at all…”

He is mad past recovery, but yet he has lucid intervals.