On what date was J.R.R. Tolkien born in Bloemfontein?

J.R.R. Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, in what was then the Orange Free State.

His full name was John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. His parents were Arthur Reuel Tolkien, a bank manager, and Mabel Suffield Tolkien. Tolkien spent his earliest years in southern Africa before moving to England with his mother and younger brother after his father’s death in 1896.

Tolkien is sometimes associated mainly with Oxford because of his academic career, but his birthplace was Bloemfontein. His childhood in England, especially in and around Sarehole near Birmingham, later influenced elements of his imaginative world. The date is also distinct from the publication dates of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which came decades later.