Louis Braille

Enters the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris at age ten. Students learn to read by tracing raised letters with their fingers. It's painfully slow. A single page takes minutes. Braille starts looking for something better.

Develops his six-dot reading system at 15. Based on a 12-dot military code invented by Charles Barbier for soldiers to read messages in the dark. Braille cuts it in half. Six dots. Sixty-three combinations. A fingertip can read an entire cell at once.

Publishes the first braille book. The school's director opposes the system. Sighted teachers can't read it. They see it as a threat. Braille keeps teaching it to students in secret. The students prefer it overwhelmingly.

Dies of tuberculosis in Paris at 43. France doesn't officially adopt braille until two years after his death. His remains are moved to the Pantheon in 1952. They leave his hands in Coupvray.