LÃSZLÓ BÃRÓ was a Hungarian-born journalist and he’d been working his craft using traditional fountain pens and the pencils they used back then (late-1930s). He noticed that the ink used on newsprint dried quickly and in a smudge-free manner. Seeing that, some light turned on in Biro’s head on a pen that could use that kind of ink, which wasn’t usable in a fountain pen. By 1938, he patented an early design for a ballpoint pen when he was living in Paris in 1938.
The Jewish Biro, sensing that the Nazism enveloping Europe at the time would soon enough sweep him up, got out ahead of the coming Holocaust and landed in Argentina. While there, he filed another patent for his device, this time in America and in the name of Biro Pens of Argentina. The British aircraft designer and manufacturer F.G. Miles saw the pen and managed to secure a license to make it for the Royal Air Force. The Biro ballpoint pen was economical, for one, and it could also write upside down, something traditional fountain pens could not do.
At war’s end, Marcel Bich (here it comes) bought Biro’s patent, and for purposes of marketing it shortened his name to ‘Bic’ to avoid English speakers being confused by the pronunciation of his name with that of a you-know-what. 
Biro’s birthday is celebrated as Inventor’s Day in Argentina.
Below, Biro in 1978:
Below, a Spanish-language advertisement for the Biro pen:
