WORLD 4 Jan 2009 World commemorates bicentenary of Louis Braille's birth

Paris will be the center of international celebrations marking the bicentenary of the birth of Louis Braille, the inventor of the method used in most languages as the standard reading and writing tool for blind people. The year is also the 180th anniversary of his invention. Braille's birthday on 4 Jan begins four days of special events in Paris under the auspices of President Nicolas Sarkozy.The United States will mint the 2009 Louis Braille Silver Dollar, with Braille letters, in honor of the inventor.

The Paris events include ceremonies, an opera oratorio, visits to Braille's tomb at the Pantheon and to his birthplace near Paris, and lectures and seminars on social and political issues associated with blindness.

Braille was blinded in one eye accidentally at the age of three in the workshop of his father, a shoemaker. Infection set in, and he lost the sight in his other eye. In 1829, Louis Braille published the "Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Song by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged by Them."

He died at the age of 43, Jul/08

RELATED READING:

200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth
http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:mnqXKnFLpUYJ:www.inja.fr/inja/htmgen/SimHTMLGen.asp%3FFORM%3D0%26STYLE%3D2%26EXTIDPAGE%3D%252Fpages-infos%252Fpages%252Finformations_generales%252Factualites%252Fbicentenaire%252Fnouveauxfichiers%252Fdraft_programme.doc%26CSS%3D1+Louis+Braille+birth+anniversary&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us

Braille biography (CNIB)
http://www.cnib.ca/en/living/braille/louis-braille/Default.aspx