April 23 marks the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, and two years later, on April 23, 2016, will be the 400th anniversary of his death. We commemorate this son of a British glover from 450 years ago, not because he changed human destiny or world history, but simply because of a plain fact: we still benefit from him today. We read the plays and sonnets he wrote 400 years ago, and watch his Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and The Merchant of Venice performed on stage. Even when transformed into the animated film The Lion King, the documentary Caesar Must Die, or the movie The Banquet, we recognize instantly, "Hey! That's Shakespeare!"
