Google doodles

[9A]

Jun 11, 2010

Jacques Cousteau's 100th Birthday






Jacques-Yves Cousteau, was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie Française.

Cousteau described his underwater world research in a series of books, perhaps the most successful being his first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure, published in 1953. Cousteau also directed films, most notably the documentary adaptation of the book, The Silent World, which won a Palme d'or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. He remained the only person to win a Palme d'Or for a documentary film, until Michael Moore won the award in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.

[9A]

May 9, 2010

J.M. Barrie's 150th Birthday





Sir James Matthew Barrie, was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan.

[9A]

Apr 2, 2010

Hans Christian Andersen's 205th Birthday





Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales sparked the imaginations of generations of children. For this series, one of the first multi-part narrative doodles we created, I had the privilege to interpret Andersen's famous work, Thumbelina.

[9A]

Mar 31, 2015

126th Anniversary of the public opening of the Eiffel Tower





On this day 126 years ago, construction of the Eiffel Tower came to an end–marking the arrival of one of the most famous and recognized landmarks on the planet. Guest doodler Floriane Marchix depicts this anniversary on our homepage today.

[9A]

Nov 18, 2014

Amalia Eriksson's 190th Birthday





Excited because it’s candy cane season? We’ll send your regards to Swedish entrepreneur Amalia Eriksson. Eriksson was the first person to manufacture the peppermint treats, becoming one of Sweden’s first women to own a business. Happy 190th birthday to Amalia!

[9A]

October 19, 2017

S. Chandrasekhar’s 107th Birthday









“Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.” Thanks to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, we know! Today marks the 107th birthday of the first astrophysicist to win a Nobel Prize for his theory on the evolution of stars.

A child prodigy, Chandra published his first paper and developed his theory of star evolution before turning 20. By age 34, he was elected to the Royal Society of London, and soon after, became a distinguished service professor of physics.

The Indian-American physicist’s honors are astronomical, including the National Medal of Science, the Draper Medal of the US National Academy of Science, and the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Though originally met with skepticism in the 1930s, Chandra’s theories and equations won the Nobel Prize in Physics 50 years later.

Today’s Doodle illustrates one of the most important of all of S. Chandrasekhar's contributions to our understanding of stars and their evolution: The Chandrasekhar limit. The limit explains that when a star’s mass is lighter than 1.4 times that of the sun, it eventually collapses into a denser stage called a “white dwarf.” When heavier than 1.4, a white dwarf can continue to collapse and condense, evolving into a black hole or a supernova explosion.

Today we honor the original starman whose universal theories propel current space research and modern astronomy on their ambitious missions.

[9A]

Oct 15, 2013

Friedrich Nietzsche's 169th Birthday









Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, writer, and philologist whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy.

His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from figures such as Socrates, Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

[9A]

Nov 13, 2014

Seok Joo-myung's 106th Birthday







In Korea, our doodle features a butterfly in honor of entomologist Seok Joo-myung's 106th birthday. Seok dedicated his life to the study of butterflies and made important contributions to the species’ taxonomy.

[9A]

12 January 2015

11th Anniversary of Kimani Maruge's First Day of School




It’s never too late to learn something new. On this day 11 years ago, Kenyan Kimani Maruge enrolled in primary school at the ripe age of 84, becoming the world’s oldest person to start elementary school. But Maruge’s love for education didn’t end there. In 2005, he boarded a plane–for the very first time–to address the U.N. on the importance of free primary school. 

[9A]

12 January 2016

Charles Perrault’s 388th Birthday



What's that story, with the glass slipper and the pumpkin that turns into a carriage? How about the one where a princess falls into a deep sleep when she pricks her hand on a spindle? We owe the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty narratives we've known since childhood to Charles Perrault, the 17th-century French author and academician. Perrault was born in Paris 388 years ago today, and spent most of his life in the court of Louis XIV. He began writing his famous stories only in his late sixties, after having retired.

Perrault's stories set the standard for the modern fairy tale. Perrault borrowed basic plots and the familiar opening "once upon a time" [il était une fois] from traditional stories told aloud, while modernizing them with both fashionable embellishments and the very act of putting them into writing. [The publication of the tales coincides with the rise of the modern novel: they came after Don Quixote and La Princesse de Clèves, but before Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones]. The backbone of these fairy tales persist within contemporary novels and movies, making our reading or cinema-going a fundamentally optimistic venture: when we hear "once upon a time," we've come to expect—and anxiously await—a "happily ever after."

[9A]

11 Jan 2016

Alice Paul’s 131st Birthday




“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.” -- Alice Paul

When the 19th Amendment to the Constitution became law in August of 1920, women finally won the right to vote after a very long fight. Many suffragists played vital roles in this victory, but none more so than Alice Paul. Paul first made a name for herself by organizing a successful women’s suffrage parade the day before Woodrow Wilson’s first inauguration. Paul thought that public demonstrations were the smartest ways to achieve voting rights. That belief put her at odds with the National American Woman Suffrage Association, so she founded her own organization, the National Women’s Party.

Paul’s group organized daily protests in front of the White House [marking the first time anyone demonstrated there]. Police arrested the protestors on a made up charge, and Paul was one of the women to be sent to jail. While in jail she and the other women were treated horribly. Journalists wrote about the mistreatment, people became outraged, and the suffragists gained public support. A short while later President Woodrow Wilson declared his support for a constitutional amendment that would finally give women the right to vote. It would take another couple of years for the amendment to become the law, but his support marked a crucial turning point. Alice Paul dedicated the rest of her life to fighting for the equality of women, authoring the very first version of the Equal Rights Amendment and working the rest of her life towards its passage.

Today, on what would have been her 131st birthday, we salute Alice Paul with a Doodle that pays tribute to her pivotal role in the fight for women’s suffrage and her unyielding dedication to women’s rights.

[9A]

11 January 2012

Nicolas Steno's 374th Birthday




Known as the father of stratigraphy and geology, Nicholas Steno worked to understand history by what he could find in the ground. Rather than simply write books about his findings, Steno opted to do his own hands-on research. As an innovative thinker, he disagreed with his contemporaries in thinking that shark-tooth-shaped objects found imbedded in rocks "fell from the sky." Instead, Steno argued that these formations were fossils. His dedication to analysis, critical thinking, and creative thinking make him a great subject for a Google doodle!

Considering Steno's contributions to stratigraphy and geology, I wanted to honor his birthday with a unique take on his work. I knew that the colorful and geeky aesthetic of stratigraphy was the right direction for the doodle, but the team and I weren't sure how to apply it. Should we set the doodle in the middle of the country? Should we relate it to Google culture? Should I just make things up? Below are the exploration sketches.

After consulting a few geology nerds within Google, I decided to set the land in our very own Mountain View! I learned an interesting fact about our home-- there are no dinosaur fossils in the Bay Area [except for Stan of course].

Also staying a little more faithful to stratigraphy graphs, I formed the Google logo as though it was cut from a chunk of three dimensional land. Below are early drafts of the final direction.

There were so many different ways to think about Steno and his studies, it was a challenge and pleasure to honor such a fascinating person!

posted by Jennifer Hom

[9A]

9 Jan 2012

Luis Coloma's 161st Birthday




Luis Coloma Roldán was a Spanish writer, journalist and Jesuit. He is most known for creating the character of El Ratoncito Pérez. Coloma was a prolific writer of short stories and his complete works, which includes his novels, biographies, and other works, have since been collected in a multi-volume set. He studied at the University of Seville, where he graduated with a master's degree in law, although he never got to practice law. In 1908 Coloma became a member of the Royal Spanish Academy occupying seat "f".

[9A]

7 Jan 2012

Oskar Luts' 125th Birthday





Oskar Luts was best known for his semi-autobiographical tale, Kevade, which takes place in a schoolhouse in rural Estonia. Working closely with a Googler from the Estonia office, I received plenty of great suggestions on which scene[s] to depict out of this touching story of friendship, love, and the daily lives of kids in school.

[9A]

7 January 2013

Nanakusa Gayu [7 Herb Porridge]




The Festival of Seven Herbs or Nanakusa no sekku is the long-standing Japanese custom of eating seven-herb rice porridge ; one of the Gosekku.

The seventh of the first month has been an important Japanese festival since ancient times. Jingchu Suishiji, written in the Six Dynasties China, recorded the Southern Chinese custom of eating a hot soup that contains seven vegetables to bring longevity and health and ward off evil on the 7th day of the first month of the Chinese calendar. Since there is little green at that time of the year, the young green herbs bring color to the table and eating them suits the spirit of the New Year. The custom was present in Taiwan until the mid-Qing Dynasty, and is still present in parts of rural Guangdong province.

The seven flowers of autumn are bush clover [hagi], miscanthus [obana, Miscanthus sinensis], kudzu, large pink [nadeshiko, Dianthus superbus], yellow-flowered valerian [ominaeshi, Patrinia scabiosifolia], boneset [fujibakama, Eupatorium fortunei], and Chinese bellflower [kikyō, Platycodon gradiflorus]. These seven autumn flowers provide visual enjoyment. Their simplicity was very much admired: they are small and dainty yet beautifully colored. They are named as typical autumn flowers in a verse from the Man'yōshū anthology.

Unlike their spring counterparts, there is no particular event to do anything about the seven flowers of autumn. The autumn flowers are not intended for picking or eating, but for appreciation, despite each one is believed to have medical efficacy in traditional Chinese medicine. Tanka and haiku theming hanano [lit. flower field], meaning fields where the autumn wildflowers are in full bloom, have a centuries-old history.

[9A]

July 27, 2011

Enrique Granados' 144th Birthday






Pantaleón Enrique Joaquín Granados y Campiña, commonly known as Enrique Granados, was a Spanish composer of classical music, and concert pianist. His most well-known works include Goyescas, the Spanish Dances, and María del Carmen.

Granados wrote piano music, chamber music [a piano quintet, a piano trio, music for violin and piano], songs, zarzuelas, and an orchestral tone poem based on Dante's Divine Comedy. Many of his piano compositions have been transcribed for the classical guitar; examples include Dedicatoria, Danza No. 5, and Goyescas.

His music can be divided into three styles or periods:

A romantic style including such pieces as Escenas Románticas and Escenas Poeticas.
A more typically nationalist, Spanish style including such pieces as Danzas Españolas [Spanish Dances], 6 Piezas sobre cantos populares españoles [Six Pieces based on popular Spanish songs].

The Goya period, which includes the piano suite Goyescas, the opera Goyescas, various Tonadillas for voice and piano, and other works.

Granados was a significant influence on at least two other famous Spanish composers and musicians, Manuel de Falla and Pablo Casals. He was also the teacher of composer Rosa García Ascot.

[9A]

November 11, 2021

Débora Arango's 114th Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates pioneering Colombian artist Débora Arango. Her self-described expressionist paintings blended a personal figurative style with techniques borrowed from early 20th-century Mexican muralism to challenge social injustice. Although it first met great controversy, Arango’s work revolutionized the perception of Colombian women’s roles in society and represents a key milestone in the nation’s art history.

Débora Arango was born on this day in 1904 in Medellín, Colombia. Arango was encouraged by her mother to become a painter. She first exhibited her work at a 1939 competition for professional artists in Medellín—the first-ever selection by a woman to include nude paintings. Her work was awarded first place, sparking widespread outrage due to her exhibition’s scandalous nature that rebelled against the status quo.

The broad, defined brushstrokes Arango employed in her paintings were as bold as her subject matter. Her work presented an unfiltered depiction of Medellín from the 1940s to the 1960s, illustrating an era rife with political turmoil, gender discrimination, and social injustice. Overcoming decades of censorship both at home and abroad, Arango was finally able to exhibit 100 paintings in Medellín in 1975.

Arango’s boundary-breaking career was recognized with several distinguished awards later in her life, including the Order of Bocaya—Colombia’s highest civilian honor. Today, Colombians exchange 2,000 peso bills emblazoned with her portrait, and the Medellín Museum of Modern Art displays a permanent collection of Arango’s paintings, which serve as a potent time capsule of Colombian history.

Happy birthday, Débora Arango!

[9A]

October 10, 2017

Fridtjof Nansen’s 156th Birthday






Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, traversing the island on cross-country skis. He won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude of 86°14′ during his Fram expedition of 1893–1896. Although he retired from exploration after his return to Norway, his techniques of polar travel and his innovations in equipment and clothing influenced a generation of subsequent Arctic and Antarctic expeditions.

[9A]

June 1, 2021

Celebrating Daniel Balavoine







Today’s Doodle celebrates French singer, songwriter, and activist Daniel Balavoine, a rebellious yet sensitive champion of pop music and human rights. On this day in 1978, Balavoine released his third album “Le Chanteur” [“The Singer”], an emotional reflection on the preciousness of life that skyrocketed his career.

Daniel Balavoine was born on February 5, 1952, in Alençon, France. In his teens, he fought passionately for social causes with energy he began to channel into music in 1970. Although his early musical efforts flew under the radar of mainstream success, Balavoine’s career began to pick up steam when Swiss pop star Patrick Juvet featured him on one of his albums.

In 1975, Balavoine continued to build momentum with the release of his debut solo album “De Vous à Elle en Passant Par Moi” [“From You to Her Through Me”]. A televised performance in 1977 of one of his sophomore album’s hit songs, “Lady Marlène,” captivated French pop icon Michel Berger, who commissioned Balavoine to play Johnny Rockfort in his cyberpunk rock opera “Starmania.” The role was a smash hit that set the stage for Balavoine to become a successful innovator of French electronic pop.

In 1980, he released a hit album, “Un Autre Monde” [“Another World”], featuring some of his most famous songs, such as “Je Ne Suis Pas un Héros” [“I’m not a Hero”], “Mon Fils, ma Bataille” [“My Son, My Battle”], and “La Vie ne M’Apprend Rien” [“Life Teaches me Nothing”]. In that same year, on television he issued a call to action to politician François Mitterrand with a challenge to do more for the youth. This was a defining moment for Balavoine’s legacy as not only a musician, but a vocal activist for the community and symbol for France’s next generation.

In addition to the over 20 million records he sold, Balavoine was a devoted humanitarian. He focused much of his efforts on improving the lives of residents in remote villages of the African Sahara, especially in Mali, where he planned to supervise the installation of water pumps near the route of the 1986 Paris-Dakar rally car race. Balavoine tragically lost his life during this trip, but his legacy has lived on. That same year, Balavoine’s final album “Sauver L'Amour” [“Save Love”] won a posthumous Victoire de la Musique award, one of French music’s highest honors.

Here’s to you, Daniel Balavoine!

[9A]

Aug 6, 2014

Anna Castelli Ferrieri's 94th Birthday









Our homepage in Italy today celebrates pioneering architect Anna Castelli Ferrieri, born this day in 1918. Ferrieri found success using alternative materials like metal and plastic in her designs.

[9A]

Aug 12, 2014

Awa Odori





Our doodle in Japan celebrates “Awa Odori,” the country’s largest traditional dance festival. The event brings in 1.3 million tourists to Japan every year and dancers learn choreography that hasn’t changed in more than 400 years— guess there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel… er, dance?

[9A]

Aug 13, 2014

Ivan Sechenov's 185th Birthday





Our doodle in Russia celebrates the father of objective physiological psychology, Ivan Sechenov. Sechenov theorized that all human actions, conscious and unconscious, are conditioned respo

[9A]

Aug 14, 2014

Pakistan Independence Day 2014






The Pakistan National Monument in all its glory is the subject of our doodle for Pakistani Independence Day. The monument takes the shape of a blooming flower to represent the country’s progress and growth.

[9A]

Aug 16, 2014

Diana Wynne Jones' 80th Birthday











Diana Wynne Jones was an English novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, some of her work also incorporates science fiction themes and elements of realism. Jones' work often explores themes of time travel and parallel or multiple universes. Some of her better-known works are the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark series, the three Moving Castle novels, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.

[9A]

Aug 28, 2014

Sheridan Le Fanu's 200th Birthday







Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of his time, central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are the locked-room mystery Uncle Silas, the lesbian vampire novella Carmilla, and the historical novel The House by the Churchyard.

[9A]

20 December 2012

200th Anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales



The Brothers Grimm created countless folktales in their lifetime, but we chose to focus on just one-Red Riding Hood. Our initial concepts suggested an opportunity to try a comic book format where the viewer could pan through the story themselves. Ours is a contemporary take on the tale with flattened designs and an alternative ending!

[9A]

14 Nov 2012

Amadeu de Souza-Cardoso's 125th Birthday





Belonging to the first generation of Portuguese modernist painters, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso stands out among all of them for the exceptional quality of his work and for the dialogue he established with the historical avant-gardes of the early 20th century. "The artist developed, between Paris and Manhufe, the most serious possibility of modern art in Portugal in an international dialogue, intense but little known, with the artists of his time". His painting is articulated with open movements such as Cubism, Futurism or Expressionism, reaching in many moments - and in a sustained way in the production of recent years - a level comparable in everything to the cutting-edge production of his contemporary international art.

[9A]

12 Nov 2012

Auguste Rodin's 172nd Birthday







It was particularly daunting to tackle this incredible sculptor in a doodle. However, the essence of the project lay in the way Rodin approached his work. Amongst many of his attributes he was able to work rapidly and instinctively, using his immense anatomical knowledge as a platform for expressiveness.

In 1904 he displayed the first over-life-size enlargement at the Paris Salon, where Dr. Max Linde, a German collector, acquired cast no. 3. In 1922 Horace Rackham purchased this cast from Dr. Linde and donated it to The Detroit Institute of Arts, where it is placed at the Woodward Avenue entrance.

[9A]

10 Nov 2012

Hachiko's 89th Birthday







The dog was born on a farm near the city of Ōdate in Akita Prefecture.

In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo, took Hachikō, a golden brown Akita as a pet. During his owner's life, Hachikō greeted him at the end of each day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The two kept their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not come back to the train station. The professor had died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Each day for the next nine years, nine months and fifteen days, Hachikō waited for Ueno's return. He showed up at the exact time the train was due at the station.

Other travellers begin to notice Hachikō still showing up. Many of the people had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno meet each afternoon. At first, people who worked at the station were not very friendly to the dog. But after a story was written about him in Asahi Shinbun, people started to bring Hachikō treats and food for him to eat while he waited.

A well-known Japanese artist made a sculpture of the dog, and in Japan a new awareness of the Akita breed grew. At last, Hachikō's legendary faithfulness became a national symbol of loyalty to the Emperor of Japan himself.

[9A]

23 Jul 2009

The 40th Anniversary of Comic-Con - Designed by Jim Lee © DC Comics



A comic book convention or comic con is an event with a primary focus on comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels, or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activities and panels, with a larger number of attendees participating in cosplay than most other types of fan conventions. Comic book conventions are also used as a vehicle for industry, in which publishers, distributors, and retailers represent their comic-related releases.

Comic book conventions may be considered derivatives of science-fiction conventions, which began in the late 1930s.

Comic-cons were traditionally organized by fans on a not-for-profit basis, though nowadays most events catering to fans are run by commercial interests for profit. Many conventions have award presentations relating to comics [such as the Eisner Awards, which have been presented at San Diego Comic-Con International since 1988; or the Harvey Awards, which have been presented at a variety of venues also since 1988].

At commercial events, comic book creators often give out autographs to the fans, sometimes in exchange for a flat appearance fee, and sometimes may draw illustrations for a per-item fee.

Commercial conventions are usually quite expensive and are hosted in hotels. This represents a change in comic book conventions, which traditionally were more oriented toward comic books as a mode of literature, and maintained a less caste-like differentiation between professional and fan.

The first official comic book convention was held in 1964 in New York City and was called New York Comicon. Early conventions were small affairs, usually organized by local enthusiasts [such as Jerry Bails, later known as the "Father of Comic Fandom", and Dave Kaler of the Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors], and featuring a handful of industry guests. The first recurring conventions were the Detroit Triple Fan Fair, which ran from 1965–1978, and Academy Con, which ran from 1965–1967. Many recurring conventions begin as single-day events in small venues, which as they grow more popular expand to two days, or even three or more every year. Many comic-cons which had their start in church basements or union halls now fill convention centers in major cities.

Nowadays, comic conventions are big business, with recurring shows in every major American city. Comic book conventions in name only, the biggest shows include a large range of pop culture and entertainment elements across virtually all genres, including horror, animation, anime, manga, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels.

San Diego Comic-Con International, a multigenre entertainment and comic convention held annually in San Diego since 1970, is the standard bearer for U.S. comic-cons. According to Forbes, the convention is the "largest convention of its kind in the world;"and is also the largest convention held in San Diego. According to the San Diego Convention and Visitor's Bureau, the convention has an annual regional economic impact of $162.8 million, with a $180 million economic impact in 2011. However, in 2017, SDCC lost its record of the largest annual multigenre convention to São Paulo's Comic Con Experience [first held in 2014].

Internationally, the world's largest comic book convention, in terms of attendees, is Japan's Comiket [first held in 1975], which boasts annual attendance of over half a million people. Italy's Lucca Comics & Games [first held in 1965] and France's Angoulême International Comics Festival [first staged in 1974] are the world's second and third largest comic festivals, respectively.

[9A]

23 July 2019

60th Anniversary of 'The Land Of Crimson Clouds' Publication




Today’s Doodle celebrates The Land of Crimson Clouds, a novel by Russian authors Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, published on this day in 1959. Perhaps the most influential science fiction writers in Russian history, the pair was inspired to collaborate on their first book together through a friendly bet. Arkady wagered his wife Yelena that he and his brother, who studied astronomy in Leningrad, could write a better science fiction novel than those being published in Russia at the time.

Censorship guidelines had restricted some of their predecessors, but in the 1950s a “thaw” was taking place, allowing writers greater freedom of expression. Completed in 1957, the same year as Russia’s historic Sputnik mission, Strana bagrovykh tuch [The Land of Crimson Clouds] is the story of a voyage to the planet Venus, set in the late 20th century. Presenting an optimistic view of the future, the Strugatsky brothers foresaw a world where technology and social progress went hand in hand, with photon-drive rockets carrying explorers to Venus in search of uranium to help generate nuclear power.

Although they lived hundreds of miles from each other, the Strugatskys went on to collaborate on over 25 novels. Their follow-up, Noon: 22nd Century, introduced the “Noon Universe,” interpreted by some as an allegory for the ideals of the Soviet Union, a world filled with intelligent, hard-working people happily engaged in interesting work.

By the late 1960s, the brothers increasingly used their writing to offer subtle critiques of authoritarian government, setting the action in faraway universes. Although some of their later works were censored for political reasons, their family has since made all their work available online as the writers originally intended.

[9A]

23 July 2014

Opening of Glasgow Commonwealth Games







The Commonwealth Games are underway! Hosted in Glasgow this year, this international sporting event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years. In addition to many typical Olympic sports, the games also include sports popular in the British Commonwealth like netball.

[9A]

24 Jul 2014

Robot Taekwon V's 38th Birthday







Only one man … er, robot can save our homepage from total domination—and that robot is Robot Taekwon V! Our doodle marks the 38th anniversary of the popular Korean animated film. Released in 1976, the movie went on to become a smash hit and inspired seven sequels, all the while embedding itself deeply into Korean culture.

[9A]

24 July 2010

Alfonse Mucha's 150th Birthday




Alfons Maria Mucha known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, and designs, which became among the best-known images of the period.

In the second part of his career, at the age of 43, he returned to his homeland of Bohemia-Moravia region in Austria and devoted himself to painting a series of twenty monumental canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world, which he painted between 1912 and 1926. In 1928, on the 10th anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, he presented the series to the Czech nation. He considered it his most important work. It is now on display in Prague.
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[9A]

30 Aug 2010

Mary Shelley's 213th Birthday





Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus [1818], which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft.

[9A]

4 October 2017

Violeta Parra’s 100th Birthday







Today we celebrate the 100th birthday of Violeta Parra, the Chilean composer, folk singer, social activist, author, and artist.

Born in the small, southern Chilean town of San Fabián de Alico, Parra picked up the guitar at an early age and began writing songs with her siblings. She started her career performing in small venues, later traveling across Chile to record a large breadth of traditional Chilean folk music. Her increasing popularity eventually earned her her own radio show and an invitation to perform at a youth festival in Poland. While in Europe, she also explored the visual arts, creating oil paintings, wire sculptures, ceramics, and burlap tapestries called arpilleras which were exhibited in the Louvre Palace in Paris in 1964.

She is perhaps best remembered as the “Mother of Latin American folk,” pioneering the Nueva canción chilena, a renewal of Chilean folk traditions that blossomed into a movement which celebrated the fight for social justice throughout Latin America. Upon her return to Chile in 1965, she established Centro Cultural La Carpa de La Reina, a community center for the arts and political activism.

[9A]

11 Oct 2016

Edgar Negret’s 96th birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates Edgar Negret, a Colombian sculptor known for depicting abstract nature scenes out of intricate metalwork. The second "o" in “Google” features some of his signature sculptures.

In 1957 Negret created one of his most famous sculpture series, “Aparatos mágicos,” or Magical Apparatuses. The magical realism of these sculptures showcase Negret’s style, which would become a major part of Colombia’s fine arts scene.

Many of Negret’s sculptures can now be found in his hometown of Popayán, Colombia, in the house where he lived, which now serves as the Negret House Museum. On the 96th anniversary of Negret’s birth, we remember his dedication to art, nature, and Colombia.

[9A]

14 October 2013

Katherine Mansfield's 125th Birthday







Kathleen Mansfield Murry [née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923] was a prominent modernist writer who was born and brought up in New Zealand. She wrote short stories and poetry under the pen name Katherine Mansfield. When she was 19, she left colonial New Zealand and settled in England, where she became a friend of D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Lady Ottoline Morrell and others in the orbit of the Bloomsbury Group. Mansfield was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis in 1917, and she died in France aged 34.

[9A]

11 April 2014

Percy Julian's 115th Birthday






If you are intrigued by today's doodle on the U.S. Google homepage, celebrating organic chemist, Dr. Percy Julian, I can provide no better recommendation than to watch the PBS documentary, Forgotten Genius, illustrating both his personal life and life's work.

It's no scientific revelation that it's the experiences from our everyday lives that inform our work, and in Dr. Julian's case, he used these experiences, overcoming tremendous challenges and racial barriers [and even a couple happy accidents] to become one of the most renowned and highly respected chemists in history.

As I read more about his work, I became fascinated with his process in the specific field of organic chemistry, and how he discovered ways to take rare and exotic components and synthesize them or discover alternate organic substances in place of more cost-prohibitive resources. Yep, that's a mouthful! So here are two key examples: His most well known triumph was the synthesis of the alkaloid, physostigmine, found in the african calabar bean, which led to a more readily available treatment of ailments such as glaucoma and Alzheimer's Disease. He also pioneered many uses from the soybean and soybean oil, developing a better process for obtaining cortisone to treat arthritis or to aid the body in the receiving of organ transplants.

Happy 115th birthday to the NOT Forgotten Genius, Dr. Percy Lavon Julian!

posted by Mike Dutton, Doodler

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February 18, 2015

Alessandro Volta’s 270th Birthday


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Experimenting with different metals and solutions, Volta ended up creating the first electric battery: the Voltaic Pile, a stack of alternating metal discs separated by cardboard and cloth soaked with seawater. But what made this battery so remarkable was that it was easy to construct out of common materials and enabled experimenters for the first time to produce steady, predictable flows of electricity. Within just weeks it inspired a wave of discoveries and inventions and ushered in a new age of electrical science.

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August 22, 2013

Claude Debussy's 151st Birthday






We sought out to create an animated doodle to commemorate Debussy as one of the most influential composers of all time. At the outstart, the task of creating and coding visual imagery that does justice to the spirit of his music seemed incredibly daunting. But, as it turned out, all I needed to do was to resurrect my trusty CD player and hit play, and the inspiration would start flooding in. I felt flickering lights, a quiet city and pouring rain set against the magical melody of Clair de Lune.

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Jan 11, 2018

Alan Paton’s 115th Birthday






“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear.”

South African author and activist Alan Paton introduced the world to life in pre-Apartheid South Africa, fearlessly speaking out against racial segregation in person and through his books, and propagating universal franchise and non-violence.

Born in the Natal province, the young Paton was subjected to extensive corporal punishment, which led to his lifelong opposition to any form of authoritarianism and physical punishment. Later, as administrator of the Diepkloof Reformatory for young black African offenders, he developed a controversial but compassionate system of reform that included open dormitories, work outside the prison walls, and home visitations.

After the Second World War, Paton toured correctional reform facilities across the world, during which time he started to write Cry, the Beloved Country. The book was published in 1948 — ironically the very year in which apartheid was formally institutionalized, beginning four decades of racial segregation in South Africa. His magnum opus is a moving tale of racial injustice, human suffering, and redemption, as two fathers come to terms with the loss of their sons — one an accidental murder and the other, his unfortunate victim.

Today’s Doodle depicts Paton on a train ride [on which he allegedly gained inspiration to write Cry, the Beloved Country] and celebrates the 115th birthday of a visionary who did much to fight for basic human principles of love, non-violence, and equality.

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Nov 16, 2017

Chinua Achebe’s 87th Birthday






“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

One man took it upon himself to tell the world the story of Nigeria through the eyes of its own people. Chinua Achebe [born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe] was the studious son of an evangelical priest. A student of English literature, he started writing in the 1950s, choosing English as his medium but weaving the storytelling tradition of the Igbo people into his books.

His characters were insiders — everyday people such as the village chief [in Things Fall Apart], the priest [in Arrow of God], or the school teacher [in A Man of the People]. Through their stories, we witness a Nigeria at the crossroads of civilization, culture, and generations.

His pen brought to life the land and traditions of the Igbo: the hum of everyday village life; the anticipation and excitement of sacred masquerades; the stories of the elders and the honor of warriors; the joy of family and the grief of loss.

Considered by many to be the father of modern African literature, Achebe was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2007. Surrounded by iconic images of his most famous literary works, today’s Doodle celebrates his legacy on what would have been his 87th birthday.

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July 16, 2015

Ida B. Wells' 153rd Birthday



Ida B. Wells, born in 1862, proved that words can be extremely powerful — strong enough to fight even the most entrenched segregation and discrimination.

Wells was a voracious reader, and had devoured the entirety of Shakespeare and Dickens before she turned twenty. A gifted writer and orator, she was unabashedly candid--in her diaries, she describes the heroine of Les Miserables as “sweet, lovely and all that, but utterly without depth… fit only for love, sunshine [and] flowers.”

Such sweetness was simply not her style. Fearless and uncompromising, she was a fierce opponent of segregation and wrote prolifically on the civil injustices that beleaguered her world. By twenty-five she was editor of the Memphis-based Free Speech and Headlight, and continued to publicly decry inequality even after her printing press was destroyed by a mob of locals who opposed her message.
In 1894, while living in Chicago, she became a paid correspondent for the broadly distributed Daily Inter Ocean, and in 1895 she assumed full control of the Chicago Conservator.

As Matt Cruickshank illustrates in today’s Doodle, Wells also traveled the world to help people learn how to take a stand against injustice. She co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] and established the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago. One of her most important actions as a suffragette was to oppose the idea that black and white contingents should march separately. At the National American Woman Suffrage Association parade in 1913, she marched with white delegates, showing that different types of discrimination must often be fought together. Wells continued to work for full political rights for all American women for the rest of her life.

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August 3, 2017

Celebrating Dolores del Río








When Dolores Del Río met American filmmaker Edwin Carewe, her talent was so captivating that he convinced her to move to California. Once there, Del Ríos acting career would establish her as an iconic figure during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Considered the first major Latin American crossover Hollywood star, she would pave the way for generations of actors to follow.

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Dec 29, 2016

Charles Macintosh’s 250th Birthday


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It’s a wonder how the weatherbeaten Brits coped before Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh invented his eponymous waterproof coat. His invention, patented in 1823, came about as he experimented with coal-tar naphtha and rubber and realised they could be fused together with fabric to create a waterproof surface. These days in the U.K., it’s common to call any type of raincoat a "Mac."

Today’s Doodle shows Macintosh enjoying a Scottish rain shower whilst testing his ingenious invention.

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Feb 9, 2017

Carmen Miranda's 108th Birthday


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Carmen Miranda is a rare example of a triple threat: talented at acting, singing, and dancing. Born in Portugal and raised in Brazil, Miranda took to the performing arts at a young age. Her father's love of opera and her mother's support led her to pursue a career in show business. Inspired by baianas, Afro-Brazilian fruit vendors, Miranda donned a "fruit hat" when she performed. It would become her signature as her star soared, first in Brazil and then, worldwide.

Miranda’s big break happened following her performance at the National Institute of Music. She landed an audition at a recording studio where she was immediately signed to put out a single. Miranda’s first album was released in 1929, and was immensely popular among Brazilians. Her performing style helped samba gain respect and a place in the Brazilian [and later, the world] spotlight.

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Nov 27, 2016

100th Anniversary of “Pelo Telefone”









The first samba ever recorded, Pelo Telefone began dancing its way into Brazilian hearts 100 years ago today. With a name meaning “on the telephone,” the upbeat number was an ode to new technologies, written by Ernesto dos Santos [better known as Donga] and Mauro de Almeida. Because it was first conceived at the home of Tia Ciata where musicians often participated in rodas de samba, or group improvisations, many others tried to claim authorship of the tune. But it was Donga who registered the sheet music at the National Library of Brazil on November 27, 1916.

Soon after, the song was recorded by the Brazilian singer Baiano and released by Odeon Records. Up to that point, most people didn’t know what samba was. That all changed as Pelo Telefone’s popularity skyrocketed. Suddenly, the playful style of music was at the center of Carnaval celebrations and eventually, at the forefront of Brazilian culture. Much of the genre’s success can be credited to Donga, who continued to perform and record music for much of his life. In today’s Doodle, the legendary musician shows off his moves as we groove to his famous composition.

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July 23, 2018

Ludwig Sütterlin's 153rd Birthday





Today’s Doodle has the “write” stuff and celebrates German graphic artist and font designer Ludwig Sütterlin for creating the Sütterlinschrift, a unified, kid-friendly script that revolutionized the way Prussian and German school children learned to write from 1915-1941.

At the request of the Prussian Ministry of Culture in 1911, Sütterlin developed a handwriting style that would be easier for beginners to use, especially with the steel-spring pen, a modern invention quickly replacing goose-feather quills dipped in ink. As a result, young students could enjoy simple letters, reduced smudging, and fewer reprimands by teachers. Though forbidden by the National Socialists in 1941, Sütterlinschrift was reintroduced and remained as optional in schools until the 1960s so children could read letters from parents or grandparents.

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31 January 2012

Atahualpa Yupanqui's 104th Birthday





Atahualpa Yupanqui [born Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburu; 31 January 1908 – 23 May 1992] was an Argentine singer, songwriter, guitarist, and writer. He is considered the most important Argentine folk musician.