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Jan 26, 2017
Australia Day 2017
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Australia's most awe-inspiring feature: its big, blue backyard and treasured natural World Heritage Site: the Great Barrier Reef.
This vast underwater world is home to a whole host of protected and majestic creatures, including the green turtle, pipefish, barramundi cod, potato cod, maori wrasse, giant clam, and staghorn coral, to name a few. Made up of over 2,900 individual reefs, the earth’s largest coral reef system can be seen from space, and is our planet’s single largest structure made up of living organisms.
The reef is tightly woven into the culture and spirituality of island locals who cherished it long before it became a popular tourist destination. A large part of the reef is now under protection in an effort to preserve the shrinking ecosystem impacted by heavy tourism.
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Mar 26, 2017
Saridjah Niung’s 109th Birthday
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Sukabumi-born Saridjah Niung, better known as Mrs. Soed, was a well-loved musician, teacher, radio announcer, playwright and batik artist in Indonesia. Her music delighted the ears of young children, and to this day, they can be heard singing along to the tune of her most popular songs: ”Hi Pedicab,” “Strong Kids,” and “Butterflies.”
Along with music for kindergarten-aged kids, she was also revered for her patriotic hymns. She wrote masterpieces during the Dutch colonial years about the Japanese occupation and Indonesia’s independence. Mrs. Soed also wrote the Indonesian national anthem “Fatherland,” and “Berkibarlah Benderaku.”
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Apr 3, 2017
Fazlur Rahman Khan’s 88th Birthday
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Today we celebrate structural engineer Fazlur R. Khan's 88th birthday.
Below, get a glimpse of his life, accomplishments, and passions in the words of his daughter, Yasmin Sabina Khan:
As a youth my father never imagined that one day he would be building skyscrapers. He was born in East Bengal, British India, which became East Pakistan in 1947 and then Bangladesh in 1971. Graduate studies first brought him to the United States and the promise of challenging work drew him to a busy design office in Chicago – that of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill – where he remained until his death in 1982. A surge in demand for residential and office space in the 1960s and early 1970s made tall buildings desirable, but traditional design and construction methods were uneconomical, having evolved for shorter structures. He recognized that a new approach to skyscraper design was needed and set his mind to the task.
In 1972, at 42 years old, he was named Construction’s Man of the Year by Engineering News-Record. His pioneering work in skyscraper design was rejuvenating the design profession as he developed new ways of framing tall buildings, dramatically improving structural efficiency and economy. In 1965 he had initiated the “trussed tube” structural system with his design for Chicago’s 100-story John Hancock Center. By 1971 he was designing the world’s tallest building, the Sears Tower, using his latest innovation, the “bundled tube” [the Sears Tower, now Willis Tower, remained the “world’s tallest” for the next 22 years]. His innovations subsequently formed the basis of tall building design.
A humanitarian in his personal as well as professional life, he was inspired by the belief that his work had a positive impact and he encouraged other engineers not to lose track of the purpose of their profession. When he was named Construction’s Man of the Year, he reflected, “The technical man must not be lost in his own technology. He must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music and, most importantly, people.”
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Apr 23, 2017
National Sovereignty and Children's Day 2017
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Turkey’s National Sovereignty and Children’s Day connects two important pieces of history; it’s when the Grand National Assembly of Turkey convened for the first time in 1920; and when the Turkish Republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dedicated the fledgling Republic to the children who would inherit it.
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Apr 23, 2017
St. George's Day 2017
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Legend has it that he rode to the town of Silene in Libya on a white horse, saved a princess from her untimely end, and slayed a dragon in one fell swoop. Today, that Roman soldier is remembered on St. George’s Day.
In 1415, St. George’s Day was pronounced a national feast day and holiday in England. In modern times, he’s commemorated with parades and dancing and the waving of flags. His insignia, a red cross against a stark white background, became England’s flag, and is omnipresent at English football, cricket and rugby matches.
Our Doodle captures the magic of St. George as he courageously crusades against the mighty dragon, surrounded by boughs of beautiful roses. The illustration is by guest artist Marina Muun, whose colorful, fanciful work has been featured The New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, Wrap Magazine and V&A, among many others.
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Sep 26, 2015
200th Anniversary of the Dutch Kingdom
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In 1815, William I hoisted a crown upon his head.
For the next two centuries, the small yet mighty Netherlands took shape through a set of visionary milestones: in 1848, the freedoms of assembly, association, and education became rights for Dutch citizens. In 1863, slavery was abolished. In 1958, the Dutch co-founded the European Union. Now, 200 years later, the Netherlands prides itself on its openness, inclusion, and unwavering respect for the democratic rule of law. Plus, it’s one of the happiest countries in the world. Which, if you’ve seen the landscapes, might not be so surprising...
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Sep 23, 2015
Saudi Arabia National Day 2015
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Seated on the central coast of the Red Sea, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second largest city, is home to the magnificent display of maritime engineering seen at the center of today’s Doodle. Spraying a plume of water nearly 1,000 feet in the air, King Fahad’s Fountain is the tallest manmade geyser in the world. At night, the immense stream and its trails of mist are illuminated by over 500 high-intensity spotlights, a spectacle that dominates the night sky above Jeddah and can be seen from all over the city.
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Aug 23, 2012
Chinese Valentine's Day 2012
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The Qixi Festival, also known as the Qiqiao Festival, is a Chinese festival celebrating the annual meeting of the cowherd and weaver girl in mythology. The festival is celebrated on the 7th day of the 7th lunisolar month on the Chinese calendar.
The festival originated from the romantic legend of two lovers, Zhinü and Niulang, who were the weaver girl and the cowherd, respectively. The tale of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has been celebrated in the Qixi Festival since the Han dynasty. The earliest-known reference to this famous myth dates back to over 2600 years ago, which was told in a poem from the Classic of Poetry. The Qixi festival inspired the Tanabata festival in Japan, Chilseok festival in Korea, and Thất Tịch festival in Vietnam.
The festival has variously been called the Double Seventh Festival, the Chinese Valentine's Day, the Night of Sevens, or the Magpie Festival.
The general tale is a love story between Zhinü [the weaver girl, symbolizing Vega] and Niulang [the cowherd, symbolizing Altair]. Their love was not allowed, thus they were banished to opposite sides of the Silver River [symbolizing the Milky Way]. Once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, a flock of magpies would form a bridge to reunite the lovers for one day. There are many variations of the story.
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Aug 23, 2012
Alexander Grin's 132th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/W6...nAu6coihI=s660Aleksandr Stepanovich Grinevsky was a Russian writer, notable for his romantic novels and short stories, mostly set in an unnamed fantasy land with a European or Latin American flavor [Grin's fans often refer to this land as Grinlandia]. Most of his writings deal with sea, adventures, and love
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Sep 15, 2012
Adolfo Bioy Casares' 98th Birthday
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Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, diarist, and translator. He was a friend and frequent collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges, and is the author of the fantastic fiction novel The Invention of Morel.
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Sep 18, 2012
202nd anniversary of the First Government Assembly in Chile
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Government Assembly of the Kingdom of Chile, also known as the First Government Junta, was the organization established to rule Chile following the deposition and imprisonment of King Ferdinand VII by Napoleon Bonaparte.
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Sep 21, 2012
Edgar Valter's 84th Birthday
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Edgar Valter was an Estonian graphic artist, caricaturist, writer and illustrator of children's books, with over 250 books to his name, through 55 years of activity. His most famous work is Pokuraamat [The Poku Book].
First published in 1994, Pokuraamat tells the tale of Pokus. A poku is a grass mound that grows in south-eastern Estonian bogs. In the book, Valter interprets pokus as animated childlike creatures, the grass actually being their golden head hair, which grows down to their feet. Its central theme is emphasizing the need to respect and to live in harmony with nature.
Pokuraamat was the first book that was both written and illustrated by Edgar Valter. In 1996, the book won the prestigious Nukits Competition award for best children book of the year.
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Sep 23, 2012
Saudi Arabia National Day 2012
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Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a country in Western Asia constituting the vast majority of the Arabian Peninsula. With a land area of approximately 2,150,000 km2 [830,000 sq mi], Saudi Arabia is geographically the largest sovereign state in Western Asia, the second-largest in the Arab world [after Algeria], the fifth-largest in Asia, and the 12th-largest in the world.
The territory that now constitutes Saudi Arabia was the site of several ancient cultures and civilizations. The prehistory of Saudi Arabia shows some of the earliest traces of human activity in the world. The world's second-largest religion, Islam, emerged in modern-day Saudi Arabia.
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Sep 28, 2012
David Unaipon's 140th Birthday
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David Ngunaitponi, known as David Unaipon, was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Ngarrindjeri people, a preacher, inventor and author. Unaipon's contribution to Australian society helped to break many Aboriginal Australian stereotypes, and he is featured on the Australian $50 note in commemoration of his work. He was the son of preacher and writer James Unaipon.
Unaipon spent five years trying to create a perpetual motion machine. In the course of his work he developed a number of devices. He was still attempting to design such a device in his seventy-ninth year.
Other inventions included a centrifugal motor, a multi-radial wheel and a mechanical propulsion device. He was also known as the Australian Leonardo da Vinci for his mechanical ideas, which included pre World War I drawings for a helicopter design based on the principle of the boomerang and his research into the polarisation of light and also spent much of his life attempting to achieve perpetual motion.
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Oct 8, 2013
William John Swainson's 224th Birthday
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William John Swainson FLS, FRS, was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist.
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Oct 10, 2013
Leyla Gencer's 85th Birthday
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Ayşe Leyla Gencer was a Turkish operatic soprano.
Gencer was a notable bel canto soprano who spent most of her career in Italy, from the early 1950s through the mid-1980s, and had a repertoire encompassing more than seventy roles. She made very few commercial recordings; however, numerous bootleg recordings of her performances exist. She was particularly associated with the heroines of Donizetti.
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Oct 14, 2013
Katherine Mansfield's 125th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Z6...XhcVGVP40=s660Kathleen Mansfield Murry was a prominent modernist writer who was born and brought up in New Zealand. She wrote short stories and poetry under the pen name Katherine Mansfield. When she was 19, she left colonial New Zealand and settled in England, where she became a friend of D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Lady Ottoline Morrell and others in the orbit of the Bloomsbury Group. Mansfield was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in 1917 and she died in France aged 34.
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Oct 15, 2013
Friedrich Nietzsche's 169th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...68800.2-hp.gifFriedrich 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. He became the youngest person ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade.In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties. Nietzsche died in 1900.
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Oct 18, 2013
Azerbaijan Independence Day 2013
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The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918 and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state. In 1920, the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic/AzerbaijanSSR. The modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, shortly before the dissolution of the USSR in the same year.
The government of Azerbaijan has set the development of Azerbaijan as an elite tourist destination as a top priority. It is a national strategy to make tourism a major, if not the single largest, contributor to the Azerbaijani economy. These activities are regulated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan. There are 63 countries which have visa-free score. E-visa – for a visit of foreigners of visa-required countries to the Republic of Azerbaijan.
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Nov 3, 2013
Panama Independence Day 2013
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Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a transcontinental country in Central America and South America, bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half the country's 4 million people.
Panama was inhabited by indigenous tribes before Spanish colonists arrived in the 16th century. It broke away from Spain in 1821 and joined the Republic of Gran Colombia, a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela. After Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada eventually became the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the construction of the Panama Canal to be completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. The 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties agreed to transfer the canal from the United States to Panama on December 31, 1999. The surrounding territory was first returned in 1979.
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Nov 4, 2013
Shakuntala Devi's 84th Birthday
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Shakuntala Devi was an Indian mathematician, writer and mental calculator, popularly known as the "Human Computer". Devi strove to simplify numerical calculations for students. Her talent earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records. However, the certificate for the record was given posthumously on 30 July 2020, despite Devi achieving her world record on 18 June 1980 at Imperial College, London. Devi was a precocious child and she demonstrated her arithmetic abilities at the University of Mysore without any formal education.
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Nov 7, 2013
Albert Camus's 100th Birthday
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Albert Camus was a French philosopher, author, and journalist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44 in 1957, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel.
Camus's novels and philosophical essays are still influential. After his death, interest in Camus followed the rise [and diminution] of the New Left. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, interest in his alternative road to communism resurfaced. He is remembered for his skeptical humanism and his support for political tolerance, dialogue, and civil rights.
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Nov 7, 2013
Ary Barroso's 110th Birthday
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Ary de Resende Barros, better known as Ary Barroso, was a Brazilian composer, pianist, soccer commentator, and talent-show host on radio and TV. He was one of Brazil's most successful songwriters in the first half of the 20th century. Barroso also composed many songs for Carmen Miranda during her career.
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Nov 7, 2013
Rafael Pombo's 180th Birthday
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José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo was a Colombian poet born in Bogotá. Trained as a mathematician and an engineer in a military school, Rafael Pombo served in the army and he traveled to the United States of America as Secretary of the Legation in Washington. After completing his diplomatic assignment, he was hired by D. Appleton & Company in New York to translate into Spanish nursery rhymes from the Anglo-Saxon oral tradition. The product of this work, more than a translation, was a transformative adaptation published in two books under the titles Cuentos pintados para nińos and Cuentos morales para nińos formales.
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Nov 12, 2013
Leon Štukelj's 115th Birthday
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Leon Štukelj was a Yugoslav gymnast of Slovene ethnicity, Olympic gold medalist and athlete.
He is a noted figure in Slovenian sporting history. Štukelj is one of the first Slovene athletes to have risen to the very top of his sport, where he remained right from the World Championships in Ljubljana in 1922 all the way to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, at which point he finished his competitive gymnastics career.
Štukelj competed at seven major international competitions and won a total of twenty medals: eight gold, six silver, and six bronze. At the Olympic Games alone he won six medals: two gold medals [counted for Yugoslavia] in Paris in 1924, one gold medal and two bronze in Amsterdam in 1928, and a silver medal in Berlin in 1936.
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Nov 15, 2013
Emil Racoviță's 145th Birthday
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Emil Gheorghe Racoviță was a Romanian biologist, zoologist, speleologist, and Antarctic explorer.
Together with Grigore Antipa, he was one of the most noted promoters of natural sciences in Romania. Racoviță was the first Romanian to have gone on a scientific research expedition to the Antarctic. He was an influential professor, scholar and researcher, and served as President of the Romanian Academy from 1926 to 1929.
There are two caves based after him. One is the Emil Racoviță Cave [ro], located in Criva, Briceni; with an area of 50 hectares [120 acres], it is the largest cave in Moldova and the third longest cave in Europe. The other one is the Racoviță Cave [ro], located in Iabalcea, Caraș-Severin County.
In 2006, the first Romanian Antarctic exploration station was named the Law-Racoviță Station.
Poșta Română issued several stamps in his honor: 55 bani and 1.20 lei stamps in 1958, a 55 bani stamp in 1968, a 4 lei stamp in 1985, a 2 lei stamp in 1986, a 4.50 lei stamp in 1997, and a 1.60 lei stamp in 2007. The last one is part of a series of four stamps commemorating 100 years since the foundation by Racoviță of the first biospeleology institute in the world.
In 2018, on the 150th anniversary of Racoviță's birth, the National Bank of Romania put into circulation a commemorative silver coin with a face value of 10 lei.
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Nov 18, 2013
Latvia Independence Day 2013
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After centuries of German, Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian and Russian rule, which was mainly executed by the Baltic Germanaristocracy, the Republic of Latvia was established on 18 November 1918 when it broke away from the German Empire and declared independence in the aftermath of World War I. However, by the 1930s the country became increasingly autocratic after the coup in 1934 establishing an authoritarian regime under Kārlis Ulmanis. The country's de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II, beginning with Latvia's forcible incorporation into the Soviet Union, followed by the invasion and occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941, and the re-occupation by the Soviets in 1944 to form the Latvian SSR for the next 45 years. The peaceful Singing Revolution started in 1987, and ended with the restoring of de facto independence on 21 August 1991. Since then, Latvia has been a democratic, unitaryparliamentary republic.
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Nov 18, 2013
Morocco Independence Day 2013
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Since the foundation of the first Moroccan state by Idris I in 788 AD, the country has been ruled by a series of independent dynasties, reaching its zenith in the 11th and 12th centuries under the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties, when it encompassed parts of Iberia as well as part of northwestern Africa. Beginning in the 15th century, the Portuguese Empire extended to include parts of Morocco: Portugal conquered territory along the Moroccan coast and founded settlements some of which endured into the 18th century. Morocco was the only country in northwest African to escape occupation by the Ottoman Empire. The Alaouite dynasty, which rules Morocco to this day, seized power in 1631. The country's strategic location near the mouth of the Mediterranean eventually attracted the interest of European powers: In 1912, Morocco was divided into French and Spanish protectorates, with an international zone in Tangier. It regained its independence and reunified in 1956, and has been relatively stable and prosperous [by regional standards] since then: Today, it has the fifth largest economy in all of Africa.
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Nov 18, 2013
Juan Carlos Castagnino's 105th Birthday
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Juan Carlos Castagnino was an Argentine painter, architect, muralist and sketch artist.
André Lhote, traveling across Europe perfecting his art and in the company of Georges Braque, Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso, among others. Castagnino returned to Argentina in 1941, where he enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and obtained a degree in architecture. He received numerous awards in subsequent years, including the Grand Prize of Honor of the Argentine National Hall [1961], the Medal of Honor at Expo '58 [Brussels, 1958], and a special mention for his drawings at the II Mexico CityBiennale of 1962. His illustrations for a EUDEBA [University of Buenos Aires Press] edition of José Hernández's Martín Fierro [the national poem of Argentina], gained wide recognition.
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Nov 19, 2013
Helena Zmatlíková's 90th Birthday
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Helena Zmatlíková was a Czech illustrator, especially of children's books. For her works she received numerous awards. She also participated in the 1958 World Exhibition.
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Nov 20, 2013
Selma Lagerlöf's 155th Birthday
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Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author and teacher. She published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1909. Additionally, she was the first woman to be granted a membership in the Swedish Academy in 1914
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Dec 2, 2013
Carlos Merida's 122nd Birthday
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Carlos Mérida was a Guatemalan artist who was one of the first to fuse European modern painting to Latin American themes, especially those related to Guatemala and Mexico. He was part of the Mexican muralism movement in subject matter but less so in style, favoring a non-figurative and later geometric style rather than a figurative, narrative style. Mérida is best known for canvas and mural work, the latter including elements such as glass and ceramic mosaic on major constructions in the 1950s and 1960s