You may not realize this but the humble ballpoint pen, used by millions of people around the world every day, is less than eight decades old.
Invented as the Second World War was about to begin in 1938, the Biro takes its name from its creator Ladislao José Biro.
Biro, also known as László József Bíró, was born on 29 September 1899 in Budapest in what was then Austria-Hungary.