January 17, 1860 O.S. – (which means Julian calendar. We celebrate his birthday on the 29th of January N.S. – which means Gregorian calendar. So it not really his birthday today but he’s dead so I don’t think he really cares.) –
Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia.
Tragically, a bureaucratic snafu at the Kremlin resulted in Chekhov’s not being told he was one of the Great Russian Writers, so he practiced medicine well into middle life. By then, of course, he was almost good enough to quit practicing, but he’d also made a name for himself as a writer. As a doctor and writer of comedies, Chekhov originated the saying “laughter is the best medicine” (some of his tubercular patients disagreed, but they subsequently died, proving his point).
Chekhov’s greatest work is The Seagull, in which a young man with an odd haircut, kills a seagull, making his girlfriend cry and a lot of people with unpronounceable Russian names argue and wave pistols about.
Chekhov should not be confused with Pavel Chekov, who was the security officer of the USS Enterprise,
and neither of them should be confused with
Charo.
The Haus of Dcaligari 