Google doodles

[9A]

16 Jul 2021

Elizeth Cardoso's 101st birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates the birthday of Brazilian actor and singer Elizeth “The Divine” Cardoso. Her 1958 album “Canção do Amor Demais” [“Too Much Love Song”] is widely regarded as the first true bossa nova album, a hybrid style of breezy jazz and traditional Brazilian music that captured the stylistic evolutions of the era.

On this day in 1920, Elizete Moreira Cardoso was born into a family of musicians in Rio de Janeiro and debuted as a singer at just five years old. Her first major break occurred at her 16th birthday party when an introduction to popular Brazilian musician Jacob do Bandolim changed her life.

Eager to share her rare vocal gift, Bandolim landed Cardoso an opening gig for a stacked lineup of Brazilian musicians in 1936, including the likes of Noel Rosa and Araci de Almeida. Cardoso’s fame continued to grow into the 1940s with regular appearances alongside this superstar group and by performing everywhere from circuses to ballrooms. In 1950, Cardoso recorded her first hit, "Canção de Amor" [“Love Song”]. The explosion of popular reception for this single paved the way for a fruitful musical career that was soon followed by success as an actor in both TV and film.

Cardoso became an international sensation in the following decades; her heartfelt spin on Brazilian music garnered standing ovations [with one lasting 15 minutes!] and enchanted audiences globally on world tours well into the 1980s. In 2007, Rolling Stone Brazil listed Cardoso’s “Canção do Amor Demais” among the nation’s top 100 albums of all time.

Happy birthday, Elizeth Cardoso!

[9A]

17 Jul 2021

Francisco Toledo's 81st birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 81st birthday of Mexican artist and activist Francisco “El Maestro” Toledo, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists in modern Mexican history. His prolific creative output is only rivaled in scope by his philanthropic advocacy and dedication to preserving his Oaxacan heritage.

On this day in 1940, Francisco Benjamín López Toledo was born in Juchitán, Oaxaca, the heartland of the Indigenous Zapotec civilization. His remarkable talent for drawing was noticed at just 9 years old, and by 19, he hosted his first solo exhibition.

Self-described as a grillo [cricket], which he believed captured the restless Oaxacan spirit, Toledo set off to Paris to pursue sculpting, painting, and printmaking in the 1960s. But he soon yearned for the simpler life of his home. He returned to Oaxaca in 1965, where his craft and activism played an instrumental role in the transformation of the southern Mexican state into a nucleus of the international art community. Toledo first garnered widespread acclaim during this era with a watercolor series of animal-human hybrids, which established his trademark style rooted in Indigenous art traditions, Zapotec mythology, and inspiration from the work of masters such as Francisco Goya.

For nearly seven decades, Toledo explored every visual medium imaginable to produce around 9,000 works—from a scorpion sculpture crafted using turtle shells to cloth puppets. Today, his legacy endures in libraries, art institutions, and museums he founded in Oaxaca, many of which are free to enter.

Happy birthday, Francisco Toledo, and thank you for safeguarding Zapotec Oaxacan heritage for generations to come!

[9A]

1 Aug 2014

Swiss National Day 2014



For this year's August 1 celebration, everyone is invited to a festival in the woods by guest artist Jürg Lindenberger. Many of your favorite Swiss friends will be there—Cervelat and mustard, the August 1 roll, and a happy St. Bernard. It should be a great party.

[9A]

1 Aug 2013

Maria Mitchell's 195th Birthday




Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI [modern designation C/1847 T1] that was later known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet” in her honor. She won a gold medal prize for her discovery, which was presented to her by King Christian VIII of Denmark in 1848. Mitchell was the first internationally known woman to work as both a professional astronomer and a professor of astronomy after accepting a position at Vassar College in 1865. She was also the first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

[9A]

8 Aug 2013

Mugunghwa Day




Hibiscus syriacus [Mugungqa]is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is native to south-central and southeast China, but widely introduced elsewhere, including much of Asia. It was given the epithet syriacus because it had been collected from gardens in Syria. Common names include the rose of Sharon, [especially in North America], Syrian ketmia, shrub althea, and rose mallow [in the United Kingdom]. It is the national flower of South Korea and is mentioned in the South Korean national anthem.

[9A]

9 November 2019

Celebrating the Edmonton Grads





The Edmonton Commercial Graduates Basketball Club, better known as “The Grads,” started as a high school girls basketball team and became a sports dynasty. Today’s Doodle celebrates The Grads’ induction into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame on this day in 2017. It was a fitting honor for a team that holds arguably one of the best winning percentages in North America—approximately 95 percent over 25 years—in any sport.. With outstanding sportsmanship and determination, The Grads also defeated stereotypes that had discouraged women from participating in competitive sports.

Teacher Percy Page started the team in 1914 as a physical education program for the 60 girls at McDougall Commercial High School in the Canadian city of Edmonton. In their first season, they won the provincial championship, and when some of the graduating seniors indicated that they’d like to continue playing, Page was inspired to set up The Grads after they graduated in 1915.

During the next quarter century, The Grads went on to win 23 of 24 Provincial Championships and racked up stats that would be the envy of any team, including earning winning streaks of 147 and 78 games, separated by just a single loss. They went undefeated in the Western Canadian Championships from 1926 to 1940 and won 29 of 31 games in the Canadian Championships, never losing a series. After the Grads won the Underwood International tournament, also known as the “North American championship,” for 17 years straight, tournament organizers decided to let them keep the trophy permanently.

The Grads additionally won seven of nine games against men's teams and went unbeaten in 27 exhibition games at four Olympic Games—though they never won a medal since women’s basketball was not yet an Olympic sport.

When The Grads first started, basketball was a fairly new sport, having been invented in 1891 by Canadian James Naismith. He would later recognize the Grads as “the finest basketball team that ever stepped out on a floor.”

[9A]

9 November 2012

Paul Abadie's 200th Birthday




Paul Abadie was a French architect and building restorer. He is considered a central representative of French historicism. He was the son of architect Paul Abadie Sr..

Abadie worked on the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris, Église Sainte-Croix of Bordeaux, Saint-Pierre of Angoulême and Saint-Front of Périgueux. He won the competition in 1873 to design the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on Montmartre in Paris, and saw construction commence on it, though he died long before its completion in 1914.

[9A]

10 Nov 2012

Hachiko's 89th Birthday







Hachikō was a Japanese Akita dog remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, for whom he continued to wait for over nine years following Ueno's death.

Hachikō was born on November 10, 1923, at a farm near the city of Ōdate, Akita Prefecture. In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University, brought him to live in Shibuya, Tokyo, as his pet. Hachikō would meet Ueno at Shibuya Station every day after his commute home. This continued until May 21, 1925, when Ueno died of a cerebral hemorrhage while at work. From then until his death on March 8, 1935, Hachikō would return to Shibuya Station every day to await Ueno's return.

During his lifetime, the dog was held up in Japanese culture as an example of loyalty and fidelity. Well after his death, he continues to be remembered in worldwide popular culture, with statues, movies, books, and appearances in various media. Hachikō is known in Japanese as chūken Hachikō [[忠犬ハチ公) "faithful dog Hachikō", hachi meaning "eight" and -kō which originates as a suffix once used for ancient Chinese dukes; thus, Hachikō could be roughly translated as either "Mr. Eight" or "Sir Eight".



Hachiko Memorial Statue outside Shibuya Station
in Hachiko Square, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

[9A]

11 Nov 2012

Roberto Matta's 101st Birthday






Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren, better known as Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known painters and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art.

[9A]

14 Nov 2012

Amadeu de Souza-Cardoso's 125th Birthday




Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso was a Portuguese painter.

Belonging to the first generation of Portuguese modernist painters, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso stands out among all of them for the exceptional quality of his work and for the dialogue he established with the historical avant-gardes of the early 20th century. "The artist developed, between Paris and Manhufe, the most serious possibility of modern art in Portugal in an international dialogue, intense but little known, with the artists of his time". His painting is articulated with open movements such as Cubism, Futurism or Expressionism, reaching in many moments - and in a sustained way in the production of recent years - a level comparable in everything to the cutting-edge production of his contemporary international art.

[9A]

14 November 2001

Claude Monet's 161st Birthday




Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his long career, he was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of impressionism's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein air [outdoor] landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant, exhibited in the 1874 Salon des Refusés ["exhibition of rejects"] initiated by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon.

[9A]

4 June 2018

Tom Longboat’s 131st Birthday




Today we celebrate the 131st birthday of Tom Longboat, a Canadian long-distance runner celebrated as one of the greatest marathoners of all time. Longboat was a member of the Onondaga Nation, born in 1887 on Six Nations Reserve, south of Brantford, Ontario. He first began racing in his early teenage years, inspired by Bill Davis, another First Nations runner who finished second in the Boston Marathon in 1901.

It didn’t take long for Longboat to chase Davis’ legacy. He began racing in 1905 as an amateur and won his first Boston Marathon just two years later, in 1907, making Longoat the first member of the First Nations to win the Boston Marathon. In fact, during his career as an amateur racer, Longboat only lost a total of three races! Two years after winning the Boston Marathon, he went on to become a professional racer. Longboat was one of the first athletes to use a training technique involving rotating training days of hard workouts, easier workouts and recovery days. While these training methods are widely accepted today, he faced skepticism from coaches and media despite consistent victories and multiple world records.

During his professional racing career, Longboat also served in the Canadian Army as a dispatch runner in World War I. He largely ran across France, delivering messages between military posts. This was dangerous work, and he was actually mistakenly declared dead twice during his service! Once he finished his service for the military, he retired to the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Tom Longboat’s legacy lives on as one of Canada’s greatest athletes. Not only is today his birthday, it is officially “Tom Longboat Day” in Ontario!

Alternate concept of the Doodle below featuring Tom transitioning between marathon and military runner

[9A]

4 June 2013

Vladislav Gorodetsky's 150th Birthday





Władysław Horodecki was a Polish architect active in the Russian Empire and later in the Second Polish Republic. He is best known for his contributions in the urban development of Kyiv, with buildings such as the House with Chimaeras, the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Karaite Kenesa, and the National Art Museum of Ukraine.

[Gorodetsky is a Russian surname which indicates someone who hails from the town of Gorodets. It may also correspond to the Polish language surname Horodecki]

[9A]

4 June 2019

Celebrating 50 Years Of Pride






Today's slideshow Doodle celebrates 50 years of Pride by taking us through five decades of Pride history—all told through the lens of a growing, evolving, and international Pride parade!

[9A]

4 Jun 2019

Mudik 2019




Starting today, the big cities of the Indonesian archipelago empty out as people return home for the annual Idul Fitri feast [also known as lebaran], jamming the roads and railways of over 11,000 islands, including Java, Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan. Today’s Doodle celebrates this festive mass exodus, known as mudik, an Indonesian term which means ”homebound trip” towards one’s home village.

Mudik is about strengthening the bonds of community, spending quality time with family and loved ones, taking part in traditional rituals, and visiting ancestral gravesites to pay respects. It’s also a time to share treats like sweet Nastar cakes and cheese-filled Kastengel cakes.

The practice of returning home dates as far back as the 14th century, although the term "mudik" became popular during the 1970s. Traffic jams are common and special arrangements are made to ensure that transportation goes as smoothly as possible. Officials estimate that over 20 million Indonesians will make the joyful journey to all parts of the country.

[9A]

5 June 2015

Denmark Constitution Day 2015





Following the Danish Constituent Assembly of 1848 and 1849, the first constitution [which established Denmark as a constitutional monarchy] was signed by King Frederick VII on 5 June 1849. The constitution was completely rewritten in 1866, 1915 [when women's suffrage was introduced], and most recently in 1953, the latter two rewritings also on 5 June.

5 June is also Father's Day in Denmark. It was introduced in 1935, and until 1956 it fell on the second Sunday of November. Father's Day was later moved to its current date since Constitution Day was a half-day off work.

[9A]

5 June 2010

Dennis Gabor's 110th birthday - Holography support courtesy of the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Stanford University





Dennis Gabor was a Hungarian electrical engineer and physicist, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics. He obtained British citizenship in 1934, and spent most of his life in England.

Following the rapid development of lasers and a wide variety of holographic applications [e.g., art, information storage, and the recognition of patterns], Gabor achieved acknowledged success and worldwide attention during his lifetime. He received numerous awards besides the Nobel Prize.

[9A]

6 June 2014

Honinbo Shusaku's 185th Birthday





Today in Japan and other countries, we’re marking the 185th birthday of Honinbo Shusaku, widely considered to be one of the greatest players of the ancient Chinese board game Go. Shusaku rose to prominence during Go’s golden age in the 19th century and is known for his perfection of the Shusaku opening, which is depicted in our doodle.

[9A]

6 June 2012

79th Anniversary of the First Drive-in Movie





A drive-in theater or drive-in cinema is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars. Some drive-ins have small playgrounds for children and a few picnic tables or benches.

The screen can be as simple as a wall that is painted white or it can be a steel truss structure with a complex finish. Originally, the movie's sound was provided by speakers on the screen and later by individual speakers hung from the window of each car, which were attached to a small pole by a wire. These speaker systems were superseded by the more practical method of microbroadcasting the soundtrack to car radios. This also has the advantage of the film soundtrack to be heard in stereo on car stereo systems, which are typically of much higher quality and fidelity than the basic small mono speakers used in the old systems.

[9A]

9 Jun 2012

Johann Gottfried Galle's 200th Birthday





Johann Gottfried Galle was a German astronomer from Radis, Germany, at the Berlin Observatory who, on 23 September 1846, with the assistance of student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, was the first person to view the planet Neptune and know what he was looking at. Urbain Le Verrier had predicted the existence and position of Neptune, and sent the coordinates to Galle, asking him to verify. Galle found Neptune in the same night he received Le Verrier's letter, within 1° of the predicted position. The discovery of Neptune is widely regarded as a dramatic validation of celestial mechanics, and is one of the most remarkable moments of 19th-century science.

[9A]

21 Jun 2012

Yuri Kondratyuk's 115th Birthday





Yuri Kondratyuk was a self-educated mechanic who, 50 years before lunar flights, foresaw ways of reaching the moon, calculating the best means of achieving a lunar landing. His theory of the gravitational slingshot trajectory to accelerate a spacecraft, known today as the "Kondratyuk Route", was eventually adopted by the engineers of the Apollo program for American lunar expeditions.

His personal story is also fascinating, though ultimately heartbreaking. Yuri's developing theories on space travel were happening during a time when such pursuits were considered "absurd", and consequently were prohibited by the ruling government of his time. Because of this, his work – and much of his life – was shrouded in secrecy. Even his real name was a secret [it was Aleksandr Gnatovich Shargei]. Fortunately, history has been much kinder to his legacy, and today he is considered an early pioneer of space exploration. For his doodle, we felt that while it is not quite the real thing, it was only right to show an aspirational Kondratyuk gazing about – and amongst – the stars.

[9A]

21 Jun 2012

Viktor Tsoi's 50th Birthday



Viktor Robertovich Tsoi was a Soviet and Russian singer and songwriter who co-founded Kino, one of the most popular and musically influential bands in the history of Russian music.

[9A]

22 Jun 2012

Teachers' Day 2012 [El Salvador]

[9A]

22 June 2021

Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. Save lives. [22 June]

[9A]

27 Jun 2021

Mina Wylie's 130th birthday







Today’s Doodle, illustrated by guest artist Alice Lindstrom, celebrates the 130th birthday of Australian athlete Wilhelmina Wylie, the first Australian woman to win a silver medal in Olympic swimming.

On this day in 1891, Wilhelmina “Mina” Wylie was born in Sydney, Australia, as the second child of Australasian distance-diving champion Henry Wylie. Her swimming achievements began much earlier than most–Wylie joined her father and brothers in successfully swimming with her hands and feet tied at only five years old! She placed second in her first conventional swim meet before turning 10, and continued to train rigorously throughout her youth at Wylie’s Baths, a coastal tidal pool founded in Coogee by her father in 1907.

The next year, Wylie broke the world record in the 100-yard freestyle event. She set her sights on the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, which was the first to hold a women’s swimming event. But Wylie’s aims were complicated by an outdated rule of the New South Wales Ladies’ Amateur Swimming Association that prohibited women from competing with men. Public uproar ensued until restrictions loosened, allowing Wylie to dive headfirst into Olympic history as a silver-medal 100-meter freestyle champion.

By the time she hung up her competitive swimming cap in 1934, Wylie held 115 state and national titles, complemented by freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke world records. In honor of her lifetime achievements, the International Swimming Hall of Fame inducted Wylie into its ranks in 1975, and today, a sculpture in her likeness inspires swimmers at Wylie’s Baths.

Happy birthday, Mina Wylie, and thank you for inspiring future generations of swimmers to take the plunge!

[9A]

27 June 2016

19th Anniversary of the first Sepaktakraw Women's Competition




Today marks the 19th anniversary of the first women's sepak takraw competition. The sport is like volleyball except instead of using arms and hands, you use feet, knees, hips, chest and head. Athletes perform acrobatic kicks, flips, and techniques like the horse-kick serve to rocket-power the takraw over the net. A sepak or 'slam' of the takraw can hit blazing speeds of over 70 miles per hour. The Thai women's team regularly out-perform their rivals, and are poised for yet another dominant year.

[9A]

27 June 2021


Tamio 'Tommy' Kono's 91st birthday







Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Los Angeles-based guest artist Shanti Rittgers, celebrates Japanese-American coach, Olympic gold-medalist athlete, and world-champion bodybuilder Tommy Kono, who is regarded as one of the greatest weightlifters in United States history.

Tamio “Tommy” Kono was born in Sacramento, California, on this day in 1930. During the onset of World War II, Kono and his family, all of Japanese descent, were among the over 120,000 Japanese-Americans forced by the U.S. government to be detained in prison camps [aka Japanese internment camps]. It was in one of these camps that Kono was introduced to weightlifting—which he practiced relentlessly in an effort to become healthier after experiencing severe asthma throughout his childhood.

When the fog of war lifted, Kono returned home to Sacramento, where he entered his first weightlifting competitions. By 1952, he was an invaluable member of the U.S. national weightlifting team, in part due to his rare ability to move between weight classes without losing his strength. Kono won his first Olympic gold medal in the lightweight division that same year at the Helsinki Summer Games. This began a winning streak that crescendoed at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games when he won the light-heavyweight competition—his final Olympic gold medal.

After his 1964 retirement from a career gilded by 26 world records, along with dozens of championship titles in weightlifting and several in bodybuilding, Kono shared his seasoned expertise throughout the 70s as an Olympic coach. In 1993, Kono was inducted into the Weightlifting Hall of Fame, and to this day, Kono remains the only weightlifter in history to hold world records in four different weight classes.

Happy birthday, Tommy Kono, and thank you for using your strength to lift not just weights, but those around you.

[9A]

4 Jan 2006

Louis Braille's 107th Birthday





Louis Braille was a French educator and inventor of a reading and writing system for use by people who are visually impaired. His system remains virtually unchanged to this day, and is known worldwide simply as braille.

Braille was blinded at the age of three in one eye as a result of an accident with a stitching awl in his father's harness making shop. Consequently, an infection set in and spread to both eyes, resulting in total blindness. At that time there were not many resources in place for the blind but nevertheless, he excelled in his education and received a scholarship to France's Royal Institute for Blind Youth. While still a student there, he began developing a system of tactile code that could allow blind people to read and write quickly and efficiently. Inspired by the system invented by Charles Barbier, Braille constructed a new method that was more compact and lent itself to a range of uses, including music. He presented his work to his peers for the first time in 1824.

In adulthood, Louis Braille served as a professor at the Institute and had an avocation as a musician, but he largely spent the remainder of his life refining and extending his system. It went unused by most educators for many years after his death, but posterity has recognized braille as a revolutionary invention, and it has been adapted for use in languages worldwide.


Musical adaptation

The system was soon extended to include braille musical notation. Passionate about his own music, Braille took meticulous care in its planning to ensure that the musical code would be "flexible enough to meet the unique requirements of any instrument". In 1829, he published the first book about his system, Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them. Ironically this book was first printed by the raised letter method of the Haüy system.

[9A]

4 January 2010

Sir Isaac Newton's 367th Birthday






Early Google animation in its Doodle


Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author [described in his time as a "natural philosopher"] who is widely recognised as one of the greatest mathematicians and most influential scientists of all time. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica [Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy], first published in 1687, established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing infinitesimal calculus.

In Principia, Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint until it was superseded by the theory of relativity.

Newton used his mathematical description of gravity to derive Kepler's laws of planetary motion, account for tides, the trajectories of comets, the precession of the equinoxes and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about the Solar System's heliocentricity. He demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton's inference that the Earth is an oblate spheroid was later confirmed by the geodetic measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, convincing most European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems.

[9A]

13 Mar 2006

Percival Lowell's 151st Birthday







Percival Lawrence Lowell was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. He founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death.

[9A]

13 March 2011

National Thai Elephant Day 2011








On 26 May 1998, the Thai government declared the 13th of March to annually be the Thai National Elephant Day or Chang Thai Day. The observance was suggested by the Asian Elephant Foundation of Thailand and submitted to the Coordinating Subcommittee for the Conservation of Thai Elephants. The date was chosen because the Royal Forest Department designated the white elephant as the national animal of Thailand on 13 March 1963

[9A]

13 March 2012

Mohammed Abdel Wahab's 110th Birthday



Mohamed Abdel Wahab was a prominent 20th-century Egyptian singer, actor, and composer. He's best known for his Romantic and Egyptian patriotic songs.

He was known for his Egyptian nationalist and revolutionary songs like "Ya Masr tam El-Hanna" [Oh Egypt, happiness is here], "Hay Ala El-Falah" [The call of duty], "El Watan El Akbar", "Masr Nadetna falbena El-nedaa" [Egypt has called us and indeed we answered the call], "Oulo le Masr" [Tell Egypt], "Hob El-watan Fard Alyi", "Sout El-Gamaheer", "Ya Nessmet El-Horria" [The breeze of Freedom], "Sawae'd men Beladi".

He also contributed and composed the national anthems of Tunisia, "Humat al-Hima", The United Arab Emirates, "Īsiy Bilādī", and "Libya" which was from 1951 to 1969 and again since 2011.

[9A]

16 Mar 2012

Cesar Vallejo's 120th Birthday





César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. Although he published only two books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. He was always a step ahead of literary currents, and each of his books was distinct from the others, and, in its own sense, revolutionary. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante". The late British poet, critic and biographer Martin Seymour-Smith, a leading authority on world literature, called Vallejo "the greatest twentieth-century poet in any language." He was a member of the intellectual community called North Group formed in the Peruvian north coastal city of Trujillo.

[9A]

12 Dec 2017

Kenya Independence Day 2017





Kenyans across the world have double the reason to celebrate December 12th.

On this day in 1963, Kenya became an independent country. Exactly one year later, it was admitted into the Commonwealth as a republic or Jamhuri [Swahili for ‘republic’]. For this reason, December 12th is known as Independence Day and also as Jamhuri Day.

Celebrations traditionally include a presidential speech at Nyayo Stadium in the capital city of Nairobi, in addition to parades and dances showcasing the country’s unique culture. Kenyans at home and abroad dress in colorful kikoys and kitenges, and feast on ugali [a popular cornmeal dish] and irio [a homey mash of potatoes and peas].

Today’s Doodle depicts the majestic Mount Kenya against the colors of the nation’s flag, which itself tells the story of Kenya’s journey to freedom. Black, red and green, along with the shield and spears of the Maasai warrior, represent the people, their fight for independence, and the country’s vast natural resources. Together, the mountain and the flag symbolize Kenya’s strength and resilience on this important day.

Hongera Kenya! Happy Independence Day!

[9A]

16 Dec 2017

Kazakhstan Republic Day 2017




For more than a thousand years, nomadic tribes on horseback wandered the expansive steppes and towering peaks of Kazakhstan. In fact, one possible origin for the name Kazakh is the Turkish word qaz, “to wander.”

Today, the country remains mostly wide open spaces. Golden eagles, important to traditional Kazakh culture and a symbol of national pride, wheel overhead against a bright blue sky. They make their nests on the craggy cliffs of the Alatau and other mountain ranges, as depicted in today’s Doodle.

Kazakhstan declared independence from the Soviet Union on December 16th, 1991, starting a new chapter in its long history. Anniversary celebrations typically include food, fireworks, and festive clothing. Fancy chapans, or long robes, are sewn with dazzling colors and intricate gold embroidery. Traditional music is also a must-have, as an integral part of Kazakhstan’s cultural heritage. Listeners might pick out the dombra and kobyz, amongst other instruments.

Happy Republic Day, Kazakhstan!

[9A]

1 May 2019

Celebrating Ruth Asawa




“Sculpture is like farming. If you just keep at it, you can get quite a lot done.”


-Ruth Asawa


In honor of Asian-American Pacific Islander month in the US, today’s Doodle celebrates Ruth Asawa, the acclaimed Japanese-American artist and educator who overcame great adversity throughout her journey, ultimately exhibiting her intricate wire sculptures and works on paper in museums around the world.

Born in 1926, Asawa’s family made a living as farmers until World War II, when they were sent to the US government internment camps for the Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. There, Asawa pursued her interest in art, getting lessons from fellow camp inmates. Following sixteen months of internment, Asawa received a scholarship to Milwaukee State Teachers College, where she studied to become an art teacher. Three years later, she was prevented from doing her student teaching because of her Japanese heritage. Undeterred, she transferred to the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina. It was there that she blossomed as an artist and met the architect Albert Lanier, whom she would marry and start a family with, raising six children together.

Adapting methods she learned in Mexico, where people made wire baskets for domestic use, Asawa used similar techniques to create the looped wire sculptures she became known for. Asked to name her inspirations, she spoke of “plants, the spiral shell of a snail, seeing light through insect wings, watching spiders repair their webs in the early morning, and seeing the sun through the droplets of water suspended from the tips of pine needles while watering my garden.”

While some critics dismissed her art as “feminine handiwork” early on, Asawa’s reputation has grown over time. Her legacy lives on in public commissions in California as well as museums and galleries around the globe. She designed the Japanese-American Internment Memorial Sculpture in San Jose in 1994 as well as SF State University’s Garden of Remembrance, which includes boulders from ten internment camps.


Asawa also advocated for arts education for kids, including the creation of a public arts high school that was later renamed the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts. Since 1982, the city of San Francisco has also declared February 12 to be Ruth Asawa Day—a fitting tribute to a woman who lived according to her belief that “art will make people better.”

[9A]

5 May 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.

[9A]

5 May 2015

Nellie Bly's 151st Birthday



Animation: Katy Wu // Music: "Nellie" by Karen O

In 1880, the Pittsburgh Dispatch published an article titled "What Girls Are Good For.” In dismissive terms, the column’s author wrote that women shouldn't be allowed to work because their place was at home.

Days later, a pseudonymous rebuttal appeared in the paper. The response, by a 16-year-old girl whose real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran, argued how important it was for women to be independent and self-reliant. Within a decade, the author of that response would become known worldwide as Nellie Bly: a hard-hitting young journalist who went undercover at a lunatic asylum and traveled around the world in a record-breaking 72 days.

Throughout her life and career, Nellie Bly spoke up for the underprivileged, the helpless and minorities, and defied society’s expectations for women. We love her adventurous spirit, and we share her belief that women can do anything and be anything they want [we like to think if she were around today she’d be a fellow fan of trailblazing women like Ada, Anita and Ann]. So when it came time to honor Nellie with a Doodle, we wanted to make it special. Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs wrote, composed and recorded an original song about Nellie, and Katy Wu, the artist who created this doodle, created an animation set to Karen O’s music celebrating this intrepid investigative reporter.

Nellie was born on May 5, 1864 in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pa. After her response was published in the Dispatch in 1880, the editor, George Madden, tracked her down and hired her as a reporter. At the time, women reporters commonly used pen names; hers came from a song by fellow Pittsburgher Stephen Foster. She spent several years at the paper before moving to New York for a job at New York World, which was owned by Joseph Pulitzer. In 1887, she went undercover at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island to write an exposé about the conditions there. Her resulting book, “Ten Days in a Mad-House,” made her famous.

But Nellie is best known for her trip around the world. Inspired by Phileas Fogg, the hero of Jules Verne’s novel, “Around the World in 80 Days,” Nellie set sail from New York in November 1889 determined to beat Fogg’s time. Traveling by steamships and sailboats, she sent dispatches back to her newspaper as she circled the globe. Instead of sitting idly and just observing, she was always a part of the action and conversation, despite the fact that public spaces were typically reserved for men at the time.

When creating the Doodle, we took inspiration from Karen O’s lyrics and Nellie’s journey around the globe. Throughout the video, Katy used newspaper as a unifying theme—with paper tearing, folding and crumpling as the story goes along. And though the video is mostly black and white, she added some color to represent Nellie's energy and vibrancy.

Back in the 19th century, Nellie fearlessly showed a generation of people “what girls are good for.” We’re excited to tell her story in today’s Doodle—and we hope Nellie inspires women and girls everywhere to follow in her footsteps and show the world what they can do.

Liat Ben-Rafael, Program Manager, Google Doodles

[9A]

13 May 2015

Inge Lehmann’s 127th Birthday





Editor’s note: News of a second major earthquake within a short time in Nepal today provides a sad context to this post -- and reminds us of the importance of science in predicting earthquakes so that more lives can be saved.


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At the turn of the twentieth century, a teenager in Østerbro, Denmark felt the ground move beneath her feet. It was her first earthquake, but it wouldn’t be her last.

More than two decades of study and observation later, Inge Lehmann’s work sent shockwaves through the scientific community. By observing earthquakes, she discovered the earth has both inner and outer cores. Her work has withstood the test of time. In fact, it’s still the foundation for seismological science today.

Inge used deduction and evidence to discover something unseeable. Today’s Doodle sheds light on her powerful but invisible discovery. Doodler Kevin Laughlin helps us experience the gift Inge illuminated for the world by revealing it as a glowing orb. Not all of his early drafts looked the same, but the earth’s inner core glowed at the center of each.

Pioneers like Inge make this world a better place by helping us understand it from the inside out. But Lehmann’s legacy isn’t just scientific. Having been educated at a very young age in a Copenhagen school that treated female and male students as absolute equals, she was a strong proponent of gender equality. Her pioneering spirit is an inspiration to us as we continue to do more on diversity.

[9A]

19 May 2015

45th Anniversary of the creation of Barbapapa




"Clickety Click—Barba Trick”


If you recognize today's doodle, then you probably know what that sound is: Barbapapa is changing forms again! For those of us who are new to the magic of this wonderful family of technicolor shapes, Barbapapa is a series of children's books, started in Paris, France 45 years ago on a beautiful day in May. The authors were a French-American couple, Annette Tison and Talus Taylor.

The pair came up with the concept for these kooky characters at the Luxembourg Gardens when Taylor, a non-french-speaker, overhead a nearby child asking for "baa baa paa paa." Confused, Taylor asked his wife, Annette what the child meant. She explained that barbe à papa, is literally translated as "father's beard," but also means cotton candy. Later, inspired by the adorable jumble of sounds and the image of a pink-candy-floss beardy-fellow, the couple sketched out a rotund character on a napkin: Barbapapa was born.

Barbapapa is a friendly and caring creature, always ready to help and use his powers of shapeshifting to benefit others. His adventures lead him to become a town hero and meet a lovely she-barba, a lady in black named Barbamama. In the doodle you can see Barbapapa and Barbamama proudly standing behind their children. Each of the children have a special talent or interest:

Barbabelle, the beauty queen [purple]

Barbabravo, an athlete and mystery buff [red]

Barbalib, an academic [orange]

Barbabright, a scientist [blue]

Barbabeau, an artist [black and furry]

Barbalala, a musician [green]

Barbazoo, a nature lover [yellow]


Today's doodle is important not just because Barbapapa has brought joy to families all over the world. We also want to memorialize Talus Taylor, who passed away this year. The beautiful books he created with his wife, Annette have been translated into over 30 languages worldwide, and transformed into comics and a television series, delighting us all with reminders of family, love, kindness and a deep respect for the environment.


Barbapapa © 2015 Alice Taylor & Thomas Taylor All Rights Reserved

[9A]

2 Sept 2020

Vietnam National Day 2020






Today’s Doodle commemorates Vietnam’s National Day in celebration of the date in 1945 when the Southeast Asian nation declared its independence from France.

Featured in today’s Doodle artwork is an idyllic rowboating scene full of traditional Vietnamese symbolism. The man paddling is depicted wearing an iconic Nón Lá, a conical leaf hat that originated thousands of years ago and has since become synonymous with the nation’s culture. Opposite of the man steering the boat, a woman is dressed in the elegant national costume of Vietnam: the Áo Dài, which embodies the pride of the Vietnamese people.

The two are encircled by lily pads and lotus flowers, typical flora found throughout Vietnam’s lakes and ponds. The national flower of Vietnam, the lotus submerges under muddy water at night and resurfaces the next morning. Upon reaching the new dawn’s sunlight, it blooms untarnished by the surrounding mud—even during the most turbulent of times. This act of perseverance demonstrates why many in the country view the lotus blossom as a symbol of strength and optimism.

Not only does this colorful flower brighten the Vietnamese landscape, but it is also deeply ingrained in the nation’s cultural identity, from its towering architecture to its unique cuisine. The lotus’ distinctive shape has found its way into the design of multiple Vietnamese pagodas, temples, and communal houses since the Ly and Tran dynasties, like the prominent One Pillar Pagoda in Hanoi. In addition to its enduring symbolic value, the flower is used to make lotus tea, an essential part of many Vietnamese celebrations.

Happy National Day, Vietnam!

[9A]

3 Oct 2019

German Reunification Day 2019







Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Hamburg-based guest artist Lisa Tegtmeier, celebrates the Tag der Deutschen Einheit, or German Reunification Day. A 1990 treaty known as the Einigungsvertrag designated October 3rd as the day when the separate nations of East and West Germany were transformed into one state, the Federal Republic of Germany, ending almost forty years of division. The anniversary of this treaty is now a national holiday commemorating the spirit of unity in Germany. As Germany prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, this holiday has assumed even greater importance.

On German Reunification Day, an open-air fair takes place near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, featuring stage shows, food stalls, games, and other family-friendly activities. Each year one of Germany’s 16 states hosts a Bürgerfest, or citizens’ festival. This year is Schleswig-Holstein’s turn, and the northwestern state has chosen the theme Mut verbindet, or “courage connects.” To mark the occasion, the state is encouraging each of Germany’s 82 million citizens to plant a tree, envisioning a new forest in honor of German unity.

Glücklich Tag der Deutschen Einheit!

[9A]

29 October 2012

Bob Ross' 70th Birthday






For more than a decade, Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting welcomed viewers into his minimalist tv studio for inspiration and painting tips.

In less time than it takes to get pizza delivered, Bob Ross would paint a sweeping landscape of mountains, lakes, and, of course, happy little trees, clouds, and bushes.

A child when I first discovered the PBS program, it was the antithesis of the vacuous shows and commercials I voraciously consumed on other channels.

The man’s seemingly magical abilities with a brush were mesmerizing – he made painting look so easy! His calm demeanor and relentless optimism put me at ease. And his kind assurances that anyone could do what he did if they believe it and practiced were truly encouraging. [[In fact, it was when I got a Bob Ross paint kit for Christmas at age 14 that I realized that I was already on my way to becoming an artist!)

I’ve since learned that painting isn’t easy. But I’m practicing, and it is a joy.
Thank you, Bob Ross!

Posted by Ryan Germick, Doodle Team Lead

[9A]

1 Nov 2012

L.S. Lowry's 125th Birthday





Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist. His drawings and paintings depict Pendlebury, Lancashire, where he lived and worked for more than 40 years, Salford and its vicinity.

Lowry is famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century. He developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled with human figures, often referred to as "matchstick men". He painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits and the unpublished "marionette" works, which were only found after his death.

His use of stylised figures, which cast no shadows, and lack of weather effects in many of his landscapes led critics to label him a naïve "Sunday painter".

Lowry holds the record for rejecting British honours [five], including a knighthood [1968]. A collection of his work is on display in The Lowry, a purpose-built art gallery on Salford Quays. On 26 June 2013, a major retrospective opened at the Tate Britain in London, his first at the gallery; in 2014 his first solo exhibition outside the UK was held in Nanjing, China.

[9A]

1 November 2014

86th anniversary of the first radio calisthenics broadcast in Japan







Ichi, ni, san, shi! In celebration of the Japanese national tradition of rajio taisō, or Radio Calisthenics, the letters of the Google logo came together to teach users how to do these simple, healthy exercises the correct way.

It is commonplace for doodles to undergo several permutations during the concept phase. The celebration for the 86th anniversary of the first radio calisthenics broadcast is no exception!



Animation could have been used to great effect. The above illustration is an early concept exploring the idea of anthropomorphized letters performing an exercise routine.

However, we wanted to pay homage to the long tradition of uniform composition and staging set forth by NHK [Japan’s national broadcasting station], so the idea of using real ‘calisthenists’ in a live-action video doodle seemed not only appropriate, but relevant. We began by referencing their instructional calisthenics videos as a visual starting point.

What better way to integrate the logo, than to show the letters themselves learn how to do radio calisthenics! Having actors perform the moves dressed as Google letters seemed like the perfect integration of whimsy and cultural relevance.

With that in mind, I set to work designing the costumes to be donned by the performers.

Then, a team of six professional actors were cast, one for each of the Google letters! We also worked with two professional calisthenics assistants from the official radio calisthenics TV program to help train the actors.

The narration of calisthenics broadcasts are key, and a professional voice-over actor was recorded to add an extra touch.

After a long day of calisthenics, our actors pose for a group photo, with their own rendition of the letters, sans-costume.

Posted by Kevin Laughlin, Doodler

[9A]

1 November 2014

Mariquita Sanchez de Thompson's 228th Birthday


Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson y de Mendeville, also known simply as Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson, was a patriot from Buenos Aires and one of its leading salonnières, whose tertulias gathered many of the leading personalities of her time. She is widely remembered in the Argentine historical tradition because the Argentine National Anthem was sung for the first time in her home, on May 14, 1813.

One of the first politically outspoken Argentine women, Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson has been considered the most active female figure in the revolutionary process.

[9A]

1 November 2017

Hannah Höch’s 128th Birthday





If a picture is worth a thousand words, Hannah Höch’s pioneering photomontages speak volumes about gender stereotypes and politics, especially during the Weimar Republic era.

Born on this day in 1889, in Gotha, Thuringia, Germany, Höch was the only female member of the Berlin Dada movement, an avant-garde band of artists that rejected the conventional German Expressionist aesthetic of the moment. As a student, Höch studied applied arts, including glass design, painting, and graphic design. Her romantic involvement with Austrian artist Raoul Hausmann introduced her to the inner circle of Dada artists, inspiring her later photomontage [or fotomontage] collage work.

Höch showed her most famous photomontage, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, at the First International Dada Fair in 1920. Juxtaposing fragmented images culled from newspapers and magazines, including bits and pieces of movie star Pola Negri, philosopher Karl Marx, and a map of European countries where women could vote, this large-scale piece conveyed her stance on women’s roles in society, art-world misogyny, and current affairs. Later works further revealed Höch’s incisive perspective as a 1920s New Woman who lived by her own rules.

Created by Berlin-based collage artist Patrick Bremer, today’s Doodle uses photomontage imagery and the feeling of brushstrokes to capture Höch’s likeness as one of her own collage characters. “Höch and many other Dadaists have long been an influence in my work, as I expect she is to most artists working in collage,” says Bremer. “Taking on this project meant delving back into her work and visiting it in person at the Berlinische Gallery, and it has been fascinating to surround myself with her unique dada vision of the world.”

Happy birthday, Hannah Höch!

[9A]

6 Nov 2017

Jackie Forster’s 91st Birthday





It is quite an achievement to leave a lasting legacy. Jackie Forster is known for two: first, for her charismatic TV news reporting; second, for her trailblazing gay rights activism.

Born on this day in 1926, Jackie launched her famed career first in acting, appearing in various West End productions and films in the 1940s. She moved to television news under her maiden name, Jackie Mackenzie, and became a favorite of producers and the public with her sharp, lively, and quirky delivery. Her coverage of the wedding of Prince Rainier to Princess Grace in 1956 won her the Prix d’Italia.

Thirteen years later, Jackie made history by publicly coming out as gay, paving the way for many other women of the time. Soon after, she appeared on a host of television programs, speaking openly about her identity and helping viewers find the strength to accept themselves. She walked proudly in the first gay rights march in the UK and co-founded Sappho, an English lesbian magazine and social club.

Today’s Doodle by London-based illustrator Hannah Warren celebrates 91 years of Forster’s passion and pioneering spirit.

[9A]

14 Nov 2019

321st Anniversary of the First Lighting of Eddystone Lighthouse




Situated near the mouth of the English channel, the Eddystone reef is among the world’s most hazardous stretches of water, infamously known for causing numerous shipwrecks over the years. Today’s Doodle celebrates the first lighting of Eddystone Lighthouse, the first lighthouse built on those infamous rocks on this day in 1698.

It was English merchant Henry Winstanley, who’d invested in ships that sunk at Eddystone, who accepted the daunting challenge of building a much-needed lighthouse essentially in the wide open sea, 14 miles from the coast of Plymouth.

Work began in 1696 but was delayed when a French vessel arrived and took Winstanley prisoner. Although England and France were at war, the French king Louis XIV released Winstanley, saying that “France was at war with England, not with humanity." It was clear that the importance of the lighthouse transcended international conflicts.

Rising some 80 feet above the rock, the Eddystone Lighthouse was surmounted by a weather vane and domed cupola containing 60 candles and a “great hanging lamp” to warn navigators to steer clear of danger. Requiring extensive repairs after withstanding its first punishing North Atlantic winter, the lighthouse was substantially redesigned before its official completion in 1699.

Although Winstanley believed that the lighthouse could withstand "the greatest storm that ever was," it was destroyed during the historic Great Storm of 1703. Nevertheless, Winstanley had proved it was not just necessary but also possible and vitally important to build a lighthouse on this treacherous site, despite the extreme difficulties and dangers. A series of lighthouses have been erected in the same place since then, all of them safeguarding the lives of maritime travelers for more than three centuries.

[9A]

14 November 2016

Sir Frederick Banting’s 125th Birthday





For more than 3,000 years, diabetes was considered a mystery in the medical field. While the symptoms were well recognized, there was no clear path to treatment outside of changing diet which produced inconsistent results.

Frederick Banting, a scientist at the University of Toronto changed all that in the early 1920's when he and partner Charles Best discovered how to isolate and extract insulin —a naturally produced hormone, for use on humans to treat diabetes.

In 1923, Banting was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in medicine for his work in insulin treatment, which had quickly become the standard. This was thanks in part to him releasing the rights for pharmaceutical companies to manufacture insulin royalty-free. In fact, Banting was offered $1 million and royalties for his formula—but turned it down and chose to never profit from his research.

In observance of what would be his 125th birthday, we celebrate Frederick Banting and his contribution to saving countless lives across the world.