1996: first edition of World Book Day
At the 28th meeting of the UNESCO General Conference, held between October and November 1995, 23 April was proclaimed World Book Day. In fact, and officially, it is World Book and Copyright Day.
Therefore, 1996 would become the first year in which this event would be officially celebrated worldwide.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (from which the acronym UNESCO derives) took into consideration for this recognition that ‘the book has historically been the most powerful element in the dissemination of knowledge and the most effective means of its preservation’.
Furthermore, the organisation emphasised that ‘any initiative that promotes the dissemination of books will have a positive impact, not only in terms of the cultural enrichment of those who have access to them, but also in terms of the development of collective awareness of the world’s cultural heritage and the promotion of understanding, tolerance and dialogue’.
Why 23rd April?
The reason for choosing 23 April is because on that day in the same year, in 1616, three great names in world literature passed away: Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.
But… is that really how it happened? Let’s look at some of the curious facts.
Did Cervantes and Shakespeare really die on the same day?
Despite UNESCO setting the date of 23 April as the date of death of two of the most renowned authors in world literature – with all due respect to Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, also known as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega – it is not so clear that Cervantes or Shakespeare died on the same day.
And no, it’s not that UNESCO made it up to give the day more interest: misunderstandings and changes in the calendars were to blame.
In the case of the author of Don Quijote (born in Alcalá de Henares in 1547, that much is clear), and as recognised by the Royal Academy of History, he actually died on 22 April 1616 in Madrid.
Where does the confusion with 23rd April come from? Well, from a simple mistake: there was a time when the date of death was considered to be the date of the funeral, which took place in the Convent of the Trinitarias Descalzas in Madrid.
Shakespeare’s death
In the case of the British author, the confusion over the date arises from the use of different calendars. This also has an impact, curiously, on the celebration of 8 March as Women’s Day.
But going back to Shakespeare’s death, what really happened was that he did die on 23 April… but according to the Julian Calendar, which was used in England at the time.
However, in Spain the Gregorian Calendar had already come into use, so even though Shakespeare did die on 23rd April 1616, the equivalent date in Spain at that time would be 3rd May.
So the controversy regarding the coincidence of the date is well and truly served.
Previous origins of Book Day
Some would say that World Book Day was already being celebrated before it was officially proclaimed by UNESCO in the 1990s… and they would be right.
The fact is that 1996 is the date on which it was formally established at international level.
However, in Spain this celebration dates back to 1923, when the writer Vicente Clavel Andrés proposed to the Official Book Chamber of Barcelona that a specific day be commemorated dedicated to books.
Approved by King Alfonso XIII in 1926, the date on which the day began to be celebrated was the 7th of October, and in 1930 it was established as the 23rd of April.
The Telefónica Building and literature
In the series of articles on the history of the company that we published in 2024 to mark the Centenary, in the post about the 1930s we explained that the Telefónica Building on the Gran Vía in Madrid had been an exceptional witness to the Spanish Civil War.
In the context of this war, the building had links with internationally renowned writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, Josephine Herbst and John Dos Passos, who sent their war chronicles from the skyscraper.
In fact, the writer Arturo Barea had an office in the building itself in his capacity as head of censorship of the foreign press of the Republican side. These experiences were reflected in his famous trilogy ‘The Forging of a Rebel’.
His partner and fellow writer, Ilsa Barea-Kulcsar, wrote a novel entitled ‘Telefónica’ about her experiences as a foreign correspondent, given that she was Austrian. The novel was written in 1938 and fell into oblivion until its publication in 2019.
