Google doodles

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Aug 3, 2014
Birgit Cullberg's 106th Birthday






We mark the 106th birthday of renowned ballet dancer Birgit Cullberg on our homepage in Sweden. Cullberg is best remembered for establishing the contemporary dance company The Cullberg Ballet.

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Aug 4, 2014
John Venn's 180th Birthday



https://www.google.com/doodles/john-...180th-birthday [[Interactive)

John Venn was a logician and philosopher best known for introducing the Venn diagram. In the diagram, circles are used to visually and logically sort groups to illustrate their relationships to each other. For example, one circle may contain things that are mammals. The other circle may contain things that have wings. The overlapping space that both circles occupy would consist of mammals that have wings.

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Aug 13, 2014
Anders Jonas Ångström's 200th Birthday





Anders Jonas Ångström was born in Medelpad to Johan Ångström, and schooled in Härnösand. He moved to Uppsala in 1833 and was educated at Uppsala University, where in 1839 he became docent in physics. In 1842 he went to the Stockholm Observatory to gain experience in practical astronomical work, and the following year he was appointed keeper of the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory.

The Ångström unit [[1 Å = 10⁻¹⁰ m) in which the wavelengths of light and interatomic spacings in condensed matter are sometimes measured is named after him. The unit is also used in crystallography as well as spectroscopy.

The crater Ångström on the Moon is named in his honor.

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Aug 18, 2014
Anna Ancher's 155th Birthday




Anna Ancher was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artist colony on the northern point of Jutland, Denmark. She is considered to be one of Denmark's greatest visual artists. Our doodle for Danish artist Anna Ancher’s 155th birthday takes inspiration from her painting “Harvesters.”

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Aug 25, 2014
Althea Gibson's 87th Birthday





In 1956, trailblazing American athlete Althea Gibson won a Grand Slam title at the French Open. The next year, she won at Wimbledon and took home the title at the US Open [[then known as the US Nationals). Gibson wasn’t just the first person of color to win these prestigious championships -- she was often the first black person to ever play them. Today, on what would have been her 87th birthday, we’re celebrating Gibson’s accomplishments and legacy with a homepage doodle in her honor.

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September 18, 2015
Rugby World Cup 2015 Opening Day




Coming through!

Having grown up playing rugby in England, I can still feel the muddy squelch in my boots lining up on the pitch for lessons. Our doodle celebrates the girth and gracefulness of the 2015 World Cup players.

After a few concepts I concentrated on the vice like grip of an arm around the ball and how this could be used as a "G". I even added rain for the full effect.

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September 21, 2009
Birthday of H.G. Wells





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

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

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Sep 28, 2009
Confucius' Birthday - Multiple Countries



Confucius [[ 551–479 BCE) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who was traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages.

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Nov 3, 2009
Melbourne Cup 2009





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"

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Aug 15, 2012
Julia Child's 100th Birthday



Julia Carolyn Child was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which premiered in 1963.

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October 29, 2014
Shin Saimdang's 510th Birthday




With a delicate touch, Korean artist and poet Shin Saimdang captivated audiences with her paintings of flowers, butterflies, and landscapes. In recognition of her contributions to Korean culture, Saimdang was selected to appear on the South Korean 50,000 won note, becoming the first woman to have the honor. Today we celebrate what would have been her 510th birthday.

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Oct 24, 2016
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s 384th Birthday

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Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, born today in 1632, saw a whole world in a drop of water. Considered the first microbiologist, van Leeuwenhoek designed single-lens microscopes to unlock the mysteries of everything from bits of cheese to complex insect eyes. In a letter to the Royal Society of London, van Leeuwenhoek marveled at what he had seen in a sample of water from a nearby lake: "little animals" that we know now as bacteria and other microbes.


In his rooms on the Market Square in Delft, Netherlands, van Leeuwenhoek was a DIY-er supreme. Like Galileo, he ground and polished his own lenses. Some of his lenses attained a magnification of more than 200 times, allowing him to examine capillaries, muscle fibers, and other wonders of the microscopic universe.


Doodler Gerben Steenks noted, "I chose to make it an animated Doodle to show the 'before and after' experience that Antoni van Leeuwenhoek had — looking through a microscope and seeing a surprising new world." Here's to celebrating a true visionary!

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



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

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Oct 12, 2013


Children's Day 2013 [[Brazil)

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Oct 10, 2013
Leyla Gencer's 85th Birthday



Ayşe Leyla Gencer was a Turkish operatic soprano.

Gencer was a notable bel canto soprano who spent most of her career in Italy, from the early 1950s through the mid-1980s, and had a repertoire encompassing more than seventy roles. She made very few commercial recordings; however, numerous bootleg recordings of her performances exist. She was particularly associated with the heroines of Donizetti.

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Oct 9, 2013
Agnieszka Osiecka's 77th Birthday [[Poland)




Agnieszka Osiecka was a poet, writer, author of theatre and television screenplays, film director and journalist. She was a prominent Polish songwriter, having authored the lyrics to more than 2000 songs, and is considered an icon of Polish culture. She published numerous books and released many records. She is considered one of the most important, prolific and gifted persons in postwar Polish culture and history.

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Oct 8, 2013
William John Swainson's 224th Birthday



William John Swainson, was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Many birds retain a common name after Swainson, several of which were named by famous naturalists of the period. Many species or subspecies retain his name, although many of his own species were later discredited or merged with others.

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Oct 1, 2013
Childrens Day 2013 [[Guatemala)

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Oct 1, 2013
123rd anniversary of Yosemite National Park




Yosemite National Park bounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 748,436 acres [[1,169 sq mi; 3,029 km²) and sits in four counties: centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.

Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has an elevation range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet [[648 to 3,997 m) and contains five major vegetation zones: chaparral and oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone, and alpine. Of California's 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% are within Yosemite. The park contains suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy.

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Oct 1, 2013
Emilio Pettoruti's 121st Birthday



Emilio Pettoruti was an Argentine painter, who caused a scandal with his avant-garde cubist exhibition in 1924 in Buenos Aires. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was a city full of artistic development. Pettoruti's career was thriving during the 1920s when "Argentina witnessed a decade of dynamic artistic activity; it was an era of euphoria, a time when the definition of modernity was developed."^[1] While Pettoruti was influenced by Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Abstraction, he did not claim to paint in any of those styles in particular. Exhibiting all over Europe and Argentina, Emilio Pettoruti is remembered as one of the most influential artists in Argentina in the 20th century for his unique style and vision.

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Oct 30, 2013
Agustin Lara's 113th Birthday [[latam)


Ángel Agustín María Carlos Fausto Mariano Alfonso del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Lara y Aguirre del Pino known as Agustín Lara, was a Mexican composer and interpreter of songs and boleros. He is recognized as one of the most popular songwriters of his era. His work was widely appreciated not only in Mexico but also in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Spain. After his death, he has also been recognized inthe United States, Italy and Japan.Outside the Spanish speaking world, his most famous songs are Granada, Solamente Una Vez [[You Belong to My Heart) and Piensa en mí, which have both been recorded by numerous international singers, including Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza and Jose Carreras.

Outside the Spanish speaking world, his most famous songs are Granada, Solamente Una Vez [[You Belong to My Heart) and Piensa en mí, which have both been recorded by numerous international singers, including Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza and Jose Carreras.

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October 30, 2014
Maria Izquierdo's 112th Birthday



María Izquierdo was a Mexican painter. She is known for being the first Mexican woman to have her artwork exhibited in the United States. She committed both her life and her career to painting art that displayed her Mexican roots

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October 22, 2013
216th Anniversary of the First Parachute Jump



http://www.google.com/doodles/216th-...parachute-jump [[interactive)



The first parachute jump in history was made by André-Jacques Garnerin, the inventor of the parachute, on 22 October 1797. Garnerin tested his contraption by leaping from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet [[980 m) above Paris. Garnerin's parachute bore little resemblance to today's parachutes, however, as it was not packed into any sort of container and did not feature a ripcord. The first intentional free-fall jump with a ripcord-operated deployment was not made until over a century later.

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May 30, 2014
35th Anniversary of Nezha Conquers the Dragon King




https://www.google.com/doodles/35th-...he-dragon-king [[animated)


Our homepage in Hong Kong and Taiwan marks the 35th anniversary of Nezha Conquers the Dragon King. A source of pride in China, Nezha was the first Chinese-language animated film to be screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

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May 23, 2014
Otto Lilienthal's 166th Birthday


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Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders. Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favourably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical. On 9 August 1896, his glider stalled and he was unable to regain control. Falling from about 15 m [[50 ft), he broke his neck and died the next day.

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May 23, 2013
140th Anniversary of the RCMP





The Royal Canadian Mounted Police [[RCMP; French: Gendarmerie royale du Canada [[GRC), lit. 'Royal Gendarmerie of Canada'; colloquially known as the "Mounties") are the federal and national police service of Canada, providing law enforcement at the federal level. The RCMP also provide provincial policing in eight of Canada's provinces [[all except Ontario and Quebec) and local policing on a contract basis in the three territories [[Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon) and more than 150 municipalities, 600 Indigenous communities, and three international airports. The RCMP do not provide active provincial or municipal policing in Ontario or Quebec.^[10] However, all members of the RCMP have jurisdiction as a peace officer in all parts of Canada, not including Ontario and Quebec except for federal laws. Despite the name, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are no longer an actual mounted police service, with horses only being used at ceremonial events.

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May 15, 2013
Frank Hornby's 150th Birthday



Frank Hornby was an English inventor, businessman and politician. He was a visionary in toy development and manufacture, and although he had no formal engineering training, he was responsible for the invention and production of three of the most popular lines of toys based on engineering principles in the 20th century: Meccano, Hornby Model Railways and Dinky Toys. He also founded the British toy company Meccano Ltd in 1908, and launched a monthly publication, Meccano Magazine in 1916.

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April 22, 2014
Earth Day 2014


https://www.google.com/doodles/earth-day-2014 [[interactive)

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Oct 21, 2013
Celia Cruz's 88th Birthday





Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname "La Guarachera de Cuba". In the following decades, she became known internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" or "The Queen of Latin Music" due to her contributions to Latin music in the United States.

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April 22, 2012
Earth Day 2012



https://www.google.com/doodles/earth-day-2012 [[animated)

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April 21, 2009
Kartini Day 2009




Raden Adjeng[1] Kartini [[21 April 1879 –17 September 1904), sometimes known as Raden Ayu Kartini, was a prominent Indonesian national heroine from Java. She was also a pioneer in the area of education for girls and women's rights for Indonesians.

Born into an aristocratic Javanese family in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, she attended a Dutch language primary school. She aspired to further education but the option was unavailable to her and other girls in Javanese society. She came into contact with various officials and influential people, including J.H. Abendanon, who was in charge of implementing the Dutch Ethical Policy.

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Apr 16, 2009
Christiaan Huygens' Birthday




Christiaan Huygens , also spelled Huyghens, was a Dutch physicist, mathematician, astronomer and inventor, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time and a major figure in the scientific revolution. In physics, Huygens made groundbreaking contributions in optics and mechanics, while as an astronomer he is chiefly known for his studies of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan. As an inventor, he improved the design of the telescope with the invention of the Huygenian eyepiece. His most famous invention, however, was the pendulum clock in 1656, which was a breakthrough in timekeeping and became the most accurate timekeeper for almost 300 years.

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April 16, 2010
Italian Culture Week



The Colosseum, is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum and is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheater in the world today, despite its age. Construction began under the emperor Vespasian [[r. 69–79 AD) in 72 and was completed in AD 80 under his successor and heir, Titus [[r. 79–81). Further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian [[r. 81–96). The three emperors that were patrons of the work are known as the Flavian dynasty, and the amphitheatre was named the Flavian Amphitheatre by later classicists and archaeologists for its association with their family name [[Flavius).

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Apr 15, 2010
Children's Day 2010 - Multiple Countries on Various Dates

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Apr 21, 2012
Friedrich Fröbel's 230th Birthday



Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique needs and capabilities. He created the concept of the kindergarten and coined the word, which soon entered the English language as well. He also developed the educational toys known as Froebel gifts.

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Apr 30, 2012
Queen's Day 2012

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May 9, 2012
Royal Ploughing Ceremony and Farmer's Day


The Royal Ploughing Ceremony also known as The Ploughing Festival is an ancient royal rite held in many Asian countries to mark the traditional beginning of the rice growing season. The royal ploughing ceremony, called Lehtun Mingala or Mingala Ledaw , was also practiced in pre-colonial Burma until 1885 when the monarchy was abolished

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April 26, 2011

Vallenato Festival 2011


The Vallenato Legend Festival is one of the most important musical festivals in Colombia. The festival features a vallenato music contests for best performer of accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca, as well as piqueria [[battle of lyrics) and best song. It's celebrated every year in April in the city of Valledupar, Department of Cesar.

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Dec 8, 2018
145th Anniversary of Lacerda's Elevator Opening




Today’s Doodle celebrates the iconic Lacerda Elevator of Salvador, Brazil, which has been in operation for the past 145 years. Situated on Brazil’s southeastern coast overlooking the Bay of All Saints, São Salvador, Bahia was the nation’s capital until 1763. Constructed in two sections, at the top and bottom of a steep embankment, Salvador is divided into a lower city [[Cidade Baixa) and an upper city [[Cidade Alta), which were initially connected by a long flight of stairs.

In the early 1600s Jesuit missionaries installed a rope-and-pulley elevator to lift people and parcels on the 72-meter journey to the top. However, In the late 1860s construction began on a mechanical elevator under the leadership of developer Antonio de Lacerda and his brother, engineer Augusto Frederico de Lacerda.

A complex system of counterweights, hydraulics, and steam engines powered the elevator, which opened in 145 years ago, in 1873. In the 1900s the elevator was revamped with electric power, and it received an Art Deco makeover in 1930. Today there are two towers with a total of four bays, each of which can accommodate up to 32 passengers for the 30-second journey—roughly a million people use the elevator each month. Exactly 12 years ago the elevator was recognized by Brazil’s National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage. Dawn is a great time to ride this legendary lift, when it’s decorated with lights and there’s a gorgeous view of Fort Santo-Antonia-da-Barra. More than a means of transportation, the Lacerda Elevator has become a tourist attraction and a symbol of Brazilian ingenuity.

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May 9, 2011
76th Birthday of Roger Hargreaves



Charles Roger Hargreaves was an English author and illustrator of children's books, best remembered for the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, intended for young readers. The simple and humorous stories, with brightly coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture since 1971, with sales of over 85 million copies worldwide in 20 languages.

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May 19, 2011
Nellie Melba's 150th Birthday

Dame Nellie Melba was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century, and was the first Australian to achieve international recognition as a classical musician. She took the pseudonym "Melba" from Melbourne, her home town.

She studied in Paris and soon made a great success there and in Brussels. Returning to London she quickly established herself as the leading lyric soprano at Covent Garden from 1888. She soon achieved further success in Paris and elsewhere in Europe, and later at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, debuting there in 1893. Her repertoire was small; in her whole career she sang no more than 25 roles and was closely identified with only ten. She was known for her performances in French and Italian opera, but sang little German opera.

Melba made numerous gramophone [[phonograph) records of her voice in England and America between 1904 [[when she was already in her 40s) and 1926 for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company and the Victor Talking Machine Company. Most of these recordings, consisting of operatic arias, duets and ensemble pieces and songs, have been re-released on CD. The poor audio fidelity of the Melba recordings reflects the limitations of the early days of commercial sound recording.

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Aug 18, 2018
2018 Asian Games






Today’s Doodle celebrates the start of the 18th Asian Games, also known as Asiad. Organized by the Olympic Council of Asia and held every four years, the Asian Games are the second largest multi-sport event in the world, behind only the Olympic Games. This year’s host country is Indonesia, with events happening in the country’s oldest city, Palembang, and the capital city of Jakarta.

Athletes from six Asian countries competed at the first Far Eastern Championship Games in 1913 in Manila. Although these games were discontinued in 1938, there was widespread support for a competition promoting the Olympic ideals of a peaceful society and the “harmonious development of humankind.”

This year, athletes from 45 countries will compete in 55 events. Swimming and track and field always attract a big audience at the Asian Games, and there are many other sports represented too, ranging from football, fencing, weight lifting, and martial arts, to jet skiing and the card game bridge.

This year also marks the debut of another genre of non-physical events: esports, or competitive video games. Esports will be considered a “demonstration” category this year, so no official medals will be given, but they plan to do so at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

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Oct 18, 2013
Azerbaijan Independence Day 2013



Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, the Russian republic of Dagestan to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia and Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south.

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Oct 12, 2013
Children's Day 2013 [[Brazil)

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October 12, 2007
Luciano Pavarotti's 72nd Birthday


Luciano Pavarotti Cavaliere di Gran Croce was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed and loved tenors of all times. He made numerous recordings of complete operas and individual arias, gaining worldwide fame for the quality of his tone, and eventually established himself as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century, achieving the honorific title "King of the High Cs".

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Oct 10, 2014
Francisco Giner de los Ríos' 175th Birthday





Our homepage in Spain celebrates the 175th birthday of intellectual Francisco Giner de los Ríos. Once described as a Spanish Socrates, de los Ríos advocated for an independent and high quality education in his homeland. His ideas motivated him to establish the “Institución Libre de Enseñanza” [[“Free Teaching Institution”), which collaborated with renowned figures like Bertrand Russell, Charles Darwin, León Tolstoi and H. G. Wells.

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Oct 8, 2014
Croatian Independence Day 2014




Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe on the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Italy to the west and southwest.

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Oct 6, 2014
Thor Heyerdahl's 100th Birthday





What would it take to get you to cross the Pacific Ocean in a handmade wooden raft? It didn’t take a lot of persuading for Norwegian explorer and scientist Thor Heyerdahl to do it—in fact, he did it to prove a point. In 1947, Heyerdahl set off on his Kon-Tiki expedition from Peru to French Polynesia to demonstrate that ancient South Americans could have done the same. The jury is still out on Heyerdahl’s conclusion, but we’re grateful for the remarkable story he left behind. Our doodle around the world marks his 100th birthday.

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October 6, 2012
Francisco Gabilondo Soler's 105th Birthday



Francisco Gabilondo Soler was a Mexican composer and performer of children's songs. He recorded and performed those songs under the name of Cri-Cri: El Grillito Cantor [["Cri-Cri: The Little Singing Cricket").

He entered the new radio field to become one of the main figures in the "Golden Age of Mexican Radio," beginning with humorous and social criticism programs, using the sobriquet El Guasón del Teclado [[The Joker of the Keyboard). He used the experiences of his childhood to write some children's songs, and on October 15, 1934, he appeared, for the first time, on Radio Station XEW in Mexico City, singing many of the songs he had previously written. This marked the first performance in his persona as 'Cri-Cri'. The first songs to be played were "El ratón vaquero" [[The cowboy mouse), "Los mosquitos trompeteros" [[The trumpeter mosquitoes), "Cucurumbé", and "La Muñeca fea" [[The ugly doll).

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Oct 5, 2012
Brian Ó Nualláin's 101st Birthday



Brian O'Nolan, better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist, considered a major figure in twentieth century Irish literature.