Music History Events: Births
February 1, 1825 Francis Child, publisher of The Child Ballads, is born in Boston.
February 22, 1819 Composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the song "Lorena," is born in Manchester, New Hampshire.
April 2, 1805 Hans Christian Andersen is born in Odense, Denmark. The author is later the subject of a song by Danny Kaye.
March 31, 1732 Joseph Haydn is born in Rohrau, Austria.
February 23, 1685 German-English baroque composer George Frideric Handel is born in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, in modern day Germany.
May 4, 1655 Florentine harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori is born. He invents the piano in 1709.
April 23, 1564 William Shakespeare, whose works inspire centuries of song lyrics, is born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. (The date is a best estimate; it's known that he was baptized on April 26.)
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