Birthdate: January 13, 1906

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Birthplace: Changzhou, Jiangsu, Qing dynasty Qing Empire

Died: January 14, 2017

Best remembered for creating a new writing system that allows Mandarin to be written in Roman alphabets, Chinese economist Zhou Youguang started working on the project in 1955, reaching his goal after three years of labor. Known as Father of Pinyin, he has also authored forty books, most notable among them being The Historical Evolution of Chinese Languages and Scripts.