Born on December 16
Beethoven and Jane Austen's Birthdays
A symphony and a good novel.
Next: December 16, 2026
Where it comes from
This Story marks a shared birthday. Jane Austen was born at Steventon Rectory in Hampshire on 16 December 1775, the seventh of eight children of a country clergyman, and grew up to write Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Ludwig van Beethoven was baptised in Bonn on 17 December 1770.
How it's celebrated
Beethoven's birthplace in Bonn draws more than 100,000 visitors a year. Austen's birthplace no longer stands, but Jane Austen's House in Chawton, her home from 1809 to 1817, where she revised her novels for publication, has been open to the public since 1949.
Did you know
Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, appeared in 1811 without her name: the title page said only 'By a Lady'.
Read the full story of Beethoven and Jane Austen's Birthdays
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