Google doodles

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April 2, 2018

Francisco Balagtas’ 230th Birthday



When Francisco Balagtas was born outside of Manila in 1788, one of four children and the son of a blacksmith, few might have guessed he would grow up to be one of the most revered writers in the Philippines. But in fact, Balagtas showed promise early on, and even studied under José de la Cruz, one of the most prominent Filipino poets.

Balagtas' most famous work, depicted in today's Doodle, is Florante at Laura, an epic poem that symbolizes his own life journey. In the first panel, we see Balagtas working on Florante at Laura. The story begins with a view on the main character, Duke Florante of Albania, who has just been exiled and tied to a tree. The third panel depicts his love, Princess Laura, being held captive. Next we meet Prince Aladdin of Persia, himself exiled from his own country. In the fifth panel, Aladdin's fiancée Flerida searches for him in the forest before rescuing Laura. Finally, Laura and Florante are reunited and rule peacefully over Albania.

In addition to being a highly-skilled poet, Balagtas earned acclaim for writing in Tagalog [most writings at the time were in Spanish] and including Filipino themes, even though the characters were not from the Philippines. Students around the country still learn of the adventures of Florante and Laura today, as well as the rhythm and meter of the poem.

Today we celebrate the author’s legacy on what would be his 230th birthday.

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July 26, 2021

Grandparents' Day 2021 [July 26][Spain]

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July 26, 2015

Grandparents Day 2015 [Spain, Portugal]



Happy Grandparent’s Day to all the grandmothers and grandfathers out there! Today’s two companion Doodles celebrate the special relationships we have across generations. Doodler Olivia When started conceptualizing them by first thinking about moments that happen between grandparents and grandkids. She chose fishing for one Doodle and feeding ducks for the other, because both activities convey a sense of fun and togetherness. Plus, as she said, “how often is there an opportunity to use ducks to make the Google logo?”.




You’ll see one of the Doodles when you first visit the homepage, but you can refresh the page for a chance to check out the other. See if you can spot which little creature tagged along to both outings. And don’t forget to call your grandma or grandpa!

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Jul 28, 2015

Peru National Day 2015




Trek through the rough, scrubby terrain of the Peruvian Andes, and you’ll eventually come upon a vicuña. These llama-like mammals, legendary for their stunningly soft wool, were considered sacred in the eyes of the Incas.

Today, vicuñas are indigenous to not only the mountains, but also Peru’s coat of arms, where they symbolize the country’s diverse wildlife. And they hold a high place in Peruvian society as the country’s national animal. This mix of ancient reverence and modern pride inspired artist Robinson Wood for today’s Doodle — a celebration of independence for Peru National Day.

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April 14, 2021

Pohela Boishakh





Today’s Doodle commemorates the festival of Pohela Boishakh, which falls on the first day of the Bengali calendar. Whether at home or abroad, Bengalis worldwide warmly greet each other with, Shubho Noboborsho, the customary way to wish each other a prosperous and happy New Year.

One of the most traditional Pohela Boishakh celebrations commences after dawn underneath an ancient Banyan tree at Dhaka’s Ramna Park. Mangal Shobhajatra is a radiant carnival procession that begins at the Institute of Fine Arts at Dhaka University. The festive spirit blends young and old, as they wear colorful masks and parade with massive cutouts of animals as a way to symbolize Bengali cultural diversity, heritage, and identity of the people.

The nation celebrates with street parades, fairs, and grand concerts as a way to unify the Bengalis to welcome another year to come.

Shubho Nobobarsho!

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July 28, 2017

100th Anniversary of the Silent Parade




There was no singing, no chanting — just silence.

On July 28, 1917, the only sound on New York City’s Fifth Avenue was the muffled beat of drums as nearly 10,000 African American children, women, and men marched in silence in what came to be known as the Silent Parade. It was one of the first mass protests of lynching and anti-black violence in the United States. The parade was precipitated by the East St. Louis Riots of 1917, during which between 40 and 250 Black people were killed and thousands more displaced by white mobs.

Organized by the NAACP, including leaders James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B Du Bois, the protest demanded that President Woodrow Wilson take the legislative action to protect African Americans that he had touched on during his presidential campaign. Although the demonstrators marched in silence, their message was very clear. One sign read, “Mr. President, why not make America safe for democracy” — a challenge at a time where the President was promising to bring democracy to the world through World War I while Black Americans were being stripped of their civil rights at home.

Today's Doodle commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Silent Parade, and honors those whose silence resonates a century later.

To learn more about this period, and the era of lynching that led to this protest, visit lynchinginamerica.eji.org, an interactive site created by Google.org grantee the Equal Justice Initiative in collaboration with Google. Through oral histories, film, and interactive maps, Lynching in America provides the opportunity to address this painful past, in the name of building a better future.

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July 28, 2014

Peru Independence Day 2014




We’re serving ceviche for Peruvian Independence Day. The traditional [and totally yummy] seafood dish is made with raw fish cured in either lemon or lime juice.

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July 26, 2022

Celebrating Steelpan




Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Trinidad & Tobago-based artist Nicholas Huggins, celebrates the steelpan, a percussion instrument made of metal, created and influenced by Trinbagonians. It’s the only acoustic instrument invented in the twentieth century, but has origins dating back to the 1700’s. It was a staple during Carnival and Canboulay, the annual harvest festivals celebrated in Trinidad, and is still used in contemporary music. On this day in 1951, the Trinidad All-Steel Pan Percussion Orchestra [TASPO] performed at the Festival of Britain, introducing the steelpan and a new music genre to the world.

When enslaved Africans were brought to Trinidad by colonialists in the 1700’s, they brought over their African heritage and traditions of rhythmic drumming with them. When slavery was abolished between 1834 and 1838, Trinidadians joined in on Carnival festivities with their drums. However in 1877, government officials banned their drumming because they feared that the drumming would be used to send messages that would inspire rebellion. In protest of this ban, musicians started to pound tuned bamboo tubes on the ground as alternatives to mimic the sound of their drums. These ensembles were called Tamboo Bamboo bands.

Another ban came in 1930, when rival Tamboo Bamboo bands would cause disturbances during Carnival and other street festivals. These bands then looked to a new alternative to carry their rhythm: metal objects such as car parts, paint pots, dustbins, biscuit tins and thus the idea of the pan was born.

During World War II, Carnival was forbidden due to security reasons, and musicians began experimenting with the unique instrument to improve the sound quality. Overtime, dents were hammered into the surface of these objects, which played different notes depending on the size, position and shape. In 1948, after the war ended, the musicians switched to using the 55 gallon oil drums discarded by the oil refineries. In addition to changing the shape of the drum surface, they found that changing the length of the drum allowed complete scales from bass to soprano. This formed the basis for the modern version of the pan. The steelpan grew and developed into a legitimate instrument through the likes of pioneers and innovators such as Winston “Spree” Simon, Ellie Mannette, Anthony Williams and Bertie Marshall. Many of their innovations and techniques are still used today.

The steelpan is now the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, and is a source of great pride and true resilience for its citizens. Steelpans are now enjoyed in concert calls like Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and more. Whether in the UK or Japan, Senegal or the States, the steelpan is an internationally recognized instrument that reminds listeners of its island origins.

Today’s Doodle was illustrated by Trinidad & Tobago-based guest artist Nicholas Huggins and composed by Miami-based musician Etienne Charles,

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October 29, 2012

Bob Ross' 70th Birthday



For more than a decade, Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting welcomed viewers into his minimalist tv studio for inspiration and painting tips.

In less time than it takes to get pizza delivered, Bob Ross would paint a sweeping landscape of mountains, lakes, and, of course, happy little trees, clouds, and bushes.

A child when I first discovered the PBS program, it was the antithesis of the vacuous shows and commercials I voraciously consumed on other channels.

The man’s seemingly magical abilities with a brush were mesmerizing – he made painting look so easy! His calm demeanor and relentless optimism put me at ease. And his kind assurances that anyone could do what he did if they believe it and practiced were truly encouraging. [In fact, it was when I got a Bob Ross paint kit for Christmas at age 14 that I realized that I was already on my way to becoming an artist!]

I’ve since learned that painting isn’t easy. But I’m practicing, and it is a joy.
Thank you, Bob Ross!


Posted by Ryan Germick, Doodle Team Lead

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Jul 26, 2021

70th Anniversary of the Birch Bark Manuscript




On this day in 1951, a Soviet archaeological expedition led by Artemiy Artsikhovsky excavated the first ancient birch bark manuscript—a medieval letter inscribed with Old Russian text. Today’s Doodle celebrates the 70th anniversary of this major discovery that marked a new chapter in Russian linguistics research and shed new light on daily life of the Rus people in the Middle Ages.

In the 14th century, birch bark prevailed in Rus [now Russia] as the most dependable material for communication among medieval city-dwellers. It was inexpensive, ubiquitous in the region’s vast swaths of forest, and could be easily engraved using a pointed stylus made of metal, bone or wood.

Found in Veliky Novgorod—one of Russia’s oldest cities approximately 120 miles from St. Petersburg—the birch bark manuscript excavated in 1951 contains a brief list of working assignments addressed to a local laborer. This breakthrough finding proved to be just the tip of the iceberg, as over 1,000 manuscripts have been discovered across Russia since—some dating back to the 11th century!

Before the 1951 excavation, historians mostly relied on ancient Russian archives to color in the grey areas of medieval history, but these records did not illustrate the minutiae of everyday life. Birch bark writings filled these gaps with incredible detail, chronicling accounts from children to high-ranking officials. Thanks to these artifacts, scholars now believe ancient Russians had a much higher rate of literacy than previously thought and have discovered a new Old Russian dialect.

Today, experts estimate tens of thousands of birch bark writings remain under Russian soil. What will archaeologists discover next?

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July 21, 2022

Lydia Tin Ha Sum's 77th Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 77th birthday of Lydia Tin Ha Sum, one of Hong Kong’s most beloved comedians. Affectionately known as “Fei Fei” [which means “Fat Fat” in Cantonese], as well as “Happy Fruit”, the Shanghai-born actress is a household name in Chinese communities around the world who brought laughter and positive energy through her shows.

Sum was born on this day in 1945. She began her career as a teen actress working for the Shaw Brothers Studio, the largest production company in Hong Kong at the time. In 1967, she landed her breakout role as the emcee for a popular variety show called “Enjoy Yourself Tonight.”

Soon after, she starred in the popular Cantonese film, “The House of 72 Tenants,” which follows the lives of residents in a run-down apartment. Sum’s realistic portrayal of working-class women struck a chord with theater-goers. The film surpassed blockbuster films, topping Hong Kong’s box office in 1973.

Sum went on to play a similar role in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World,” a four-part blockbuster comedy about an impoverished family in search of wealth. A powerful commentary on social inequality, the classic film series continues to drive conversation in the media today.

Beyond Hong Kong, Sum also starred in Singapore's English-language sitcom,“Living with Lydia,” which won her Best Comedy Performance at the Asian Television Awards in 2003.

Happy 77th birthday, Lydia Sum! Your films and television shows still bring laughter and joy to Chinese communities all over the world.

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April 14, 2021

Oliver De Coque’s 74th Birthday




Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Lagos-based guest artist Ohab TBJ, pays tribute to Nigerian musician Oliver de Coque on his 74th birthday. Crowned the “Highlife King of Africa,” he is widely revered as one of the continent's most prolific recording artists.

Born on this day in 1947 in the small town of Ezinifite in southeastern Nigeria, Oliver Sunday Akanite first took up the guitar at a young age, and as a teenager, studied the traditional Igbo music of the region and Congolese soukous. In 1970, at a performance by the popular Sunny Agaga and his Lucky Star Band, Akanite convinced Sunny to let him stand in as their guitarist; he was hired on the spot, providing a massive boost to his young career. Also a skilled player of the Nigerian board game okwe, Akanite became known as “Oliver de ka Okwe,” which he later adapted into his stage name, Oliver de Coque.

De Coque famously infused the modern West African highlife genre with a Congolese-influenced guitar style and the energetic dance elements of Igbo music he grew up with, crafting a unique musical style, which he called Ogene. Beginning with his first solo release in 1976, de Coque’s music only grew in popularity at home and abroad, as he put out album after album featuring his masterful guitar work and fresh take on African pop–over 70 throughout his lifetime.

In 1994, in recognition of his prodigious music achievement, de Coque was awarded an honorary doctorate in music by the University of New Orleans.

Thank you, Oliver de Coque, for strumming your way into the hearts of listeners around the world!

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April 14, 2022

Celebrating Sơn Đoòng Cave




Nestled deep within the remote jungles of central Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, lies a natural phenomenon unparalleled by any other on Earth: the gargantuan Sơn Đoòng Cave. Today’s Doodle celebrates this colossal cavern, which was officially discovered on this day in 2009.

Expert geologists estimate the Sơn Đoòng [Vietnamese for “Mountain River”] Cave was formed sometime between two to five million years ago—epochs before local farmer Ho Khanh inadvertently stumbled upon its enormous entrance in 1990. The cave remained untouched until 2008, when Khanh retraced his steps to its misty opening, and until 2009 alongside Howard and Deb Limbert of the British Cave Research Association. The intrepid speleologists conducted the cave’s first official survey and concluded that it was the largest cave on the planet.

Inside Sơn Đoòng’s undisturbed inner chambers [big enough to fit an entire city block of 40-story buildings!], scientists discovered a wealth of record-breaking geological formations including the world’s largest limestone pearls and tallest stalagmite. Giant sinkholes situated further into the cave’s depths allow for sunlight and rain to nourish two pristine jungle ecosystems, which are home to flying foxes, the world’s only monkeys to live underground, and eyeless white fish. One of these thriving rainforests is so vast, it even has its own localized weather system!

In 2019, a trio of British divers proved there was still more to discover after finding an underwater tunnel connecting Sơn Đoòng to another cave—tacking on another 5.6 million cubic feet to its already titanic volume of 1.35 billion cubic feet.

Here’s to a natural wonder for everyone’s travel bucket list!

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April 23, 2014

Pixinguinha's 117th Birthday [born 1897]



Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho, known as Pixinguinha was a Brazilian composer, arranger, flautist and saxophonist born in Rio de Janeiro. Pixinguinha is considered one of the greatest Brazilian composers of popular music, particularly within the genre of music known as choro. By integrating the music of the older choro composers of the 19th century with contemporary jazz-like harmonies, Afro-Brazilian rhythms, and sophisticated arrangements, he introduced choro to a new audience and helped to popularize it as a uniquely Brazilian genre. He was also one of the first Brazilian musicians and composers to take advantage of the new professional opportunities offered to musicians by the new technologies of radio broadcasting and studio recording. Pixinguinha composed dozens of choros, including some of the best-known works in the genre such as "Carinhoso", "Glória", "Lamento" and "Um a Zero".

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October 21, 2013

Celia Cruz's 88th Birthday




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

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May 12, 2012

Edward Lear's 200th Birthday



Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; and as a [minor] illustrator of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.

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May 18, 2012

Omar Khayyam's 964th Birthday





There is a tradition of attributing poetry to Omar Khayyam, written in the form of quatrains. This poetry became widely known to the English-reading world in a translation by Edward FitzGerald [Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, 1859].

The quatrain by Omar Khayyam known as "The Moving Finger", in the form of its translation by the English poet Edward Fitzgerald is one of the most popular quatrains in the Anglosphere. It reads:

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

The title of the novel "The Moving Finger" written by Agatha Christie and published in 1942 was inspired by this quatrain of the translation of Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald.

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May 23, 2012

Robert Moog's 78th Birthday





In the mid-1960s, Dr. Robert Moog unleashed a new universe of sounds into musicdom with his invention of the electronic analog Moog Synthesizer. The timbre and tones of these keyboard instruments [true works of art in and of themselves] would come to define a generation of music, featuring heavily in songs by The Beatles, The Doors, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk and many others.

When people hear the word “synthesizer” they often think “synthetic”—fake, manufactured, unnatural. In contrast, Bob Moog’s synthesizers produce beautiful, organic and rich sounds that are, nearly 50 years later, regarded by many professional musicians as the epitome of an electronic instrument. “Synthesizer,” it turns out, refers to the synthesis embedded in Moog’s instruments: a network of electronic components working together to create a whole greater than the sum of the parts.

With his passion for high-tech toolmaking in the service of creativity, Bob Moog is something of a patron saint of the nerdy arts and a hero to many of us here. So for the next 24 hours on our homepage, you’ll find an interactive, playable logo inspired by the instruments with which Moog brought musical performance into the electronic age.

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May 26, 2012

Rafael Escalona's 85th Birthday




Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez was a Colombian composer and troubadour. He was known for being one of the most prominent vallenato music composers and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival, along with Consuelo Araújo and Alfonso López Michelsen.

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May 26, 2016

Frankie Manning’s 102nd birthday





One morning in 1929, Frankie Manning--then only fifteen--was walking through Harlem on his way to Sunday school. Passing the Alhambra Ballroom, he made a decision to take dance classes that would change swing forever. Known as the Ambassador of the Lindy Hop--the exuberant style born in Harlem--Frankie Manning is remembered as the first person to take swing from the dancefloor to the air above it. Today’s doodle by Nate Swinehart celebrates Frankie Manning’s acrobatic, powerful style, in which his partners were flipped and spun to the emphatic horns of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and others.

The Lindy Hop and Manning’s aerial flourishes became wildly popular, and Manning himself performed the dance in several 40’s era movies. He also served in WWII, toured South America and the UK with his troupe, The Congaroos, performed the Lindy for King George VI, and won a Tony Award for his choreographic work on the Broadway musical Black and Blue.

Frankie Manning often described the dance as a “series of three-minute romances.” Here’s to the Ambassador on what would have been his 102nd birthday, and his role in creating for countless people--even if it lasted only three minutes--a moment that transcended the world around them.

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Oct 26, 2013

Austria National Day 2013




Austria celebrates its National Day every 26 October due to the country's political developments following World War II. After the end of the war in 1945, four Allied forces occupied Austria. These were the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. These powers divided Austria into four zones.

On every Austrian National Day, you can catch the action on the streets of Austria. You can attend the military parade that takes place in the area near Hofburg. The parade also includes a marching band and various performances.

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October 26, 2016

Austria National Day 2016



On October 26th of each year, Austrians come together to celebrate their National Day. Its origins stretch back to post-World War II Austria, when allied forces occupied the country. After negotiations, the Austrian State Treaty was signed in 1955 and the troops moved out in the Autumn, leaving the country as an independent state.

National day celebrations in Vienna take place in Heldenplatz public square and gardens, overlooked by the Austrian Parliament building and the imperial Hofburg Palace. Many of the city’s most popular museums also offer free or cut-price admission in honor of the day.

Today’s Doodle features an image of Austria’s highest mountain, the iconic, black rock Großglockner in the High Tauern National Park. The area is home to eagles and rare butterflies, and features dramatic waterfalls and glaciers.

Happy National Day, Austria!

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Oct 24, 2016

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s 384th Birthday





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

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

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

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May 11, 2021

Go Tik Swan's 90th Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates Indonesian artist Go Tik Swan, a contemporary master of the ancient art form of designing fabric with hot wax known as batik.

Go Tik Swan was born on this day in 1931 in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia. He came of age frequenting his grandfather’s batik workshops, where he absorbed Javanese cultural knowledge from local craftspeople. Fascinated by his ancestry, Swan further explored his heritage by studying Javanese literature and dance at the University of Indonesia.

It was during one of his college dance performances that Indonesia’s president caught wind of Swan’s family background in batik manufacturing and commissioned him to create a new batik style; one that he believed could transcend division and unite the Indonesian people. In the 1950s, Swan fulfilled the president’s request by combining regional batik techniques to introduce “Batik Indonesia.”

Swan held such high reverence for his craft that he considered each piece of batik to carry philosophical meaning, even developing a motif in the 70s entitled Kembang Bangah [“Rotten Flowers''] as a love letter to his national identity. An expert in Javanese culture, he was also a master of kris [an ancient Javanese ceremonial dagger tradition] and a skilled player of gamelan [a popular orchestral form of traditional Indonesian music]. He gave back so much to his heritage, the Surakarta government honored him with the noble title of Panembahan Hardjonegoro.

Happy birthday, Go Tik Swan!

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August 1, 2018

Gerda Taro’s 108th Birthday




Though she was tiny in stature, Gerda Taro had the heart of a giant. Known as “the little red fox,” the ginger-haired photographer fearlessly turned her camera lens to capture sensitive and critical images of conflict around the world, producing powerful black-and-white images that informed readers of the newspaper Ce Soir. In fact, Taro is considered to be the first female journalist in the world to cover the front lines of conflict.

Born on this day in 1910 in Stuttgart, Germany, Taro moved to France shortly after Adolf hitler was appointed the chancellor of Germany 1933. In Paris she met Robert Capa, a fellow refugee three years her junior who taught her the basics of photography. They became friends, changed their names [she was originally named Gerta Pohorylle], and were enamored for a time. Capa would go on to co-found the Magnum Photo agency while Taro became known for her fearless reportage. “The troops loved her and she kept pushing,” said Taro’s biographer Jane Rogoyska. “Capa warned her not to take so many risks.”

During the last five months of Taro’s short career, she worked alone in Spain before tragically losing her life near El Escorial, northwest of Madrid, while capturing images on the front line of the Spanish Civil War in July 1937. By the age of 26, her searing battlefield images made her a household name, even though many of those images were misattributed to Capa.

Here’s to Gerda Taro, who had a photographer’s eye, a journalist’s soul, and a warrior’s courage.

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August 1, 2010

Swiss National Day 2010

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August 1, 2018

Switzerland National Day 2018




Get out the cowbells! Today is Swiss National Day. Throughout Switzerland’s 26 cantons, the Swiss flag is displayed on everything from window boxes to loaves of bread. Children light paper lanterns and ring bells in commemoration of the oath of Swiss Confederation that was sworn in 1291. Bonfires in the hills remind one and all how word was spread of that ancient pledge of mutual support. The day is also filled with solemn speeches, fireworks, concerts, and parades of flower-bedecked cows, as shown in today’s Doodle.

In Basel, the celebrations begin in earnest the night of July 31 with food stands, music, and revelry on both sides of the Rhine until the early hours of the morning. Spectacular fireworks also light up the sky near the Rhine Falls.

For many Swiss, preparations for the holiday begin at least a week earlier, with citizens collecting wood for enormous bonfires. Friendly competitions urge neighbors to outbuild each others’ woodpiles. As it grows dark, the sounds of a traditional accordion or Schwiizerörgeli can be heard. And when the bonfire flames get just right, Swiss sausages known as Cervelats will go on the flames, growing plump and succulent till just right to eat.

Happy Swiss National Day!

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Jul 5, 2020

Hwang Hye-seong's 100th Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the 100th birthday of Korean professor and culinary researcher Hwang Hye-seong. Hwang is widely credited with the preservation and popularization of the traditions of Korean royal cuisine that evolved for hundreds of years under the Joseon Dynasty.

Born on this day in 1920, Hwang Hye-seong attended high school in Fukuoka, Japan before returning to Korea to pursue a career in education. She went on to become a professor of gastronomy and took an interest in the little-studied field of Korean royal court cuisine.

Hwang’s studies brought her to the Nakseonjae complex in Seoul, the home of the last living queen of the Joseon Dynasty. There, she met Han Hui-sun, the only remaining court lady who had worked in the royal kitchen.

Dedicated to the protection of the Joseon traditions against the sands of time, Hwang spent decades learning from Han. She scrupulously documented nearly everything there was to know about the royal culinary practices under the dynasty, from the arrangement of table-setting—a process depicted in today's Doodle—to the terminology used by the royal family. Thanks to Hwang’s efforts, in 1970, the South Korean government named the royal cuisine of the Joseon Dynasty an Important Intangible Cultural Property, and in 1973 Hwang was honored as its official skill holder.

Today, Hwang’s passion has been carried on by her four children, all of whom followed her footsteps into culinary careers.

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Jul 9, 2020

Argentina Independence Day 2020




In recognition of 204 years of Argentinian sovereignty, today’s Doodle celebrates Argentina’s Independence Day, also known as Nueve de Julio [Ninth of July]. On this day in 1816, provincial leaders gathered at a home in the northern city of San Miguel de Tucumán to officially declare the nation’s independence from Spain.

Depicted in the Doodle artwork is Argentina’s national flower, the bloom of the indigenous cockspur coral tree known in Spanish as the ceibo. The ceibo’s distinctive flowers are hard to miss, consisting of bright carmine-red petals that bloom in groups of five.

The small trees are found primarily in Argentina’s central and northern regions, from the banks of Iguazu Falls down to the urban parks of the capital of Buenos Aires. The ceibo has long been held as a symbol of the country’s cultural identity and memorialized in folklore, song, and poetry. The indigenous species was declared the national flower of Argentina in 1942, and its fiery red is represented among the many colors of the Argentine coat of arms.

¡Feliz Día de la Independencia, Argentina!

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June 5, 2019

Elena Cornaro Piscopia's 373rd Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the distinguished Italian philosopher and theologian Elena Cornaro Piscopia. Born in Venice on this day in 1646, Elena was also the first woman to earn a Ph.D.

By the time Elena was seven, her parents had recognized her giftedness. A family friend encouraged them to give her lessons in Greek and Latin. She also mastered Hebrew, Spanish, French, and Arabic, while studying the harpsichord, clavichord, harp, and violin. Elena’s later studies also included mathematics and astronomy, but her greatest interest was in philosophy and theology. After becoming president of the Venetian society Accademia dei Pacifici, she enrolled at the University of Padua in 1672.

Although she was allowed to study there, Elena’s application for a Doctorate of Theology was rejected, because church officials would not bestow the title on a woman. With her father's support, she applied for a Doctorate of Philosophy. Her oral examination in 1678 attracted so much interest that the ceremony had to be moved from the university to Padua Cathedral to accommodate an audience that included professors, students, senators, and invited guests from Universities all over Italy.

Elena spoke in Latin, explaining difficult passages randomly selected from Aristotle’s writings. Her eloquence so impressed the committee that they expressed their approval viva voce rather than by secret ballot. A wreath of laurel was placed on her head, a gold ring on her finger, a book of philosophy in her hand, and an ermine cape upon her shoulders.

At the age of thirty-two, Elena became the first woman with a university doctorate, blazing a trail for generations of women to follow in her footsteps into the highest levels of academia.

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August 1, 2021

Celebrating the Turkana Human




When fossil hunters spotted a tiny skull fragment in Kenya’s Lake Turkana Basin on this day in 1984, they didn’t yet know they had discovered part of the most intact early hominid skeleton ever found. Today’s Doodle recognizes the discovery of this ancient fossil, dubbed the “Turkana Human,” which revolutionized knowledge of human evolution.

This excavation dates back to 1967, when a paleoanthropologist flew over the Lake Turkana Basin and noticed fossiliferous rock. The next year, an expedition was launched into the volcanic valley, where the team uncovered remains of three coexisting Homo species, revealing the first evidence suggesting that early humans didn't have a single lineage, but multiple. This paradigm-shifting theory was reinforced by the discovery of the Turkana specimen, which Leakey’s team classified as Homo erectus, now considered the earliest ancestor of modern humans.

Widely believed to be around 10 in age, the Turkana hominid lived approximately 1.6 million years ago. The skeleton exhibits anatomical characteristics that are similar to those of Homo sapiens from the neck down and reveals a body designed for bipedalism. The preserved facial features are smaller than those of pre-erectus ancestors, which indicates the consumption of a higher-quality diet to sustain a large brain, though not quite the size of the modern human brain. The era’s fossil record indicates that Homo erectus utilized this growing brain by building fires, crafting tools, and traveling outside of Africa—a migration that marked a new chapter in the journey of ancient humans.

From harnessing fire to elucidating the chronology of human evolution, who knows what human exploration will find next?

[9A]

August 1, 2012

Field Hockey




Field hockey is a team sport of the hockey family. Each team plays with ten field players and a goalkeeper, and must carry a round, hard, plastic hockey ball with a hockey stick to the rival goal.

The modern game was developed in the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The game is now played globally, particularly in parts of Western Europe, South Asia, Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and parts of the United States, primarily New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

The sport is known simply as "hockey" in territories where it is the more common form of hockey. The term "field hockey" is used primarily in Canada and the United States where "hockey" more often refers to ice hockey. In Sweden, the term landhockey is used, and to some degree in Norway, where the game is governed by Norges Bandyforbund.

[9A]

August 1, 2014

Comtesse de Ségur's 215th Birthday





Little Sophie from the novel Les Malheurs de Sophie [“Sophie's Misfortunes”] reaches for a sweet treat on our homepage in France for writer Countess of Ségur’s 215th birthday.

[9A]

Aug 1, 2014

Swiss National Day 2014




For this year's August 1 celebration, everyone is invited to a festival in the woods by guest artist Jürg Lindenberger. Many of your favorite Swiss friends will be there—Cervelat and mustard, the August 1 roll, and a happy St. Bernard. It should be a great party.

[9A]

Aug 3, 2014

Birgit Cullberg's 106th Birthday




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

[9A]

August 3, 2020

Celebrating Vicki Draves




Today’s Doodle celebrates Filipino American diver and coach Victoria “Vicki” Draves, the first Asian American woman to win an Olympic medal. On this day in 1948, Draves won the gold medal in the women’s 3-meter springboard event at the London Summer Olympics.

Victoria Draves was born Victoria Taylor Manalo in the South of Market district of San Francisco on December 31st, 1924. Growing up, she and her family often hopped on the trolley to the enormous Fleishhacker Pool to swim and watch the divers. When she was a teenager, a member of a local swim team asked if she wanted to learn to dive, and she eagerly accepted, springboarding her into the sport she went on to champion.

After thousands of dives to perfect her form and three consecutive U.S. National Diving Championship platform titles, Draves earned a spot at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She dominated the games one faithful leap at a time and made history as the first woman to take home the gold in both the platform and springboard events.

Thank you, Vicki Draves, for inspiring people everywhere to aim high and take the plunge!

[9A]

Aug 4, 2020

Bahiga Hafez’s 112th Birthday



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

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

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

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

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

Shukran, Bahiga Hafez, your efforts set the scene for generations of filmmakers to come!

[9A]

August 4, 2011

Roberto Burle Marx's 102nd Birthday






Roberto Burle Marx was a Brazilian landscape architect [as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician] whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredited with having introduced modernist landscape architecture to Brazil. He was known as a modern nature artist and a public urban space designer. His work had a great influence on tropical garden design in the 20th century. Water gardens were a popular theme in his work. He was deftly able to transfer traditional artistic expressions such as graphic design, tapestry and folk art into his landscape designs. He also designed fabrics, jewellery and stage sets.

[9A]

November 8, 2012

Bram Stoker's 165th Birthday




Bram Stoker created a legendary villain when he penned his 19th century story Dracula. Few other characters have haunted popular culture for generations as much as the eponymous Count Dracula, whose fanged face has long been a staple of haunted houses and Halloween costumes. He's also featured in at least 200 feature films since the dawn of cinema, played by such acclaimed actors as Bela Lugosi in 1931 and Gary Oldman in 1992.

An epistolary novel, Dracula is innovative in that it is a story told through diary entries, transcribed phonograph recordings, dictated essays, scholarly articles, records, reciepts, and news stories. In this way, Stoker paints a vivid picture not only of the horror of Dracula's evil power, but of the fascinating Victorian England which he terrorized.

When I set out to create this doodle, I immersed myself in the source material by reading the thoroughly well-documented annotated edition by Leslie S. Klinger. Klinger's notes served to further contextualize the story, which capitalizes on the strict Victorian moral code to spin a tale that is all the more terrifiying for how thoroughly it deviated from contemporary mores.

I wanted to give a nod to each of the major characters in the story, as it is their collective observations which shape the saga. I invite our users to see if they can identify 7 protagonists, 4 antagonists, and 1 who falls somewhere in-between. For the visual style, I was very much influenced by the works of Edward Gorey and Aubrey Beardsley, whose artwork embodied the debauched Gothic horror that Stoker so skillfully conveyed in his work.

Posted by Sophia Foster-Dimino, Doodler

[9A]

November 8, 2010

Discovery of X-rays






The discovery of x-rays is a fascinating story. It’s a moment that had a sudden and profound impact, but it took place quietly, in secret and by accident, in the laboratory of one inquisitive scientist. It’s a story about a naturally curious person who was paying attention to the right things at the right time. And like any good story about curiosity, it begins with an experiment.

On November 8, 1895, physicist Wilhelm Röntgen was testing the effects of sending electrical currents through glass vacuum-filled bulbs called cathode ray tubes. During one of his tests, Röntgen noticed that a screen on the other side of his lab began to glow whenever he sent electricity through the tube, even when the tube was fully covered with an opaque piece of cardboard.

Röntgen’s theory was that the tube was emitting an unknown kind of ray. He tried blocking the ray with different materials, but it seemed to pass through solid matter untouched. Then, by accident, he moved his hand through its path, and the shadows of his own bones were projected onto the screen.

For seven weeks, he worked in secret. He x-rayed his wife’s hand, wearing her wedding ring. When his wife saw the first-ever radiographic image, she said, “I have seen my death!”

In December of 1895, he published his findings. Röntgen gave his discovery the temporary name “X-ray,” for the mathematical term for an unknown quantity [[“x”). Within weeks, the first clinical x-rays were taking place all over the world. Röntgen never patented his discovery, believing it should be freely available. In 1901, Röntgen received the first Nobel Prize in Physics.

The x-ray gave us a new way of observing the world and ourselves. We could see right down to our bones, and even now, more than a century later, those eerie black and white images are still strange and powerful.

[9A]

Nov 2, 2010

Melbourne Cup 2010




The Melbourne Cup is Australia's most famous annual Thoroughbred horse race. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races. The event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation".

[9A]

January 15, 2019

Celebrating Sake Dean Mahomed



A man of many talents, Sake Dean Mahomed was an entrepreneur who made a name for himself by building cultural connections between India and England. On this day in 1794, he became the first Indian author to publish a book in English and later, to open an Indian restaurant in England—ushering in what would become one of Great Britain’s most popular cuisines. Mahomed went on to find success as the “The Shampooing Surgeon of Brighton,” opening a spa in the British seaside town that attracted the rich and royal.

In 1810, after moving to London, Mahomed opened the Hindostanee Coffee House, Britain’s first Indian restaurant. The Epicure’s Almanack—an early London restaurant guide—hailed it as a place for nobility to enjoy hookah and Indian dishes of the highest perfection. Nonetheless, Mahomed was forced to close his luxurious restaurant in 1812 and sought to reinvent himself.

Moving his family to the beachside town of Brighton, he opened a spa named Mahomed’s Baths offering luxurious herbal steam baths. His specialty was a combination of a steam bath and an Indian therapeutic massage—a treatment he named “shampooing” inspired by the Hindi word champissage meaning “a head massage.” He also published a book about the therapeutic benefits of the treatment with testimonials from his patients. In 1822, King George IV appointed Mahomed as his personal ‘shampooing surgeon’, which greatly improved his business. A portrait of Mahomed hangs in the Brighton Museum, commemorating this man who helped merge the cultures of his two homelands.

Happy Birthday, Sake Dean Mahomed!

[9A]

Nov 27, 2018

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita’s 132nd Birthday




“The reason why I so much enjoy being friends with cats is that they have two different characters: a wild side and a domestic side. This is what makes them interesting,” said Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita. “A cat’s a wild animal, and I like that.”

Born in Tokyo on this day in 1886, Foujita, the son of a Japanese army general,dreamed of becoming a painter in Europe. After graduating from art school in Japan, he relocated to France in 1913, where he befriended various School of Paris luminaries such as Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, and even studied dance with Isadora Duncan.

Foujita’s first solo exhibition at the prestigious Gallery Chéron in June 1917 sold out quickly. The exhibition consisted of watercolors painted with a fine brush in a distinctive style that blended Eastern and Western influences and finished with a silvery wash.

Celebrated during his lifetime, Foujita received international awards and prominent commissions. His 1930 Book of Cats, featuring 20 etched plate drawings, became one of the most popular cat books ever published. Today, his work can be seen in Kyoto’s National Museum of Modern Art before rotating to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris in early 2019.

In 2011 his estate established the Foujita Foundation which carries on his legacy by the supporting artistic projects of young people experiencing difficulties from an interdisciplinary approach while encouraging educational development, cultural openness, and personal fulfillment.

Happy Birthday, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita!

[9A]

November 10, 2021

Celebrating Ismail Marzuki



Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Indonesia-based guest artist Ykha Amelz, celebrates Indonesian composer Ismail Marzuki, whose patriotic songs established him as a national hero during the nation’s independence movement. On this day in 1968, the Indonesian government honored his legacy with the inauguration of what is now the Jakarta Art Center - Taman Ismail Marzuki [TIM], which serves as a hub for the preservation of Indonesia’s cultural heritage and creative innovation in fine arts, music, theatre, dance, and film.

Ismail Marzuki was born in Kwitang, Central Jakarta, Indonesia on May 11, 1914, when the region was under Dutch colonial rule. Although musical professions were uncommon in this community, Marzuki grew up practicing up to five hours a day to master eight instruments: harmonica, mandolin, guitar, ukulele, violin, accordion, saxophone, and piano. At 17, he composed the first of the over hundreds of songs he would produce throughout his career.

Marzuki’s songs captured the Indonesian struggle for independence with melancholic overtones while representing the nation’s resilience through soaring melodies. He filled Indonesian hearts with pride for years by broadcasting his songs [nine of which became national anthems] on public radio. In 1955, Marzuki took over as the leader of the prestigious Jakarta Studio Orchestra and composed the General Election song, the musical theme of Indonesia’s first independent elections.

To honor his cultural contributions, the Indonesian government named Marzuki a National Hero in 2004. Today, visitors can learn more about Marzuki at TIM, which exhibits his personal collection including handwritten songs and a few of his many instruments.

Here’s to you Ismail Marzuki—thank you for writing the soundtrack for Indonesian independence!

[9A]

Nov 8, 2021

Professor Okoth Okombo's 71st Birthday



Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Kenya-based guest artist Joe Impressions, celebrates the 71st birthday of acclaimed Kenyan professor and author Okoth Okombo, an eminent researcher of Nilotic linguistics [from the Nile River region] who is widely considered the founder of African sign language studies.

Duncan Okoth Okombo was born on November 8, 1950 in Kaswanga, a village on the remote Kenyan island of Rusinga. As a member of the Suba tribe raised during a time of colonial rule, Okombo witnessed firsthand how the elevation of the English language eroded his ethnic identity by pushing his mother tongue of Omusuba to near extinction. These experiences inspired Okombo’s lifelong mission to preserve indigenous African heritage through academia with a major focus on educating children in their native languages.

While pursuing his linguistics doctorate in 1983, Okombo published Masira ki Ndaki [“Misfortune is Inevitable”] in Dholuo, which is considered one of the first novels published in a Kenyan language. He continued to pass down his expertise as a professor of linguistics and literature at his alma mater of the University of Nairobi, where Okombo founded the Kenyan Sign Language [KSL] Research Project in 1991. This project led to the widespread adoption of KSL across Kenya, allowing the nation’s deaf community to secure new opportunities in society.

For his achievements, the World Federation of the Deaf elected Okombo as its international president from 1992 to 1995. Today, Okombo’s students remember him as a great listener, storyteller, and even a great dancer as his legacy lives on in the ongoing advocacy work of the Kenyan Sign Language Research Project.

Happy birthday, Professor Okombo!

[9A]

Nov 4, 2021

Charles K. Kao's 88th Birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates the visionary Chinese-born, British-American physicist and educator Charles K. Kao, considered the father of fiber optics whose innovations revolutionized global communication and laid the groundwork for today’s high-speed internet.

Charles Kuen Kao was born on this day in 1933 in Shanghai, China. Drawn to intellectual work early in life with notable academic success, he went on to study electrical engineering in England. He supported his graduate studies as an engineer at Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd., where his colleagues invented the laser in 1960.

Shortly after earning his doctorate, Kao and his collaborator George Hockham published a groundbreaking paper in 1966 that proposed fibers fabricated with purified glass could carry a gigahertz [1 billion hertz] of information over long distances using lasers. Kao led the development of this revolutionary technology, and in 1977, the first telephone network carried live signals through optical fibers. By the 1980s, Kao was overseeing the implementation of fiber-optic networks worldwide.

Kao was a dedicated educator in addition to being a trailblazing researcher. Beginning in 1987, he spent nearly a decade as Vice-Chancellor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and founded Hong Kong’s Independent Schools Foundation. Kao’s landmark research in the 1960s earned him a joint Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009 and cleared the path for the over 900 million miles of fiber-optic cables that carry massive quantities of data across the globe today.

Happy birthday, Charles K. Kao—thank you for using every fiber of your being to make the world a more connected place!

[9A]

Oct 27, 2021

Otto Wichterle's 108th Birthday




Are you one of the estimated 140 million people around the world who wears contact lenses? Whether your answer is yes or no, the story of the Czech chemist who invented the soft contact lens—Otto Wichterle—might give you some fresh insight. Today’s Doodle celebrates Wichterle’s life and legacy on his 108th birthday.

Otto Wichterle was born on this day in 1913 in Prostĕjov, the Czech Republic [then, Austria-Hungary]. As a lover of science from his youth, Wichterle went on to earn his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1936 from the Prague Institute of Chemical Technology [ICT]. He taught as a professor at his alma mater during the 1950s while developing an absorbent and transparent gel for eye implants.

Political turmoil pushed Wichterle out of the ICT, leading him to continue refining his hydrogel development at home. In 1961, Wichterle [a glasses wearer himself] produced the first soft contact lenses with a DIY apparatus made of a child’s erector set, a bicycle light battery, a phonograph motor, and homemade glass tubing and molds. As the inventor of countless patents and a lifelong researcher, Wichterle was elected the first President of the Academy of the Czech Republic following the country’s establishment in 1993.

While Wichterle is most well-known as the inventor of contact lenses, his innovations also laid the foundation for state-of-the-art medical technologies such as “smart” biomaterials, which are used to restore human connective tissues, and bio-recognizable polymers, which have inspired a new standard for drug administration.

Happy birthday, Otto Wichterle—thanks for helping the world see eye to eye!

[9A]

Oct 22, 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]

Oct 18, 2021

Yoram Gross' 95th Birthday



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

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

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

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

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

[9A]

Oct 12, 2021

Paulette Nardal's 125th Birthday



Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Amsterdam, Netherlands-based guest artist Jessica Coppet, celebrates the 125th birthday of Martinican-French author Paulette Nardal. She is widely considered one of the founders of Négritude, an intellectual movement produced by Black artists and writers who joined in solidarity to champion their cultural heritage and carve out space in the prevailing literary world for Black voices.

Born on this day in 1896 in Saint-Pierre, a French colonial town on the Caribbean island of Martinique, Félix Jeanne Paulette Nardal was the daughter of one of Martinique’s first Black engineers in the Department of Public Works. Nardal followed suit and established a trailblazing legacy of her own when she arrived in Paris in 1920 and became the first Black woman from Martinique to enroll at the city’s prestigious university, La Sorbonne, earning a master’s degree in English.

In the 1920s, members of the French Black community, many being West Indian immigrants like Nardal, often faced intense racial discrimination. Paulette Nardal and her sister Jane opened a Paris salon called Le Salon de Clamart in 1929 as an intellectual meeting ground to reflect on the Black condition. Known for its hospitality and elegance, the well-appointed salon allowed Nardal to gather intellectuals for conversation and mutual support. Scholars credit this salon as the birthplace of the Négritude movement, which Nardal helped initiate by authoring social commentary articles in the review journal “La Revue du monde noir” [“The Review of the Black World”].

Another significant moment of her life occurred at the beginning of World War II. Nardal left Martinique for France but suffered a lifelong injury when a submarine attacked her ship. Her demand for France to recognize her as a civilian war victim and survivor highlights the convergence of race, gender, disability, and citizenship. This event eventually inspired Nardal to establish organizations and newspapers encouraging educated women to channel their energies into social improvement and suffrage.

Nardal rose to prominence through her writings and fostered an international community of Black women who broke down barriers across race, class, and educational status. In recognition of her unifying work, Nardal was elected as a delegate to the United Nations in 1946 and was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1976, the nation’s highest honor. There is the Promenade Jane-et-Paulette Nardal located on 100 rue Didot in Paris, and a plaque honors Nardal’s legacy in the Paris suburb of Clamart, where her salon catalyzed an international movement.

Happy Birthday, Paulette Nardal!