Google doodles

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15 Jun 2011
Doodle 4 Google 2011 - Hungary Winner

[9A]

1 March 2020
St. David's Day 2020




Today’s Doodle pays homage to the annual commemoration of cultural heritage in Wales, St. David’s Day. Every year the country comes together in honor of their patron saint to celebrate Welsh history, culture, and identity.

Recognized since the 18th century, St. David’s Day is a time for the Welsh to show their national pride. Many may wear pins of leeks, daffodils, or both as historical emblems of Wales, which have come to be associated with the day. The leek is said to have been worn by medieval Welsh warriors to differentiate themselves from their enemies, and the daffodil coincides with the holiday’s arrival as winter gives way to spring.

From Wales’ largest city, Cardiff, to its smallest, St. Davids, locals hold parades and concerts. Schools host Eisteddfodau, a traditional festival of poetry and music, and children often dress up in 18th and 19th century-inspired clothing or even dress as the Welsh flag’s red dragon.

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Apr 14, 2013
Alfredo Volpi's 117th Birthday







Volpi was a self-taught painter, producing his first naturalist painting in 1914 at the age of twelve.Although his first paintings could resemble, in some way, those of expressionist artists, [[an early influence was the Brazilian landscape painter Ernesto de Fiori). Mogi das Cruzes, a landscape painted for a patron in 1939, is a representative work of this period. He soon focused into a most peculiar style, using geometric abstract forms and switching from oil paint to tempera. Volpi's first one-man exhibition was held at the Itá Gallery in São Paulo in 1944.

Volpi started painting façades of houses in a highly stylized and colorful manner [[these paintings were later named the "historical façades" by art critics) and this recurrent theme became pervasive all through the 1950s, after a brief "concretist" period [[even though the artist himself never acknowledged being part of the concretist movement as such). The 1960s witnessed the development of his trademark "bandeirinhas" [[small flags) for which Volpi became famous and which originated from Brazilian folklore [[small flags are a regular fixture of the popular festa junina, held every year during the month of June): the artist would use the small-flag pattern to show an increasing sense of color combination and balanced composition which would eventually place him among the major Brazilian artists of his time.

[9A]

Apr 7, 2013
500th Anniversary of the Piri Reis Map





The Piri Reis map is a world map compiled in 1513 by the Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. Approximately one third of the map survives; it shows the western coasts of Europe and North Africa and the coast of Brazil with reasonable accuracy. Various Atlantic islands, including the Azores and Canary Islands, are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia and possibly Japan.

The map's historical importance lies in its demonstration of the extent of exploration of the New World by approximately 1510, and in its claim to have used a map made by Christopher Columbus, otherwise lost, as a source. Piri also stated that he had used ten Arab sources and four Indian maps sourced from the Portuguese. More recently, the map has been the focus of claims for the pre-modern exploration of the Antarctic coast.

[9A]

Apr 5, 2013
Arbor Day 2013

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http://www.google.com/doodles/arbor-day-2013

Arbor Day is a secular day of observance in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees.Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate and suitable planting season.

The Spanish village of Mondoñedo held the first documented arbor plantation festival in the world organized by its mayor in 1594. The place remains as Alameda de los Remedios and it is still planted with lime and horse-chestnut trees. A humble granite marker and a bronze plate recall the event. Additionally, the small Spanish village of Villanueva de la Sierra held the first modern Arbor Day, an initiative launched in 1805 by the local priest with the enthusiastic support of the entire population.

[9A]

Apr 2, 2013
Maria Sibylla Merian's 366th Birthday





The most striking thing about Maria Sybilla Merian was her ability to do two things at once. Firstly, her illustrations boasted impeccable observational and scientific clarity; it's fairly obvious that the entomologist neglected all short-cuts in the rendering of chitinous exoskeletons and dramatic stages in metamorphosis of her subjects. Secondly, Merian's drawings accomplished this with such a flow of line work, crystalline color, and balanced composition as to be sublimely inviting to the viewer. [[This is especially remarkable when observing her renditions of specimens that might be, shall we say, less than personable if approached in the wild)

While Merian was most known for her depictions of insects, she did cover a range of species across various animal kingdoms. I was inspired by particular painting involving a young iguana, whose curl of the tail coincided nicely with the shape of a lower-case 'g'. I hastened to sketch out a concept based on this notion.

[9A]

Mar 26, 2013
Prokop Diviš's 315th Birthday






Dom Prokop Diviš was a Czech canon regular, theologian and natural scientist. In an attempt to prevent thunderstorms from occurring, he inadvertently constructed one of the first grounded lightning rods.

[9A]

Mar 21, 2013
Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro's 167th Birthday




Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro was a Portuguese artist known for his illustration, caricatures, sculpture, and ceramics designs. Bordalo Pinheiro created the popular cartoon character Zé Povinho [[1875) and is considered the first Portuguese comics creator.

[9A]

September 28, 2020
Celebrating Cải Lương





Tuồng cải lương [[ roughly "reformed theater") is a form of modern folk opera in Vietnam. It blends southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, hát tuồng [[a classical theater form based on Chinese opera), and modern spoken drama.

[9A]

Sep 27, 2020
Google’s 22nd Birthday




The partnership between Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin traces its roots to the sunny campus of Stanford University. As graduate students, the pair set out to improve the way people interacted with the wealth of information on the World Wide Web. In 1998, Google was born, and the rest is history.

[9A]

March 21, 2017
Nowruz 2017





For more than 3,000 years, people of Persian ancestry have been celebrating Nowruz, the return of spring and the start of a new year. A combination of the Persian words “now” for new and “ruz” for day, it is often celebrated at the exact moment of the vernal [[spring) equinox, when the days start getting longer, and the celebrations can continue for up to two weeks.

Nowruz is a time of joyous renewal. Visits with friends and family, a clean house and new clothes, and special spring foods are traditional ways to celebrate the holiday. Perhaps the most enduring image of Nowruz is gathering together with friends and family around a bonfire. People also like to decorate with springtime flowers, like the hyacinths and tulips in today’s Doodle.

[9A]

Mar 20, 2017
First Day of Spring 2017 [[Northern Hemisphere)




Today is the spring equinox — when the day and night are equal in length. The word equinox comes from the Latin for equal and night. Almost everywhere in the world today, nighttime and daytime are each 12 hours.

We use the equinox to mark the change of seasons, as the balance of light shifts to make for longer days or nights. It usually means that it's time to hunker down for colder seasons, or time to rise and shine for warmer ones, as in the case of our furry friend the mouse! You may also notice that on the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west, whereas at other times in the year, it appears off-center if you're facing those directions.

[9A]

March 20, 2018
Spring Equinox 2018 [[Northern Hemisphere)




Happy Spring Equinox!

Today’s Doodle welcomes the spring equinox, a celestial event which marks the beginning of spring in many cultures. The term comes from the Latin equi, meaning equal, and nox, meaning night. The earth has seasons because the planet is tilted on its axis, which results in each hemisphere receiving more direct light at opposite times of the year. But on the equinox, the earth’s axis is perpendicular to the sun. In other words, people all over the world experience a day and night of equal length — almost exactly 12 hours.

[9A]

March 20, 2016
First Day of Spring 2016 [[Northern Hemisphere)




Today is the vernal equinox. It’s the moment when the tilt of the earth’s axis means people in every corner of the planet--from Caracas, Venezuela to Helsinki, Finland--get almost exactly twelve hours of daylight. The ancient Maya waited eagerly for this time of year, when the sun would cast seven perfect shadows on the Temple of Kukulcan and portend a fruitful harvest. Shakespeare knew this day as a harbinger of longer twilights, when songbirds returned and the first hint of lilac blossoms drifted in the air. And here, we’re ushering in March 20th--the first day of spring--with this whimsical creation by animator Nate Swinehart. Here’s to the season of renewal and the warmer days ahead.

[9A]

Mar 18, 2016
Xiaolüren’s 17th birthday




Today's Doodle celebrates the modern pedestrian's best friend: Xiaolüren, or "little green man." Back before this now-ubiquitous walking cue arrived on the scene, pedestrians couldn't know how much time they had to cross a busy intersection.

[9A]

Mar 9, 2016
Total Solar Eclipse 2016




It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a total solar eclipse! A solar eclipse happens when the moon's orbit crosses between the Earth and the Sun, as Doodler Olivia When shows in today's animation. Because the moon blocks the Sun's light, it casts a shadow on part of the world. In Hawaii, only about 63% of the Sun will be blocked, which is called a Partial Solar Eclipse.

[9A]

Mar 7, 2016
Georges Perec’s 80th Birthday




Where others might feel stifled--even bewildered--Georges Perec felt his most free. The French author and tireless literary innovator saw constraints as a means of liberation. He viewed the craft of writing as a game, a way to upend his readers’ understanding of language and its accepted forms. Perec loved puzzles, and filled his works with anagrams, palindromes, and other verbal trickery.

He belonged to a curious coterie of French writers and mathematicians called the Oulipo, a group of literary experimentalists who proposed things like the S-7 method, a technique that involved rewriting classic poetry by replacing each word with the seventh word after it in the dictionary.

Doodler Sophie Diao’s reimagining of today’s homepage honors Perec’s most challenging, and perhaps most ridiculous experiment--writing an entire novel without using the letter “e”. La Disparition is nearly 300 pages long, and there is nary a hint of our most common vowel in the entire work. That means you won’t find a “the,” a “he,” a “nearly impossible,” or a “Happy birthday, Monsieur Perec.”

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Mar 2, 2016
Marija Juric Zagorka’s 143rd Birthday





Today we pay homage to Marija Juríc, the fearless Croatian writer fondly known by her pen name, Zagorka. She first used this name in 1898 when she wrote an article in support of working-class Croatians for the Obzor, an influential daily newspaper. After one of the newspaper's publishers learned Zagorka was actually a woman, he told her in no uncertain terms that journalism wasn't a career for women. "If someone wants to be a writer, this person needs to be a man," she remembered him saying.

Despite the hostility she encountered, Zagorka in time became editor-in-chief of the paper in 1903.
Under her direction, the Obzor reached record readership for a Croatian newspaper. In her own writing, Zagorka shed light on the oppression of both women and the peasant class, often uniting the challenges of these groups to deploy a double-barrelled critique of ruling parties. She was also a fierce defender of Croatian culture, avoiding conversation in German among other members of the intelligentsia in order to keep discussion on level ground with the national culture.

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Feb 22, 2016
Maria Erika Olofsdotter Kruukka’s 150th Birthday




Junosuando, Sweden, where Erika Kruuka was born in 1866, gets cold--really cold. In a region where temperatures regularly dip below 0 degrees fahrenheit, there are few things to give one’s neighbors as sacred as warmth, and Krukka did just that when she knitted her first pair of Lovvika gloves at the request of a local tradesman. Her singularly Swedish mittens soon kept the biting cold at bay all over the small town of Lovvika, and demand quickly grew. Being the enterprising woman that she was, Kruukka taught the craft to several women in her village, whereupon a successful business and beloved symbol of Swedish culture was born.

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Jan 19, 2016
Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s 127th Birthday





Gracing the face of every Swiss 50 franc bill is the straightforward gaze of a dark-eyed woman. Behind this serious portrait lies one of Switzerland's most colorful artists: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, whose 127th birthday we celebrate today!

Taeuber-Arp was a Swiss artist, designer, architect and dancer. Notably, she’s one of the most important artists of geometric abstraction – her minimalistic style, which is reflected in her textile artwork, marionettes, int eriors, drawings, paintings, reliefs and sculptures, makes her distinguished amongst other artists of the early 20th century. Together with her husband, Dadaist artist Hans Arp, she permanently moved to France in the late 1920’s.

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Jan 12, 2016
Charles Perrault’s 388th Birthday




What's that story, with the glass slipper and the pumpkin that turns into a carriage? How about the one where a princess falls into a deep sleep when she pricks her hand on a spindle? We owe the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty narratives we've known since childhood to Charles Perrault, the 17th-century French author and academician. Perrault was born in Paris 388 years ago today, and spent most of his life in the court of Louis XIV. He began writing his famous stories only in his late sixties, after having retired.

[9A]

Nov 2, 2015
George Boole’s 200th Birthday





Here’s an easy, yes-or-no question:

Is the universe complex?

YES, of course, you could say; it would be crazy to think otherwise! But on the other hand, British mathematician George Boole taught us that NO, things can be seen as relatively simple; any values can be pared down to yes or no, true or false, or 0 or 1 [[which, here at Google, is our personal favorite).

In 1849, Boole was appointed as the first Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, where he pioneered developments in logic and mathematics. His beautiful binary “Boolean” system was detailed in An Investigation of the Laws of Thought in 1854, which inevitably enabled revolutionary thinking in not just logic and math, but also engineering and computer science.

As one of the most important scientists to have ever worked in Ireland, Boole effectively laid the foundations of the entire Information Age while working from UCC. So it’s fair to say that without George Boole, there’d be no Google! So, as a tribute to Boole’s contributions, artist Leon Hong created today’s doodle, which cycles through all the ANDs, ORs, NOTs, and even XORs of the Boolean states for two discrete variables.

A very happy 11001000th birthday to genius George Boole!

[9A]

Feb 17, 2016
Rene Laennec’s 235th Birthday




Late in 1816, while examining a patient suffering complications of the heart, René Laennec’s memory of a stroll taken months prior came rushing back. Walking the courtyard of the Louvre that day, he observed two children playing with a long stick--one scraped it with a pin while the other listened giddily to the amplified sound on the other end.

Recalling this, Laennec rolled up a piece of paper and pressed it to his patient’s chest. The beating of her heart was suddenly audible and clear, and the stethoscope--an innovation that would fundamentally change the detection and diagnosis of lung and heart problems--was born.

After several prototypes, he settled on an instrument that resembled a long, wooden tube. Using his invention, Laennec continued his research on sound in diagnostic medicine and made several important contributions to the field. To celebrate what would have been his 235th birthday, artists Helene Leroux and Olivia When depicted Laennec’s very first stethoscope beside the one we know today.

[9A]

March 12, 2019
30th Anniversary of the World Wide Web





“Vague but exciting.”

This was how Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s boss responded to his proposal titled “Information Management: A Proposal,” submitted on this day in 1989, when the inventor of the World Wide Web was a 33-year-old software engineer. Initially, Berners-Lee envisioned "a large hypertext database with typed links,"named “Mesh,” to help his colleagues at CERN [[a large nuclear physics laboratory in Switzerland) share information amongst multiple computers.

Berners-Lee’s boss allowed him time to develop the humble flowchart into a working model, writing the HTML language, the HTTP application, and WorldWideWeb.app— the first Web browser and page editor. By 1991, the external Web servers were up and running.

The Web would soon revolutionize life as we know it, ushering in the information age. Today, there are nearly 2 billion websites online. Whether you use it for email, homework, gaming, or checking out videos of cute puppies, chances are you can’t imagine life without the Web.

Not to be confused with the internet, which had been evolving since the 1960s, the World Wide Web is an online application built upon innovations like HTML language, URL “addresses,” and hypertext transfer protocol, or HTTP. The Web has also become a decentralized community, founded on principles of universality, consensus, and bottom-up design.

“There are very few innovations that have truly changed everything,” said Jeff Jaffe, CEO of the World Wide Web Consortium. “The Web is the most impactful innovation of our time.”

[9A]

December 4, 2018
Edith Cavell’s 153rd Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates Edith Cavell, a British nurse who risked her life to help hundreds of British and French soldiers escape from occupied Belgium during World War I.On this day in 1865, Cavell was born in Swardenton, a village near Norwich. Caring for her aged father during a serious illness inspired her to become a nurse at age 30, and she began her training with Matron Eva Lückes, a friend of Florence Nightingale, at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. She went on to work at hospitals in Shoreditch, Kings Cross, and Manchester before being invited to Brussels to lead a new training hospital for nurses. Considered a pioneer of modern nursing in Belgium, she founded the medical journal l’infirmière in 1910.

Visiting family when the war broke out, she returned to Brussels straightaway, where she would treat all casualties of war regardless of their nationality. "I can’t stop while there are lives to be saved,” she stated.

Besides her work as a nurse, Cavell became involved with an underground group that was sheltering French and British soldiers and helping them escape from occupied Belgium. In August 1915, after helping some 200 men, Cavell was arrested and charged with treason. She confessed to the military court and, despite widespread appeals for mercy, was executed on October 12, 1915.
In 1917, the Nation’s Fund for Nurses was launched in her honor to raise funds to assist those who “sought the health of others at the expense of her own.” The fund was later renamed the Cavell Nurses’ Trust.

Here’s to Edith Cavell, whose legacy of heroism and compassion continues on.

[9A]

Nov 23, 2018
Mestre Bimba’s 119th Birthday





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.

[9A]

September 21, 2015
Arbor Day 2015 [[Brazil)




Today we celebrate Arbor Day by taking time to appreciate and help preserve the environment around us. Trees provide shelter, food, clean air, and many other benefits for wildlife and humans alike.

[9A]

March 20, 2014
First Day of Spring 2014




https://www.google.com/doodles/first-day-of-spring-2014 [[animated)

[9A]

Mar 8, 2014
International Women's Day 2014



https://www.google.com/doodles/inter...omens-day-2014 [[video with sound)

Women have historically been underrepresented in almost all fields: science, school curricula, business, politics — and, sadly, doodles. In addition to our continued effort for doodle diversity and inclusion, this truly International Women’s Day doodle features a host of over a 100 inspiring women from around the world.

Here is the full list [[in order of appearance):

Cee Chatpawee, TV host, IT Princess, Thailand

Chinaza Godwin Christiana, Student, Nigeria

Easkey Britton, Surfer and the first woman to surf in Iran, PhD and doctoral candidate, Ireland

Rahimah Yussof, Developer group leader, Brunei

Chen Yuhong, School teacher, China

Naho Okamoto, Jewelry designer, Japan

Mary Kom, Five-time World Boxing champion, India

Funlayo Adewale, Canteen owner, Nigeria

Jennifer Luo & Yi-hsin Chen, Mothers to be, Taiwan

Alifiyah Ganjee, Developer group leader, Kenya

Karnataka State Home Guard, India

Ana Cecilia Castillo, Developer group leader, Guatemala

Rivka Carmi, President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founded the place2be and Kids Company, caring for 17,000 children, UK/Iran

Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania

Sarah Sechan, TV personality and entertainer, Indonesia

Shoko Uemura, Under-23 Women's Football Team member, Japan

Janet Mock, Trans woman rights activist and author, USA

Harusoga Fujima, Professional Nihon Buyo dancer [[traditional dance), Japan

Mara Gabrilli, Congresswoman & Brazil's spokesperson for people with disabilities, Brazil

Maria da Penha, Women's rights advocate, named the law protecting women from domestic violence, Brazil

Viviane Senna, Entrepreneur and founder of NGOs, Brazil

Marta Silva, Awarded multiple times by FIFA golden ball as best female soccer player in the world, Brazil

Students, Guatemala

Maia Sandu, Minister of education, Moldova

Chamki, Adventurous and inquisitive schoolgirl muppet, India

Christine Van Broeckhoven, Molecular biologist, Belgium

Tanha Islam, Aspiring engineer, Bangladesh

Jake Feinler, Former head of Network Information Center at Stanford and Internet Hall of Fame member, USA

Iryna Velychko, Galyna Korniyenko & Marina Derkach, Developer group organizers, Ukraine

Marisa Millán, Proud grandma, Spain

Noelle Wenceslao, Janet Belarmino & Carina Dayondon, First Filipinas to climb Mount Everest, Philippines

Clarisse Reille, Managing Director of French Professional Committee for Apparel Economy Development, France

Gesche Joost, Professor of Design Research and one of Germany's "100 masterminds of tomorrow", Germany

Dora, Explorer

Nogah Dufresne, Multinational baby, France/Israel

Tooba Shaikh, Aspiring Developer, Pakistan

Katelyn Donnelly, Executive Director of the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund, USA/UK

Catherine Koo, Chairlady of United Christian College Parents Teachers Association, Hong Kong

Roba Al Assi, Blogger, Jordan

SOS Lambrate, Ambulance volunteers, Italy

Camila Bernal Villegas, Director of the CRAN Foundation and cancer survivor, Colombia

Malala Yousafzai, Education activist, Pakistan

Ashaji, Holds a Guinness World Record as most recorded artist in music history, India

Nonna Grishaeva, Actress, comedian and singer, Russia

Ndileka Xameni, Runs an orphanage, South Africa

İpek Hanım's Farm, Business woman turned farmer and her village , Turkey

Prof. Jacqueline A. Oduol, Gender expert fighting for Women's and children's rights, Kenya

Martha Debayle, Radio personality, named one of the 50th most powerful women in Mexico by Forbes, Mexico

Alenka Godec, One of the most prominent jazz and pop singers in Slovenia, Slovenia

Zakeeya Patel, Actress, dancer and winner of South Africa's Strictly Come Dancing 2013, South Africa

Astrid Sartiasari, Singer, Indonesia

Jenny Chan, Ella Wong & Ching Hoi Man, Spokeswomen, Hong Kong

Isadora Faber, Education activist, 14 years old, Brazil

Refiloe Khaoli, Copyrighter, South Africa

Serena Gu, Grace Liang & Sharon Tam, University start-ups advocates, Hong Kong

Anne Geddes, Renowned photographer and women's advocate, Australia

Cecilia Chung, Social justice & human rights activist, HK/US

Diaa Elyaacoubi, Serial entrepreneur, named Entrepreneur of the Year 2004, France

Ros Juan, Entrepreneur and Social advocate, Philippines

Funmi Victor-Okigbo, Events Production Designer, Nigeria

Chen Junlan and QiQiGe, Office workers, China

Tarryn Tomlinson, Inspiring quadriplegic working with disadvantaged youth, South Africa

Zahira Asmal, Founder of Design South Africa, South Africa

Foluso Olaniyan, Agricultural pioneer, Nigeria

Jirawadee Sudta, Awarded National Excellent Youth in law and protection of children's rights, Thailand

Thanks to our amazing editor Morgan Stiff, Zap Mama for the wonderful music, and all the women and girls who participated.

[9A]

Aug 8, 2015
229th Anniversary of the first ascent of Mont Blanc





Capped by snow and shrouded in mist sits Mont Blanc, the highest point in the Alps. Its summit, forever white, towers 15,000+ feet above Europe’s sea level. Lord Byron called it “the monarch of mountains.” And for centuries, no human had ever reached its peak.


Until 1786. That year, armed only with alpenstocks and measuring equipment [[the trek was for scientific purposes), Frenchmen Michel Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat set foot at the top. Now, 229 years later, thousands of hopeful hikers annually descend upon the Alpine towns of Chamonix, Saint-Gervais, and Courmayeur to recreate this exceptional feat, and take in this incredible view.


Today we celebrate Europe’s pioneering spirit, stunning landscapes, and one-of-a-kind landmarks including the incredible Mont Blanc.

[9A]

Jul 20, 2015
Colombia National Day 2015



Today’s Doodle by Robinson Wood includes the country’s national flower, the endangered yet enduring Flor de Mayo orchid. With 4,270 species nationwide, Colombia is home to the greatest diversity of orchids in the world; an incredible 1,752 of them are unique to the country.

[9A]

June 2, 2015
Tapio Wirkkala’s 100th Birthday





What do Finnish banknotes and vodka bottles have in common? Both can be traced back to a common Finnish designer: Tapio Wirkkala.

Born in Hanko, Finland, on this day in 1915, Wirkkala is one of Finland’s most versatile and perhaps most internationally famous designers. Known as one of the pioneers of industrial Finnish art, Wirkkala had enormous artistic range, studying sculpture and graphic design and making furniture, vases, glassware and jewelry. Outside of the artist’s studio, his work can be found on a number of everyday items, including utensils, stamps, and even ketchup bottles.

To honor Wirkkala’s 100th birthday, today’s Doodle reflects his famous design work in glassware and vases.

[9A]

March 21, 2016
Nowruz 2016





A new day. A fresh start. The return of the sun. Nowruz or نوروز literally means "new day" in Persian, and is celebrated in countries around the world, including Iran, Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Nowruz celebrates the Vernal Equinox when the day is evenly split between light and night.


Special pastries, nuts, fruit, and fresh flowers, are popular today with additional variations by region. In parts of Iran and Azerbaijan, colored eggs, bonfires, and red ribbons signal the coming of the sun and new birth.

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March 20, 2015
First Day of Spring 2015 [[Northern Hemisphere)

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March 20, 2021
Spring 2021 [[Northern Hemisphere)

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Cherry Blossom Day - 15 years Google doodle

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September 16, 2020
Mexico Independence Day 2020




Today’s Doodle,illustrated by Xalapa, Mexico-based guest artistIna Hristova, celebrates Mexico’s Independence Day. On this day in 1810, Mexico’s decade-long struggle for independence from Spanish rule began, and the country’s sovereignty was officially recognized by Spain on August 24, 1821.


Depicted in today’s Doodle is a colorful and eclectic collection of images that represent traditional Independence Day festivities. These illustrations pay homage to an iconic Mexican folk embroidery style developed in the 1960s by the Indigenous Otomí people of Tenango de Doria in central Mexico. The shape of the Doodle artwork is inspired by the central Mexican folk sculptures called “Árboles de la Vida” [[“Trees of Life”).

[9A]

September 16, 2020
Celebrating Mascha Kaléko



Mascha Kaléko was a Jewish German-language poet.From 1929 on, she published poetry presenting the daily life of the common people in newspapers such as Vossische Zeitung and Berliner Tageblatt. In her poetry, Kaléko captured the atmosphere of Berlin in the 1930s. She attained fame and frequented places like the "Romanisches Café", where the literary world met, among them Erich Kästner and Kurt Tucholsky.In January 1933, Rowohlt published her first book with poetry Lyrisches Stenogrammheft, which was soon subjected to Nazi censorship.

Some of Kaléko's poems were published posthumously, including "Sozusagen grundlos vergnügt", in 1977 in the collection In meinen Träumen läutet es Sturm [[In my dreams, a storm is brewing)edited by Gisela Zoch-Westphal [de], to whom Kaléko had entrusted her unpublished writings.In Berlin, a street and a park were named after her, and a memorial plaque was placed at her former residence.

[9A]

Sep 13, 2020
Celebrating Terry Fox



Born on July 28, 1958, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Terry Fox was a natural competitor known for his commitment and fierce work ethic. In 1977, at the age of 18, Fox was diagnosed with bone cancer, resulting in the amputation of his right leg.

During his months of treatment, he was deeply affected by the stories of the patients around him, igniting in him an urgent desire to end the suffering cancer causes. Refusing to allow his amputation to slow him down, Fox decided to run across Canada, raising much-needed research funding to find a cure for cancer.

Three years following his diagnosis, on April 12, 1980, Fox humbly embarked on his “Marathon of Hope” in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Through biting winds and summer heat, he ran close to a marathon a day for over four months, an incredible 5,373 kilometres [[approximately 3,339 miles) in all. Although a return of Fox’s cancer prevented him from completing the route, he achieved his goal of raising a dollar for every Canadian citizen, totaling over $24 million for cancer research.

The first Terry Fox Run, held on this day in 1981, united 300,000 people across Canada to walk, run or cycle in Terry’s memory, and raised $3.5 million for cancer research. Today, the Terry Fox Run is held virtually in his honor, and has raised over $800 million since its inception.

[9A]

November 13, 2017
Helene Stöcker’s 148th Birthday





Women’s rights were hard-won by the women of the early 20th century, and visionaries like Helene Stöcker were at the forefront of the movement.

Born in 1869, Helene was the definition of someone whose ideas were ahead of her time. Bucking societal expectations, she was one of the first German women to obtain her doctorate, and in 1893 penned her famous short essay, “The Modern Woman.” In it, Helene describes a woman with the freedom to embrace intellectual and cultural pursuits in addition to love or marriage.

In 1905, Helene co-founded The League for the Protection of Mothers and Sexual Reform, continuing her influential writing as the editor of the League’s magazine. For nearly 30 years, she lead the charge with a philosophy she called the New Ethic. Among other things, it advocated for equality for children born out of wedlock, access to contraceptives, and sex education.

Helene wrote with passion about a time when women could fully embrace everything life has to offer. As a feminist, she cherished and championed all women, writing that any modern woman would do the same: “After all, she sees in them a common front, a world-conquering future.”

[9A]

March 21, 2020
Leonid Utyosov’s 125th Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the 125th birthday of Soviet musician, singer, and actor Leonid Utyosov who is credited with leading one of the Soviet Union’s early jazz bands.

Lazar Iosifovich Weissbein was born on this day 1895 to a middle-class family in Odessa [[now part of Ukraine). By the end of his teen years, he had taken work as a circus acrobat, stand-up comedian, and theater actor, assuming the stage name Leonid Utyosov. After winning a singing competition, the multi-talented Utyosov formed a band and began touring Moscow, appearing regularly at the city’s famous Hermitage Theater.

While on tour in 1928, Utyosov experienced his first encounter with American jazz, and he was hooked. The next year, he debuted the Tea-Jazz Orchestra, which blended diverse styles, including American jazz, Jewish folk music, Argentinian tangos, and Russian lullabies, and achieved major popularity.

In a return to acting, Utyosov starred in the Hollywood-style hit film Vesyolye rebyata [[Jolly Fellows, 1934) which introduced Soviet audiences to a variety of new music and earned him increased exposure across the country.

For his considerable contributions to music and film, Utyosov was designated the 1965 People’s Artist of the USSR, and in 2000, a statue was erected in his honor in his hometown of Odessa.

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November 23, 2018
Nikolai Nosov’s 110th Birthday



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 w on 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.

[9A]

Mar 19, 2014
José Sabogal's 125th Birthday








José Sabogal was a Peruvian painter and muralist who was "the most renowned early supporter" and thus a leader in the artistic indigenist movement of his country. As Daniel Balderston, Mike Gonzalez, and Ana M. López assert, Sabogal "became Peru's militant indigenist and aesthetic nationalist, and led this movement for the next thirty years.^[4

Although Sabogal's own descent was Spanish rather than indigenous, he promoted pre-Columbian culture and esthetics. A six month stay in Cuzco prompted his indigenism; he took an interest in depicting the city and its inhabitants. In 1919 his Cuzco paintings attracted attention at an exhibition in Lima. As Jane Turner explains, "in 1919 was the first exhibition of the work of JOSÉ SABOGAL at the Casa Brandes in Lima, an event that would be immensely influential on the future..."


Sabogal decided to promote Peruvian art to international audiences after a 1922 visit to Mexico where he met Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. These efforts were so successful that in "the field of the visual arts, the most striking phenomenon of the 1920s was the rise of José Sabogal [[1888-1956), founder and long-time leader of the so-called 'Peruvian School' of painting."

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Mar 5, 2014
Giambattista Tiepolo's 318th Birthday [[born 1696)







Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. He was prolific, and worked not only in Italy, but also in Germany and Spain.

Giovan Battista Tiepolo, together with Giambattista Pittoni, Canaletto, Giovan Battista Piazzetta, Giuseppe Maria Crespi and Francesco Guardi are considered the traditional Old Masters of that period.

Successful from the beginning of his career, he has been described by Michael Levey as "the greatest decorative painter of eighteenth-century Europe, as well as its most able craftsman."

[9A]

Mar 4, 2014
Carnival 2014


Carnival is a Western Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide [[or Pre-Lent). Carnival typically involves public celebrations, including events such as parades, public street parties and other entertainments, combining some elements of a circus. Elaborate costumes and masks allow people to set aside their everyday individuality and experience a heightened sense of social unit

[9A]

Mar 1, 2014
St. David's Day 2014




Saint David's Day, or the Feast of Saint David, is the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March, the date of Saint David's death in 589 AD. The feast has been regularly celebrated since the canonization of David in the 12th century, by Pope Callixtus II, though it is not a public holiday in the UK.

Traditional festivities include wearing daffodils and leeks, recognized symbols of Wales and Saint David respectively, eating traditional Welsh food including cawl and Welsh rarebit, and women wearing traditional Welsh dress. An increasing number of cities and towns across Wales including Cardiff, Swansea and Aberystwyth also put on parades throughout the day.

[9A]

May 4, 2019
Eddie Aikau’s 73rd Birthday

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Today’s Doodle celebrates Eddie Aikau, big wave surfer, lifeguard, and enduring symbol of Hawaiian heritage. Born on the island of Maui on this day in 1946, Eddie moved to Oahu with his family in 1959 and went on to become the first lifeguard hired by Honolulu officials to work on the North Shore of the island.

Not a single life was lost while he served as a lifeguard at Waimea Bay, making some 500 rescues without the assistance of a jet ski or any modern equipment. Eddie was famous for making rescues even in surf that reached 30 feet high. His fearlessness went on to inspire the slogan “Eddie would go.”

Hailing from a surfing family, Eddie was one of the first native Hawaiians to win the prestigious Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship in 1977, just four years after his older brother Clyde, who was the very first. Aside from his distinguished surfing career, Eddie found other ways to represent the culture of his native island. In 1978, Eddie joined the crew of the Hokule'a, a historically accurate double-hulled canoe retracing the ancient Polynesian migration route to Hawaii. The vessel sprung a leak and capsized in rough waters. Eddie was last seen heroically paddling off on his surfboard towards the nearest island to seek help for the crew, who were later rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Today, Eddie’s legacy lives on through the Eddie Aikau Foundation as well as the prestigious Eddie Aikau Invitational, which has seen some of big-wave surfing’s greatest names competing with maximum respect for the authenticity of surf culture.

[9A]

Feb 19, 2014
Gabriele Münter's 137th Birthday



Gabriele Münter [[Berlin, 19 February 1877 – 19 May 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding member of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter.
Münter's style evolved over the course of her career. Her early works from her days at the Phalanx school show an extensive use of the palette knife and a limited color range of yellows, greens and browns. Her subsequent landscapes, many of which were painted in Murnau, employed strong contours around a palette of blue, green, yellow, and pink, often with red for emphasis.Throughout her career, color continued to play a large role in her work.In the early 1920s, Münter painted portraits with the minimal line and compositional clarity valued in Neue Sachlichkeit circles of the day.

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Feb 17, 2014
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson's 150th Birthday [[born 1864)



Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" [[1889), "The Man from Snowy River" [[1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" [[1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem.

[9A]

Jan 27, 2014
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's 200th Birthday





Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect and author who restored many prominent medieval landmarks in France, including those which had been damaged or abandoned during the French Revolution. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, the Basilica of Saint Denis, Mont Saint-Michel, Sainte-Chapelle, and the medieval walls of the city of Carcassonne. His later writings on the relationship between form and function in architecture had a notable influence on a new generation of architects, including Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, Antoni Gaudí, Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.