Google doodles

[9A]

20 January 2015

Ji Hyeonok’s 56th Birthday




In 1993, Ji Hyeon-ok led a team of female Korean mountain climbers to the summit of Mt. Everest. She was the first female mountaineer to succeed in climbing peaks above 8000m without supplemental oxygen and without a sherpa.

In addition to Everest, Ji scaled Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and Annapurna — and was the first female Korean mountaineer to do so. After climbing Annapurna in 1999, she sadly passed away on her descent to the basecamp. Ji, who was also a fine-arts teacher, was remarkably brave and dared to go where few had ventured.

Ji, at the top of Gasherbrum, courtesy of her estate

[9A]

20 January 2011

Birthday of Takayanagi Kenjiro



Kenjiro Takayanagi was a Japanese engineer and a pioneer in the development of television. Although he failed to gain much recognition in the West, he built the world's first all-electronic television receiver, and is referred to as "the father of Japanese television".

[9A]

20 January 2011

50th Anniversary of JFK's Inauguration




Regardless of how you feel about JFK's politics, it's very difficult to argue that this wasn't one of the most iconic speeches ever made in US history. Visually speaking [literally], I wanted to emphasize that statement by creating a word cloud style illustration made up entirely of words and phrases from John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural address [including the portrait of Kennedy himself], with the most famous line bolded out across the logo.

posted by Mike Dutton

[9A]

21 October 2022

Marjorie Phyllis Oludhe Macgoye's 94th birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the life and 94th birthday of Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, a British-born novelist and poet who came to be known as the mother of Kenyan literature. She mostly wrote about the struggles of Kenya during its post-colonial era, but also published children’s books, magazine stories and much more.

Macgoye was academically gifted from an early age. Her mother was a teacher in Southampton and kept a close eye on her studies. She was awarded several scholarships in her youth and eventually attended the Royal Holloway College at the University of London for a bachelor’s degree in English. It was here that she found her love for writing through the many letters she wrote to her parents. Macgoye then went to Birkbeck College for her master’s degree in English where she specialized in poetry.

Shortly after graduating, Macgoye moved to Kenya and became a citizen in 1954. This was during a time of political tension and colonial conflict. She often held literary projects that helped women learn how to read and write. Macgoye also became involved in social activism, where she gave speeches and joined national debates regarding the experiences of women.

In 1983, she wholly switched her focus to writing. She wrote poems, novels, children’s books, magazine stories, scholarly essays and historical articles about life in Kenya. Her most notable works include Murder in Majengo [1972], The Present Moment [1987] and Coming to Birth [1986]—the latter won the Sinclair Prize for fiction. Today’s mixed-medium artwork pictures Macgoye next to her books, surrounded by Kenyan scenery and the women that inspired her.

Happy 94th birthday, Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye!

[9A]

21 October 2012

Jonas Maciulis-Maironis' 150th Birthday





Maironis was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest and the greatest and most-known Lithuanian poet, especially of the period of the Lithuanian press ban. He was called the Bard of Lithuanian National Revival [Tautinio atgimimo dainius]. Maironis was active in public life. However, the Lithuanian literary historian Juozas Brazaitis writes that Maironis was not.

[9A]

18 January 2023

Sachio Kinugasa’s 76th Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 76th birthday of Japanese baseball player Sachio Kinugasa. He broke the record for most consecutive baseball games played in 1987 and held it for nine more years.
On this day in 1947, Kinugasa was born in Kyoto, Japan, to a Japanese mother and an African American father, and as a young boy, he was taunted for being mixed race.

He began playing baseball at Heian Buddhist high school and gained popularity as an infielder in the national high school tournament. In 1965, he was signed to the Hiroshima Carp baseball team. He was part of the starting lineup a few years later as third basemen and was a consistent hitter with around 15 home runs a year for 20+ years.

Kinugasa was dedicated to the sport and played a record-breaking 2,215 games in a row even sometimes with fractured bones. To him, it was more painful to miss a game than to play a game while injured, earning him the nickname Tetsujin [Iron Man]. While he is best known for his consecutive game streak, Kinugasa was a well-rounded player who ranks seventh in career home runs with a grand total of 504, fifth in career hits and tenth in career runs batted in. In 1975, he helped the Carp win their first ever league championship.

He received many awards for his athletic performance. Kinugasa was named Central League MVP in 1984 for winning the Japanese championship series. He was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996 and became the second baseball player to receive the People’s Honor Award, given for accomplishments in sports and entertainment, from the Prime Minister of Japan. A lifetime lover of the game, Kinugasa became a baseball announcer for TBS after retiring from the Carp.

Happy birthday to a baseball player who stole countless bases and hearts, Sachio Kinugasa!

[9A]

18 January 2013

Rubén Darío's 146th Birthday





Félix Rubén García Sarmiento, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as modernismo [modernism] that flourished at the end of the 19th century. Darío had a great and lasting influence on 20th-century Spanish-language literature and journalism. He has been praised as the "Prince of Castilian Letters" and undisputed father of the modernismo literary movement.

[9A]

25 January 2020

Lunar New Year 2020 [South Korea]




In South Korea, each lunar year is represented by one of twelve animals in the rotation of the Korean zodiac calendar—and 2020 is the Year of the Rat!

Today’s Doodle commemorates one of the most significant national holidays in South Korea, Seollal, the country’s observance of the Lunar New Year. It depicts the story of the grand race that earned the rat its premier spot in the calendar.

According to ancient legend, an emperor challenged different animals to race through the land to determine their order in the Zodiac. Due to his size, the rat knew it could not cross a river on his own, so he hitched a ride on the ox’s back. But, just before reaching the opposite shore over a river, the rat then cleverly leapt off—winning first place in the race and thus the zodiac calendar!

Often viewed as an opportunity to pay respects to ancestors and elders, this multi-day celebration gathers loved ones together to play endless games of yut and share some delectable tteokguk!


새해 복 많이 받으세요!

[9A]

25 January 2022

Giorgio Gaber's 83rd birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 83rd birthday of Italian singer-songwriter, playwright, and performer Giorgio Gaber. He is best known and remembered as a pioneer of teatro canzone [theater song], a reflection of Milanese society captured through the fusion of music, poetry, and theater.

Born into a musical family in Milan, Italy on this day in 1939, Giorgio Gaberscik first developed a love for music while playing the guitar as therapy for a hand injury. He later learned to sing, and in his early twenties, Gaber co-produced Italy’s first rock ’n’ roll song—Ciao ti dirò [“Ciao, I will tell you”]. During the 1960s, Gaber primarily performed on television, where his purposeful and entertaining songwriting enraptured audiences by intelligently engaging with Milan’s changing cultural landscape.

In 1969, he released Com'è bella la città [How Beautiful the City Is], which remains among his best known works for its focus on contemporary social concerns. To establish a more personal connection with audiences, Gaber transitioned almost exclusively to the theater stage in 1970. His emotional and complex theatrical performances examined Italian society and encouraged an introspective national dialogue.

Over the next 30 years, Gaber refined the teatro canzone medium with hundreds of shows per year. This monumental oeuvre demonstrated that music, monologues, and comedy were tools to expand one’s emotional limits while reflecting on shared national realities. In honor of Gaber’s contributions, a historical Milanese opera house was reopened under his name as the Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber in 2003.

[9A]

6 July 2022

Charlie Hill's 71st birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 71st birthday of Charlie Hill, the first Native American stand-up comedian to appear on national television. Hill—who had Oneida, Mohawk and Cree heritage—worked his way to comedic fame and was one of the first performers to take a public stand challenging Native stereotypes on major talk show programs. Today’s Doodle was illustrated by Alanah Astehtsi Otsistohkwa [Morningstar] Jewell, a French-First Nations artist from Oneida Nation of the Thames.

Hill was born on this day in 1951 in Detroit, Michigan. At age 11, he moved to the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin’s reservation where his father had grown up. On weekends, the Hill family enjoyed watching comedy shows together. Hill was particularly moved by comedian Dick Gregory, who fused activism supporting the Native American civil rights movement with comedy in a way he had never seen before. Hill was inspired to do the same. Having set a vision for his future, he later enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, majoring in speech and drama.

After college, Hill moved to New York City and became involved with the La Mama Experimental Theater Club and later moved to Seattle and joined the Native American Theatre Ensemble. After a few years of practice, he headed to Los Angeles to pursue his dream and work as an actor and comedian. He stood out among his contemporaries as a talented musician who would often incorporate the harmonica into his performances. He was also an avid reader who spent hours in the library educating himself. He set a high standard for himself and dedicated hours to studying other comedians to learn about different styles, timing, and the development of a routine. He would regularly ask other comics for tips and feedback for his own performances.

In the 1970s, Hill earned a spot to perform at Hollywood’s famous Comedy Store, a scouting ground for major network TV. There, he became fast friends with some of the top comedians of the time. Having made a name for himself in town at the age of 26, Hill received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to debut on The Richard Pryor Show in 1977. This was not only a pivotal moment for Hill, but for all Native people who were seeing someone who looked like them on TV for the first time. However, the show’s writers asked Hill to portray a demeaning Native stereotype to which he refused. He felt his duty to stop the perpetuation of racist steretypes was more important than any career opportunity.

After his debut, Hill became a regular on late-night talk shows and exclusive comedy clubs. He went on to perform stand-up around the world and appeared in films and TV shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Show with David Letterman, Roseanne and Moesha.

In 2009, Hill received the Ivy Bethune Tri-Union Diversity Award from the Screen Actors Guild. He also won the Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Award for his exceptional work as a Native artist.

Happy 71st birthday, Charlie Hill!

[9A]

11 October 2022

João do Vale's 88th birthday



Vale was an Afro-Brazilian singer and composer who introduced northeastern music styles to communities across Brazil. Today’s Doodle celebrates what would have been João do Vale’s 88th birthday. He's remembered as a key figure in Brazil's music scene.

Vale was born in Pedreiras, Maranhão, in 1934. At a young age, he faced prejudice when he was expelled from school in order to make room for a higher-class student which made a significant impact on how he viewed the world and would later serve as a major influence in his work. He then had to turn to selling oranges at fairs to help support his family.

At 13, Vale was writing songs for a Brazilian musical group. They put on plays called Bumba-Meu-Boi, which portrayed the Maranhão culture through drama, dance, and lyrics. While it helped kickstart his lyrical passion, his involvement with the group didn’t provide enough money to elevate his family’s financial situation.

Vale left home to escape the injustice he faced in Pedreiras. He traveled to Rio de Janeiro and took up manual labor jobs like coal mining, bricklaying and construction work. In between jobs, he visited other major cities to share his melodies and poetry. Influenced by personal experiences and northeastern music genres like baião, Vale wrote songs about poverty and folk culture.

In the early 1950s, Vale get an opportunity to showcase his creation of upbeat dance rhythms at the Radio Nacional station— a radio station that influenced music tastes throughout Brazil. Since he did not know how to write, João had to commit all of his work to memory in order to present his pieces. His impressive baiãos caught the attention of the hosts and producers working there and his musical career took off! He began to work with artists who were excited to help him grow his compositions and songwriting skills.

By 1964, Vale was performing in showrooms that highlighted northeastern rhythms to working class people in southern Brazil. He wrote several musical hits​​, created two solo albums and composed songs that popularized many great names within the industry. He continued to create and share music rooted in his culture until his death in 1996.

A theater is dedicated to him in the Historic Center of São Luís and he’s honored in his hometown of Pedreiras with a memorial.

Happy 88th birthday, João do Vale!

[9A]

11 October 2010

Cahit Arf's 100th Birthday





Cahit Arf was a Turkish mathematician. He is known for the Arf invariant of a quadratic form in characteristic [applied in knot theory and surgery theory] in topology, the Hasse–Arf theorem in ramification theory, Arf semigroups and Arf rings.

[9A]

11 October 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]

11 October 2022

Celebrating Tito Puente!
[April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000]








In honor of U.S. Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate the life and legacy of American “Nuyorican” musician and internationally-renowned entertainer, Tito Puente. Today’s animated video Doodle is illustrated by New York-based Puerto Rican artist, Carlos Aponte. A multi-talented artist of Puerto Rican descent, Puente was a percussionist, composer, songwriter, recording artist, and bandleader. With a career spanning five decades, he is often referred to as “El Rey de los Timbales” and “The King of Latin music.” On this day in 2021, the Tito Puente Monument was unveiled in East Harlem, New York City.

Puente was born on April 20, 1923 at Harlem Hospital Center in New York City’s Spanish Harlem. He was surrounded by Puerto Rican, Cuban, and big band music growing up, and showed significant musical talent from an early age. He started his career as a drummer in his early teens and found his big break playing for Federico Pagani’s Happy Boys and Machito’s Orchestra. He served in the Navy during World War II, playing alto saxophone as the ship’s bandleader—along with over ten other instruments. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School of Music after the war.

He started his own band, the Tito Puente Orchestra, in 1948 and quickly earned a reputation for his performances that encouraged audiences to get on the dance floor. Puente was known for his awe-inspiring skills on the timbales [or timpani/kettledrums], as well as for the way he combined big band instrumentation and jazz harmonies with Afro-Cuban music. He recorded an astounding 118+ albums and is credited on dozens more—more than any other timbales bandleader to date. This journey began with Ran Kan Kan, his first professional track recording and the soundtrack of today’s Doodle.

Beyond the mambo movement, Puente experimented across other genres of Latin music such as the Boogaloo, Pachanga, and eventually Salsa. He was considered a musical pioneer for his creativity and experimentation, and is widely credited for popularizing Latin music in the United States. In 1969, he was awarded the key to New York City.

Besides the musical merits he received throughout his career, Puente was also deeply dedicated to creating opportunities for the Latin community. In 1979, he introduced a scholarship fund that supported promising, young Latin percussionists for over 20 years.

Puente’s success, presence, and musicality is widely known and respected to this day. After his passing, many waited in line for days to say their goodbyes. He was posthumously recognized at the first-ever Latin Grammy Awards, and the Harlem street where he grew up — E. 110th Street — was renamed Tito Puente Way to honor his life and legacy.


“...Goza con los timbales…” Here's to you, Tito!

[ralpht]

Wow!! I just played the two videos in the last Doodle. AMAZING!!!! If you're a Latin music lover you're in for a real treat.

[9A]

18 January 2012

Havoc in Heaven




Havoc in Heaven” is a Chinese animated film directed by Wan Laiming and produced by the Wan brothers. It was released in 1961 and is based on the Chinese classic novel “Journey to the West.” The film tells the story of the monkey king, Sun Wukong, who causes havoc in heaven when he steals a magical peach from the gods and becomes immortal. The film is known for its use of traditional Chinese animation techniques and its colorful and imaginative visuals.

The film was a huge commercial and critical success upon its release and is considered a classic of Chinese animation. It was a groundbreaking work that established the Wan brothers as the leading animation studio in China. However, it was banned during the cultural revolution because the story was considered too religious and too fantastical.

The stylized animation and drums and percussion accompaniment used in this film are heavily influenced by Peking opera traditions.

[9A]

18 January 2021

Petrona Eyle's 155th birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates Argentine doctor and social activist Petrona Eyle. In addition to her trailblazing career in medicine, Eyle fearlessly campaigned for women’s rights across Latin America and led numerous feminist and humanitarian organizations.

Petrona Eyle was born on this day in 1866 in Baradero in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. She earned a teaching degree in 1879 and then traveled to Switzerland to study medicine at the University of Zurich, the first European university to accept female students. Following her graduation in 1891, she returned home to Argentina and made history when she revalidated her degree to officially become a doctor in the country.

At the same time, Eyle dedicated herself to the improvement of women’s lives through her involvement with a variety of forward-looking organizations. She co-founded the Association of University Women, a pioneering Argentinian feminist association that fought for equal legal and social rights. Through her involvement there, Eyle also helped organize the First International Feminist Congress, which was held in Buenos Aires in 1910. A writer as well, in the late 1910s she founded the magazine Nuestra Causa [Our Cause], in which she argued vehemently for women’s right to vote.

In 1947, Argentina granted women that right, thanks in no small part to Eyle and the women’s suffrage movement to which she contributed throughout her life.

Happy birthday, Petrona Eyle, and thank you for helping to lead Argentina toward a more equal future.

[9A]

10 December 2012

Ada Lovelace's 197th Birthday




Augusta Ada King, countess of Lovelace, along with her counterpart Charles Babbage, were pioneers in computing long before the first computer was built. Despite being an uncommon pedagogy for women, Ada was educated in mathematics because her mother hoped would mitigate in Ada her father's, Lord Byron's, penchant for poetry and mania [it didn’t].

While Babbage drew up designs for the first general-purpose computer, which he called the Analytic Engine, he only imagined it would be a powerful calculator. Lovelace, however, anticipated the much more impressive possibilities for such a machine. She realized the engine could represent not just numbers, but generic entities like words and music. This intellectual leap is the foundation of how we experience computers today, from the words on this screen to the colors and shapes in this doodle.

In 1843, Ada published extensive notes on the Analytic Engine which included the first published sequence of operations for a computer, which she would have input to the Analytic Engine using punch cards. It is this program for calculating Bernoulli numbers which leads some to consider Ada Lovelace the world’s first computer programmer, as well as a visionary of the computing age.

Posted by Ida Mayer, Googler

[9A]

10 December 2019

Celebrating Bertha von Suttner




“After the verb ‘to love,’ ‘to help’ is the most beautiful verb in the world.”
—Bertha von Suttner “Ground Arms! The Story of a Life” [1892]

Today’s Doodle honors the Austrian author Baroness Bertha von Suttner, who became the first female Nobel Peace Prize winner on this day in 1905. A staunch advocate for disarmament and international cooperation, Von Suttner argued that peace is the pinnacle of human progress.

Born Countess Bertha Kinsky in Prague in 1843, she studied music and languages in her young years. At age 30, she moved to Vienna to work as a governess in the von Suttner family home, where she met her future husband, Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner. As the family did not approve of the couple, she left for Paris to work as Alfred Nobel’s secretary, and though it was only a brief stay, she remained in contact with the philanthropist for many years.

Secretly getting married in 1876, the Baron and Baroness von Suttner read evolutionist literature together, prompting the Baroness to start writing novels, short stories, and essays focused on social grievances and pacifism. In her 1889 book Die Waffen nieder! [Lay Down Your Arms!], which is considered her most famous work, she depicts the harsh realities of war from a woman’s perspective.

Undaunted by the opposition that discredited pacifism as a woman’s issue, Baroness von Suttner continued to push for peace by founding the Austrian Peace Society and attending the 1891 Peace Congress. Her work put her at the forefront of the peace movement, and Nobel later credited her dedication as part of the reason he created the Nobel Peace Prize, which was first awarded in 1901.

Today, the Bertha von Suttner Peace Institute in The Hague continues the work she started so many years ago.

[9A]

23 Aug 2012

Alexander Grin's 132th Birthday









Aleksandr Stepanovich Grinevsky [better known by his pen name, Aleksandr Green] was a Russian writer, notable for his romantic novels and short stories, mostly set in an unnamed fantasy land with a European or Latin American flavor [Grin's fans often refer to this land as Grinlandia]. Most of his writings deal with sea, adventures, and love.

[9A]

24 Aug 2012

Ukraine Independence Day 2012

[9A]

27 November 2018

Fe del Mundo’s 107th Birthday






“I’m glad that I have been very much involved in the care of children, and that I have been relevant to them,” says Filipina physician Fe del Mundo. “They are the most outstanding feature in my life.”

Born in Manilla on this day in 1911, del Mundo was inspired to study medicine by her older sister who did not herself live to realize her dream of becoming a doctor. Also known as “The Angel of Santo Tomas,” del Mundo devoted her life to child healthcare and revolutionized pediatric medicine in the process.

A gifted student who became the first woman admitted to Harvard Medical School, del Mundo returned home after completing her studies in the U.S. During World War II, she set up a hospice where she treated more than 400 children and later became director of a government hospital. Frustrated with the bureaucracy, she eventually sold her house and belongings to finance the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. Del Mundo lived on the second floor of the Children's Medical Center in Quezon City, making early morning rounds until she was 99 years old, even in a wheelchair.

When she wasn’t treating patients she was teaching students, publishing important research in medical journals, and authoring a definitive ‘Textbook of Pediatrics.’ She established the Institute of Maternal and Child Health to train doctors and nurses, and became the first woman to be conferred the title National Scientist of the Philippines and received many awards for her outstanding service to humankind.

[9A]

23 Nov 2018

Nikolai Nosov’s 110th Birthday





Blending fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction, Nikolai Nosov wrote children’s literature whose playful prose delivered powerful insights into human nature. His short stories like “Alive Hat,” “Cucumbers,” and “Miraculous Trousers,” and a humorous trilogy of novels about the misadventures of a very small boy named Neznaika [whose name translates as “Know-Nothing” in English] made Nosov a favorite of young readers all over Russia and beyond.

Born on this day in 1908 in Kiev, Ukraine, Nosov attended the Moscow Institute of Cinematography and worked as a producer of animated educational films before he began publishing fiction, often in popular children’s magazines like Murzilka. In 1952 his endearing novel Vitya Maleev at School and at Home was awarded the Stalin Prize, the Soviet Union’s state award, elevating his profile as a writer considerably. The book was later adapted into a comic film called Two Friends.

In 1954 he published the first volume of the Neznaika trilogy—in both Russian and Ukrainian—with two subsequent novels in the series appearing in 1958 and 1967. Set within a town in fairyland populated by tiny people called “Mites” who are “no bigger than a pine cone,” the action centers around an impulsive and easily distracted boy whose belief that he knows everything is always getting him into trouble. In 1969, Nosov won a new literary prize for his trilogy, which has since been adapted into numerous film versions, endearing his characters to countless generations of readers as parents who grew up on Neznaika grow up and the books to their own children.

[9A]

16 Nov 2018

44th Anniversary of the Arecibo Message







Forty-four years ago today, a group of scientists gathered at the Arecibo Observatory amidst the tropical forests of Puerto Rico to attempt humankind’s first communication with intelligent life beyond our own planet. Their three-minute radio message—a series of exactly 1,679 binary digits [a multiple of two prime numbers] which could be arranged in a grid 73 rows by 23 columns—was aimed at a cluster of stars 25,000 light years away from earth.

This historic transmission was intended to demonstrate the capabilities of Arecibo’s recently upgraded radio telescope, whose 1000-foot-diameter dish made it the largest and most powerful in the world at the time. "It was strictly a symbolic event, to show that we could do it," said Donald Campbell, Cornell University professor of astronomy, who was a research associate at the Arecibo Observatory at the time. Nevertheless some of those present were moved to tears.

The message itself was devised by a team of researchers from Cornell University led by Dr. Frank Drake—the astronomer and astrophysicist responsible for the Drake Equation, a means of estimating the number of planets hosting extraterrestrial life within the Milky Way galaxy. ‘‘What could we do that would be spectacular?’’ Drake recalled thinking. “We could send a message!’’

Written with the assistance of Carl Sagan, the message itself could be arranged in a rectangular grid of 0s and 1s to form a pictograph representing some fundamental facts of mathematics, human DNA, planet earth’s place in the solar system, and a picture of a human-like figure as well as an image of the telescope itself.

Since the Arecibo Message will take roughly 25,000 years to reach its intended destination [a group of 300,000 stars in the constellation Hercules known as M13], humankind will have to wait a long time for an answer. How long? In the 44 years since it was first transmitted, the message has traveled only 259 trillion miles, only a tiny fraction of the 146,965,638,531,210,240 or so miles to its final destination. During that same time, our understanding of the cosmos has advanced by leaps and bounds, raising hopes that someone may be out there, listening.

[9A]

12 Nov 2018

Alexander Borodin’s 185th Birthday







The son of a Georgian prince, Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a sickly child who went on to create a powerful legacy in two different fields. Today’s Doodle celebrates the boy who grew up to become both a distinguished chemist and one of Russia’s greatest classical composers.

Born in St. Petersburg on this day in 1833, Borodin showed an early aptitude for science, languages, and music. While mastering German, French, and English, he began studying flute at age eight and later learned the violin and violoncello. By the age of 13 he’d already composed a piece for flute and piano — nevertheless, he considered music to be a hobby while his main focus was in the field of science.

At 17, Borodin began his studies at St Petersburg’s Medico-Surgical Academy, delving into botany, zoology, anatomy, and crystallography—but he soon specialized in organic chemistry, earning his doctorate in 1858. He went on to become a professor at his alma mater, conducting research on benzene derivatives and organic synthesis, and the discovery of the aldol reaction. He’s also remembered as a champion of women’s rights, having founded the Women’s Medical School in St. Petersburg, where he taught for many years. Still, the music kept calling him.

In the 1860s he met Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev, a pianist and composer who would become his musical mentor. Borodin soon made him part of a group known as “The Five” [aka “The Mighty Handful”] whose goal was to develop a distinctly Russian style of classical music. Borodin’s incorporation of traditional folk music, and his striking use of harmony in works like “The Steppes of Central Asia,” made him a leading figure of the Romantic era.

Championed by such fellow composers as Liszt, Debussy, and Ravel, Borodin’s work has had a lasting influence on classical music. His unforgettable melodies were adapted for Kismet, the Tony-Award-winning musical that went from Broadway to Hollywood with songs like “Stranger in Paradise.”

[9A]

Dec 11, 2019

Noel Rosa’s 109th Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 109th birthday of the beloved Brazilian singer and songwriter Noel Rosa. Known as the “Poeta da Vila” [Poet from Vila], his observational and comedic style earned him a special place in the history of samba, the popular music of the Brazilian people.

Born in the Vila Isabel neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro on this day in 1910, Rosa grew up in a musical family. He started playing the mandolin at age 13 and soon learned the guitar as well.

A gifted student, he entered medical school in 1931. However, when he had to choose between medicine and music, Rosa’s choice became clear. Rosa devoted his energy to writing music and created his own style of samba by mixing witty lyrics with unpredictable twists and turns of melody and bridging the gap between rural Afro-Brazilian traditions and the sound of urban nightlife.

He had his breakthrough with "Com que roupa?," which became one of the biggest hits in 1931 in Brazil and the first of many memorable songs. With his songwriting partner Vadico, he also wrote a series of popular compositions such as "Feitiço da Vila" ["Witchcraft of the Villa"] and "Feitio de Oração" ["In the Form of a Prayer"].

Composing around 260 songs over a period of eight years, Rosa established a body of work that has remained popular to this day. His legacy lives on in the hearts of cariocas [residents of Rio de Janeiro] and samba lovers around the world.

Parabéns, Noel Rosa!

[9A]

January 27, 2022

Arkhip Kuindzhi's 180th Birthday


Today’s Doodle celebrates the 180th birthday of Russian artist Arkhip Kuindzhi. By integrating emerging discoveries in physics and chemistry with the contemporary styles of Impressionism and Romanticism, Kuinzhi developed a new painting technique that captured the natural world like never before.

Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi was born on this day in 1842 in the coastal town of Mariupol, Ukraine, into a family of cobblers and goldsmiths. To support his family, Kuindzhi worked odd jobs growing up while fostering his early interest in drawing on his off time. Historians believe a bread merchant was the first to notice Kuindzhi’s talent as an artist and encouraged him to apprentice under Ivan Aivazovsky, a popular painter of maritime scenes.

Kuindzhi walked over 250 miles from his hometown to Aivazovsky’s studio in Feodosia, Ukraine. Despite Aivazovsky denying him an apprenticeship, Kuindzhi pursued an education at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where he took classes on the physical effects of light with famed Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev. Due to its limited focus on European painting methods, the academy’s rigid traditions frustrated Kuindzhi. He left the school to paint natural landscapes of the Russian countryside and co-founded an organization for nomadic painters known as the “Society of Itinerant Artists” in 1870.

Kuindzhi became known for capturing massive, empty scenes of contemporary Russia, such as the seascape painting “Red Sunset on the Dnieper, 1905-8,” which remains his most famous work to date. Today, his former living quarters in St. Petersburg host many of his paintings and have been opened to the public as The Arkhip Kuindzhi Apartment Museum.

Here’s to a painter who shined a new light on contemporary art—Arkhip Kuindzhi!

[9A]

January 27, 2016

Beatrice Tinsley’s 75th Birthday





Today’s homepage celebrates the scientific genius of Beatrice Tinsley, whose work in cosmology and astrophysics made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the universe and the way galaxies behave within it. Despite her enormous intellect—she completed her Ph.D and wrote an “extraordinary and profound” dissertation on the evolution of galaxies in only two years—Tinsley was initially overlooked in the male-dominated world of astronomy. She eventually made her way to Yale University and in 1978 became a professor of astronomy and the chairman of the Conference on Cosmology’s organizing committee. January 27, 2016 would have been her 75th birthday.

[9A]

Jan 26, 2016

90th Anniversary of the first demonstration of Television




On this day 90 years ago, an eccentric Scottish inventor herded a small group of Royal Institution scientists into his London apartment and showed them the future.

John Logie Baird, who’d been working on a “televisor” apparatus for much of his career, was the first person to publicly demonstrate the system that would spawn the modern-day television. His discovery sent shockwaves through the scientific community, and certified his legacy as one of the 20th century’s great innovators.

Today’s Doodle honors Mr. Baird, his strange machinery, and his lasting contributions to modern society. Without his genius, we would all have a lot more time on our hands, and a lot less to do on Sunday evenings. Knitting, anyone?

[9A]

22 January 2016

Wilbur Scoville’s 151st Birthday








People have known about the tongue-burning, tear-inducing qualities of peppers long before Columbus reached the Americas. Before Wilbur Scoville, however, no one knew how to measure a pepper's “heat”. The doodle team thought his work in this field—and the development of his eponymous Scoville Scale—deserved some recognition.

Born in Bridgeport Connecticut on January 22nd, 1865, Wilbur Lincoln Scoville was a chemist, award-winning researcher, professor of pharmacology and the second vice-chairman of the American Pharmaceutical Association. His book, The Art of Compounding, makes one of the earliest mentions of milk as an antidote for pepper heat. He is perhaps best remembered for his organoleptic test, which uses human testers to measure pungency in peppers.

[9A]

Jan 21, 2016

Lola Flores’ 93rd Birthday



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

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

[9A]

Jan 19, 2016

José Alfredo Jiménez’s 90th Birthday




Today’s homepage features the beloved Mexican folk musician José Alfredo Jiménez, who was born in the state of Guanajuato on January 19th, 1926. The astoundingly prolific mariachi, whose songs have rung out at parties and mended broken hearts for over half a century, would have celebrated his 90th birthday today. Feliz cumpleaños, José.

[9A]

January 19, 2011

Cezanne's 172nd Birthday






I became a huge fan of Cezanne's work during a trip through Europe a while back. A little burnt out on all the Renaissance art from the past ten museums or so, my wife and I stepped into a retrospective of his work in Florence. I had never seen his work except in terribly reproduced copies or books. Seeing his palette in "person" for the first time transformed my own perception of color. He was especially great at playing with shapes – maybe not so much an artist who broke rules inasmuch as he made precise fractures with the unique punch of his brush against the canvas. Needless to say, when the opportunity to celebrate Cezanne with a doodle arose, I knew I wasn't allowed to mess it up!



A very early concept for the Cezanne doodle. Digital. Notice the placement of the L and G are swapped... I messed up.

With that said, there was no way I was going to be able to paint a doodle digitally and feel like the doodle team did Cezanne any justice! So I broke out the oil paints and went at it on canvas instead.





Some process images, details, and the final. Oil on canvas. 18x36 inches.

I learned a great deal more trying to recreate his style and unique brushstroke. I'd have to copy a hundred more to get it right, but it was still a very rewarding experience. I hope it inspires some of you to visit a museum to see his work in person.

posted by Mike Dutton

[9A]

January 19, 2016

Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s 127th Birthday





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

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

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

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



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

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

[9A]

Jan 20, 2011

New Year of the Trees 2011




Tu BiShvat is a Jewish holiday occurring on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat [in 2023, Tu BiShvat begins at sunset on February 5 and ends in the evening of February 6]. It is also called Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot, literally "New Year of the Trees". In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration.

[9A]

17 June 2022

Celebrating Amanda Aldridge




Today’s Doodle celebrates British composer, teacher and opera singer Amanda Aldridge. She released over thirty songs and dozens of instrumental tracks under the pseudonym Montague Ring.On this day in 1911, Amanda Aldridge gave a piano recital at London's pre-war principal concert venue, Queens Small Hall, the original home of the BBC Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras.

Amanda was born the daughter of Ira Aldridge, a Black American Shakespearean actor and Swedish opera singer in 1866, London. Showing her own musical prowess at a young age, Aldridge pursued a career as a vocalist at London’s Royal Conservatory of Music, where she studied under eminent Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. Aldridge’s singing career was soon cut short by a throat injury, but her talents only continued to grow as a vocal teacher, piano player and composer.

Exploring her mixed ethnic heritage through the lens of music, Aldridge combined various rhythmic influences and genres together with poetry from Black American authors to create romantic Parlour music, a popular genre performed in the livingrooms of middle-class homes. Aldridge’s 1913 piano composition “Three African Dances,” inspired by West African drumming, became her most famous piece. In addition to her compositions, she taught civil rights activist Paul Robeson and one of America’s first great opera singers, Marian Anderson.

Aldridge composed love songs, sambas, and orchestral pieces into her old age, garnering international attention for her fusion of musical styles. At 88, Aldridge appeared for the first time on television on the British show “Music for You,” introducing a new generation to her classic compositions.

[9A]

17 June 2017

Susan La Flesche Picotte’s 152nd Birthday





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

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

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

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

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

[9A]

17 June 2013

Henry Lawson's 146th Birthday



Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest short story writer".

[9A]

23 August 2022

Coccinelle's 91st birthday




Coccinelle [1931–2006], a pioneer for the LGBTQ+ community and the first French person to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Today’s Doodle celebrates the singer, entertainer and activist’s 91st birthday.

Jacqueline-Charlotte Dufresnoy was born on August 23, 1931 in Paris. Designated male at birth, she grew up with a deep, inner sense of being a female, along with interests in fashion and performance. After wearing a red dress with black polka dots to a party, a teenage Jacqueline earned the nickname Coccinelle, or ladybug in English.

In 1953, Coccinelle made her stage debut at Madame Arthur, a cabaret venue in Paris, performing a song from the film Premier rendez-vous. She earned a role at Le Carrousel de Paris, a popular music hall with many transgender performers, where her talent and stage presence captivated audiences.

Coccinelle became the first French celebrity to undergo gender-affirming surgery at a clinic in Casablanca in 1958. It was illegal to wear clothing not associated with one’s assigned gender in France at the time, and the publicity surrounding her surgery put a spotlight on LGBTQ+ rights.

After returning to France, Coccinelle quickly became an international icon. Her cabaret show toured across the world, including Europe and South America. She also began acting in films like Europa Di Notte in 1959 and Los Viciosos in 1962.

In 1960, Coccinelle got married in a Catholic wedding ceremony, under the condition that she get rebaptized beforehand. Unprecedented legally and religiously, her marriage established transgender people’s right to marry in France.

While continuing to perform, she founded the organization Devenir Femme, which provided support for transgender individuals seeking gender-affirming surgery. She also helped organize the Center for Aid, Research, and Information for Transsexuality and Gender Identity. In 1987, she published a self-titled autobiography that detailed her transition and career on stage.

Coccinelle’s legacy lives on in her work as people all over the world continue to enjoy her music and films. Happy 91st birthday, Coccinelle!

[9A]

24 Aug 2022

Ukraine Independence Day 2022




Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Kharkiv-based artist Olga Shtonda, honors Independence Day in Ukraine. On this day in 1991, Ukrainian politicians signed the Act of Declaration of Independence and displayed their national flag within the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada building, signaling its freedom from the Soviet Union. The national holiday remembers all who’ve given their lives for their country, including those still fighting to this day.

On December 1, 1991, a national referendum saw a resounding 92% of citizens vote in favor of independence. Over 31 years of freedom, the country has achieved several social, economic and political milestones. The blue and yellow national flag represents Ukraine’s vast sky, beautiful streams and golden wheat fields. These bright colors inspire its citizens to remember they are a freedom-loving, brave, vibrant and united people. Today’s Doodle artwork represents the national symbols of Ukraine, featuring a trident often interpreted as a falcon and the country’s coat of arms.

This year’s Independence Day holds particular significance as Ukraine continues its struggle against the ongoing Russian invasion

[9A]

24 August 2015

Duke Kahanamoku’s 125th Birthday




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

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

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

[9A]

24 August 2017

Ukraine Independence Day 2017





Today’s Doodle honors Ukraine’s independence day with a colorful celebration of its people. It’s drawn in shades of blue and yellow, Ukraine's national colors, meant to evoke the country's golden wheat fields and blue skies.

Home to nearly 130 different nationalities, Ukraine’s diverse population is represented in each unique letter. Guest artist Sergiy Maidukov says the image is meant to invoke happiness and show different people from across the country working together toward “freedom, peace and respect for each other.” He considers Ukraine’s diversity “a reason to be proud, to meet each other, learn about each other, sing and laugh together, and celebrate.”

Ukrainians may don hutsul shirts, or folk costumes, to attend the parade in Kiev today, or to watch fireworks over the city at night. Other celebrations include art fairs celebrating local craftsmen, historical reenactments, fireworks and live music all over the country.

Happy 26th Independence Day, Ukraine!

[9A]

1 Sept 2008

Filopimin Finos' Birthday





Filopimin Finos was a Greek film producer of 186 films and the founder of Finos Film, whose first film was in 1939. He built the first sound recording device in Greece, and shot the first colour film with stereo sound. Finos died in January 1977 after suffering cancer for seven years and he left no heir.

[9A]

2 Sept 2008

Birthday of Richard B. Smith - Inventor of the Stump Jump Plough




The stump-jump plough, also known as stump-jumping plough, is a kind of plough invented in South Australia in the late 19th century by Richard Bowyer Smith and Clarence Herbert Smith to solve the particular problem of preparing mallee lands for cultivation.

Mallee scrub originally covered large parts of southern Australia, and because of its growth habit, the trees were difficult to remove completely, because the tree would shoot again after burning, cutting down or other kinds of damage. The large roots, known as lignotubers, remained in the ground, making it very difficult to plough the soil.

[9A]

2 September 2022

Vietnam National Day 2022




Today’s Doodle celebrates Vietnam National Day! On this day in 1945, the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam was read aloud to the public, officially recognizing Vietnam as a sovereign nation.

On National Day, citizens are given a day off from work to celebrate this public holiday. Red and yellow banners line the streets to commemorate the holiday, and Vietnam’s National Flag is displayed on every corner of the country. Vibrant firework shows and local parades are also enjoyed in Ba Đình Square and other cities across the nation.

Today’s artwork features Vietnam’s mythical national bird, the chim lac. Chim lac most closely resembles the crane with its long beak and can be found as intricate decorations on traditional Dong Son bronze drums.

Happy National Day, Vietnam!

[9A]

22 January 2023

Lunar New Year 2023


Today’s Doodle celebrates an important holiday in several Asian cultures, Lunar New Year! After the first new moon of the Lunar calendar each year, communities around the world set up decorations, make festive food and gather with loved ones to usher in the new year.

The traditions of the Lunar New Year festival date back thousands of years to a popular legend. A mythical beast called Nian was known to show up each Lunar New Year’s eve and terrorize people and livestock. Loud noises, the color red and fire scared Nian away, so it became a tradition for families to decorate their doors in red paper, set off fireworks and leave lanterns burning all night.

Today, red remains a key part of Lunar New Year celebrations as people hang red lanterns in the streets and gift money in red envelopes to children and retired seniors. Traditional meals are popular during celebrations and they vary across the world. For example, pineapple tarts and yusheng [[a dish with raw fish and a salad) are a staple in Singapore and Malaysia, while communities in Vietnam enjoy bánh chưng [a rice cake made with mung beans, pork, and other ingredients wrapped in bamboo leaves].

This year marks the Year of the Rabbit, which is associated with peace and prosperity. The Doodle artwork is crafted from paper to honor Chinese paper-cutting [Jianzhi], which is a long-time Lunar New Year tradition.

No matter where you’re celebrating, here’s to a wonderful Lunar New Year and 2023!

[9A]

22 January 2015

Grandfather's Day 2015 [Poland]

[9A]

28 January 2021

Jim Wong-Chu's 72nd birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the birthday of Canadian activist, community organizer, poet, author, editor, photographer, radio producer, and historian Jim Wong-Chu, who devoted his life to amplifying the narratives of the Asian Canadian community.

Born in Hong Kong on this day in 1949, Wong-Chu moved to Canada when he was 4, and as a young adult, he settled in Vancouver, British Columbia. During the ‘70s he worked as a community volunteer and became interested in the use of literature to explore his identity as a Canadian of Asian heritage. In 1986, while studying creative writing at the University of British Columbia, he compiled his work into the collection “Chinatown Ghosts,” one of the first poetry books ever published by a Chinese Canadian author.

But Wong-Chu didn’t just want to tell his story; he wanted to tell the stories of all the undiscovered talent in his community. In 1989, he began to sift through every literary magazine in UBC’s library to identify pieces written by Asian Canadian writers. With co-editor Bennett Lee, he honed this collection into his first of numerous anthologies, “Many Mouthed Birds” [1991], a touchstone in the emergence of the genre of Asian Canadian literature.

To promote the genre, Wong-Chu co-founded the Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop in 1996, which–along with its literary magazine Ricepaper [now a digital publication]–has continued to elevate the voices of the Asian Canadian literary arts movement to this day.

Happy birthday, Jim Wong-Chu!

[9A]

28 January 2016

Hidetsugu Yagi’s 130th Birthday




Today we celebrate Hidetsugu Yagi's 130th birthday, and thank him for keeping our television and radio signal coming in loud and clear. Because of the Yagi antenna, radios and televisions can receive stronger signals from a specific direction, which helps avoid interference from surrounding signals.

Hidetsugu Yagi was a Japanese electrical engineer. He and his colleague Shintaro Uda developed and spread the technology for this antenna together, which is why the full name is the Yagi-Uda antenna. Their invention was patented in 1926 and is used today on millions of houses throughout the world for radio and television reception. If you look outside, you can probably see one or two of these right in your neighborhood—maybe even on your own roof!

[9A]

26 Jan 2016

India Republic Day 2016


Deep within the massive Thar Desert, a unique group of guards dutifully patrols the India-Pakistan border. But they’re not, as you might expect, stationed on foot.

Each guard, a member of India’s Border Security Force, rides high above the ground on a stately camel. And each year, without fail, a caravan of these mounted troops is “deployed” to Rajpath in New Delhi to march in the Republic Day parade, a festive celebration of the Indian constitution. The presence of these guards is now a long-standing tradition; this is the 66th year in which the BSF camel contingent will appear before all of India.

In honor of today’s Republic Day, Artist Robinson Wood created today’s Google Doodle as a tribute to this colorful set of 54 guards and 34 musicians, all sitting tall atop proudly-strutting quadrupeds!