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July 2, 2018
Athos Bulcão’s 100th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle is rendered in the style of one of Brazil’s great public artists, Athos Bulcão, who would have been 100 years old today. Born in Rio De Janeiro, Bulcão was trained as a doctor but fell in love with art. His change of career transformed the visual landscape of Brazil with his vibrant and colorful tile designs.
Bulcão also designed album covers and book jackets, but is best known for his work on large-scale surfaces including hallways, auditoriums, and outdoor walls. He approached his work with an open mind and a playful spirit, unconcerned about having the last word. One of his trademark mosaic techniques involved creating a variety of abstract geometric tiles, then hiring construction teams to install them without any instructions.
Working closely with Oscar Niemayer, the main architect of Brasília, and city planner Lucio Costa, Bulcão helped realize their vision of the city as a work of art unto itself. Built from the ground up in 1956, Brasília replaced Rio De Janeiro as the Brazil’s capital in 1960. Today it stands as a definitive example of “tropical modernism,” with Bulcão’s artwork integrated into many of the buildings and public areas.
Later in life Bulcão infused Brazilian embassies, hospitals, theaters, schools, and homes with his vivid designs. His legacy lives on through the Fundação Athos Bulcão, created in Brasília in 1992 to document, preserve, and promote his work, as well as to facilitate education for young artists.
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December 12, 2011
Gustave Flaubert's 190th Birthday
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Gustave Flaubertwas a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realism strives for formal perfection, so the presentation of reality tends to be neutral, emphasizing the values and importance of style as an objective method of presenting reality". He is known especially for his debut novel Madame Bovary [[1857), his Correspondence, and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.
The publication of Madame Bovary in 1856 was followed by more scandal than admiration; it was not understood at first that this novel was the beginning of something new: the scrupulously truthful portraiture of life. Gradually, this aspect of his genius was accepted, and it began to crowd out all others. At the time of his death, he was widely regarded as the most influential French Realist.
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December 16, 2012
Zoltán Kodály's 130th Birthday
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Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education.
In 1905 he visited remote villages to collect songs, recording them on phonograph cylinders. In 1906 he wrote a thesis on Hungarian folk song, "Strophic Construction in Hungarian Folksong". At around this time Kodály met fellow composer and compatriot Béla Bartók, whom he took under his wing and introduced to some of the methods involved in folk song collecting. The two became lifelong friends and champions of each other's music.
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January 26, 2006
Mozart's 250th Birthday
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.
Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death have been much mythologized.
He composed more than 600 works, many of which are acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music.
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February 28, 2019
Trịnh Công Sơn's 80th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the life and legacy of Trịnh Công Sơn, a prolific and powerful Vietnamese musician, songwriter, poet, and painter.
Born in Đắk Lắk in Vietnam’s central highlands on this day in 1939, Sơn was raised in a Buddhist family by parents who both wrote poetry. His father was imprisoned for several years during Sơn’s youth in the capital city of Buôn Ma Thuột for his vocal resistance to the Vietnamese War. In fact, around the age of 10, Sơn spent a year living with him in Thừa Phủ Prison. Educated at the Lycée Francais school in the ancient imperial capital city of Huế, Sơn also studied philosophy at Lycée Jean Jacques Rousseau in Saigon.
Sơn first worked as a teacher before pivoting careers to become a songwriter in the 1950s. His songs protesting the Vietnam War—particularly those on the 1966 collection Songs of Golden Skin—were popular with soldiers on both sides of the conflict. After the war ended, much of his family fled their homeland, but Sơn chose to stay, writing songs about the unification of North and South Vietnam that displeased government authorities, who sent him to do forced labor in a “re-education camp.” Following his release, he continued to record music and paint throughout his life.
Widely considered one of Vietnam’s most important modern musicians, Sơn was admired by international singers such as Joan Baez. His song “Ngủ Đi Con” [[Lullaby) about the mother of a fallen soldier was a hit in Japan. Today, his music is still recorded by popular Vietnamese singers, such as Hồng Nhung.
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March 14, 2003
Albert Einstein's 124th Birthday
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Albert Einstein was a German-born scientist. He worked on theoretical physics. He developed the theory of relativity. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for theoretical physics. His famous equation is https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/me...fa1b36a1e6a18e [[E = energy, m = mass, c = speed of light).
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Aug 12, 2003
Alfred Hitchcock's 104th Birthday
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Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is one of the most influential and widely studied filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known as the "Master of Suspense", he directed over 50 feature films in a career spanning six decades, becoming as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting and producing of the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents [[1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations including six wins, although he never won for Best Director despite having had five nominations.
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November 7, 2009
40th Anniversary of Sesame Street - Oscar the Grouch
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Sesame Street is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop [[known as the Children's Television Workshop [[CTW) until June 2000) and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. The program is known for its images communicated through the use of Jim Henson's Muppets, and includes short films, with humor and cultural references. The series premiered on November 10, 1969, to positive reviews, some controversy, and high viewership; it has aired on the US's national public television provider PBS since its debut.
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Dec 2, 2013
Maria Callas' 90th Birthday
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Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano.
She was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her bel canto technique, wide-ranging voice and dramatic interpretations. Her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini and, further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. Her musical and dramatic talents led to her being hailed as La Divina [["the Divine one").
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Jan 26, 2017
Bessie Coleman’s 125th Birthday
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Born in Texas to a family of 13 children, Coleman walked four miles each day to her segregated, one-room school. She was a proficient reader and excelled in math, and managed to balance her studies while helping her parents harvest cotton. Even from an early age, she had her sights set on something big.
At age 23, Coleman moved to Chicago where she worked two jobs in an effort to save enough money to enroll in aviation school. After working for five years, she moved to Paris to study, as no school in America would admit her due to her race and gender. Just a year later, Coleman became the first female pilot of African-American and Native American descent, and the first to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
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February 1, 2014
Celebrating Harriet Tubman
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Harriet Tubman [[born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage.
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January 20, 2012
Omar Rayo's 84th Birthday
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Omar Rayo Reyes [[January 20, 1928 – June 7, 2010) was a renowned Colombian painter, sculptor, caricaturist and plastic artist. He won the 1970 Salón de Artistas Colombianos. Rayo worked with abstract geometry primarily employing black, white, red and yellow. He was part of the Op Art movement. Rayo's work shows that geometric art is as much a part of the past as it is of the future. He used traces of the past to discover new ways to present visual and geometric sketches.
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January 26, 2016
90th Anniversary of the first demonstration of Television
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On this day 90 years ago, an eccentric Scottish inventor herded a small group of Royal Institution scientists into his London apartment and showed them the future.
John Logie Baird, who’d been working on a “televisor” apparatus for much of his career, was the first person to publicly demonstrate the system that would spawn the modern-day television. His discovery sent shockwaves through the scientific community, and certified his legacy as one of the 20th century’s great innovators.
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December 18, 2018
Paul Klee's 139th Birthday
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Influenced by movements such as cubism, surrealism, and expressionism, Paul Klee explored numerous styles to develop his own approach to art-making—both rigorous and childlike—which defies categorization.Today’s Doodle pays homage to his Rote Brücke [[Red Bridge), a 1928 work that transforms the rooftops and arches of a European city into a pattern of shapes rendered in contrasting yet harmonious hues. As Klee wrote in his diary, in 1914: “Color and I are one… I am a painter.”
Born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland on this day in 1879, Klee was the son of a German music teacher and a Swiss singer. An accomplished violinist, Klee played in a symphony orchestra before dedicating himself to becoming a painter. He brought a musical sense of rhythm to the visual arts.
Sketching landscapes and caricatures even in his early teens, Klee began keeping meticulous records of all his creations in 1911, whether panel paintings, works on paper, graphics, or sculptures. He studied dots, lines, planes, and forms observed from nature—whether from the fish tank he kept at home or the veins seen on leaves or the human body—applying his observations to a vast body of work.
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January 21, 2016
Lola Flores’ 93rd Birthday
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Today's doodle displays the beautiful visage of "La Faraona", captured in a moment of fierce passion. Recognize those sparkling eyes and perfectly poised hands? She is the beloved Spanish dancer, singer, and actress Lola Flores.
Flores’ legacy lives on in her many films, operas and songs—which are characteristically defiant and as powerful as one of her masterful flamenco performances.
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January 2, 2017
Hussein Amin Bicar's 104th Birthday
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Hussein Amin Bicar was a renowned Egyptian painter, musician, writer and art educator. He taught and influenced many generations of art students at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo. Bicar was known for his kindness, humanity and passion for making art accessible to all.
Bicar was also passionate about music. He was a talented Bouzouki and Oud player, and played traditional and classic music in several bands. Today's Google Doodle pays homage to Bicar and his final painting: a portrait of himself, playing the Bouzouki surrounded by blank papers, canvas and his beloved cat.
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April 6, 2020
Thank You: Public health workers and to researchers in the scientific community
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As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, people are coming together to help one another now more than ever. Over the coming weeks, we’re launching a Doodle series to recognize and honor many of those on the front lines.
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July 3, 2017
Natalia Goncharova's 136th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 136th birthday of Russian art icon Natalia Goncharova. Her contributions to the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century have made her one of the most famous and sought-after female artists in the twenty-first century art market.
Goncharova was born on June 21st, 1881, in a small village southeast of Moscow in the Tula province.[WN] Her father Sergei Goncharov was a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and Natalia began her career by attending the prestigious institute as well. She initially focused on sculpture, with great success; just three years after she began her studies, her work was shown at major Russian salons. In 1909, Goncharova left the institute to help form the Jack of Diamonds, an avant-garde group that focused on combining Russian folk art with developing styles like Russian Primitivism.
Later in her career, Goncharova’s work showed the influence of other emerging styles like Russian Futurism. As the Russian art scene overflowed with new movements, like Rayonism and Cubo-Futurism, Goncharova became a pioneering force. Critic and patron Sergei Diaghilev described her as “the most celebrated of [the] advanced painters” of her time. Later in life, her influence and portfolio expanded into new mediums as she traveled through Europe. In Geneva, Goncharova began designing ballet costumes and sets. She continued on to Paris, where she turned her talent to fashion design. Like her early work, the dresses she designed drew heavily on Russian folk art.
After decades of work and an international career, Goncharova died in Paris in October of 1962. Her pieces are displayed around the world at the Museum of Modern Art, the Tretyakov Gallery, Tate, and more. Today’s Doodle reflects Goncharova’s folk art influences and her distinctive, colorful style.
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July 5, 2016
Carmen Costa’s 96th Birthday
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Throughout the years, the voice of Afro-Brazilian singer Carmen Costa has reverberated from radios, record players, boomboxes and more, with songs such as "Está Chegando A Hora," living on as a festival anthem. Beginning her music career in her late teens in the early 1940s, Costa went on to share the stage with some of the most respected samba and bossa nova artists and musicians of the 20th century. She also spent time touring and living in the U.S. where she appeared in film and produced a long list of hit records.
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July 5, 2016
Juno Reaches Jupiter
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A NASA satellite built like a tank is settling into polar orbit around Jupiter, the mysterious gas giant two doors down from Earth.
Juno’s five year, 500 million mile journey will culminate in a treasure trove of new pictures and measurements taken by its nine instruments. What Juno tells us about Jupiter will detail the planet’s magnetic and gravitational fields and interior structure, revealing how it was formed and providing clues to our own planet’s humble beginnings.
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July 6, 2018
Viola Desmond’s 104th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 104th birthday of Viola Desmond, the black entrepreneur and businesswoman who refused to give up her seat in the whites-only section of a movie theater, leading to a court case that inspired Canada’s civil rights movement.
A schoolteacher and entrepreneur, Desmond overcame various obstacles in pursuit of her dream, breaking down racial barriers and inspiring others to follow in her footsteps. Her Desmond School of Beauty Culture was the first in Halifax, Nova Scotia to admit black women.
One of the largest milestones of Desmond’s life actually occurred by chance. The Roseland Theater usually reserved floor seats for white patrons, but Desmond refused to sit up the balcony. She was forcibly removed, injuring her hip and spending the night in jail. When she was fined for tax evasion over a $.01 cent tax that she’d offered to pay, Desmond fought the case in court, sparking a nationwide debate about desegregation.
Desmond was officially pardoned in 2010, and a posthumous apology was issued by Nova Scotia’s lieutenant-governor. Earlier this year, Desmond became the first woman to be featured on Canadian currency. Her $10 bill is first Canadian bank note to be oriented vertically.
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July 6, 2010
Frida Kahlo's 103rd Birthday
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Mexican painter and activist Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón was born on July 6, 1907 in Mexico City, in her parents’ home, “La Casa Azul,” or “The Blue House.” Although she contracted polio at the age of 6 and continued to have significant health issues throughout her life, Kahlo never stopped working and striving.
At the age of 18 she was involved in a tragic bus crash, breaking several bones and causing significant damage to her spine. After the accident, she found herself bedridden in a full body cast and unable to move. To help her pass the time, her mother brought her a portable easel and box of paints -- and it was then that an artist was born. Around the same time that she began painting, she also became more politically active. She fought for justice for women, Latinos, and workers.
Kahlo's paintings are mostly known for being personal in the extreme; she tells her stories through vivid and surreal images that are both shocking and inviting. "I painted my own reality," she said. Kahlo's work has encouraged many women to give voice to their experiences and pursue their passions, whatever obstacles life might pose along the way.
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Jul 13, 2010
Naomi Shemer 80th Birthday
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Naomi Shemer was a leading Israeli musician and songwriter, hailed as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry." Her song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" [["Jerusalem of Gold") written in 1967, became an unofficial second anthem after Israel won the Six-Day War that year and reunited Jerusalem.
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July 15, 2013
Rembrandt van Rijn's 407th Birthday
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Often regarded as one of the greatest artists in European history, Rembrandt van Rijn is a master not only of form and light but also in portraying human emotion. In his body of work, Rembrandt depicts subjects that range from portraits, to energetic landscapes, to poignant allegories. Such allegories often draw inspiration from his personal hardships and still speak to viewers hundreds of years after his lifetime.
Most striking, perhaps, is his series of self portraits. These paintings are an honest recording of Rembrandt's aging visage and technical skill. One can see his tastes shift from the classical sfumato [[or soft) approach in his early twenties to a more expressive and almost impressionistic technique in his fifties. Ahead of his time, Rembrandt applies his paint with great volume and confidence while many of his contemporaries continue to glaze [[or paint in thin layers).
His paintings also reveal a passion for innovation-- some of his works have unusual substances mixed into the pigments. Glass and wheat flour, though not often found on most artists' palettes, appear on some of Rembrandt's canvases. He may have mixed them in to alter the texture of the paint; to push the medium forward.
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Jul 22, 2013
Warda Al-Jazairia's 74th Birthday
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Warda Ftouki was born in Paris on July 22, 1939. Her father, Mohammed Ftouki, was an Algerian from Souk Ahras, and her mother was Lebanese. She was the youngest of five children.
Warda began singing in the 1950s. She made her debut at the Tam-Tam, a cabaret owned by her father. Located on rue Saint-Séverin, in the Latin Quarter, it is home to many famous stars of Arabic song.
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Aug 8, 2013
Mugunghwa Day
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Hibiscus syriacus is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is native to south-central and southeast China, but widely introduced elsewhere, including much of Asia.
It is the national flower of South Korea and is mentioned in the South Korean national anthem.
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August 9, 2020
Celebrating Mekatilili wa Menza
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Nairobi-based guest artist Wanjira Kinyua, celebrates legendary Kenyan activist Mekatilili wa Menza, known for inspiring the Giriama people to resist colonial rule in the early 20th century. Today on the Kenyan coast, the resilient legacy of Menza is commemorated during the festivities of the traditional Malindi Cultural Festival, an annual celebration of local history and pride.
Mnyazi wa Menza was born in the Giriama village of Matsara wa Tsatsu in coastal Kenya during the mid-19th century. By the early 20th century, British colonial rule had threatened the sovereignty and freedom of the Giriama people with forced labor and taxation. At a time when women’s power was limited within her society, Menza was compelled to organize her people against colonial control.
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March 12, 2013
Evert Taube's 123rd Birthday
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Axel Evert Taube was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians and the foremost troubadour of the Swedish ballad tradition in the 20th century.
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Apr 21, 2015
81st Anniversary of the Loch Ness Monster's most famous photograph
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Colonel Robert Wilsons grainy photograph of Nessie made a big splash. The iconic image of a sea serpent rising out of the water paved the way for the myth of the Loch Ness Monster.
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August 16, 2018
Ebenezer Cobb Morley’s 187th Birthday
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Before Ebenezer Cobb Morley set down the rules of football in 1863, the game was much more chaotic than the version we know today. His 13th rule gives some indication of how unruly football used to be: 'No player shall wear projecting nails, iron plates, or gutta percha on the soles or heels of his boots.'
Born the son of a minister, Morley grew up a sports enthusiast and went on to study law. After joining Barnes Football Club in London, he realized that the game would be benefit from more structure and regulation. He wrote to the sports newspaper Bell’s Life to make the case for a more organized game.
A meeting followed at Freeman’s Tavern where Morley was joined by members of football clubs across England, who all had input into the rule making before Morley drafted his list of 13 rules, which became the standard of play in England.
Morley’s laws helped reduce violence on the field — although he did think players should be able to “hack the front leg” — and formalized the crucial rule we now call offsides, which prevents players from permanently stationing themselves behind an opponent’s defensive line, waiting for a pass.
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May 1, 2015
175th anniversary of the Penny Black
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Before 1st May 1840, posting a letter was a very complicated and expensive affair. It could cost the equivalent of a days wage, and it was charged by how many sheets of paper were used and how far it had to travel. Normally the recipient had to pay the cost.
Sir Roland Hill was responsible for reforming the British postal system, and as part of this a competition was held for the public to design the world’s first adhesive postage stamp. However none of the entries were thought suitable, so instead they used the profile sketch of a then 15 year old Queen Victoria. This image was used on stamps until the end of her reign. Because the Penny Black was the first postage stamp in the world, it did not show a country of origin, and to this day British stamps are the only stamps in the world that do not state what country they are from.
However, the Penny Black only remained in circulation for a year, as it was soon found that it was possible to remove the ink of the red cancellation mark and re-use the stamp, so the Treasury switched to the Penny Red and black cancellati
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Sep 13, 2012
Clara Schumann's 193rd Birthday
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Clara Josephine Schumann was a German pianist, composer and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital from displays of virtuosity to programs of serious works. She also composed solo piano pieces, a piano concerto [[her Op. 7), chamber music, choral pieces, and songs.
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July 9, 2015
Aiga Rasch’s 74th Birthday
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Aiga Rasch was a German illustrator, graphic designer and painter. Though her best-known work covered the youth mystery book series Die drei ???[[The Three Investigators), it doesn't take a detective to identifyAiga Rasch's signature style. In Germany, the book series gained a wide following, with Rasch's cover art propelling the books into unmistakeable icons. Her illustrations are concise and powerful, and the colorful covers impeccably translate the stories within.
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Jul 20, 2011
Gregor Mendel's 189th Birthday
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Gregor Johann Mendel was a meteorologist, mathematician, biologist, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brno, Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire [[today's Czech Republic) and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics. Though farmers had known for millennia that crossbreeding of animals and plants could favor certain desirable traits, Mendel's pea plant experiments conducted between 1856 and 1863 established many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance.
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August 19, 2011
George Enescu's 130th Birthday
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A child prodigy, Enescu began experimenting with composing at an early age. Several, mostly very short, pieces survive, all for violin and piano.
In 1891, the ten-year-old Enescu gave a private concert at the Court of Vienna, in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph.
Joseph Hellmesberger Sr., one of his teachers and the director of the Vienna Conservatory, hosted Enescu at his home, where the child prodigy met his idol, Johannes Brahms.
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April 16, 2020
Thank You: Food service workers
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As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, people are coming together to help one another now more than ever. We’re launching a Doodle series to recognize and honor many of those on the front lines.
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June 8, 2010
Robert Schumann's 200th Birthday
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Robert Schumann was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era.
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February 27, 2014
John Steinbeck’s 112th Birthday
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See the interactive version!
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was an American author and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." He has been called "a giant of American letters," and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature.
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Oct 9, 2020
Hangul Day 2020
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by South Korea-based artist Jisu Choi, commemorates Korea’s Hangul Day [[한글날). One of the world’s only official holidays dedicated to a writing system, Hangul Day celebrates the invention of Korea’s alphabet known as Hangul.
The Hangul alphabet was first unveiled in 1446 by the Choson dynasty’s King Sejong. More than 500 years later, it is still considered a remarkable achievement, even by modern linguistic standards. The 24-letter alphabet remains the only writing system in the world that separates sentences into words, syllables, individual sounds, and elements of articulation like exhalation or voicing. Despite its sophisticated representation of complex spoken language, the writing system is noted for its elegance and simplicity; in fact, it’s said that a dedicated beginner could learn Hangul in just a few hours!
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February 12, 2019
Celebrating Jacques Plante
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Born in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Jacques Plante, aka “Jake the Snake,” was a record-setting French-Canadian hockey player who fell in love with the game early. Called up from the minor leagues to the Montreal Canadiens on this day in 1954, Plante soon became the starting goalie, helping the Canadiens achieve one of the most dominant runs in the history of the sport.
A pioneer of modern goaltending, Plante introduced a free-roaming style, often skating behind the net to help his defense control the puck. But it was an unfortunate incident that inspired perhaps his most important contribution to the sport.
In November 1959, he was hit in the face three minutes into a game against the New York Rangers. After being stitched up, Plante returned wearing a fiberglass mask that he used in practice.
“When I first put on the mask, the boys all told me I would scare the women,” Plante once joked. “If I went on the way I was going, pretty soon my face would look worse than the mask.”
Ignoring his coach’s objections, Plante continued wearing his mask for the rest of his NHL career - becoming the first goalie to regularly wear a protective mask during games. Other goalies soon followed suit.
The only NHL goalie to ever win five Stanley Cups in a row, Plante won the NHL's Vezina Trophy — awarded to the NHL’s best goalkeeper — seven times during his career. He also won the Hart Trophy for being the league’s most valuable player. In 1978, three years after his retirement, Plante was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.