Short answers, pulled from the story.
Miguel de Cervantes is best known for Don Quixote, a two-part novel widely regarded as the first modern novel. Part One was published in January 1605 and Part Two in 1615. Many well-known authors have called it the best book of all time and the most central work in world literature.
Cervantes lost the use of his left hand at the Battle of Lepanto on the 7th of October 1571, where he received three wounds while serving with the Holy League fleet. The injury earned him the lifelong nickname El manco de Lepanto, meaning the one-handed man of Lepanto. He later wrote that he had lost the movement of the left hand for the glory of the right.
Cervantes was held captive in Algiers for nearly five years, from September 1575 until 1580. He was captured by Ottoman corsairs near Barcelona along with his brother Rodrigo. He made four escape attempts before the Trinitarians, a religious charity specialising in ransoming Christian captives, secured his release.
Cervantes was buried at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in central Madrid, in keeping with his will. His remains went missing during rebuilding work at the convent in 1673. In March 2015, forensic investigators confirmed the rediscovery of his remains based on evidence of the Lepanto injuries, and a public reburial ceremony was held in June 2015.
Besides Don Quixote, Cervantes wrote La Galatea (1585), a pastoral romance; Novelas ejemplares (1613), a collection of twelve short stories; Viaje del Parnaso (Journey to Parnassus), a verse allegory; and eight plays and eight short farces collected in Ocho Comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos. His final novel, Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, was published posthumously in 1617.
Cervantes had promised a sequel as early as 1613 but did not deliver one until an unauthorised version appeared in 1614 under the name Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda. That pirated sequel appears to have prompted him to complete the genuine Part Two, which he published in 1615.