Google doodles

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January 19, 2016

Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s 127th Birthday





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

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

Today’s doodle, by artist Mark Holmes, was a grand artistic experiment in itself. In his words:

‘Doodling’ other artists gives us the chance to truly appreciate their work through the study and deconstruction of their art. Our challenge, of course, is to reinterpret the work and integrate it with our ubiquitous ‘Google’ in a manner that remains faithful to the artist’s spirit without being a simple reproduction of their work, or so modified that it is unrecognizable. The rough drafts below, featuring my ‘doodled’ versions to the left and her original works to the right, should give a sense of the challenge in balancing legibility with the spirit of authenticity.




This was an especially fun doodle because Sophie Taeuber-Arp was such a prolific and diverse artist. I almost couldn’t make up my mind which of her works to draw inspiration from, and I just wanted to keep going. Hopefully in the end, I was able to capture the spirit of at least one aspect of her work, and help draw a few more eyeballs to her many contributions to the arts.

Taeuber-Arp’s legacy has lived on through international exhibitions, including one co-created by the Google Cultural Institute and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Visit this online exhibit dedicated to this Swiss master of modernism.

Information regarding Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s original art, shown above [right]:

Nr. 1: Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Aubette 200, around 1927, pencil and watercolor on paper, 24.4 x 31.8 cm, Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth

Nr. 2: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, composition en taches quadrangulaires, polychromes, denses, 1920, gouache on paper, 24 x 32 cm, Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth

Nr. 3: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, xix espaces à plans et bandes angulaires, 1938, gouache on paper, 26.8 x 34.8 cm, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck

Nr. 4: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Composition verticale-horizontale sur fond blanc, 1916, gouache on paper, 28.5 x 27.3 cm, Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth

Nr. 5: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, composition à cercles et demi-cercles, 1935-1938, gouache on paper, 25.7 x 34.8 cm, private collection

[9A]

November 3, 2011

Andre Malraux's 110th Birthday




Georges André Malraux was a French novelist, art theorist, and minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel La Condition Humaine [Man's Fate] [1933] won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by President Charles de Gaulle as information minister [1945–46] and subsequently as France's first cultural affairs minister during de Gaulle's presidency [1959–1969].

[9A]

Nov 7, 2011

Marie Curie's 144th Birthday






A pioneer in the sciences, Marie Curie's research led to such achievements as the discovery of polonium and radium and the development of the theory of radioactivity. Her life's work earned her two Nobel Prizes and solidified her place in history as an icon in physics and chemistry.


Posted by Jennifer Hom

[9A]

Nov 8, 2011

Edmond Halley's 355th Birthday





Edmond [or Edmund] Halley was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.

From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Upon his return to England, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and with the help of King Charles II, was granted a master's degree from Oxford.

Halley encouraged and helped fund the publication of Isaac Newton's influential Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica [1687]. From observations Halley made in September 1682, he used Newton's laws of motion to compute the periodicity of Halley's Comet in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets. It was named after him upon its predicted return in 1758, which he did not live to see.

Beginning in 1698, Halley made sailing expeditions and made observations on the conditions of terrestrial magnetism. In 1718, he discovered the proper motion of the "fixed" stars.

[9A]

December 12, 2018

"Baya" Fatima Haddad’s 87th Birthday






Born in Bordj El Kiffan, a suburb of Algiers, on this day in 1931, Fatima Haddad was an Algerian artist known simply as Baya. Her vivacious watercolors, gouaches, and ceramics depict powerful images of women and nature in an expressive and personal style that defies easy categorization.

Orphaned as a young girl, Baya was adopted in 1942 by the French art collector Marguerite Camina Benoura, who employed Baya’s grandmother as a housekeeper. Showing talent from an early age, Baya made “fascinating small animals and strange female figures” in the sand of her beachside hometown. She was exposed to Benoura’s collection of modern art, including works by Matisse, and by age nine she was painting as well.

The art dealer Aimé Maeght, known for representing Miró, Calder, Léger, Braque, Giacometti, and Chagall, exhibited Baya’s first solo show of paintings at his Paris gallery when she was only 16 years old. “I speak not as others have, to deplore an ending, but rather to promote a beginning,” wrote the influential poet and critic André Breton in her exhibition catalog. “And at this beginning, Baya is queen.”

Picasso invited her to work with him in 1948, and traces of her influence can be seen in his Women of Algeria series. She married the musician El Hadj Mahfoud Mahieddine and raised a family during a time of revolution in Algeria, but declined an offer to move to France, in affirmation of her Algerian identity. Baya became so beloved in her homeland that a portrait of the artist and one of her paintings appeared on Algerian postage stamps in 2008.

Breaking conventional rules of composition and perspective, Baya’s bold, colorful paintings explode with energy, evoking a world of ecstatic women with their eyes wide open.

Happy Birthday, Baya!

[9A]

Jan 28, 2012

125th Anniversary of the Largest Snowflake



If you believe the old saying, no two snowflakes are alike,
and if you believe legend and lore and Guinness World Records, there’s a single monstrous snowflake that’s the least alike of all.

Google’s homepage “Doodle” on Saturday celebrates the 125th anniversary of the largest recorded snowflake — a stone-cold behemoth said to be 15 inches in diameter. The freakishly massive flake reportedly drifted — or perhaps plummeted — to earth at Montana’s Fort Keogh in 1887.

[The snowflakes in that Jan. 28 storm, according to a New York Times piece a few years back, were described by a rancher as “larger than milk pans.”]

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Jan 26, 2012

Republic Day 2012



Republic Day is a national holiday in India, when the country marks and celebrates the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect on 26, January 1950, replacing the Government of India Act [1935] as the governing document of India and thus, turning the nation into a newly formed republic. The day also marks the transition of India from an autonomous Commonwealth realm with British Monarch as nominal head of the Indian Dominion, to a fully sovereign Commonwealth republic with the President of India as the nominal head of the Indian Union.

[9A]

January 26, 2020

India Republic Day 2020

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Jan 31, 2019

Celebrating Mercedes Sosa



"I never thought that I would sing for a living," said Mercedes Sosa, the powerful Argentinian vocalist widely known as “the voice of the voiceless ones.” Also known as “La Negra” due to her long, black hair, Sosa’s powerful voice afforded her opportunities to perform at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City, as well as the Sistine Chapel and the Colosseum in Rome. A driving force behind the “Nueva Canción” movement, her songs married traditional South American folk music with powerful lyrics advocating for human rights.

Born on July 9, 1935 in the northern Argentine province of Tucumán, Mercedes Sosa’s family lineage came from the indigenous Aymara people. Her heritage deeply influenced her stylistically and by 15, she won a radio talent contest for her traditional folk music. A dramatic tipping point of her career happened on this day in 1965, when singer Jorge Cafrune invited Sosa on stage during his set at Argentina’s renowned Cosquín Folk Festival. Her performance received a massive ovation and by the following year, she had signed a recording contract.

Many of Sosa's best-known songs were written by others, but her performances of songs like Violeta Parra’s "Gracias a la Vida" [Thanks to Life] and Horacio Guarany’s “Si Se Calla El Cantor” [If the Singer is Silenced] helped catapult her into fame. She released some 70 albums over the course of nearly a six-decade career, exploring diverse genres such as Argentinian tango, Cuban nueva trova, Brazilian bossa nova, rock, and sacred music. In later years, she collaborated with artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Joan Baez, and even Shakira.

Fearlessly singing truth to power, she went into exile from her homeland for several years and was finally able to return home in 1982. She continued to perform around the world and later became a UNESCO goodwill ambassador.

Here’s to La Negra!

[9A]

December 21, 2017

Winter Solstice 2017 [Northern Hemisphere]




As 2017 slowly winds to a close, you may have noticed the sun beginning to set earlier and earlier, and you’re right! As the seasons begin to change, so too does the earth’s allocation of daylight.

December 21st marks the 2017 winter solstice, as well as the first day of winter on the astronomical calendar. On this day, the tilt of the earth’s North Pole is at its farthest from the sun, resulting in the shortest day and the longest night of the calendar year.

Though most refer to the solstice as an entire day, in reality, the solstice is defined as a single moment: when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn. This year, that moment will occur at 16:28 Coordinated Universal Time [UTC]. After this point in time, periods of daylight will once again begin to grow longer.

Happy winter!

[9A]

December 21, 2016

Winter Solstice 2016 [Northern Hemisphere]





Across the northern hemisphere, people everywhere celebrate the winter solstice with seasonal holidays, celebrations, and festivals to remind us of the lengthening days ahead. The solstice is named for the brief time when the sun appears to pause its movement across the sky. At that moment, the tilt and rotation of the earth shifts our view of the sun’s direction from southward to northward, causing it to hang momentarily suspended. Doodler Nate Swinehart created a family of anthropomorphized rocks to commemorate the winter equinox. After tonight’s long darkness, we’ll look forward to the sun hanging out a little longer each day.

[9A]

Dec 21, 2016

Summer Solstice 2016 [Southern Hemisphere]


Today marks the first day of summer and the longest day of the year for the southern hemisphere. The summer solstice is named for the brief time when the sun appears to pause its movement across the sky. At that moment, the tilt and rotation of the earth shifts our view of the sun’s direction from northward to southward, causing it to hang momentarily suspended. Doodler Nate Swinehart created a family of anthropomorphized rocks to commemorate the change of season. Enjoy the peak of summer in the southern hemisphere with today’s Doodle!

[9A]

Dec 19, 2016

Franz Sacher’s 200th Birthday





In the world of baked goods, few cakes have the culinary status–or intriguing backstory–of the Sacher-Torte, first concocted by the Austrian confectioner, Franz Sacher, in Vienna in 1832.

Perhaps destiny had a hand in its creation. Sacher was a 16-year-old apprentice honing his craft in the court of Austrian state chancellor, Prince Metternich, when the kitchen was tasked with creating a special dessert for the prince’s fussy guests. On the day of the dinner, the chef became ill, and the tall order fell to Sacher.

The trainee whipped up a chocolate cake topped with apricot jam and bittersweet chocolate icing. It was a hit with the prince’s guests, but it wasn’t until Sacher’s son Eduard refined the recipe decades later, that the Sacher-Torte became a Viennese sensation.

Today, the dessert is a signature of Café Sacher in Vienna's Hotel Sacher [[and other locations in Austria). The authentic recipe for the Original Sacher-Torte remains a deep, dark, delicious secret.

Our Doodle honors Sacher’s 200th birthday with an animation of his famous cake, illustrated Viennese style with a pot of coffee. With each “bite,” the torte slices slowly disappear, leaving barely a crumb.

[9A]

October 18, 2021

Yoram Gross' 95th Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 95th birthday of Polish-born, Australian director, scriptwriter, producer, and animation giant Yoram Gross—a survivor of the Holocaust who became the creative mastermind behind some of Australia’s most iconic cartoons. Gross captivated generations with stories that surpassed mere entertainment as each passed down a lesson drawn from a lifetime of optimism and overcoming hardship.

Yoram “Jerzy” Gross was born on this day into a Jewish family in 1926 in Krakow, Poland. After the near collapse of the Polish film industry during World War II, Gross worked as an assistant on his first movie in 1947. He moved to Israel in 1950, where his independent film work garnered renown globally, especially in Australia.

He heeded the enthusiastic praise of Australian critics and migrated down under in 1968 to further evolve his production repertoire by founding Yoram Gross Film Studios with his wife, Sandra Gross. To address the lack of Australian-made children’s movies, Gross combined animation with live-action backgrounds—a style that became his trademark—to produce the full-length 1977 animated blockbuster “Dot and the Kangaroo.” This quintessential Aussie story became the nation’s first animated feature to achieve commercial success.

The film’s excellent reception set the stage for Gross to create an empire of family-friendly animated television series. His work has since been aired in over 70 countries and continues to entertain and inspire millions with beloved characters such as Blinky Bill, the mischievous Koala. Gross and his legacy live on in the Yoram Gross Animation Award, an annual award acknowledging the best animated feature at the Sydney Film Festival.

Happy Birthday, Yoram Gross—here’s to an animated life!

[9A]

Oct 17, 2021

Mother's Day 2021 [October 17]
[Argentina]







Today’s Doodle is popping up to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day! ❤️

[9A]

October 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]

October 17, 2018

Chiquinha Gonzaga’s 171st Birthday



Born on this day in Rio de Janeiro in, 1847, Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga [famously known as Chiquinha Gonzaga] showed an affinity for music from childhood. Playing the piano by age 11, she studied music with the maestro Elias Álvares Lobo. When she was 16, her parents insisted she enter an arranged marriage, which ended after her husband insisted she devote herself either to him or to music. At a time when independent women faced major social pressure, Gonzaga sacrificed everything to follow her musical ambitions. She would go on to become the first female conductor in South America and one of the most important figures in Brazilian music history.

For a woman to make a living as a professional musician in nineteenth-century Brazil was unheard of, but Gonzaga persisted, composing 77 operettas and more than 2,000 songs. “Atraente,” published in 1881, may be her best-loved composition, ushering in a sound that would come to be known as “choro.” With her peerless piano skills and gift for improvisation, Gonzaga pioneered this upbeat blend of jazz, waltz, polka, and Afro-Brazilian beats.

On January 17, 1885, Gonzaga made her debut as a conductor with her piece, “Palhares Ribeiro, A Corte na Roça.” Despite the popularity of her music, Gonzaga faced resistance as a woman in a male-dominated business. Often performing with a group headed by her close friend, the flutist Joaquim Antônio da Silva Callado Jr., and including her son João Gualberto on clarinet, Gonzaga managed to thrive in the face of adversity, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps.

During the late 1880s Gonzaga threw her support behind the abolitionist movement, selling her sheet music to raise funds, she paid for the freedom of the enslaved musician Zé Flauta. Her 1899 Carnival march “O abre alas!” [Open Wings] was an homage to freedom. In 1917 she co-founded the artists’ rights society SBAT to ensure that songwriters received a fair share of income from their compositions.

Gonzaga’s legacy lives on as one of Brazil’s most celebrated musical legends. She broke down barriers and directly impacted the development of music in her homeland. Fittingly, Gonzaga’s birthday is now the official National Day of Brazilian Popular Music [Dia da Música Popular Brasileira].

Feliz aniversário Chiquinha Gonzaga!

[9A]

January 13, 2018

Zhou Youguang’s 112th Birthday





The O’s in today’s Doodle flip from Pinyin [Gǔgē] to Chinese characters [谷歌]. Were it not for celebrated linguist Zhou Youguang, this phonetic translation would never have come to life, and the world would still be referring to ‘Beijing’ as ‘Peking,’ and to ‘Chongqing’ as ‘Chungking.’

Popularly dubbed ‘the Father of Pinyin,’ Youguang spent three years developing the system of ‘spelled sounds’ that is now the international standard for Romanized Chinese. The new system transformed China’s literacy rate, providing more natural passage into the written language, which requires mastering thousands of characters. It bridged multiple Chinese dialects with its shared designations of sound. Today, schoolchildren learn Pinyin before characters, and it is often used to input characters on smartphones and computers.

Pursuing his love of language throughout his life, Youguang authored more than 40 books and translated the Encyclopedia Britannica into Chinese. Born on this day as Zhou Yaoping, this storied linguist later adopted the pen name ‘Yougang’ because he wanted to ‘bring light’ to the world. Today, we celebrate what would’ve been Yougang’s 112th birthday with a special place in the spotlight.

Doodle by Cynthia Yuan Cheng

[9A]

January 13, 2018

5th African Nations Championship





Can you feel the excitement in the air? Once again, the African Nations Championship is upon us!

Today we’re celebrating the start of the 5th African Nations Championship, a football tournament drawing in teams from across Africa to compete for the coveted title. The first tournament was held in Ivory Coast in 2009, designed to showcase the football talent amongst the best African national teams. The Confederation of African Football organizes the competition every two years and only allows footballers playing for their country’s domestic team to participate. As a result, the best African talent will be on display - you won’t want to miss it!

All the action is taking place in Morocco as the first games of the 2018 tournament kick off today. Sixteen teams will descend upon various stadiums across Morocco, but only one will be crowned the champion, during the final game on February 4, played in Casablanca.

Today’s doodle features players wearing each of the flags of the countries represented. They’re practicing their skills, just like each of the African Nations have done all year.


Good luck to all the players [and fans!] across Africa!


An alternate version of the players holding traditional African shields by the artist

.

[9A]

January 26, 2017

Bessie Coleman’s 125th Birthday





Born in Texas to a family of 13 children, Coleman walked four miles each day to her segregated, one-room school. She was a proficient reader and excelled in math, and managed to balance her studies while helping her parents harvest cotton. Even from an early age, she had her sights set on something big.

At age 23, Coleman moved to Chicago where she worked two jobs in an effort to save enough money to enroll in aviation school. After working for five years, she moved to Paris to study, as no school in America would admit her due to her race and gender. Just a year later, Coleman became the first female pilot of African-American and Native American descent, and the first to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

In order to earn a living, Coleman made a plan to become a stunt pilot and perform for paying audiences. However, she was again denied enrollment in a stunt training program in the US, and in 1922, traveled to Europe where she completed her training in France and Germany.

Returning to the US, Coleman excelled at exhibition flying, performing complex stunts in flight for packed audiences. It was during this time that she acquired the nickname “Queen Bessie.” She was an adept, daring, and beloved pilot, until her untimely death at the age of 34.

Although Coleman didn’t live to fulfill her ultimate dream of starting an aviation school to train people of color, she inspired a generation. As Lieutenant William J. Powell writes, "Because of Bessie Coleman, we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.”

Today’s Doodle honors Coleman on what would be her 125th birthday.

[9A]

January 26, 2018

Australia Day 2018




Today’s Doodle celebrates the unique and beautiful national parks that bring Australians together.

Australia has more than 500 national parks, each populated with extraordinary plants and animals you won’t find anywhere else. For example, millions of people flock to Port Campbell National Park and Twelve Apostles Marine National Park [featured in today's Doodle] for the stunning scenery.

Located along the southwest coast of Victoria, the parks’ cliffside viewpoints overlook their most iconic sight: seven pillars of stacked limestone, battered by wind and waves, that still rise above the crashing surf to give the marine national park its name.

But below the surface, the full force of the Southern Ocean has created a seascape of canyons, caves, arches, and fissures. Nutrients delivered by perpetually churning waves provide the energy needed to maintain the subtidal and intertidal reefs, which support the greatest diversity of invertebrates on limestone reef in Victoria.

Swirling kelp forests are home to sea urchins, lobsters, and abalone, while a little deeper, the offshore reefs are inhabited by colorful sponges, and of course, fish. This marine metropolis is visited by the flippered forms of local fur seals and commuting little penguins.

Back on the beach, lucky human visitors may spot the rare hooded plover feeding at the water’s edge [also featured in today's Doodle]. The bird is one of the continent’s tens of thousands of endemic species — i.e., found only in Australia — that call the parks and surrounding areas home.

Happy Australia Day 2018!

[9A]

January 26, 2015

Australia Day 2015

[9A]

January 26, 2021

Honoring Maria Island





January 26 stirs a full spectrum of emotions for Australians across the country. It can be a day of pride or protest. A day to rejoice, reflect or reexamine our history. Or for some, perhaps it’s just any old Tuesday.

Whatever the tone of the day, Australians are bound by a love for our land, the seas that surround us and our extraordinary wildlife. Now more than ever, we’ve been prompted to treasure our natural wonders – as this time last year, our heroic firefighters battled Australia’s worst raging bushfires in modern history.

So, as we honour the many marvels of our island home today, we’re taking a virtual trip to a spectacular island just off Tassie, Maria Island.

Maria island is home to a unique collection of mammal, marine, and avian species – and has been categorised as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International. This includes one of Australia’s rarest birds and the star of today’s Google Doodle, the forty-spotted pardalote. This precious bird is about 9-10 cm long, with a light olive green body and distinctive white dots. It is depicted nestled in its natural habitat, the dry eucalypt forest where white gum [Eucalyptus viminalis] occurs. The tiny pardalote is the first Australian bird known to forage a sugary sap called manna by snipping the leaf stalks of gum trees. Maria Island supports the highest breeding population of forty-spotted pardalotes in Tasmania, which plays an important role in maintaining the forest’s vitality and managing insect pest populations.

Whether you’re in Tassie or Townsville, we invite you to explore Maria Island on Street View and get inspired for your next trip. You can discover ancient clams, sea fans, corals of the Fossil Cliffs walk – and the vibrant colours and swirling patterns of the Painted Cliffs walk.

Today’s Google Doodle was developed in collaboration with Tasmanian Aboriginal community and Elders. We respectfully acknowledge the Tasmanian Aboriginal communities and Elders past and present.

[9A]

January 26, 2013

Australia Day 2013

[9A]

June 27, 2021

Mina Wylie's 130th Birthday






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

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

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

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

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

[9A]

June 27, 2016

19th Anniversary of the first Sepaktakraw Women's Competition



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

[9A]

March 18, 2018

Erich Ohser's 115th Birthday




Cartoonist Erich Ohser’s mighty pen was not only his sword, but his shield. Born on this day in Vogtland, Germany, in 1903, Ohser was raised in the industrial town of Plauen. He attended art school at Leipzig’s esteemed Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Trade [Akademie für graphische Künste und Buchgewerbe] before finding his voice as a cartoonist and book illustrator in Weimar Republic–era Berlin.

The artist’s work blossomed through his bond with writer Erich Kästner and journalist Erich Knauf, who shared his political ideology and modern sense of aesthetics. Ohser’s impassioned cartoons and caricatures, which appeared in Knauf’s articles and other popular publications, became his vehicle for expressing his antipathy towards the National Socialists. As making such declarations became increasingly dangerous, Ohser found refuge in drawing the lighthearted, and highly successful, comic strip Vater und Sohn [Father and Son].

From 1934 through 1937, Vater und Sohn captivated readers of the weekly news magazine Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung with its irreverent wit, scratchy pen strokes, and playful antics. Plucking a page from his past, Ohser signed it with a pseudonym that stuck: E.O. Plauen.

Today’s Doodle, rendered by German cartoonist Nadine Redlich, captures the spirit of Ohser’s beloved strip, featuring a pot-bellied father and his playful son, with the artist’s hand within the frame.

[9A]

March 18, 2018

Isidro Baldenegro López’s 52nd Birthday





The forest is lush and dense. The mountains are jagged and snow-topped, depending on the time of year. The canyons are vast and deep. Sierra Tarahumara, also known as the Sierra Madre Occidental, is the land to which Isidro Baldenegro López dedicated his life.

Baldenegro, born in 1966 in the village of Coloradas de la Virgen in those same mountains, watched his father take a stand against illegal logging activities in their home region — a courageous position that cost his father his life. Young Isidro decided to carry on with defending what he believed to be the sacred hills for his community. He organized peaceful sit-ins and non-violent resistance in the face of illegal logging and organized crime. In 2003, he was arrested and jailed on false charges of arms and drug possession. Released after 15 months, Baldenegro went on to win the Goldman Prize in 2005 for his environmental activism.

Today’s Doodle, on what would have been his 52nd birthday, celebrates Baldenegro’s fearless commitment to protecting the people and environment of his homeland through peaceful resistance.

[9A]

March 18, 2014

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 170th Birthday [born 1844]







Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy-tale and folk subjects.

[9A]

March 18, 2016

Xiaolüren’s 17th birthday






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



Enter Xiaolüren. The little green guy was first created in 1961 in East Berlin, Germany as a static traffic light design. Initially, a red figure facing forward meant "wait," and a green profile of a walking figure meant "go."

In 1998, the Taipei City Government made Xiaolüren even more effective by adding a numeric countdown to signal how much time was left. Then, they designed Xiaolüren to move at a different pace based on the time left to cross. When the counter ticks under 10, Xiaolüren picks up the pace. We hope today's animation by Doodler Olivia When reflects the hustle of the all the groups who created Xiaolüren to keep pedestrians safer, the world over.

[9A]

Mar 17, 2016

St. Patrick's Day 2016



Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona!

Green is popping up everywhere today in honor of Saint Patrick's Day. From the Chicago River in the US to the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt—even the Sydney Opera House in Australia is dressed in this dashing shade. Today in Ireland, the home of this holiday, there will be singing, dancing, parades, and potentially pinches for those of us who forget to wear our green!

Today's Doodle is by guest artist and animator Chris O'Hara, an Irish animator currently working in Los Angeles. In the spirit of the day, O'Hara chose to paint the logo green with a little assistance from a friendly shamrock. We hope it reflects the boundless energy and welcoming spirit of Ireland, as Google sports green for the great Éire.

[9A]

August 17, 2017

Indonesia Independence Day 2017




Today we celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day, known locally as Hari Kemerdekaan.

In the country’s capital of Jakarta and other large cities throughout the archipelago, this historically significant day is celebrated with elaborate parades including marching bands and floats festooned with Indonesia’s red-and-white flag. Flag-raising ceremonies also dominate the day, while performers sing the national anthem of Indonesia. Friends and families bond over activities like sack racing and climbing palm trees [panjat pinang] in and show their culinary chops in cooking competitions featuring dishes from a myriad of cultures.

Using whimsical figures and rich colors and patterns, today’s Doodle by guest artist Aditya Pratama encapsulates the spirit of “unity in diversity” [Bhinneka Tunggal Ika] the national motto of Indonesia [derived from a 14th-century Javanese poem] that defines the joy of this landmark day.

[9A]

November 8, 2021

Celebrating Roehana Koeddoes





Today’s Doodle celebrates Indonesian educator and journalist Roehana Koeddoes, a lifelong champion of women’s equality and freedom of expression. For her pioneering achievements, the Indonesian government named her a national hero on this day in 2019.

Roehana Koeddoes was born Siti Roehana on December 20, 1884 in the small city of Koto Gadang, West Sumatra, Dutch East Indies [now Indonesia]. Raised during an era when Indonesian women were generally excluded from formal education, she developed a love for reading by consuming the pages of a local newspaper and sharing local news with her friends by the age of seven. In 1911, she formalized her career in education with the establishment of the first school in Indonesia specifically geared toward women.

Founded in her hometown, Koeddoes’ school empowered women through a range of programs, from teachings in Arabic literacy to morality. She broadened her impact following a move to Bukittinggi, a larger West Sumatran city, by becoming one of Indonesia’s first women journalists. Here, she played a key role in the pioneering women’s newspaper “Soenting Melajoe.” As the first of its kind in Indonesia, this publication directly inspired the development of several other influential Indonesian women’s newspapers.

Throughout her career, Koeddoes continued to pen articles that encouraged women to stand up for equality and fight against colonialism, with some achieving national recognition. Thanks in part to trailblazers like Koeddoes, many consider women in Indonesian journalism to be more critical and courageous than ever.

Here’s to a pioneer whose impacts continue to shape Indonesian media today—Roehana Koeddoes!

[9A]

December 2, 2021

Georges Seurat’s 162nd Birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates French painter Georges Seurat, who captured the natural qualities of light in scenes of contemporary Parisian life with his signature painting techniques known as Pointillism and Divisionism. Seurat’s innovative methods gave rise to the school of Neo-Impressionism, an avant-garde 19th century movement that forever changed the course of modern art.

Georges Seurat was born into a prosperous family in Paris, France, on this day in 1859. He began formal artistic training as a teenager and furthered his education at the prestigious fine arts institution École des Beaux-Arts in 1878. Seurat developed a fascination with the science behind art during his studies, but soon became disenchanted with the confines of academic tradition. He delved into the scientific study of color theory and optical physics to develop an original style he coined “chromo-luminarism,” later known as Pointillism or Divisionism.

After many drafts on small boards, a meeting with a 100-year-old chemist, and years of experimentation, Seurat finished the painting widely considered his masterpiece at only 26, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte — 1884,” now in the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago. An encapsulation of the Pointillist technique is recreated in the Doodle artwork. When viewed from the proper distance, the mural-sized painting tricks the observer into perceiving over 200,000 tiny brushstrokes and dabs of contrasting color on its canvas as a shimmering, cohesive scene of an island in the Seine outside of Paris.

Seurat’s obsession with color theory has prompted some art historians to hypothesize that his techniques were influenced by the atmospheric effects of the volcanic eruptions that created some of the most colorful sunsets recorded during the 1800s. Although the exact inspirations for his artistic innovations remain up for debate, Seurat has had an impact on the visual culture. His monumental work has inspired countless artists across disciplines, a Broadway musical, and has even been featured in a blockbuster film.

Here’s to an artist who never lost sight of the big picture!

[9A]

Dec 2, 2021

UAE National Day 2021




Exactly 50 years ago today, leaders of the six Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah, and Ajman came together in Dubai to form the world’s first Arab federation. The seventh emirate—Ras Al Khaimah—joined the alliance three months later in 1972, officially establishing the modern day United Arab Emirates.

Although the UAE is a relatively new country, the largely desert region on the coast of the Persian Gulf has an ancient foundation built on agriculture and fishing. The unification of the UAE’s independent emirates has allowed the nation to tap into its natural resources, transforming the newly established country over the past half-century.

Traditionally, both private and public buildings are decorated with red, white, and green, representing the colors of the national flag, depicted in the Doodle artwork. Many of the over 200 nationalities that call the UAE home celebrate the achievements of the nation while looking forward to the future.

Happy National Day, UAE!

[9A]

December 2, 2008

United Arab Emirates National Day

[9A]

December 13, 2013

Emily Carr's 142nd Birthday





Emily Carr was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to adopt a Modernist and Post-Impressionist style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until she changed her subject matter from Aboriginal themes to landscapes — forest scenes in particular, evoking primeval grandeur. As a writer Carr was one of the earliest chroniclers of life in British Columbia. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as a "Canadian icon".

[9A]

June 28, 2021

Celebrating Mary Two-Axe Earley




Today’s Doodle, created by Kanien’kehá:ka [Mohawk] guest artist Star Horn, celebrates Mary Two-Axe Earley, a Kanien’kehá:ka woman from Kahnawà:ke, Mohawk Territory, situated on the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from Montreal. Two-Axe Earley fought for over two decades against sex discrimination in the Indian Act, which stripped First Nations women of their Indian status if they married non-Indian men. On this day in 1985—nearly two decades after Mary began her fight against sex discrimination in the Indian Act—the Parliament of Canada passed Bill C-31, an amendment to restore Indian status to women who had lost it through marriage.

Mary Two-Axe Earley was born on October 4, 1911 on the Kahnawà:ke Reserve. At 18, she moved to New York, where she married an Irish-American engineer. Under the provisions of Canada’s Indian Act, her marriage to a non-Indigenous man meant the loss of her Indian status.The Indian Act of 1876 defines who is an “Indian” and who can belong to an “Indian band” [now referred to as First Nations]. The federal government targeted First Nations women, stripping them of their Indian status [their recognition as an Indian] if they married a non-Indian man. These laws banned First Nations women and their children who lost their status from living in their communities, denying them access to critical social programs and voting rights in their community, and severing their ties to identity and culture. Thousands of First Nations women affected by this legislation are still waiting to be recognized by Canada.

In 1967, Two-Axe Earley founded the Equal Rights for Indian Women organization. For decades, she fought for First Nations women’s rights through associations, impassioned speeches, and letter campaigns. Her perseverance, along with other First Nations women, paved the way for the 1985 repeal of Indian Act provisions, which restored Indian status to thousands of First Nations women. One week later, Two-Axe Earley became the first woman to have her Indian status reinstated. The Bill was effective April 17, 1985, but the movement for sex equality continues today.

In addition to an honorary doctorate and a position among the first members of the Order of Quebec, Two-Axe Earley received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1996 for her lifetime devotion to human rights.

Thank you, Mary Two-Axe Earley, for your unyielding dedication to the rights of First Nations women and their children!

[9A]

Jun 29, 2021

Pedro Linares López’s 115th Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 115th birthday of a Mexican artist who turned his dreams into reality, Pedro Linares López. His peculiar yet playful animal sculptures known as alebrijes are beloved worldwide as unique products of Mexico’s folk art tradition.

Pedro Linares López was born in Mexico City, Mexico on this day in 1906. His father worked as a papier-mâché sculptor, or cartonero, and he trained Linares to follow in his footsteps. By the time Linares was 12 years old, he had become a skilled craftsman of papier-mâché items like piñatas and the traditional skeletal figures called calaveras which are featured in the annual Day of the Dead celebration.

In 1945, as Linares tells the story, he became very sick and drifted into a fever dream. There he encountered fantastical creatures who shouted in unison a nonsensical phrase “Alebrijes!” Upon his recovery, he set out to represent these mythical beings in sculpture. The jarring sculptures initially met little success, until over time, Linares refined his alebrijes into the colorfully patterned combinations of reptiles, insects, birds, and mammals recognized today in today’s Doodle artwork. As his reputation grew, he attracted the admiration of the iconic Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but it was a 1975 documentary about Linares by the filmmaker Judith Bronowski that elevated him to international fame.

In 1990, Linares was honored with the first Mexican National Prize in Arts and Sciences in the category of Popular Art and Traditions.

Thank you, Pedro Linares López, for showing us the power of imagination!

[9A]

July 6, 2018

World Cup 2018 - Day 20



The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia is underway! Over the next month, players from the men's national teams of 32 countries will compete for top rank across 12 venues in 11 cities around the country. With a total of 64 matches [and plenty of GOOOALS!], the games will culminate at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on July 15.

This year's Doodle series celebrates the rich cultures and talent of all 32 participating countries by featuring guest artists hailing from each nation! Tune in to catch all 32 Doodles throughout the games, each illustrating the artist's interpretation of "What ⚽ looks like in my country."

[9A]

June 14, 2018

World Cup 2018 - Day 1





Today marks the official opening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia! Over the next month, players from the men's national teams of 32 countries will compete for top rank across 12 venues in 11 cities around the country.

While 20 of the 32 teams will be making repeat appearances at the tournament – including defending champs Germany – it's also a first for some, including Iceland and Panama. With a total of 64 matches [and plenty of GOOOALS!], the games will culminate at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on July 15.

This year's Doodle series will celebrate the rich cultures and talent of all 32 participating countries by featuring guest artists hailing from each nation! Tune in to catch all 32 Doodles throughout the games, each illustrating the artist's interpretation of "What ⚽ looks like in my country."

Today's Doodle collage, created by Gluekit, gives a special sneak peek at the diverse art to come by incorporating elements from the 32 unique guest-artist Doodles.

Best of luck to all the contenders & let the matches begin!

[9A]

June 14, 2008

Kawabata Yasunari's Birthday

Yasunari Kawabata [川端 康成, Kawabata Yasunari, 11 June 1899 – 16 April 1972[1]] was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read.

[9A]

May 25, 2019

Sudirman Arshad’s 65th Birthday




Today’s Doodle honors Sudirman Haji Arshad, the Malaysian singer, songwriter, author, visual artist, and actor known as “Sudirman” to his legions of fans. Born the youngest of seven children in Temerloh, Pahang, on this day in 1954, Sudirman worked as a journalist and an attorney before becoming one of the most popular performers in Asia, remembered for his piercing tenor voice and for staging one of the largest free concerts in Malaysian history.

Sudirman’s singing career surged after winning a contest on Bintang Radio Television Malaysia, and he went on to top the charts in Singapore, Brunei, and Indonesia. On April 15, 1986 he performed for a crowd of over 100,000 on Kuala Lumpur’s Chow Kit Road. Lifted above the audience by crane, Sudirman delivered a performance that delighted a crowd that included Malay, Chinese, and Indian fans.

At London’s Royal Albert Hall, Sudirman won acclaim at the Asian Popular Music Awards in 1989, singing his signature hit “A Thousand Million Smiles” as well as a rendition of “Send In The Clowns” with choreography that paid tribute to Charlie Chaplin. The performance helped to raise Sudirman’s international profile. He would go on to travel the world from Hawaii and Asia through the Middle East and Europe.

As he toured, signing autographs – even if he felt was a chore – was a responsibility he undertook willingly. “He would sign every autograph, never refuse anyone who wanted to take a picture with him, always have a warm welcoming smile and was always humble,” said his former manager, Daniel Dharanee Kannan.

Appointed a "Singing Ambassador" by the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism, Sudi expanded his audience by singing in Malay as well as English, Tamil, Tagalog, Korean, and a number of Chinese dialects. He was also known for his weekly television show, during which he would sometimes serenade a member of the audience while sketching their portrait.

He also appeared in the film Kami, about orphans living in Kuala Lumpur, and wrote the children’s book Taming Si Budak Pintar. With 14 albums to his credit, Sudirman received the Malaysian music industry’s Anugerah Industri Muzik award. A street was named after him in his hometown and the Sudirman Scholarship Fund was established to support performing artists.

Selamat Hari lahir, Sudirman Haji Arshad!

[9A]

June 9, 2016

Dragon Boat Festival 2016





Today marks the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival observed in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and a host of other countries in east Asia and beyond. The Dragon Boat races are part of the "double fifth" festival, or Duanwu, which is held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. These boats are carved from wood and hold a 22-person crew comprised of 20 paddlers, one "sweep” who steers the boat, and one "caller" who beats a drum to keep time.

A dragon’s head is often carved into the bow of the boat to symbolize the energy and power of the dragon rising from the river — part of the legend of Qu Yuan. As an ode to this ancient tale, revelers share zongzi, or sticky rice wrapped in leaves or reeds. Doodler Alyssa Winans showed our Dragon Boat's enthusiasm for these delicious snacks in today's doodle.

[9A]

June 9, 2016

Phoebe Snetsinger’s 85th birthday



Phoebe Snetsinger [née Burnett; June 9, 1931 – November 23, 1999], was an American birder famous for having seen and documented birds of 8,398 different species, at the time, more than anyone else in history and the first person to see more than 8,000. Her memoir, Birding on Borrowed Time, explores this achievement. She traveled the world multiple times to find birds in their habitats. She was described as having had an excellent memory, and a strong competitive spirit.

[9A]

June 9, 2016

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson’s 180th birthday



Born 180 years ago today, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain. She had a penchant for “firsts,” snagging many more during her illustrious career. She co-founded the first hospital staffed by women, and became the first dean of a British medical school. She even broke barriers across borders as France’s first female doctor.

Her accomplishments were gained through struggle and tenacity. When she was barred from medical school, she studied privately through tutors. Though the system prevented women from obtaining a medical degree, Garrett Anderson found a loophole and passed her medical exam with the highest marks.

As Britain’s first female doctor, Garrett Anderson was a fearless advocate for the care and advancement of women. Today’s doodle memorializes the infrastructure she set up to usher other women into the profession, as well as her devotion to the poor women and children she treated at her clinic.

After a long and successful career, Garrett Anderson broke one more barrier: becoming Britain’s first female mayor in 1908.

[9A]

June 17, 2017

Susan La Flesche Picotte’s 152nd Birthday




Today’s Doodle honors the life and legacy of Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte [1865-1915], the first American Indian to earn a medical degree.

Picotte grew up in Nebraska on the Omaha reservation, where her father urged her to “be somebody in the world.” She left her village and made her way east, eventually attending the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania [featured in today’s Doodle on the left], where she graduated at the top of her class. Despite receiving numerous prestigious job offers, Picotte chose to return to the reservation to provide the medical care that her tribe badly needed – tending to patients across 1,350 square miles on foot and horseback, in wind, snow, and rain.

Picotte was also a fierce public health advocate and social reformer. She promoted life-saving hygiene practices, such as the elimination of communal drinking cups and the installation of screen doors to keep out disease-carrying insects. Most notably, in 1913, she personally raised the funds to build a modern hospital in her hometown, which you can see pictured to the right of today’s Doodle.

Picotte’s remarkable career as a physician and health advocate just scratches the surface of her legacy. She was more than the reservation’s doctor – she was also an advisor, confidant, and symbol of hope for the Omaha.

Happy 152nd birthday to “Dr. Sue,” as her patients called her – a true American heroine.

[9A]

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!

Doodle by Pedro Vergani

[9A]

November 30, 2021

Janaina Dutra's 61st Birthday






Today's Doodle celebrates Brazilian social activist and lawyer Janaína Dutra, a leader of the Brazilian LGBTQIA+ movement who is widely considered the nation's first transgender person to practice law.

Janaína Dutra was born on this day in 1960 in the Canindé district of Brazil's northern Ceará state. By age 14, she began facing homophobic discrimination, but the support of her large family never faltered. She followed her sister to Fortaleza, where Dutra took her first steps toward a life devoted to advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community. In 1986 Dutra earned her law degree from the University of Fortaleza, making history of the first transgender graduate accepted as a member of the Order of Attorneys of Brazil [Brazilian National Bar Association].

Throughout the 1980s, Dutra furthered her career by developing Brazil's first HIV prevention campaign that focused on the transgender community in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Dutra Also contributed to the foundation of the Resistance Asa Branca Group [White Wing Resistance Group] and served to the first president of the Ceará Transvestites Association [ATRAC - Ceará Transvestites' Association] -a landmark non-profit organization focused on Developing social and legal support for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Known to always carry a copy of an anti-homophobia law passed by her hometown, Dutra spent a lifetime Whilst conferences, seminars, and round tables to advocate for equality. In 2011, the Janaína Dutra LGBT Reference Center was founded in Fortaleza, which carries on Dutra's mission by protecting human rights for members of the LGBTQIA+ community to this day.

[9A]

July 16, 2021

Elizeth Cardoso's 101st Birthday




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

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

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

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

Happy birthday, Elizeth Cardoso!