Google doodles

[9A]

15 Jul 2010

Josef Frank's 125th Birthday





Some people see things in an entirely unique way. Josef Frank's work was equal parts inspiring and surprising when I first came across this doodle proposal. Famous in Austria and Sweden for his vivid textiles and patterns, Frank's work delighted the doodle team so much that we decided to launch this doodle in other countries as well!

posted by Jennifer Hom

[9A]

12 July 2014

World Cup 2014 #61

[9A]

13 Jul 2014

World Cup 2014 – Final






The 2014 FIFA World Cup Final was the final match of the 2014 World Cup, the 20th edition of FIFA's competition for national football teams. The match was played at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 13 July 2014, and was contested by Germany and Argentina.

Germany's win was their fourth World Cup title and the first since German reunification, as well as the first World Cup win by a European team in the Americas.

[9A]

23 April 2021

Celebrating the letter Ñ





Today’s Doodle artwork, illustrated by Barcelona-based guest artist Min, commemorates the consonant Ñ [pronounced “enye”]. The only letter in the Spanish alphabet that originated in Spain, the Ñ is not only a letter but a representation of Hispanic heritage and identity as well.

The Ñ’s story started with 12th-century Spanish scribes. While hand-copying Latin manuscripts, these scholars of the Middle Ages devised a plan to save time and parchment by shortening words with double letters. They combined the two figures into one and scrawled on top a tiny “n”—a symbol now known as a ”virgulilla” or tilde—to signify the change. Thus, “annus,” Latin for “year,” evolved into the Spanish “año.”

In 1803, it was officially entered into the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary, and in 1993, Spain passed legislation to protect its inclusion in computer keyboards on the grounds of its insuppressible cultural significance. In 2010, the United Nations declared April 23 a day to annually celebrate the Spanish language, one of the most commonly spoken in the world.

Today, the letter Ñ appears in more than 17,700 Spanish words, carving out a fundamental role within the language and Hispanic culture.

[9A]

23 April 2010

National Sovereignty and Children's Day 2010 - Turkey



23 April is the day that the Grand National Assembly of Turkey was founded in 1920. ... 23 April was declared "National Sovereignty Day" on May 2, 1921. Since 1927, the holiday has also been celebrated as a children's day. Thus, Turkey became the first country to officially declare children's day a national holiday.

[9A]

18 October 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]

22 Oct 2021

Celebrating Theodor Wonja Michael



Today’s Doodle celebrates Afro-German author, journalist, actor, government official, and social activist Theodor Wonja Michael, who survived a German labor camp to become the nation’s first Black federal civil service officer. Dedicated throughout his wide-ranging career to the struggle against racism, he lived to become one of the oldest remaining representatives of a historic generation of Black German people. On this day in 2013, Michael published his emotive memoir “Black German: An Afro-German Life in the Twentieth Century.”

In 1925, Theodor Wonja Michael was born on January 15 in Berlin, Germany to a father of Cameroonian birth and a native German mother. After elementary school, he was denied occupational training due to Germany’s discriminatory Nuremberg Laws. He pursued acting instead, but at 18 he was sent to work in a forced labor camp.

After the end of World War II, Michael went on to earn a master’s degree in political science. He pursued a career in journalism and founded and edited the journal “Afrika-Bulletin.” In 1971, he agreed to contribute his expertise of African issues to West Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, where he worked as a secret agent and retired as a director in 1987. Initially hesitant to join, Michael used his government service to fight discrimination from within and open doors for other Black Germans. He eventually returned to acting and became one of Germany’s most renowned Shakespearean stage actors.

In honor of his role as a representative of the Black German community, Michael became the first recipient of the nation’s Black History Month Award in 2009.

Thank you, Theodor Wonja Michael! Your story continues to inspire new generations to stand firm in the fight against racial prejudice.

[9A]

22 October 2009

Mei Lanfang's Birthday


Mei Lan [22 October 1894 – 8 August 1961], better known by his stage name Mei Lanfang, was a notable Peking opera artist in modern Chinese theater. Mei was known as "Queen of Peking Opera". Mei was exclusively known for his female lead roles [dan] and particularly his "verdant-robed girls" [qingyi], young or middle-aged women of grace and refinement.

[9A]

22 October 2008

50th Anniversary of Deltawerken


The Delta Works [Dutch: Deltawerken] is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the sea. Constructed between 1954 and 1997, the works consist of dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees, and storm surge barriers located in the provinces of South Holland and Zeeland.

The aim of the dams, sluices, and storm surge barriers was to shorten the Dutch coastline, thus reducing the number of dikes that had to be raised. Along with the Zuiderzee Works, the Delta Works have been declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

[9A]

12 November 2021

Celebrating Johannes Vermeer



Today’s Doodle celebrates Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, a seminal Baroque artist who is widely regarded among the greatest Dutch painters of all time. On this day in 1995, an eponymous exhibition opened at Washington D.C.’s National Gallery of Art, featuring 21 of his 35 existing works.

Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft, the Netherlands, at the height of the Dutch Golden Age in 1632. Although little is known about Vermeer’s early life, historians estimate from his early mythological paintings that he first aspired to be a historical painter.

By the 1650s, Vermeer began to paint subtly lit interiors with intricate symbology—a style distinguished by traditional Dutch motifs that became his hallmark. He captured the commonplace in radiant and exquisite detail, creating masterworks including “The Girl with the Pearl Earring '' [1665] which is currently on display at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. The artistic techniques Vermeer employed are still up for debate. Some art historians suggest he traced images projected from a camera obscura [a predecessor to the photographic camera], but with no physical evidence to back up such claims, some Vermeer specialists remain unconvinced.

On the left, the Doodle artwork references “The Allegory of Painting” [1666-1668] and in the middle, “Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid” [1670-1671]. In 1979, an X-ray revealed a hidden Cupid in Vermeer’s “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” [1657-1659], referenced on the right of the Doodle. Researchers continued to analyze the canvas in 2017, determining that the Cupid was covered by another painter. In 2021, a German initiative completely restored the painting. These efforts are just a few of the many attempts to demystify Vermeer and some of the world’s most treasured pieces of fine art he left behind.

Here’s to a true artistic luminary—Johannes Vermeer!

[9A]

12 November 2021

Lyudmila Gurchenko's 86th birthday



Today’s Doodle, illustrated by guest artist Tatyana Ukleiko, celebrates the 86th birthday of multi-hyphenate Russian entertainer Lyudmila Gurchenko. From playing piano in vaudeville numbers to pulling heartstrings in war dramas, Gurchenko captivated millions as a versatile pop music sensation whose extensive acting career is widely considered among the greatest in 20th-century Russia.

Lyudmila Markovna Gurchenko was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, USSR [now Ukraine] on this day in 1935 to musician parents who fostered her talent from a young age. With a button accordion and dreams of acting in film, Gurchenko moved to Moscow to study at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography. Her meteoric rise to fame came not even one year after graduation, with her debut in the Russian flim musical “Carnival Night” in 1956.

In the wake of the movie’s success, Gurchenko began performing popular numbers from the film on a national tour. However, her career was stunted for over a decade by detractors in the government who criticized her for accepting compensation above state wages. Yet Russian filmmakers couldn’t ignore her prodigious talent. In 1973, she returned to the big screen with a leading role in the Soviet drama “Old Walls.”

She rode the momentum of her comeback as a star of Soviet entertainment into her 70s, appearing in over 130 acting roles and recording over 10 albums. To this day, it is tradition for many Russian television networks to ring in the New Year with an airing of “Carnival Night.”

Happy birthday, Lyudmila Gurchenko!

[9A]

12 November 2013

Leon Štukelj's 115th Birthday





Leon Štukelj was a Slovene professional gymnast. He was an Olympic gold medalist and athlete who represented Yugoslavia at the Olympics.

He is a noted figure in Slovenian sporting history. Štukelj is one of the first 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.

[9A]

12 November 2011

Hua Luogeng's 101st Birthday






Hua Luogeng was well known for two important contributions. One was his work on one of the greatest unsolved mathematical problems, known as Goldbach's Conjecture.... and yes, it is a little trickier than 1+1, though it involves prime numbers! [We celebrated one of his students, Chen Jungrun, in a previous doodle, who made significant progress on this problem].

Luogeng was also known for his methodology on achieving efficiency, known as "Overall Coordination." His analogy, taught to most schoolchildren, lays out the premise of wanting to drink tea when you don't yet have boiled water. The most optimized approach is that you first rinse and fill the kettle and place it on the burner. Meanwhile, you should wash the serving teapot, the tea cups, and prepare the tea leaves. When the water has boiled, you can immediately brew your tea. That's multi-tasking boiled down for you!

posted by Mike Dutton

[9A]

13 January 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]

16 Jan 2013

Zamboni




An ice resurfacer is a vehicle or hand-pushed device used to clean and smooth the surface of a sheet of ice, usually in an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by American inventor and engineer Frank Zamboni in 1949 in the city of Paramount, California. As such, an ice resurfacer is often referred to as a "Zamboni" regardless of brand or manufacturer.

[9A]

15 May 2012

Teachers' Day 2012

[9A]

16 January 2015

Teacher's Day 2015 [Thailand]

[9A]

24 February 2017

Celebrating Penpan Sittitrai




In the skilled hands of Penpan Sittitrai, a watermelon was far more than a refreshing treat on a summer day: it was art.

Using just a carving knife, she magically transformed melons into graceful swans, mangoes into rabbits, and potatoes into ducklings. Nature was a favorite theme, and she often formed lotus flowers from common foods like yam beans and garlic bulbs. Her intricate sculptures were used as showstopping centerpieces and serving vessels.

Even Thailand’s monarchs tapped Sittitrai for her talents. She once carved water chestnuts into 500 jasmine flowers for a royal wedding, and turned 250 coconuts into urns for a royal dining event.

On February 24, 2010, at the age of 83, Sittitrai was awarded the honorary title of National Artist for her outstanding contributions to Thailand’s arts. Instituted in 1985, “National Artist Day” is celebrated in Thailand on February 24.

In recognition of Sittitrai’s contributions to Thailand’s visual arts, today’s Doodle draws inspiration from her many books, including, “The Art of Thai Vegetable and Fruit Carving.”

[9A]

24 February 2010

2010 Vancouver Olympic Games - Ice Hockey

[9A]

10 October 2021

Celebrating Una Marson




Today’s Doodle, illustrated by UK-based guest artist Sarah Madden, celebrates one of Jamaica’s most influential feminist thinkers—the writer, advocate, and broadcaster Una Marson. Marson was the first Black woman to be employed as a radio producer at the BBC, where she recorded several significant interviews including one with swing band icon Ken “Snakehips” Johnson, which took place on this day in 1940.

Una Marson was born on February 6, 1905, in Santa Cruz, Jamaica. Marson became Jamaica’s first woman magazine publisher and editor in 1928 when she established “The Cosmopolitan”—a publication focused on gender issues and social injustice. The inspiration she drew from London’s political and literary climate led her to move to the city in 1933. Shocked by the racism she encountered, she started fighting for equal rights alongside fellow Caribbean immigrant Dr. Harold Moody, the founder of civil rights group The League of Coloured Peoples.

Marson returned home in 1936 to cultivate a new generation of Jamaican writers. While writing her own poetry and plays—which she often self-financed—she founded Jamaica’s Save the Children Fund. After relocating again to England in 1938, she took a position at the BBC, where she worked with George Orwell, read her poetry alongside T.S. Eliot, and produced the popular weekly program “Calling the West Indies.” First broadcast in 1943, it featured poems and short stories by Caribbean authors, giving an international platform and voice to writers such as Samuel Selvon. It also publicized both a woman's perspective to the largely male-dominated Black Internationalist Movement and a culturally relevant voice to Britain's growing Caribbean community.

Marson’s literary contributions are not widely known, and even less is known of her later life. However, it was her writing and poetry that influenced the broadcasting she is best known for, and has broadened her legacy for future generations to discover. In 2009, her achievements were celebrated with an installation of a Blue Plaque—which honors individuals who have had great impacts on their community and beyond—at her former home in London’s Brunswick Park.

Here’s to a cultural groundbreaker—thank you Una Marson!

[9A]

12 Oct 2020

Laudelina de Campos Melo's 116th Birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates the 116th birthday of Afro-Brazilian union activist, business owner, and domestic worker Laudelina de Campos Melo, who in 1936 founded Brazil’s first association of domestic workers. An eminent pioneer in the struggle for Brazilian workers’ rights, Melo dedicated her life to the fight against racial, class, and gender discrimination.

Laudelina de Campos Melo was born on this day in 1904 in Poços de Caldas, in Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais. Her mother served as a domestic worker and Melo became one as a teenager as well. In the process, she witnessed firsthand the racism, poor working conditions, and exploitation faced by so many workers, including her own mother— an experience that inspired her fight for change.

Melo relocated to the coastal city of Santos in 1924 and became involved in local organizations with a focus on improving the lives of Black Brazilians. This set a course of activism that she followed throughout her life. In 1936 she founded the historic Association of Domestic Workers, and she later formed a similar association in Campinas, which went on to officially earn recognition as a union in 1988.

In 2015, Melo’s movement for justice achieved another victory: when the Brazilian government passed legislation to extend labor rights to domestic workers.

Happy birthday, Laudelina de Campos Melo!

[9A]

9 Oct 2020

Hangul Day 2020



Today’s Doodle, illustrated by South Korea-based artist Jisu Choi, commemorates Korea’s Hangul Day [한글날]. One of the world’s only official holidays dedicated to a writing system, Hangul Day celebrates the invention of Korea’s alphabet known as Hangul.

The Hangul alphabet was first unveiled in 1446 by the Choson dynasty’s King Sejong. More than 500 years later, it is still considered a remarkable achievement, even by modern linguistic standards. The 24-letter alphabet remains the only writing system in the world that separates sentences into words, syllables, individual sounds, and elements of articulation like exhalation or voicing. Despite its sophisticated representation of complex spoken language, the writing system is noted for its elegance and simplicity; in fact, it’s said that a dedicated beginner could learn Hangul in just a few hours!

Happy Hangul Day!

[9A]

9 June 2016

Phoebe Snetsinger’s 85th birthday



Phoebe Snetsinger 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]

Jun 10, 2016

UEFA Euro 2016





It’s time for UEFA Euro 2016! France plays host to the world’s second-largest football championships from June 10 – July 10. Nearly 2 million fans are expected to travel to France to cheer teams from 24 countries in stadiums across the nation, while over 300 million are expected to tune in from afar. Whether you’re hoping Spain will defend their title or are counting on an upset, here’s to an exciting tournament!

[9A]

July 11, 2021

UEFA Euro 2020 Finals



Today’s Doodle celebrates the UEFA Euro Cup final between Italy & England, which kicks off today inside London’s Wembley Stadium. The high-stakes pinnacle of a month of world-class soccer, today’s matchup determines which nation will return home the 2020 Euro Cup champions. Who will it be?

Best of luck to both teams!


[The difference between FIFA and UEFA is that one is responsible for governing football/soccer worldwide and the other is responsible for the governance of football/soccer within Europe.]

[9A]

July 11, 2018

World Cup 2018 - Day 23








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]

Jul 10, 2018

World Cup 2018 - Day 22

[9A]

December 17, 2018

80th Anniversary of “The Rapid Arrows”





A group of five boys with a thirst for adventure, the Rapid Arrows [or Rychlé šípy in the original Czechoslovakian] premiered as an action-packed comics series 80 years ago. Mirek Dušín, Jarka Metelka, Jindra Hojer, Červenáček [aka "Red Cap"], Rychlonožka [aka "Speedy"], and their trusty dog Bublina [aka "Bubble"] were an instant hit with young readers—and remain popular in the Czech Republic and Slovakia today.

Created by the Czech writer Jaroslav Foglar, the Rapid Arrows comic quickly became a household name in families with young children. The group leader’s name, Mirek Dušín, has become a figure of speech for someone who is exemplary in every way—now used in a humorous way. Adapted into audio, film, and stage versions, the Rapid Arrows left a strong impact on pop culture in Eastern Europe and even inspired a wave of real-life youth clubs with many thousands of readers.

The comic ran from 1938 to 1989, with two breaks in production caused by war and political changes. All the original comics were collected into one book in 1998, which has been reprinted several times since. The Rapid Arrows also appear in Foglar’s novel Mystery of the Conundrum, which was adapted into a 1969 TV series and later into a 1993 film.

The boys’ search for the mechanical puzzle known as “Hedgehog in a Cage,” the Tleskač flying bicycle, and the sinister region of Stínadla continue to be loved by generations of readers and viewers.


Doodle illustrated by Czech artist, Marek Rubec

[9A]

August 15, 2019

Louisa Aldrich-Blake’s 154th Birthday




“When you start a thing you must finish it.” This was the motto by which British physician Louisa Aldrich-Blake lived, which served her well while she developed innovative surgical techniques, saved the lives of soldiers during World War I, and broke down barriers for women entering the medical profession. Today’s Doodle celebrates the birth of Britain’s first female surgeon on this day in 1865.

At age 22, Dr. Aldrich-Blake enrolled in the London School of Medicine for Women intending to do “something useful.” She went on to earn a gold medal for surgery in 1893 and an M.D. in 1894, becoming the first woman certified as Master of Surgery in English history a year later.

Her 1903 paper detailing an innovative treatment for rectal cancer was published in the British Medical Journal. From 1910-1925, she practiced surgery at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and worked at the Royal Free Hospital where she became the first female surgical registrar, anesthetist, and lecturer on anesthetics.

During the First World War, Dr. Aldrich-Blake spent her holidays working with the Anglo-French Red Cross in a field hospital near Paris where patients called her “Madame Générale.” Defying critics who questioned whether women belonged in military hospitals, she personally wrote to every female doctor she knew, encouraging them to volunteer and inspiring many young women to enroll in medical school.

In 1925, Dr. Aldrich-Blake was named a Dame of the British Empire, and a statue was erected in her honor near the headquarters of the British Medical Association.

[9A]

April 8, 2021

Helen Joseph's 116th Birthday




In recognition of her 116th birthday, today’s Doodle celebrates English-born, South African activist, Helen Joseph. A leading figure of white dissent of the unjust practice of apartheid, Joseph is widely considered one of South Africa’s most influential freedom fighters and women's rights advocates.

Born on this day in 1905, Joseph spent her early years living in London. She completed a degree in English at King’s College London in 1927, and later settled in Durban, South Africa.

Apartheid laws, which were enacted in 1948, divided South Africa along racial lines and extended to many facets of daily life. In 1951, Joseph took a position with the Garment Workers Union where she met Solly Sachs, who educated Joseph on South Africa’s political landscape and the realities of apartheid. Joseph soon became a founding member of the Congress of Democrats [COD], a white political ally of the African National Congress [ANC], and on August 9, 1956, Joseph co-led a march of 20,000 women with the Federation of South African Women [FEDSAW] on Pretoria’s Union Buildings. Joseph’s fearless opposition resulted in government-led attempts to silence her but despite the backlash, Joseph remained active, taking in the children of exiled or imprisoned political activists, including Nelson and Winnie Mandela’s children.

Helen Joseph faced harsh repercussions for her actions, and yet, she persisted. Her lifelong fight to unite the people of South Africa was recognized by the ANC in 1992 with the Isitwalandwe/Seaparankwe Award. In honor of the historic women’s march on Pretoria and the unwavering advocacy of women like Helen Joseph, August 9 was commemorated annually as Women’s Day in South Africa.

Happy birthday, Helen Joseph!

[9A]

January 21, 2021

Grandmother's Day 2021 [January 21]
[Poland]

[9A]

January 21, 2013

Emma Gad's 161th Birthday





Emma Gad, born Emma Halkier, was a Danish writer and socialite who wrote plays and books that were often satirical. Although she was a prolific writer, many of her works fell into obscurity after her death. One work that remained popular was Takt og Tone, a book of etiquette she wrote in old age.

She received a gold Medal of Merit in 1905. Today her plays are preserved in Denmark's Royal Library.

[9A]

January 21, 2016

Lola Flores’ 93rd Birthday





Today's doodle displays the beautiful visage of "La Faraona", captured in a moment of fierce passion. Recognize those sparkling eyes and perfectly poised hands? She is the beloved Spanish dancer, singer, and actress Lola Flores.

Flores’ legacy lives on in her many films, operas and songs—which are characteristically defiant and as powerful as one of her masterful flamenco performances.

[9A]

January 8, 2022

Francisco González Bocanegra's 198th Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the 198th birthday of the Mexican poet and playwright who authored the lyrics of Himno Nacional Mexicano, or the Mexican National Anthem—Francisco González Bocanegra.

On this day in 1824, Francisco González Bocanegra was born in San Luis Potosí into a Spanish family. Following the federal mandate for all Spaniards to leave Mexico in 1829, Bocanegra spent seven years in Spain before returning to Mexico at 12 years old. He moved to Mexico City in 1849, where he joined the capital’s literary community and established himself as a poet.

In 1853, officials from the Mexican government invited the nation’s poets to compose the lyrics to the National Anthem. Though interested in the challenge, Bocanegra’s modesty kept him from participating in the contest. He mentioned the competition to his girlfriend who employed an unconventional yet effective motivational strategy—locking the young author in a room with a promise to only let him out once he finished the song’s lyrics. Four hours later, Bocanegra slipped the finished product—ten stanzas in Italian octaves—under the door.

His submission won, and on the eve of Mexico’s Independence Day in 1854, Bocanegra’s anthem was sung for the first time at the Santa Ana Theater [known today as the National Theater]. This hymn was adopted by the government as the nation’s official anthem in 1943, and the rest is history! Today, his words remain immortalized in the Mexican National Anthem and have been translated into 12 different Indigenous languages spoken throughout the nation.

[9A]

March 22, 2021

Elena Lacková's 100th Birthday





Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Czech guest artist Filip Posivac, celebrates the centennial birthday of Slovakian-Romani writer and dramatist Elena Lacková, who is widely considered the first author in post-war Czechoslovakia to tell the story of the Romani people and the persecution they faced throughout World War II.

Born on this day in 1921 in Veľký Šariš, Czechoslovakia [modern-day Slovakia], Elena Lacková was raised in a settlement of Romani people—a historically oppressed European ethnic group of Indian origin. Although she was unable to pursue higher education due to anti-Romani laws, Lacková became a talented writer of her own accord, penning poems by moonlight as the only girl out of the 600 children in her settlement with the ability to read.

In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and persecuted its Romani settlements as part of the regime’s Roma Holocaust. Lacková survived these atrocities and became determined to reinvigorate Roma pride through theatre. Her first published work of literature—a play entitled “Horiaci cigánsky tabor” [“The Gypsy Camp Is Burning,” 1947]—depicted the collective hardships of the Romani people during the Holocaust, while providing a new perspective into their culture.

Lacková’s work continually uplifted the Romani community through literary mediums such as short stories, fairy tales, and radio plays. In 1970, she achieved yet another milestone as the first Romani woman in Czechoslovakia to graduate from university. A pioneer who received countless accolades, Lacková became the first Romani woman to receive one of Slovakia’s highest honors, the Order of Ľudovít Štúr III, awarded in 2001.


Happy birthday, Elena Lacková!

[9A]

March 22, 2005

World Water Day 2005





World Water Day is an annual United Nations [UN] observance day held on 22 March that highlights the importance of fresh water. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The theme of each day focuses on topics relevant to clean water, sanitation and hygiene [WASH], which is in line with the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6. The UN World Water Development Report [WWDR] is released each year around World Water Day.

UN-Water is the convener for World Water Day and selects the theme for each year in consultation with UN organizations that share an interest in that year's focus. The theme for 2021 was "Valuing Water" and the public campaign invited people to join a global conversation on social media to "tell us your stories, thoughts and feelings about water".

In 2020, the theme was "Water and Climate Change". Previous themes for the years 2016 to 2019 were "Water and Jobs'", "Why waste water?" "Nature for Water", and "Leaving no one behind". World Water Day is celebrated around the world with a variety of events. These can be theatrical, musical or lobbying in nature. The day can also include campaigns to raise money for water projects. The first World Water Day, designated by the United Nations, was in 1993.

[9A]

Mar 29, 2005

Vincent van Gogh's 152nd Birthday




The Starry Night is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Widely regarded as Van Gogh's magnum opus, The Starry Night is one of the most recognized paintings in Western art.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. Not commercially successful, he struggled with severe depression and poverty, eventually leading to his suicide at age thirty-seven.

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August 17, 2020

Librado Silva Galeana’s 78th Birthday




Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Chihuahua-based guest artist Raul Urias, celebrates Mexican translator, teacher, researcher, and author Librado Silva Galeana, an expert in the ancient Nahuatl language that was spoken within Mexico’s Aztek and Toltec civilizations. Galeana is widely known for his Spanish translation of a 16th-century collection of Nahuatl oral history called Huehuetlahtolli: Testimonies of the Old Word, in addition to many other Nahuatl poems and stories that encapsulate Mexico’s rich history and culture.

Librado Silva Galeana was born on this day in 1942 in Santa Ana Tlacotenco, Mexico. His parents were both Nahuatl speakers and passed the language down to Galeana. Fueled by a love of linguistics, he studied to become a teacher and dedicated much of his academic work to the preservation and promotion of his mother tongue of Nahuatl.

In the mid-1970s, he collaborated with fellow Nahuatl teachers to found the Ignacio Ramírez Social and Cultural Circle, a group named after the famed 19th-century Mexican writer and dedicated to the study of the language. Throughout his career, Galeana carried on Ramírez’s legacy of championing indigenous languages and knowledge. He contributed his expertise in Nahuatl to a variety of scholarly research in order to develop a deeper understanding of the indigenous heritage that helped to shape modern Mexico.

In recognition of his efforts to conserve the Nahuatl language and culture, Galeana was awarded the Nezahualcóyotl Prize for Indigneous Languages by Mexico’s Federal District Department in 1994.

Happy birthday, Librado Silva Galeana, and thank you for helping to preserve and celebrate culture.

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January 22, 2018

Sergei Eisenstein’s 120th Birthday




Born this day in 1898, Sergei Eisenstein was a Soviet artist and avantgarde director of several groundbreaking films, including Battleship Potemkin, Strike, and The General Line.

Known as the father of montage — the film technique of editing a fast-paced sequence of short shots to transcend time or suggest thematic juxtapositions — Eisenstein deployed arresting images in sequences of psychological precision. His films were also revolutionary in another sense, as he often depicted the struggle of downtrodden workers against the ruling class.

Today, we celebrate his 120th birthday with a tribute to his pioneering technique. Happy birthday, Sergei Eisenstein!

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August 17, 2011

Pierre de Fermat's 410th Birthday




Pierre de Fermat was not a particularly revolutionary mathematician. A lawyer full-time, he practiced math as a hobby and never devoted enough time to it to become widely celebrated in his day. His name lives on today, though, because his sly wit generated a mystery for the ages that perplexed mathematicians for 358 years.

Fermat wrote many little theorems, including the deceptively simple Last Theorem, which states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn when n is greater than two. Fermat first scrawled this supposition in the margins of the Arithmetica by Diophantus, followed by the note: "I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which this margin is too narrow to contain." It remains hotly contested to this day whether Fermat actually did have a proof, or whether he was just using the convenient excuse of a small margin to avoid being held responsible for it. Either way, his theorem remained unproved until 1995, when British mathematician Andrew Wiles successfully developed a solution – a saga documented in the excellent BBC Horizon documentary, "Fermat's Last Theorem."

We were so tickled by Fermat's little jab that we tried something similar. When this doodle ran, the hover text read: "I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this theorem, which this doodle is too small to contain."

Posted by Sophia Foster-Dimino

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Aug 22, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympic Games - Martial Arts

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Aug 23, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympic Games - Baseball

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Aug 18, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympic Games - Table Tennis

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Aug 15, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympic Games - Badminton

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Aug 14, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympic Games - Basketball

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Aug 8, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympic Games - Opening Ceremony

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Aug 24, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympic Games - Closing Ceremony

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August 24, 2015

Duke Kahanamoku’s 125th Birthday






The story of Duke Kahanamoku--the Hawaiian who, in 1912, first drew the world’s collective gaze upon the art of surfing--reads like mythology. Born in Honolulu in 1890, he is credited in over a dozen feature films, surfed the world’s most imposing swells before Californians knew what surfing was, won five Olympic medals in swimming and was elected sheriff of his beloved home county thirteen times.

The Big Kahuna was a tremendous athlete, to be sure, and by all accounts staggeringly cool, but he also had a proclivity for heroics--one morning in 1925, just as dawn crept into the summer sky over Newport Beach, a 40-foot fishing vessel called the Thelma found herself in the grip of a sudden and violent squall. Waves hammered the Thelma’s deck, and the vessel succumbed to the thrashing breakers, stranding its crew in the surf. The Duke, who watched from the shore as he prepared for that morning’s ride, rushed headlong into the maelstrom with his surfboard and, along with three friends, managed to wrest twelve men from the clutches of the Pacific.

Despite his charisma on the screen and two decades of Olympic triumphs, it is perhaps for moments like these--for his character, his ease in the water, his deep and unending love of Hawaii and her oceans--that Duke Kahanamoku is remembered most. He brought surfing to the world, and by force of his magnetism and singularly Hawaiian spirit helped The Islands achieve statehood. Today, on his 125th birthday, Matt Cruickshank recalls the legend of the “Ambassador of Aloha” with a Doodle of his iconic, 16-foot wooden surfboard and his warm, blithe smile. “Most importantly,” a reverent surfer remarks in a documentary about The Duke, “he was pure Hawaiian”.

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June 26, 2018

Gauhar Jaan’s 145th Birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates India’s first recording star, Gauhar Jaan, who emerged on the scene at the turn of the 20th century. She gained popularity through her singing and dancing, and she would go on to define the future of Indian performance art.

Gauhar Jaan embraced the gramophone [a very new invention in India at the time] allowing her voice to reach a greater audience than ever before. Her vision and business practices were quickly praised throughout the entertainment industry, for her forward-thinking approach to the way sound technology could be utilized. Gauhar Jaan performed in over ten languages and produced over 600 records during the course of her life, amassing a large amount of wealth for herself which she shared with her pet cat-- she even threw a wedding for it, spending a rumored 12,000 rupees!

Happy birthday, Gauhar!


Doodle illustrated by Aditi Damle.