Google doodles

[9A]

12 Feb 2011

Naomi Uemura's 70th Birthday






Naomi Uemura was a Japanese adventurer who was known particularly for his solo exploits. For example, he was the first person to reach the North Pole solo, the first person to raft the Amazon solo, and the first person to climb Denali solo. He disappeared a day after his 43rd birthday while attempting to climb Denali in the winter.

[9A]

12 February 2010

Carnival 2010 [Brazil]





The Carnival of Brazil is an annual Brazilian festival held the Friday afternoon before Ash Wednesday at noon, which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter. During Lent, Roman Catholics and some other Christians traditionally abstained from the consumption of meat and poultry, hence the term "carnival", from carnelevare, "to remove [literally, "raise"] meat."

Rhythm, participation, and costumes vary from one region of Brazil to another. In the southeastern cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Vitória, huge organized parades are led by samba schools. Those official parades are meant to be watched by the public, while minor parades [blocos] allowing public participation can be found in other cities, like Belo Horizonte, also in the southeastern region. The northeastern cities of Recife, Olinda, Salvador, and Porto Seguro have organized groups parading through streets, and public interacts directly with them. It is a six-day party where crowds follow the trios elétricos through the city streets, dancing and singing. Also in northeast, Olinda carnival features unique characteristics, heavily influenced by local folklore and cultural manifestations, such as Frevo and Maracatu.

The typical genres of music of Brazilian carnival are, in the Southeast Region in general, mostly cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo: the samba-enredo, the samba de bloco, the samba de embalo and the marchinha; and in the Northeast Region including Pernambuco [mostly cities of Olinda and Recife]: frevo and maracatu, and Bahia [mostly the city of Salvador]: samba-reggae, pagode [also a type of Samba] and the main genre axé music. These rhythms were mainly developed by Afro-brazlians and Pardos, incorporating and adapting many cultural influences, from the percussion beats of Africa to the military fanfares of Europe and iberian music in the use of instruments like pandeiro and cavaquinho.

Carnival is the most popular holiday in Brazil and has become an event of huge proportions. Except for industrial production, retail establishments such as malls, and carnival-related businesses, the country unifies completely for almost a week and festivities are intense, day and night, mainly in coastal cities. Rio de Janeiro's carnival alone drew 4.9 million people in 2011, with 400,000 being foreigners.

[9A]

12 February 2021

Lunar New Year 2021 [Vietnam]





Today’s Doodle celebrates the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar—officially starting the Year of the Ox! Vietnamese New Year, Tết Nguyên Đán [Tết for short], marks a time to honor ancestors and look forward to prosperity in the year ahead.

This Lunar New Year marks the official transition out of the Year of the Rat–believed to be one of constant change–and into the Year of the Ox, which is traditionally associated with things moving at a more slow and steady pace. The ox is the second animal of the Vietnamese zodiac and symbolizes hard work, positivity, and fertile harvest.

Throughout Vietnam and around the world, the lunar new year is warmly welcomed with traditional foods such as bánh chưng, bánh tét, and mứt [candied fruits]. Alongside special meals, many Vietnamese decorate the outside of their homes as a way to welcome the new year, like buying a cây đào [[cherry blossom tree), cây mai [apricot blossom tree], or cây quất [kumquat tree] to symbolize the hope of fertility and fruitfulness in the coming year.

So take this year by the horns—here’s to this next lunar cycle being as strong as an ox!

[9A]

12 February 2021

Lunar New Year 2021 [South Korea]




Today’s Doodle celebrates the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar—officially starting the Year of the Ox! Korean New Year, Seollal, marks a time to honor ancestors and look forward to prosperity in the year ahead.

This Lunar New Year marks the official transition out of the Year of the Rat–believed to be one of constant change–and into the Year of the Ox, which is traditionally associated with things moving at a more slow and steady pace. In Korean culture, the ox—symbolizing hard work, positivity, and fertile harvest—holds special significance as one of the animals that appears most frequently throughout the nation’s traditional proverbs.

The lunar new year is warmly welcomed with traditional foods such as tteokguk [rice cake soup], yakbap [sweet rice], japchae [glass noodle stir fry], and jeon [savory pancake]. Lunar New Year is also sometimes celebrated with talchum [Korea traditional mask dances], as depicted in today's Doodle artwork. The Eunyul Talchum and Bukcheong Saja Noreums, both recognized as National Intangible Cultural Properties of Korea, are rooted in a folk belief that lions have the power to turn away evil spirits and bring peace.

So take this year by the horns—here’s to this next lunar cycle being as strong as an ox!

[9A]

12 February 2009

Charles Darwin's 200th Birthday





Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended from common ancestors is now widely accepted and considered a fundamental concept in science. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and he was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.

Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact. However, many favoured competing explanations that gave only a minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life.

[9A]

28 October 2021

Kanō Jigorō's 161st birthday




Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Los Angeles, CA-based artist Cynthia Yuan Cheng, celebrates Japan’s “Father of Judo,” Professor Kanō Jigorō, on his 161st birthday. The name Judo means “the gentle way” and the sport is built on principles such as justice, courtesy, safety, and modesty. Kanō saw the martial art as a way to bring people together, even while throwing opponents to the mat.

Born in 1860 in Mikage [now part of Kobe], Kanō moved to Tokyo with his father at age 11. Though he was known as a child prodigy in school, he often faced adversity. To build strength, he became determined to study the martial art of Jujutsu. During his time as a student at Tokyo University, he finally found someone who would teach him—Jujutsu master and former samurai Fukuda Hachinosuke.

Judo was first born during a Jujutsu sparring match when Kanō incorporated a western wrestling move to bring his much larger opponent to the mat. By removing the most dangerous techniques used in Jujutsu, he created “Judo,” a safe and cooperative sport based on Kanō’s personal philosophy of Seiryoku-Zenyo [maximum efficient use of energy] and Jita-Kyoei [mutual prosperity of self and others]. In 1882, Kanō opened his own dojo [[a martial arts gym), the Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo, where he would go on to develop Judo for years. He also welcomed women into the sport in 1893.

Kanō became the first Asian member of the International Olympic Committee [IOC] in 1909, and in 1960, the IOC approved Judo as an official Olympic sport.

お誕生日おめでとうございます

Happy birthday, Kanō Jigorō!

[9A]

28 October 2014

Jonas Salk's 100th Birthday







Polio is nearly a thing of the past, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Jonas Salk. In 1952, Dr. Salk discovered and developed the first successful vaccine for polio. Combined with Albert Sabin’s oral vaccination, the virus is no longer the threat to the world that it used to be.

For the art, doodler Mike Dutton wanted to focus on those that benefited from this scientific milestone. Adults and children alike are susceptible to the disease, but children were especially at risk due to how the disease was transmitted.

“In earlier concept sketches, I wanted to show polio as something being conquered,” says Dutton.

“But it was also a little weird to show this monstrous, evil thing in an illustration, even if I was showing happy, able-bodied children literally overcoming the disease by jumping over it.”

Digging a little deeper, he learned that when the news of a vaccine was announced, people around the world spontaneously celebrated. Shopkeepers closed up shop for the day, factories observed a moment of silence, teachers and parents wept. “It was a pretty scary thing at the time. To go from something affecting hundreds of thousands of people around the world per year to just under a thousand cases today – it was a pretty big deal. That was my visual cue to show a town scene with both kids and adults celebrating, running around, enjoying themselves.”

Dr. Jonas Salk himself was a humble man and never patented the vaccine, forgoing an immeasurable fortune. When asked who owned the patent, Salk said it was the people that owned it, adding,”Could you patent the sun?”

Happy 100th, Dr. Jonas Salk!

[9A]

17 February 2021

Dr. Marie Thomas’ 125th birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the 125th birthday of Dr. Marie Thomas, one of the first female doctors in Indonesia. Born on this day in 1896 in the Indonesian village of Likupang, Marie Thomas made history as the nation’s first female specialist in gynecology and obstetrics.

Marie Thomas frequently moved around Indonesia throughout childhood before graduating from a European school based in Manado. It was then that Charlotte Jacobs, one of the Netherlands’ first female pharmacists, supported her with a scholarship fund for aspiring Indonesian female physicians. In 1912, Thomas was accepted into STOVIA [School for Education of Native Doctors], which prior to her enrollment, was an institution exclusive to men.

Ten years later, Marie Thomas earned her doctorate, an achievement with such an international impact that even a Dutch newspaper announced her graduation. Not missing a beat, she promptly went to work at one of the largest hospitals in Batavia [modern-day Jakarta]. Thomas later moved to Padang, where she continued her trailblazing career as one of the first doctors to introduce new methods of contraception, such as the IUD, to women across the archipelago.

Renowned for her generosity, Thomas often treated those unable to afford her care at no cost. She further exhibited her passion for patient care by establishing the first Sumatran school for midwifery; only the second of its kind in Indonesia at the time.

Happy birthday, Dr. Marie Thomas. Thank you for your selfless dedication to the lives of others that has paved the way for women in Indonesia to pursue medicine and higher education.

[9A]

17 February 2014

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson's 150th Birthday [born 1864]



Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" [1889], "The Man from Snowy River" [1890] and "Waltzing Matilda" [1895́], regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem.

[9A]

17 February 2012

Agniya Barto's 106th birthday




Agniya Lvovna Barto was a Soviet poet and children's writer of Russian Jewish origin.

[9A]

17 February 2016

Rene Laennec’s 235th Birthday



Late in 1816, while examining a patient suffering complications of the heart, René Laennec’s memory of a stroll taken months prior came rushing back. Walking the courtyard of the Louvre that day, he observed two children playing with a long stick--one scraped it with a pin while the other listened giddily to the amplified sound on the other end.

Recalling this, Laennec rolled up a piece of paper and pressed it to his patient’s chest. The beating of her heart was suddenly audible and clear, and the stethoscope--an innovation that would fundamentally change the detection and diagnosis of lung and heart problems--was born.

After several prototypes, he settled on an instrument that resembled a long, wooden tube. Using his invention, Laennec continued his research on sound in diagnostic medicine and made several important contributions to the field. To celebrate what would have been his 235th birthday, artists Helene Leroux and Olivia When depicted Laennec’s very first stethoscope beside the one we know today.

Happy birthday, Dr. Laennec.

[9A]

17 February 2011

Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena's Birthday






Guillermo González Camaren[17 February 1917 – 18 April 1965] was a Mexican electrical engineer who was the inventor of a color-wheel type of color television.

[9A]

17 October 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]

22 Oct 2018

Varvara Stepanova’s 124th Birthday





A poet, painter, photographer, and designer of books, magazines, posters, stage scenery, textiles and clothing, Stepanova defied societal norms of “women’s work” as she and other members of the Russian Constructivist movement subverted the notion of art as a rarified activity for elites and intellectuals.

Born in Kovno, Lithuania, on this day in 1894, Stepanova was raised in a peasant family before enrolling in the renowned Kazan art school in Odessa in 1910, a time of great creative and political upheaval in Russia.

In 1918, she published a series of books containing her “nonobjective visual poetry” whose words were chosen for sound and shape as much as meaning. By the 1920s she found herself at the forefront of the Russian avant-garde, co-founding the Constructivist movement along with her partner Aleksandr Rodchenko and such distinguished colleagues as Kasimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, and Lyubov Popova.

In 1922 Stepanova created the sets for Aleksandr Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin’s play The Death of Tarelkin. Her clothing designs, using geometric shapes and utilitarian designs suited to particular activities fell into two broad categories: prozodezhda, or production clothing—which provided peasants, industrial workers, and theatrical performers alike with modern stylish and functional garments—and sportodezhda or sports costumes, which were designed to highlight the athletic body in motion. All of her clothing designs pioneered what is now known as “unisex” fashion.

Along with Popova she designed textiles at Tsindel, the state textile factory, using overlapping geometric shapes to create complex patterns in what many considered a lesser art form, later becoming a professor of textile design. Although wartime shortages prevented many of these groundbreaking designs from being realized, Stepanova’s vision and legacy lives on.

C Днём рождения, Varvara Stepanova!

[9A]

22 October 2012

Abu Simbel



Abu Simbel are two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel, Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. They are situated on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km [140 mi] southwest of Aswan [about 300 km [190 mi] by road]. The complex is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments", which run from Abu Simbel downriver to Philae [near Aswan], and include Amada, Wadi es-Sebua, and other Nubian sites. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, during the 19th Dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. They serve as a lasting monument to the king Ramesses II. His wife Nefertari and children can be seen in smaller figures by his feet, considered to be of lesser importance and were not given the same position of scale. This commemorates his victory at the Battle of Kadesh. Their huge external rock relief figures have become iconic.

The complex was relocated in its entirety in 1968 under the supervision of a Polish archaeologist, Kazimierz Michałowski, from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary or they would have been submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the River Nile. The project was carried out as part of the UNESCO Nubian Salvage Campaign.

[9A]

22 October 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]

14 February 2022

Valentine's Day 2022






Sometimes love takes you by surprise. It can be full of twists and turns, but through all its ups and downs, it can still bring the world closer together [no matter the species].

Just look at the two smitten hamsters featured in today’s interactive 3-D Doodle. Can you piece their path together and clear the way for them to scamper into each other’s precious paws? As they say, home is where the heart is.


Happy Valentine's Day!

[9A]

14 February 2021

Valentine's Day 2021



At the heart of each Valentine’s Day, there’s one unifying emotion that always sticks around year after year: love!

So today, let that special someone know that you love them to pieces—a million tiny sparkly ones at that!


Happy Valentine’s Day!

[9A]

14 February 2020

Valentine's Day 2020





No matter where you are in the universe today, love is in the air!

Whether your loved ones are light-years away, or nearby, we hope no amount of space gets in the way of letting them know you're over the moon for them.

Wishing all a stellar Valentine’s Day!

[9A]

14 February 2008

Valentine's Day 2008

[9A]

14 February 2011

Happy Valentine's Day from Google & Robert Indiana. Courtesy of the Morgan Art Foundation/ARS, NY







Robert Indiana [born Robert Clark; September 13, 1928 – May 19, 2018] was an American artist associated with the pop art movement. His "LOVE" print, first created for the Museum of Modern Art's Christmas card in 1965, was the basis for his 1970 Love sculpture and the widely distributed 1973[ United States Postal Service "LOVE" stamp. He created works in media including paper [silk screen] and Cor-ten steel.



1973 LOVE stamp

[9A]

14 February 2016

Valentine's Day 2016






Happy Valentine's Day, to unlikely couples everywhere.

[9A]

14 February 2015

Valentine's Day 2015






Whether a time for a romantic date, to catch up with friends, or catch up on cat videos, Tu B'Av is a good excuse to connect with the world around you. As nerds, the doodle team wanted to sweeten up our homepage with ways in which technology brings people together. The gesture may be as subtle as charging someone else's laptop or as bold as sending an affectionate text, but technology is fully engrained in the ways we express appreciation for one another.


We hope you enjoy our five quick animations of how love and technology go hand-in-hand!

• 
  Posted by Jennifer Hom, doodler, and Olivia When, doodler [[<3)
  

[9A]

14 February 2003

Valentine's Day 2003

[9A]

14 February 2013


Valentine's Day and George Ferris' 154th Birthday




Romance and amusement parks often go hand in hand. In many places a carnival, fair or circus is a popular destination for a thrilling and action-packed date. Coincidentally, George W.G. Ferris Jr., the creator of the Ferris Wheel was born on Valentine’s Day in 1859. This year seemed like a golden opportunity to combine our celebration of love with the birthday of the engineer whose mechanical invention has filled so many hearts with wonder.

[9A]

9 April 2021

Clive Sullivan's 78th birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates the 78th birthday of Welsh-born rugby winger and coach Clive Sullivan, who made history as the first Black captain of any major British sports team when he was selected to lead the country’s national side, the Great Britain national rugby league team, The Lions.

Clive Sullivan was born on this day in the Splott district of Cardiff, Wales. From a young age, he was drawn to the sport of rugby, often playing in school. By his teenage years, he had suffered various rugby-related injuries that required operations on his knees, feet, and shoulders, leading doctors to state he’d never walk normally again. However, Sullivan refused to let this hold him back and worked to overcome his childhood injuries. At just 17, his perseverance paid off when he accepted a trial for Hull Football Club, whom he impressed so much with his tremendous speed that they signed him as a professional player the very next day.

Sullivan went on to play over 350 games with Hull FC and over 200 with Hull Kingston Rovers, cementing his status as one of rugby’s most formidable opposition wingers. In 1967, he made his international debut for Great Britain, which granted him his historic captaincy in 1972. After a stint as a coach for Hull FC, the team unexpectedly called him back to compete once again as a player at the age of 39.

To honor Sullivan, a section of one of Hull’s most prominent roads was renamed Clive Sullivan Way in 1985.

Happy birthday, Clive Sullivan - Thank you for breaking barriers and opening doors for generations to come.

[9A]

9 April 2021

Amácio Mazzaropi's 109th birthday



Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Brazilian guest artist Arthur Vergani, celebrates Brazilian actor, screenwriter, producer, and director Amácio Mazzaropi on his 109th birthday. Through his signature role as the beloved character “Jeca Tatu,” Mazzaropi used humor to address serious topics and became a fixture of Brazilian cinema.

Born on this day in São Paulo in 1912, Mazzaropi spent time as a child visiting his grandfather’s country home, which influenced the on-screen persona he later developed. As a teenager, the future icon of Brazilian comedy left home to work for Circo La Paz, a traveling circus. There he came up with the idea to perform as a hillbilly, embodied in Marazzaropi’s future performance as Monteiro Lobato’s character Jeca Tatu.

Mazzaropi produced content for radio and television for many years before appearing in his first film, “Sai da Frente” [“Get Out of the Way,” 1952]. With his film career off the ground, and after several other roles, Mazzaropi bought Fazenda Santa, a farm turned studio that also served as the location for many of his films. It was here that Mazzaropi opened his own production company in 1958. Mazzaropi wove social commentary into simple language and covered important subjects to great effect, which caused audiences to flock to his productions for over 20 years.

Interestingly, while Mazzaropi became one of Brazil’s most acclaimed comedic actors, he was also a major supplier of milk to Leites Paulista. Today, Fazenda Santa is Hotel Fazenda Mazzaropi, home to the Mazzaropi Museum, which has a collection of over 20,000 items.

Happy birthday, Amácio Mazzaropi!

[9A]

9 April 2012

Elias Lönnrot's 210th Birthday





Elias Lönnrot was a Finnish physician, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for creating the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, from short ballads and lyric poems gathered from the Finnish oral tradition during several expeditions in Finland, Russian Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and Baltic countries.

[9A]

9 April 2020

Thank you caretakers and refuse collectors




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





Today, we’d like to say:


To all custodial and sanitation workers, thank you.

[9A]

17 September 2021

Michiyo Tsujimura's 133rd birthday



Have you ever wondered why green tea tastes so bitter when steeped for too long? Thanks to Japanese educator and biochemist Michiyo Tsujimura, and her groundbreaking research into the nutritional benefits of green tea, science has the answers. Today’s Doodle celebrates Michiyo Tsujimura on her 133rd birthday.

Michiyo Tsujimura was born on this day in 1888 in Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. She spent her early career teaching science. In 1920, she chased her dream of becoming a scientific researcher at Hokkaido Imperial University where she began to analyze the nutritional properties of Japanese silkworms.

A few years later, Tsujimura transferred to Tokyo Imperial University and began researching the biochemistry of green tea alongside Dr. Umetaro Suzuki, famed for his discovery of vitamin B1. Their joint research revealed that green tea contained significant amounts of vitamin C—the first of many yet unknown molecular compounds in green tea that awaited under the microscope. In 1929, she isolated catechin—a bitter ingredient of tea. Then, the next year she isolated tannin, an even more bitter compound. These findings formed the foundation for her doctoral thesis, “On the Chemical Components of Green Tea” when she graduated as Japan’s first woman doctor of agriculture in 1932.

Outside of her research, Dr. Tsujimura also made history as an educator when she became the first Dean of the Faculty of Home Economics at Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School in 1950. Today, a stone memorial in honor of Dr.Tsujimura’s achievements can be found in her birthplace of Okegawa City.

Happy Birthday, Michiyo Tsujimura!

[9A]

17 September 2020

Mandawuy Yunupingu's 64th birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates musician, educator, and civil rights activist Mandawuy Yunupingu. In addition to starting the internationally acclaimed band Yothu Yindi, whose powerful music spread traditional Indigenous sounds around the world, Yunupingu was the first Indigenous Australian to be appointed a school principal in the country.

Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun Yunupingu was born Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu on this day in 1956 in Yirrkala in the Northern Territory. In 1987, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in education from Deakin University, before returning to Yirrkala to teach.

Back home, Yunupingu devoted himself to his band Yothu Yindi, whose name translates to “mother and child” in the language of the Yolngu people. Committed to the concept of balance, the band included both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal musicians and blended traditional Indigenous music with modern rock and pop. Yothu Yindi released its debut album in 1989, the same year that Yunupingu became the principal of the Yirrkala Community School. Echoing his approach to music, he developed an educational philosophy that included both Aboriginal and Western teachings. Yothu Yindi went on to achieve worldwide fame with hits like “Treaty” [1991], which spent 22 weeks on the Australian music charts.

In 1992, Yunupingu was named Australian of the Year for helping to foster a deeper understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

Happy birthday, Mandawuy Yunupingu, and thank you for sharing your music and principles with the world.

[9A]

25 October 2019

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s 119th Birthday





“As for the charges against me, I am unconcerned,” said Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the Nigerian educator and activist who fearlessly campaigned for women’s rights and the liberation of Africa from colonial rule. Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Nigerian-Italian guest artist Diana Ejaita, celebrates a formidable leader who founded what many refer to as one of the most important social movements of the twentieth century.​

Born on this day in 1900 in Abeokuta, the current capital of Nigeria’s Ogun state, the former Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas grew up witnessing Great Britain consolidating control over Nigeria. As the grandchild of a slave, she became one of the first girls to enroll in Abeokuta Grammar School, before traveling to Cheshire in England to continue her education. By the time she returned home, she’d dropped her birth names and preferred to speak Yoruba.

In 1932, Ransome-Kuti established the Abeokuta Ladies Club [ALC], fostering unity between educated women and poor market workers and setting up the first adult education programs for Nigerian women. Renamed the Abeokuta Women’s Union in 1946, the organization boasted a membership of some 20,000 and pushed for healthcare, social services, and economic opportunity. Imprisoned in 1947 for protesting against unfair treatment towards women, Ransome-Kuti and her followers also led the charge to abdicate a corrupt local leader.

A trailblazer in many ways, Ransome-Kuti was also the first Nigerian woman to drive a car. She was also the only woman in Nigeria’s 1947 delegation to London, which lodged a protest and set the nation on the path toward self-government. As one of the few women elected to Nigeria’s house of chiefs, she was recognized for her advocacy work on behalf of women's rights and education, and revered as the “Lioness of Lisabi” and the “Mother of Africa.”

Her daughter—Dolupo—and three sons—Beko, Olikoye, and Fela—likewise became leaders in education, healthcare, and music, continuing their mother’s legacy of activism and advocacy.

[9A]

27 Oct 2019

Sylvia Plath's 87th Birthday






“How she longed for winter then! –
Scrupulously austere in its order
Of white and black
Ice and rock, each sentiment in border,
And heart’s frosty discipline
Exact as a snowflake.”

—Sylvia Plath, “Spinster”

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

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

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

[9A]

18 March 2018

Isidro Baldenegro López’s 52nd Birthday







Isidro Baldenegro López was a farmer and community leader of Mexico's indigenous Tarahumara people in Sierra Madre and an environmental activist who fought against unregulated logging in his region.

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]

18 March 2014

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






Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov [Lyubensk, Saint Petersburg Governorate] 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]

1 Oct 2018

Mary Prince’s 230th Birthday



On this day in 1788, Mary Prince was born in Brackish Pond, Bermuda. Sold from master to master throughout her life, Prince ended up on the island of Antigua in 1815 where she joined the Moravian church in 1817 and learned to read. Despite not having received a formal education, Prince went on to be recognized as a National Hero of Bermuda for her work to abolish slavery.

In December 1826 Prince married Daniel James, a former slave who had managed to buy his freedom. Her master at the time punished her for marrying a free black man with permission and in two years time the husband and wife were separated because Prince’s family moved to England taking her with them.

After the passage of Great Britain’s Slave Trade Act in 1807, slavery was no longer allowed in England, although the institution of slavery continued in the British colonies. Prince was legally free on British soil, but she had no means to support herself. Under the prevailing rules of the time, if she tried to return home to her husband, she would risk being enslaved again.

In 1829 Prince became the first woman to present a petition to Parliament, arguing for her human right to freedom. That same year some of her associates in the anti-slavery “abolitionist” movement introduced a bill proposing that any West Indian slave brought to England by his or her owners must be freed. It did not pass, but momentum was beginning to shift in favor of the abolitionist cause.

Two years later Prince published her autobiography, making her the first black woman to publish a slave narrative in England. Her book played a decisive role in turning British public opinion against the centuries-old institution of human enslavement.

“I have been a slave myself,” Prince wrote in The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave. “I know what slaves feel—I can tell by myself what other slaves feel, and by what they have told me. The man that says slaves be quite happy in slavery—that they don't want to be free—that man is either ignorant or a lying person. I never heard a slave say so.”

Published in 1831, the book caused a sensation, going through three printings in the first year alone. In one of the book’s many heartbreaking passages, Prince recalled being sold “like sheep or cattle” on the same day as her younger sisters Hannah and Dina were sold to different masters. “When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and mourned over us, begging of us to keep up a good heart, and do our duty to our new masters. It was a sad parting; one went one way, one another, and our poor mammy went home with nothing.”

Two lawsuits for libel were filed against the book’s publisher in 1833, and Mary Prince testified at both, effectively rebuking any claims that the book was inaccurate or defamatory. After that there is no record of her movements—she may have stayed in England or returned home to her husband in Bermuda.

On August 1, 1838, some 800,000 slaves living in British colonies throughout the Caribbean were finally set free, following the passage of Great Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act, which was passed by Parliament two years after the publication of Mary Prince’s book

Happy Birthday Mary Prince!

[9A]

1 Oct 2020

Celebrating Ignatius Sancho






To honor the start of the UK’s Black History Month, today’s Doodle, illustrated by UK-based guest artist Kingsley Nebechi, celebrates British writer, composer, business owner, and abolitionist Ignatius Sancho. A former slave who advocated for abolition through prolific letter-writing, Sancho became the first person of African descent to cast a vote in a British general election.

Born in Africa around 1729, Ignatius Sancho was enslaved for the first five years of his life on the Caribbean island of Grenada before he was taken to England as a toddler. There, he was forced to serve as a slave for three sisters in Greenwich but eventually managed to run away and escape. He then gained employment with another aristocratic family for whom he worked for the next two decades. Having taught himself to read and write, Sancho utilized his employers' extensive library to further his self-education.

A skilled writer, Sancho penned a large volume of letters, many of which contained criticism of 18th-century politics and society. Newspapers published his eloquent calls for the abolition of slavery, which provided many readers their first exposure to writing by a Black person. The multi-talented Sancho also published four collections of music compositions and opened a grocery store with his wife in Westminster. As a financially independent male homeowner, he was qualified to vote—a right he historically exercised in 1774.

Sancho’s extensive collection of letters was published posthumously in 1782, garnering huge readership and widespread attention to the abolitionist cause.

Thank you, Ignatius Sancho, for your courageous fight in the name of freedom and equality.

[9A]

16 Oct 2018

Lachhu Maharaj’s 74th Birthday







Born on this day in 1944 to a family of musicians, Lachhu Maharaj [born as Lakshmi Narayan Singh], was one of the most celebrated tabla players of his time. Maharaj trained under his father, Vasudev Maharaj, and started performing at an early age. As a child, his gifts caught the attention oflegendary tabla player Ahmed Jaan Thirakwa, who was deeply impressed by Maharaj’s performance at just eight years old.

Lachhu Maharaj was best known for his inherent sense of rhythm which was best exemplified in his solo performances. Even though he played alongside nearly all the greatest tabla players of his time, his solo performance are the most remembered. Girija Devi, whom he often collaborated with, claimed that “he would play for hours without repeating himself, new gats, tukras and parans, leaving his audiences awestruck.”

Happy Birthday Lachhu Maharaj!

[9A]

16 October 2015

57th Anniversary of Elderly Gentleman's Cabaret's TV premiere



Today's Doodle marks the 57th Anniversary of the first episode of the polish television show, Elderly Gentleman's Cabaret or Kabaret Starszych Panów.

The show premiered October 16th, 1958 and was titled "Afternoon Old Men", starring the two creators: poet Jeremi Przybora and composer Jerzy Wasowski. Elegantly dressed in now-iconic dinner jackets and top hats, the pair performed satirical musical acts that addressed major cultural changes of the 50's and 60's.

The show aired late at night, and though not many people owned TVs, it was a smashing success. Soon it was a nation-wide household name — friends and families congregated around TV sets in their neighbor's homes to watch two gentlemen cavort and sing.

The legendary cabaret-style show aired during primetime on Polish public television for 8 years, and featured cameos from top Polish actors and singers. The program brought humor, wit and artistic excellence to the small screen and garnered die-hard followers for decades to come.

[9A]

16 October 2017

Olaudah Equiano’s 272nd Birthday





Born in Nigeria, African writer and abolitionist Olaudah Equiano was sold into slavery as a boy. He braved the harsh conditions of the Middle Passage to the Caribbean and lived to tell his story.

Equiano was a seafarer, often working for captains and merchants. When given the chance to read and write, he learned swiftly. Equiano moved up the ranks, gaining rare promotions to seaman, then merchant. He carefully saved his earnings from side trades over the course of 3 years, eventually earning enough to buy his freedom.

Once a free man, Equiano published his memoir, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, which became one of the earliest bestsellers by an African author. The book detailed his life, travels, and the slave trade, helping to sway public opinion against slavery. He also founded Sons of Africa, an anti-slavery organization consisting of leaders in London’s black community, and gave lectures to the public and politicians.

Change due to Equiano’s efforts would come a decade after his death with the passing of Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807

As the UK celebrates Black History Month, we wish a Happy 272nd Birthday to Olaudah Equiano!

[9A]

16 October 2010

Oscar Wilde's 156th Birthday





Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual homosexual acts in "one of the first celebrity trials", imprisonment, and early death from meningitis at age 46.

Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. A young Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, Wilde read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.

As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray [1890]. The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote Salome [1891] in French while in Paris but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.

At the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest [1895] was still being performed in London, Wilde prosecuted the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison, he wrote De Profundis [published posthumously in 1905], a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On his release, he left immediately for France, and never returned to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol [1898], a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

[9A]

17 February 2022

Dr Michiaki Takahashi's 94th birthday






Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Tokyo, Japan-based guest artist Tatsuro Kiuchi, celebrates Japanese virologist Dr. Michiaki Takahashi, who developed the first vaccine against chickenpox. Takahashi’s vaccine has since been administered to millions of children around the world as an effective measure to prevent severe cases of the contagious viral disease and its transmission.

Michiaki Takahashi was born on this day in 1928 in Osaka, Japan. He earned his medical degree from Osaka University and joined the Research Institute for Microbial Disease, Osaka University in 1959. After studying measles and polio viruses, Dr Takahashi accepted a research fellowship in 1963 at Baylor College in the United States. It was during this time that his son developed a serious bout of chickenpox, leading him to turn his expertise toward combating the highly transmissible illness.

Dr.Takahashi returned to Japan in 1965 and began culturing live but weakened chickenpox viruses in animal and human tissue. After just five short years of development, it was ready for clinical trials. In 1974, Dr. Takahashi had developed the first vaccine targeting the varicella virus that causes chickenpox. It was subsequently subjected to rigorous research with immunosuppressed patients and was proven to be extremely effective. In 1986, the Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University began the rollout in Japan as the only varicella vaccine approved by the World Health Organization.

Dr.Takahashi’s lifesaving vaccine was soon utilized in over 80 countries. In 1994, he was appointed the director of Osaka University’s Microbial Disease Study Group—a position he held until his retirement. Thanks to his innovations, millions of cases of chickenpox are prevented each year.

[9A]

14 Feb 2007

Valentine's Day 2007

[9A]

15 February 2020

Nise da Silveira's 115th birthday



“To navigate against the current, these rare qualities are needed: a spirit of adventure, courage, perseverance, and passion.”
—Nise da Silveira


Today’s Doodle celebrates visionary Brazilian psychiatrist Nise da Silveira on her 115th birthday. One of the few women in medicine in her time, she boldly challenged established psychiatric practices, pioneering a more humane approach to patient care.

Born on this day in 1905, in the northeastern city of Maceió, da Silveira completed her medical degree in 1926 at just 21 years old, as the only woman in her class. When she began work at a national psychiatric center in 1933, she was discouraged by the harsh medical procedures that doctors were relying upon to treat mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Bravely challenging the status quo, da Silveira instead began to study and advocate for more compassionate rehabilitative treatments. She developed art workshops for patients to express the inner workings of their minds through painting and sculpting, and she later became one of the first to incorporate animals into her practice as “co-therapists.” Da Silveira’s new approach proved highly successful in her patients’ rehabilitation, paving the way for an entirely new way of thinking about psychiatric care.

Da Silveira’s Museu de Imagens do Inconsciente [“Images of the Unconscious Museum”] remains open to this day, maintaining a collection of over 350,000 pieces of patient-created artwork. Her work has inspired countless others, leading to the establishment of therapeutic institutions both in Brazil and around the world.

[9A]

15 February 2020

Susan B. Anthony’s 200th birthday




“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”
–Susan B. Anthony, The Revolution


Today’s Doodle celebrates the 200th birthday of social reformer Susan B. Anthony, and 2020 also happens to mark the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the U.S.. Anthony fought tirelessly for decades to earn women the right to vote in the U.S and is recognized as one of the nation’s most important figures of the women’s suffrage movement.

Susan Brownell Anthony was born on this day in 1820 in western Massachusetts, U.S. As a child, she was inspired by the idea that all people were born equal regardless of their race or gender. An introduction through her father to prominent abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison first ignited her passion for social change. In 1851, Anthony met reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, beginning a 50-year partnership focused on women’s rights advocacy.

On November 5th, 1872, Anthony walked into a voting station in Rochester, New York and cast a vote in the presidential election, defying the law at the time, which denied women the right to vote. Two weeks later, she was fined $100 [over $2,100 today], drawing national attention to the cause. She refused to pay the fine, proclaiming, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.”

Anthony remained an active leader of the women’s suffrage movement for decades, including serving as president of the largest suffrage association in the U.S. and speaking to crowds across the country to lobby for change.

In 1920, nearly 50 years after Anthony first cast her ballot, women in America were finally granted the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment. Though this amendment did not include women of color, the franchise was extended through the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The U.S. Treasury Department honored Anthony’s legacy in 1979 by placing her image on the dollar coin, making her the first woman in history to be depicted on U.S. currency.

[9A]

15 February 2002

Winter Olympics 2002 - Freestyle Skiing






The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002, was an international winter multi-sport event that was held from February 8 to 24, 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.

[9A]

16 April 2019

Inji Aflatoun’s 95th Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates Inji Aflatoun, the Egyptian painter and author remembered as a trailblazing modern artist and pioneering feminist.

Born in Cairo on this day in 1924, Aflatoun was mentored by the Egyptian artist Kamel El-Telmissany, soaking up his introduction to modern art as well as his interest in social issues.

In 1942 Aflatoun exhibited with the avant-garde Art and Freedom Group. She then went on to co-found the League of Young Women in University and Institutes and wrote influential pamphlets like We Egyptian Women.

Aflatoun exhibitied her work around the world. In 1975, she helped organize the exhibition “Ten Egyptian Women Artists in Half a Century” in honor of the International Women’s Year. In 1986, she was awarded the medal ”Cavalier of the Arts and Literature” by the French Ministry of Culture.

Today, her work hangs in major collections and museums around the world.


Happy 95th Birthday, Inji Aflatoun!

[9A]

20 September 2019

Rugby World Cup 2019 Opening Day





Today’s Doodle celebrates the Opening Day of the Rugby World Cup, kicking off today inside Tokyo’s Ajinomoto Stadium. Held every four years since 1987, this year is the first time in history that the tournament will be held in Asia, with a match between host country Japan and Russia.

Twenty teams are competing this year for a chance to bring home the Webb Ellis Cup, named after a 19th century schoolboy in the British Midlands town of Rugby, Warwickshire. “With a fine disregard for the rules of the game as played in his time,” as one historian wrote, William Webb Ellis grabbed the ball and ran with it, innovating a centuries-old game that would come to be known as modern rugby.

Defending champions New Zealand have won the Webb Ellis Cup three times, Australia and South Africa twice, and England once in 2003.

Best of luck to all the competing teams!

[9A]

20 September 2000

2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney - Track & Field

[9A]

21 December 2018

Connie Mark’s 95th Birthday



Today’s Doodle honors the life and legacy of trailblazer Connie Mark, who served in the women’s branch of the British army in Jamaica during World War II. Later moving from her native Jamaica to England, she became a community activist, promoting Caribbean culture and ensuring that the women and people of color who contributed to the war effort received equal recognition.



Connie Mark was born Constance Winifred McDonald in Kingston, Jamaica on this day in 1923. While her family tree included ancestors from Scotland, Calcutta, and Lebanon, Mark also had roots in Africa and grew up speaking Jamaican Patois [also known as Jamaican Creole] with roots in the Ghanaian language Twi.

At age 19, Mark was recruited to work in the British Military Hospital of Kingston as a medical secretary, typing reports of battle injuries. Although she was promoted twice during her service spanning a decade, Mark was denied the usual pay raise for unknown reasons. Due to this, she became an unwavering advocate for fair pay and continued advocating for proper recognition of Caribbean servicewomen throughout her life.

After settling in Britain in the 1950s, Mark became even more passionate about Caribbean culture and joined several charitable and educational projects. She organized community events, using oral history and poetry to instill pride in the youth of Caribbean and African descent.

At the age of 68, Mark received the British Empire Medal, and two years later was given a Member of the British Empire [MBE] award in recognition of a lifetime of public service.



Here’s to Connie Mark on what would have been her 95th birthday.