Google doodles

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Jun 21, 2013
Zlatko Grgić's 82nd Birthday




http://www.google.com/doodles/zlatko...-82nd-birthday [[animated)


Zlatko Grgić was a Croatian animator who emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s.
Born in Zagreb, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Grgić was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 52nd Academy Awards for his 1979 film Dream Doll, produced by Bob Godfrey. He has an award named after him at the Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films: the Zlatko Grgić Prize for best first production apart from educational institutio

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Jun 30, 2013
Herta Heuwer's 100th Birthday



Herta Charlotte Heuwer owned and ran a food kiosk in West Berlin. She is frequently credited with the invention of the take-out dish that would become the world-renowned currywurst, supposedly on 4 September 1949. The original Currywurst was a boiled sausage, fried, with a sauce of tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, curry powder and other ingredients.

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Jul 2, 2013
Wisława Szymborska's 90th Birthday



Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska was a Polish poet, essayist, translator and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent, which has since become part of Kórnik, she later resided in Kraków until the end of her life. In Poland, Szymborska's books have reached sales rivaling prominent prose authors', though she wrote in a poem, "Some Like Poetry" [["Niektórzy lubią poezję"), that "perhaps" two in a thousand people like poetry.

Szymborska was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality".

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Jul 4, 2013
Ukichiro Nakaya's 113th Birthday




Ukichiro Nakaya was a Japanese physicist and science essayist known for his work in glaciology and low-temperature sciences. He is credited with making the first artificial snowflakes.

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Jul 7, 2013
Tanabata [[Star Festival)



Tanabata , also known as the Star Festival, is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi [[represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on 7 July of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August.

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Jul 7, 2013
Vladimir Durov's 150th Birthday




The Durov Animal Theater or Grandpa Durov's Corner is a circus/theatre in Moscow, Russia. It was founded on January 8, 1912 by Vladimir Durov , who also founded the famous Durov's circus dynasty. Durov was a well-known animal trainer and zoologist who developed his own system of training, that did not involve any punishment of the animals. His theatre also included a natural history museum and a science laboratory.

The theatre building was designed in 1894 by the architect August Weber. The theatre is currently located in the same facility; the street had been renamed in Durov's honour in 1927.

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Jul 21, 2013
Children's Day 2013 [[Panama)

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Aug 7, 2013
Abebe Bikila's 81st Birthday





Shambel Abebe Bikila was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He is the first black African Olympic gold medalist, winning his first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he won his second gold medal. In turn, he became the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title. In both victories, he ran in world record time.

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Sep 6, 2013
Leonidas da Silva's 100th Birthday






Leônidas da Silva was a Brazilian association footballer and commentator, who played as a forward. He is regarded as one of the most important players of the first half of the 20th century. Leônidas played for Brazil national team in the 1934 and 1938 World Cups, and was the top scorer of the latter tournament. He was known as the "Black Diamond" and the "Rubber Man" due to his agility.

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Sep 18, 2013
Uzeyir Hacibeyov's 128th Birthday [[Azerbaijan)


Uzeyir bey Abdul Huseyn oglu Hajibeyli was an Azerbaijani composer, conductor, publicist, playwright, and social figure. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani composed classical music and opera. Uzeyir Hajibeyov composed the music of the national anthem of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic [[which was re-adopted after Azerbaijan regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991). He also composed the anthem used by Azerbaijan during the Soviet period. He was the first composer of an opera in the Islamic world.

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Sep 18, 2013
203rd anniversary of the First Government Assembly in Chile





Government Assembly of the Kingdom of Chile [[September 18, 1810 – July 4, 1811), also known as the First Government Junta, was the organization established to rule Chile following the deposition and imprisonment of King Ferdinand VII by Napoleon Bonaparte.

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Sep 19, 2013
Robert Storm Petersen's 131st Birthday



Robert Storm Petersen [[19 September 1882 – 6 March 1949) was a Danish cartoonist, writer, animator, illustrator, painter and humorist. He is known almost exclusively by his pen name Storm P.

In 1982 he was featured on a Danish Postal stamp.

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Sep 23, 2013
100th anniversary of the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea





First flight across the Mediterranean: Roland Garros flew a Morane-Saulnier G from the South of France to Tunisia, on September 23, 1913.

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Sep 27, 2013
Google's 15th Birthday




https://www.google.com/doodles/googles-15th-birthday [[interactive game)

When’s Google’s birthday? I'm not sure even we know – we’ve celebrated on September 7th, 8th, 26th, and, most recently the 27th.

Still, while there’re some differing opinions about when to bust out the candles and cake, one fun fact is that our first doodle was posted even before Google was officially incorporated [[August 30th, 1998 vs. September 4th, 1998).

With a company that’s got fun as deeply embedded in its DNA as Google, it seems fitting that any function would be a real bash, if you will.

And this year bash you did! I don’t want to say how many hundreds of millions of Google’s 15th Birthday Piñata games were played or how many billions of candies won, but suffice to say your boss might be miffed you weren’t doing real work and your dentist will be delighted you weren’t eating real sweets.

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Nov 7, 2013
Ary Barroso's 110th Birthday




Ary de Resende Barroso, better known as Ary Barroso, was a Brazilian composer, pianist, soccer commentator, and talent-show host on radio and TV. He was one of Brazil's most successful songwriters in the first half of the 20th century. Barroso also composed many songs for Carmen Miranda during her career.

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Nov 7, 2013
Rafael Pombo's 180th Birthday



José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo [[November 7, 1833 – May 5, 1912) was a Colombian poet born in Bogotá. Trained as a mathematician and an engineer in a military school, Rafael Pombo served in the army and he traveled to the United States of America as Secretary of the Legation in Washington. After completing his diplomatic assignment, he was hired by D. Appleton & Company in New York to translate into Spanish nursery rhymes from the Anglo-Saxon oral tradition. The product of this work, more than a translation, was a transformative adaptation published in two books under the titles Cuentos pintados para niños and Cuentos morales para niños formales.

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Nov 12, 2013
Leon Štukelj's 115th Birthday



Leon Štukelj was a Yugoslav gymnast of Slovene ethnicity, Olympic gold medalist and athlete.
He is a noted figure in Slovenian sporting history. Štukelj is one of the few Slovene athletes to have risen to the very top of his sport, where he remained right from the World Championships in Ljubljana in 1922 all the way to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, at which point he finished his competitive gymnastics career.

Štukelj competed at seven major international competitions and won a total of twenty medals: eight gold, six silver, and six bronze. At the Olympic Games alone he won six medals: two gold medals [[counted for Yugoslavia) in Paris in 1924, one gold medal and two bronze in Amsterdam in 1928, and a silver medal in Berlin in 1936.

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Nov 11, 2013
Carlos Fuentes' 85th Birthday





Carlos Fuentes Macías was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are The Death of Artemio Cruz [[1962), Aura [[1962), Terra Nostra [[1975), The Old Gringo [[1985) and Christopher Unborn [[1987). In his obituary, The New York Times described Fuentes as "one of the most admired writers in the Spanish-speaking world" and an important influence on the Latin American Boom, the "explosion of Latin American literature in the 1960s and '70s", while The Guardian called him "Mexico's most celebrated novelist". His many literary honors include the Miguel de Cervantes Prize as well as Mexico's highest award, the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor [[1999).

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Nov 15, 2013
Emil Racoviță's 145th Birthday



Emil Gheorghe Racoviță was a Romanian biologist, zoologist, speleologist, and Antarctic explorer.Together with Grigore Antipa, he was one of the most noted promoters of natural sciences in Romania. Racoviță was the first Romanian to have gone on a scientific research expedition to the Antarctic. He was an influential professor, scholar and researcher, and served as President of the Romanian Academy from 1926 to 1929.

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Nov 19, 2013
Helena Zmatlíková's 90th Birthday




Helena Zmatlíková was a Czech illustrator, especially of children's books. For her works she received numerous awards. She also participated in the 1958 World Exhibition.

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Nov 20, 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.

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Nov 20, 2013
Children's Day 2013 [[Multiple Countries)

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Nov 23, 2013
Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary



http://www.google.com/doodles/doctor...th-anniversary [[animated)

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called "the Doctor", an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. With various companions, the Doctor combats foes, works to save civilisations and helps people in need.

The show is a significant part of British popular culture, and elsewhere it has gained a cult following. It has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series.The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989.

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Nov 28, 2013
EXPO 2020 in Dubai







Expo 2020 [[Arabic: إكسبو 2020‎) is a World Expo to be hosted by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 – 10 April 2021. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates, the new dates are 1 October 2021 – 31 March 2022. Despite being postponed, organizers will keep the name Expo 2020 for marketing and branding purposes. It is the first time that a World Exposition has been postponed to a later date rather than cancelled.

The main site of Expo 2020 Dubai will be a 438-hectare area [[1083 acres) located between the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, near Dubai's southern border with Abu Dhabi. The master plan, designed by the American firm HOK, is organized around a central plaza, entitled Al Wasl, enclosed by three large Thematic districts. Each one is dedicated to one of the sub-themes of Expo 2020 – Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability.

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Dec 2, 2013
Carlos Merida's 122nd Birthday


Carlos Mérida [[December 2, 1891 – December 21, 1985) was a Guatemalan artist who was one of the first to fuse European modern painting to Latin American themes, especially those related to Guatemala and Mexico. He was part of the Mexican muralism movement in subject matter but less so in style, favoring a non-figurative and later geometric style rather than a figurative, narrative style. Mérida is best known for canvas and mural work, the latter including elements such as glass and ceramic mosaic on major constructions in the 1950s and 1960s. One of his major works, 4000m2 on the Benito Juarez housing complex, was completely destroyed with the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, but a monument to it exists at another complex in the south of the city.

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Dec 4, 2013
Gae Aulenti's 86th Birthday



Gae Aulenti was a prolific Italian architect, whose work spans industrial and exhibition design, furniture, graphics, stage design, lighting and interior design.^[1] She was well known for several large-scale museum projects, including the Musée d'Orsay in Paris [[1980–86) with ACT Architecture, the Contemporary Art Gallery at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the restoration of Palazzo Grassi in Venice [[1985–86), and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco with HOK [[firm) [[2000–2003). Aulenti was one of the few women designing in the postwar period in Italy, where Italian designers sought to make meaningful connections to production principles beyond Italy.This avant-garde design movement blossomed into an entirely new type of Italian architecture, one full of imaginary utopias leaving standardization to the past.

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Dec 10, 2013
Sven Wingquist's 137th Birthday



Sven Gustaf Wingqvist [[10 December 1876 – 17 April 1953) was a Swedish engineer, inventor and industrialist, and one of the founders of Svenska Kullagerfabriken [[SKF), one of the world's leading ball bearing and roller bearing makers. Sven Wingqvist invented the multi-row self-aligning ball bearing in 1907.

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Dec 25, 2013
Salah Jahin's 83rd Birthday



Muhammad Salah Eldin Bahgat Ahmad Helmy, known as "Salah Jaheen" or "Salah Jahin" was a leading Egyptian poet, lyricist, playwright and cartoonist.

In 1963 Jaheen wrote his quatrains or rubaiyat in which he expressed his beliefs, emotions and views of life, existence, good and evil. Each verse ended with one ironic expression "Agabi" or "how strange !". Quatrains are sometimes argued as the greatest popular poetic achievement in Egypt in the last 50 years.

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Dec 18, 2013
Qatar National Day 2013



Qatar is a country located in Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council [[GCC) monarchy Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf. The Gulf of Bahrain, an inlet of the Persian Gulf, separates Qatar from nearby Bahrain.

Before the discovery of oil, the economy of the Qatari region focused on fishing and pearl hunting. A report prepared by local governors of Ottoman Empire in 1892 states that total income from pearl hunting in 1892 is 2,450,000 kran. After the introduction of the Japanese cultured pearl onto the world market in the 1920s and 1930s, Qatar's pearling industry crashed. Oil was discovered in Qatar in 1940, in Dukhan Field. The discovery transformed the state's economy. Now, the country has a high standard of living for its legal citizens. With no income tax, Qatar [[along with Bahrain) is one of the countries with the lowest tax rates in the world.

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Jan 15, 2014
The 255th anniversary of the British Museum

​



The British Museum in London is one of the world's largest and most important museums of human history and culture. It has more than seven million objects from all continents. They illustrate and document the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. As with all other national museums and art galleries in Britain, the Museum charges no admission fee.

The British Museum set up in 1753 and opened in 1759. It was the first museum in the world to be open to everyone. The museum gradually grew over the next two hundred years. It has nearly six million visitors a year and is the third most popular art museum in the world.

Some of the museum's most popular and important exhibits include the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.

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June 12, 2017
Philippine Independence Day 2017





The flag of the Philippines is a symbol of national pride, especially today as the country celebrates the anniversary of its sovereignty. In honor of Philippine Independence Day, today’s Doodle is a colorful celebration of both the Philippine flag and the country’s unique island landscapes.

Each component of the flag’s design holds specific meaning. The prominent sunburst has eight rays to represent the eight provinces that began the fight for independence, while the three surrounding stars represent the country’s three island groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
With more than 7,000 islands that make up the country, there is no shortage of opportunities to watch the sun rise over the water. The sunrise imagery in the Doodle is meant to capture Filipinos’ optimism in the face of adversity.

In the foreground of today’s Doodle, a group of people gather for a traditional flag-raising ceremony. Accompanied by the Philippine national anthem, these ceremonies are held daily at schools and weekly in government institutions.

Maligayang Araw ng Kalayaan [[Happy Independence Day)!

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Jun 21, 2017
Machado de Assis’ 178th Birthday





In 1839, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was born to a simple family in Morro do Livramento, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was the grandson of freed slaves, in a country where slavery wouldn't be fully abolished until 49 years later. Machado faced the many challenges of being of mixed race in the 19th century, including limited access to formal education. But none of that stopped him from studying literature. While working as a typographer, he experimented with poems, romances, novels and plays.

Machado's work shaped the realism movement in Brazil. He became known for his wit and his eye-opening critiques of society. Today's Doodle features some scenes from his novels — Quincas Borba, Dom Casmurro, and The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas are considered masterpieces to this day. Machado was also a founder and the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Happy 178th birthday to a literary genius!

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Jun 30, 2017
Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi’s 87th Birthday






In 1960s Pakistan, Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi stroked new life into the centuries-old art of Islamic calligraphy, turning words into vibrantly detailed expressionist paintings. Today’s Doodle celebrates Sadequain’s legacy as one of Pakistan’s most popular and prolific artists.

Sadequain created his own distinct script outside of the traditional kufic [[angular) and naskh [[cursive) styles. Descended from a family of calligraphers, he turned a practical art form into one of vivid expression — a shift that has given calligraphy a presence in the contemporary art scene of Pakistan.

Sadequain also painted vast murals, drew elaborate illustrations, and even wrote powerful poetry. Though he created a large body of work, he rejected material wealth. He was an artist for the people and was known to give his paintings away for free, even refusing to take on commissions from royalty and heads of state around the world.

Many of Sadequain's murals still adorn the walls of public buildings in Pakistan and India. One of them, “Quest for Knowledge,” can be seen on the ceiling of the Lahore Museum — or online at the Google Cultural Institute.

Renowned for his work in Pakistan, Sadequain received national awards like the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and the Presidential Medal of Honor. He was also recognized in art circles abroad, receiving the Paris Biennale Prize in 1961.

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Jul 1, 2017
Canada National Day 2017





On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act was passed, uniting the three distinct colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Originally called Dominion Day, Canada Day was not officially celebrated until its 50th anniversary in 1917.

The diversity of those three distinct colonies was not lost or diminished. Canadians take great pride in their country’s multicultural, integrated, and inclusive citizenship. In recognition of these fundamental beliefs, Canada enacted the Multiculturalism Policy of Canada in 1971. The first of its kind in the world, this policy confirmed the rights of Aboriginal peoples and the status of Canada’s two official languages.

Today’s Doodle depicts celebratory desserts that reflect the country’s vast regional and ethnic diversity by highlighting the 13 provinces and territories. Bonne Fête Canada! Indulge your sweet tooth with the delights depicted in the Doodle:

• German krapfen
• Chinese mooncake
• Portuguese pasteis
• Italian tiramisu
• English jelly
• French chocolate eclairs
• Turkish delight
• Spanish churros
• Inuit bannock
• Punjab jalebi
• American doughnuts

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Jul 9, 2017
660th Anniversary of Charles Bridge





On this day in 1357, construction began on the Charles Bridge, Prague’s oldest stone bridge, and one of the Czech capital’s most popular tourist destinations. Round the clock, visitors, vendors and locals alike cross the 1,700-ft. expanse from the east bank to the west, taking in views of the Vltava River.

King Charles IV commissioned architect Peter Parler to build the bridge, which was completed in 1402. Originally called the Stone Bridge, it took on the monarch’s moniker centuries later, around 1870. The low-lying medieval structure is comprised of 16 shallow arches and three Gothic towers, and lined with 30 Baroque-style statues, initially made of sandstone. According to legend, during construction, masons added a secret ingredient to the mortar that they thought would make it stronger: eggs!

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Jun 25, 2020
Dragon Boat Festival 2020





Each year on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, revelers flock to the banks of rivers and canals to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwujie. Dating back more than 2,000 years, the holiday is honored with unique customs in countries all across Asia. Among the most popular traditions in many countries are the dragon boat races, which draw teams from around the world to compete in colorfully painted boats, like those depicted in today’s Doodle artwork.

Percussion rings out across the water as a drummer on each boat keeps the rowers in sync. As the teams approach the finish, the most nimble racers can often be seen stretching far off the fronts of their boats; the first to snatch a flag from a buoy or cross the finish line earns their team the victory.

Meanwhile, spectators are known to enjoy one of the holiday’s most popular treats called zongzi.
These triangular dumplings of sticky rice can be topped with meat or egg yolk and are typically tied up in leaves. And it’s believed that if you can balance an egg upright at noon, you’ll have good luck for a year.

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Jun 29, 2020
Celebrating Subak






Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Indonesia-based guest artist Hana Augustine, commemorates the culturally significant Indonesian irrigation system called subak, which was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites on this day in 2012. This network of canals, tunnels, and dams has allowed the people of the island of Bali to sustain lush rice paddy fields and live in symbiosis with nature for over a thousand years.

The word subak refers not just to the irrigation infrastructure, but also to the cooperative social tradition that surrounds it. Through this system, a limited water supply is managed peacefully through some 1,200 collectives of individual farmers. Subak is considered to be a reflection of the ancient Balinese philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, which loosely translates to “three causes of well-being” and describes the ideal of spiritual, interpersonal, and natural harmony.

Firmly rooted in this ideology passed down through the generations, the traditional subak system has been upheld with unwavering dedication since its formation as early as the 9th century. In turn, Indonesian agriculturists have achieved an egalitarian rule of order that successfully sustains a harmonious balance between the land and the community of farmers that reap its benefits.

The practice of subak has created a majestic and abundant landscape of tiered rice paddy fields that waterfall for hectares, and is an irreplicable phenomenon that fills both the hearts and bellies of the Balinese people.

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Jul 1, 2020
Canada Day 2020





O Canada! Today’s Doodle celebrates Canada Day, a national holiday to commemorate the birth of the country. On this day in 1867, the British North America Act, or Constitution Act, united the three British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a self-governing confederation called the Dominion of Canada.

The holiday was first created in 1879 as Dominion Day, and it grew in popularity over the following century. With the Canada Act of 1982, the country gained complete independence from Britain, and the observance was officially renamed Canada Day [[Fête du Canada).

As many observe this annual holiday from the comfort of their homes, the Doodle artwork features a colorful series of row houses representing an iconic Canadian architectural style characteristic of the nation's Atlantic region. On the north-eastern edge of the Avalon Peninsula, charming row houses fill the hills and alleyways of St. John’s, one of North America’s oldest cities. Despite the region’s famously foggy weather, these one-of-a-kind houses ensure that every day is a bright one!

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Jul 14, 2020
Bastille Day 2020






Today’s animated Doodle, illustratedby Asnières-sur-Seine-based guest artist François Maumont, celebrates Bastille Day on the 231st anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. On this day in 1789, French revolutionaries charged the Bastille military fortress turned prison on the edge of Paris, an event considered the spark of the French Revolution.

Built in the 1300s as a medieval fortification to guard Paris’s eastern border, by 1789 the Bastille had come to represent the tyranny of the French monarchy. On July 14, a crowd of disaffected citizens besieged the stronghold, and with assistance from a group of sympathetic French Guards, forced the Bastille’s military governor to surrender. Soon, the rallying cry of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” [[“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”) was embraced by the French people, and it remains the country’s official motto to this day.

Known in France as la Fête Nationale [[the National Holiday) or le 14 Juillet [[July 14), Bastille Day was made an official holiday in 1880 and today serves as a worldwide celebration of all things French.

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Aug 4, 2020
Bahiga Hafez’s 112th Birthday






Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Cairo-based guest artist Mariam ElReweny, celebrates the 112th birthday of a pioneer in Egyptian cinema, the multi-hyphenate actor, producer, director, editor, costume designer, and composer Bahiga Hafez on her 112th birthday. Hafez was widely known as a prodigious talent on camera as well as behind the scenes and helped bring some of Egypt’s earliest feature films to the big screen.

Bahiga Hafez was born on this day in 1908 in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. She earned a degree in music composition in Paris in 1930 and then returned to Egypt, where she had success crafting music for the record companies of the day. Her career soon took a turn when she was cast as the female lead in the film “Zeinab” [[1930), for which she also composed the soundtrack.

Before long, Hafez was inspired to tell her own stories and opened Fanar Film Company with her husband Mahmoud Hamdi. In 1932, the company released its first film, “al-Dahaya” [[“The Victims”), and Hafez shaped the entire film process as lead actor, producer, editor, costume designer, and composer.

Hafez went on to produce and direct numerous films over the following two decades and later established an influential cultural salon in Cairo to support the city’s artistic community. Her work helped pave the way for the start of what is widely considered Egyptian cinema’s golden age in the 1940s, and she is depicted in the Doodle artwork wearing a costume inspired by the many opulent wardrobes she designed from this era of film.

The original version of “al-Dahaya” was rediscovered in 1995 and shown at the National Film Festival in Cairo, introducing a new generation to Hafez’s work.

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Sep 16, 2020
Celebrating Mascha Kaléko







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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sep 16, 2020
Mexico Independence Day 2020






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

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

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Sep 18, 2020
Chile National Day 2020






Today’s Doodle celebrates Chile’s National Day, known locally as El Dieciocho, which translates to “The Eighteenth.” On this day in 1810, Chile celebrated the First National Government Board Assembly, which started the process of independence from Spanish colonial rule and began an eight-year struggle for sovereignty.

Illustrated in the Doodle artwork is the bell-shaped, six-petalled bloom of the copihue, Chile’s national flower. This evergreen climbing vine thrives in a moist and cool environment, so the species is right at home in the misty cloud forests of Chile’s central and south-central regions.

Following its introduction to various countries around the world, the plant revealed an intriguing quality: its vine twines clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, opposite to the counterclockwise twine exhibited in its native Southern Hemisphere. Although it has traveled far over the years, the copihue remains an unwavering symbol of Chilean identity.

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Sep 24, 2020
Arati Saha's 80th Birthday






Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Kolkata native and guest artistLavanya Naidu, celebrates the 80th birthday of the trailblazing Indian swimmer Arati Saha. On September 29, 1959, Saha covered a breathtaking 42 miles from Cape Gris Nez, France to Sandgate, England [[a route depicted in today’s Doodle) to become the first Asian woman to swim across the English Channel—a feat considered the swimming equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.

Arati Saha was born on this day in 1940 in Calcutta, British India [[Kolkata, India). At four years old, she learned to swim on the banks of the Hooghly River, and her precocious skill in the water soon attracted the mentorship of one of India’s top competitive swimmers, Sachin Nag. Under Nag’s wing, Saha won her first swimming gold medal when she was only five, and it was certainly not her last.

A record-setting prodigy by just 11 years old, Saha became the youngest member [[and one of only four women) on the first team to represent the newly independent India in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. At the age of 18, Saha made her first attempt to cross the English Channel, and though it was unsuccessful, she never gave up. Just over a month later, she conquered miles of churning waves and currents to complete the journey, a historic victory for women across India.

In honor of her enduring achievements, Saha became the first-ever female recipient of India’s Padma Shri award in 1960.

[9A]

October 3, 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.

[9A]

Oct 9, 2019
Hangeul Day 2019





Today’s animated Doodle, created by Seoul-based guest artists Yunho Lee and Kangin Kim of Studio Kimgarden to reflect a merging of Hangeul and English, celebrates Hangeul Proclamation Day in Korea. Locally known as Hangeulnal, or 한글날, it is the world’s only national holiday that honors an alphabet.

Designed in the 1440s by a royal committee convened by King Sejong the Great, Hangeul would change Korean society in a big way. Koreans once used Chinese characters, and the writing system was so complicated that access to education was confined to society’s elite. Hangeul was designed to be easy to learn. Consonants are drawn to mimic the shape of the mouth when making a particular sound while vowels are based on combinations of three elements: a dot symbolizing the sun in the sky, a line symbolizing a human being, and a horizontal line symbolizing the earth.

As a result of these improvements, literacy rates increased throughout Korea. Despite some resistance—a 16th-century king actually banned Hangeul for a time to preserve the status of the elite class—the language grew in popularity. Today, Hangeul is Korea’s official written language, with a national holiday in its honor.

Many people celebrate Hangeul Day by visiting the museum of King Sejong which is located near Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul. A large golden statue of King Sejong stands there in honor of a leader remembered for his contributions to education for all.

[9A]

Oct 16, 2019
Celebrating Wanda Rutkiewicz





“I adored the physical movement, the fresh air, the camaraderie, and the excitement,” wrote the Polish mountain climber Wanda Rutkiewicz. On this day in 1978, she reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the third woman to ascend the world’s highest peak, and the first Pole, male or female. Rutkiewicz would go on to complete seven more 8,000-meter-plus [[26,247-foot-plus) climbs, establishing herself as one of the most celebrated climbers in mountaineering history and one of the greatest female climbers of all time.

Born on February 4, 1943 to a Polish family in the village of Plungiany—now part of Lithuania— Wanda studied electrical engineering at Wroclaw University of Technology. She discovered her passion for climbing by chance after her motorcycle ran out of fuel in 1961. One of the people who stopped to help invited her to join him on a climb of the Falcon Mountains.

Ten years after reaching the peak of Mount Everest, Rutkiewicz became the first woman to climb K2—the world’s second-highest peak—doing so without using supplemental oxygen. Two of her fellow climbers perished on the descent from K2, but she would continue pursuing her dreams.

Rutkiewicz published books and produced documentaries about her climbs, but despite her many accomplishments, she found some male climbers to be condescending. She went on to advocate for women’s climbing and to organize several all-female expeditions. In 1990, she declared her goal of climbing eight 8,000-meter-plus [[26,247-foot-plus) peaks in just over a year’s time, a program she called the “Caravan of Dreams.” Although she did not complete that particular mission, Wanda Rutkiewicz has continued to inspire generations of climbers to follow in her footsteps.

[9A]

Oct 17, 2019
100th Anniversary of Metro de Madrid





On this day in 1919, King Alfonso XIII inaugurated the Metro de Madrid, a new transportation system for Spain’s capital city. The Metro’s distinctive diamond-shaped logo was created by acclaimed Spanish architect Antonio Palacios, who also designed the entrances, corridors, and platforms of some of the early stations. Today’s animated Doodle celebrates the centenary of Madrid’s Metro, now the sixth-longest underground railroad in the world with some 294 kilometers [[about 183 miles) of track.

The Metro has come a long way during its first century of operation. On opening day, the route covered a mere 3.48 kilometers [[about 2.16 miles), taking 10 minutes to travel 8 stops from Cuatro Caminos to Sol. That first day, just over 56,000 passengers rode what was then called the North-South Line.

Now, close to 2.3 million riders take the Metro every day. Serving over 300 stations, the train remains one of the most efficient ways to move around Madrid.

In honor of the Metro’s 100th birthday, the Regional Government of Madrid has installed an educational exhibition throughout the original route, now called the ‘Centenary Line.’ Period photographs will highlight the Metro’s history, and a new vinyl-wrapped train evoking the first train will run along the rails.

Chamartín Station will host a permanent exhibition of vintage trains, and while Palacios’ original entrance to the Metro de la Red de San Luis was dismantled and donated to the architect’s hometown of Porriño, a replica of the striking design will recapture its former glory.

[9A]

Oct 27, 2019
Sylvia Plath's 87th Birthday






Today’s Doodle celebrates the acclaimed American writer Sylvia Plath, whose painfully honest poetry and prose gave voice to the author’s innermost emotions in ways that touched generations of readers. “It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative,” wrote Plath, whose work helped many understand mental illness. “Whichever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it.”

Born in Boston on this day in 1932, Sylvia Plath grew up with her father, a strict German and biology teacher specializing in the study of bees. Showing an early talent for writing, Plath was published in national publications, won awards, worked as an editor, and graduated from Smith College with honors—all despite suffering a mental breakdown. Her works often used heavy imagery and metaphors, set amongst scenes of winter and frost, as shown in today's Doodle.

After college, Plath earned a Fulbright scholarship and traveled to England. In 1982, she won a Pulitzer Prize posthumously. While her children’s book, The It-Doesn’t-Matter-Suit, shows a lighter side of her creativity, her poems were described by the novelist Joyce Carol Oates as reading “as if they’ve been chiseled, with a fine surgical instrument, out of arctic ice.”

[9A]

January 2, 2020
Amaka Igwe’s 57th Birthday






Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Nigerian-raised, Brooklyn-based guest artist Data Oruwari, celebrates award-winning Nigerian writer, director, entrepreneur, and producer Amaka Igwe on her 57th birthday. Igwe helped transform the Nigerian film industry and built a media empire from the ground up.
Uzoamaka ‘Amaka’ Audrey Igwe was born on this day in 1963 in Port harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. At an early age, Amaka showed deep interest in the performing arts, as she organized her school's variety shows, taught performance dance, as well as wrote, acted, and directed plays.

During her postgraduate studies, Igwe started focusing on theater and what she considered to be her first gift: writing. She developed her first television series screenplay, Checkmate, widely considered the best Nigerian soap opera of the 1990s.

This led to her directorial debut in the feature film Rattlesnake [[1995 for Crystal Gold Limited), a smash hit in her home country, followed by films like Violated [[1995 for Crystal Gold Limited) and A Barber's Wisdom [[2001 for Mnet), which helped set a higher production standard for “Nollywood” at the time. She wrote and directed the phenomenally successful Fuji House of Commotion [[2001-2012 for Crystal Gold Limited), which gave her dominance of the national television series industry.
Passionate about growing the local industry, Igwe also helped organize the guild system that served the executive boards of the Association of Movie Producers, and was also a patron of the National Association of Cinematographers, the Screenwriters Guild and the Guild of Movie Editors.

As a champion of efficient local distribution as the basis for Nollywood’s growth, Igwe and her business partner also organized an enhanced market distribution system and helped improve quality and fairness in the industry.

On an international level, Igwe led delegations to South Africa, United Kingdom, United States and France, among other countries, to present the unique Nigerian approach to visual storytelling, propogating global awareness of Nollywood.

She also co-founded the African Film and Media Content Expo, entitled BOBTV, with Big Picture Limited, with the aim of providing a global platform for Nigeria’s creative industries. For 11 years, they presented BOBTV to the world, engaging more than 400 departments from 104 Nigerian universities, as well as the Motion Picture Industry Practitioners and the Nigeria Government through its agencies.

Cementing herself as a matriarch of Nollywood, Igwe evolved a media empire by co-founding a production company, radio station, and TV network. Amaka Igwe shall be remembered as a gifted storyteller, producer, director, pioneer of Nollywood, wife, and mother of three.

In 2011, she was announced as a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria [[MFR), an award that honors Nigerians who made significant contributions to the nation.