Happy Birthday King James Bible!

From The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1611 that the first edition of the King James Bible was published in England.

It was a chaotic time in England, and King James I thought that a new translation of the Bible might help hold the country together. There had been several English translations of the Bible already, and each English version of the Bible had different proponents. King James wanted a Bible that would become the definitive version, a Bible that all English people could read together. King James appointed a committee of 54 linguists for the project. For the first few years, the scholars worked privately on the translation, and starting in 1607, the collaborative work was assembled. It went to press in 1610, and the first finished King James Bibles appeared in 1611.

Many of the turns of phrase in the King James Bible came from previous translations, but it was the King James Version that set them all in stone. Several of its phrases have become enduring English expressions, such as "the land of the living," "sour grapes," "like a lamb to slaughter," "the salt of the earth," "the apple of his eye," "to give up the ghost, and "the valley of the shadow of death."