Nostradamus was born on 14 December 1503 in St Remy, France. He was the oldest of five sons. His grandfather, Jean, taught him Latin, Greek, Hebrew, mathematics and astrology at an early age. He received a medical degree in 1529 and became physician-in-ordinary to Charles IX during the bubonic plague. Nostradamus is said to have had extraordinary healing abilities. He made many accurate forecasts, including the two World Wars. Some Nostradamus experts had given the date for the start of such a war as mid-1999, referring to the Balkan conflict surrounding Kosovo.