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24 August 2015
Duke Kahanamoku’s 125th Birthday
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The story of Duke Kahanamoku--the Hawaiian who, in 1912, first drew the world’s collective gaze upon the art of surfing--reads like mythology. Born in Honolulu in 1890, he is credited in over a dozen feature films, surfed the world’s most imposing swells before Californians knew what surfing was, won five Olympic medals in swimming and was elected sheriff of his beloved home county thirteen times.
The Big Kahuna was a tremendous athlete, to be sure, and by all accounts staggeringly cool, but he also had a proclivity for heroics--one morning in 1925, just as dawn crept into the summer sky over Newport Beach, a 40-foot fishing vessel called the Thelma found herself in the grip of a sudden and violent squall. Waves hammered the Thelma’s deck, and the vessel succumbed to the thrashing breakers, stranding its crew in the surf. The Duke, who watched from the shore as he prepared for that morning’s ride, rushed headlong into the maelstrom with his surfboard and, along with three friends, managed to wrest twelve men from the clutches of the Pacific.
Despite his charisma on the screen and two decades of Olympic triumphs, it is perhaps for moments like these--for his character, his ease in the water, his deep and unending love of Hawaii and her oceans--that Duke Kahanamoku is remembered most. He brought surfing to the world, and by force of his magnetism and singularly Hawaiian spirit helped The Islands achieve statehood. Today, on his 125th birthday, Matt Cruickshank recalls the legend of the “Ambassador of Aloha” with a Doodle of his iconic, 16-foot wooden surfboard and his warm, blithe smile. “Most importantly,” a reverent surfer remarks in a documentary about The Duke, “he was pure Hawaiian”.
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24 August 2017
Ukraine Independence Day 2017
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Today’s Doodle honors Ukraine’s independence day with a colorful celebration of its people. It’s drawn in shades of blue and yellow, Ukraine's national colors, meant to evoke the country's golden wheat fields and blue skies.
Home to nearly 130 different nationalities, Ukraine’s diverse population is represented in each unique letter. Guest artist Sergiy Maidukov says the image is meant to invoke happiness and show different people from across the country working together toward “freedom, peace and respect for each other.” He considers Ukraine’s diversity “a reason to be proud, to meet each other, learn about each other, sing and laugh together, and celebrate.”
Ukrainians may don hutsul shirts, or folk costumes, to attend the parade in Kiev today, or to watch fireworks over the city at night. Other celebrations include art fairs celebrating local craftsmen, historical reenactments, fireworks and live music all over the country.
Happy 26th Independence Day, Ukraine!
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1 Sept 2008
Filopimin Finos' Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/R-...O3ue9u7Qw=s660
Filopimin Finos was a Greek film producer of 186 films and the founder of Finos Film, whose first film was in 1939. He built the first sound recording device in Greece, and shot the first colour film with stereo sound. Finos died in January 1977 after suffering cancer for seven years and he left no heir.
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2 Sept 2008
Birthday of Richard B. Smith - Inventor of the Stump Jump Plough
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The stump-jump plough, also known as stump-jumping plough, is a kind of plough invented in South Australia in the late 19th century by Richard Bowyer Smith and Clarence Herbert Smith to solve the particular problem of preparing mallee lands for cultivation.
Mallee scrub originally covered large parts of southern Australia, and because of its growth habit, the trees were difficult to remove completely, because the tree would shoot again after burning, cutting down or other kinds of damage. The large roots, known as lignotubers, remained in the ground, making it very difficult to plough the soil.
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2 September 2022
Vietnam National Day 2022
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Vietnam National Day! On this day in 1945, the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam was read aloud to the public, officially recognizing Vietnam as a sovereign nation.
On National Day, citizens are given a day off from work to celebrate this public holiday. Red and yellow banners line the streets to commemorate the holiday, and Vietnam’s National Flag is displayed on every corner of the country. Vibrant firework shows and local parades are also enjoyed in Ba Đình Square and other cities across the nation.
Today’s artwork features Vietnam’s mythical national bird, the chim lac. Chim lac most closely resembles the crane with its long beak and can be found as intricate decorations on traditional Dong Son bronze drums.
Happy National Day, Vietnam!
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22 January 2023
Lunar New Year 2023
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...09569.2-2x.pngToday’s Doodle celebrates an important holiday in several Asian cultures, Lunar New Year! After the first new moon of the Lunar calendar each year, communities around the world set up decorations, make festive food and gather with loved ones to usher in the new year.
The traditions of the Lunar New Year festival date back thousands of years to a popular legend. A mythical beast called Nian was known to show up each Lunar New Year’s eve and terrorize people and livestock. Loud noises, the color red and fire scared Nian away, so it became a tradition for families to decorate their doors in red paper, set off fireworks and leave lanterns burning all night.
Today, red remains a key part of Lunar New Year celebrations as people hang red lanterns in the streets and gift money in red envelopes to children and retired seniors. Traditional meals are popular during celebrations and they vary across the world. For example, pineapple tarts and yusheng [[a dish with raw fish and a salad) are a staple in Singapore and Malaysia, while communities in Vietnam enjoy bánh chưng [a rice cake made with mung beans, pork, and other ingredients wrapped in bamboo leaves].
This year marks the Year of the Rabbit, which is associated with peace and prosperity. The Doodle artwork is crafted from paper to honor Chinese paper-cutting [Jianzhi], which is a long-time Lunar New Year tradition.
No matter where you’re celebrating, here’s to a wonderful Lunar New Year and 2023!
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28 January 2021
Jim Wong-Chu's 72nd birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the birthday of Canadian activist, community organizer, poet, author, editor, photographer, radio producer, and historian Jim Wong-Chu, who devoted his life to amplifying the narratives of the Asian Canadian community.
Born in Hong Kong on this day in 1949, Wong-Chu moved to Canada when he was 4, and as a young adult, he settled in Vancouver, British Columbia. During the ‘70s he worked as a community volunteer and became interested in the use of literature to explore his identity as a Canadian of Asian heritage. In 1986, while studying creative writing at the University of British Columbia, he compiled his work into the collection “Chinatown Ghosts,” one of the first poetry books ever published by a Chinese Canadian author.
But Wong-Chu didn’t just want to tell his story; he wanted to tell the stories of all the undiscovered talent in his community. In 1989, he began to sift through every literary magazine in UBC’s library to identify pieces written by Asian Canadian writers. With co-editor Bennett Lee, he honed this collection into his first of numerous anthologies, “Many Mouthed Birds” [1991], a touchstone in the emergence of the genre of Asian Canadian literature.
To promote the genre, Wong-Chu co-founded the Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop in 1996, which–along with its literary magazine Ricepaper [now a digital publication]–has continued to elevate the voices of the Asian Canadian literary arts movement to this day.
Happy birthday, Jim Wong-Chu!
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28 January 2016
Hidetsugu Yagi’s 130th Birthday
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Today we celebrate Hidetsugu Yagi's 130th birthday, and thank him for keeping our television and radio signal coming in loud and clear. Because of the Yagi antenna, radios and televisions can receive stronger signals from a specific direction, which helps avoid interference from surrounding signals.
Hidetsugu Yagi was a Japanese electrical engineer. He and his colleague Shintaro Uda developed and spread the technology for this antenna together, which is why the full name is the Yagi-Uda antenna. Their invention was patented in 1926 and is used today on millions of houses throughout the world for radio and television reception. If you look outside, you can probably see one or two of these right in your neighborhood—maybe even on your own roof!
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26 Jan 2016
India Republic Day 2016
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Deep within the massive Thar Desert, a unique group of guards dutifully patrols the India-Pakistan border. But they’re not, as you might expect, stationed on foot.
Each guard, a member of India’s Border Security Force, rides high above the ground on a stately camel. And each year, without fail, a caravan of these mounted troops is “deployed” to Rajpath in New Delhi to march in the Republic Day parade, a festive celebration of the Indian constitution. The presence of these guards is now a long-standing tradition; this is the 66th year in which the BSF camel contingent will appear before all of India.
In honor of today’s Republic Day, Artist Robinson Wood created today’s Google Doodle as a tribute to this colorful set of 54 guards and 34 musicians, all sitting tall atop proudly-strutting quadrupeds!
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21 Jan 2016
Grandmother's Day 2016 [Poland]
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Every year on January 21st, people across Poland take a moment to honor their grandparents, so we thought we’d take a moment, too. We don’t presume to know your babci or dziadek, but hope, whether they’re your family’s best storyteller, the source of Poland’s finest pierogi or simply a cherished memory, that today’s Doodle by artist Lydia Nichols helps bring them to mind.
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21 January 2013
Emma Gad's 161th Birthday
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Emma Gad, born Emma Halkier, was a Danish writer and socialite who wrote plays and books that were often satirical. Although she was a prolific writer, many of her works fell into obscurity after her death. One work that remained popular was Takt og Tone, a book of etiquette she wrote in old age.
She received a gold Medal of Merit in 1905. Today her plays are preserved in Denmark's Royal Library.
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21 January 2018
Eua Sunthornsanan’s 108th Birthday
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Today, we celebrate Eua Sunthornsanan, or “Khru Eua,” the prolific composer and musician behind such popular Thai songs as “Ram Wong Wan Songkran” and “Loy Krathong” and the man credited with pioneering a style of Thai music that struck a chord around the world.
Born on this day in 1910, Sunthornsanan started playing violin in an orchestra at nine years old. The young musician learned the instrument at a primary school in Bangkok and later sharpened his skills in harmony and arrangement at music school.
While playing in a big band for the government’s Performance Department, Sunthornsanan noticed the band’s concerts drew far bigger crowds than classical performances. His eclectic musical upbringing led him to experiment with different styles, mixing jazz and Westernized classical music with more traditional Thai classical music to create the romantic style that would earn him international acclaim. With the Suntaraporn band, one of the most prominent Thai big bands, he composed more than 2,000 songs.
On what would’ve been the musician’s 108th birthday, today’s Doodle depicts Sunthornsanan performing one of his lively compositions.
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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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June 1, 2021
Celebrating Daniel Balavoine
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Today’s Doodle celebrates French singer, songwriter, and activist Daniel Balavoine, a rebellious yet sensitive champion of pop music and human rights. On this day in 1978, Balavoine released his third album “Le Chanteur” [“The Singer”], an emotional reflection on the preciousness of life that skyrocketed his career.
Daniel Balavoine was born on February 5, 1952, in Alençon, France. In his teens, he fought passionately for social causes with energy he began to channel into music in 1970. Although his early musical efforts flew under the radar of mainstream success, Balavoine’s career began to pick up steam when Swiss pop star Patrick Juvet featured him on one of his albums.
In 1975, Balavoine continued to build momentum with the release of his debut solo album “De Vous à Elle en Passant Par Moi” [“From You to Her Through Me”]. A televised performance in 1977 of one of his sophomore album’s hit songs, “Lady Marlène,” captivated French pop icon Michel Berger, who commissioned Balavoine to play Johnny Rockfort in his cyberpunk rock opera “Starmania.” The role was a smash hit that set the stage for Balavoine to become a successful innovator of French electronic pop.
In 1980, he released a hit album, “Un Autre Monde” [“Another World”], featuring some of his most famous songs, such as “Je Ne Suis Pas un Héros” [“I’m not a Hero”], “Mon Fils, ma Bataille” [“My Son, My Battle”], and “La Vie ne M’Apprend Rien” [“Life Teaches me Nothing”]. In that same year, on television he issued a call to action to politician François Mitterrand with a challenge to do more for the youth. This was a defining moment for Balavoine’s legacy as not only a musician, but a vocal activist for the community and symbol for France’s next generation.
In addition to the over 20 million records he sold, Balavoine was a devoted humanitarian. He focused much of his efforts on improving the lives of residents in remote villages of the African Sahara, especially in Mali, where he planned to supervise the installation of water pumps near the route of the 1986 Paris-Dakar rally car race. Balavoine tragically lost his life during this trip, but his legacy has lived on. That same year, Balavoine’s final album “Sauver L'Amour” [“Save Love”] won a posthumous Victoire de la Musique award, one of French music’s highest honors.
Here’s to you, Daniel Balavoine!
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Jul 28, 2017
Albert [Elea] Namatjira’s 115th Birthday
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Today is the 115th birthday of renowned Aboriginal Australian artist Albert [Elea] Namatjira. Born in 1902 near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia, he joined the Arrernte community at the age of 13 where he developed his love for the rough and wild Australian landscape.
Namatjira loved sketching from the time he was a young boy, and quickly took to painting the natural beauty around him in the bush. His landscape images earned recognition in Australia and around the world. Namatjira also inspired the Hermannsburg School for his community in Alice Springs, teaching aspiring young artists to depict the Australian landscape.
Today’s Doodle is a painting created by Albert’s granddaughter, Gloria Pannka. To represent her grandfather, Gloria chose to paint the beautiful hills between Hamilton Downs and the West MacDonnell Ranges in central Australia. Albert’s homeland is not far away from this area, and Gloria says that visiting this landscape connects her to her grandparents.
Gloria is also a member of an artistic community, Iltja Ntjarra / Many Hands Art Centre inspired by her grandfather’s works. The art centre works to maintain and promote Aboriginal cultural heritage.
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Jul 21, 2017
Belgium National Day 2017
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On this day, Belgium commemorates the inauguration of King Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a German prince, embraced his royal role on June 26th, 1831, and pledged his allegiance to the fledgling country just a few weeks later, on July 21.
Previously known as Southern Netherlands, Belgium had been governed by various foreign countries over the centuries, including Spain and France. It also withstood the Dutch Period [1815 – 1830] under King William I, a vigorous advocate of industrialization, before finally attaining its longed-for freedom from the United Kingdom of Netherlands.
Belgian National Day is a festive public holiday celebrated with military parades, air force aerial demonstrations, and free concerts, finished with fireworks. Some Belgians also show their national pride by dressing in red, yellow and black, the colors of the country’s flag.
Our Doodle, illustrated by KHUAN+KTRON, takes us on a joyful tour of Belgium’s iconic Flemish and Wallonian landmarks and sights, from the Royal Palace in Brussels, where Leopold I was sworn in, to the Sint-Truiden, known for its blossoming fruit trees, to Antwerp Cathedral and the Pairi Daiza zoo, home of the giant panda, with stops along the way for such Belgian treats as frieten [fries], cheese and chocolate.
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Jul 12, 2017
Tayeb Salih’s 88th Birthday
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“There are many horizons that must be visited, fruit that must be plucked, books read, and white pages in the scrolls of life to be inscribed with vivid sentences in a bold hand,” claims the narrator of Tayeb Salih’s most critically acclaimed novel, Seasons of Migration to the North.
First published in Arabic in 1967, Seasons of Migration to the North was an international hit and is considered a national treasure of Sudan. It was eventually translated into 20 languages, and in 2011 it was deemed the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century by the Arab Literary Academy.
Before his literary successes, Salih was born to a poor family in a village in northern Sudan in 1929. He studied in the capital, Khartoum, before moving to England four years before his country gained its independence in 1956. After leaving Sudan, Salih spent much of his life living in various cities across Europe and the Arab world, but his work always found a firm foundation in his homeland -- mostly the fictional village of Wad Hamid.
Today’s doodle honors his sense of a setting, incorporating recurring elements from some of Salih’s most popular stories, like Seasons, The Wedding of Al Zein [1962], and A Handful of Dates [1964]. Through Salih’s window we can see a boy and his beloved grandfather, the shade of a palm tree, and the river Nile.
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23 January 2020
Luis Alberto Spinetta's 70th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 70th birthday of Argentine singer, composer, guitarist, and poet Luis Alberto Spinetta. Also known as El Flaco [“Skinny”], he is often regarded as the father of Spanish-language rock and roll and a Latin American music icon. The Doodle artwork features the color green as an homage to Spinetta’s iconic and irregularly-shaped album cover of Artaud, as well as his famous red and white guitar.
Born on this day in Buenos Aires in 1950, Spinetta learned how to play guitar and sing at a young age. He continued to develop his musical skills, and at age 17 Spinetta formed one of the most influential rock bands in Argentine history, named Almendra, with two of his former high school classmates. Almendra’s self-titled debut studio album revolutionized the genre as the first band to combine Spanish-language lyrics with progressive rock.
During the 1970s and 80s, Spinetta formed and led several impactful bands that inspired the international “Rock en Español” movement, including Pescado Rabioso, Invisible, and Spinetta Jade. In addition to these group projects, he released over twenty albums as a solo artist. In 2016, his latest record Los Amigo won one of the highest honors in Argentinian music, the Gold Gardel Album of the Year award.
His music struck a major chord throughout the world and continues to impact listeners to this day. For instance, in April 2019 it inspired University of Buenos Aires informatics engineer Alex Ingberg to create an artificial intelligence program to generate song lyrics in Spinetta’s style. And in 2014, in honor of Spinetta’s birthday, Argentina moved Día Nacional del Músico [National Musician’s Day] from November to January 23rd.
¡Feliz cumpleaños, Flaco!
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23 January 2010
Django Reinhard's 100th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rm...kWUeNQr58=s660
Jean Reinhardt [23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953], known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.
With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as a lead instrument. Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1946. He died suddenly of a stroke in 1953 at the age of 43.
Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become standards within gypsy jazz, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages". Jazz guitarist Frank Vignola says that nearly every major popular-music guitarist in the world has been influenced by Reinhardt. Over the last few decades, annual Django festivals have been held throughout Europe and the U.S., and a biography has been written about his life. In February 2017, the Berlin International Film Festival held the world premiere of the French film Django.
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23 January 2012
Chinese New Year 2012
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Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar.Chinese New Year is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture, and has strongly influenced Lunar New Year celebrations of its 56 ethnic groups, such as the Losar of Tibet , and of China's neighbours, including the Korean New Year, and the Tết of Vietnam, as well as in Okinawa. It is also celebrated worldwide in regions and countries that houses significant Overseas Chinese or Sinophone populations, especially in Southeast Asia.
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3 September 2021
Sergei Dovlatov's 80th birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 80th birthday of Russian journalist and author Sergei Dovlatov. Both at home and abroad, Dovlatov captured the contemporary experience of Soviet citizens and dissidents in his masterful yet irreverent writing—regarded among the most influential and widely read Russian literature of the late 20th-century.
Sergei Dovlatov was born on this day in 1941 in the Eastern Russian city of Ufa and was raised in Leningrad [now St. Petersburg] in a family of creatives. He made his early living as a journalist and wrote fictional short stories that reflected the minutiae of daily Soviet life. Due to government censorship, his prose was first published in the late 1970s via samizdat, an underground publication network.
Dovlatov emigrated to New York City in 1979, carrying a lone suitcase with the hope of literary freedom. He soon established himself in U.S. writing circles as the co-editor of “The New American,” a successful émigré newspaper. The first of his short stories were published in 1980 by “The New Yorker” which introduced a mass readership to Dovlatov’s trademark brand of Russian humor. After this success, he wrote a new book almost annually. This body of work includes “The Suitcase,” referenced in the Doodle artwork. This beloved 1986 collection of witty autobiographical short stories was inspired by the contents of the suitcase he carried with him to the U.S.
Although his work wasn’t published in his home country until 1989, Dovlatov is a household name in Russia today. His legacy is concretized on Sergei Dovlatov Way, a New York City street corner where Dovlatov penned many of his most famous works.
Happy Birthday, Sergei Dovlatov!
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23 January 2017
Ed Roberts’ 78th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle pays tribute to an early leader of the disability rights movement, Ed Roberts. After contracting polio at age 14, Roberts was paralyzed from the neck down. He used a special wheelchair with a respirator during the day and slept in an 800-pound iron lung at night. Despite his limitations, he continued his studies via telephone hookup, attending in person a few hours a week. His mom, Zona, encouraged him persevere despite the odds.
Roberts’s activism began in earnest as early as high school, when he was denied his diploma due to his inability to complete Physical Education [PE] and Driver's Ed. After petitioning, not only did he earn his diploma, he went on to college, becoming the first student with severe disabilities to attend the University of California, Berkeley. There, he led other Berkeley students with severe disabilities in creating the Physically Disabled Students Program, the first of its kind.
Roberts went on to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Berkeley, and later returned to lead the Berkeley Center for Independent Living, which inspired many similar centers around the U.S. In 1976, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him Director of the California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, and in 1983 he co-founded the World Institute on Disability.
His mother Zona describes: “I watched Ed as he grew from a sports-loving kid, through bleak days of hopelessness, into self-acceptance of his physical limitations as he learned what was possible for him to accomplish. His years at UCB were great ones as he both enjoyed his college status and got in touch with his leadership qualities. He took great pleasure in watching people with disabilities achieve greater acceptance.”
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14 Jan 2017
Chava Flores’s 97th Birthday
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In 1946, after trying his hand at various different professions, Chava Flores, a musician and music lover, began work at a small printing press. That decision would lead him to create Álbum de Oro de la Canción, the magazine that would eventually secure Chava’s status as “The musical chronicler of Mexico City.”
Through the magazine, Chava met Mexico’s most influential songwriters and composers, inspiring his own vibrant musical style that he showcased over his long career as a composer. His repertoire was as singular as it was prolific, spanning more than 200 songs [like ”Sábado Distrito Federal”]. Chava’s talents expanded beyond the realm of music into other arts, landing him roles in films like Mi Influyente Mujer and Rebeldes sin Causa.
Today’s Doodle celebrates the legacy of Chava Flores, a prolific musician and actor who chronicled urban life in Mexico through his unique approach to songwriting.
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22 October 2022
Esther Chapa Tijerina's 118th birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the birthday of Esther Chapa Tijerina, a distinguished Mexican surgeon, professor and feminist who played a pivotal role in advancing women’s voting rights in Mexico.
Tijerina was born on this day in 1904 in Tamaulipas. She went on to study medicine at one of Latin America’s leading institutions—the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Although Tijerina came of age in a privileged environment, she was aware of the challenges of disadvantaged groups. During her time in college, she would often advocate for a stronger safety net for underserved women and children.
After graduating from medical school, she became one of the country’s few female surgeons and went on to teach microbiology at her alma mater. She later became Director of the National School of Nursing and Obstetrics, and president of the National School of Nursing.
Tijerina galvanized Mexico’s feminist movement when she co-founded the Single Front Pro-Women's Rights group in 1935 with Mexico’s first female psychiatrist, Dr. Matilde Rodríguez Cabo . Also known as Frente Unico Pro-Derechos de la Mujer [[FUPDM), the group advocated for lower taxes, electricity bills and rent prices for working-class women. It became Mexico’s largest women’s rights organization at the time.
In 1936, Tijerina published a groundbreaking book, El derecho al voto para la mujer, which played a significant role in mobilizing Mexican women to join the suffrage movement.
Happy 118th birthday, Esther Chapa Tijerina! Thank you for laying the foundation for the women’s suffrage movement in Mexico.
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22 October 2011
Franz Liszt's 200th Birthday
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Franz Liszt [22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886] was a Hungarian composer, pianist and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era and remains one of the most popular composers in modern concert piano repertoire.
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5 February 2019
Lunar New Year 2019 [South Korea]
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Today is the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, a major holiday celebrated throughout most of Asia. Also referred to as the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year, this holiday celebrates ancient traditions and ancestors as well as good times ahead.
This year marks the transition from the Year of the Dog to the Year of the Pig, the last animal in the cycle of 12 that represent each year in the shēngxiào, or Chinese zodiac. Pigs are considered a sign of prosperity in Asian culture, and those born in the year of the Pig are said to be sincere, good-natured, and honest.
Today’s Doodle also celebrates the ancient tradition of shadow puppetry, which also has a special place in the festivities. This year, people all over the world can Celebrate Lunar New Year and the ancient storytelling art of shadow puppetry with Shadow Art. Users can form one of the twelve zodiac animal hand gestures in front of their camera and the AI system, built with Tensorflow, will play a short clip matching the shadow puppet that’s been made.
In South Korea, the holiday is also known as soll. Traditional commemorations include visits to pay respect to family members and a meal of dduk gook or rice cake soup. New Year’s wishes are sometimes written on kites and then flown in the sky.
Happy Lunar New Year!
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5 February 2015
Gabriel Vargas’ 100th Birthday
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Gabriel Bernal Vargas [5 February 1915 – 25 May 2010] was a Mexican cartoonist, whose comic strip La Familia Burrón was created in 1937. This cartoon has been described as one of the most important in Mexican popular culture. Vargas won Mexico's "Premio Nacional de Periodismo" [National Journalism Prize] in 1983 and the "Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes en el área de Tradiciones Populares" [National Sciences and Arts Prize] in 2003.
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22 October 2021
Celebrating Theodor Wonja Michael
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Afro-German author, journalist, actor, government official, and social activist Theodor Wonja Michael, who survived a German labor camp to become the nation’s first Black federal civil service officer. Dedicated throughout his wide-ranging career to the struggle against racism, he lived to become one of the oldest remaining representatives of a historic generation of Black German people. On this day in 2013, Michael published his emotive memoir “Black German: An Afro-German Life in the Twentieth Century.”
In 1925, Theodor Wonja Michael was born on January 15 in Berlin, Germany to a father of Cameroonian birth and a native German mother. After elementary school, he was denied occupational training due to Germany’s discriminatory Nuremberg Laws. He pursued acting instead, but at 18 he was sent to work in a forced labor camp.
After the end of World War II, Michael went on to earn a master’s degree in political science. He pursued a career in journalism and founded and edited the journal “Afrika-Bulletin.” In 1971, he agreed to contribute his expertise of African issues to West Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, where he worked as a secret agent and retired as a director in 1987. Initially hesitant to join, Michael used his government service to fight discrimination from within and open doors for other Black Germans. He eventually returned to acting and became one of Germany’s most renowned Shakespearean stage actors.
In honor of his role as a representative of the Black German community, Michael became the first recipient of the nation’s Black History Month Award in 2009.
Thank you, Theodor Wonja Michael! Your story continues to inspire new generations to stand firm in the fight against racial prejudice.
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27 Oct 2021
Otto Wichterle's 108th birthday
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Are you one of the estimated 140 million people around the world who wears contact lenses? Whether your answer is yes or no, the story of the Czech chemist who invented the soft contact lens—Otto Wichterle—might give you some fresh insight. Today’s Doodle celebrates Wichterle’s life and legacy on his 108th birthday.
Otto Wichterle was born on this day in 1913 in Prostĕjov, the Czech Republic [then, Austria-Hungary]. As a lover of science from his youth, Wichterle went on to earn his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1936 from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology [ICT]. He taught as a professor at his alma mater during the 1950s while developing an absorbent and transparent gel for eye implants.
Political turmoil pushed Wichterle out of the ICT, leading him to continue refining his hydrogel development at home. In 1961, Wichterle [a glasses wearer himself] produced the first soft contact lenses with a DIY apparatus made of a child’s erector set, a bicycle light battery, a phonograph motor, and homemade glass tubing and molds. As the inventor of countless patents and a lifelong researcher, Wichterle was elected the first President of the Academy of the Czech Republic following the country’s establishment in 1993.
While Wichterle is most well-known as the inventor of contact lenses, his innovations also laid the foundation for state-of-the-art medical technologies such as “smart” biomaterials, which are used to restore human connective tissues, and bio-recognizable polymers, which have inspired a new standard for drug administration.
Happy birthday, Otto Wichterle—thanks for helping the world see eye to eye!
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28 Oct 2021
Kanō Jigorō's 161st birthday
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByMyL1wtKIk
Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Los Angeles, CA-based artist Cynthia Yuan Cheng, celebrates Japan’s “Father of Judo,” Professor Kanō Jigorō, on his 161st birthday. The name Judo means “the gentle way” and the sport is built on principles such as justice, courtesy, safety, and modesty. Kanō saw the martial art as a way to bring people together, even while throwing opponents to the mat.
Born in 1860 in Mikage [now part of Kobe], Kanō moved to Tokyo with his father at age 11. Though he was known as a child prodigy in school, he often faced adversity. To build strength, he became determined to study the martial art of Jujutsu. During his time as a student at Tokyo University, he finally found someone who would teach him—Jujutsu master and former samurai Fukuda Hachinosuke.
Judo was first born during a Jujutsu sparring match when Kanō incorporated a western wrestling move to bring his much larger opponent to the mat. By removing the most dangerous techniques used in Jujutsu, he created “Judo,” a safe and cooperative sport based on Kanō’s personal philosophy of Seiryoku-Zenyo [maximum efficient use of energy] and Jita-Kyoei [mutual prosperity of self and others]. In 1882, Kanō opened his own dojo [a martial arts gym], the Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo, where he would go on to develop Judo for years. He also welcomed women into the sport in 1893.
Kanō became the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee [IOC] in 1909, and in 1960, the IOC approved Judo as an official Olympic sport.
お誕生日おめでとうございます
Happy birthday, Kanō Jigorō!
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1 Nov 2021
Celebrating Georgette Chen
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Today’s Google Doodle honors Singaporean artist Georgette Chen, a founder of the post-Impressionist Nanyang painting style, on the 91st anniversary of her first exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in Paris.
Georgette Chen Li Ying was born in Zhejiang, China in October 1906. She grew up mostly in Paris but traveled frequently throughout China and to New York. This cosmopolitan upbringing exposed her to the mixture of cultures that would eventually shape her pioneering art. Chen’s debut followed an invitation to showcase her artwork at an exhibition hosted in one of Paris’ most prestigious modern art salons, the Salon d’Automne, which began on this day in 1930.
In 1953, Chen settled in Singapore, where she helped found the Nanyang style of painting–an experimental style that combined Asian subjects and themes with Western styles and techniques. Chen was among the generation of Chinese-born artists who emigrated to Singapore to join the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, where she taught for 26 years. She became renowned for her refined brushwork, which infused her paintings with a dreamlike quality.
Chen produced numerous works that received global acclaim including “Mosque in Kuala Lumpur” [1957] and “Singapore Waterfront” [1958]. Her work was exhibited around the world, from New York to Kuala Lumpur. The Doodle artwork evokes Chen’s Nanyang style. Starting from the left: A basket of rambutan, an easel, the artist herself, a dried chili plant, a bitter melon, and then a teapot—all elements inspired by her work.
In 1982, she received the Cultural Medallion—a national award that honors the achievements of major contributors to Singapore’s artistic and cultural landscape. As a contributing member to her local community, Chen was the administrator for the Lee Foundation Fund for the Encouragement of Local Talent in the Fine Arts and on the council of the Singapore Arts Society. Singaporean children still learn about the country’s culture from the 2009 book “Georgette’s Mooncakes,” which explores Chen’s “Still Life: Moon Festival Table'' [1965-1968].
Thank you for your contributions to the global art scene in the face of an ever-changing world, Georgette Chen!
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2 May 2022
Celebrating Elijah McCoy
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the birthday of Elijah McCoy, a Black Canadian-American engineer and inventor who revolutionized train efficiency with his inventions. He held 57 patents in his lifetime, most of which were related to locomotives and railways.
In 1837, McCoy’s parents bravely escaped a life of enslavement in Kentucky through the Underground Railroad and sought freedom in Canada. Elijah was born in Colchester, Ontario and returned to the U.S. with his family at a young age. He grew up with a passion for problem-solving, mechanics, and trains. At age 15, he decided to further his education in the field and moved to Edinburgh, Scotland to become a mechanical engineer apprentice.
Upon his return, McCoy settled in Michigan as opportunities to find work in Canada were very limited. In 1866, Black Americans faced rampant racial discrimination, which made finding a job that aligned with his level of experience in mechanical engineering extremely difficult. He joined the Michigan Central Railroad as a fireman and oiler, and quickly identified how inefficient it was to have to stop trains every few miles in order to manually lubricate their engines.
Six years into his role, McCoy addressed this issue by inventing what was colloquially known as an “oil-drip cup.” The cup caused oil to steadily flow around the engine without needing to stop the train. Consequently, McCoy obtained his first patent, “Improvement in Lubricators for Steam Engines.” Future variations of his invention were later used to revolutionize oil-drilling and mining equipment along with construction and factory tools.
McCoy continued to design new inventions while working as a consultant to engineering companies, including patents for a lawn sprinkler and ironing board. He eventually founded the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company in 1920, which produced lubrication devices displaying his name.
In 2001, Elijah McCoy was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio and has a dedicated exhibit in the Detroit Historical Museum. McCoy’s innovations and ingenuity kept trains chugging and have laid the tracks for the well-oiled machines of today.
Happy birthday, Elijah McCoy!
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2 May 2016
Mario Miranda’s 90th birthday
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Mario Miranda was a beloved cartoonist best known for his works in the Times of India and The Illustrated Weekly of India. Based primarily on the bustling cityscape of Mumbai, Miranda’s works often feature complex, multi-layered scenes. Humanity floods the canvas and yet each character maintains their individuality.
Our guest Doodler today is Aaron Renier, another artist known for portraying large crowds. “I approached Mario’s work by pretending I was drawing with him,” says Renier. “I chose his most popular style, very flat with criss-crossing interactions.” In this homage to Miranda, we see a rich litany of people, each unique in their perspective. “That is what I liked most about his work,” Renier explains, “trying to pick out who knows who, who's watching who, who's annoyed by who, who's enamored by who. Hopefully people will see something of [Miranda’s] spirit in it.”
Mario Miranda’s works live on throughout India, and on what would have been his 90th birthday, we honor his legacy.
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2 May 2013
Satyajit Ray's 92nd Birthday
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Satyajit Ray was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of film-making, Ray is celebrated for works including The Apu Trilogy [1955–1959], The Music Room [1958], The Big City [1963] and Charulata [1964], Scarecrow.
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24 Apr 2013
Gabriel Figueroa's 106th Birthday
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Gabriel Figueroa Mateos [April 24, 1907 – April 27, 1997] was a Mexican cinematographer who is regarded as one of the greatest cinematographers of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. He has worked in over 200 films, which cover a broad range of genres, and is best known for his technical dominance, his careful handling of framing and chiaroscuro, and affinity for the aesthetics of artists.
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24 April 2012
Gideon Sundback's 132nd Birthday
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Few have heard of Swedish-American inventor Gideon Sundback, though most people use one of his inventions every day. I certainly hadn't heard of him before I began work on this doodle celebrating his work on the zipper, which he filed a patent for in 1914.
Such an iconic piece of fabric fastening needs little introduction, so I collaborated with doodle engineer Kris Hom to develop an interactive zipper on the homepage which zips opens to reveal search results for "Gideon Sundback."
Happy zipping!
Posted by Sophia Foster-Dimino, Doodler
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4 May 2019
Eddie Aikau’s 73rd Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Eddie Aikau, big wave surfer, lifeguard, and enduring symbol of Hawaiian heritage. Born on the island of Maui on this day in 1946, Eddie moved to Oahu with his family in 1959 and went on to become the first lifeguard hired by Honolulu officials to work on the North Shore of the island.
Not a single life was lost while he served as a lifeguard at Waimea Bay, making some 500 rescues without the assistance of a jet ski or any modern equipment. Eddie was famous for making rescues even in surf that reached 30 feet high. His fearlessness went on to inspire the slogan “Eddie would go.”
Hailing from a surfing family, Eddie was one of the first native Hawaiians to win the prestigious Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship in 1977, just four years after his older brother Clyde, who was the very first. Aside from his distinguished surfing career, Eddie found other ways to represent the culture of his native island. In 1978, Eddie joined the crew of the Hokule'a, a historically accurate double-hulled canoe retracing the ancient Polynesian migration route to Hawaii. The vessel sprung a leak and capsized in rough waters. Eddie was last seen heroically paddling off on his surfboard towards the nearest island to seek help for the crew, who were later rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Today, Eddie’s legacy lives on through the Eddie Aikau Foundation as well as the prestigious Eddie Aikau Invitational, which has seen some of big-wave surfing’s greatest names competing with maximum respect for the authenticity of surf culture.
Here’s to you, Eddie.