HISTORY

BOOKLET
PART II

6
 Louis

Braille
1809 - 1852

FRENCH EDUCATOR AND

INVENTOR OF A
READING AND WRITING

SYSTEM

In 1812, 3-year-old Louis Braille was playing in his father’s

harness shop next to the family’s house in a small village in
France. His father cut strips of leather and punched holes in
the leather with sharp tools. Louis was too young to play with
the tools in the shop.

That day, Louis was left on his own in the shop for a short
while. He grabbed a tool and tried to push it through the
leather, but the tool slipped from his hand and hurt his left
eye. His parents put a cloth bandage over his eye.

The closest doctor was very far away so they took Louis to a
woman in the village who used herbal medicines to treat
injuries and sicknesses. She dipped a cloth bandage in a
herbal solution and placed it on Louis’ eye. But his eye became
infected and the infection spread to his other eye. Shortly after
that, Louis was permanently blind.

At that time, most people who were blind were helpless.

They had to depend on others. Very few blind people had any
hope of getting an education or earning a decent living. Many
ended up becoming beggars. Mr Braille didn’t want that for
his child. He carved a small wooden cane for Louis to feel
things that were ahead of him when he walked.
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 When Louis was 6, a priest gave him lessons for a year, but
Louis wanted to go to the village school with the other
children. Louis memorised what the teacher said. Even
though he couldn’t read or write, he was the best student in
the class. He studied there for three years.

At times Louis felt frustrated because he could not read or

write. The priest and the principal thought that Louis would
do better in a school for blind students. There was only one
school like this in France; it was in Paris. Louis’ parents were
reluctant to let him go away from home because he was only
10 and besides, the school was very expensive. The priest
persuaded his parents to let him go.

The school accepted Louis and even gave him a

scholarship to go to class and live there. The school building
was damp and dark, and he was given very little food. After
his classes, After his classes, Louis learned to play the cello
and the piano. He couldn’t read music, but he memorized
the notes.

Louis wanted to learn to read. Unfortunately, there were

very few books available for blind students. They were
printed on heavy, waxed paper. The books were very heavy.
One sentence could take up a whole page. Louis ran his
fingers over the pages so that he could feel each letter. It
took a long time to read this way.

A retired French army captain, came to visit the school

where Louis was studying. He had invented a way for soldiers
to send messages to each other at night without needing
light or having to talk. With a pointed tool, the captain
punched dots and dashes into heavy paper. The dots and
dashes represented different sounds. These marks were
combined to form words and could be read without light or
sound. The soldiers found this reading system too difficult to
use. The captain thought blind students might be able to use
it instead, but students also found the system complicated. 2
 Louis knew this system had to be made simpler. He also
knew he had to find a way to include numbers and
punctuation. Two years later, when Louis was 15, he finally
created a new code. It was easier to learn and quicker to
read. Louis showed the system to the new director of his
school. To test it, the man read a newspaper article aloud and
Louis wrote down what the director said. When the director
finished, Louis ran his fingers over the raised dots and
repeated back the exact words read by the director. The man
was impressed.

Louis’ classmates were delighted to find how well this

system worked. They could take down notes in class, they
didn’t have to memorise long classes any more and they
didn’t need anyone’s help to read or write. Louis wanted
other blind people to be able to use his new code. He
wanted this alpabet to be made the official system of writing
for the blind.

Louis became an assistant teacher at the institute. His

classes were very popular. He also copied books into his
code. He even added symbols so that blind musicians could
read and write music. He soon became a full-time teacher at
the institute.

Louis got sick. He had tuberculosis. Louis taught less and

spent more time outdoors. He continued to improve the dot
alphabet. He added the letter “w” so that his code could be
used to write English. He also created math textbooks for
blind students.

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 The new director at the institute didn't allow the students
to use the new alphabet. Louis was very disappointed. His
health got worse and he died in 1852.

Two years later, the French government approved the dot

system. It was called “Braille” after Louis' last name. This
system became the system of reading and writing for all
blind people worldwide. Braille has been adapted to almost
every known language.

Many books are available in Braille. Louis Braille opened the

doors of knowledge to all those who cannot see. Since the
first book in Braille was published millions of people who are
blind or have low vision have continued to read, write and
communicate through the six-dot system.

4
 Helen Keller
1880 - 1967

SHE IS KNOWN ALL OVER THE WORLD

AS A SYMBOL OF COURAGE. HELEN
COULD OVERCOME ADVERSITY AND
GAVE HOPE TO A LOT OF PEOPLE.

Helen Keller was born in Alabama in 1880. When she was just
18 months she suffered from a severe fever. She couldn’t see or
hear any longer. Helen lived in total darkness and silence for a
long time. She often got upset and had terrible temper
tantrums. Her parents were desperate, but they knew they
had to do something to help their child.

Helen’s parents hired a teacher to see if she could help their

daughter. Anne Sullivan, a teacher who had been blind herself,
began to work with finger spelling and other ways to
communicate with Helen with very little success. Anne’s work
was really hard, but she tried and tried; she was determined
not to give up as she understood what Helen felt.

But one day something amazing happened. Anne led Helen

to the water pump. She pumped the water and let the cold
water flow through Helen's one hand while she finger spelled
W-A-T-E-R on the other hand. Everything just came together
for Helen and Anne. All of a sudden Helen stopped
misbehaving. They both started communicating with their
hands. Anne taught Helen that everything had a name. Soon,
Helen wanted to know everything she touched. Anne knew
they were on the right track.
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 When Helen was 10, she could use the
Braille system and handled the manual
alphabet. She also learned how to use a
typewriter. When Helen was 16, she could
speak well enough to go to preparatory school
and when she was 24 she graduated from university. She was
the first blind person to graduate from a college. Helen was
able to do all this with the help of her teacher.

Helen wrote her first book when she was in college. She also
wrote articles and delivered lectures. Because of her disability
people would pay attention to her in a way they wouldn’t do
with other people.

Helen Keller travelled the world. She visited 39 countries

bringing hope and courage to millions of people. She showed
the world that people with disabilities can live a full and
complete life.

Hellen Keller died when she was 87 years old.

6
 Anne

Frank
1929 - 1945

ANNE FRANK WAS A GERMAN GIRL AND JEWISH VICTIM OF THE

HOLOCAUST WHO IS FAMOUS FOR KEEPING A DIARY OF HER
EXPERIENCES.

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany in |1929. Her

parents were Otto and Edith Frank. Anne had one sister,
Margot, who was three years older than her. The Frank family
was Jewish. Anne was an outgoing girl who loved to play with
her friends. She also loved to collect photos and postcards of
movie stars. She dreamed of being a writer someday.

In 1933 the Nazis came into power and discrimination against

the Jews increased. Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party did not
like Jewish people. Jews had to wear a yellow star on their
clothing. Jewish people began to flee from Germany.

Otto and Edith decided to move to the Netherlands with

their two daughters. They settled down in Amsterdam, where
Anne and her sister attended school. Anne made two close
friends there, but in 1940, the German army invaded the
Netherlands. The Nazis occupied large parts of Europe and
started to discriminate against Jews everywhere. Jews were
deprived of their rights; they were forbidden from attending
schools, from shopping at most stores, from taking public
transportation,they were subject to a curfew and they were
sent to labour camps. Anne and Margot had to switch to
different Jewish schools. One restriction started to follow
another.
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 For her 13th birthday, Anne received a red
checkered diary; this diary would become very
important to her. She named her diary “Kitty” after
a friend of hers. Suddenly, in 1942, a letter arrived
ordering Margot to leave for a labour camp. Otto
and Edith were desperate. They had made secret
preparations to go into hiding. One of the first things
Anne packed was her diary.The Frank family left their
house wearing as many clothes as possible. They had to wear
all their clothes in layers because a suitcase would be
suspicious. They made their acquaintances think that they had
actually fled the country.

Otto had prepared a secret hideout next to his place of work,

a series of unoccupied rooms that had as entrance a small
door hidden behind some bookshelves.They called this place
the Secret Annex. The annex was a small place. The first floor
had a bathroom and a small kitchen. The second floor had two
rooms, one for Annemarie and Margot and one for their
parents. There was also an attic where they stored food and
where Anne would sometimes go to be alone. Otto and Anne
tidied up the annex. Anne brightened up her room by sticking
images to the wall. The Frank family were helped by people
working at Otto’s Company; they brought them food and
supplies. The Franks were soon joined by other people, a
couple, the Van Pels and their son, Peter. Soon a man, Fritz
Pfeffer came to the annex; he brought news about
deportations. He ended up sharing the room with Anne and
Margot moved to her parents’ room.The Franks and the others
with them had to be careful not to be caught by the
Gestapo.They covered all the windows with thick curtains.
During the day they had to be extra quiet. They whispered
when they talked and went barefoot so they could walk softly.
At night, they could relax a bit.

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 Anne kept her diary for two years. In her diary she wrote
about all sorts of things, her feelings, her experiences, about
her fears and wishes, about books she read, about the people
around her, about life in the annex, about her arguments
between her and her mother and her never ending
disagreements with Fritz. She also wrote about her
nightmares and the fear of all in the annex to be discovered.
Anne wrote extensive diary entries to pass some time. Writing
in her diary helped her to maintain her spirits. “When I write, I
can shake off all my cares,” she wrote on April 5, 1944. In the
second year of their hiding, Anne and Peter fell in love.

But something terrible happened, somebody betrayed them

and they were all arrested in 1944. The Franks were taken to
concentration camps. Edith died soon after she got to
Auschwitz. Anne and Margot both died of typhus in 1945 only a
month before the war ended. They died within a day of each
other in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. The
only one of the Frank family to survive the war was Anne’s
father.

After the end of the war, Otto returned to Amsterdam. A

woman gave him a pile of papers and documents she had
found in the annex. Among those papers was Anne’s diary.
Otto was astounded by what he read.

In 1947, Anne’s diary was published as a book under the title:

The Secret Annex. Some time later it was renamed Anne
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne’s diary is one of the
most widely read books around the world. It’s been translated
into over 67 languages and has been read by over 30 million
people. The world will never forget the story of Anne Frank
and her family and the millions of other lives that were lost
during the Holocaust. Nowadays, the annex is a museum; it is
one of the three most popular museums in Amsterdam.

9
 Nelson

Mandela
1918 - 2013

HE BECAME THE FIRST BLACK

PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA
IN 1994.

Nelson Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela in 1918 in a tiny

village in South Africa. He was the first in his family to attend
school. Mandela’s teacher told him that his new first name
would be Nelson. Mandela attended school, then college and
years later became a lawyer.

In those days the government was whites-only. Most black

people were poor. They worked as servants, on farms, in
factories and gold mines.

For twenty years, Mandela fought peacefully against the

South African government and its racist policies. South Africa
was a rich country, but it was not peaceful. Many laws kept
white people and black people apart. This system was called
“apartheid”. Non-white people (black people,
people from Asia and people of mixed
races) were forced to live in separate
areas. A white person and a black
person could not marry, black people
and white people could not share a
table in a restaurant, or sit together in
a bus, sports teams were all-white or
all-black, never mixed. Mandela
wanted to change this.
10
 Mandela became the leader of young black people. Many
white people were also against apartheid. He wanted black
South Africa to have the same rights as whites. In 1956, Mandela
and 155 other people were arrested. They were accused of
wanting to overthrow the government. Five years later he was
set free.

Millions of people in other countries were against the apartheid

system. But the South African government refused to change. In
1962, Nelson Mandela was arrested again. In 1964, he was given a
life sentence. He was sent to prison on Robben Island and spent
18 years there. He had to do hard labour and was allowed one
visitor every 6 months. He was later moved to another prison.
But Mandela never gave up. Many people admired Mandela,
even the prison guards.

People all over the world wanted Mandela to be free. He spent

27 years in prison (from 1962 to 1990). After he left prison, he
worked to achieve a better future for everyone in his country. He
became a hero to people all over the world.

Fortunately, there were some positive changes in South Africa.

In 1988, the South African government let black students into
“white” universities. In 1990, South Africa’s new president, de
Klerk set Mandela free. The two political leaders agreed not to
fight any more. In 1993 Nelson Mandela and de Klerk, shared the
Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1994 South Africa held its first democratic elections. All black
people in South Africa were able to vote for the first time.
Mandela was elected as the country’s first black president. He
used sports to promote reconciliation between blacks and
whites. He encouraged black South Africa to support the
Springboks, the once-hated national rugby team. The
Springboks had been all-white. In 1995, South Africa hosted the
Rugby World Cup. President Mandela wore a Springboks rugby
shirt to help keep white and black together. Sport helped to do
this.

Mandela died when he was 95 years old. 11

 Nelson Mandela
1918 - 2013

Nelson Mandela became ____________________________________

______________________________________________________________
He was born Rolihlahla Mandela in ___________________________
_______________________________ in South Africa.
Mandela was the first in his family ___________________________.
Mandela’s teacher told him that _____________________________
_______________________________.
Mandela attended school, then college and __________________
______________________________.
In those days the government was __________________________.
Most black people were _____________________________________
______________________________________________________________
For twenty years, Mandela ___________________________________
______________________________________________________________
South Africa was a ____________________________, but it was not
_____________________________________.
Apartheid ________________________________________ apart.
Black people were forced to live ______________________________.
A white person and a black person could not
______________________________________________________________
Sports teams were _____________________________, never _______
Mandela wanted ___________________________________.
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Mandela became________________________________.
Many white people ____________________________.
He wanted black South Africa to have the same _______________.
In 1956, Mandela and 155 other people were __________________

wanting to _______________________. They were __________ and

were _____________________ five years later.

Millions of people in other countries were against the apartheid

system. But the South African government ___________________.

In 1962, Nelson Mandela____________________.
In 1964, he was given a__________________.
He was sent to prison on Robben Island and spent _______ years

there.
He had to do________________ and was allowed one visitor
________________ months.
Mandela never____________.
Many people __________________ Mandela, __________ the prison

guards.
People all over the world wanted Mandela ________________.
He ____________________ years in prison (_________1962 ___ 1990).
After he left prison, he worked to _______________ a better future

for everyone in his country.

He became a real ________ all over the world.
In 1990 Mandela _____________________free.
In 1993 Nelson Mandela _______________ the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1994 South Africa __________its first __________ elections
and Mandela was elected president.
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 Marcel

Marceau
1923 - 2007

THE MASTER OF SILENCE

Marcel Marceau was born in 1923 in Strasbourg, France. He

was born Marcel Mangel. He became one of the most famous
mimes in the world. He moved audiences without uttering a
single word, and was known to the world as a “master of
silence”.

Born to a Jewish family, young Marcel discovered Charlie

Chaplin when he saw one of his silent movies and became a
fan of the actor. At the age of 5, his mother Anne Mangel, took
Marcel to a Charles Chaplin movie and soon after that moving
experience, he decided to become a mime. He entertained his
friends with Chaplin imitations, and dreamed of starring in
silent movies. He was introduced to music and theatre by his
father, Charles Mangel, a butcher, who was also a baritone and
a supporter of art and music. He also studied English in
addition to his French and German, and became trilingual.

When Marcel was 16, the Nazis marched into France, and the
Jews of Strasbourg, near the German border, had to flee for
their lives. Marcel changed his last name to Marceau to avoid
being identified as Jewish, and joined the French Resistance
together with his brother, Alain. His father was deported to
Auschwitz, where he was killed in 1941.

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 He survived the Nazi occupation and saved many children
during the Second World War. Both Marcel and his brother,
Alain, helped children to escape safely to neutral Switzerland.
He dressed up as a Boy Scout director and evacuated a Jewish
orphanage in Eastern France. He convinced the children that
they were going on a hiking vacation in the Alps. He dressed
them up as campers and smuggled them out of Nazi-
occupied France. He made this perilous journey three times,
saving hundreds of Jewish orphans. He used his pantomime
skills to keep the children silent during the most dangerous
moments.

He also forged papers to save young men. There was a law in

occupied France that obliged young French men, who were 18
or 19 years old, to work in German factories. Marcel bribed the
officials, and made people look much younger in their photos.

Marcel Marceau gave his first public performance in front of

3,000 American soldiers following the liberation of Paris in
1944. In 1947 he created his most famous mime character,Bip,
a figure of hope. Bip was the classic underdog, a white-faced
clown with a tall, battered hat and a red flower sprouting from
the lid, dressed in a striped shirt and white sailor pants.

In 1949 he created his own company and toured around the

world. His classics were The Cage, Walking Against the Moon,
The Mask Maker and In the Park. He played several silent film
roles and only one with a speaking part as himself, speaking a
single word. Michael Jackson borrowed Marcel's pantomime,
Walking Agaist the Wind,to create his “moonwalk”.

His remarkable carreer lasted over 60 years. He was an actor,

director, teacher, interpreter, and public figure and made
tours on five continents. He was awarded a medal for
humanitarism in 2001. He passed away in 2007.
15
 Mother

Teresa
1910 - 1997

A ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN WHO

DEVOTED HER LIFE TO SERVING THE
POOR AROUND THE WORLD.

Mother Teresa spent many years in Calcutta, India, where she

founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation
devoted to helping those in great need. In 1979, Mother Teresa
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2016, she was
canonised as Saint Teresa.

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in the Republic of Macedonia.

At a young age she felt a calling to be a nun and help the poor.
At the age of 18, she joined a group of nuns in Ireland and after
some months of training, she travelled to India. In 1931, she
officially became a nun and chose to be named Teresa.

When she was in India, she started working as a teacher. She

was deeply moved by the widespread poverty of Calcutta. She
started a new order called “The Missionaries of Charity.” Her
main objective was to look after people in need.

In those days, there was a lot of violence and poverty

in Calcutta. For many years, MotherTeresa and a small
group of nuns, survived on minimal income
and food; they often had to beg for funds.

Her work spread around the world. The Missionaries

of Charity now has branches throughout the world
where they work with the homeless and people affected
by serious illnesses. 16
 Mother Teresa is considered by many people a living saint
who offered a great example and inspiration to the world.

”Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things

with great love.”

“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is
the beginning of love.”

“Peace begins with a smile.”

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak. But their echoes
are truly endless.”

“ Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you
without leaving happier.”

Mother Teresa

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 Rosa

Parks
1913 - 2005

"THE FIRST LADY OF CIVIL RIGHTS"

Rosa Parks was born in 1913. She grew up in the southern US

in Alabama. Her family name was Rosa Louise Mc Cauley. Her
parents broke up when she was still young, so her mother and
brother went to live on her grandparents’ farm in a nearby town.

When Rosa was growing up she had to live with racism in the
south. She was scared of the members of the Ku Klux Klan, an
extremely violent secret organization that persecuted black
people.

Rosa went to the local school for African-American children.

Unfortunately, Rosa’s mother became very ill, and Rosa had to
leave school to look after her.

Rosa met Reymond Parks and a year later they got married.
She could finally get a high school degree at the age of twenty.

During this time, the city of Montgomery where she lived, was
segregated; things were different for white people and black
people. They had different schools, different stores, different
churches, different elevators and even different drinking
fountains. Places had signs saying “For Coloured Only” or “For
Whites Only”. Buses had seats for white people and seats for
black people. Black people had to take the back seats. They
would have to stand even if there were free seats in the front
part of the bus.
18
 Rosa and her husband wanted to do something about
racism so they joined the NAACP (National Association for the
Advancement of Coloured People). Rosa wanted black and
white people to be treated the same.

On December 1st , 1955, Rosa made her famous stand on a

bus. She got on a bus and sat on one of the front seats. All the
seats were taken. A White man got on the bus and asked Rosa
to stand up. Rosa refused to do so. She was arrested and had
to pay a fine.

African – American leaders decided to boycott the city

buses. They decided that African-Americans would no longer
ride buses. One of these leaders was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He helped to organise the boycott, which lasted for 381 days!
The Supreme Court finally said that segregation laws in
Alabama were unconstitutional.

Rosa became a symbol to many African-Americans and

their fight for equal rights . She is still a symbol of freedom and
equality to many today.

The Rosa Parks Song https://youtu.be/Koeio4fqwmU

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 Rosa Parks
SONG

I’m Rosa Parks, my story marks

The first step .......................... Civil Rights
Racial inequality, American policy
'Til I ......................... .......... a fight
What act of mine led havoc to ensue?
How come I caused such ................... ?
What shocking ...................................... did I do?
We-e-e-ell

I sat on a bus (You sat on a bus?)

I sat on a bus (You sat on a bus?)
You want to know why? (Go ahead, tell us)
I sat on that bus (You sat on the bus)

In the ’50s, all buses divided

Whites in front, blacks behind (You serious?)
If the bus filled up, we had to .................... .......
Our seats or we’d be ....................... (That’s ludicrous)
I made a stand in my hometown
Montgomery, Alabama (That’s dangerous)
Refused to stand for a white man
So they put me in the slammer
(Discourteous!)
December 5, 1955
My trial, notorious
Black people stood side-by-side
And no one...

...Got on the bus (We stayed off the bus)

They stayed off the bus (We stayed off the bus)
I meant busi-ness (She inspired us)
So they stayed off the bus (We stayed off the bus)
20
We organised a ............................ of public transportation
To win ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... and force new legislation
Dreamed of the day the USA had no implementation
Of ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - ....... - .......
(Spells segregation)

From that day on we walked or cabbed

Led by Martin Luther King
Attacked by ..................... , our houses bombed
Though peace was our thing
Our plight, it made the national .........................
Which was mighty strange
(Mysterious)
When word ................................ the President
He had to make a change
(Delirious)
One year on we’d finally won
A victory momentous
The fight for national Civil Rights was begun

'Cause I sat on a bus (She sat on a bus)

I sat on a bus (She sat on a bus)
I sat on a bus (For all of us)
I sat on a bus (She sat on a bus)
Cause I sat, I sat, (Our story owes a
I sat, I sat, huge debt to Rosa)
I sat, I sat, on that bus
I sat, I sat, (We all agree
I sat, I sat, on that bus she made history)
On that bus (She sat on the bus,
she sat on the bus, for all of us)
I sat on that bus...

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