Dia del inventor (Inventor’s Day)

Since 1990, Argentinians have celebrated the spirit of invention on the birthday of Lászlo Biró, the Hungarian-born Argentine inventor of the ballpoint pen. In 1938, fed up with smudging his letters, Biró tried replacing the watery ink used in the fountain pens of the day with a thicker, faster-drying substance. But the new ink wouldn’t flow properly through the feed, a problem Biró resolved by designing the rolling-ball nib. Popularized by British fighter pilots who used the leak-proof pen in flight, the Biró pen ultimately lost the ballpoint war to Bic. The inventor’s legacy endures, however, in Argentina and places like England, New Zealand, and Australia, where ballpoints are still commonly called “Biros.”

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