Google doodles

[9A]

28 September 2020

Celebrating Cải Lương






Today’s Doodle celebrates cải lương, a style of modern South Vietnamese folk opera, on the observance of Vietnam Stage Day, an annual celebration of the rich history of theater in the country. A blend of traditional and contemporary influences, cải lương combines opera with spoken drama to create a vibrant expression of Vietnamese culture and identity.

Loosely translated to “reformed theater,” the form evolved from the traditional Vietnamese opera called hát bội in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam at the turn of the 20th century. Accompanied by an orchestra containing traditional Vietnamese instruments like the đàn tranh [“six-string zither”], cải lương brings to life a wide range of stories, from ancient legends of monarchs and warriors to explorations of modern Vietnamese social themes. While the subject material may vary, one common element is the signature melancholic song structure called vọng cổ, which translates to “nostalgia for the past.”


One of the most iconic cải lương productions is “Tiếng Trống Mê Linh,” which translates roughly to “The Drum Sound of Mê Linh.” The historical play tells the true story of Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị, two sisters who helped lead the fight for Vietnamese independence from the Chinese Han Dynasty in the 1st century. A classic of the artform, “Tiếng Trống Mê Linh” has been staged by many of Vietnam’s top cải lương performers since it first debuted in 1977.

[9A]

28 September 2011

Narciso Monturiol's 192nd Birthday



Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol was a Spanish inventor, artist and engineer born in Figueres, Girona, Catalonia, Spain. He was the inventor of the first air-independent and combustion-engine-driven submarine.

[9A]

28 September 2009

Confucius' Birthday - Multiple Countries




Confucius was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who was traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Widely considered one of the most important and influential individuals in human history, Confucius's teachings and philosophy formed the basis of East Asian culture and society, and continue to remain influential across China and East Asia today.

His philosophical teachings, called Confucianism, emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, kindness, and sincerity. Confucianism was part of the Chinese social fabric and way of life; to Confucians, everyday life was the arena of religion. His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era, only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction in the new government. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Confucianism developed into a system known in the West as Neo-Confucianism, and later as New Confucianism.

Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese classic texts, including all of the Five Classics, but modern scholars are cautious of attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself. Aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death.

Confucius's principles have commonality with Chinese tradition and belief. With filial piety, he championed strong family loyalty, ancestor veneration, and respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives, recommending family as a basis for ideal government. He espoused the well-known principle "Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself", the Golden Rule.

[9A]

7 Oct 2009
Invention of the Bar Code


A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines.

[9A]

7 October 2012

Niels Bohr's 127th Birthday





Our love for all that is nerdy in all shapes and sizes shines through in our doodle for Neils Bohr. Some of the biggest contributions to science aren't big at all, sometimes they're as small as an atom.

A Danish physicist, Bohr earned a Nobel prize in 1975 for his work. Amongst his studies on the shell model of the atom, the correspondence principle, and the liquid drop model of the atomic nucleus, Bohr's more recognizable work is that which bares his own name: the Bohr model. This theory poses that the electrons of the atom travel in orbits around its nucleus. The doodle is depiction of the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, which, though simple, is still the introduction of quantum mechanics for many students.

[9A]

8 Nov 2012

Bram Stoker's 165th Birthday





Bram Stoker created a legendary villain when he penned his 19th century story Dracula. Few other characters have haunted popular culture for generations as much as the eponymous Count Dracula, whose fanged face has long been a staple of haunted houses and Halloween costumes. He's also featured in at least 200 feature films since the dawn of cinema, played by such acclaimed actors as Bela Lugosi in 1931 and Gary Oldman in 1992.

An epistolary novel, Dracula is innovative in that it is a story told through diary entries, transcribed phonograph recordings, dictated essays, scholarly articles, records, reciepts, and news stories. In this way, Stoker paints a vivid picture not only of the horror of Dracula's evil power, but of the fascinating Victorian England which he terrorized.

When I set out to create this doodle, I immersed myself in the source material by reading the thoroughly well-documented annotated edition by Leslie S. Klinger. Klinger's notes served to further contextualize the story, which capitalizes on the strict Victorian moral code to spin a tale that is all the more terrifiying for how thoroughly it deviated from contemporary mores.

I wanted to give a nod to each of the major characters in the story, as it is their collective observations which shape the saga. I invite our users to see if they can identify 7 protagonists, 4 antagonists, and 1 who falls somewhere in-between. For the visual style, I was very much influenced by the works of Edward Gorey and Aubrey Beardsley, whose artwork embodied the debauched Gothic horror that Stoker so skillfully conveyed in his work.

Posted by Sophia Foster-Dimino, Doodler

[9A]

14 Nov 2012

Amadeu de Souza-Cardoso's 125th Birthday





Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso [14 November 1887 – 25 October 1918] 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]

19 Nov 2014

Ofra Haza's 57th Birthday




Our homepage in Israel features a portrait of singer Ofra Haza for her 57th birthday. Popular in both her homeland and countries across the Middle East, Haza gained wider international recognition after she won second place in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest.

[9A]

19 November 2013

Helena Zmatlíková's 90th Birthday






Helena Zmatlíková [19 November 1923, Prague – 4 April 2005, Prague] was a Czech illustrator, especially of children's books. For her works she received numerous awards. She also participated in the 1958 World Exhibition.

[9A]

19 November 2011

Mikhail Lomonosov's 300th Birthday








Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of mass in chemical reactions. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Founder of modern geology Lomonosov was also a poet and influenced the formation of the modern Russian literary language.

[9A]

23 Nov 2011

60th Anniversary of Stanislaw Lem's First Publication









See the interactive version here!

Stanisław Lem was one of the biggest and most influential science-fiction writers in history; his books were translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Even if you haven't read Lem, you might have watched Solaris, a film based on one of his books.

This year would be Lem's 90th birthday, and today is the 60th anniversary of the publication of his first book, The Astronauts. We decided to prepare a really special Google doodle for this occasion.

Today's doodle was inspired by The Cyberiad, a series of stories about two brilliant “constructors,” Trurl and Klapaucjusz. “Lem’s stories can be somber, but The Cyberiad is comparatively lighthearted and upbeat, though it still addresses the philosophical themes found in the rest of his writing,” says Sophia Foster-Dimino, the doodle’s illustrator. “The distinctive visual style is inspired by the work of famous Polish illustrator, Daniel Mróz, whose drawings accompanied many of the editions of the book.”

This is also a doodle you can actually play. “All of Lem’s universes are rich and believable. We spent a lot of time figuring out how to pay homage to it, and quickly decided to build a small game. But the game is never quite the same each time you play it – as we felt befitted the imperfect, arbitrarily futuristic world of The Cyberiad,” says Marcin Wichary, who originally proposed the doodle and was in charge of bringing it to life. “One of the many easter eggs is that we included one item drawn by Lem himself. It’s up to you to figure out which one is it.”


This doodle is also special in terms of creative ideas and technology used in its conception. “We were looking at Mróz’s illustrations, and how they appeared on the page. We came up with the idea to give the doodle the same proportions – there’s more room to show the universe, and hopefully more of an impact.” says Sophia. Marcin agrees: “We wanted our tribute to feel unique, big, and alive. We used some elements of HTML5 – for example <canvas> for faster graphics, Web Storage to remember whether you played the game, or touch support – but also decided not to use some others. For example, CSS3 transformations gave us poor visual fidelity that we didn’t feel respected Sophia’s intricate drawings – so we are rotating some images the old-fashioned way.”

Today’s doodle was done in collaboration with Lem’s estate and Łucja Mróz-Raynoch, the daughter of Daniel Mróz. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do, that it will bring back some great memories to Stanisław Lem readers, and inspire the rest of you to check out The Cyberiad and other books!

[9A]

2 December 2015

Park Kyung-ni’s 89th Birthday




Pak Kyongni was a prominent South Korean novelist.She was born in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, and later lived in Wonju Gangwon Province. Pak made her literary debut in 1955, with Gyesan. She is, however, most well known for her 16-volume story Toji [토지, The Land], an epic saga set on the turbulent history of Korea during 19th and 20th century. It was later adapted into a movie, a television series and an opera.

[9A]

31 October 2019

Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s 117th Birthday






“What now, José?” asked Brazilian writer Carlos Drummond de Andrade in a popular poem from his 1942 anthology, Poesias. Today’s Doodle celebrates an individual whom many consider one of the greatest poets in modern Brazilian literature. Born in the mining town of Itabira on this day in 1902, Drummond composed poems that broke formal rules in verse and expressed the stresses of modern life. He also worked as a literary critic and journalist, writing short semi-fictional newspaper essays, known as crônicas, about the lives of ordinary people, including children and the poor.

After co-founding the literary journal A Revista in 1925, Drummond spent years on his poetry collection Alguma Poesia, emerging as a leading figure in Brazilian modernism. Having earned his degree in pharmacy, he went on to work for Brazil’s Ministry of Education as well as the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service of Brazil. Throughout his career, he published over a dozen volumes of poetry and a handful of collections of crônicas. His 1986 collection Traveling in the Family: Selected Poems includes English translations by prominent poets Elizabeth Bishop and Mark Strand.

Drummond has received many awards—including the Brazilian Union of Writers Prize—and has become a fixture of Brazilian popular culture. His “Canção Amiga” [“Friendly Song”] was printed on Brazilian currency, and a statue of the poet stands near the ocean in Rio de Janeiro.

[9A]

31 October 2011

Parkes Observatory's 50th Anniversary





The Parkes Observatory [also known as "The Dish"] is a radio telescope observatory, located 20 kilometres [12 mi] north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. It was one of several radio antennae used to receive live television images of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Its scientific contributions over the decades led the ABC to describe it as "the most successful scientific instrument ever built in Australia" after 50 years of operation.

[9A]

24 April 2012

Gideon Sundback's 132nd Birthday




Few have heard of Swedish-American inventor Gideon Sundback, though most people use one of his inventions every day. I certainly hadn't heard of him before I began work on this doodle celebrating his work on the zipper, which he filed a patent for in 1914.

Such an iconic piece of fabric fastening needs little introduction, so I collaborated with doodle engineer Kris Hom to develop an interactive zipper on the homepage which zips opens to reveal search results for "Gideon Sundback."

Happy zipping!


Posted by Sophia Foster-Dimino, Doodler

[9A]

24 April 2003

Celebrating DNA's 50th Anniversary




Deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix carrying genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of all known organisms and many viruses. DNA and ribonucleic acid [RNA] are nucleic acids. Alongside proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates [polysaccharides], nucleic acids are one of the four major types of macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life.

[9A]

31 October 2010

Birthday of Katsushika Hokusai





Katsushika Hokusai, [葛飾 北斎, c. 31 October 1760 – 10 May 1849] known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Hokusai is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Hokusai created the monumental Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji both as a response to a domestic travel boom in Japan and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Fine Wind, Clear Morning, that secured his fame both in Japan and overseas. While Hokusai's work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition.

Hokusai's work transformed the ukiyo-e artform from a style of portraiture largely focused on courtesans and actors into a much broader style of art that focused on landscapes, plants, and animals. Hokusai worked in various fields besides woodblock prints, such as painting and producing designs for book illustrations, including his own educational Hokusai Manga, which consists of thousands of images of every subject imaginable over fifteen volumes. Starting as a young child, he continued working and improving his style until his death, aged 88. In a long and successful career, he produced over 30,000 paintings, sketches, woodblock prints, and images for picture books in total. Innovative in his compositions and exceptional in his drawing technique, Hokusai is considered one of the greatest masters in the history of art.

[9A]

2 Nov 2010

Melbourne Cup 2010






The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most famous annual Thoroughbred horse race. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races. The event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation".

The Melbourne Cup has a long tradition, with the first race held in 1861. It was originally over two miles but was shortened to 3,200 metres [1.988 mi] in 1972 when Australia adopted the metric system. This reduced the distance by 18.688 metres [61.312 ft], and Rain Lover's 1968 race record of 3:19.1 was accordingly adjusted to 3:17.9. The present record holder is the 1990 winner Kingston Rule with a time of 3:16.3.

[9A]

2 November 2011

Taikan Yokoyama's 143th Birthday




Yokoyama Taikan was the art-name of a major figure in pre-World War II Japanese painting. He is notable for helping create the Japanese painting technique of Nihonga.

[9A]

2 November 2018

Day of the Dead 2018






Day of the Dead [or El Día de los Muertos] is an ancient holiday dating back thousands of years to the Aztec Empire. In its essence, it's a joyous occasion that’s about dispelling fear and embracing the cycle of life.

Families prepare for the celebration far in advance, cleaning the house and decorating it with fragrant marigold flowers and intricate tissue-paper cutouts. Playful calacas and calaveras [skeletons and skulls], are usually seen in festive attire, enjoying [after] life to the fullest.

Colorful ofrendas or altars are set up in many homes, surrounded by favorite food and drink, as well as photographs and cherished mementos, plus sweet Pan de Muertos and sugar skulls. Burning candles and incense is also customary to set the mood, evoke the spirit world, and serve as a reminder that death is just another part of life and that human connections will always endure.

Today's Doodle features its own ofrenda, handcrafted by Doodler Nate Swinehart out of clay.


Feliz Día de los Muertos!

[9A]

2 November 2013

Day of the Dead 2013

[9A]

2 November 2012

Day of the Dead 2012

[9A]

20 Nov 2012

Otto von Guericke's 410th Birthday





Otto von Guericke was a German scientist, inventor, and politician. His pioneering scientific work, the development of experimental methods and repeatable demonstrations on the physics of the vacuum, atmospheric pressure, electrostatic repulsion, his advocacy for the reality of "action at a distance" and of "absolute space" were remarkable contributions for the advancement of the Scientific Revolution.

[9A]

20 November 2015

Nadine Gordimer’s 92nd Birthday






Today's Doodle features Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordimer laboring in her study, where she typically worked from early morning into the late afternoon. A dear friend of Nelson Mandela’s and a powerful voice for change in South African politics, Gordimer moved untold thousands with the pathos of her sparse, penetrating narratives.

In a style befitting Gordimer’s prose, Doodler Lydia Nichols exercised restraint by using only three colors, which she has layered to create texture and subtle variation. Gordimer, who attended just one year of university, died in July of last year. She was once asked how she developed such a sophisticated command of the language in the absence of any formal training. “From reading,” she said. “And living, of course.” Today marks her 92nd birthday.

[9A]

20 November 2013

Selma Lagerlöf's 155th Birthday








Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author and teacher. She published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1909. Additionally, she was the first woman to be granted a membership in the Swedish Academy in 1914.

[9A]

3 Dec 2013

Carlos Juan Finlay's 180th Birthday





Carlos Juan Finlay was a Cuban epidemiologist recognized as a pioneer in the research of yellow fever, determining that it was transmitted through mosquitoes Aedes aegypti.

[9A]

6 February 2020

Waitangi Day 2020





Today’s Doodle celebrates New Zealand’s Waitangi Day, a recognition of the signing of the nation’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, on this day in 1840. To commemorate the country’s rich collection of bird fauna, the artwork depicts three of the nation’s endemic birds: the iconic flightless Kiwi in the centre, with the Tūī and the Kererū on either side.

The islands of New Zealand are home to around 168 different native birds, and over half of these species cannot be found anywhere else in the world. With the Tūī, prized by the Māori people for their imitation skills using its two voice boxes, the Kererū [whose unique flying noises are a distinctive sound in New Zealand’s bush] and the Kiwi [the world’s only bird with nostrils at the end of their long bill] New Zealand’s avian community has developed unique characteristics from evolving on the isolated South Pacific island.

Look up into the sky, or down to the ground, and enjoy these wonders of biodiversity.

Happy Waitangi Day, New Zealand!

[9A]

6 Feb 2020

María Teresa Vera's 125th birthday





Today’s Doodle honors the life and work of Cuban singer and guitarist María Teresa Vera, who also composed the nation’s rural folk song style, trova. Known as the Grande Dame of Cuban Music, she is widely regarded as one of the country’s most influential musicians.

Born on this day in 1895 in Guanajay, Cuba, Vera picked up the guitar at a young age after becoming a part of a bohemian community of trova musicians. Known as “troubadours,” the wandering street entertainers taught Vera how to compose trova songs and perform the genre’s poetic lyrical vocals together with the guitar. In 1911, Vera performed her first concert in Havana‘s Politeama Grande theater.

One of the first female voices of trova, Vera formed several successful duos and bands to perform original compositions along with her interpretations of other Cuban styles. Some of her songs became regular features on Havana’s radio stations, and her music helped to clear the path for the rise of popular Cuban music around the world in the 1930s and 40s. Throughout her career, she recorded close to two hundred songs, but those close to her say she could play more than a thousand.

Her lifetime accomplishments in music have a lasting impact and inspired a tribute album, “A María Teresa Vera” [“For María Teresa Vera”], a collection of songs recorded to celebrate her 100th birthday.

[9A]

11 April 2018

K. L. Saigal’s 114th Birthday







K.L. Saigal left an indelible mark on the early days of Indian cinema, establishing himself as one of the first true Bollywood superstars with 36 films spanning three languages over fifteen years. Singing 185 songs over his career, Saigal’s distinct vocal style helped establish his legacy as an inspirational figure for many stars that came after him.

Due to his modest background, as a child Saigal earned his music education informally, singing along with people at a local shrine or at religious ceremonies with his mother. He dropped out of school and held odd jobs as a timekeeper, salesman, and manager, pursuing singing on the side.

His big break came in 1932 when he was cast in three movies by the film studio New Theatres. The very next year, the songs he sang in the film Puran Bhagat [1933] grew wildly popular in India, breaking him to the mainstream. New Theatres churned out Saigal-led hits through 1940, when he moved to Mumbai to work with Ranjit Movietone. After successful movies like Bhukt Surdas [1942] and Tansen [1943], Saigal returned to New Theatres for his final films. His final film Parwana [1947] was released posthumously.

Created by guest artist Vidhya Nagarajan, today’s Doodle celebrates Saigal’s illustrious career with a portrait of the singer doing what he does best.


Happy 114th Birthday, K.L. Saigal!

[9A]

11 April 2017

Jamini Roy’s 130th birthday







Celebrated modernist Jamini Roy is famous for creating bold artworks reimagining traditional South Asian folk art. During his lifetime he was honored with the prestigious Padma Bhushan award, and his works are considered national treasures of India.

Born in 1887, he spent his early artistic career studying at the Government School of Art in Kolkata, and by mid-century was exhibiting his distinctive paintings in London and New York. His simplistic style evolved throughout the years, from post-impressionist to paintings created on woven fabrics and inspired by Bengali tribal art.

On what would be Jamini Roy’s 130th birthday, we celebrate his significant contribution to the global art world with this Doodle homage, featuring one of his popular subjects.

Be sure to check out Jamini Roy’s new exhibit on Google Arts & Culture for an in-depth look at some of his most iconic works, courtesy of the National Gallery of Modern Art.

[9A]

15 Apr 2009

Mimar Sinan's Birthday




Mimar Sinan also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, was the chief Ottoman architect and civil engineer for sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II, and Murad III. He was responsible for the construction of more than 300 major structures and other more modest projects, such as schools. His apprentices would later design the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul and Stari Most in Mostar.

[9A]

15 April 2012

Wilhelm Busch's 180th Birthday






Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day.

Busch drew on the tropes of folk humour as well as a profound knowledge of German literature and art to satirize contemporary life, any kind of piety, Catholicism, Philistinism, religious morality, bigotry, and moral uplift.

His mastery of drawing and verse became deeply influential for future generations of comic artists and vernacular poets. Among many notable influences, The Katzenjammer Kids was inspired by Busch's Max and Moritz. Today, the Wilhelm Busch Prize and the Wilhelm Busch Museum help maintain his legacy. The 175th anniversary of his birth in 2007 was celebrated throughout Germany. Busch remains one of the most influential poets and artists in Western Europe.

[9A]

15 April 2021

Eugène Poubelle’s 190th birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates Eugène Poubelle, the French lawyer, administrator, and diplomat credited with revolutionizing Paris’s waste management system in the late 19th century. Never afraid to get his hands dirty, Poubelle is forever immortalized in the French word for the trash can: la poubelle.

Born in Caen, France on this day in 1831, Eugène René Poubelle earned a law degree and began his career as a professor before transitioning into public service. In 1883, he was appointed prefect of the Seine, and he soon came to the conclusion that Paris needed to clean up its act.

In 1884, Poubelle decreed that Parisian landlords were required to install large, covered receptacles for their tenants’ household trash, and—far ahead of his time—he even mandated three separate bins to facilitate recycling. In 1890, la poubelle was officially inducted into the French dictionary as the term for “garbage can.”

But Poubelle didn’t stop there. Following a severe cholera outbreak in 1892, he also required all buildings to be connected directly to the city’s sewers, another huge step in the name of urban hygiene. Poubelle’s mandates also catalyzed the development of household waste removal vehicles, early versions of which came in the form of horse-drawn carriages. With the advent of the first automobiles, these prototypical garbage trucks evolved into motorized vehicles in 1897; by the dawn of the 20th-century, this sanitation technology cleared the path for garbage collection to become commonplace not just in French urban centers but nationwide.

Thank you, Eugène Poubelle, for refusing to let your visionary ideas be thrown out!

[9A]

15 April 2020

Thank you packaging and delivery workers





As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, people are coming together to help one another now more than ever. We’re launching a Doodle series to recognize and honor many of those on the front lines.

Today, we’d like to say: To all packaging, shipping, and delivery workers, thank you.

[9A]

15 September 2018

Guatemala Independence Day 2018






Guatemala is situated just south of Mexico and boasts volcanoes, rainforests and Mayan ruins, and a multitude of diverse landscapes. Guatemala’s national day falls on the same date as Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador as these countries jointly declared independence from the King of Spain in 1821 in a peaceful exchange of leadership.

Guatemalans celebrate the day by wearing blue and white, the colors of their flag, participating in parades, and carrying freedom torches from town to town, in processionals. There is a single freedom torch which is initially lit in Guatemala’s capital city of Antigua and goes to all five of the Central American countries with linked independence days.

Today’s Doodle references Antigua’s landmark Santa Catalina Arch. Also depicted is the orchid, one of Guatemala’s best-loved flowers. The white nun orchid, one of 1,000 species native to Guatemala, is officially designated as the national flower, symbolizing peace.

Happy Independence Day, Guatemala!

[9A]

15 September 2010

Agatha Christie's 120th Birthday






Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap, which was performed in the West End from 1952 to 2020, as well as six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. Later that year, Witness for the Prosecution received an Edgar Award for best play. In 2013, she was voted the best crime writer and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the best crime novel ever by 600 professional novelists of the Crime Writers' Association. In September 2015, And Then There Were None was named the "World's Favourite Christie" in a vote sponsored by the author's estate. Most of Christie's books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games, and graphic novels. More than 30 feature films are based on her work.

[9A]

15 September 2021

Celebrating Dr. Ildaura Murillo-Rohde





In celebration of U.S. Hispanic Heritage Month, today’s Doodle—illustrated by Riverside, California-based guest artist Loris Lora—honors Panamanian-American nurse and educator Dr. Ildaura Murillo-Rohde. As a foundational figure in the creation of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses [NAHN], Dr. Murillo-Rohde dedicated her life to enhancing the quality of healthcare for underrepresented communities while equipping other Hispanic nurses with the skills to do the same.

Ildaura Murillo was born on September 6, 1920, in Panama into a family of health professionals. In 1945, she immigrated to San Antonio, Texas, where she found that relatively few of the city’s nurses represented the linguistic and ethnic backgrounds of their largely Hispanic patients. Knowing that language barriers and cultural mannerisms often stood in the way of providing patients with the highest quality of care, Murillo-Rohde set out on a lifelong mission to cultivate a nursing workforce that could best serve America’s growing Hispanic community.

After earning her doctorate from New York University in 1971, Dr. Murillo-Rohde took various positions that allowed her to clearly identify the underrepresentation of marginalized groups in the medical community as a national issue. To combat this problem, she helped found the Spanish Speaking/Spanish Surnamed Nurses’ Caucus in 1975—now known as the National Association of Hispanic Nurses [NAHN]—and served as its first president.

Alongside continued work with the NAHN, Dr. Murillo-Rohde promoted cultural awareness as a psychiatric nurse, faculty member, professor, and dean. The American Academy of Nursing honored her numerous achievements with its prestigious fellowship—one of the highest nursing honors in the nation.

Today, the NAHN provides support for Hispanic nurses through various programs, including the Dr. Ildaura Murillo-Rohde Scholarship. It also honors members who have exhibited outstanding achievements in nursing education, research, and practice with the Dr. Ildaura Murillo-Rohde Award for Education Excellence by a Hispanic Registered Nurse.

Thank you for uplifting the next generation of Hispanic healthcare professionals, Dr. Ildaura Murillo-Rohde!

[9A]

15 September 2011

Ismail Yasin's 96th Birthday





Ismail Yassine was an Egyptian actor, known for his comedy films.

After a military regime took over in the 1952 revolution, the conscription narrative was swiftly established. From 1955 to 1959, Ismail Yassin, who had made numerous films with his name in the title, released five films as light propaganda for the army, e.g., Ismail Yassine fil-Geish [Ismail Yassine In the Army] in 1955.

[9A]

15 September 2014

Guatemala Independence Day 2014




We’re having a feast of Latino dishes to mark Independence Day in three different countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala. All three celebrate the holiday on September 15. Viva Centroamérica!

[9A]

13 October 2017

56th Anniversary of 'Traffic Light Man'






What began as a traffic safety measure in 1960s Berlin has become an iconic symbol of the city. Today’s Doodle by guest artist Laura Edelbacher celebrates the 56th anniversary of the Ampelmännchen [which translates to “little traffic light men”] who have guided Berlin’s pedestrians for decades.

On October 13, 1961, traffic psychologist Karl Peglau met with East Berlin’s traffic commission to present his recommendation for reducing accidents involving pedestrians. His research indicated that accidents could better be avoided if pedestrians had their own traffic lights to follow, instead of relying on the same signals used by drivers.

Karl proposed two symbols: a green figure mid-stride signaling it is safe to walk and a red figure with arms outstretched meaning “stop”. He gave the little characters distinguishing traits — including a large hat and pug nose — hoping to prompt an emotional response that would drive the intended pedestrian behavior.

The first traffic light men were installed in 1969 and were so popular they even showed up in children’s cartoons. After the Berlin Wall fell, a group of East Germans called “Rescue the Ampelmännchen” managed to save the symbols after the government attempted to remove them.

Happy 56th anniversary, Ampelmännchen!

[9A]

13 October 2008

Paddington Bear's 50th Birthday




Paddington bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 in the children's book A Bear Called Paddington and has been featured in more than twenty books written by British author Michael Bond and illustrated by Peggy Fortnum and other artists.

The friendly bear from "darkest Peru" – with his old hat, battered suitcase, duffel coat and love of marmalade – has become a classic character from British children's literature. An anthropomorphised bear, Paddington is always polite – addressing people as "Mr", "Mrs" and "Miss", rarely by first names – and kindhearted, though he inflicts hard stares on those who incur his disapproval. He has an endless capacity for innocently getting into trouble, but he is known to "try so hard to get things right." He was discovered in London Paddington station, by the [human] Brown family who adopted him, and thus he gives his full name as "Paddington Brown" [his original Peruvian name being too hard for them to pronounce].

As of June 2016, the Paddington Bear franchise was owned by Vivendi's StudioCanal. Bond, however, continued to own the publishing rights to his series, which was licensed to HarperCollins in April 2017.

Paddington books have been translated into 30 languages across 70 titles and have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. A much loved fictional character in the UK, a Paddington Bear soft toy was chosen by British tunnelers as the first item to pass through to their French counterparts when the two sides of the Channel Tunnel were linked in 1994.[5] Paddington Bear has been adapted for television, films and appeared in commercials. The critically acclaimed and commercially successful films Paddington [2014] and Paddington 2 [2017] were both nominated for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film.


Paddington character



Statue in Leicester Square

[9A]

13 October 2009

150 Years Since Multatuli








Eduard Douwes Dekker, better known by his pen name Multatuli [from Latin multa tulī, "I have suffered much"], was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel Max Havelaar [1860], which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies [today's Indonesia]. He is considered one of the Netherlands' greatest authors.

Douwes Dekker was one of Sigmund Freud's favorite writers; his name heads a list of 'ten good books' that Freud drew up in 1907. Several other writers from different generations were appreciative of Multatuli, like Marx, Anatole France, Hermann Hesse, Willem Elsschot, Thomas and Heinrich Mann, as well as Johanna van Gogh and many the first-wave feminists.

In June 2002, the Dutch Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde [Society of Dutch Literature] proclaimed Multatuli the most important Dutch writer of all time.

The annual Multatuli Prize, a Dutch literary prize, is named in his honor. The literary award Woutertje Pieterse Prijs is named after the character Woutertje Pieterse in Multatuli's De geschiedenis van Woutertje Pieterse.

The Multatuli Museum is located in Amsterdam at Korsjespoortsteeg 20, where Eduard Douwes Dekker was born.

[9A]

13 October 2015

Yps Magazine's 40th anniversary



Forty years ago today, Yps Magazine published its first comic. Or, perhaps more memorably, it was on this day forty years ago that some Germans opened Yps Magazine’s first “gimmick”. The comic itself was replete with tales of mystery, peril, and adventure, but many would agree that the most irresistible surprise was the toy that came with each new edition. They ranged from the simple [spinning tops] to the sophisticated [kits to build functioning radios], and often the slightly bizarre: one common and beloved gimmick was a package of Brine Shrimp eggs that young readers were encouraged to hatch and grow themselves. Today’s Doodle hearkens back to the simpler days of childhood, when the month’s most nagging uncertainty was the prize awaiting young readers beneath Yps Magazine’s plastic cover.

[9A]

14 October 2013

Katherine Mansfield's 125th Birthday






Kathleen Mansfield Murry [née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923] was a prominent modernist writer who was born and brought up in New Zealand. She wrote short stories and poetry under the pen name Katherine Mansfield. When she was 19, she left colonial New Zealand and settled in England, where she became a friend of D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Lady Ottoline Morrell and others in the orbit of the Bloomsbury Group. Mansfield was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in 1917, and she died in France aged 34.

The following high schools in New Zealand have a house named after Mansfield: Whangarei Girls' High School; Rangitoto College, Westlake Girls' High School, and Macleans College in Auckland; Tauranga Girls' College; Wellington Girls' College; Rangiora High School in North Canterbury, New Zealand; Avonside Girls' High School in Christchurch; and Southland Girls' High School in Invercargill. She has also been honoured at Karori Normal School in Wellington, which has a stone monument dedicated to her with a plaque commemorating her work and her time at the school, and at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School [previously Fitzherbert Terrace School] with a painting, and an award in her name.

Her birthplace in Thorndon has been preserved as the Katherine Mansfield House and Garden, and a park is dedicated to her.

A street in Menton, France, where she lived and wrote, is named after her. An award, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship is offered annually to enable a New Zealand writer to work at her former home, the Villa Isola Bella. New Zealand's pre-eminent short story competition is named in her honour.

Mansfield was the subject of a 1973 BBC miniseries A Picture of Katherine Mansfield, starring Vanessa Redgrave. The six-part series included depictions of Mansfield's life and adaptations of her short stories. In 2011, a television biopic titled Bliss was made of her early beginnings as a writer in New Zealand; in this she was played by Kate Elliott.

Archives of Katherine Mansfield material are held in the Turnbull Collection of the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington, with other important holdings at the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, Austin and the British Library in London. There are smaller holdings at New York Public Library and other public and private collections.

[9A]

18 Oct 2013

Azerbaijan Independence Day 2013






Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region, and is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south. Baku is the capital and largest city.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in 1918 and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state, taking its name from the adjacent region of northwestern Iran for political reasons.

The Independence Day of Azerbaijan is the main state holiday in Azerbaijan. It is celebrated annually on October 18. On this day in 1991, the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan adopted a Constitutional Act on the Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan.

In 2020, Canada's Niagara Falls were lit up in colours of Azerbaijani flag to mark Independence Day. That same year, a Turkish delegation led by Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of TurkeyMustafa Sentop visited Baku to participate in the celebrations, in a show of support for Azerbaijan.




A stamp celebrating the 15th anniversary of independence.

[9A]

8 October 2018

Laura Esther Rodríguez Dulanto’s 146th Birthday





Born in the Supe District of Lima on this day in 1872, Laura Esther Rodríguez-Dulanto was a physician who broke many barriers for women in Peru. Though she excelled in school from a very young age, her parents were frustrated that educational options were limited for women—no matter how gifted or motivated they might be.

There were no secondary schools for girls, much less universities or postgraduate programs. Nevertheless, Rodríguez-Dulanto’s parents persisted, appealing to local authorities until a special jury was appointed by the Ministry of Education to allow the gifted young student to advance her studies. With help from her older brother Abraham, who would teach her everything he learned after returning home from school, Rodríguez-Dulanto passed her high school exams. With a combination of intelligence, motivation, and a very supportive family, Laura Esther Rodríguez-Dulanto became the first Peruvian woman to attend college as well as the first female physician in the nation’s history.

Though it was a great achievement to begin her studies at the National University of San Marcos, 19-year-old Rodríguez-Dulanto still faced numerous obstacles. While the male students worked with human cadavers in anatomy class, she would have to sit behind a screen to conceal her presence. During her third year of medical school, she was allowed to perform dissections in a special room, accompanied by her brother who was also studying medicine. In September 1900, her hard work paid off when she earned her Bachelor of Medicine, taking her Hippocratic Oath a month later.

Rodríguez-Dulanto specialized in gynecology, publishing papers on ovarian cysts and uterine fibroids. She went on to co-found Peru’s first nursing school, teaching anatomy, physiology and hygiene, and paving the way for other women to pursue careers in medicine. Her legacy is honored with a bust in a public park in Lima, Peru, as well as a hospital in her home town of Supe, which is named after her.

Happy Birthday Dr. Laura Esther Rodríguez-Dulanto!

[9A]

8 October 2012

161st Anniversary of Moby Dick's First Publishing





When designing a cover for a classic in the book publishing world, there is usually room for some artistic experimentation and subtlety. This is for a couple of reasons. One, the readers are already familiar with the imagery in the book, which gives the artist an opportunity to reinterpret or "refresh" the imagery in a contemporary way. Two, the title itself will usually attract the reader's attention – in many cases, the reader is looking specifically for this title. This relieves some of the burden or obligation for the illustration to portray a key moment of suspense or high drama from the story in order to attract more potential buyers. Some bold examples of this approach can be seen in the work of one of my favorite designers, Alvin Lustig, whose subtle yet bold designs have evolved into classics in their own right.

Of course, for a Google doodle it is still very important to lend as much context as possible to create a rich and informative user experience, leaving slightly less flexibility than Lustig might have had in his day. So I had my goals: to create a contemporary interpretation of a classic story, rich in context but subtle in its own way

One idea that surfaced early on was to somehow tie the white space of the homepage into the whiteness of Moby Dick [the whale], so that he wouldn't be immediately visible at first glance.

The sketch itself seemed a little gritty and frightening, and possibly not authentic to the scene either.... although Captain Ahab and his crew spend much of the novel in search of the whale, this moment should be more confrontational. Still, the doodle team encouraged further exploration of this idea. So I played with a second concept, in which Moby Dick is like an overgrown child, happily swimming about in the aftermath of the ship he's just destroyed, with the wreckage spelling out Google.

Casting Google as a shipwreck would probably not go over well, even with the best of lighthearted intentions, so the idea was quickly scrapped!

As I thought more about the theme of "search," I wondered if Moby Dick himself could be a large maze, designed in such a way to resemble the intricate tattoo patterns of another character in the story, Queequeg.

This robbed the user of all narrative context, however, and the team ultimately opted for the "white space" idea in the first concept, echoing my own notes to make it brighter and altogether less frightening. After a couple of compositional studies, I got going on the final, which is what you see at the top of the page today.

by Mike Dutton

[9A]

21 Oct 2012

Jonas Maciulis-Maironis' 150th Birthday




Maironis is one of the most famous Lithuanian poets and was also a Catholic priest and educator.Maironis wrote numerous poems. Some of them are contained in his most famous collection of poems, Pavasario Balsai [The Voices of Spring]. Later Maironis went to Russia again, where he studied at St. Petersburg Catholic Theological Academy.

[9A]

21 October 2009

Rampo Edogawa's Birthday






Tarō Hirai, better known by the pen name Edogawa Ranpo was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the leader of a group of boy detectives known as the "Boy Detectives Club".

Ranpo was an admirer of Western mystery writers, and especially of Edgar Allan Poe. His pen name is a rendering of Poe's name. Other authors who were special influences on him were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom he attempted to translate into Japanese during his days as a student at Waseda University, and the Japanese mystery writer Ruikō Kuroiwa.

[9A]

21 October 2010

Dizzy Gillespie's Birthday




First known for his contributions to bebop and modern jazz, and second known for his iconic cheeks, Dizzie Gillespie's doodle is one that is both lively and unlike any other doodle to hit the homepage. Inspired by the jazz album illustrations of the mid 1900s, Dizzie's doodle quickly turned into a crescendo of shapes and color.


posted by Jennifer Hom


John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality provided one of bebop's most prominent symbols.

In the 1940s, Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman.

Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up being similar to those of Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time".