While many people know that British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the fictional literary character of Sherlock Holmes, not many may know that that Sherlock Holmes Day is observed on May 22 to commemorate the birthday of the author

Among many others, American writer Edgar Allan Poe`s C. Auguste Dupin is commonly seen as the inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes but Doyle said he was inspired by by the real-life figure of Joseph Bell, who was a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and had worked for the latter as a clerk in 1877

The first-ever appearance of Sherlock Holmes was in `A Study in Scarlet`, a novel by the British author that was released in 1887. The novel also saw the first appearance of Dr John Watson in the stories

Holmes is known to have worked as a detective for 23 years during which Dr Watson assisted him for 17 years

The entire known collection of stories about Sherlock Holmes encompasses four novels and 56 short stories that started in 1887 and cotinued till 1927

During this time, Doyle was forced to revive Holmes in 1901 after killing him off in 1893 because a lot of people were sad and protested. It is when he wrote `The Hounds of the Baskervilles`, followed by `The Adventure of the Empty House` in 1903

The character of Sherlock Holmes also holds the Guinness World Record for being the most portrayed human literary character in film and television history. He has been portrayed over 250 times with more than 75 actors portraying him across the decades