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October 21, 2011
Mary Blair's 100th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/RV...1uIR377Aw=s660
I was greatly honored for the opportunity to create a doodle for Mary Blair's 100th birthday. Not to mention somewhat intimidated! Her work was and continues to be a major source of inspiration for a large number of artists working in animation, illustration, and fine art... and the Google Doodle team. So there was some pressure to get it right!
http://lh5.ggpht.com/7qORXkFT0T4No-6...XI-f6TXvE-w=s0
Early "character" studies. Working right to left, I drew her more representationally before "cartoonizing" her. Valuable team feedback led to her being portrayed to look like one of her illustrated children, further emphasizing the youthful quality of Mary's work.
Of course, for all her technical mastery, from her wonderful color schemes to her deceptively simple shapes and compositions, what I've always admired most about her work is the sense of joy that went into making each picture. As a viewer, I can't help but sense that childlike enthusiasm and smile in response. This was Mary's ultimate goal, as she wrote in a letter to her husband, to "live to be happy and paint to express our happiness," and it's a goal very similar to our own as Doodlers -- to inspire happiness in our users when they see something new and unexpected on the Google homepage.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/wv2b-Ga-a2_3wPF...zHRay4S5V=s400
Happy birthday, Mary Blair!
posted by Mike Dutton
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Aug 15, 2021
India Independence Day 2021
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At the stroke of midnight on this day in 1947, India’s decades-long movement for independence culminated as the nation became a sovereign republic. Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Kolkata, India-based guest artist Sayan Mukherjee, celebrates India’s Independence Day and its cultural traditions forged in centuries of historical progress.
Home to over an estimated 1.3 billion people, India is inhabited by one-sixth of the total global population and is characterized by the thousands of distinct languages and ethnic groups within its borders. Indians across the subcontinent’s 29 states celebrate their freedom and multicultural spirit with customs such as traditional dance performances, which vary depending on regional culture.
The Doodle artwork illustrates these diverse forms of dance. From the classical tradition of Bharatnatyam depicted on the far left to the oldest Indian dance style with origins stretching back 3000 years in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Depicted third from the right, the masked reenactments from Indian epics known as Chhau dance have origins in the eastern state of Jharkhand, the Purulia Chau, and the Seraikella Chau regions. The far right dancer depicts dance from Kathakali.
Happy Independence Day, India!
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August 15, 2013
KR Liberation Day
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Yz...-c_EMAUfQ=s660
The National Liberation Day of Korea is a holiday celebrated annually on 15 August in both South and North Korea. It commemorates Victory over Japan Day, when the United States and the Allies liberated Korea from 35 years of Japanese colonial rule.
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August 15, 2019
India Independence Day 2019
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...7574144-2x.png
Today’s Doodle, by India-born, Copenhagen-based guest artist Shaivalini Kumar, celebrates Independence Day in India. On this day in 1947 one of the world’s oldest and most ethnically diverse civilizations became a sovereign nation, free from British rule. The Doodle depicts traditional motifs from Indian textiles evoking the complex yet harmonious “patchwork” of Indian culture, ranging from education, to the arts, to courage and compassion.
India is the world’s second most populous country, and many of its 1.3 billion citizens will join in the Independence Day festivities. While the subcontinent marks the occasion in various ways—from patriotic kite-flying to Amritsar’s “beating retreat” ceremony—no site is more historically significant than Lahori Gate at the Red Fort in Delhi, where then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru first addressed the newly independent nation.
India’s flag will be seen flying proudly today from Delhi to Bombay and everywhere in between. As the flag is raised each year, a 21-gun salute rings out, accompanied by the national anthem “Jana Gana Mana.” Parades, awards, and cultural events complete the momentous occasion.
Happy Independence Day, India!
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August 15, 2017
India's Independence Day 2017
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On August 15th, 1947, the front page of The Times of India jubilantly proclaimed “Nation Wakes to New Life!” Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the Dominion of India, raised the national flag above the Red Fort’s Lahori Gate as a declaration of the country’s newly won independence.
The 90-year independence movement was a campaign marked by both peaceful endurance and unwavering patriotism, shaping a strong sense of national identity for the people of India that lives on today.
To honor the anniversary, Mumbai-based artist Sabeena Karnik used a unique paper-cut art style to create a Doodle fit for the bold and colorful celebration of today’s events. The Parliament House depicted in her work commemorates this day, this movement, and this triumph of independence.
Happy Independence Day to the Republic of India!
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Aug 16, 2017
Tina Modotti’s 121st Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...6361472-2x.jpg
In a fraction of a second, a camera shutter blinks, rendering the world, unchanging, in soft sepia tones. But the photographer herself was never still. Tina Modotti refused to be a silent observer behind her camera lens. After all, “I cannot solve the problem of life by losing myself in the problem of art,” she wrote.
Tina’s early photos were mostly abstract — but telephone wires, staircases, and flowers were subjects that turned her lens away from the “problems of life” she couldn’t ignore. She found a match for her political and cultural views in Mexico, and fell in with a group of avant-garde artists including the painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and the poet Pablo Neruda. Her photography switched focus to represent the everyday laborers and extraordinary folk art of Mexico City, which included documenting much of the Mexican mural movement.
Tina gave up her camera in 1931, devoting herself fully to political activism. Her body of work is relatively small, but represents how she lived her life: bold, and with conviction.
Happy 121st birthday, Tina.
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November 20, 2021
Edmond Dédé's 194th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Brooklyn, NY-based guest artist Lyne Lucien, celebrates Creole classical musician and composer Edmond Dédé. The melody to his 1851 composition “Mon Pauvre Cœur” [My Poor Heart] remains one of the oldest surviving pieces of sheet music by a Black Creole composer in New Orleans.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. on this day in 1827, Dédé picked up the clarinet from his father, a bandmaster in a local military band. He switched to the violin, which soon became Dédé’s instrument of choice as he developed into a musical prodigy. Apprenticing under prominent New Orleans musicians, Dédé left home for Mexico to escape the increasing racial prejudice in the American South.
He returned home in 1851 and published “Mon Pauvre Cœur.” He worked briefly to save money before leaving again to continue his classical studies in France. In the late 1850s, he landed a position at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, where his creativity thrived. He also worked at the Théâtre de l'Alcazar and the Folies Bordelaises. His ballets, operettas, overtures, and over 250 songs achieved massive success in France yet gained little traction in the U.S. In 1893, en route to his only musical appearance back in New Orleans, Dédé lost his favorite Cremona violin in a shipwreck but managed to find a replacement just in time for his performance!
Despite living in a time of severe racial discrimination, Dédé’s talent led him to become a world-class composer. Most of Dédé’s sheet music is preserved in the National Library of France and several American universities. His story continues to inspire contemporary classical musicians to take pride in their heritage and honor the contributions of musicians from historically overlooked communities.
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November 20, 2012
Otto von Guericke's 410th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZC...s1Vl4Hmeg=s660
Otto von Guericke was a German scientist, inventor, and politician. His pioneering scientific work, the development of experimental methods and repeatable demonstrations on the physics of the vacuum, atmospheric pressure, electrostatic repulsion, his advocacy for the reality of "action at a distance" and of "absolute space" were noteworthy contributions for the advancement of the Scientific Revolution.
Von Guericke was a very pious man in the Dionysian tradition and attributed the vacuum of space to the creations and designs of an infinite divinity. Von Guericke described this duality "as something that ‘contains all things’ and is ‘more precious than gold, without beginning and end, more joyous than the perception of bountiful light’ and ‘comparable to the heavens’."
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November 20, 2019
Zinaida Gippius’ 150th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Moscow-based guest artist Maria Shishova, celebrates the renowned Russian poet and author Zinaida Gippius. Born in the town of Belyov on this day in 1869, Gippius wrote verse, plays, novels, short stories, and essays as well as founding and editing an influential journal called The New Path. One of Russia’s best known female writers at the turn of the century, she is considered one of the founders of Russia’s Symbolist movement.
Raised in a family with three younger sisters, Gippius began writing poetry at the age of seven and published her work as a teenager. She met the writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky when she was 19 and married soon after. She insisted on absolute gender equality in their marriage. Gippius also published literary criticism under a male pen name.
Along with the writer Valery Briusov, the couple—known collectively as the “Brotherhood of Three”—ushered in new modes of thinking and writing during a period known as Russia’s “Silver Age.” Their journal, as well as their salon in St. Petersburg, became a center of progressive art and culture, coinciding with a time of great social change in Russia.
Gippius’s verse was intensely personal and focused on individual feelings, and her stylistic and formal innovations would prove extremely influential. Around the time of the Russian Revolution, Gippius and Merezhkovsky’s outspoken views compelled them to move from their homeland. They spent time in Poland, Italy, and France, where they helped assemble a group of like-minded Russian émigrés in Paris.
With her absolute commitment to creativity, Gippius’s commitment to freedom of expression continues to inspire generations of artists.
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November 20, 2014
Corita Kent's 96th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/uF...E_Bcdcd4w=s660
American nun and artist Corita Kent said it best with her quote, “To understand is to stand under which is to look up to which is a good way to understand.” Kent gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s with her artwork that featured messages of love and peace. Today, we mark her 96th birthday.
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November 20, 2019
Teachers' Day 2019 [Vietnam]
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...7963136-2x.jpg
In Vietnam, the teacher's day falls on the 20th of November, this day allows students to show respect and gratitude's to their teachers. ... Not only the students who are in schools, all people send wishes to their old teachers to show their respects to the people who gave them knowledge and many life lessons.
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December 14, 2021
Celebrating Som Tum
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...109216-2xa.gif
Today’s Doodle celebrates signature Thai dish Som Tum, a sweet and spicy green papaya salad also popular in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. On this day in 2012, Thailand’s Department of Cultural Promotion registered Som Tum as a national intangible cultural heritage food.
Like many of the world’s most loved dishes, the origins of som tum are shrouded in mystery. Most food historians believe the savory salad originated in Laos due to its rich history in the historic Isaan region, which encompasses areas of northeastern Thailand and borders Laos. The classic Thai recipe calls for spicy Thai chilies balanced by palm sugar, garlic, shrimp, fish sauce, peanuts, limes, cherry tomatoes, green beans, and green papaya.
The term “som tum” is a combination of two Isaan words translating to “tart flavor” and “to pound,” reflecting the first step in the salad’s preparation in which a mortar and pestle is used to ground several of the ingredients into a tart salad dressing. The dressing is mixed with the remaining ingredients and topped with roasted peanuts for an added salty crunch. The final product is a salad that is simultaneously salty, sweet, spicy, sour, and bitter—a flavor combination that defines Thai cuisine.
How the meal is prepared varies depending on the region, but most pair this popular Thai staple with sticky rice. For those new to som tum, it's recommended that you pay attention to the number of chilis included in your salad as they are notoriously spicy!
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December 14, 2021
Get Vaccinated. Wear a Mask. Save Lives. [December 14]
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December 14, 2016
105th Anniversary of First Expedition to Reach the South Pole
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Today marks the 105th anniversary of Roald Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole. Known as "the last of the Vikings," Amundsen was a lifelong adventurer with a gift for organization and planning. "Victory awaits him who has everything in order," wrote Amundsen, and his South Pole journey was a perfect illustration of that principle.
Amundsen's expedition party consisted of 19 people and nearly 100 Greenland sled dogs. The dogs -- along with the use of skis to cross treacherous terrain -- were key to the team's success. And like their canine companions, the explorers knew that playfulness could help them endure the extreme conditions on the icy frontier. While prepping from Framheim, their base camp in the Bay of Whales, the team maintained a sense of fun. They held guess-the-temperature contests, celebrated birthdays, and told stories. When a subset of the crew made the final trek to the South Pole in December of 1911, their camaraderie and careful preparation helped them win the race to "the bottom of the world."
In honor of that achievement, today's Doodle depicts the crew at the finish line, taking a moment to bask in the glory while the Antarctic wind whips outside their tent.
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Oct 15, 2011
Italo Calvino's 88th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_8...CaFvYnjDE=s660
I was overjoyed to be able to celebrate one of my favorite authors, Italo Calvino. Ostensibly a science fiction writer, Calvino is more of a fabulist, using scientific notions as a jumping-off point for whimsical, delightfully far-fetched, extremely warm and compassionate little tales. The first work of Calvino's that I read was Invisible Cities, an imagined dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan that meditates on the different ways of conceptualizing cities.
For this doodle, however, I decided to illustrate the first story from my favorite Calvino collection, Cosmicomics. Cosmicomics is an audacious series of myths and legends that covers everything from the creation of the universe, to the evolution of land vertebrates, to the social lives of dinosaurs.
In this story, The Distance of the Moon, the protagonist tells of time when the moon orbited so close to the Earth that it was possible to row out into the middle of the ocean and climb onto the surface of the Moon with a ladder. Once on the moon, the protagonists and his friends would frolic and cartwheel while the Moon's gravity gently pulled jellyfish and crabs up out of the sea. It's a fantastic image, and hopefully one that's very evocative to readers of Calvino.
If you haven't yet, please consider investigating his work!
Posted by Sophia Foster-Dimino
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April 26, 2021
Anne McLaren's 94th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...7108913-2x.png
Today’s Doodle celebrates the 94th birthday of British scientist and author Anne McLaren, who is widely considered one of the most significant reproductive biologists of the 20th century. Her fundamental research on embryology has helped countless people realize their dreams of parenthood.
Anne McLaren was born in London on this day in 1927. As a child, she had a small role in the 1936 H.G. Wells’ sci-fi film “The Shape of Things to Come.” In the scene—set in 2054—her great-grandfather lectured her on the advancement of space technology that had put mice on the moon. McLaren credits this formative, albeit fictional, history lesson as one of the early inspirations for her love of science. She went on to study zoology at the University of Oxford, where her passion for science only grew as she learned from talented biologists such as Peter Medawar—a Nobel laureate for his research on the human immune system.
In the 1950s, McLaren began to work with mice to further understand the biology of mammalian development. While the subjects of her research were tiny, the implications of their study proved massive. By successfully growing mouse embryos in vitro [in lab equipment], McLaren and her colleague John Biggers demonstrated the possibility to create healthy embryos outside of the mother’s womb.
These landmark findings—published in 1958—paved the way for the development of in vitro fertilization [IVF] technology that scientists first used successfully with humans twenty years later. However, the development of IVF technology carried major ethical controversy along with it. To this end, McLaren served as the only research scientist on the Warnock Committee [est. 1982], a governmental body dedicated to the development of policies related to the advances in IVF technology and embryology. Her expert council to the committee played an essential role in the enactment of the 1990 Human Fertilization and Embryology Act—watershed, yet contentious, legislation which limits in-vitro culture of human embryos to 14-days post embryo creation.
In 1991, McLaren was appointed Foreign Secretary, and later vice-president, of the world’s oldest scientific institution—The Royal Society—at the time becoming the first woman to ever hold office within the institution’s 330-year-old history.
McLaren discovered her passion for learning at a young age and aspired to spark this same enthusiasm for science in children and society at large. In 1994, the British Association for the Advancement of Science—an institution dedicated to the promotion of science to the general public [now the British Science Association]—elected her as its president. Through the organization and its events, McLaren engaged audiences across Britain on the wonders of science, engineering, and technology with the aim of making these topics more accessible to everyone.
Happy birthday, Anne McLaren. Thank you for all your incredible work and for inspiring many new generations to come because of it!
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April 26, 2021
Thank You: Public health workers and researchers in the scientific community
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To all the public health workers and to researchers in the scientific community, thank you.
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Apr 27, 2021
King's Day 2021
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Today’s Doodle celebrates King’s Day, or Koningsdag. Dutch communities in the Netherlands and around the world celebrate their nation’s cultural heritage and the birthday of His Majesty King Willem-Alexander, who was born on this day in 1967.
A representation of the Dutch royal family, oranjegekte [“orange madness”] is the theme of the day and the national color can be seen everywhere from the way people dress up to the icing on the tompouce [a cream-filled pastry]. Even the drinks are orange, as many toast to the King with an Orange Bitter.
Depicted in the Doodle artwork is the creation of homemade crowns, an annual King’s Day tradition. Huge inflatable orange crowns and miniature crown variations are worn by celebrants across the country to honor the King’s birthday.
Fijne Koningsdag! [Happy King’s Day!]
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November 12, 2021
Celebrating Johannes Vermeer
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, a seminal Baroque artist who is widely regarded among the greatest Dutch painters of all time. On this day in 1995, an eponymous exhibition opened at Washington D.C.’s National Gallery of Art, featuring 21 of his 35 existing works.
Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft, the Netherlands, at the height of the Dutch Golden Age in 1632. Although little is known about Vermeer’s early life, historians estimate from his early mythological paintings that he first aspired to be a historical painter.
By the 1650s, Vermeer began to paint subtly lit interiors with intricate symbology—a style distinguished by traditional Dutch motifs that became his hallmark. He captured the commonplace in radiant and exquisite detail, creating masterworks including “The Girl with the Pearl Earring '' [1665] which is currently on display at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. The artistic techniques Vermeer employed are still up for debate. Some art historians suggest he traced images projected from a camera obscura [a predecessor to the photographic camera], but with no physical evidence to back up such claims, some Vermeer specialists remain unconvinced.
On the left, the Doodle artwork references “The Allegory of Painting” [1666-1668] and in the middle, “Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid” [1670-1671]. In 1979, an X-ray revealed a hidden Cupid in Vermeer’s “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” [1657-1659], referenced on the right of the Doodle. Researchers continued to analyze the canvas in 2017, determining that the Cupid was covered by another painter. In 2021, a German initiative completely restored the painting. These efforts are just a few of the many attempts to demystify Vermeer and some of the world’s most treasured pieces of fine art he left behind.
Here’s to a true artistic luminary—Johannes Vermeer!
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November 12, 2021
Lyudmila Gurchenko's 86th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...7109133-2x.png
Today’s Doodle, illustrated by guest artist Tatyana Ukleiko, celebrates the 86th birthday of multi-hyphenate Russian entertainer Lyudmila Gurchenko. From playing piano in vaudeville numbers to pulling heartstrings in war dramas, Gurchenko captivated millions as a versatile pop music sensation whose extensive acting career is widely considered among the greatest in 20th-century Russia.
Lyudmila Markovna Gurchenko was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, USSR [now Ukraine] on this day in 1935 to musician parents who fostered her talent from a young age. With a button accordion and dreams of acting in film, Gurchenko moved to Moscow to study at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography. Her meteoric rise to fame came not even one year after graduation, with her debut in the Russian flim musical “Carnival Night” in 1956.
In the wake of the movie’s success, Gurchenko began performing popular numbers from the film on a national tour. However, her career was stunted for over a decade by detractors in the government who criticized her for accepting compensation above state wages. Yet Russian filmmakers couldn’t ignore her prodigious talent. In 1973, she returned to the big screen with a leading role in the Soviet drama “Old Walls.”
She rode the momentum of her comeback as a star of Soviet entertainment into her 70s, appearing in over 130 acting roles and recording over 10 albums. To this day, it is tradition for many Russian television networks to ring in the New Year with an airing of “Carnival Night.”
Happy birthday, Lyudmila Gurchenko!
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June 5, 2011
Richard Scarry's 92nd Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1V...KPh1YHXrn=s660
I had a lot of fun working with the folks at Random House — including one of Richard Scarry's actual art directors, as well as his son, Huck — to create an original pencil and watercolor piece depicting Busytown. There is so much going on in Busytown that I thought I'd show a few closeups here as well as talk about the process.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/iQ9guNqGrPpl6CI...PoQ4x5UVwE0=s0
The drawing was done in pencil, then scanned digitally and printed out in solid black on clear film, or acetate.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/Meq05OQ0CD6bij3...uACJDExpCLo=s0
The drawing was then transferred to illustration board in blue pencil so I could work on the painting on a separate layer.
Scarry's technique allowed him to work pretty loosely with his watercolors, and he'd frequently paint off-register, that is, not quite up to [[or way beyond) the line drawing. This gave his illustrations an even more lighthearted quality. In our case, it's Richard Scarry's Best Google Doodle Ever!
posted by Mike Dutton
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June 5, 2015
Denmark Constitution Day 2015
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Constitution Day [Danish: Grundlovsdag] is observed in Denmark on 5 June. The day honors the Constitution of Denmark, as both the first constitution of 1849 and the current constitution of 1953 were signed on this date of their respective years.
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November 23, 2018
Valdemar Poulsen’s 148th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Valdemar Poulsen, a Danish engineer whose innovations made magnetic sound recording and long-range radio transmission possible. Many modern conveniences, from telephone answering machines to cassettes, even VHS tapes and floppy disks, used the basic technology that he developed by stringing a steel piano wire at a slight angle between two walls. By sliding an electromagnet down the wire he was able to record sound using a microphone and play it back through a telephone earpiece.
Born in Copenhagen on this day in 1869, Poulsen studied medicine for a time before joining the Copenhagen Telephone Company as a technician. During his time he invented the telegraphone—or telegrafon in Danish–– and was awarded a patent. The cylindrical electromagnetic phonograph was capable of recording up to thirty minutes of speech. In 1900 he showed off his device at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where he recorded the voice of Austrian emperor Francis Joseph—still the earliest surviving magnetic recording. After winning a Grand Prix in Paris, he founded the American Telegraphone Company, but sales were sluggish as the device was truly ahead of its time.
That same year brought another breakthrough, a “singing arc” radio that would transmit up to 150 miles. Subsequent improvements of this design, capable of reaching 2,500 miles, were eventually used by the U.S. Navy.
Although he dropped out of medical school, Poulsen was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig. He was also a Fellow of the Danish Academy of Technical Science and the Swedish Institute for Engineering Research, and won the Gold Medal of the Royal Danish Society of Science and the Danish Government Medal of Merit. A stamp was issued in his honor and the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences established an annual award in his name.
Happy Birthday, Valdemar Poulsen!
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November 23, 2010
134th Birthday of Manuel de Falla
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Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. He has a claim to being Spain's greatest composer of the 20th century, although the number of pieces he composed was relatively modest.
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November 23, 2018
Nikolai Nosov’s 110th Birthday
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Blending fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction, Nikolai Nosov wrote children’s literature whose playful prose delivered powerful insights into human nature. His short stories like “Alive Hat,” “Cucumbers,” and “Miraculous Trousers,” and a humorous trilogy of novels about the misadventures of a very small boy named Neznaika [whose name translates as “Know-Nothing” in English] made Nosov a favorite of young readers all over Russia and beyond.
Born on this day in 1908 in Kiev, Ukraine, Nosov attended the Moscow Institute of Cinematography and worked as a producer of animated educational films before he began publishing fiction, often in popular children’s magazines like Murzilka. In 1952 his endearing novel Vitya Maleev at School and at Home was awarded the Stalin Prize, the Soviet Union’s state award, elevating his profile as a writer considerably. The book was later adapted into a comic film called Two Friends.
In 1954 he published the first volume of the Neznaika trilogy—in both Russian and Ukrainian—with two subsequent novels in the series appearing in 1958 and 1967. Set within a town in fairyland populated by tiny people called “Mites” who are “no bigger than a pine cone,” the action centers around an impulsive and easily distracted boy whose belief that he knows everything is always getting him into trouble. In 1969, Nosov won a new literary prize for his trilogy, which has since been adapted into numerous film versions, endearing his characters to countless generations of readers as parents who grew up on Neznaika grow up and the books to their own children.
Happy Birthday, Nikolai Nosov!
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17 December 2021
Émilie du Châtelet's 315th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 315th birthday of French mathematician, physicist, translator, and philosopher Émilie du Châtelet, whose contributions to Newtonian theory and mission to make scientific literature more accessible helped clear the path for modern physics.
Émilie du Châtelet was born Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil in Paris on this day in 1706—a time when it was rare for women to publicly pursue intellectual careers. Raised in an aristocratic household, Châtelet learned avidly from the distinguished scientists and mathematicians whom her family often entertained. She complemented her formal math and science studies with fencing and linguistics lessons, learning six languages by age 12. Despite society’s discouragement of women pursuing the sciences, Châtelet broke convention.
In her 20s, she married Marquis Florent-Claude du Châtelet, a prominent military officer, and their estate library housed approximately 21,000 books! After months of clandestine research and experimentation, Châtelet submitted a groundbreaking physics paper to the French Academy of Sciences in 1737 that predicted the existence of infrared radiation. Voltaire, an eminent writer of the French enlightenment, recognized her talents, and in 1738, the pair published “Elements of Newton’s Philosophy” under Voltaire’s name. This pioneering book broke down complex Newtonian physics into easy-to-understand terms for French readers.
Châtelet’s magnum opus came in 1740 with the anonymous publication of “The Foundations of Physics,” a work of natural philosophy that married Newtonian physics with metaphysics. Her work played an instrumental role in the acceptance of Newtonian physics across Europe. Albeit anonymously, Châtelet continued to revolutionize physics by translating “Principia,” Newton’s manifesto for the laws of motion and gravity. Published posthumously in 1759, it remains the leading French translation to this day.
Here’s to an unstoppable force in the progression of physics!
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17 December 2011
Josef Lada's 124th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eR...H988DAyTq=s660
Josef Lada [born 17 December 1887 in Hrusice, Bohemia – 14 December 1957 in Prague, buried at Olšany Cemetery] was a Czech painter, illustrator and writer. He is best known as the illustrator of Jaroslav Hašek's World War I novel The Good Soldier Švejk, having won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1963.
The asteroid 17625 Joseflada has been named after him.
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November 23, 2018
Mestre Bimba’s 119th Birthday
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A blend of martial arts, acrobatics, dance, and music, Capoeira has been practiced in Brazil for hundreds of years. Today’s Doodle celebrates Manuel dos Reis Machado, or Mestre Bimba, the master who legitimized capoeira and founded the world’s first school to promote this Afro-Brazilian martial arts style.
Mestre Bimba was born in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, on this day in 1899 as the youngest of 25 children and son of a batuque champion, another Brazilian fighting game. His parents named him Manuel dos Reis Machado, but everyone called him Bimba. He worked various odd jobs – longshoreman, carpenter, and coal miner – before dedicating his life to his real passion of capoeira.
Developed by former slaves, Capoeira was outlawed by the Brazilian government for many years. “In those days, when capoeira was spoken of, it was in whispers,” Bimba recalled. “Those who learned capoeira only thought about becoming criminals.”
As studying martial arts was forbidden by law, music was added to disguise the powerful fighting techniques as dance moves. Developing his own style, known as capoeira regional, Mestre Bimba instituted a strict set of rules and a dress code. In 1928 he was invited to demonstrate his style of capoeira for Getulio Vargas, then president of Brazil. The President was so impressed that he gave Mestre Bimba the go-ahead to open the first capoeira school in his hometown of Salvador, giving this unique martial art a new sense of legitimacy. In 2014 capoeira was recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, which hailed it as one of the most expressive popular manifestations of the Brazilian culture.
Happy Birthday, Mestre Bimba!
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18 Dec 2011
Yury Nikulin's 90th Birthday
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Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin was a Soviet and Russian actor and clown who starred in many popular films. He is best known for his roles in Leonid Gaidai's comedies, such as The Diamond Arm and Kidnapping, Caucasian Style, although he occasionally starred in dramatic roles and performed in Moscow Circus.
He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1973 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990. He also received a number of state awards, including the prestigious Order of Lenin, which he received twice in his lifetime.
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18 December 2016
Steve Biko’s 70th Birthday
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Black is beautiful. Steve Biko knew this fully well, and fought to spread this message across South Africa at the height of the apartheid movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
While in medical school, Biko co-founded the Black Consciousness Movement, which rejected apartheid policies and encouraged black people to take pride in their racial identities and cultural heritages. Biko famously said, “Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time.”
In February of 1973, the pro-apartheid government banned Biko for anti-apartheid activism. Under this ban, Biko wasn’t allowed to speak to more than one person at a time, was forbidden to speak in public and to the media, and was forced to stay in a single district. In spite of this, Biko continued to form grassroots organizations and organize protests, including the Soweto Uprising in June of 1976.
On the 70th anniversary of Biko’s birth, we remember his courage and the important legacy he left behind. Thank you, Steve Biko, for dedicating your life to the pursuit of equality for all.
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7 February 2018
Aysel Gürel’s 89th Birthday
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There will never be another Aysel Gürel. Born on this day in 1929, in Sarayköy in the Denizli Province of Turkey, Aysel Gürel lived life to the hilt. Buoyant and daring, Gürel ruled the Turkish pop music scene from the late 1970s through the 2000s, penning lyrics about love lost and found for both legendary singers as well as up-and-comers including Sezen Aksu, Nilüfer, Tarkan, and Sertab Erener. New songs are produced from the trove of lyrics she left behind even today!
At heart, Gürel was a poet who found her audience through her songs, but she was also a gifted actress, Turkologist, and witty provocateur. She also made her mark as a feminist and animal rights activist.
While stars gave voice to her songs, Gürel wasn’t one to hide in the background. She, too, was made for the limelight. Dressed in her oversized red glasses, pink wigs and head-turning outfits, flirting, and always quick with clever repartee, Gürel was as unforgettable as she was unpredictable.
Today’s Doodle celebrates Gürel’s inner [and outer] wild child. Wearing those signature specs, her hair colored in hues of fuschia, her joy is hard to contain on the screen.
Happy 89th birthday, Aysel Gürel!
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22 March 2021
Elena Lacková's 100th birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Czech guest artist Filip Posivac, celebrates the centennial birthday of Slovakian-Romani writer and dramatist Elena Lacková, who is widely considered the first author in post-war Czechoslovakia to tell the story of the Romani people and the persecution they faced throughout World War II.
Born on this day in 1921 in Veľký Šariš, Czechoslovakia [modern-day Slovakia], Elena Lacková was raised in a settlement of Romani people—a historically oppressed European ethnic group of Indian origin. Although she was unable to pursue higher education due to anti-Romani laws, Lacková became a talented writer of her own accord, penning poems by moonlight as the only girl out of the 600 children in her settlement with the ability to read.
In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and persecuted its Romani settlements as part of the regime’s Roma Holocaust. Lacková survived these atrocities and became determined to reinvigorate Roma pride through theatre. Her first published work of literature—a play entitled “Horiaci cigánsky tabor” [“The Gypsy Camp Is Burning,” 1947]—depicted the collective hardships of the Romani people during the Holocaust, while providing a new perspective into their culture.
Lacková’s work continually uplifted the Romani community through literary mediums such as short stories, fairy tales, and radio plays. In 1970, she achieved yet another milestone as the first Romani woman in Czechoslovakia to graduate from university. A pioneer who received countless accolades, Lacková became the first Romani woman to receive one of Slovakia’s highest honors, the Order of Ľudovít Štúr III, awarded in 2001.
Happy birthday, Elena Lacková!
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22 March 2018
Katsuko Saruhashi’s 98th Birthday
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A young Katsuko Saruhashi sat in primary school watching raindrops slide down a window and wondered what made it rain. Her journey for answers led her to become the first woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1957.
Saruhashi is renowned for her groundbreaking research as a geochemist. She was the first to accurately measure the concentration of carbonic acid in water based on temperature, pH Level, and chlorinity. Named ‘Saruhashi’s Table’ after her, this methodology has proved invaluable to oceanographers everywhere. She also developed a technique to trace the travel of radioactive fallout across the oceans that led to restricting oceanic nuclear experimentation in 1963.
During a career spanning 35 years, Saruhashi became the first woman elected to the Science Council of Japan in 1980, and the first woman honored with the Miyake Prize for geochemistry in 1985 - among many other awards. She was deeply committed to inspiring young women to study science, and established the Saruhashi Prize in 1981, recognizing female scientists for distinguished research in natural sciences.
Today on her 98th birthday, we pay tribute to Dr. Katsuko Saruhashi for her incredible contributions to science, and for inspiring young scientists everywhere to succeed.
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12 June 2021
Margherita Hack's 99th birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 99th birthday of Italian professor, activist, author, and astrophysicist Margherita “The Lady of the Stars” Hack. Outside of her interest in satellites, asteroids, and the evolution of stellar atmospheres, Hack championed civil rights as an outspoken advocate for progressive causes, animal protection, and equality for all.
Margherita Hack was born in Florence on this day in 1922. She took just one university class in literature before switching her major to physics. Following the 1945 defense of her thesis on Cepheid variables [stars used to measure intergalactic distances], Hack applied her knowledge of stellar spectroscopy as an astronomer at Florence’s Astronomical Observatory of Arcetri.
In 1964, Hack moved to Trieste, where she made history not just as the first Italian woman to earn a full professorship at the city’s university but also as the first female director of the Trieste Astronomical Observatory. For over 20 years, she transformed Trieste’s Observatory from a largely anonymous institution to a globally renowned nexus of scientific progress. These distinguished innovations garnered Hack international recognition in the astronomical community, which led to prestigious memberships at NASA and the European Space Agency—both home to the world’s foremost scientific observatories.
Acclaimed for her ability to explain complex scientific concepts to the general public, Hack published dozens of academic papers, several astronomy books, and founded two astronomical magazines. She received a litany of accolades for her lifetime achievements, notably having asteroid 8558 Hack, which orbits between Mars and Jupiter, named in her honor in 1995. At 90 years young, the Italian government conferred Hack with its highest award: the title of Dama di Gran Croce.
Happy birthday, Margherita Hack, and thank you for inspiring future generations to shoot for the stars!
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12 June 2018
Philippines Independence Day 2018
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Happy Independence Day to the Philippines, home to 7,000+ islands, abundant agricultural wealth—and a wild underwater frontier.
Almost ⅓ of the islands’ collective land mass is devoted to agriculture, allowing Filipino farmers to cultivate a rich variety of foods, sparking a recent culinary renaissance. Miles of beautiful beaches make the Philippines an attractive travel destination, especially to tourists, who flock to the white sand and blue water. The country is also a magnet for marine biologists.
On Independence Day, Filipinos are known to celebrate the end of Spanish rule by enjoying traditional delicacies like lumpia, balut, and chicken adobo, and by dancing in the streets—which you might expect in a country that’s widely considered one of the happiest in the world.
Today’s Doodle depicts the rich variety of undersea life surrounding this archipelago in the western Pacific, particularly the pristine Tubbataha Reef, where scientists continue to discovered new species of fish, slugs, and urchins in deep waters that are still being explored.
Happy Philippines National Day—or, to use the traditional Tagalog greeting, Maligayang Araw ng Kalayaan!
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30 April 2018
Dadasaheb Phalke’s 148th Birthday
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Almost 150 years ago on this date, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke was born in Trimbak in present-day Maharashtra.
The son of a scholar, Phalke developed a keen interest in the arts and studied at various points, photography, lithography, architecture, engineering, and even magic. After stints as a painter, draftsman, theatrical set designer, and lithographer, he chanced upon Alice Guy's silent film, The Life of Christ [1910].
Already deeply influenced by the works of painter, Raja Ravi Varma, Phalke resolved to bring Indian culture to the silver screen. He traveled to London to learn filmmaking from Cecil Hepworth.
In 1913, India’s first silent film, Raja Harishchandra was released. Phalke’s magic touch with special effects and mythology made it a huge hit, and it was followed by a dozen more.
In 1969, the Government of India paid homage to this visionary filmmaker by establishing the Dadasaheb Phalke award recognizing lifetime contributions to Indian cinema.
Today’s Doodle by guest artist Aleesha Nandhra shows a young Dadasaheb in action as he went about directing the first few gems in the history of Indian cinema. Happy Birthday!
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30 April 2008
Guest Doodle by Jeff Koons
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Jeffrey Lynn Koons [born January 21, 1955] is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces. He lives and works in both New York City and his hometown of York, Pennsylvania. His works have sold for substantial sums, including at least two record auction prices for a work by a living artist: US$58.4 million for Balloon Dog [Orange] in 2013 and US$91.1 million for Rabbit in 2019.
Critics are sharply divided in their views of Koons. Some view his work as pioneering and of major art-historical importance. Others dismiss his work as kitsch, crass, and based on cynical self-merchandising. Koons has stated that there are no hidden meanings and critiques in his works.
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30 April 2016
Claude Shannon’s 100th birthday
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It’s impossible to overstate the legacy of Claude Shannon. The paper he wrote for his master’s thesis is the foundation of electronic digital computing. As a cryptographer for the U.S. Government during WWII, he developed the first unbreakable cipher. For fun, he tinkered with electronic switches, and one of his inventions--an electromechanic mouse he called Theseus--could teach itself to navigate a maze. If you’re thinking, “that sounds a lot like artificial intelligence,” you’re right. He regularly brushed shoulders with Einstein and Alan Turing, and his work in electronic communications and signal processing--the stuff that earned him the moniker “the father of information theory”--led to revolutionary changes in the storage and transmission of data.
Notwithstanding this staggering list of achievements in mathematics and engineering, Shannon managed to avoid one of the trappings of genius: taking oneself too seriously. A world-class prankster and juggler, he was often spotted in the halls of Bell Labs on a unicycle, and invented such devices as the rocket-powered frisbee and flame-throwing trumpet.
Animated by artist Nate Swinehart, today’s homepage celebrates the brilliance and lightheartedness of the father of modern digital communication on what would have been his 100th birthday.
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30 April 2013
Jaroslav Hasek's 130th Birthday [CZ)
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Jaroslav Hašek was a Czech writer, humorist, satirist, journalist, bohemian and anarchist. He is best known for his novel The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures. The novel has been translated into about 60 languages, making it the most translated novel in Czech literature.