169 years ago today, July 26, 1856 (June 25, 1856 in the lunar calendar), Bernard Shaw's birthday. Bernard Shaw, the image of Shaw painted by the famous illustrator and cartoonist Bernard Partridge, was born in Dublin on July 26, 1856. He was one of the great socialist thinkers of his time and the founder of the Fabian Society. He is an excellent critic and speaker, but is especially well known as a playwright. He used his brilliant script with witty words as a tool to express his concern for contemporary ideological and moral issues, especially the class situation and social and political reform in Britain. This peculiar combination of seriousness and comedy is what makes Shaw unique. His plays include Arms and Men (1898), Major Barbara (1905), Man and Superman (1903), Pygmalion (1916), Androcles and the Lion (1916), Saint Joan (1924), and The Apple Car (1929). Bernard Shaw died on November 2, 1950.