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July 7, 2013
Vladimir Durov's 150th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5x...6H9irwX4w=s660
Anatoly Anatolyevich Durov was a renowned 20th century animal trainer. He was a member of the Durov family of performers who raised the quality and prestige of the Russian circus.
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July 8, 2011
Jean de la Fontaine's 390th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/SW...gkarEQR7g=s660
Of all the fables adapted by Jean de la Fontaine, “The Tortoise and the Hare” appealed to me the most for the persistent relevance of its message. I drew stylistic inspiration from traditional storybook etchings, and also looked at some of my heroes of illustration -- Arthur Rackham and John Tenniel. Though the style is old-fashioned, the moral is still true! You go, little guy!
Posted by Sophia Foster-Dimino
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May 7, 2010
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 170th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Wu...RTypW6h4F=s660
To celebrate Tchaikovsky's birthday, the doodlers and I decided to collaborate with the San Francisco Ballet! This is the first time we used real people to pose for a doodle and, thanks to a group of well organized and talented dancers/staff, everything went swimmingly! A single day of photography was all we needed before I took a compilation of individual/pair photos and pieced them together to make our final logo. You can take a peek at some behind the scenes work on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5hdQfz6TNg
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May 9, 2020
Celebrating Frank Soo
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Today’s Doodle celebrates British footballer and coach Frank Soo, a fearsome half-back and inside forward who broke racial barriers playing for the English national team during World War II. On this day in 1942, Soo made his international debut in a match against Wales, becoming the first person of non-European descent—and only ever of Asian heritage—to represent the country’s team at the highest level.
Frank Soo was born on March 8th, 1914 in Derbyshire, England and raised in Liverpool. He quickly earned a reputation as one of the best youth players in the city. At just 18 years old, he was scouted by Stoke City F.C., becoming the first professional player of Chinese ancestry in the English Football League.
Renowned for an artful playing style, dignified ball control, and precise passing, the charismatic Soo was named team captain at age 27 and rose to a level of national celebrity. In 1940, following the outbreak of World War II, Soo enlisted in the Royal Air Force and continued his legacy as the captain of its football team. Though England’s Football Association deemed its wartime matches unofficial, Soo went on to represent his country in nine such international fixtures by 1945.
Soo retired from playing in 1950 and moved on to a successful international coaching career that lasted over three decades. His legacy lives on in the increasingly diverse English team that plays today.
Thank you, Frank Soo, for showing the world the unifying power of sport.
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May 9, 2011
76th Birthday of Roger Hargreaves
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0a...izVC42a6w=s660
Charles Roger Hargreaves under pen name Roger Hargreaves, was an English author and illustrator of children's books. He was best remembered for the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, intended for young readers. The simple and humorous stories, with brightly coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture since 1971, with sales of over 85 million copies worldwide in 20 languages.
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October 7, 2012
Niels Bohr's 127th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/AM...la5d3BRBA=s660
Our love for all that is nerdy in all shapes and sizes shines through in our doodle for Neils Bohr. Some of the biggest contributions to science aren't big at all, sometimes they're as small as an atom.
A Danish physicist, Bohr earned a Nobel prize in 1975 for his work. Amongst his studies on the shell model of the atom, the correspondence principle, and the liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus, Bohr's more recognizable work is that which bares his own name: the Bohr model. This theory poses that the electrons of the atom travel in orbits around its nucleus. The doodle is depiction of the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, which, though simple, is still the introduction of quantum mechanics for many students.
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19 Nov 2022
Celebrating Enrique de la Mora
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Enrique de la Mora y Palomar, a Mexican architect who shaped the image of contemporary cities in Mexico, and was illustrated by Mexico-based artist Julian Ardila. De la Mora experimented with hyperbolic paraboloid shell roofs, also known as saddle roofs, to create structurally efficient buildings with a modern aesthetic. On this day in 1946, Enrique de la Mora received the Premio Educación Pública award from the Administrative Commission of the National Prize for Arts and Sciences for his Purísima Concepción Parish design.
De la Mora was born on November 19, 1907 in Guadalajara, a city in Western Mexico. His father, Manuel de la Mora y del Castillo Negrete, was a prominent engineer and architect.
Following his father’s footsteps, the young De la Mora attended the National School of Architecture and graduated in 1933. A year later, he launched his career by designing the El Puerto de Liverpool department store in Mexico City.
De la Mora went on to design more than 100 architectural projects over the next two decades, including major university buildings and churches. His building designs focused on optimizing structures with symmetrical curves such as hyperbolas, parabolas, vaults and arches.
His most notable work was Iglesia La Purísima, the first Mexican church with a modern architectural design. The structural innovation behind the church’s parabolic vaulted ceilings won him a National Architecture Award in 1946.
His other major works include the master plan for the Monterrey Institute of Technology, the Mexican Stock Exchange, and the School of Philosophy and Literature [Facultad de Filosofía y Letras] at the National Autonomous University of Mexico which later became a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Today, De la Mora is remembered as an important figure in the structural expressionism movement. We can find his exceptional work and influence across major Mexican cities.
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19 November 2019
200th Anniversary of Museo del Prado
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 200th anniversary of Madrid’s Museo del Prado. Opened on this day in 1819, the museum is home to thousands of Spanish paintings from the 12th century to the 20th century, including masterpieces by El Greco, Francisco Goya, Diego Velázquez, amongst other European masters.
Designed in 1785 by architect Juan de Villanueva, the building was repurposed by King Ferdinand VII and Queen Maria Isabel de Braganza from a center for the natural sciences to a public gallery in 1819. Originally called the Royal Museum, it was later named Museo Nacional del Prado. With a collection of over 5,000 pieces, the museum pursued an expansion project that increased public access and reduced crowding in the main building.
The nearby Jerónimos Cloister was restored and incorporated to create the Museo del Prado Campus, allowing the museum to showcase the masterpieces of a new era. The Bicentenary exhibit, “A Place of Memory,” pays homage to the museum’s history through some of its darkest periods and offers a glimpse into how the museum has transformed into the institution it is today.
The museum is looking to the future on its 200th anniversary, taking time to ensure that diversity is embraced at the dawn of its third century. Throughout the year, the collection exhibited artists from Latin America such as Matrimonios de Martín de Loyola con Beatriz Ñusta y de Juan de Borja con Lorenza Ñusta de Loyola, an extraordinary example of the viceregal painting, coming from the Pedro de Osma Museum in Lima, Peru, and women in A Tale of Two Women Painters: Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana and Twelve Photographers. Guests should be able to see most of the museum in a couple of hours, but they might lose track of time trying to unpack the scenes in Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights.”
Happy two centuries, Museo del Prado!
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4 Dec 2019
Professor Rapee Sagarik’s 97th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates horticulturalist and botanist Professor Sagarik on the 97th anniversary of his birth in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand—a country that is home to nearly 1,300 native species of orchid.
Widely known as the “father of Thai orchids,” Professor Sagarik was also later president at Bangkok’s Kasetsart University and also served on the Faculty of Agriculture at Maejo University in the northern city of Chiang Mai. He is widely considered Thailand’s foremost expert in the breeding and conservation of these delicate, beautiful plants.
Once considered an exclusive pastime for the wealthy, orchid-growing became more accessible thanks in part to Professor Sagarik’s research and education efforts. He founded the Orchid Society of Thailand in 1957 and later became a regular speaker at the World Orchid Conference. In 1984, he organized the first Asia Pacific Orchid Conference. Thanks to Professor Sagarik’s efforts, Thailand’s first orchid library opened In December 1993.
Thailand is now the world's foremost exporter of orchids, and many of the most popular varieties were bred from wild Thai orchids.
“These flowers are not like the ones you see every day, which blossom and then wither away,” Professor Sagarik once observed. Because the beauty of orchids is passed onto future generations, he called the flowers “love in humankind.”
S̄uk̄hs̄ạnt̒ wạn keid, Professor Sagarik!
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5 Dec 2019
Celebrating Wellies
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On the anniversary of the rainiest day in the history of the U.K., today’s Doodle celebrates Wellington boots, or “wellies,” a rainy day staple for centuries. Over the course of 24 hours on this day in 2015, an area of the northwestern county of Cumbria, England, recorded over 34 centimeters [[13 inches) of rain. What better way to commemorate this deluge than to pay homage to the wellie, for keeping feet warm and dry during the heaviest downpours?
Conceived by Arthur Wellesley, the First Duke of Wellington, in the early 1800s, wellies evolved from modified military issue Hessian boots. By asking his London shoemaker to make a shorter boot that would be easier to wear with trousers and to switch from polished to waxed calfskin leather, a stylish waterproof boot was created.
Named after the Duke, the Wellington boot was further revolutionized with the arrival of vulcanized rubber in the mid-19th century. Rubber’s waterproof capabilities made the wellie a must-have for the typical British weather and its popularity soon spread across the world.
Today the wellie sparks joy in the hearts of children as they think about all the puddles they can jump in, and can be found in all the colors of the rainbow to make the grayest days bright and cheerful. Hopefully, not as gray and rainy as it was in Cumbria on that record-setting day.
Rain or shine, have an O so lovely time!
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3 Dec 2013
Carlos Juan Finlay's 180th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/sy...bjZDhSbdQ=s660
Carlos Juan Finlay was a Cuban epidemiologist recognized as a pioneer in the research of yellow fever, determining that it was transmitted through mosquitoes Aedes aegypti.
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4 December 2013
Gae Aulenti's 86th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6H...NE8hXYLAA=s660
Gaetana "Gae" Aulenti was an Italian architect and designer who was active in furniture design, graphic design, stage design, lighting design, exhibition and interior design. She was known for her contributions to the design of important museums such as the Musée d'Orsay in Paris [in collaboration with ACT Architecture], the Contemporary Art Gallery at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the restoration of Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco [in collaboration with HOK Architects].
Aulenti was one of only a few women architects and designers who gained notoriety in their own right during the post-war period in Italy, where Italian designers sought to make meaningful connections to production principles, and influenced culture far beyond Italy. This avant-garde design movement blossomed into an entirely new type of architecture and design, one full of imaginary utopias leaving standardization to the past.
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3 December 2014
Anna Freud's 119th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6i...QY5JT79VQ=s660
Take a peek inside the mind of psychoanalyst Anna Freud for her 119th birthday. As the daughter of famed neurologist Sigmund Freud, Anna followed her father’s footsteps into the field and is recognized as the founder of psychoanalytic child psychology.
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22 September 2021
Bunpheng Faiphiuchai’s 89th birthday
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For those looking to understand the heritage of Thailand’s northeastern Isan region—the nation’s largest territory that is home to over 22 million people—no other artistic phenomenon reflects its identity more than the poetic style of folk music known as Mo Lam. Today’s Doodle celebrates the 89th birthday of the Thai singer crowned the “Queen of Mo Lam,” Bunpheng Faiphiuchai.
Born on this day in 1932 in Ubon Ratchathani Province of Isan, Thailand, Bunpheng Faiphiuchai began performing Mo Lam at a young age. Mo Lam performances were uncomplicated during this era—one male and one female vocalist brought stories from Isan literature to life by holding a musical “debate” accompanied by the rhythmic sounds of the khaen [a bamboo mouth organ depicted in the Doodle artwork].
After years of training, Faiphiuchai became known for her witty philosophical responses to her male counterparts and soon landed a job as a Mo Lam performer. By 1955, Faiphiuchai recorded more full-length albums than any other woman in the genre. She complemented her illustrious singing career with philanthropic endeavors such as promoting infectious disease prevention, environmental initiatives, and other forms of Thai performance art.
Faiphiuchai was named a Thai National Artist in 1997 for her outstanding cultural contributions and passed down this unique Mo Lam expertise to numerous students throughout her life. Today, many of her pupils are well-known performers of Mo Lam which remains a foundational aspect of Thailand’s rich cultural heritage.
Happy Birthday, Bunpheng Faiphiuchai! Thank you for fostering the next generation of Mo Lam performers!
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22 September 2019
Junko Tabei’s 80th Birthday
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“Do not give up,” said Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei, when asked for advice. “Keep on your quest.”
Born on this day in 1939, Tabei was raised in Miharu, a small town in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. She discovered the joy of climbing at age 10 during a class trip to Mount Nasu. Though she was the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, Tabei once said she preferred to be remembered as the 36th person to climb the world’s highest mountain peak.
“I did not intend to be the first woman on Everest,” she explained. Still, it's undeniable that the 4-foot-9 [[144.8 centimeter) mother of two made history in 1969 when she founded Japan’s first Ladies Climbing Club, defying the traditional notion that women should stay at home and clean the house.
The Everest expedition started in the spring of 1975 with 15 climbers and 6 sherpas. At an elevation of 9,000 feet [2,743.2 meters], their camp was buried by an avalanche. After 3 days of recovery, Tabei continued with the climb, reaching the summit on May 16, 1975, accompanied only by the sherpa Ang Tshering.
After returning from the summit, she received congratulations from Japan’s Emperor, Crown Prince, and Princess, among others. “It took two months until I could settle at home,” she recalled. “My three-year-old daughter was scared of all the cameras."
Excited more by mountain climbing than media attention, Tabei continued to scale new heights, including the “seven summits”—the highest peaks on each continent—as depicted in today’s Doodle. Even when battling illness, she continued climbing.
Tabei eventually reached mountaintops in 76 different countries.
Happy Birthday, Junko Tabei!
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5 December 2017
Veronika Dudarova’s 101st Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...8634624-2x.png
In today’s Doodle, Google-hued lights shine on a group of musicians led by Veronika Dudarova, the first Russian woman to conduct an orchestra.
Born in 1916, Dudarova spent her formative years studying piano and musicology in the company of some of Russia’s most renowned musical talents. In 1947, she graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, joining the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra as a junior conductor. She spent 13 years in that role before taking over as principal conductor in 1960. In 1991, Dudarova formed the Symphony Orchestra of Russia, which she led until 2003.
One of the very few female conductors in the world, Dudarova holds the Guinness World Record as the only woman to lead a major symphony orchestra for more than 50 years. During her career, she won the State Russian Music Award, was named the People’s Artist of the USSR, and even had a minor planet named after her.
On what would’ve been Dudarova’s 101st birthday, we honor the conductor’s dramatic style as she leads the Google letters in a passionate, homepage-worthy performance.
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5 December 2013
Fyodor Tutchev's 210th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tK...wXnvSaCLO=s660
Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev was a Russian poet and diplomat. Tyutchev is one of the most memorized and quoted Russian poets. Occasional pieces, translations and political poems constitute about a half of his overall poetical output.
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5 December 2014
Lina Bo Bardi's 100th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/na...7jOZhqbzA=s660
Lina Bo Bardi, born Achillina Bo was an Italian-born Brazilian modernist architect. A prolific architect and designer, she devoted her working life, most of it spent in Brazil, to promoting the social and cultural potential of architecture and design. While she studied under radical Italian architects, she quickly became intrigued with Brazilian vernacular design and how it could influence a modern Brazilian architecture. During her lifetime it was difficult to be accepted among the local Brazilian architects, because she was both a "foreigner" and a woman.
She is recognizable for the unique style of the many architectural illustrations she created over her lifetime, along with her tendency to leave poignant notes to herself. She is also known for her furniture and jewelry designs. The popularity of her works has increased since 2008, when a 1993 catalog of her works was republished. A number of her product designs are being revived, and exhibitions such as her 1968 exhibition of glass and concrete easels have been recreated.
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5 December 2010
St Nicolas' Eve 2010
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/v_...Q-V0NF-DA=s660
Sinterklaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include De Sint ["The Saint"], De Goede Sint ["The Good Saint"] and De Goedheiligman ["The Good Holy Man"]. Many descendants and cognates of "Sinterklaas" or "Saint Nicholas" in other languages are also used in the Low Countries, nearby regions, and former Dutch colonies.
The feast of Sinterklaas celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas on 6 December. The feast is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on St. Nicholas' Eve [5 December] in the Netherlands and on the morning of 6 December, Saint Nicholas Day, Belgium, Luxembourg, northern France [French Flanders, Lorraine, and Artois], and Hungary. The tradition is also celebrated in some territories of the former Dutch Empire, including Aruba.
Sinterklaas is one of the sources of the popular Christmas icon of Santa Claus
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11 Dec 2010
Carlos Gardel's Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/2010/gardel10-hp.jpg
Carlos Gardel was a French Argentine singer, songwriter, composer and actor, and the most prominent figure in the history of tango. He was one of the most influential interpreters of world popular music in the first half of the 20th century. Gardel is the most famous popular tango singer of all time and is recognized throughout the world. He was notable for his baritone voice and the dramatic phrasing of his lyrics. Together with lyricist and long-time collaborator Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel wrote several classic tangos.
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1 Dec 2010
55th Anniversary: Rosa Parks refuses to move
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ap...BaMwO8kr6=s660
Famous for an act of civil disobedience, Rosa Parks made history when she refused to give up her seat and move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This simple act rendered her an icon for equal rights in America. We wanted to celebrate the spirit of equality.
posted by Jennifer Hom
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1 December 2017
Romania National Day 2017
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...4204160-2x.png
Romania observes December 1st as Unification Day or Great Union Day. It was on this day in 1918 that representatives from Transylvania, Banat, Crişana, and Maramureş came together in Alba Iulia to merge with the Romanian kingdom under Ferdinand I. Military parades and cultural celebrations commemorate the occasion.
Today’s Doodle by Romanian illustrator Aitch depicts the country’s rich heritage against the backdrop of a traditional Romanian rug. In it, you can spot national emblems such as the lynx, the hip rose, and the oak. You’ll also find references to deer, mountains, and forests, symbolizing Romania's vibrant landscapes and abundant resources. The country is also famous for its traditional pottery [present on the "L"], such as the red ceramics of Horezu or the burnt clay artifacts from Marginea.
Finally, the moon is an integral aspect of Romanian folklore and ballads. In the Doodle, the sun and moon appear as well as a traditionally dressed couple reaching out for a kiss.
Happy National Day, Romania!
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1 December 2018
Maria Walanda Maramis’ 146th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...79488.4-2x.png
Today’s Doodle honors Maria Walanda Maramis, a National Hero of Indonesia who fought tirelessly for the advancement of women in her home country at the beginning of the 20th century.
Born in a small village in North Minahasa Regency on this day in 1872, Maramis was the youngest of three children. Orphaned at an early age, she was raised by an uncle along with her siblings. Maramis and her sister were offered only basic schooling because of their gender.
After moving to Manado, the capital city of North Sulawesi province, she began writing an op-ed column in a local newspaper, Tjahaja Siang. Her writings emphasized the importance of mothers as caretakers of their family’s well-being, health care, and education.
Based on these principles, she founded the organization PIKAT, an Indonesian acronym for “Percintaan Ibu Kepada Anak Turunannya,” which translates as “The Love of a Mother Toward her Children.” PIKAT members learned essential household skills like cooking and sewing and caring for their children’s health. The organization expanded as far away as to Java where local women organized their own branches.
Turning her attention to politics, Maramis fought for women’s right to vote in choosing their representatives. Her efforts paid off in 1921 when the government allowed women to participate in elections. PIKAT’s work went on, aided by Maramis’ daughter Anna Matuli Walanda.
In 1969, in appreciation of her accomplishments on behalf of Indonesian women, the government decreed Maramis a National Hero. Her work towards the emancipation of women is celebrated on her birthday and a statue stands in her honor in the village of Komo Luar.
Happy Birthday, Maria Walanda Maramis!
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16 Dec 2010
Jane Austen's 235th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5u...FupGAZ3WQ=s660
Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her use of biting irony, along with her realism, humour, and social commentary, have long earned her acclaim among critics, scholars, and popular audiences alike.
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20 Dec 2010
Mehmet Akif Ersoy's Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rG...XGTWecMxv=s660
Mehmet Akif Ersoy was an Ottoman-born Turkish poet, writer, academic, politician, and the author of the Turkish National Anthem. Widely regarded as one of the premiere literary minds of his time, Ersoy is noted for his command of the Turkish language, as well as his patriotism and role in the Turkish War of Independence.
A framed version of the national anthem by Ersoy typically occupies the wall above the blackboard in the classrooms of every public as well as most private schools around Turkey, along with a Turkish flag, a photograph of the country's founding father Atatürk, and a copy of Atatürk's speech to the nation's youth.
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Sep 4, 2010
25th Anniversary of Buckyball
https://www.google.com/logos/2010/buckyball10-hp.gif
Who doesn't like the buckyball? They're super strong, compact, nerdy, and fun! Named after Buckminster Fuller, the buckyball is a bit of science gold that all nerds can get behind-- buckyballs are cool. The structure is so strong it appears in architecture around the world, athletes also deemed it a sound shape for the football [or American soccer ball]. Science, however, sees its potential in display technology, medicine, and security!
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Jun 29, 2010
Antoine de Saint-Exupery's 110th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lS...HoO4lr8EN=s660
I've always loved the imagery from The Little Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, but I must confess that until I was assigned this doodle, I had never actually read the book. This was pretty much sacrilege on my part, as I come from working in kids books! My mother-in-law was quick to set me on the right path, lending me her translated copy [claiming it was the best, most poetic translation], and warned me to read the book with a pack of tissue. I followed her advice, finding a very quiet spot on the Google campus to read the book with a pair of sunglasses.
Cover to cover and an empty tissue pack later, I felt an even greater sense of responsibility to portray this beloved character as genuinely as possible. I painted the character in watercolor and ink, knowing there was no way the digital medium could capture the innocent, naive quality of Mr. Saint-Exupery's artwork. When the doodle finally launched, I was able to read user comments about how this doodle brought them joy, or how they recalled a passage from the book with a tear. It was such a wonderful feeling to emotionally connect with so many people at once and is probably one of the most rewarding experiences I've had as a doodler and illustrator.
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Jun 11, 2010
Jacques Cousteau's 100th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Em...4wO-ypZ9w=s660
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie Française.
Cousteau described his underwater world research in a series of books, perhaps the most successful being his first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure, published in 1953. Cousteau also directed films, most notably the documentary adaptation of the book, The Silent World, which won a Palme d'or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. He remained the only person to win a Palme d'Or for a documentary film, until Michael Moore won the award in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.
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May 9, 2010
J.M. Barrie's 150th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/LS...sNi_N9lZA=s660
Sir James Matthew Barrie, was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan.
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Apr 2, 2010
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.
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Mar 31, 2015
126th Anniversary of the public opening of the Eiffel Tower
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/U2...7B3rGJhww=s660
On this day 126 years ago, construction of the Eiffel Tower came to an end–marking the arrival of one of the most famous and recognized landmarks on the planet. Guest doodler Floriane Marchix depicts this anniversary on our homepage today.
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Nov 18, 2014
Amalia Eriksson's 190th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6x...sM0NvWgww=s660
Excited because it’s candy cane season? We’ll send your regards to Swedish entrepreneur Amalia Eriksson. Eriksson was the first person to manufacture the peppermint treats, becoming one of Sweden’s first women to own a business. Happy 190th birthday to Amalia!
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October 19, 2017
S. Chandrasekhar’s 107th Birthday
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“Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.” Thanks to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, we know! Today marks the 107th birthday of the first astrophysicist to win a Nobel Prize for his theory on the evolution of stars.
A child prodigy, Chandra published his first paper and developed his theory of star evolution before turning 20. By age 34, he was elected to the Royal Society of London, and soon after, became a distinguished service professor of physics.
The Indian-American physicist’s honors are astronomical, including the National Medal of Science, the Draper Medal of the US National Academy of Science, and the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Though originally met with skepticism in the 1930s, Chandra’s theories and equations won the Nobel Prize in Physics 50 years later.
Today’s Doodle illustrates one of the most important of all of S. Chandrasekhar's contributions to our understanding of stars and their evolution: The Chandrasekhar limit. The limit explains that when a star’s mass is lighter than 1.4 times that of the sun, it eventually collapses into a denser stage called a “white dwarf.” When heavier than 1.4, a white dwarf can continue to collapse and condense, evolving into a black hole or a supernova explosion.
Today we honor the original starman whose universal theories propel current space research and modern astronomy on their ambitious missions.
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Oct 15, 2013
Friedrich Nietzsche's 169th Birthday
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Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, writer, and philologist whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy.
His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from figures such as Socrates, Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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Nov 13, 2014
Seok Joo-myung's 106th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IM...oghy1dlLw=s660
In Korea, our doodle features a butterfly in honor of entomologist Seok Joo-myung's 106th birthday. Seok dedicated his life to the study of butterflies and made important contributions to the species’ taxonomy.
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12 January 2015
11th Anniversary of Kimani Maruge's First Day of School
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fm...NmxmtkEie=s660
It’s never too late to learn something new. On this day 11 years ago, Kenyan Kimani Maruge enrolled in primary school at the ripe age of 84, becoming the world’s oldest person to start elementary school. But Maruge’s love for education didn’t end there. In 2005, he boarded a plane–for the very first time–to address the U.N. on the importance of free primary school.
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12 January 2016
Charles Perrault’s 388th Birthday
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What's that story, with the glass slipper and the pumpkin that turns into a carriage? How about the one where a princess falls into a deep sleep when she pricks her hand on a spindle? We owe the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty narratives we've known since childhood to Charles Perrault, the 17th-century French author and academician. Perrault was born in Paris 388 years ago today, and spent most of his life in the court of Louis XIV. He began writing his famous stories only in his late sixties, after having retired.
Perrault's stories set the standard for the modern fairy tale. Perrault borrowed basic plots and the familiar opening "once upon a time" [il était une fois] from traditional stories told aloud, while modernizing them with both fashionable embellishments and the very act of putting them into writing. [The publication of the tales coincides with the rise of the modern novel: they came after Don Quixote and La Princesse de Clèves, but before Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones]. The backbone of these fairy tales persist within contemporary novels and movies, making our reading or cinema-going a fundamentally optimistic venture: when we hear "once upon a time," we've come to expect—and anxiously await—a "happily ever after."