216 years ago today, January 4, 1809 (November 19, 1808, the creator of Braille, Louis Blair, was born. Louis Braille was born on January 4, 1809 in the home of a poor saddlemaker in France. When he was 3 years old, he accidentally missed playing with a knife and stabbed one eye. Soon after, he infected the other eye, causing him to go blind. Parents did not give up on cultivating this blind child. His father used nails to form letters on a wooden board, taught him how to read, and later sent him to study. In 1819, Blair was sent to the Royal School for the Blind in Paris. At that time, textbooks for blind students were printed using enlarged letterpress ordinary letters. They were heavy and clumsy, slow to touch and more difficult to write. Moreover, the number of textbooks was very small, and most courses had to rely on dictation. One day in 1821, the school principal invited retired naval officer Charles Babier to teach and demonstrate a "pronunciation" method to students. This is a kind of "night writing" symbol, with two lines of 6 raised dot symbols to express phonetic symbols. It was created specifically for transmitting orders and strengthening communication during night operations. Blair, who was only 12 years old, was inspired. He excitedly said to Babier: "The method of replacing lines with raised dots can definitely create new Braille..." After creating 6-point Braille, Blair devoted himself to studying this Braille. In 1824, Blair, who had just turned 15 years old, was inspired by the human body shape and drew up a six-point plan arranged in different ways:6 bumps, plus blanks, for a total of 64 changes, forming a set of regular French alphabet plan. In 1829, Blair added mathematical symbols and musical symbols to the original plan, which was officially finalized in 1837. The following year, the world's first Blair Braille book was published. However, Blair's 6-point Braille was opposed by school leaders, who insisted on continuing to use the original Braille. Blair had to fight tenaciously against the conservative forces and became depressed. In January 1852, the Royal School for the Blind in Paris was forced to adopt the popular Blair Braille. When the news reached Blair's deathbed, he was dying and felt relieved that the results of his hard work had finally been recognized. He passed away soon after at the age of 43. Finally recognized by the world After Blair's death, the 6-point Braille he invented gradually became recognized by the world. In 1887, Blair's 6-point Braille was internationally recognized as official Braille. In memory of this outstanding creator, in 1895, people used his surname, Blair, as the international common name for Braille. In order to commemorate the great man who created light for the blind, the French government and blind associations around the world jointly donated money to erect a road monument-"Blair" Street in the village where Blair was born, and also built a Blair Memorial Hall in the village. In the 1950s, the French government moved Blair's remains to the Pantheon in Paris. This is the burial place of the most famous heroes in French history. The huge slogans in front of the temple write the important contributions these great men made to all mankind. Like them, Louis Blair's achievements will always be engraved on monuments in human history. Comment: People who have made important contributions to mankind will eventually be remembered