Today, 4 January is International Date of Braille. On 4 January 1809, Louis Braille was born in the small town of Coupvray, France. When he was three years old, he lost his sight in one eye when an adult in his father's carpentry shop collided with it. Infection in the damaged eye spread to the other eye and he eventually lost his sight in it as well. Louis proved to be a wonderful student and at the age of 10 he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal School for the Blind (Institut Royale des Jeunes Aveugles). There he studied a system of braille created by Charles Barbier de la Serre, a French amateur in writing systems and a former soldier. This system developed Louis Braille and introduced his fellow students to a more advanced and versatile version in 1824. This typeface is named in many languages after the author (braille) and is used all over the world today, but in different versions.

On 7 June 2011 the Icelandic alphabet was incorporated into the Icelandic language and in 2018 the UN General Assembly decided to establish the International Day of the alphabet on 4 January each year.