June 1, 2021
Children's Day 2021
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Printable View
June 1, 2021
Children's Day 2021
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June 1, 2013
Children’s Day 2013 [Poland]
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June 1, 2018
Children's Day 2018
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June 1, 2020
Children's Day 2020
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May 29, 2018
Alfonsina Storni’s 126th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates renowned post-modern Latin American poet and feminist Alfonsina Storni. Also known by her pen-names Tao-Lao and Alfonsina, Storni was a prolific Argentine writer and top literary journalist who was dedicated to women’s rights and gender equality.
By age 27, Storni had authored six short stories, two novels, and a series of essays including La inquietud del rosal [The Restlessness of the Rosebush, 1916], El dulce daño [Sweet Pain, 1918], Irremediablemente [Irremediably, 1919], and Languidez [Languor, 1920], the latter winning first Municipal Poetry Prize and the second National Literature Prize. Her body of work subsequently led her to become known as one of Argentina’s most respected poets.
Active in women’s rights since she was 16, Storni was also a member of Comité Feminista de Santa Fé [Feminist Committee of Santa Fe], a leader of the Asociación pro Derechos de la Mujer [Association for the Rights of the Woman], and helped establish the Argentine Society of Writers. Today, Storni is featured as one of 999 women on The Heritage Floor, an artwork which displays names of women who have contributed to society and history, at the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art.
Depicted in today’s Doodle, Storni’s poem La Loba [The She-Wolf, 1916] recounts her experience raising a son as a single mother while defying patriarchal norms of time:
I am like the she-wolf.
I broke with the pack
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I have a son, the outcome of love without marriage,
For I couldn't be like the others, another ox
With its neck in a yoke; I hold my proud head high!
I plow through the underbrush with my own hands.
Happy 126th birthday, Alfonsina Storni!
May 29, 2015
Nepal Republic Day 2015
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Today, we honor the strength and resilience of the people of Nepal. On May 28th, 2008, after decades of revolution and protests, Nepal became the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Seven years later, this country is an international symbol of splendor, peace, and tenacity.
In the aftermath of the recent devastating and tragic earthquakes our hearts and minds are with the people of Nepal and the aid workers there helping to heal and mend families as they regain their footing, standing again as their world shifts beneath their feet.
We hope today's Doodle will remind the people of Nepal that they are an inspiration to the entire world, and that their burning perseverance lights the way for us all. The concept of light in this Doodle means three things for Nepal: celebration of this National day, prayers to Buddha, and a guiding light on the way home.
Google is committed to supporting efforts to rebuild, and to help carry the load on the difficult climb to recovery. Google Crisis Response map can help get the lay of the land and the Person Finder can help locate friends and loved ones.
We'll see you at the peak, again, Nepal.
May 21, 2019
Willem Einthoven’s 159th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the birth of Willem Einthoven, the Nobel Prize-winning Dutch physiologist who pioneered electrocardiography—a quick, painless, and effective method of studying the rhythms of the heart and diagnosing cardiovascular disease.
Born on the island of Java [now Indonesia] on this day in 1860, Einthoven grew up aspiring to follow in the footsteps of his father who had been both a doctor and military medical officer. By 1886 he had become a professor of physiology at the University of Leiden, focusing on optics, respiration, and the heart.
In 1889, Einthoven attended the First International Congress of Physiologists, where he watched a demonstration of a device known as the “Lippmann capillary electrometer” recording the electrical activity of the human heart. After analyzing the results, Einthoven recognized the need for a more accurate device, and began work on his string galvanometer, based on the technology used to amplify signals along underwater cables.
Balancing a fine string of quartz coated in silver between the two poles of a magnet, Einthoven’s invention precisely measured variations in electrical current. In 1901 he announced the first version of the string galvanometer, and soon published the world’s first electrocardiogram or ECG, a printed record of a human heartbeat. Einthoven studied the ECG patterns, identifying five “deflections” of normal heart function, learning how to interpret deviations that signal circulatory problems and heart disease.
Einthoven’s groundbreaking research won him the 1924 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Today, ECG machines are still used in hospitals all over the world, and while the technology has evolved greatly, they still work according to the same basic principles and techniques developed by Einthoven, who is now remembered as the father of modern electrocardiography.
May 21, 2014
Mary Anning's 215th Birthday
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Mary Anning was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset in Southwest England. Anning's findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth.
Anning searched for fossils in the area's Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone cliffs, particularly during the winter months when landslides exposed new fossils that had to be collected quickly before they were lost to the sea. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton when she was twelve years old; the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilised faeces, and she also discovered that belemnite fossils contained fossilised ink sacs like those of modern cephalopods.
May 21, 2006
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 147th Birthday
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Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.
Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" [1884], helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste.
May 19, 2019
Samuel Okwaraji’s 55th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Nigerian soccer player Samuel Okwaraji, who stands today as a symbol of national pride. Born in Orlu, Nigeria on this day in 1964, he moved to Europe in 1982 to further his education, though his greatest passion was soccer.
While earning a law degree at the University of Rome, Okwaraji played for the Italian club A.S. Roma. Fluent in several languages, he bounced from club to club, ending up at Germany’s SSV-Ulm 1846 team where he emerged as a standout player. Still, he wanted nothing more than to represent his homeland.
Okwaraji returned home to compete for a spot on the Nigerian “Green Eagles” team that played in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. With his energetic style of play and his love for his homeland, he soon became a fan favorite. Okwaraji was unhappy to learn that his German club was charging the Nigerian Football Association for lost revenues while he played for Nigeria. Reminding the team that he was a lawyer, Okwaraji passionately wrote “I am going to represent my country in the World Cup in Italy whether you like it or not.”
Unfortunately, his dream of playing in the World Cup for Nigeria did not come to fruition. On August 12, 1989, with just fifteen minutes left in a tough World Cup qualifying match against Angola, Okwarji’s life was tragically cut short when he fell down on the field at the National Stadium in Lagos and could not be revived.
Today, a statue of Okwaraji stands in front of that same National Stadium and reads: In memory of an illustrious and patriotic Nigerian sportsman.
May 19, 2016
Yuri Kochiyama's 95th Birthday
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It’s with great pleasure that Google celebrates Yuri Kochiyama, an Asian American activist who dedicated her life to the fight for human rights and against racism and injustice. Born in California, Kochiyama spent her early twenties in a Japanese American internment camp in Arkansas during WWII. She and her family would later move to Harlem, where she became deeply involved in African American, Latino, and Asian American liberation and empowerment movements. Today's doodle by Alyssa Winans features Kochiyama taking a stand at one of her many protests and rallies.
Kochiyama left a legacy of advocacy: for peace, U.S. political prisoners, nuclear disarmament, and reparations for Japanese Americans interned during the war. She was known for her tireless intensity and compassion, and remained committed to speaking out, consciousness-raising, and taking action until her death in 2014.
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.
Nov 22, 2016
Lebanon Independence Day 2016
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Today is Lebanese Independence Day, commemorating the anniversary of France’s official recognition of Lebanon’s independence in 1943. Although Lebanon technically won its independence in 1941, it remained under French colonial rule until November 22, 1943. On this day, French authorities released Lebanese officials held captive for 11 days outside of the capital.
The Doodle pays tribute to this important day with an image of the cedar tree, which is an emblem of Lebanon prominently displayed on the national flag. Happy Independence Day, Lebanon!
November 22, 2017
Celebrating Kimchi
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Today we celebrate Kimchi on what is known as “Kimchi Day” in Korea! According to local research, the date is significant in this tasty treat’s creation because salting kimchi today helps the dish reach its full flavor potential.
Packing a powerful punch of napa cabbage, green onion, fish sauce, red pepper flakes, rice flour, salt, ginger, radish, carrot, and garlic, fermented kimchi in onggi [clay pot] is loved by many around the world and is traditionally eaten with chopsticks. Today’s Doodle celebrates each ingredient that goes into making some seriously scrumptious kimchi.
Kimchi was first referenced in Korea about 2,600-3,000 years ago, and in the 18th century, it was first made with chili peppers. Due to varying regional recipes, there are hundreds of different types of kimchi. Many Korean households even have a separate kimchi refrigerator!
The dish is produced in especially large amounts during November and December. This is when kimjang [kimchi curing] takes place in preparation for winter. During kimjang, cabbage is pickled by cutting it into smaller pieces, soaking it in brine overnight, and dashing salt. Then, yangnyum [radish coated in chili powder] is mixed with ingredients such as green onions, dropwort, mustard leaves, ginger, garlic, and fermented shrimp or anchovies. To complete the process, the pickled cabbage is stuffed or mixed with the yangnyum and stored away to ferment until eating.
During this time, family members and neighbors gather in each other’s kitchens to cook together, trade recipes, and share stories. Listed by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage, kimjang creates moments of joy and encourages living in harmony with nature.
Happy eating!
November 22, 2017
Rukhmabai Raut’s 153rd Birthday
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Born on this day in Bombay [now Mumbai] in 1864, Rukhmabai Raut was one of the first women to practice medicine in colonial India. Backed by the British director of Bombay’s Cama Hospital, suffrage activists, and other supporters, Raut set off in 1889 for the the London School of Medicine for Women and obtained her qualifications at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Brussels. She then joined a hospital in Surat, serving as chief medical officer the next 35 years.
As an activist, Raut fought to stamp out child marriage. Married at age 11 to a 19-year-old groom chosen by her mother, Raut refused to live with her husband, winding up at the center of one of India’s most famous 19th-century court cases. Her bravery in defying contemporary Indian social customs attracted scrutiny in the British press and led to the passage of the Age of Consent Act in 1891.
Today’s Doodle by illustrator Shreya Gupta shows the courageous doctor among her patients, doing the dedicated work of a skilled physician.
Nov 23, 2017
José Clemente Orozco’s 134th Birthday
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Celebrated Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco was born in Ciudad Guzmán in central Mexico 134 years ago today.
After his family moved to Mexico City, the young Orozco would often cross paths with satirical caricaturist José Guadalupe Posada on his way to school. These meetings awakened in the young boy a keen political consciousness and a deep love for art, a powerful medium in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. Orozco would later document the social and political change of the era as one of Los Tres Grandes [The Three Greats] of Mexican mural art.
His sprawling, emotive frescos were initially often commissioned by the government. Dissatisfied with the condition of ordinary Mexicans however, he started to contradict his own sponsors - sometimes subtly [Maternidad [Maternity], 1924] and sometimes visibly [La Trinchera [The Trench], 1926]. This paradoxical relationship caused him to leave the country for seven long years, living in the US and earning international renown for works such as Prometeo [Prometheus] [1930] and The Epic of American Civilization [1934]. When he returned to Mexico, Orozco began work on the frescos of Hospicio Cabañas, murals sketching the span of Mexican history from indigenous civilizations to the Revolution.
Today’s Doodle—by Mexico City-based artist Santiago Solis—depicts Orozco in front of the jaguar featured in Las Riquezas Nacionales [The National Riches], his mural at La Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación in downtown Mexico City.
Feliz cumpleaños, Señor Orozco!
November 23, 2010
134th Birthday of Manuel de Falla
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Manuel de Falla y Matheu was an Andalusian 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.
October 25, 2021
Claude Cahun's 127th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 127th birthday of French author and surrealist photographer Claude Cahun—best-known for their purposefully unsettling yet playful self-portrait photography that challenged the gender and sexuality norms of the early 20th century.
Claude Cahun was born on this day in 1894 in Nantes, France, into a Jewish family. As the grandchild of the influential French artist David Leon Cahun and a child of a newspaper owner, Cahun came of age surrounded by creativity. At 14, they met Marcel Moore, their lifelong partner and artistic collaborator. After moving to Paris to study literature in 1919, Cahun shaved their head and adopted their famed gender-neutral name in revolt against societal convention.
Despite gender non-conformity being widely considered taboo in 1920s Paris, Cahun’s decision to publicly identify as non-binary met with controversy, but they explicitly rejected the public fuss. Cahun explored gender-fluidity through literature and melancholic self-portraiture such as the 1927 series “I am in training, don’t kiss me.” This work depicted the artist costumed as a feminized weightlifter, blurring the line between masculine and feminine stereotypes. In addition to their lifelong artistic work, Cahun worked with others to resist fascist occupation. The French government awarded their efforts with the Medal of French Gratitude in 1951.
In 2018, the Paris City Council named a street in honor of Cahun and Moore in the French capital’s sixth district, where the duo once lived. In addition to increasing focus on their pioneering work in the Surrealist movement and breaking down gender barriers in the photographic arts, Cahun’s work has influenced gender bending celebrities, the modern LGBTQ+ community, and conversations on identity and expression to this day.
Happy birthday, Claude Cahun!
October 25, 2002
Pablo Picasso's 121st Birthday
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Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon [1907], and Guernica [1937], a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.
Picasso's influence was and remains immense and widely acknowledged by his admirers and detractors alike. On the occasion of his 1939 retrospective at MoMA, Life magazine wrote: "During the 25 years he has dominated modern European art, his enemies say he has been a corrupting influence. With equal violence, his friends say he is the greatest artist alive." Picasso was the first artist to receive a special honour exhibition at the Grand Gallery of the Louvre Museum in Paris in celebration of his 90 years. In 1998, Robert Hughes wrote of him: "To say that Pablo Picasso dominated Western art in the 20th century is, by now, the merest commonplace. ... No painter or sculptor, not even Michelangelo, had been as famous as this in his own lifetime. ... Though Marcel Duchamp, that cunning old fox of conceptual irony, has certainly had more influence on nominally vanguard art over the past 30 years than Picasso, the Spaniard was the last great beneficiary of the belief that the language of painting and sculpture really mattered to people other than their devotees."
October 25, 2019
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s 119th Birthday
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“As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned,” said Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the Nigerian educator and activist who fearlessly campaigned for women’s rights and the liberation of Africa from colonial rule. Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Nigerian-Italian guest artist Diana Ejaita, celebrates a formidable leader who founded what many refer to as one of the most important social movements of the twentieth century.
Born on this day in 1900 in Abeokuta, the current capital of Nigeria’s Ogun state, the former Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas grew up witnessing Great Britain consolidating control over Nigeria. As the grandchild of a slave, she became one of the first girls to enroll in Abeokuta Grammar School, before traveling to Cheshire in England to continue her education. By the time she returned home, she’d dropped her birth names and preferred to speak Yoruba.
In 1932, Ransome-Kuti established the Abeokuta Ladies Club [ALC], fostering unity between educated women and poor market workers and setting up the first adult education programs for Nigerian women. Renamed the Abeokuta Women’s Union in 1946, the organization boasted a membership of some 20,000 and pushed for healthcare, social services, and economic opportunity. Imprisoned in 1947 for protesting against unfair treatment towards women, Ransome-Kuti and her followers also led the charge to abdicate a corrupt local leader.
A trailblazer in many ways, Ransome-Kuti was also the first Nigerian woman to drive a car. She was also the only woman in Nigeria’s 1947 delegation to London, which lodged a protest and set the nation on the path toward self-government. As one of the few women elected to Nigeria’s house of chiefs, she was recognized for her advocacy work on behalf of women's rights and education, and revered as the “Lioness of Lisabi” and the “Mother of Africa.”
Her daughter—Dolupo—and three sons—Beko, Olikoye, and Fela—likewise became leaders in education, healthcare, and music, continuing their mother’s legacy of activism and advocacy.
December 6, 2018
Zeki Müren’s 87th Birthday
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Hailed as “The Sun of Art” and the “Pasha of Turkish Music,” Zeki Müren was a singer, composer, actor, and poet who became one of the most important artists in Turkish classical music history.
Born in the historic Hisar district of Bursa on this day in 1931, Müren was the only child of a Macedonian timber merchant. While a student at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, he won first place in a contest sponsored by Turkish Radio and Television. In 1951 he gave his first live performance on Istanbul Radio. That same year he recorded “Muhabbet Kuşu” [Parakeet] with clarinetist Sükrü Tunar, the first of hundreds of songs he’d release on phonograph and cassette over the course of his career. His 1955 release “Manolyam” was the first Turkish recording to be certified gold.
For his first live concert in 1955 Müren took the stage in typical stage clothes, but over time began designing his own wardrobe, expressing a personal style that sometimes included thigh-high boots, sparkling tights, jeweled capes, miniskirts, and a peacock tail—as well as wigs and makeup. His fearlessly flamboyant look became known as a symbol of his strength of character and individuality.
Müren transcended music by beginning an acting career in the 1950s with a role in the film or Beklenen Sarki “Awaited Song” [1953]. He would go on to appear in 18 films, often composing the scores as well, and played the lead in Robert Anderson’s stage drama Tea and Sympathy [1960].
In 1991, Müren was named an official State Artist of Tukey. Today, Müren’s legacy lives on through the Zeki Müren Fine Arts Anatolian High School in Bursa, which opened in 2002. His house in Bodrum became the Zeki Müren Art Museum and his Zeki Müren Scholarship Fund has supported thousands of students over the past 20 years.
Doğum günün kutlu olsun, Zeki Müren!
Previous concepts of the Doodle below
December 6, 2018
Tareque Masud’s 62nd Birthday
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The first Bangladeshi director to participate in the Oscars or to be honored at Cannes, Tareque Masud was a driving force within his country’s independent film movement. He and his wife Catherine, would visit remote villages all over Bangladesh showing films with a mobile projector, earning the nickname “Cinema Feriwalla” [Vendor of Movies].
Born in the village of Nurpur on this day in 1956, Masud was educated in a Bangladeshi madrassa, or Muslim school. Following Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, he became part of the film society movement and earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Dhaka. His first films were documentaries that told the story of his homeland, starting with 1989’s Adam Surat [Inner Strength] about the Bangladeshi painter Sheikh Mohammed Sultan. His classic 1995 feature-length documentary Muktir Gaan [Song of Freedom] about the independence movement in Bangladesh attracted huge audiences.
Masud’s upbringing in East Pakistan inspired his first feature, The Clay Bird. The Masuds invested all their savings into completing the film, which went on to win an International Critics’ award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
A founding member of the Short Film Forum, an important platform for independent film, Masud also organized Bangladesh's first International Short and Documentary Film Festival, which continues to this day. To further honor his legacy, the Tareq Masud Memorial Trust launched the Tareque Masud Short Film Competition, encouraging a new generation of Bengali filmmakers to follow in his footsteps.
Happy Birthday, Tareque Masud!
December 6, 2021
Celebrating Pizza
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Today’s interactive Doodle celebrates one of the world’s most popular dishes—pizza! On this day in 2017, the culinary art of Neapolitan “Pizzaiuolo” was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
This pizza puzzle game features a few of the most beloved pizza toppings from all over the world and challenges you to slice based on the type of pizza ordered. But keep a close eye on the requested toppings and number of slices—the more accurate the order, the more stars you earn!
Although flatbread with toppings has been consumed for centuries in ancient civilizations from Egypt to Rome, the southwestern Italian city of Naples is widely credited as the birthplace of the pizza known today [dough layered with tomatoes and cheese] in the late 1700s. It's here that the story of pizza begins: one that is baked together with centuries of global migration, economic development, and technological evolution.
Today, an estimated five billion pizzas [350 slices per second in the U.S. alone] are consumed internationally each year. No matter how you slice it, pizza is here to stay!
May 31, 2021
Memorial Day 2021 [United States]
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On Monday, Google took a more somber approach to mark Memorial Day, publishing a gray Doodle to remember the brave men and women who died while serving in the US armed forces. To honor the soldiers' sacrifices, people visit national cemeteries and memorials, decorating graves with an American flag.May 25, 2020
May 31, 2021
Akira Ifukube's 107th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 107th birthday of Japanese composer Akira Ifukube—a prodigious talent in classical music and cinematic film scores widely known for his work on the original soundtrack for the “Godzilla” movies of the 1950s.
Akira Ifukube was born on this day in 1914 in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan, into a distinguished family lineage that traces its origins back to at least the 7th-century. A passionate listener of European musical scores as a teenager, he aspired to intertwine his deep-rooted national identity into original compositions, an idea further solidified after listening to Russian composer Stravinsky’s 1913 emotive orchestral piece “The Rite of Spring” at 14 years old.
In 1935, Akira left home to study forestry at Hokkaido University, where he wrote ”Japanese Rhapsody,” his first original orchestral number. Following a brief stint as a forestry officer and lumber processor, he chose to pursue music composition full time. In 1947, he released the first of his more than 250 film scores that he produced over the next half-century. The height of his film score career came in 1954 when he wrote the soundtrack for “Godzilla,” whose signature roar he created by taking a resin-covered leather glove and dragging it against the loose string of a double bass.
Outside of his lifelong work as a composer, Akira served as president of the Tokyo College of Music starting in 1976 and published a 1,000-page book on theory entitled “Orchestration.” The Japanese government honored his lifetime achievements with both the Order of Culture and the Order of the Sacred Treasure.
Happy birthday, Akira Ifukube!
February 15, 2020
Nise da Silveira's 115th Birthday
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“To navigate against the current, these rare qualities are needed: a spirit of adventure, courage, perseverance, and passion.”
—Nise da Silveira
Today’s Doodle celebrates visionary Brazilian psychiatrist Nise da Silveira on her 115th birthday. One of the few women in medicine in her time, she boldly challenged established psychiatric practices, pioneering a more humane approach to patient care.
Born on this day in 1905, in the northeastern city of Maceió, da Silveira completed her medical degree in 1926 at just 21 years old, as the only woman in her class. When she began work at a national psychiatric center in 1933, she was discouraged by the harsh medical procedures that doctors were relying upon to treat mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.
Bravely challenging the status quo, da Silveira instead began to study and advocate for more compassionate rehabilitative treatments. She developed art workshops for patients to express the inner workings of their minds through painting and sculpting, and she later became one of the first to incorporate animals into her practice as “co-therapists.” Da Silveira’s new approach proved highly successful in her patients’ rehabilitation, paving the way for an entirely new way of thinking about psychiatric care.
Da Silveira’s Museu de Imagens do Inconsciente [“Images of the Unconscious Museum”] remains open to this day, maintaining a collection of over 350,000 pieces of patient-created artwork. Her work has inspired countless others, leading to the establishment of therapeutic institutions both in Brazil and around the world.
February 15, 2011
Ernest Shackleton's Birthday
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Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Jun 2, 2021
Celebrating Frank Kameny
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In celebration of Pride Month, today’s Doodle honors American astronomer, veteran, and gay rights activist Dr. Frank Kameny, widely hailed as one of the most prominent figures of the U.S. LGBTQ rights movement.
Franklin Edward Kameny was born in Queens, New York, on May 21, 1925. Gifted from a young age, Kameny enrolled at Queens College to study physics at just 15 years old. He saw combat during World War II and upon his return to the U.S. obtained a doctorate in astronomy at Harvard University. In 1957, Kameny accepted a job as an astronomer with the Army Map Service, but he was fired just months later based on an executive order effectively barring members of the LGBTQ community from federal employment.
In response to his termination, Kameny sued the federal government and in 1961 filed the first gay rights appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Denied but undeterred, Kameny embarked upon a lifelong fight for equal rights. Years before the Stonewall Riots, he organized one of the country’s first gay rights advocacy groups. In the early ‘70s, he also successfully challenged the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, and in 1975, the Civil Service Commission finally reversed its ban on LGBTQ employees.
In 2009, over 50 years after his dismissal, Kameny received a formal apology from the U.S. government. In June 2010, Washington D.C. named a stretch of 17th Street NW near Dupont Circle “Frank Kameny Way” in his honor.
Thank you, Frank Kameny, for courageously paving the way for decades of progress!
June 2, 2018
Heinz Sielmann’s 101st Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the renowned biologist and documentary filmmaker, Heinz Sielmann. Sielmann is also often recognized as ‘Mr. Woodpecker’, a nickname earned after the release of one of his most beloved wildlife documentaries showing the mysterious lives of Woodpeckers—filmed at times from within the bird’s nest.
Heinz Sielmann was born in Germany, in 1917, and moved to East Prussia at a young age where his father opened a business of electrical and building materials. Even in his early childhood, Sielmann had a fascination with the natural world; often waking up early to observe birds before school. At the age of 17, after being given his first camera, he traded in his sketches for photographs of his natural surroundings.
One of Sielmann’s most notable achievements was his development of Carpenters of the Forest which featured the elusive Woodpecker in a degree of depth that had not been seen before. Sielmann placed cameras inside of the woodpecker’s nests and in doing so captured intimate moments between parent and offspring. The film was an enormous success globally and was followed by a book about it’s making. In it Sielmann wrote, “of all the animals that I have worked with, the woodpeckers are my favourites... because I was able to find out many new facts about the biology of these birds.”
In the late 1950’s, Heinz Sielmann released his first feature film, Les Seigneurs de la Forêt [Lords of the Forest], which was commissioned by the King of Belgium and filmed in what was at the time the Belgian Congo. In addition to the wildlife and breathtaking landscapes, Sielmann was of the first to capture the familial and social nature of Gorillas. This film won first place at the Moscow Film Festival and quickly became one of his most revered films—even being translated into 26 languages. Over the following decades, Sielmann continued to make documentary films and series. In 1971 he photographed for the Academy Award winning film The Hellstrom Chronicle, along with Walon Green, about the threat that insects collectively pose to humans and the struggle between the two.
Today’s Doodle depicts Heinz Sielmann as he appeared in his popular TV show Expeditionen ins Tierreich, documenting the forest wildlife that surrounds him.
Doodle illustrated by Dieter Braun.
June 2, 2015
Tapio Wirkkala’s 100th Birthday
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What do Finnish banknotes and vodka bottles have in common? Both can be traced back to a common Finnish designer: Tapio Wirkkala.
Born in Hanko, Finland, on this day in 1915, Wirkkala is one of Finland’s most versatile and perhaps most internationally famous designers. Known as one of the pioneers of industrial Finnish art, Wirkkala had enormous artistic range, studying sculpture and graphic design and making furniture, vases, glassware and jewelry. Outside of the artist’s studio, his work can be found on a number of everyday items, including utensils, stamps, and even ketchup bottles.
To honor Wirkkala’s 100th birthday, today’s Doodle reflects his famous design work in glassware and vases.
Illustrated by guest artist, Alyssa Winans.
March 24, 2020
Celebrating Banh Mi
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the savory and satisfying Vietnamese street-food sandwich known as bánh mì, a smorgasbord of flavors that represents a true melting pot of cultures and ingredients alike. On this day in 2011, bánh mì was admitted into the Oxford English Dictionary.
Some accounts posit bánh mì’s humble beginnings in the late 1950s street stalls of Saigon’s noisy alleys, but an official origin story is yet to be verified. What is universally accepted about bánh mi’s history: its French inspiration, the staple baguette sandwich.
A traditional bánh mì consists of crispy and airy bread packed with a meat of choice [such as pork pâté, giò lụa, Vietnamese cold cuts, or meatballs], sweet, crunchy veggies and herbs [pickled radishes, carrots, and cilantro], a spread of mayonnaise or margarine, and savory soy sauce, finally topped with chili sauce or peppers. Voilà! By replacing European flavors with Vietnamese ingredients, a tangy and sweet while simultaneously spicy and salty takeaway food was born.
In current times, one can find countless spin-offs of the sandwich in street stands, markets, and restaurants across the world, from New York, to Seoul, to Saigon. Koreans often enjoy bánh mì’s stuffed with their signature bulgogi [barbeque beef] and kimchi. In the U.S., many popular recipes have traded the baguette with a brioche bun to create a miniaturized version: bánh mì sliders.
No matter the variation, you can relish the taste of cultures coming together!
Mar 27, 2020
Celebrating the Marinière
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Today’s animated Doodle celebrates the iconic French blue-and-white-striped shirt, the marinière [French for “sailor shirt”]. On this day in 1858, the French Navy decreed this versatile undergarment part of the official uniform of its sailors, marking the genesis of the top’s storied journey into closets around the world.
Knit tightly from wool in order to guard seafarers against the harsh elements of their maritime environment, the marinière’s initial function is well-known. However, the significance of the sweater’s striped design is still up for debate. Some stories say the horizontal stripes were designed to make it easier to spot sailors who fell overboard, while other accounts claim that each stripe was meant to represent one of Napoleon’s naval victories over the British. Regardless of its history, there is no denying that the marinière has since transformed into an unmistakable statement of style.
In the late 19th century, the marinière began its migration from navy decks to city streets with the help of French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. Frequently spotted at masked balls in Paris wearing the now-iconic striped shirt, Colette boldly broke conventional gender stereotypes and helped to pave the way for modern womenswear.
By the 1920s, bohemians, intellectuals, and fashionistas of the French Riviera had adopted the marinière, further cementing the jersey’s evolution from a staple of nautical life to a symbol of artistic chic.
From artists to movie stars, the marinière has earned countless iconic endorsements over the decades, respected and seen today as a timeless classic the world
Mar 28, 2020
Wubbo Ockels’ 74th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 74th birthday of Dutch astronaut, physicist, and professor Dr. Wubbo Ockels, the Netherlands’ first citizen in space. A champion of sustainable energy renowned for his positive outlook on life, Dr. Ockel’s contributions to science and space exploration were truly out of this world.
Born on this day in 1946 in Almelo, Netherlands, Wubbo Johannes Ockels went on to pursue a doctorate in physics and mathematics from the University of Groningen. Taking a break from his research on nuclear energy, he stumbled across an advertisement from the European Space Agency looking for candidates to go to space, and the rest is history. In 1978, the ESA selected Ockels and two others to begin astronaut training as part of an ambitious series of missions utilizing Spacelab, the agency’s manned research module.
On October 30th, 1985, Dr. Ockels launched into space aboard the Challenger space shuttle as a scientific research specialist, the eight-person crew becoming the largest ever to do so aboard the same craft. In honor of the Netherlands, he carried onboard a large bag of gouda cheese. After logging 168 hours in space, a dizzying 110 orbits of Earth, and over 75 scientific experiments, the crew returned safely home.
After that, Dr. Ockels never made it back to space, but his unique experience of the world’s beauty revealed the vulnerability of our planet. Instilled with the profound notion that humankind has no spare home, he used his newfound fame as an astronaut to promote sustainability back on Earth. In 2003, he became a full-time aerospace engineering professor, with a focus on developing alternative sources of energy.
Thank you, Dr. Wubbo Ockels, for defying gravity to create a better future for us all!
Apr 1, 2020
Dame Jean Macnamara's 121st Birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Sydney-based guest artist Thomas Campi, celebrates Australian doctor and medical scientist Dame Jean Macnamara on her 121st birthday. Dr. Macnamara applied her tireless work ethic to better understand and treat various forms of paralysis including polio, and her work contributed to the development of a successful polio vaccine in 1955.
Annie Jean Macnamara was born in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia on this day in 1899, and as a teenager during World World I felt a strengthened resolve “to be of some use in the world.” Standing just 152cm tall, the forthright Dr. Macnamara proved to be a force to be reckoned with.
Dr. Macnamara graduated from medical school in 1925, the same year a polio epidemic struck the capital city of Melbourne. As a consultant and medical officer to the Poliomyelitis Committee of Victoria, she turned her focus to treating and researching the potentially fatal virus, a particular risk for children.
In collaboration with the future Nobel Prize winner Sir Macfarlane Burnet, she discovered in 1931 that there was more than one strain of the poliovirus, a pivotal step towards the development of an effective vaccine nearly 25 years later.
Dr. Macnamara continued to work with sufferers of the disease—especially children—for the rest of her life, developing new methods of treatment and rehabilitation.
For her invaluable commitment to children’s lives, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire [DBE] in 1935. During her lifetime, Dr. Macnamara's research also played a major role in the introduction of myxomatosis to control rabbit plagues, minimising environmental damage across Australia.
Happy birthday, Dame Jean Macnamara!
April 1, 2017
Payut Ngaokrachang’s 88th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates renowned Thai cartoonist and animation pioneer Payut Ngaokrachang with a depiction of one of his best-known animations, and Thai cinema's first cel-animated feature film, “The Adventure of Sudsakorn.”
Released in 1979, “Sudsakorn” was one of Thailand’s earliest full-length animations, and was based on author Sudthornpu’s book Pra Apai Manee. It follows the exploits of the boy hero as he battles with mythical creatures and other dangerous adversaries. The animation was created on a very tight budget, and the innovative Payut was said to have crafted some of his movie-making equipment using discarded military machinery to keep costs low.
On what would be his 88th birthday, we celebrate Payut Ngaokrachang and his significant contribution to animation.
April 1, 2013
Jorge Isaacs' 176th Birthday
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Jorge Isaacs Ferrer was a Colombian writer, politician and soldier. His only novel, María, became one of the most notable works of the Romantic movement in Spanish-language literature.
Apr 2, 2013
Maria Sibylla Merian's 366th Birthday
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The most striking thing about Maria Sybilla Merian was her ability to do two things at once. Firstly, her illustrations boasted impeccable observational and scientific clarity; it's fairly obvious that the entomologist neglected all short-cuts in the rendering of chitinous exoskeletons and dramatic stages in metamorphosis of her subjects. Secondly, Merian's drawings accomplished this with such a flow of line work, crystalline color, and balanced composition as to be sublimely inviting to the viewer. [This is especially remarkable when observing her renditions of specimens that might be, shall we say, less than personable if approached in the wild]
While Merian was most known for her depictions of insects, she did cover a range of species across various animal kingdoms. I was inspired by particular painting involving a young iguana, whose curl of the tail coincided nicely with the shape of a lower-case 'g'. I hastened to sketch out a concept based on this notion:
From there I tried a different, simpler composition showing the life cycle of a type of moth:
A combination of the two sketches was most appealing, and I set out with pencil and paper to do a tonal drawing of the doodle:
At this point, I brought the drawing to the computer and rendered each creature in turn, with some extra critters hidden here and there.
Posted by Kevin Laughlin, Doodler
April 2, 201
Hans Christian Andersen's 205th Birthday
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Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales sparked the imaginations of generations of children. For this series, one of the first multi-part narrative doodles we created, I had the privilege to interpret Andersen's famous work, Thumbelina.
In the first panel, Thumbelina steps into the world for the first time, emerging from a flower. She is, however, a few sizes smaller than the rest of the people in the world.
posted by Jennifer Hom
Apr 24, 2010
Hubble Space Telescope's 20th Anniversary
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The Hubble Space Telescope [often referred to as HST or Hubble] is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned both as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories. The Space Telescope Science Institute [STScI] selects Hubble's targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center [GSFC] controls the spacecraft.
December 14, 2021
Celebrating Som Tum
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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!