Today (May 2) is the 400th Birthday of the King James Version of the Holy Bible

as posted at "Writer's Almanac" for this date (Garrison Keillor at Minnesota Public Radio dot-org)

Today is the 400th birthday of the King James Bible. It was the third complete English translation of the Old and New Testaments commissioned by the Church of England; the first, called the Great Bible, was produced during the reign of Henry VIII, and the second version, the Bishop’s Bible, was completed in 1568. Partial translations had been made as early as the 14th century.

But the Puritans were unhappy with these versions, so King James I called a meeting, the Hampton Court Conference, in 1604. He instructed the translators to make sure the new translation more closely supported the structure and beliefs of the Church of England, which had the side benefit of limiting the Puritans’ influence.
The Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew, and the New Testament was translated from the Greek, by 47 unpaid scholars, using the Bishop’s Bible as a model. The finished product could be purchased loose-leaf for 10 shillings, or bound for 12. There were two different versions, although this was unintentional; there was a typo in Ruth 3:15, so the first edition read, “he went into the city,” while the second read “she went into the city.” The different editions are known as the “He” and “She” Bibles.
The original King James Version also included 15 books known as the Apocrypha, in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments. The Apocrypha were read as popular literature, and not part of the canon; they eventually fell out of favor with the Church of England and were dropped from the King James Bible in 1666.