Google doodles

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June 29, 2018
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis’ 125th Birthday







In the 1920s and ’30s, most if not all statistics work in India was done by one man: Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis—an innovator in his field who was known as a “human calculator.”

While studying physics at Cambridge University in England at age 22, Mahalanobis was introduced to statistics by one of his professors. Upon returning home to India he became fascinated with this branch of mathematics, applying statistical methods to anthropology, meteorology, and biology.

Mahalanobis’ early work used random samplings to predict floods and foretell agricultural crop yields.

He later applied these same techniques to comparisons of large data sets, devising what came to be called “the Mahalanobis Distance.” His pioneering work impacted economic planning as several major Indian industries ran on the Mahalanobis Growth Model, his statistical forecast of the country’s economy.

Mahalanobis, who would have turned 125 today, founded the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta in 1931, housed at Presidency College, and became the honorary statistical advisor to the Indian government in 1949. In 1951, the Institute became its own full-fledged university. Small wonder that the Indian government named June 29 National Statistics Day in 2006.

Happy birthday Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis!

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June 29, 2013
The 100th Tour de France






The illustration for the 100th Tour De France seemed like a great opportunity to unify design, illustration and animation. From rough drawings to finished animation the choices boiled down to combining 2 key views of a rider. At one point there was no bike at all!

Concerning the event itself the illustration was a great opportunity to take the tour back in time to an era of moustaches and wheel tubing over shoulders! It's a moving graphic that points to the future yet recognises the nostalgia and heritage of early 20th century tour posters.

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September 17, 2018
Respect for the Aged Day 2018





Today Japan celebrates Respect for the Aged Day, a time for honoring elder citizens that dates back to 1947, when the small town of Taka started Toshiyori no Hi or Old Folks’ Day. The idea caught on quickly and soon the celebration spread all over Japan, becoming a national holiday in 1966. It’s now celebrated every third Monday in September.

On this day restaurants provide complimentary meals to seniors, children present gifts to older family members, and volunteers deliver free bento boxes to the homebound, while public musical performances are organized for free.

For years it was tradition for the Japanese government to give a silver sakazuki plate to anyone who lived to be 100. But too many people were turning 100 and the program became too expensive! People in Japan have the second longest lifespan in the world next to Monaco.

Respect for the Aged Day is more about thought and consideration than any gift, though. Handmade creations from a child are often gifted to older members of their family. Even phone calls or simple acts of kindness are great ways to celebrate this holiday.

Happy Respect for the Aged Day!

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Sep 20, 2018
Josefa Llanes Escoda’s 120th Birthday





When Josefa Llanes Escoda was attending elementary school in Dingras, her hometown in the Philippines, she went to class despite an impending typhoon. “I'll not let the weather keep me away from school,” the determined young student told her mother. After graduating as valedictorian, she went on to join the Red Cross and win a scholarship to the United States, where she studied social work, earning a masters degree from Columbia University.

Born on this day in 1898, Escoda was the eldest of seven children and always showed a great interest in women’s issues. A strong advocate for female suffrage, she worked tirelessly to make sure voting rights were extended to all citizens. She founded the Boy's Town in Manila for underprivileged youth in 1937 and the Girl Scouts of the Philippines in 1940, changing the lives of young people in her native country for the better.

Escoda’s face appears on the 1000 peso bill and streets, buildings, and a monument have been dedicated in her honor. As a living legacy to her work, the Girl Scouts of the Philippines honor Escoda by celebrating her birthday each year with acts of service, carrying the example she set forward for generations to come.

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September 21, 2009
Birthday of H.G. Wells




Herbert George Wells [21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946] was an English writer. Prolific in many genres, he wrote dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, history, satire, biography and autobiography. His work also included two books on recreational war games. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called the "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and the publisher Hugo Gernsback.

During his own lifetime, however, he was most prominent as a forward-looking, even prophetic social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the "Shakespeare of science fiction", while Victorian scholar Charles Fort referred to him as a "wild talent".

Wells rendered his works convincing by instilling commonplace detail alongside a single extraordinary assumption – dubbed “Wells's law” – leading Joseph Conrad to hail him in 1898 as "O Realist of the Fantastic!". His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine [1895], which was his first novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau [1896], The Invisible Man [1897], The War of the Worlds [1898] and the military science fiction The War in the Air [1907]. Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.

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April 3, 2018
John Harrison’s 325th Birthday





It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention, and without a doubt, British horologist John Harrison brought that age-old proverb to life.

Born on this day in 1693, in Foulby, Yorkshire, England, Harrison was a self-educated clockmaker and carpenter who came to the rescue of countless sailors by creating the first marine chronometer to calculate longitude at sea.

Seeking to remedy naval disasters, the British government created the Board of Longitude in 1714, which offered a reward of £20,000 to anyone who could devise a navigational instrument that could find the longitude within 30 miles of a sea voyage.

Harrison took on the challenge. He set to work on his chronometer in 1728 and completed it in 1735, following up this feat with three watches that were even smaller and more on the money than his first.
Harrison’s extraordinary invention brought him much acclaim. Thanks to him, seamen could determine not only gauge latitude but longitude, making their excursions far safer.

Our colorful Doodle shows the inventor hard at work, surrounded by the tools of his trade. Today, time is on his side.

Happy 325th birthday, John Harrison!

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Apr 3, 2018
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’s 115th Birthday





Today we celebrate Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay: freedom fighter, art enthusiast, social activist, actor, youth leader, and forward-thinking women’s movement organizer [and all in one lifetime!].

Chattopadhyay’s contributions to India were numerous. Though widely known for persuading Mahatma Gandhi to call upon women to march with him in the Indian Independence Movement in the early 20th century, she is also credited for reinvigorating the culture of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre, and for using cooperative grassroots movements to pave the way for a higher socioeconomic standard for Indian women around the country.

Chattopadhyay had a career of ‘firsts’ - from being the first woman to run for Legislative office to setting up some of the first national institutions to archive, protect, and promote Indian dance, drama, art, puppetry, music, and handicrafts. She was also one of the few women of her time to propose that women’s rights, religious freedoms, environmental justice, political independence, and civil rights are all interrelated movements.

Today’s Doodle by Finland-based Desi artist Parvati Pillai depicts Chattopadhyay surrounded by many of the cultural objects and practices she fought to elevate and protect, including the bhangra, the sitar, the sarangi, Karthak dance, Chhau dance, embroidery, basket weaving, and Kathaputli.

Happy 115th birthday, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay!

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May 5, 2019
Stanislaw Moniuszko’s 200th Birthday





Today’s Doodle by Warsaw-based illustrator Gosia Herba honors Stanisław Moniuszko, the Polish musician, composer, conductor, and teacher. Born on May 5, 1819, Moniuszko went on to become director of the Warsaw Opera House where he premiered many of his own works, including one of the most beloved operas in Polish history.

After being taught music by his mother as a child, Moniuszko was sent to study harmony, counterpoint, instrumentation, and conducting with the director of the Singakademie Music Society. There, he decided to become a composer, with a special interest in the human voice.

While working as an organist in Wilno, Moniuszko began writing his songbook, Śpiewnik Domowy [Home Songbook], publishing the first of 12 volumes in 1843. During a trip to Warsaw, he met the poet Włodzimierz Wolski, who’d written a libretto for an opera named Halka, based on a Polish folk story. Moniuszko composed the music, drawing inspiration from traditional Polish dance music known as polonaises and mazurkas. Halka premiered in Wilno in 1848 and later traveled to Prague, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. Expanded to four acts in 1858, the opera was hailed as a Polish cultural treasure, making Moniuszko a national hero.

A statue of Moniuszko stands outside Warsaw’s Opera House to this day, and his legacy lives on in The Stanislaw Moniuszko Music Academy in Gdansk. An international vocal competition in his name also takes place every three years. In it, finalists compete for a chance to sing with Poland’s National Opera on the stage where Moniuszko’s legend began.

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May 5, 2009
250th Anniversary of Kew Gardens




Kew [Royal Botanic Gardens] is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park in Middlesex, England, its living collections includes some of the 27,000 taxa curated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London's top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site.

Kew Gardens, together with the botanic gardens at Wakehurst in Sussex, are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, an internationally important botanical research and education institution that employs over 1,100 staff and is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The Kew site, which has been dated as formally starting in 1759, though it can be traced back to the exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Henry, Lord Capell of Tewkesbury, consists of 132 hectares [330 acres] of gardens and botanical glasshouses, four Grade I listed buildings, and 36 Grade II listed structures, all set in an internationally significant landscape. It is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Kew Gardens has its own police force, Kew Constabulary, which has been in operation since 1847.

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April 13, 2018
177th Anniversary of Semper Opera House





One hundred seventy-seven years ago today, the Semper Opera House [or Semperoper] opened its doors for the first time. Originally designed by the famous German architect Gottfried Semper, it has served as the stage for opera, ballet, and performances of many kinds during its nearly 200-year-long history.

The Semperoper has newly opened its doors not once, but three times: first after its original construction in 1841, and twice more after rebuilding due to both a devastating fire in 1869 and the WWII firestorm in 1945. The architecture evolved from its first construction – an eclectic blend of early Renaissance, Baroque, and and Greek classical styles – to the familiar Neo-Renaissance elements seen today. Semper’s consideration of the audience is evident in the design, too; all tiers sit equidistant to the stage and no partitions exist between sections. Without much to block the performers, everyone gets a good seat!

The creator of today’s Doodle, Frederik Jurk, employed gentle colors and soft, flowing lines to capture the dreamy scenes and romantic characters so frequently featured on this famous stage. "Since the subject of the doodle is already about art," he says, "letting everything speak for itself felt very natural." All set against the backdrop of the iconic architecture, the image couples the art of the building’s construction with the creativity of the artists themselves.

Thanks to the dedication of Germany’s arts community, Semperoper stands today as a storied monument to some of the country’s most influential composers, conductors, and singers.

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October 22, 2020
Ivan Bunin's 150th Birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates the 150th birthday of Russian poet, novelist, and translator Ivan Bunin, who in 1933 became the first Russian to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Widely acclaimed for his rare mastery of both prose and poetry, Bunin carried the tradition of classical Russian literature into the 20th century, establishing his legacy as one of the nation’s most revered stylists of his time.

Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin was born on this day in 1870 in the western Russian city of Voronezh. He grew up with a passion for painting—an early creative expression he later credited as an influence on his writing style. Bunin began to publish poetry and stories as a teenager, leading to the 1891 release of his first book, “Stikhotvoreniya: 1887–1891” [“Poetry: 1887–1891”].

In 1901, Bunin won the prestigious Academy of Sciences’ Pushkin Prize for his book of poetry titled “Listopad” [“Falling Leaves,” 1901]. Around this time he began to turn his focus towards prose, establishing himself as one of Russia’s most popular writers. Known for his understated and musical writing style, Bunin went on to craft vivid portraits of Russia through works like “Derévnya” [“The Village,” 1910], the autobiographical novel “Zhizn Arsenyeva” [“The Life of Arseniev,” 1930], his diaries “Okayánnye Dni” [“Cursed Days: A Diary of Revolution,” 1936], and the book of short stories “Tyomnye allei” [“Dark Avenues,” 1943].

An opponent of the Russian Revolution, Bunin left the country in 1920, ultimately settling in France, where he continued to publish novels and poetry for the rest of his life.

Happy birthday, Ivan Bunin!

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February 23, 2020
Ca Trù's Founder Commemoration Day 2020







Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Ho Chi Minh City-based guest artist Xuan Le, celebrates Ca Trù’s Founders Commemoration Day, a time to honor the genre widely considered to be Vietnam’s most revered traditional form of music.

A style that fits somewhere in between the geisha ceremonies of Japan and the dramatic performances of opera, Ca trù’s unique sound has roots that stretch back to the 11th century. First gaining popularity as entertainment for the aristocracy of Vietnam’s royal palaces, it later made its way into the inns and communal spaces of what is now modern-day Hanoi.

The ensemble is composed of at least three performers, including one female singing intricate poetry while tapping a phach [a small bamboo box], two musicians playing traditional instruments, and occasionally dancers. Ca trù is now found in cities across Vietnam.

Performed in designated Ca trù clubs and at annual festivals, the genre has seen a recent revival due to a concentrated effort from state-run organizations and international agencies. Preservation of Ca trù is elusive due in part to it being a strictly oral tradition that is passed down only through one elite practitioner to the next generation after years of committed study.

Taking into account the precious nature of an invaluable historical relic and the difficulty of its safeguarding, UNESCO is dedicated to protecting the practice and inscribed Ca trù on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.

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December 2, 2017
United Arab Emirates National Day 2017







On this day in 1971, the six Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, and Ajman came together at the historic Union House to form a federal union. Ras Al Khaimah joined three months later, thus giving birth to the modern day United Arab Emirates - a young country with an ancient history.

Today’s Doodle celebrates this historic day with a depiction of two young children in national dress, interacting with an oryx and a falcon — the national animals of the UAE.

The Arabian oryx is a type of antelope with long straight horns. Because it lives exclusively in the Arabian desert, it has developed the ability to detect rainfall. Entire herds migrate to such locations. The oryx went extinct by the 1970s, but private breeding helped re-introduce the animal into the wild a decade later.

The falcon, the other national UAE animal, also has deep roots in local culture. Falconry is a beloved sport, its origins dating back to the ancient hunting tradition of the desert nomads. Falcons are so revered, in fact, that they are the only animals allowed to travel in the main cabin of commercial aircraft in the region.

Happy national day, UAE!

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December 2, 2017
Ratiba El-Hefny’s 86th Birthday









In the year 1961, for an admission price of six piaster, Cairo’s Khedivial Opera House opened its doors to the general public for a very special performance — Franz Lehár’s ‘The Merry Widow,’ translated into Arabic and performed by famed Arab soprano, Ratiba El-Hefny. It was the first time that the world of opera opened up to every Egyptian. The performance also propelled Ratiba El-Hefny to a career that spanned more than 500 operatic performances, winning her fame and recognition at home and abroad.

El-Hefny learned to play piano at a very young age, achieving professional proficiency. She was also adept at traditional instruments such as the qanun and the oud. Her fluency in classical and Arabic music led to operatic performances in Egypt and across Europe. German lieds were another speciality.

El-Hefny held several senior influential positions, including the Dean of the Higher Institute of Arabic Music for almost a decade. Her special passion was opening up the world of music to children, and to this end she encouraged the Cairo Opera Children’s Choir and Oum Koulthum Ensemble for Arabic Music.

On what would have been El-Hefny’s 86th birthday, today’s Doodle showcases her love for the piano, her encouragement of young musical talent, and her excellence in Arabic and classical music.

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Dec 4, 2017
Celebrating 50 years of Kids Coding






Today, during Computer Science Education Week, we celebrate 50 years since kids programming languages were first introduced to the world with a very special creation [and furry friend]: our first ever kids focused coding Google Doodle! Today’s Doodle was developed through the close teamwork of not one or two but THREE teams: the Google Doodle team, Google Blockly team, and researchers from MIT Scratch!

To learn more about the history and importance of kids coding languages, we invited Champika Fernando, one of the project’s most passionate collaborators at MIT, to share her thoughts:
My first experience with coding was in a free after-school program back in the eighties when I was nine years old. We programmed a little green turtle to move around and draw lines on a black screen. That programming language was called Logo.

In the 1960’s, long before personal computers, Seymour Papert and researchers at MIT developed Logo - the first coding language designed for kids. With Logo, children could program the movements of a turtle, giving them the opportunity to explore ideas in math and science. Papert and his colleagues envisioned that computers could eventually be used by all children as a powerful tool for learning. They saw coding as a way for kids to develop confidence and fluency with a piece of powerful, modern, and one-day ubiquitous technology.

With today’s Doodle -- the first coding Doodle ever -- we celebrate fifty years of coding languages for kids by “Coding for Carrots.” In the interactive Doodle, you program and help a furry friend across 6 levels in a quest to gather its favorite food by snapping together coding blocks based on the Scratch programming language for kids.

Like Logo, Scratch was developed at MIT and builds on Papert’s early ideas about kids and computers. It’s designed to be less intimidating than typical programming languages, but just as powerful and expressive.

Kids programming on computers must have sounded futuristic and impractical in the 1960’s when Logo was first created. In fact, even in the 1980’s when I wrote my first lines of code, my working-class parents questioned how coding would ever benefit their nine-year-old daughter.

Today, computers are used in almost every aspect of our lives. We have them in our homes, at work, and in our pockets. My early experiences with computers gave me confidence that I could create with new technologies, not just interact with them. Those early experiences not only influenced my career path, but provided me with new ways to express my ideas and influence the world around me.

After working as an engineer at Google for some time, I now work on the Scratch Team at MIT, where we’re focused on developing new ways for kids to express themselves creatively through coding. With Scratch, kids can create their own interactive stories, games, and animations, using coding blocks just like the ones in today’s Doodle. They can also share their projects in an online community with millions of other kids around the world. We believe all kids should have the opportunity to develop their confidence with the technology that surrounds us.

This week, millions of people around the world can and will have their first experience with coding. It makes me happy to think of all of the nine-year-olds who will get their first coding experience playing with today’s Doodle. My hope is that people will find this first experience appealing and engaging, and they’ll be encouraged to go further. In some ways, it’s very different from my first coding experience many years ago, but I hope it will be just as inspiring and influential for them.

Champika Fernando, Director of Communications, Scratch Team

If you know kids having fun with today’s Doodle, encourage them to also try the new CS First activity built on Scratch where they can create your own Google logo! Go here to check out some of the incredible range of things kids are creating with code.

The starter project is here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/177224273/#editor

The starter project is here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/177224273/#editor

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December 4, 2016
Dewi Sartika’s 132rd Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates Dewi Sartika, a leader in women’s education in Indonesia during the late 1800s and early 1900s. At just 18 years old, Sartika started teaching women in a small room in the back of a house. Two years later, she opened the first school for women in Indonesia, and over the next ten years expanded her reach to ten schools.

She was awarded National Heroine by the Indonesian government in 1966 for her positive influence and public service to women across Indonesia.

Happy 132nd birthday to this educational trailblazer!

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December 4, 2019
Professor Rapee Sagarik’s 97th Birthday






Today’s Doodle celebrates horticulturalist and botanist Professor Sagarik on the 97th anniversary of his birth in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand—a country that is home to nearly 1,300 native species of orchid.

Widely known as the “father of Thai orchids,” Professor Sagarik was also later president at Bangkok’s Kasetsart University and also served on the Faculty of Agriculture at Maejo University in the northern city of Chiang Mai. He is widely considered Thailand’s foremost expert in the breeding and conservation of these delicate, beautiful plants.

Once considered an exclusive pastime for the wealthy, orchid-growing became more accessible thanks in part to Professor Sagarik’s research and education efforts. He founded the Orchid Society of Thailand in 1957 and later became a regular speaker at the World Orchid Conference. In 1984, he organized the first Asia Pacific Orchid Conference. Thanks to Professor Sagarik’s efforts, Thailand’s first orchid library opened In December 1993.

Thailand is now the world's foremost exporter of orchids, and many of the most popular varieties were bred from wild Thai orchids.

“These flowers are not like the ones you see every day, which blossom and then wither away,” Professor Sagarik once observed. Because the beauty of orchids is passed onto future generations, he called the flowers “love in humankind.”

S̄uk̄hs̄ạnt̒ wạn keid, Professor Sagarik!

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March 17, 2020
Olga Orozco’s 100th Birthday





Olga Orozco [17 March 1920 – 15 August 1999] [real name Olga Noemí Gugliotta Orozco] was an Argentine poet. She was a recipient of the FIL Award.

The FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages , is awarded to writers of any genre of literature, having as a means of artistic expression one of the Romance languages: Spanish, Catalan, Galician, French, Occitan, Italian, Romanian or Portuguese.

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March 19, 2008
Las Fallas 2008








The Falles is a traditional celebration held annually in commemoration of Saint Joseph in the city of Valencia, Spain. The five main days celebrated are from 15 to 19 March, while the Mascletà, a pyrotechnic spectacle of firecracker detonation and fireworks display, takes place every day from 1 to 19 March. The term Falles refers to both the celebration and the monuments burnt during the celebration. A number of towns in the Valencian Community have similar celebrations inspired by the original Falles de València celebration. The Falles festival was added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage of humanity list on 30 November 2016.

Each neighbourhood of the city has an organised group of people, the Casal faller, that works all year long holding fundraising parties and dinners, usually featuring the noted dish paella, a specialty of the region. Each casal faller produces a construction known as a falla which is eventually burned. A casal faller is also known as a comissió fallera and currently there are approximately 400 registered in Valencia.

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March 19, 2012
200th Anniversary of Spain's Constitution

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March 19, 2012
80th Birthday The Sydney Harbour Bridge




The Sydney Harbour Bridge is an Australian heritage-listed steel through arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney central business district and the North Shore. The view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is widely regarded as an iconic image of Sydney, and of Australia itself. The bridge is nicknamed "The Coathanger" because of its arch-based design.

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March 19, 2021
Dona Militana's 96th Birthday






Today’s Doodle, illustrated by guest artist Bel Andrade Lima, celebrates the 96th birthday of Brazilian singer and storyteller Dona Militana, whose vast memory of medieval ballads provided a unique record of generational Iberian and Brazilian tales.

Militana Salustino do Nascimento, also known as Dona Militana, was born in São Gonçalo do Amarante, Rio Grande do Norte on this day in 1925. As a child, Militana worked the fields; planting crops and weaving baskets with her father, who sang as they toiled. Many of his songs told stories from a bygone era of medieval kings, queens, warriors, and lovers—stories Militana never forgot.

Militana’s traditional talent remained largely unknown for decades, until she was discovered by folklorist Deífilo Gurgel in the 1990s. It was then that she shared with the world her prodigious chronicle of songs and stories—some of which were over 700 years old.

In 2000, Militana recorded “Cantares,” a collection of 54 songs that were novel-like in scope, with lyrics and melodies that accurately reflected the times from which they originated. Upon the project’s release, audiences throughout Brazil learned of Dona Militana—the guardian of a Brazilian history nearly lost to time.

In recognition of her impact on Brazilian culture, Dona Militana was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in 2005.

Feliz Aniversário, Dona Militana!

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March 20, 2018
Usmar Ismail’s 97th Birthday






Today we celebrate the 97th birthday of one of the founding fathers of Indonesian film and a leading director of the 1950s and 1960s: Usmar Ismail.

Ismail is credited with sowing the seeds for the growth of theater and film in Indonesia. His own film studio, Perfini, produced several beloved Indonesian classics such as Pedjuang [1960] and Enam Djam di Djogdja [1951]. Today’s Doodle features imagery from one of his most famous works, Tiga Dara [1956], which tells the humorous story of the entangled lives and loves of three sisters.

Ismail was also a leading patron of the arts and a key force behind the creation of the National Academy of Theater in Indonesia. The Usmar Ismail Concert Hall in Jakarta hosts several concerts and theater performances each year, thus celebrating the legacy of this cultural icon and his influence on the performing arts community of Indonesia.

Selamat ulang tahun, Usmar Ismail!

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September 15, 2011
Ismail Yasin's 96th Birthday






Ismail Yassine was an Egyptian actor, known for his comedy films. He was widely known for manipulation of his facial expressions and often made fun of his 'large mouth' in his films. His trademark gimmick was to act terrified bringing his wobbling knees together, stretching his shaking arms in front of him, stammering silently, and suddenly snapping out of his panic with a loud inhalation of air.

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September 15, 2020
Celebrating Felicitas Mendez




Felicitas Gómez Martínez de Mendez was a Puerto Rican activist in the American civil rights movement. In 1946, Mendez and her husband Gonzalo led an educational civil rights battle that changed California and set an important legal precedent for ending de jure segregation in the United States. Their landmark desegregation case, known as Mendez v. Westminster, paved the way for meaningful integration and public school reform.On the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month 2020 in the U.S., today’s Doodle celebrates Puerto Rican civil rights pioneer and business owner Felicitas Mendez. Alongside her husband Gonzalo, Felicitas helped to spearhead and win the monumental lawsuit Mendez v. Westminster, which in 1946 resulted in the first US federal court ruling against public school segregation—almost a decade before Brown v. Board of Education.

Felicitas Mendez was born Felicita Gómez Martínez on February 5, 1916 in the town of Juncos, Puerto Rico. She moved with her parents to the American Southwest as a preteen, and the family eventually joined the Latino community of agricultural workers in California’s Orange County. In 1935, she married Gonzalo Mendez, a Mexican immigrant who worked with her father in the fields. Together, the couple opened a neighborhood cafe and later managed a successful farm in the small town of Westminster.

In 1944, the Mendez’s three children were refused enrollment at a local public school based on their ethnicity and skin color. Unwilling to accept this injustice, the couple decided to fight back. With the lawsuit Mendez v. Westminster, Gonzalo Mendez and four other parents sued the Westminster school district and several others to demand an end to the segregation of Hispanic students. Felicitas Mendez organized committees to support the case and skillfully managed the Mendez’s farm on her own, bringing in record profits that helped to subsidize the lawsuit.

On February 18, 1946, the federal district court concluded that the school districts were in violation of Mexican-American citizens’ right to equal protection under the law and ruled in favor of the Mendez family and the other parents. Affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals the following year, this landmark decision directly paved the way for a law that called for the integration of all California public schools that same year, as well as the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that ruled the segregation of public schools unconstitutional seven years later.

In 2011, Mendez's daughter Sylvia was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the United States’ highest civilian honor—in recognition of her and her parents’ role in the Westminster v. Mendez case and her lifelong dedication to civil rights and education that followed.

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January 22, 2020
Celebrating "Sawaddee"




Today’s Doodle celebrates sawaddee, the Thai way to greet friends and strangers alike. A custom adopted on this day in 1943, this salutation is presented with a wai: a prayer-like pose delivered in concert with a bow that accompanies the expression of sawaddee. The gesture altogether is meant to convey respect and warmth.

Originally coined by linguist Phraya Upakit Silapasan from the root word, “Svasti,” the Sanskrit word for “blessing” or “well-being,” sawaddee soon became an official part of the Thai vocabulary.

Known as the “Land of a Thousand Smiles,” Thailand is world-renowned for its friendly people and gracious hospitality. Today, sawaddee can be heard across the country—from the idyllic beaches of the south, to the temples of the mountainous north, and everywhere in between—epitomizing the welcoming spirit of Thailand.

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Sep 16, 2020
Celebrating Mascha Kaléko






Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Hamburg-based guest artist Ramona Ring, celebrates the German-Jewish poet Mascha Kaléko, whose incisive poems and chansons earned her notable acclaim among the literary avant-garde in 1930s Berlin. On this day in 1974, Kaléko held her final reading in Berlin’s America Memorial Library.

Mascha Kaléko was born Golda Malka Aufen in 1907 in Schidlow, Galicia, in what is today southern Poland. With the outbreak of World War I, she and her family fled the country for Germany and eventually made a new home in Berlin in 1918.

As a teenager, she began to write poetry, and within several years, she achieved a level of celebrity as newspapers began publishing her work throughout the capital. In Kaléko’s poem “Das Bißchen Ruhm” [[“A Little Bit of Glory,” 2003) she metaphorically wrote of her fame as plants that must be maintained with daily care, a concept reflected in the illustration of today's Doodle.

By the early 1930s, Kaléko was an established figure among Berlin’s literary avant-garde. She could often be found deep in conversation at the Romanische Café, the iconic bohemian hub frequented by notable contemporaries like Else Lasker-Schüler and Erich Kästner.

In 1933, she published her first book, “Das Lyrische Stenogrammheft” [“The Lyrical Shorthand Pad”], followed two years later by “Kleine Lesebuch für Große” [“The Little Reader for Grown-Ups”]. Kaléko’s work wittily captured the essence of daily urban life during the twilight of the Weimar Republic and through satirical verses explored weighty themes like social injustice and exile.

After nearly two decades spent in the United States, Kaléko settled in Israel and continued to write poetry for the rest of her life.

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September 16, 2013
Mexico Independence Day 2013

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September 16, 2014
40th anniversary of the first broadcast of Casimir





The spotlight is on Casimir the Dinosaur on our homepage in France today. Casimir starred in the famous French cartoon “l'Île aux enfants” [“The Children’s Show”], which first aired 40 years ago today.

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Sep 16, 2014
Mexico Independence Day 2014




There’s no dish that has more pride than “chiles en nogada.” These green chiles are stuffed with picadillo, covered in a white walnut cream and topped with red pomegranate seeds, dressing the meal in the colors of the Mexican flag. Happy Independence Day to Mexico!

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September 20, 2013
Olga Ferri's 85th Birthday [Argentina]




Olga Ferri [20 September 1928 – 15 September 2012] was an Argentine choreographer and ballet dancer. She joined the Ballet of the Teatro Colón at eighteen and was prima ballerina from 1949.

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September 20, 2014
Children's Day 2014 - Germany

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March 19, 2017
Minna Canth’s 173rd Birthday




Minna Canth pioneered Finland's spirit of equality. Beginning with journalism, she edited and wrote for the newspaper Keski-Suomi, later going on to publish her own paper, Wapaita Aatteita, with A.B. Mäkelä. After her husband’s death, Canth raised their 7 children alone, managed her family shop selling cloth, and developed her own writing. In 1878, she published her first book, a collection of short stories called Novelleja ja kertomuksia.

Through her literary work, Canth addressed social issues, pushing the envelope for workers' rights and women's freedoms. Her most famous play is Työmiehen vaimo, about urban labor and life.She helped pave the way for Finnish women to become the first in Europe to win the right to vote in 1906. Shortly after, in 1907, Finland became the first country in the world to elect women to Parliament.

Minna was also one of the first writers to write in Finnish rather than Swedish. This meant that not only was Minna fighting for women, but for the visibility of Finland on the world stage.

Her memory is marked with a statue and museum in her hometown of Kuopio, as well as statues in the other towns she called home, Tampere and Jyväskylä. Finland also celebrates her legacy every year with the Day of Equality, an observance of the advancements she made for equal treatment for all in Finland. Today, we honor Minna Canth on what would be her 137th birthday.

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June 10, 2019
Ahmed Khaled Tawfik’s 57th Birthday






"My English was not good enough to read horror literature, so I started writing it myself,” said Egyptian doctor and author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik. Today’s Doodle celebrates the life and work of the first and most prolific Arab writer of horror and science fiction, born in Tanta, Egypt, on this day in 1962.

Growing up in a house full of books, he read works by Somerset Maugham, Mark Twain, Chekhov, and Tolstoy from his father’s extensive library. By the age of 10, Dr. Tawfik began writing his own adventure stories.

"You write to keep your mental stability," he said in an interview. However, making a living as a writer did not seem practical to Dr. Tawfik. Instead, he attended medical school, and later earned a PhD in tropical diseases and became a professor at his alma mater.

After writing secretly for many years, he accumulated a trove of manuscripts. "Every writer has close friends who tell him he is a genius, but I did not trust them,” he said, but eventually decided to send his work to a publisher. In January 1993, he published Ostorat Masas Al Demaa’a and Ostorat Al Rajol Al Tha’eb, the first of 80 installments in his Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa series of novels for young readers.

As a professor of medicine at Tanta University, Dr. Tawfik's education and career in medicine strongly influenced his work writing medical thrillers. He went on to author over 500 titles.

In this Doodle, he is depicted as writing on his desk, with some of his most notable characters in the background—Refaat Ismael, the main character of Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa in his famous suit, Alaa Abdel Azeem, the protagonist in Safari, and Abeer Abdel Rahman, the heroine of Fantazia.

Dr. Tawfik continues to be remembered as one of the most prolific Arab writers of his age.

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June 10, 2015
Abu al-Wafa' al-Buzjani’s 1075th Birthday







You have to do something pretty great to get a moon crater named after you.

If Persian mathematician Abu al-Wafa’ al-Buzjani were alive today, he’d be 1075 years old. It’s startling, then, to consider the importance of his work, conceived of and produced so many years ago.

Today’s doodle honors this man, an innovator whose contributions to science include one of the first known introductions to negative numbers, and the development of the first quadrant, a tool used by astronomers to examine the sky. His pioneering work in spherical trigonometry was hugely influential for both mathematics and astronomy.

In our innovative society, we don’t always stop to reflect on the historical figures whose work makes our own advances possible. Abu al-Wafa’s legacy demonstrates the monumental importance of some of history’s lesser known scientists. His picture may not be pinned to the wall in elementary school classrooms, but it’s now pinned to the homepage of Google. Happy 1075th, Abu al-Wafa al-Buzjani!

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June 10, 2016
Portugal National Day 2016





Today is Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Comunidades Portuguesas, which is the national day of Portugal. The day honors the country itself, the great Portuguese poet Luís de Camões, and the Portuguese language. Camões wrote Os Lusíadas, which is the country's national epic poem, celebrating centuries of achievements.

For a vivid example of Portugal's rich history, check out the subject of today's doodle by Alyssa Winans: Guimarães Castle. This medieval castle in the northern region of Guimarães is believed to be over 1,000 years old, and is associated with the foundation of the country of Portugal.

To recognize the different contributions of each region, each year the Portuguese President chooses a different city to host the celebration of their national day. Today's bounty of parades, parties, pageants, and ceremonies will be held in the capital city of Lisbon.

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October 19, 2017
S. Chandrasekhar’s 107th Birthday




“Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.” Thanks to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, we know! Today marks the 107th birthday of the first astrophysicist to win a Nobel Prize for his theory on the evolution of stars.

A child prodigy, Chandra published his first paper and developed his theory of star evolution before turning 20. By age 34, he was elected to the Royal Society of London, and soon after, became a distinguished service professor of physics.

The Indian-American physicist’s honors are astronomical, including the National Medal of Science, the Draper Medal of the US National Academy of Science, and the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Though originally met with skepticism in the 1930s, Chandra’s theories and equations won the Nobel Prize in Physics 50 years later.

Today’s Doodle illustrates one of the most important of all of S. Chandrasekhar's contributions to our understanding of stars and their evolution: The Chandrasekhar limit. The limit explains that when a star’s mass is lighter than 1.4 times that of the sun, it eventually collapses into a denser stage called a “white dwarf.” When heavier than 1.4, a white dwarf can continue to collapse and condense, evolving into a black hole or a supernova explosion.

Today we honor the original starman whose universal theories propel current space research and modern astronomy on their ambitious missions.

Happy birthday, Chandra!

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October 19, 2013
Vinicius de Moraes's 100th Birthday






Marcus Vinícius da Cruz e Mello Moraes [19 October 1913 – 9 July 1980], also known as Vinícius de Moraes and nicknamed O Poetinha ["The little poet"], was a Brazilian poet, lyricist, essayist, and playwright. Along with frequent collaborator Antônio Carlos Jobim, his lyrics and compositions were part of the birth of bossa nova music. He recorded several albums and also served as a diplomat.

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October 19, 2020
Farid al-Atrash’s 110th Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the 110th birthday of Syrian-born Egyptian composer, singer, instrumentalist, actor, and film producer Farid al-Atrash, widely considered one of the Arab world’s great performers of his time. A virtuosic player of the stringed Middle Eastern instrument called the oud, al-Atrash forever left his mark on music and cinema in Egypt and beyond, releasing over 220 original songs and starring in 31 musical films across his prolific career.

Farid al-Atrash was born on this day in 1910 into the prominent al-Atrash family in Jabal Druze in the Syrian province of Suwayda. As a child, al-Atrash emigrated with his mother and siblings to Egypt, escaping the French occupation. Later, they were naturalized by the Egyptian government as citizens. There, he went on to pursue a musical education— inspired by his mother who was a professional singer and musician herself. Exhibiting a rare musical talent, by the early ‘30s he was singing regularly on Egyptian radio.

Al-Atrash soon began to release his own music and rose to a new level of fame with his big-screen debut–alongside his sister [Asmahan]–in the 1941 film “Intisar al-Shabab” [“The Triumph of Youth”]. He went on to lead a massively successful film career during Egypt’s golden age of cinema over the following decades. Meanwhile, he composed many songs considered classics of modern Arab music and through his extraordinary instrumental prowess earned the nickname “King of the Oud.”

Happy birthday, Farid al-Atrash!

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April 14, 2019
Pohela Boishakh 2019





As the sun moves from Pisces to Aries, the vernal equinox draws near and Bengali people prepare for the New Year’s celebration known as Pohela Boishakh—Pohela meaning “first,” and Boishakh being the first month in the Bangla or Bong Calendar which is the official calendar of Bangladesh.

Pohela Boishakh is a chance to make a fresh start, marked often by thorough house-cleanings followed by the creation of a colorful alpana on the floor of each home. Rice, flour, colored sand, and flower petals are used to make the geometric design, and in the center, an earthenware pot is placed containing holy water and mango leaves to symbolize prosperity and good fortune. Bengalis will sometimes also visit a nearby river to say prayers and bathe in preparation for the year ahead.

A time of hope and joy, Pohela Boishakh is marked by traditional song and dance, reciting of poems, and festive processions through the streets. In the capital city of Dhaka, thousands of students wearing masks participate in a festival known as Mangal Shobhajatra. Colorful bamboo figures of animals—like the Bengal tiger seen in today’s animated Doodle—are carried above the crowd, along with flying birds, elephants, and more. In fact, students from Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Art began this tradition in 1989, and in 2016 it was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of humanity’s Intangible Culture Heritage!

Happy Pohela Boishakh!

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January 20, 2019
Louay Kayali’s 85th Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrate the work of Louay Kayali, a modern painter born in Syria and trained in Italy whose quietly powerful portraits convey the strength, resilience, and nobility of everyday folk—bakers, fisherman, and pregnant mothers.

Born in Aleppo on this day in 1934, Louay Kayali began painting at the age of 11 and held his first exhibition when he was 18 at Al-Tajhis Al-Oula School. Awarded a scholarship, Kayali moved to Italy in 1956 for advanced studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and went on to represent Syria at the 1960 Venice Biennale—a prestigious international art exhibition.

Joining the faculty of the Higher Institute for the Fine Arts in Damascus in 1962, Kayali’s instruction made a profound impact on future generations of Syrian artists. During the mid-1960s, he began a series of charcoal works which marked a departure from his previous paintings. The emotionally challenging images in his 1967 traveling exhibition “Fi Sabil al-Qadiyyah” [For the Sake of the Cause] depicted human suffering, reflecting upheaval in the Arab world. Upset by scathing reviews of the show, the artist announced that he would no longer paint, and destroyed much of his work.

Fortunately, he did return to painting, showing new work throughout the 1970s, including a joint exhibition with his old friend Fateh al-Moudarres.

On what would have been his 85th birthday, we remember Louay Kayali, a passionate artist who aimed to paint exactly what he saw—and felt.

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January 20, 2010
Festival of San Sebastian





The San Sebastián Street Festival is a Puerto Rican festival that takes place in the Old San Juan, in honor of Saint Sebastian, celebrated by the Catholic Church on January 20. The event starts the third Thursday of January through Sunday with an attendance of more than 200,000 people, making this activity recognized internationally. The celebration has been introduced in Florida and Texas in the 2010s

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January 20, 2012
Omar Rayo's 84th Birthday





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.
One of his most celebrated exhibitions was carried out in the National Room of the Museum of the Palace of fine arts of Mexico, titled "20 years, 100 works: Omar Rayo."

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Jan 21, 2012
Grandparents' Day 2012

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October 2, 2019
Bill Robinson’s 81st Birthday






“There’s only one rule, and that is ‘Try, try, try,’” said Dr. William Robinson, widely hailed as one of New Zealand’s most versatile and accomplished scientists. Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Wellington-based guest artist Jez Tuya, celebrates the inventor of the “quake breaker,” a lead-rubber bearing that is still used to protect large buildings from seismic waves, preventing earthquake damage.

Born on this day in 1938 into a working-class family, Robinson went on to study Mechanical Engineering at Auckland University. In 1974, Robinson designed a device made from rubber and steel with lead at its core, intending to fit his invention to the foundations of large structures in order to isolate them from ground movements.

Robinson’s invention is now used on many buildings and bridges around the world, including Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. Following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the device saved many lives at Christchurch Women’s Hospital, as the building’s foundation swayed gently instead of collapsing in the quake.

In 1995, Robinson founded Robinson Seismic, a company specialising in isolation technology. He also pursued research in other fields, including high-temperature superconductivity. A fellow of New Zealand’s Royal Society, in 1998 Robinson received the Rutherford Medal, his country’s most prestigious science and technology award. In 2014, the Robinson Research Institute was established in his honor at Victoria University in his hometown of Wellington.

“I’ve invented more devices which have failed than devices which have been a success,” said Robinson in a 2007 interview. “You’ve gotta be willing to actually try and fail and learn from your failure.”

Thanks to an innovator who never stopped trying—and whose work will continue saving lives for many decades to come.

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October 2, 2009
Birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi





The doodle to celebrate of Mohandas Gandhi's birthday is both my first illustration since joining the doodle team and a project that is very dear to me. As a prominent figure for peace and non-violent resistance, Gandhi is an icon whose legacy I could not readily distill into one representation. The early stages of the project saw the development of a second version that depicted Gandhi journeying through the desert with his signature walking stick. In order to decide which doodle best portrayed him, I consulted hundreds of Google employees both in the US and in our offices in India. The simple indigo drawing of Gandhi on khadi cloth made it to our homepage, but the alternate version can still live here!

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Jan 26, 2012
Republic Day 2012




Republic Day is a national holiday in India, when the country marks and celebrates the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect on 26, January 1950, replacing the Government of India Act [1935] as the governing document of India and thus, turning the nation into a newly formed republic. The day also marks the transition of India from an autonomous Commonwealth realm with British Monarch as nominal head of the Indian Dominion, to a fully sovereign Commonwealth republic with the President of India as the nominal head of the Indian Union.

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January 26, 2021
Celebration Maria Island




Today’s Doodle recognizes January 26 by honoring Maria Island—a biodiverse protected State Reserve located off the eastern coast of Tasmania.

The secluded haven is home to a unique collection of mammal, marine, and avian species, including one of Australia’s rarest birds: the endangered forty-spotted pardalote which is depicted in the Doodle artwork.

Native to the island’s dry eucalyptus forests, the tiny pardalote is the first Australian bird known to forage a sugary sap called manna by snipping the leaf stalks of gum trees—a process referred to as “mining” or “farming” by biologists. In response, these trees often heal their wounds with the release of nutritious manna that is then snatched up by the pardalote to feed its offspring.

From the northern peaks of Bishop and Clerk to the jagged rock pillars of Cape Peron in the south, Maria Island teems with wildlife and continues to be one of the richest heritage sites in Australia.

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January 26, 2018
Australia Day 2018







Today’s Doodle celebrates the unique and beautiful national parks that bring Australians together.

Australia has more than 500 national parks, each populated with extraordinary plants and animals you won’t find anywhere else. For example, millions of people flock to Port Campbell National Park and Twelve Apostles Marine National Park [featured in today's Doodle] for the stunning scenery.

Located along the southwest coast of Victoria, the parks’ cliffside viewpoints overlook their most iconic sight: seven pillars of stacked limestone, battered by wind and waves, that still rise above the crashing surf to give the marine national park its name.

But below the surface, the full force of the Southern Ocean has created a seascape of canyons, caves, arches, and fissures. Nutrients delivered by perpetually churning waves provide the energy needed to maintain the subtidal and intertidal reefs, which support the greatest diversity of invertebrates on limestone reef in Victoria.

Swirling kelp forests are home to sea urchins, lobsters, and abalone, while a little deeper, the offshore reefs are inhabited by colorful sponges, and of course, fish. This marine metropolis is visited by the flippered forms of local fur seals and commuting little penguins.

Back on the beach, lucky human visitors may spot the rare hooded plover feeding at the water’s edge [also featured in today's Doodle]. The bird is one of the continent’s tens of thousands of endemic species — i.e., found only in Australia — that call the parks and surrounding areas home.

Happy Australia Day 2018!

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January 26, 2013
Australia Day 2013