Birthday of Edward Lear (1812-1888).
A Book of Nonsense (1846) has 112 of them.
But he didn't invent it, says Crystal, and cites:

And let me the canakin clink, clink;
And let me the canakin clink;
A soldier's a man
O, man's life's but a span;
Why, then, let a soldier drink.

(Shakespeare, Othello)

Yah, OK, he didn't invent the metrical pattern or the rhyme scheme.
But still -- The Limerick As We Know It?

He also didn't name it. Name first attested 1896, several years after
Lear's death.
Origin of name -- Crystal has a story, can't be arsed repeating it. May
check with OED.

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