23 April—As Region 20 prepares for the (as opposed to a—think about it) referendum on this year’s budget, we celebrate William Shakespeare’s birth in 1564—and his death on the very same calendar day in 1616. That made him 52, in case you’re wondering.

In the interest of chronological nit-picking, it must be noted (yet again) that while most of Roman Catholic Europe adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1584, jolly old Protestant (and, more to the point, anti-Catholic) England didn’t have the sense to adopt it until 1752, so Shakespeare’s birth and death on Julian 23 April morphs to Gregorian 3 May.

Birth and death on the same calendar day—death normally occurring after birth, except in some newspaper obituaries—is known as the birthday effect. And it’s not as uncommon as might be expected, with statistics showing a likelihood of between six and 18 percent, depending largely on location and other variables and parameters. When the birthday effect involves suicide on one’s birthday (not at all uncommon; and not that surprising), it’s called birthday blues.

A number of famous people besides Shakespeare were born and died on the same calendar day. Here are some of them:

Actress Ingrid Bergman was born on 29 August 1915 and died on 29 August 1982 (at 67).

Country musician Merle Haggard was born on 6 April 1937 and died on 6 April 2010 (at 79).

Feminist Betty Friedan was born on 4 February 1921 and died on 4 February 2006 (at 85).

Dutch Holocaust heroine and survivor Cornelia “Corrie” ten Boom was born on 15 April 1892 and died on 15 April 1983 (at 91).

Gangster George Kelly Barnes—known as Machine Gun Kelly—was born on 18 July 1895 and died on 18 July 1954 (at 59).

Soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet was born on 14 May 1897 and died on 14 May 1959 (at 62).

Kamehameha V, Hawaii’s last king, was born on 11 December 1830 and died on 11 December 1872 (at 42), 26 years before Hawaii became a U.S. territory. [So, you must be wondering, does that make Donald Trump America’s first and only king?]

Painter-architect Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael to us) was born on 6 April 1483 and died on 6 April 1530 (at 37). But he may have been born on 28 March 1483, so he’s noted here only provisionally, of course, in the interest of completeness . . .