Anton Chekhov is born in southern Russia

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in Taganrog in southern Russia the son of a grocer.  He graduated from medical school in Moscow in 1884.  He had already begun writing for leading newspapers, however, and soon became the master of the genre for which he is most famous, the short story.  He also became an accomplished playwright, the author of The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard.  He died of tuberculosis on July 15, 1904.  (By John Osborne)