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21 Apr 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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23 Apr 2015
Shoen Uemura’s 140th birthday
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Uemura Shōen was the pseudonym of an important artist in Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa period Japanese painting. Her real name was Uemura Tsune. Shōen was known primarily for her bijin-ga paintings of beautiful women in the nihonga style, although she produced numerous works on historical themes and traditional subjects. Shōen is considered a major innovator in the bijin-ga genre despite the fact she often still used it to depict the traditional beauty standards of women. Bijin-ga gained criticism during the Taisho era while Shōen worked due to its lack of evolution to reflect the more modern statuses of women in Japan. During bijin-ga's conception in the Tokugawa, or Edo, period, women were regarded as lower class citizens and the genre often reflected this implication onto its female subjects. Within the Taisho era, women had made several advancements into the Japanese workforce, and artistry specifically was becoming more popular outside of pass times for the elite, which opened way for Shōen's success.
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27 April 2016
Freedom Day 2016
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This important day marks the time that South Africa broke long-standing boundaries created by apartheid with its first ever democratic election. On this historic occasion, citizens of all races and backgrounds could finally vote. Freedom Day has become a symbol of peace, unity, and the hard-earned freedom now enjoyed throughout the country.
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27 Apr 2016
King's Day 2016
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For King’s Day, or Koningsdag, the Dutch come together to celebrate the birth of their current king, Willem-Alexander. Celebrants wear orange in honor of the royal family’s house color, making King’s Day one of the most vivid of the year.
On this day, the streets are flooded with decorations and orange-clad locals on their way to outdoor concerts and festivities. This is also the one day in which street sales are allowed without a permit, bringing sellers and shoppers out in droves for the flea markets that pop up everywhere.
This year’s doodle highlights the tompouce, a local cream-rich pastry commonly frosted in orange for the occasion. Ga Oranje!
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1 May 2016
Labour Day 2016
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Labour Day is a public holiday honoring the many achievements of labor unions since the 1800s — in particular, the 8 hour working day. Reasonable wages, breaks, and paid vacation are all important to a fair and healthy economy. In some places, people spend the day protesting current labor conditions, attending public demonstrations, and events. Others attend festivals, concerts, or get together with family and friends. Some just spend the day not working.
The day originated in the United States during the Labour Movement that started in the state of Illinois. Now, it's observed in over 90 countries worldwide.
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8 May 2016
Parent's Day in Korea
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Mom and Dad are so much more than that. In fact, in many ways, they’re our first brush with superhero. Doodler Juliana Chen chose to bring this truism to life in this year’s illustration for Parents’ Day in Korea. Thank you, parents! Enjoy your day.
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14 May 2016
Long Night of Museums 2016
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Tonight, museums across Europe will take part in the Long Night of Museums. On this night, local cultural institutions will stay open extra-late to celebrate culture, science, and education.
Many museums provide free admission tonight with some cities also subsidizing public transport during this time. Check to see if your local exhibits are open to the public, and enjoy the treasures of our past.
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1 June 2017
ICC Champions Trophy 2017 Begins!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6VAYvPMKRA
Ah, summer: the sound of leather on willow, and the spectacle of cricket ... cricket! As the tournament begins in the Oval cricket ground, something buzzes outside. A team of crickets sans tickets have set up their own wickets for a game of pest cricket! As they face their archrivals, the snails, it’s sure to be a match for the centuries. Don’t be fooled by their sluggish looks — these fielders can be fast on their feet!
To celebrate the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, we’re inviting everyone to tap/click and take a swing at our pocket-size game!
We know that cricket is loved worldwide, so we wanted to make sure our Doodle works for everyone, including those on slower mobile networks. We kept the file size fly-sized, and the result is our smallest interactive Doodle ever — even snail networks can load it in seconds.
Whether you're enjoying the tournament at a snail’s pace or bowling faster than the beat of a hummingbird's wings, here's hoping you hit it out of the park this summer!
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3 Jun 2017
Josephine Baker's 111th Birthday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnRScE-ijJM
With her kohl-rimmed eyes and exotic costumes, Josephine Baker pounced onto the global stage in the 1920s, becoming a Jazz Age icon and one of the first internationally recognized African-American entertainers.
Born into a vaudevillian family on June 3, 1906, Baker took up the family trade as a teenager. Her early days were spent dancing in public spaces for spare change. She eventually made her way to New York City at the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance, where she joined the chorus line of Shuffle Along, the first all-black Broadway musical. From there, she set off for Paris and found her fame and artistic home in the city’s opulent cabarets, singing and performing uninhibited dance routines that celebrated female liberation and African cultural identity.
A celebrity in Europe – and one of the most photographed women on the planet – Baker nonetheless faced racially charged comments from the press when she returned to the U.S. in 1936 for a short-lived starring turn in the Broadway series Ziegfeld Follies. Championing diversity and fighting for civil rights would become an enduring concern throughout her life. She refused to perform for segregated audiences and worked closely with the NAACP. In 1963, she participated in the March on Washington as the only female speaker to officially address the crowd, which she described as looking like "salt and pepper. Just what it should be." Her family life also mirrored her ideals. She adopted 12 children from around the world, affectionately referring to them as her Rainbow Tribe.
As if all that weren’t enough for one life, Baker had a secret career with the French resistance during World War II, socializing with Axis officials at high-society parties and using her cover as a country-hopping celebrity to gather intelligence — often writing it on her sheet music in invisible ink. Following the war, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre and inducted by Charles de Gaulle into France’s prestigious Legion of Honour.
There’s little doubt why Ernest Hemingway once called her "the most sensational woman anybody ever saw—or ever will."
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12 November 2018
Alexander Borodin’s 185th Birthday
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The son of a Georgian prince, Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a sickly child who went on to create a powerful legacy in two different fields. Today’s Doodle celebrates the boy who grew up to become both a distinguished chemist and one of Russia’s greatest classical composers.
Born in St. Petersburg on this day in 1833, Borodin showed an early aptitude for science, languages, and music. While mastering German, French, and English, he began studying flute at age eight and later learned the violin and violoncello. By the age of 13 he’d already composed a piece for flute and piano — nevertheless, he considered music to be a hobby while his main focus was in the field of science.
At 17, Borodin began his studies at St Petersburg’s Medico-Surgical Academy, delving into botany, zoology, anatomy, and crystallography—but he soon specialized in organic chemistry, earning his doctorate in 1858. He went on to become a professor at his alma mater, conducting research on benzene derivatives and organic synthesis, and the discovery of the aldol reaction. He’s also remembered as a champion of women’s rights, having founded the Women’s Medical School in St. Petersburg, where he taught for many years. Still, the music kept calling him.
In the 1860s he met Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev, a pianist and composer who would become his musical mentor. Borodin soon made him part of a group known as “The Five” [aka “The Mighty Handful”] whose goal was to develop a distinctly Russian style of classical music. Borodin’s incorporation of traditional folk music, and his striking use of harmony in works like “The Steppes of Central Asia,” made him a leading figure of the Romantic era.
Championed by such fellow composers as Liszt, Debussy, and Ravel, Borodin’s work has had a lasting influence on classical music. His unforgettable melodies were adapted for Kismet, the Tony-Award-winning musical that went from Broadway to Hollywood with songs like “Stranger in Paradise.”
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14 Nov 2018
Doodle 4 Google 2018 – India Winner
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The winner of the 2018 Doodle 4 Google competition in India is Pingla Rahul More of J. B. Vachha High School in Mumbai. Pingla and 75000+ other contestants from around the country produced amazing works in response to this year’s theme of “What inspires me?”.
Pingla Rahul won among the five very talented age group finalists with her Doodle "Galaxy, Space Exploration”. She writes --
“In my Doodle, I demonstrated what inspires me. I am extremely inspired by Space Exploration as there is still so much more to know about our Universe -- from planets to stars to galaxies and beyond. It is inspiring to learn how small we are, and how small our problems are, in the grand scheme of things. To convey my idea, I drew myself trying to see the expanse of the space through a telescope, I created galaxies, planets and spacecraft to represent the vastness of things in space. [carefully arranged to represent each letter in the Google logo].”
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16 Nov 2018
44th Anniversary of the Arecibo Message
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Forty-four years ago today, a group of scientists gathered at the Arecibo Observatory amidst the tropical forests of Puerto Rico to attempt humankind’s first communication with intelligent life beyond our own planet. Their three-minute radio message—a series of exactly 1,679 binary digits [a multiple of two prime numbers] which could be arranged in a grid 73 rows by 23 columns—was aimed at a cluster of stars 25,000 light years away from earth.
This historic transmission was intended to demonstrate the capabilities of Arecibo’s recently upgraded radio telescope, whose 1000-foot-diameter dish made it the largest and most powerful in the world at the time. "It was strictly a symbolic event, to show that we could do it," said Donald Campbell, Cornell University professor of astronomy, who was a research associate at the Arecibo Observatory at the time. Nevertheless some of those present were moved to tears.
The message itself was devised by a team of researchers from Cornell University led by Dr. Frank Drake—the astronomer and astrophysicist responsible for the Drake Equation, a means of estimating the number of planets hosting extraterrestrial life within the Milky Way galaxy. ‘‘What could we do that would be spectacular?’’ Drake recalled thinking. “We could send a message!’’
Written with the assistance of Carl Sagan, the message itself could be arranged in a rectangular grid of 0s and 1s to form a pictograph representing some fundamental facts of mathematics, human DNA, planet earth’s place in the solar system, and a picture of a human-like figure as well as an image of the telescope itself.
Since the Arecibo Message will take roughly 25,000 years to reach its intended destination [a group of 300,000 stars in the constellation Hercules known as M13], humankind will have to wait a long time for an answer. How long? In the 44 years since it was first transmitted, the message has traveled only 259 trillion miles, only a tiny fraction of the 146,965,638,531,210,240 or so miles to its final destination. During that same time, our understanding of the cosmos has advanced by leaps and bounds, raising hopes that someone may be out there, listening.
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22 Nov 2018
Loy Krathong 2018
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Today’s Google celebrates Loy Krathong, Thailand’s festival of lights. On the night of the full moon in the 12th lunar month of the traditional Thai calendar, Thailand celebrates the end of rain season with this ritual. The word “loy” means to float, while “krathongs” are small baskets traditionally made from banana tree wood and carefully folded banana leaves, each containing sticks of incense, candles, and an offering of a few coins for the water goddess. It’s also customary to include locks of hair and fingernail clippings to symbolize letting go of the past and any unhappy feelings.
According to legend, the festival was originated by Nang Noppamas, consort to a king. Beauty pageants in her honor remain a traditional part of Loy Krathong celebrations. Others insist that the tradition was inspired by the Khom Loy festival, a Buddhist ritual giving thanks to Ganga, the Goddess of Water. Similar full moon festivals are celebrated at this time of year throughout the region.
In the city of Sukhothai, celebrants flock to the banks of the Yom river, floating their krathongs by the ancient temple in Sukhothai Historical Park. In Bangkok it’s the Chao Phraya River, and in Tak it’s the Ping. Wherever you celebrate, Loy Krathong is a joyous occasion with beautiful lights on the water, fireworks and lanterns in the sky, and a song in the air.
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23 Nov 2018
Valdemar Poulsen’s 148th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Valdemar Poulsen, a Danish engineer whose innovations made magnetic sound recording and long-range radio transmission possible. Many modern conveniences, from telephone answering machines to cassettes, even VHS tapes and floppy disks, used the basic technology that he developed by stringing a steel piano wire at a slight angle between two walls. By sliding an electromagnet down the wire he was able to record sound using a microphone and play it back through a telephone earpiece.
Born in Copenhagen on this day in 1869, Poulsen studied medicine for a time before joining the Copenhagen Telephone Company as a technician. During his time he invented the telegraphone—or telegrafon in Danish–– and was awarded a patent. The cylindrical electromagnetic phonograph was capable of recording up to thirty minutes of speech. In 1900 he showed off his device at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where he recorded the voice of Austrian emperor Francis Joseph—still the earliest surviving magnetic recording. After winning a Grand Prix in Paris, he founded the American Telegraphone Company, but sales were sluggish as the device was truly ahead of its time.
That same year brought another breakthrough, a “singing arc” radio that would transmit up to 150 miles. Subsequent improvements of this design, capable of reaching 2,500 miles, were eventually used by the U.S. Navy.
Although he dropped out of medical school, Poulsen was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig. He was also a Fellow of the Danish Academy of Technical Science and the Swedish Institute for Engineering Research, and won the Gold Medal of the Royal Danish Society of Science and th e Danish Government Medal of Merit. A stamp was issued in his honor and the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences established an annual award in his name.
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23 Nov 2018
Nikolai Nosov’s 110th Birthday
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Blending fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction, Nikolai Nosov wrote children’s literature whose playful prose delivered powerful insights into human nature. His short stories like “Alive Hat,” “Cucumbers,” and “Miraculous Trousers,” and a humorous trilogy of novels about the misadventures of a very small boy named Neznaika [whose name translates as “Know-Nothing” in English] made Nosov a favorite of young readers all over Russia and beyond.
Born on this day in 1908 in Kiev, Ukraine, Nosov attended the Moscow Institute of Cinematography and worked as a producer of animated educational films before he began publishing fiction, often in popular children’s magazines like Murzilka. In 1952 his endearing novel Vitya Maleev at School and at Home was awarded the Stalin Prize, the Soviet Union’s state award, elevating his profile as a writer considerably. The book was later adapted into a comic film called Two Friends.
In 1954 he published the first volume of the Neznaika trilogy—in both Russian and Ukrainian—with two subsequent novels in the series appearing in 1958 and 1967. Set within a town in fairyland populated by tiny people called “Mites” who are “no bigger than a pine cone,” the action centers around an impulsive and easily distracted boy whose belief that he knows everything is always getting him into trouble. In 1969, Nosov won a new literary prize for his trilogy, which has since been adapted into numerous film versions, endearing his characters to countless generations of readers as parents who grew up on Neznaika grow up and the books to their own children.
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23 Nov 2018
Mestre Bimba’s 119th Birthday
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A blend of martial arts, acrobatics, dance, and music, Capoeira has been practiced in Brazil for hundreds of years. Today’s Doodle celebrates Manuel dos Reis Machado, or Mestre Bimba, the master who legitimized capoeira and founded the world’s first school to promote this Afro-Brazilian martial arts style.
Mestre Bimba was born in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, on this day in 1899 as the youngest of 25 children and son of a batuque champion, another Brazilian fighting game. His parents named him Manuel dos Reis Machado, but everyone called him Bimba. He worked various odd jobs – longshoreman, carpenter, and coal miner – before dedicating his life to his real passion of capoeira.
Developed by former slaves, Capoeira was outlawed by the Brazilian government for many years. “In those days, when capoeira was spoken of, it was in whispers,” Bimba recalled. “Those who learned capoeira only thought about becoming criminals.”
As studying martial arts was forbidden by law, music was added to disguise the powerful fighting techniques as dance moves. Developing his own style, known as capoeira regional, Mestre Bimba instituted a strict set of rules and a dress code. In 1928 he was invited to demonstrate his style of capoeira for Getulio Vargas, then president of Brazil. The President was so impressed that he gave Mestre Bimba the go-ahead to open the first capoeira school in his hometown of Salvador, giving this unique martial art a new sense of legitimacy. In 2014 capoeira was recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, which hailed it as one of the most expressive popular manifestations of the Brazilian culture.
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24 Nov 2018
Charles-Michel de l'Épée’s 306th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle honors the Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée, a French educator who founded the first public school for the deaf. Dispelling the misconception that people with impaired hearing were incapable of learning, Épée developed a visual method that became the blueprint for the teaching of the deaf in France and that changed countless lives at a time when many deaf people were discriminated against.
"Every deaf-mute sent to us already has a language," he wrote. "He is thoroughly in the habit of using it, and understands others who do. With it he expresses his needs, desires, doubts, pains, and so on, and makes no mistakes when others express themselves likewise.”
Born in Versailles on this day in 1712, Épée was the son of an architect who studied theology and law before devoting his life to serving the poor. He began tutoring two deaf sisters who lived in the slums of Paris and who communicated through their own sign language. In 1760, he used his own inheritance to found the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris, a school for the deaf that was open to all regardless of their ability to pay.
The French National Assembly eventually recognized him as a "Benefactor of Humanity" and asserted the rights of deaf people under France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. His school went on to receive government funding and remains open to this day renamed as Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris.
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27 Nov 2018
Fe del Mundo’s 107th Birthday
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“I’m glad that I have been very much involved in the care of children, and that I have been relevant to them,” says Filipina physician Fe del Mundo. “They are the most outstanding feature in my life.”
Born in Manilla on this day in 1911, del Mundo was inspired to study medicine by her older sister who did not herself live to realize her dream of becoming a doctor. Also known as “The Angel of Santo Tomas,” del Mundo devoted her life to child healthcare and revolutionized pediatric medicine in the process.
A gifted student who became the first woman admitted to Harvard Medical School, del Mundo returned home after completing her studies in the U.S. During World War II, she set up a hospice where she treated more than 400 children and later became director of a government hospital. Frustrated with the bureaucracy, she eventually sold her house and belongings to finance the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. Del Mundo lived on the second floor of the Children's Medical Center in Quezon City, making early morning rounds until she was 99 years old, even in a wheelchair.
When she wasn’t treating patients she was teaching students, publishing important research in medical journals, and authoring a definitive ‘Textbook of Pediatrics.’ She established the Institute of Maternal and Child Health to train doctors and nurses, and became the first woman to be conferred the title National Scientist of the Philippines and received many awards for her outstanding service to humankind.
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2 Dec 2018
United Arab Emirates National Day 2018
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the United Arab Emirates National Day on a very special anniversary for the country. This year, UAE’s first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan - who founded the country and began his 33-year reign over the unified nation - would have turned 100 years old.On this day in 1971, the six emirates of Abu Dhabi [the nation’s capital], Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah, and Umm Al Quwain, joined forces at the Union House in Dubai. One remaining emirate, Ras Al Khaimah, would join in February of the following year thus creating the United Arab Emirates — a rich amalgamation of 7 unique cultures and traditions of centuries past.
To mark the occasion, a spectacular display of fireworks will illuminate the skylines of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah in honor of the national day.
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9 Dec 2018
Sir Douglas Nicholls’ 112th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Sir Douglas Nicholls, the athlete, pastor, and political leader who championed the upliftment of Australia’s Indigenous people and went on to become the first Aboriginal Australian to be knighted by the Queen of England.
Born in Yorta Yorta Country, New South Wales, on this day in 1906, Nicholls was raised in Cummeragunga Mission Station, an Aboriginal reserve on the Murray River. After receiving a basic education he worked as a “tar boy,” preparing sheep for shearing, and later joined a dredging team building levees on the river.
Although he stood just 5’2” Nicholls was a gifted athlete who won various sprinting titles, was an expert boomerang thrower, and who excelled in football. As the first Indigenous Australian to play football professionally, Nicholls endured scorn from teammates and trainers, but eventually found his team and helped the Northcote club reach the grand finals for three seasons—winning the title in 1929.
Motivated by the founder of the Australian Aborigines’ League, Sir Nicholls got involved in politics and began speaking out for the rights of Indigenous people. “I know we can proudly hold our own with others if given the chance,” Nicholls proclaimed in 1938 at Australia’s first gathering to advance the cause of Aboriginal civil rights.
In 1940, Nicholls retired as a football player due to knee injuries. Drawn to the church after the loss of his mother, he became the first pastor of Aboriginal Church of Christ in Australia. “Pastor Doug” held regular meetings that led to a thriving community center. He was appointed to a parliamentary committee which investigated abuses towards Indigenous people and edited Smoke Signals, the journal of the Aboriginal Advancement League.
In 1976 Nicholls was appointed governor of South Australia, becoming the first Indigenous Australian to hold the office. Nicholls was named a Member of the British Empire, Victorian Father of the Year, Order of the British Empire, and in 1972 traveled to London to be knighted by the Queen of England.
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10 Dec 2018
Clarice Lispector’s 98th Birthday
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“I write very simply,” said the Brazilian author Clarice Lispector. “I don’t dress things up.” Her intensely personal short stories and novels about the innermost feelings of characters searching for meaning in life made her one of the most celebrated literary figures of the 20th century.
Born on this day in 1920, Clarice Lispector fled the Ukraine with her family, who had been persecuted for being Jewish, to the city of Recife in northern Brazil. At age nine she and her two sisters moved to Rio, where they were raised by her father following her mother’s passing.
Lispector began writing stories at age seven. While studying law she cultivated her passion by writing for newspapers and magazines—both fiction and journalism—before publishing her first novel at age 23. Perto do coração selvagem [[Near to the Wild Heart) was hailed for its innovative interior monologue style, revealing the thoughts and emotions of an adolescent woman. It earned her the Graça Aranha Prize for the best debut novel of 1943. The same year her book was published she married a diplomat and left Brazil to live nearly two decades in Italy, Switzerland, England, and America. She visited Brazil regularly but did would not move back until 1959.
Collections of stories like Family Ties and The Foreign Legion explore the alienation of modern life by revealing their character’s private reflections on the mundane details of daily existence. Taken as a whole, her 85-story body of work can be read an autobiography: the inner thoughts of a woman’s entire life from adolescence to old age.
In recent years many of her works—including her 1973 masterpiece Água Viva [[The Stream of Life)—have been translated into English, allowing a new generation of readers to discover this enchanting individual author.
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14 Dec 2018
Dolores Olmedo’s 110th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the life and legacy of Dolores Olmedo, a close friend of Diego Rivera and owner of the world’s most important private collection of the modernist master’s work—as well as several xoloitzcuintles, the Mexican hairless dogs she adored. Olmedo also acquired many paintings by Rivera’s wife, Frida Kahlo, and donated her collection to the people of Mexico, where it is displayed in her former home. “I lived with this art for most of my life,'' she said. “Who knows better than me how it should be displayed?”
Born in Mexico City on this day in 1913, Dolores Olmedo was 17 years old when she visited the Ministry of Education with her mother, who worked as a schoolteacher. On the elevator, they bumped into Rivera, who was painting murals in the building. He asked Olmedo’s mother if he could make some sketches of her. The artist completed 27 sketches of Olmedo and established a lifelong connection.
During the 1940s, Olmedo—also known as Doña Lola—went on to become a successful real estate developer, one of the first Mexican women to excel in the field. During Rivera’s final years in the 1950s, he moved into Olmedo’s estate in Xochimilco, a neighborhood in the southern part of Mexico City. The artist sold her dozens of his own paintings and drawings, as well as 25 paintings by Kahlo, in hopes that the work would remain in their homeland. OImedo also oversaw both artists’ estates.
The Museo Dolores Olmedo opened in September 1994, inside her sixteenth-century stone residence, formerly known as the Hacienda La Noria. The museum is also a centerpoint for Day of the Dead celebrations as Olmedo would often organize an ofrenda, or altar, in honor of Diego Rivera. The museum’s collection includes a wide range of Rivera’s works over the many decades of his career as well as the world’s largest collection of Kahlo paintings and illustrations by Angelina Beloff, who worked with Rivera in Europe during the early 20th century. The work is displayed in an intimate setting, amidst Olmedo’s personal furnishings and peacocks strolling through gardens. ''I will always defend his work energetically,'' she wrote about Rivera in her museum's catalog, and she has stood by her word.
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17 Dec 2018
80th Anniversary of 'The Rapid Arrows'
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A group of five boys with a thirst for adventure, the Rapid Arrows [or Rychlé šípy in the original Czechoslovakian] premiered as an action-packed comics series 80 years ago. Mirek Dušín, Jarka Metelka, Jindra Hojer, Červenáček [aka "Red Cap"], Rychlonožka [aka "Speedy"], and their trusty dog Bublina [aka "Bubble"] were an instant hit with young readers—and remain popular in the Czech Republic and Slovakia today.
Created by the Czech writer Jaroslav Foglar, the Rapid Arrows comic quickly became a household name in families with young children. The group leader’s name, Mirek Dušín, has become a figure of speech for someone who is exemplary in every way—now used in a humorous way. Adapted into audio, film, and stage versions, the Rapid Arrows left a strong impact on pop culture in Eastern Europe and even inspired a wave of real-life youth clubs with many thousands of readers.
The comic ran from 1938 to 1989, with two breaks in production caused by war and political changes. All the original comics were collected into one book in 1998, which has been reprinted several times since. The Rapid Arrows also appear in Foglar’s novel Mystery of the Conundrum, which was adapted into a 1969 TV series and later into a 1993 film.
The boys’ search for the mechanical puzzle known as “Hedgehog in a Cage,” the Tleskač flying bicycle, and the sinister region of Stínadla continue to be loved by generations of readers and viewers.
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18 Dec 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.
Along with his neighbor, the famous Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, Klee was affiliated with an influential circle of artists known as Der Blaue Reiter, which lasted from 1911 to 1914. He went on to teach at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany during the 1920s, and the Pedagogical Sketchbook he wrote for the benefit of his students is still used today.
Klee never stopped pushing his creativity forward, producing a large number of works every year. In the year 1939, near the end of his career, he completed a record 1,239 works. “Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror,” Klee wrote in his diary. “Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface... but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart.”
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21 Dec 2018
Connie Mark’s 95th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle honors the life and legacy of trailblazer Connie Mark, who served in the women’s branch of the British army in Jamaica during World War II. Later moving from her native Jamaica to England, she became a community activist, promoting Caribbean culture and ensuring that the women and people of color who contributed to the war effort received equal recognition.
Connie Mark was born Constance Winifred McDonald in Kingston, Jamaica on this day in 1923. While her family tree included ancestors from Scotland, Calcutta, and Lebanon, Mark also had roots in Africa and grew up speaking Jamaican Patois [also known as Jamaican Creole] with roots in the Ghanaian language Twi.
At age 19, Mark was recruited to work in the British Military Hospital of Kingston as a medical secretary, typing reports of battle injuries. Although she was promoted twice during her service spanning a decade, Mark was denied the usual pay raise for unknown reasons. Due to this, she became an unwavering advocate for fair pay and continued advocating for proper recognition of Caribbean servicewomen throughout her life.
After settling in Britain in the 1950s, Mark became even more passionate about Caribbean culture and joined several charitable and educational projects. She organized community events, using oral history and poetry to instill pride in the youth of Caribbean and African descent.
At the age of 68, Mark received the British Empire Medal, and two years later was given a Member of the British Empire [MBE award in recognition of a lifetime of public service,
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22 Dec 2018
Teresa Carreño’s 165th Birthday
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Born in Caracas on this day in 1853, María Teresa Carreño García de Sena grew up in a musical family. Her father, a government minister descended from a distinguished composer, taught her to play piano at age six. By the time she was eight, her family moved to New York City, where Teresa began studying with the composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who was so impressed by her talents that he volunteered to teach her. She soon progressed to public performances. One 1862 review hailed her as a “musical phenomenon,” adding that it was “difficult to believe that it was the performance of a child.”
Carreño was nine years old when she performed for President Abraham Lincoln in the White House during the fall of 1863. ”The President and his family received us so informally,” she wrote in a letter. “They were all so very nice to me that I almost forgot to be cranky under the spell of their friendly welcome. My self-consciousness all returned, however, when Mrs. Lincoln asked me if I would like to try the White House grand piano.”
Carreno went on to study in Paris with distinguished teachers like Georges Mathias and Anton Rubenstein. She composed approximately 75 works—including the ‘Himno a Bolívar’ written in honor of national hero Simón Bolívar at the request of the Venezuelan government. Well known to all Venezuelans, this patriotic song is as familiar as the national anthem.
Her name also lives on via Miami’s nonprofit Teresa Carreño International Piano Competition, recognizing and encouraging artistry in young players.
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7 Jan 2019
Fahrelnissa Zeid’s 118th Birthday
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“I am a descendent of four civilizations,” wrote Fahrelnissa Zeid, describing her 1980 self-portrait Someone from the Past. “The hand is Persian, the dress Byzantine, the face is Cretan and the eyes Oriental, but I was not aware of this as I was painting it.”
One of the first women to attend art school in Turkey, Fahrelnissa Zeid went on to become a member of both the École de Paris [School of Paris] and D Grubu, a Turkish avant-garde group. Celebrated for her abstract paintings, Zeid also did representational work and even painted designs on chicken bones. Bridging western abstraction and eastern styles, her work broke down gender and culture barriers.
Born on the Turkish island of Büyükada on this day in 1901, Zeid was raised in a prestigious Ottoman family. In 1919 she enrolled at the Imperial School of Art in Istanbul, later traveling through Europe and visiting a variety of art and cultural sites across Spain, Italy, and more.. She continued her training at Académie Ranson in Paris.
In the 1930s, Zeid married into the royal family of Iraq and moved to Berlin until World War II forced her to move to Baghdad. “I did not ‘intend’ to become an abstract painter,” she said of the bold abstract paintings she began painting between Baghdad, Turkey, Paris, and London—blending Eastern and Western influences.
In the 1970s Zeid moved to Amman, Jordan, where she founded the Fahrelnissa Zeid Institute for Fine Arts . A 2017 retrospective of her work at the Tate Modern in London referred to Zeid as “one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century.”
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10 November 2020
Celebrating Umeko Tsuda
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Japan-based guest artist Kano Nakajima, celebrates the pioneering Japanese educator and reformer Umeko Tsuda. Tsuda broke new ground as one of the first girls sent by the Japanese government to study abroad and went on to found what is today one of Japan’s oldest colleges for women. On this day in 1915, the Japanese government awarded Tsuda the prestigious Order of the Precious Crown for her achievements in women’s education.
Ume Tsuda was born in 1864 in what is now the Japanese capital of Tokyo, and at just seven years old was sent along with four other girls to the U.S. to study American culture. Over a decade later, she returned to Tokyo and became an English teacher, but she was disillusioned with the limited educational opportunities afforded to the country’s women at that time. Tsuda returned to the U.S. to attend Bryn Mawr College, where she became inspired to commit her life to the improvement of women’s higher education in her home country.
To that end, Tsuda created a scholarship for Japanese women to study in the United States, with the goal of helping to foster a new generation of educational leaders. With renewed vision, Tsuda again returned home and in 1900 opened her own school called Joshi Eigaku Juku [The Women’s Institute for English Studies].
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14 Nov 2020
Celebrating Maria Tallchief
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Elizabeth Marie "Betty" Tallchiefwas an American ballerina. She was considered America's first major prima ballerina. She was the first Native American [Osage Nation] to hold the rank, and is said to have revolutionized ballet.
The combination of Balanchine's difficult choreography and Tallchief's passionate dancing revolutionized the ballet. Her 1949 role in The Firebird catapulted Tallchief to the top of the ballet world, establishing her as a prima ballerina. Her role as the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker transformed the ballet from obscure to America's most popular.
She traveled the world, becoming the first American to perform in Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. She made regular appearances on American TV before she retired in 1966. After retiring from dance, Tallchief was active in promoting ballet in Chicago. She served as director of ballet for the Lyric Opera of Chicago for most of the 1970s and debuted the Chicago City Ballet in 1981.
Tallchief was honored by the people of Oklahoma with multiple statues and an honorific day. She was inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame and received a National Medal of Arts. In 1996, Tallchief received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievements. Her life has been the subject of multiple documentaries and biographies.
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15 Nov 2020
Celebrating Jacques Brel
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Toulouse-based guest artist Antoine Maillard, celebrates Belgian singer and songwriter Jacques Brel. Widely considered one of the most famous French-language singers in Europe, Brel cultivated a global following and made music that continues to move audiences to this day. On this day in 1966, Brel graced the stage one last time to deliver an emotional farewell performance at the “Palais des Beaux-Arts” in his hometown of Brussels.
Jacques Romain Georges Brel was born on April 8, 1929 in the Belgian capital of Brussels. Part of a wealthy family, he expressed interest in writing stories and poems during his teen years before eventually settling into a job with the family business. Unsatisfied with this work, Brel joined a youth charity organization where he began to sing in small venues and recorded his first single before moving to Paris, where he soon rose to stardom.
Brel’s second album, “Quand on n’a que l'amour” [“If We Only Have Love,” 1957], was a hit and its title track won the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros award. He continued to release a string of hit singles, confirming his celebrity status throughout Europe, and embarked on exhaustive tours until his voluntary retirement from concert performances in 1967. While in New York on his final tour, Brel was inspired to act and thus, he found a new creative outlet. One of his most notable films, “Le Far West,” [“Far West,” 1973] was nominated for the Cannes Film Festival’s most prestigious award: the Palme d’Or. Not only was Brel the star of the film, he was also the co-writer and director.
A man of many interests, Brel learned to sail and crossed both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by 1975. He eventually settled in the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. In 2017, Belgium honored Brel with a commemorative statue.
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16 Nov 2020
Eliška Junková's 120th Birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 120th birthday of Czech racecar driver Eliška Junková, a pioneer in the history of motor racing. Known as the “Queen of the Steering Wheel,” Junková competed during the 1920s against Europe’s top drivers, and in 1927 became the first woman ever to win a Grand Prix race.
Alžběta “Eliška” Junková was born on this day in 1900 in the Austro-Hungarian town Olomouc, today part of the Czech Republic. She took an interest in racing cars early on in high school, alongside her then-boyfriend and eventual husband Vincenc "Čeněk" Junek.” With her passion ignited, she took driving lessons in Prague and became one of the first women in the newly-formed Czechoslovakia to receive a driver's license. When her husband kicked off his career as a car racer, Junková sat beside him as his racing mechanic and co-pilot. However, it wasn’t long before she took the wheel herself.
Eliška Junková rose to fame racing her trademark Bugatti across Europe’s most difficult courses. She even developed a close personal friendship with the car’s maker, Ettore Bugatti. Junková was not only technically adept, she also earned a reputation as one of the first drivers to do walk-through’s of courses like Italy’s famous Targa Florio prior to races in order to commit landmarks and turns to memory.
Junková retired from racing in 1928, but her legacy was immortalized by Czech composer, Jaroslav Ježek's, classic jazz composition "Bugatti Step,” as well as by Junková’s personal autobiography, “My Memory is Bugatti.”
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18 Nov 2020
Celebrating Fanny Eaton
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Today’s Doodle celebrates Jamaican-British artist muse Fanny Eaton. Eaton modelled throughout the 1860s for a variety of notable English painters in work that helped redefine Victorian standards of beauty and diversity. On this day in 1874, it is recorded that Eaton sat for life classes at the Royal Academy of London, sessions which were integral to the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
Fanny Eaton was born Fanny Matilda Antwistle in Surrey, Jamaica on July 13, 1835. She moved with her mother to Britain during the 1840s, towards the beginning of the Victorian Era. In her 20s, she began modelling for portrait painters at the Royal Academy of London, and she soon captured the attention of a secret society of rising young artists called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Eaton made her public debut in Simeon Solomon’s painting The Mother of Moses, which was exhibited in 1860 at the Royal Academy. Over the following decade, she was featured by a variety of prominent Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and Rebecca Solomon. The group held Eaton up as a model of ideal beauty and featured her centrally at a time when Black individuals were significantly underrepresented, and often negatively represented, in Victorian art.
Eaton’s modeling career lasted through much of the decade, and Millais’ 1867 work Jephthah is believed to feature her last known appearance in a painting.
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24 Nov 2020
Celebrating Mariachi
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Today’s video Doodle celebrates a quintessential element of Mexico’s rich cultural heritage: the musical genre of Mariachi. Mariachi is typically characterized by a small group of musicians dressed in traditional clothing who perform a wide repertoire of Mexican songs on mostly stringed instruments [the term Mariachi can refer to either the music or the musicians themselves]. During a session held the week of November 22, 2011 UNESCO inscribed Mariachi on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The Mariachi tradition was born in west-central Mexico around the turn of the 19th century, though its exact origins remain unknown. At first, the genre was strictly instrumental, composed of the sounds of stringed instruments, and eventually vocals and the trumpet were added to the mix. In modern times, Mariachi music has been combined with elements of diverse genres from jazz to reggae. Singers often add in their best grito to express the emotion of the vibrant music! No matter the variation, Mariachi remains a strong representation of Mexican history and culture.
Today’s video Doodle features a Mariachi serenade of the classic song, Cielito Lindo. More than just music, Cielito Lindo [which roughly translates from Spanish as “lovely sweet one”] is a symbol of Mexican pride and community.The Mariachi band is depicted playing the staple instruments of the musical genre—including the guitarrón [a six-string bass], vihuela [a five-string guitar], violin, trumpet, and harp—and wearing traditional trajes de charro [charro suits].
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25 Nov 2020
Celebrating Tino Sidin
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Indonesian-American guest artist Shanti Rittgers, celebrates the 95th birthday of Indonesian artist and teacher Tino Sidin. Lovingly known as Pak Tino [Sir Tino], Sidin became a household name through his television series Gemar Menggambar [Like to Draw], on which he taught a generation of young children how to draw and nurture their creative talents. Fittingly, November 25 is also recognized in Indonesia as National Teachers' Day in commemoration of the establishment of the Indonesian Teachers’ Association on this date in 1945.
Tino Sidin was born on this day in 1925 in Tebing Tinggi in North Sumatra, now a province of Indonesia. He first began teaching in his hometown during his 20s and in 1960 travelled to Yogyakarta–among the country’s cultural hubs–to attend the pioneering Indonesian Academy of Arts [now the Indonesian Art Institute]. In 1969, Gemar Menggambar first premiered on the local TV station TVRI Yogyakarta, and in 1979 it made the leap onto Indonesian national television.
Every Sunday afternoon for the next decade, Pak Tino introduced countless children to the fun and joy of drawing. Like countless teachers celebrated across the country today, Sidin nurtured his young students through positive encouragement. He inspired the students to not be afraid to make mistakes, and he uplifted the children who viewed the show nationwide, showing support for their submitted artwork with his signature catchphrase “Ya, bagus” [“Yes, it’s nice”]. An accomplished artist off camera as well, Sidin’s own work was often inspired by daily life; one of his paintings, Empat Anak Main, [Four Children Play] for example, depicts four of his daughters.
In 2017, a museum was founded at Sidin’s former residence in Yogyakarta, immortalizing the legacy of Indonesia’s beloved teaching artist.
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26 Nov 2020
Celebrating Saloma
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the beloved Singaporean-Malaysian actor, singer, and fashion icon best known as Saloma. A trend-setter of Malaysian entertainment from the late ‘50s through the early ‘80s, Saloma recorded over 500 songs, and through her charismatic film work she paved the way for future generations of female actors in her country. On this day in 1978, she made history when she was awarded Malaysia’s first Biduanita Negara [National Songbird] by the Malaysian government of the time.
Saloma was born Salmah Ismail in Singapore on January 22, 1932, and first started to explore her skills as a vocalist at just seven years old. By her teenage years, she began to sing professionally, starting her music career through performances at nightclubs and weddings.
Once Saloma transitioned to acting by the mid ‘50s, she quickly became a celebrity figure. In 1961, she married fellow multi-hyphenate entertainment icon P. Ramlee, and over the years that followed, the legendary power couple forever altered Malaysian entertainment through music and film. Sporting her signature coiffed hairdo and inimitable clothing [much of which she sewed herself], Saloma starred in movies throughout the ‘60s and released albums for the rest of her life.
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26 Nov 2020
Frank Bailey's 95th birthday
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Today’s Doodle, illustrated by West Yorkshire-based guest artist Nicole Miles, celebrates Guyanese-British firefighter and social worker Frank Bailey, who is widely considered the first Black firefighter of post-war London. Among his pioneering accomplishments in the name of diversity and inclusion, Bailey is also credited as one of the first Black social workers specializing in mental health in London’s Kensington and Chelsea borough.
Frank Arthur Bailey was born on this day in 1925 in British Guiana [now Guyana], South America. He attended local schools and then took a job on a German trade ship, which brought him to New York. There he found work in a hospital where he staged a walkout in protest of the institution’s separate dining rooms for different types of employees. The subsequent integration of the dining facilities proved just one of Bailey’s many successful challenges to an unequal status quo.
Bailey moved to London in 1953 and caught wind that Black people were not being hired by the city’s fire service. Not one to stand idly by in the face of injustice, Bailey applied to join the West Ham Fire Brigade and made history when he was accepted into service. A lifelong advocate for workers’ rights, Bailey became a union branch representative before the repeated denial of promotions pushed him to leave his post in 1965.
Bailey then transitioned into social work and became the first Black legal advisor for Black youths at Marylebone Magistrates Court.
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27 Nov 2020
Munier Chowdhury's 95th birthday
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Today’s Doodle celebrates the 95th birthday of Bangladeshi playwright, educator, linguist, literary critic, stage actor, and political activist Munier Chowdhury, who is widely considered a pioneer of the country’s modern Bangla drama. Renowned for plays like Kabar [The Grave, 1952] and Roktakto Prantor [The Bloody Meadow, 1959], Chowdhury dedicated his life to the promotion of the Bangla language, its national identity, and the fight against repression in all its forms.
Shaheed Munier Chowdhury was born on this day in 1925 in the town of Manikganj, British India [now Bangladesh], and from a young age he impressed his family with his precocious wit. Following his first of multiple master’s degrees, he became a professor in the English and Bangla departments of Dhaka University in 1950.
In 1952, Chowdhury was imprisoned for his activism related to the Language Movement, an ultimately successful campaign to have Bangla recognized as one of Pakistan’s official languages. While detained he completed one of his greatest works, Kabar—a surrealist ode to the struggles of the movement. Throughout the rest of his life, Chowdhury maintained his success as a writer of short stories and plays while serving as a champion of nationalist and cultural causes. A committed torchbearer for the Bangla language, he also helped to design an improved Bangla typewriter keyboard in the mid-’60s.
In 1980, the Bangladeshi government posthumously awarded Chowdhury the Independence Day Award—the nation’s highest state honor.
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28 Nov 2020
Bano Qudsia’s 92nd birthday
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Today’s Doodle honors the life and legacy of Pakistani novelist and stage and television playwright Bano Qudsia, affectionately known as Bano Aapa [Elder Sister], who is widely credited as one of the most significant Urdu language authors in modern times. Renowned for her message of love and hope, Qudsia earned enormous acclaim for Urdu classics like her television play Aadhi Baat [Half Talk, 1968] and novel Raja Gidh [The Vulture King, 1981].
Bano Qudsia was born on this day in 1928 in Firozpur, British India [now India], and began to write short stories when she was a child. Following a move to nearby Lahore, Pakistan after the partition of the Indian subcontinent, Qudsia earned her master’s degree in Urdu. While in school, she also met her future husband and fellow luminary of Urdu literature Ashfaq Ahmad.
During a fertile era of Pakistani literature, Qudsia’s thought-provoking television plays earned her a reputation as a cultural trendsetter. In addition, she wrote a prolific 25 novels and founded her own magazine called Dastango. Even as her legend grew throughout her six-decade career, she maintained a reputation for her radical acceptance and kindness, known to embrace those from all walks of life who approached her for mentorship or assistance.
For her lifetime of literary achievements, Qudsia received the Sitara-e-Imtiaz [Star of Excellence] in 1983 and the Hilal-e-Imtiaz [Crescent of Excellence] in 2000—both among Pakistan’s highest civilian honors.