Today is Taras Shevchenko Birthday, 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861.
He was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist and ethnographer. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language, though this is different from the language of his poems. Shevchenko is also known for his many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator.