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Mar 1, 2011
Martisor 2011
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8b...dqO73hKea=s660
Mărțișor is a celebration at the beginning of spring, on March the 1st in Romania, Moldova, and all territories inhabited by Romanians.
The word Mărțișor is the diminutive of Marț, the old folk name for March and thus literally means "little March".
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Mar 6, 2011
Will Eisner's 94th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/2011/eisner11-hp.jpg
From time to time we invite guests to post about topics of interest and we’re pleased to have Scott McCloud join us here. Scott is a comics artist with special ties to Google—he illustrated the Chrome comic book and is a 2011 U.S. Doodle 4 Google judge. He also helped conceptualize the design of today’s doodle in honor of Will Eisner [the artwork itself is by doodler, Mike Dutton], which is running in many countries including the U.S. In this post, Scott shares his thoughts on Will Eisner’s legacy. -Ed.
Will Eisner, American comics pioneer and creator of The Spirit, was born on March 6, 1917. He would have been 94 today.
Many of us who knew him still find it hard to believe he’s gone. He died in 2005, but for six decades, Eisner was a participant in, and inspiration for, much of the best in American comics, as well as a friend and mentor to multiple generations of comics artists.
Eisner influenced comics in dozens of ways. In the ‘40s, Eisner’s The Spirit—a seven-page newspaper feature—introduced an arsenal of visual storytelling techniques still used generations later, and provided an early testing ground for future comics stars including Jack Kirby and Jules Feiffer. [The Spirit also began a tradition of pictorially-integrated logos—inspiring today's snazzy rooftop doodle!]
Eisner was one of the first cartoonists to understand the power of visual education, and wrote eloquently about the process of making comics in Comics and Sequential Art [1985] and Graphic Storytelling [1996]. As early as 1941, he publicly advocated treating comics as a distinct literary and artistic form, and—nearly four decades later—was instrumental in the rise of the graphic novel in America, beginning with A Contract with God in 1978.
For most of his career, Eisner was years, even decades, ahead of the curve. I saw him debating artists and editors half his age, and there was rarely any question who the youngest man in the room was. It helped that he never stood on ceremony. Everyone was his peer, regardless of age or status. None of us called him “Mr. Eisner.” He was just “Will.”
Eisner lived well into his eighties; long enough to see an industry award named after him. Inevitably, the prospect loomed that Will Eisner himself might win an “Eisner Award” leading to some awkward choices; Hall of Fame, maybe? Lifetime Achievement?
His only suggestion was “Most Promising Young Cartoonist.”
And so he was.
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Mar 6, 2011
Ghana's Independence Day 2011
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0w...3zjnoz4iF=s660
¨Kente¨refers to a Ghanaian textile, made of handwoven cloth, strips of silk and cotton. Historically the fabric was worn in a toga-like fashion by royalty among ethnic groups such as the Ashanti and Ewe in modern day Ghana, the wearing of Kente cloth has become widespread to commemorate special occasions, with highly sought after Kente brands led by master weavers.
Due to the popularity of Kente cloth patterns, Kente print, which is a mass-produced version, is popular throughout the West. Globally, the print is used in the design of academic stoles in graduation ceremonies.
West African cultures have been weaving textiles for thousands of years. Kente may have developed from a variety of weaving traditions which existed in Ghana since before the 11th century, with excavations in the region showing instruments such as spindles, whorls, and loom weights. By the 17th century, during the rise of the Ashanti Empire, Kente became popularized among Akan royalty, and by the early 19th century master weavers and Kente houses could be seen throughout the Ashanti capital of Kumasi.
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Mar 7, 2011
Sendung mit der Maus 40th Anniversary
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ok...d2blhwz0g=s660Die
Sendung mit der Maus [The Show with the Mouse] is a children's series on German television that has been called "the school of the nation". The show first aired on 7 March 1971. Originally called Lach- und Sachgeschichten für Fernsehanfänger ["Laughing and Learning Stories for Television Beginners"], it was controversial because German law prohibited television for children under six years of age. The program was initially condemned by teachers and childcare professionals as bad for children's development, but is now hailed for its ability to convey information to children. The show has received over 75 awards. The first doctoral dissertation on the program was written in 1991. On 7 March 1999 the program's Internet site was launched and received 2,400 e-mails and 4 million hits on the first day.
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Mar 8, 2011
Women's Day 2011
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7r...59p6gvJm6=s660
International Women's Day is celebrated every year, but 2011 was its centennial anniversary - marking 100 years of appreciation for the social, political, economic, and cultural contributions of women worldwide. The occasion was celebrated globally with a multitude of charitable initiatives, including Women for Women's "Join me on the Bridge" campaign.
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Mar 13, 2011
National Thai Elephant Day 2011
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/HC...rXpWkjsvm=s660
On 26 May 1998, the Thai government declared the 13th of March to annually be the Thai National Elephant Day or Chang Thai Day. The observance was suggested by the Asian Elephant Foundation of Thailand and submitted to the Coordinating Subcommittee for the Conservation of Thai Elephants.
Thai people have had a close-knit relationship with elephants since ancient times, with the elephant playing a significant role in transportation, labor and battle. Considered the national animal of Thailand, the elephant faced threats to its existence because of habitat invasion by humans and climate changes, amongst the other factors. The number of Thai elephants has been reduced from 100,000 to 2,000–3,000 wild elephants and about 2,700 domesticated elephants over the past 100 years. In Thailand, white elephants are considered sacred and are a symbol of royal power.
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Mar 17, 2011
150th Anniversary of the Italian Unification
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/PM...sCroHSNJA=s660
Italian unificationwas the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna, the unification process was precipitated by the revolutions of 1848, and reached completion in 1871, when Rome was officially designated the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
Some of the states that had been targeted for unification did not join the Kingdom of Italy until 1918, after Italy defeated Austria-Hungary in World War I. For this reason, historians sometimes describe the unification period as continuing past 1871, to include activities during the late 19th century and the First World War [1915–1918], and reaching completion only with the Armistice of Villa Giusti on November 4, 1918. This more expansive definition of the unification period is the one presented, for example, at the Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano.
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Mar 24, 2011
Harry Houdini's 137th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qk...s5bi8dbpy=s660
Harry Houdini [born Erik Weisz, later known as Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926] was a Hungarian-born American escape artist, illusionist, stunt performer and mysteriarch, noted for his escape acts.
He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the United States and then as "Harry 'Handcuff' Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it.
In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts.
Houdini made several movies but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator and aimed to become the first man to fly a powered aircraft in Australia.
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Apr 3, 2011
Anniversary of the Ice Cream Sundae
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/j-...Aox_Oxc45=s660
A sundae is an ice cream dessert that typically consists of one or more scoops of ice cream topped with sauce or syrup and in some cases other toppings such as: sprinkles, whipped cream, marshmallows, peanuts, maraschino cherries, or other fruits [e.g. bananas and pineapple in a banana split].
Among the many stories about the invention of the sundae, a frequent theme is that the ice cream sundae was a variation of the popular ice cream soda. According to an account published by the Evanston Public Library [Illinois], the sale of soda was prohibited on Sundays in Illinois because they were considered too "frilly".
Other origin stories for the sundae focus on the novelty or inventiveness of the treat or the name of the originator and make no mention of legal pressures.
The ice cream sundae soon became the weekend semi-official soda fountain confection at the beginning of the 1900s and quickly gained popularity. The Ice Cream Trade Journal for 1909 listed, along with plain, or French sundae, such unique varieties as Robin Hood sundae, Cocoa Caramel sundae, Black Hawk sundae, Angel Cake sundae, Cherry Dip sundae, Cinnamon Peak sundae, Opera sundae, Fleur D'Orange sundae, Knickerbocker sundae, Tally-Ho Sundae, Bismarck and George Washington sundaes, to name a few.
In 2019, McDonald's Portugal promoted a sundae for Halloween with advertising that dubbed it "Sundae Bloody Sundae". This generated controversy on social networks in the British-Irish territories due to the name's connotation with the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972. McDonald's issued an apology and withdrew promotions with the name.[
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Apr 4, 2011
100th Birthday of Vaclav Ctvrtek
https://www.google.com/logos/2011/ctvrtek11-hp.jpg
Václav Cafourek commonly known under his pen name of Václav Čtvrtek was a Czech poet and author. His most famous works include Křemílek and Vochomůrka, Rumcajs, Manka and Cipísek, and Víla Amálka. He primarily wrote fairy tales for children, and some of his works have been adapted on the Czech children's television program Večerníček.
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Apr 4, 2011
Senegal Independence Day 2011
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6m...IbJvvYBdw=s660
Today’s Doodle celebrates Senegal’s Independence Day. On this day in 1960, Senegal signed a historic transfer of power agreement which paved the way for its formal declaration of sovereignty on June 20 that same year.
The official Senegalese Independence Day observance begins with a national flag-raising ceremony in Dakar, the cosmopolitan capital city located on the Cape Verde Peninsula which is the westernmost point in all of mainland Africa. During the ceremony, Senegal remembers its fight for freedom as the red, green, and golden striped flag—depicted in the Doodle artwork—is hoisted high above the Dakar streets.
Along with honoring its proud history, Independence Day is also filled with a celebration of the country’s rich cultural legacy. Annual festivities include dancing to traditional music such as mbalax, a popular percussion-based blend of vocals and Wolof instrumentation, as well as enjoying meals like the national dish of thieboudienne, a Senegalese take on Jollof rice traditionally served with vegetables and marinated fish.
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Apr 12, 2011
50th Anniversary of the First Man in Space
https://www.google.com/logos/2011/fi...ce11-hp-js.jpg
Yuri Gagarin made headlines and history as the first man to launch into space back in 1961. This doodle was a particularly fun project because it allowed me to research everything from mid-century toy packaging to vintage space-race posters. Together with one or our engineers, we made the Vostok spacecraft launch when users roll over the doodle.
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Apr 13, 2011
Songkran Festival 2011
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/c5...CLiZJPSJb=s660
Songkran is the Thai New Year's national holiday. Songkran is on 13 April every year, but the holiday period extends from 14 to 15 April. In 2018 the Thai cabinet extended the festival nationwide to five days, 12–16 April, to enable citizens to travel home for the holiday. In 2019, the holiday was observed 12–16 April as 13 April fell on a Saturday.
The word "Songkran" comes from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti, literally "astrological passage", meaning transformation or change. It coincides with the rising of Aries on the astrological chart and with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia, in keeping with the Hindu Calendar and Buddhist calendar. The New Year takes place at virtually the same time as the new year celebrations of many countries in South Asia like Bangladesh, Cambodia, China [Dai People of Yunnan Province], India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
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Apr 13, 2011
240th Birthday of Richard Trevithick
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/aK...Fd7Aq2zx3=s660
Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer from Cornwall, UK. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
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Apr 18, 2011
129th Birthday of Monteiro Lobato
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pS...DdVopQnAi=s660
José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato was one of Brazil's most influential writers, mostly for his children's books set in the fictional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo [Yellow Woodpecker Farm] but he had been previously a prolific writer of fiction, a translator and an art critic. He also founded one of Brazil's first publishing houses [Companhia Editora Nacional] and was a supporter of nationalism.
Lobato was born in Taubaté, São Paulo. He is best known for a set of educational but entertaining children's books, which comprise about half of his production. The other half, consisting of a number of novels and short tales for adult readers, was less popular but marked a watershed in Brazilian literature.
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Apr 22, 2011
Earth Day 2011
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nRo...JYn5LJlbj=s660
https://www.google.com/doodles/earth-day-2011 [animated]
Truly a team effort for a global celebration, this year's Earth Day doodle started with a desire to depict different environments around the world. Starting with Asia, the doodle walks users through Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and America. Having laid down the overall composition, I turned to my teammates to determine what should happen in this nature-packed doodle. We all huddled in a room and brainstormed various cute interactions, internet memes, and nature jokes that could fit into each region. When users hover over various parts of the doodle, they may catch a salmon swimming up stream, parrots darting through the sky, a frog leaping across the grass, a bear having a snack, a koala performing gymnastics, a sleepy lion, butterflies rustling trees, a penguin sliding down an iceberg, and a sneezing baby panda.
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Apr 25, 2011
90th Birthday of Karel Appel
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TN...9WerN57qF=s660
Christiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement CoBrA in 1948. He was also an avid sculptor and has had works featured in MoMA and other museums worldwide.
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Apr 26, 2011
226th Birthday of John James Audubon
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gJ...n4lDe_-uA=s660
John James Audubon was a rare breed. Equally gifted in scientific observation and in painting, he contributed a great deal to the field of ornithology when, in 1827, he began publishing his seminal book of plate illustrations, "Birds of America." This folio contained over 400 approximately three-feet-tall prints made from Audubon's original gouache and watercolor paintings.
Audubon had a meticulous attention to detail, and catalogued his subjects so faithfully that he contributed to the discovery of 25 new species of bird. For this doodle, we wanted to honor Audubon by using his original work, so we collaborated with the Google Books team – who, in their quest to catalogue the world's books, already had high-quality high-resolution scans of "Birds of America." We composited those original images to make this doodle. You can read more about Audubon, and "Birds of America," over at the Google Books blog.
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Apr 26, 2011
Vallenato Festival 2011
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/N3...PuTEODMpP=s660
The Vallenato Legend Festival is one of the most important musical festivals in Colombia. The festival features a vallenato music contests for best performer of accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca, as well as piqueria [battle of lyrics] and best song. It's celebrated every year in April in the city of Valledupar, Department of Cesar.
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May 9, 2011
76th Birthday of Roger Hargreaves
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0a...izVC42a6w=s660
Charles Roger Hargreaves under pen name Roger Hargreaves was an English author and illustrator of children's books, best remembered for the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, intended for young readers. The simple and humorous stories, with brightly coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture since 1971, with sales of over 85 million copies worldwide in 20 languages.
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May 10, 2011
Zhang Daqian's 112th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/2011/zhang11-hp.jpg
Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a guohua [traditionalist] painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter. In addition, he is regarded as one of the most gifted master forgers of the twentieth century.
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May 20, 2011
Emile Berliner's 160th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/uI...xEBVL9_GQ=s660
Emile Berliner was a German-American inventor. He is best known for inventing the lateral-cut flat disc record [called a "gramophone record" in British and American English] used with a gramophone. He founded the United States Gramophone Company in 1894; The Gramophone Company in London, England, in 1897; Deutsche Grammophon in Hanover, Germany, in 1898; Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada in Montreal in 1899 [chartered in 1904]; and Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901 with Eldridge Johnson.
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Jun 21, 2010
First Day of Summer 2010 [Northern Hemisphere]
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xm...f1IrEx3jc=s660
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May 23, 2013
Doodle 4 Google 2013 - US Winner
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3a...vOSY-qHuc=s660
“Coming Home” by Wisconsin student wins U.S. 2013 Doodle 4 Google competition. After 130,000 submissions and millions of votes cast, Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisc. has been named the 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google National Winner.
Sabrina’s doodle stood out in the crowd; it tells the story of her reunion with her father as he returned from an 18 month deployment in Iraq. Her creative use of the Google letters to illustrate this heartfelt moment clearly resonated with voters across the country and all of us at Google.
In addition to seeing her artwork on the Google homepage, Sabrina—who is in 12th grade at Sparta High School—will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook computer and a $50,000 technology grant for her school. She will attend Minneapolis College of Art and Design this coming fall, where she will continue her artistic pursuits. Congratulations Sabrina!
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May 31, 2021
Akira Ifukube's 107th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/doodles...08945.2-2x.png
Today’s Doodle celebrates the 107th birthday of Japanese composer Akira Ifukube—a prodigious talent in classical music and cinematic film scores widely known for his work on the original soundtrack for the “Godzilla” movies of the 1950s.
Akira Ifukube was born on this day in 1914 in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan, into a distinguished family lineage that traces its origins back to at least the 7th-century. A passionate listener of European musical scores as a teenager, he aspired to intertwine his deep-rooted national identity into original compositions, an idea further solidified after listening to Russian composer Stravinsky’s 1913 emotive orchestral piece “The Rite of Spring” at 14 years old.
In 1935, Akira left home to study forestry at Hokkaido University, where he wrote ”Japanese Rhapsody,” his first original orchestral number. Following a brief stint as a forestry officer and lumber processor, he chose to pursue music composition full time. In 1947, he released the first of his more than 250 film scores that he produced over the next half-century. The height of his film score career came in 1954 when he wrote the soundtrack for “Godzilla,” whose signature roar he created by taking a resin-covered leather glove and dragging it against the loose string of a double bass.
Outside of his lifelong work as a composer, Akira served as president of the Tokyo College of Music starting in 1976 and published a 1,000-page book on theory entitled “Orchestration.” The Japanese government honored his lifetime achievements with both the Order of Culture and the Order of the Sacred Treasure.
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Aug 1, 2010
Swiss National Day 2010
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1l...7Aw7nzCCY=s660
The Federal Charter [Bundesbrief] of 1291 opens with the words “In the year of the lord 1291, at the beginning of the month of August”. The document unified three cantons in the area of modern-day Switzerland and is considered one of the country's most important founding documents. Switzerland has been celebrating National Day on August 1 since 1891.
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Aug 15, 2010
India Independence Day 2010
https://www.google.com/logos/2010/in...dence10-hp.gif
Independence Day is celebrated annually on 15 August as a national holiday in India commemorating the nation's independence from the United Kingdom on 15 August 1947, the day when the provisions of the 1947 Indian Independence Act, which transferred legislative sovereignty to the Indian Constituent Assembly, came into effect. India retained King George VI as head of state until its transition to a full republic, when the nation adopted the Constitution of India on 26 January 1950 [celebrated as Indian Republic Day] and replaced the dominion prefix, Dominion of India, with the enactment of the sovereign law Constitution of India. India attained independence following the Independence Movement noted for largely non-violent resistance and civil disobedience.
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Aug 17, 2010
Indonesia Independence Day - 2010
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/hy...DZqcDNWPA=s660
The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read at 10:00 in the morning of Friday, 17 August 1945. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of the Indonesian National Revolution, fighting against the forces of the Netherlands and pro-Dutch civilians, until the latter officially acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. The document was signed by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who were appointed president and vice-president respectively the following day.
The date of the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was made a public holiday by a government decree issued on 18 June 1946.
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Aug 19, 2010
Anniversary of Belka and Strelka Space Flight
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IV...bqhWKAN5D=s660
During the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet space program used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. In this period, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at least 57 dogs. The number of dogs in space is smaller, as some dogs flew more than once. Most survived; the few that died were lost mostly through technical failures, according to the parameters of the test.
A notable exception is Laika, the first dog to be sent into orbit, whose death during the 3 November, 1957 Sputnik 2 mission was expected from its outset.
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Aug 30, 2010
Mary Shelley's 213th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Nw...hunq_n1SM=s660
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus [1818], which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft.
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Sep 14, 2010
Akatsuka Fujio's 75th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/2010/akatsuka10-hp.png
Fujio Akatsuka was a pioneer Japanese artist of comical manga known as the Gag Manga King.
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Sep 15, 2010
Agatha Christie's 120th Birthday
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Zz...8SoiFtipY=s660
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which was performed in the West End from 1952 to 2020, as well as six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
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Sep 16, 2010
Mexico Independence Day 2010
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oB...ZU8qlwqsA=s660
Dia de la Independence or Anniversario de la Independence, September 16, commemorates Mexico's independence from Spain and is the most important patriotic statutory holiday. Parades are held and many schools are closed.
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Sep 18, 2010
Oktoberfest 2010
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cF...5TEONoweg=s660
The Oktoberfest is the world's largest Volksfest [beer festival and travelling funfair]. It is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is a 16 to 18 day folk festival running from mid- or late September to the first Sunday in October, with more than six million people from around the world attending the event every year. Locally, it is called d’Wiesn, after the colloquial name for the fairgrounds, Theresienwiese. The Oktoberfest is an important part of Bavarian culture, having been held since the year 1810. Other cities across the world also hold Oktoberfest celebrations that are modeled after the original Munich event.
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Sep 21, 2010
Juan de la Cierva's 115th Birthday
https://www.google.com/logos/2010/delacierva-hp.gif
Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu, 1st Count of la Cierva was a Spanish civil engineer, pilot and aeronautical engineer. His most famous accomplishment was the invention in 1920 of the first helicopter called Autogiro, a single-rotor type of aircraft that came to be called autogyro in the English language. In 1923, after four years of experimentation, De la Cierva developed the articulated rotor, which resulted in the world's first successful flight of a stable rotary-wing aircraft, with his C.4 prototype.The Cierva C.4 was an experimental autogiro built by Juan de la Cierva in Spain in 1922 which early the following year became the first autogyro to fly successfully
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Sep 27, 2010
Google's 12th Birthday by Wayne Thiebaud.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2h...qvKZxiv0k=s660
It was an amazing experience collaborating with painter, Wayne Thiebaud. Known for his paintings of dramatically lit cakes and pastries, we thought a birthday cake doodle for Google's 12th birthday by this living legend would be fun and delightful for art enthusiasts and lovers of sweet things alike.
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Sep 30, 2010
Flintstones' 50th Anniversary
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Gu...OOLtarppo=s660
The Flintstones is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the title family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the Rubbles. It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series to hold a prime-time slot on television.
As a young kid, I drew a lot of dinosaurs. My dad would bring home reams of dot matrix printer paper from work, which I'd take, fold into stapled booklets, and then fill with dinosaurs doing what dinosaurs did best — eating, leaping about, facing off in epic combat on top of spewing volcanoes. What I didn't know was that dinosaurs were also quite handy. A brontosaurus tail made an excellent water slide, you could walk up a row of plates on a stegosaurus' back like a flight of stairs, and the triceratops' horns were actually cutting-edge can openers. For these paleontological insights into Stone Aged innovation, I have the Flintstones to thank.
The Flintstones may have lived in the prehistoric town of Bedrock, but their technology was on par with much of what we use today. Everyone drove human-powered vehicles [zero emissions!], composted scraps in a dinosaur under the kitchen sink, and even wore solar powered watches—that is, if you count sundials. In short, Bedrock was the modern city of the past... and I wanted to live in it! Unfortunately, that didn’t quite pan out, but to be able to pay tribute to one of my favorite childhood TV shows in the form of a Google doodle is easily the next best thing.
On the 50th anniversary of its first airing, we gladly salute “The Flintstones” for inspiring our imaginations and encouraging us to think outside of the box, even if it means taking a look back now and then. I hope you’ll join the rest of us here at Google in a little nostalgia to mark this fun occasion!
Oh, and if you know any saber-toothed tigers looking for an internship as a hole puncher, give me a buzz.