A farmer who couldn't read or write invented a script for his own language

In 1959, Shong Lue Yang, an illiterate Hmong farmer in Laos, said the writing system had been revealed to him by messengers, and began teaching Pahawh Hmong to his followers. He was assassinated in 1971, partly over the script's political implications, but it is still used by Hmong communities today.

— Shong Lue Yang, Pahawh Hmong — Invented 1959, Laos