Google doodles

[9A]

23 February 2017

Seven Earth-Size Exoplanets Discovered!





This just in! Turns out it wasn’t just dust on the telescope lens: NA
SA just announced the discovery of seven earth-size planets orbiting the same star only 235 trillion miles away. In space terms, that practically makes us next-door neighbors!





This artist's concept shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


What exactly does this new solar system TRAPPIST-1 mean for our universe? Well, three of these newly discovered planets land smack-dab in the middle of what scientists call the habitable zone, or the distance from the star it orbits “where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.” Though scientists have some serious studying to do before we can definitively say whether any of the new TRAPPIST-1 planets are habitable, the potential is very promising.

So if three of these new TRAPPIST-1 planets land in the habitable zone, what about the other four? According to NASA, all seven planets could have liquid water, the most crucial ingredient for life -- assuming the right atmospheric conditions.

Unlike our solar system, the planets in TRAPPIST-1 are very close together. If we’re able to visit one of the TRAPPIST-1 planets one day, we could be able to watch each neighboring planet pass by on its orbital journey! Until then, you can explore TRAPPIST-1 d, the third planet in the TRAPPIST-1 solar system in 3D using your computer or mobile device. If you have a virtual reality device, you can also take a stroll around.

Happy solar-searching!





An artist's fantasy of the surface of TRAPPIST-1e. Credit: NASA

We don’t know about you, but we’re hoping to spend our next vacation luxuriating by the cosmic pool. At least that's where you'll find Nate Swinehart, the artist for today's star-studded Doodle.

[9A]

23 February 2020

Ca Trù's Founder Commemoration Day 2020





Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Ho Chi Minh City-based guest artist Xuan Le, celebrates Ca Trù’s Founders Commemoration Day, a time to honor the genre widely considered to be Vietnam’s most revered traditional form of music.

A style that fits somewhere in between the geisha ceremonies of Japan and the dramatic performances of opera, Ca trù’s unique sound has roots that stretch back to the 11th century. First gaining popularity as entertainment for the aristocracy of Vietnam’s royal palaces, it later made its way into the inns and communal spaces of what is now modern-day Hanoi.

The ensemble is composed of at least three performers, including one female singing intricate poetry while tapping a phach [a small bamboo box], two musicians playing traditional instruments, and occasionally dancers. Ca trù is now found in cities across Vietnam.

Performed in designated Ca trù clubs and at annual festivals, the genre has seen a recent revival due to a concentrated effort from state-run organizations and international agencies. Preservation of Ca trù is elusive due in part to it being a strictly oral tradition that is passed down only through one elite practitioner to the next generation after years of committed study.

Taking into account the precious nature of an invaluable historical relic and the difficulty of its safeguarding, UNESCO is dedicated to protecting the practice and inscribed Ca trù on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.

[9A]

12 February 2021

Lunar New Year 2021 [Vietnam]





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

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

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

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

[9A]

12 February 2021

Lunar New Year 2021 [South Korea]







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

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

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

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

[9A]

17 February 2014

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



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

[9A]

22 October 2012

Abu Simbel



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

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

[9A]

9 April 2012

Elias Lönnrot's 210th Birthday





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

[9A]

27 Oct 2019

Sylvia Plath's 87th Birthday






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

—Sylvia Plath, “Spinster”

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

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

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

[9A]

1 Oct 2020

Celebrating Ignatius Sancho






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

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

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

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

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

[9A]

1 Oct 2020

Celebrating Ignatius Sancho






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

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

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

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

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

[9A]

16 Oct 2018

Lachhu Maharaj’s 74th Birthday







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

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

Happy Birthday Lachhu Maharaj!

[9A]

17 February 2022

Dr Michiaki Takahashi's 94th birthday






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

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

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

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

[9A]

15 February 2020

Nise da Silveira's 115th birthday



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


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

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

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

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

[9A]

15 February 2020

Susan B. Anthony’s 200th birthday




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


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

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

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

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

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

[9A]

23 July 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].

[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]

9 November 2019

Celebrating the Edmonton Grads





The Edmonton Commercial Graduates Basketball Club, better known as “The Grads,” started as a high school girls basketball team and became a sports dynasty. Today’s Doodle celebrates The Grads’ induction into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame on this day in 2017. It was a fitting honor for a team that holds arguably one of the best winning percentages in North America—approximately 95 percent over 25 years—in any sport.. With outstanding sportsmanship and determination, The Grads also defeated stereotypes that had discouraged women from participating in competitive sports.

Teacher Percy Page started the team in 1914 as a physical education program for the 60 girls at McDougall Commercial High School in the Canadian city of Edmonton. In their first season, they won the provincial championship, and when some of the graduating seniors indicated that they’d like to continue playing, Page was inspired to set up The Grads after they graduated in 1915.

During the next quarter century, The Grads went on to win 23 of 24 Provincial Championships and racked up stats that would be the envy of any team, including earning winning streaks of 147 and 78 games, separated by just a single loss. They went undefeated in the Western Canadian Championships from 1926 to 1940 and won 29 of 31 games in the Canadian Championships, never losing a series. After the Grads won the Underwood International tournament, also known as the “North American championship,” for 17 years straight, tournament organizers decided to let them keep the trophy permanently.

The Grads additionally won seven of nine games against men's teams and went unbeaten in 27 exhibition games at four Olympic Games—though they never won a medal since women’s basketball was not yet an Olympic sport.

When The Grads first started, basketball was a fairly new sport, having been invented in 1891 by Canadian James Naismith. He would later recognize the Grads as “the finest basketball team that ever stepped out on a floor.”

[9A]

28 March 2016

240th Anniversary of the Bolshoi Theater's Foundation



A famous choreographer once said: “wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.” If so, then there are few stages more sacred than the Bolshoi Theatre, which has hosted the world’s finest opera and ballet performances for more than two centuries. Today’s doodle by artist Lydia Nichols commemorates the order by Empress Catherine the Second to build a public theater. Today, 240 years later, this stately neoclassical venue still stands in the heart of Moscow, a timeless symbol of artistic excellence.

[9A]

21 July 2019

Buchi Emecheta’s 75th Birthday





“I work toward the liberation of women. My books are about survival, just like my own life,” said the Nigerian novelist Buchi Emecheta, whose life and work are celebrated in today’s Doodle.

Born to Ibo parents in the Lagos suburb of Yaba on this day in 1944, Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta grew up listening to her grandmother’s tales and went on to become a prolific author. Although she resisted labeling herself a “feminist” author, much of Emecheta’s writing addressed issues of gender and race.

Married at age 16, Emecheta moved to London with her husband in 1962. She supported her five children by working at a library, pursued her sociology degree, all while writing tirelessly on novels—usually at the kitchen table as her children played.

Emecheta published 16 novels, including In The Ditch, Second-Class Citizen, and Slave Girl, as well as her 1986 autobiography, Head Above Water. She also wrote several plays for stage, TV, and radio.

During the 1970s and ’80s, Emecheta worked as a lecturer and founded the Ogwugwu Afor Publishing Company with her son. She was named an Officer of the British Empire in 2005, a remarkable accomplishment for someone who faced such adversity.

"Just keep trying and trying,” Emecheta once said. “If you have the determination and commitment, you will succeed."

Special thanks to the family of Buchi Emecheta, for their partnership on this project. Below, her son Sylvester Onwordi shares his thoughts on his mother’s legacy.


Photo courtesy of Valerie Wilmer

"My mother was a born storyteller. She was a descendant of Praise Singers—storytellers to the ancient Kings of Ibusa—the small Igbo-speaking town in Eastern Nigeria where her parents and my grandparents were born.

As an immigrant single mother battling poverty in the slums of 1960s London, she would draw her five small children around her, light candles, and delight us with what she called her ‘Moonlight tales’—stories she had learned at twilight by the light of a hurricane lamp from her aunts in the village, or imbibed at her father’s knee during her family’s internal exile in Lagos. For the young Nigerian girl who dreamed even then of being a writer, these tales were like umbilical threads connecting the lonely orphan she became with the lost world of mythical ancestors and her beloved home town of Ibusa.

[9A]

6 November 2015

Adolphe Sax’s 201st Birthday






If you were alive in the mid-nineteenth century and had a particularly keen ear for music, you might have noticed a void somewhere between the brass and woodwind sections. Adolphe Sax certainly did, and being both a talented musician and the enterprising man that he was, he started tinkering and endeavored to fill it. The result was the iconic, honey-toned instrument still bearing his name: the saxophone.

The son of an instrument-maker, Sax was highly creative and had a deep understanding of brass and woodwinds. He started tinkering with instruments of his own, and upon bringing together the body of a brass and the mechanics of a woodwind created a hybrid that would revolutionize music. His eponymous saxophone had a sound all its own, a wonderfully smoky middle ground between the two.

The Saxophones that were popularized by the likes of John Coltrane, Lisa Simpson, and Kenny G constitute only a fraction of his impressive body of work. From the whimsical looking 7-bell trombone to the large and swooping saxtuba, Sax never tired of exploring, experimenting, and creating new—and sometimes unusual—instruments. To properly highlight his inventiveness we couldn’t possibly make just one Doodle. Which is why you can find five unique Doodles today, each celebrating a different instrument created at the hands of Mr. Sax. There is one notable exception—what we affectionately call The Googlehorn. Inspired by the intricate tubing Sax employed to alter and manipulate sound, this is Doodler Lydia Nichols' attempt to fashion an instrument as unique and quirky as both Adolphe Sax and Google.

Initial sketches with some errors in hand-placement. From left to right: Saxtuba, Alto Sax, 7-Bell Trombone, Soprano Sax, 'Googlehorn.' The background treatment was changed in the final to mimic the plates and engraving typically found on instruments of that era.



All five Adolphe Sax inspired Doodles

[9A]

6 November 2017

Jackie Forster’s 91st Birthday




It is quite an achievement to leave a lasting legacy. Jackie Forster is known for two: first, for her charismatic TV news reporting; second, for her trailblazing gay rights activism.

Born on this day in 1926, Jackie launched her famed career first in acting, appearing in various West End productions and films in the 1940s. She moved to television news under her maiden name, Jackie Mackenzie, and became a favorite of producers and the public with her sharp, lively, and quirky delivery. Her coverage of the wedding of Prince Rainier to Princess Grace in 1956 won her the Prix d’Italia.

Thirteen years later, Jackie made history by publicly coming out as gay, paving the way for many other women of the time. Soon after, she appeared on a host of television programs, speaking openly about her identity and helping viewers find the strength to accept themselves. She walked proudly in the first gay rights march in the UK and co-founded Sappho, an English lesbian magazine and social club.

Today’s Doodle by London-based illustrator Hannah Warren celebrates 91 years of Forster’s passion and pioneering spirit.

[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.

Information regarding Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s original art, shown above [right]:

Nr. 1: Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Aubette 200, around 1927, pencil and watercolor on paper, 24.4 x 31.8 cm, Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth

Nr. 2: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, composition en taches quadrangulaires, polychromes, denses, 1920, gouache on paper, 24 x 32 cm, Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth

Nr. 3: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, xix espaces à plans et bandes angulaires, 1938, gouache on paper, 26.8 x 34.8 cm, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck

Nr. 4: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Composition verticale-horizontale sur fond blanc, 1916, gouache on paper, 28.5 x 27.3 cm, Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin/Rolandswerth

Nr. 5: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, composition à cercles et demi-cercles, 1935-1938, gouache on paper, 25.7 x 34.8 cm, private collection

[9A]

November 3, 2011

Andre Malraux's 110th Birthday




Georges André Malraux was a French novelist, art theorist, and minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel La Condition Humaine [Man's Fate] [1933] won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by President Charles de Gaulle as information minister [1945–46] and subsequently as France's first cultural affairs minister during de Gaulle's presidency [1959–1969].

[9A]

Nov 8, 2011

Edmond Halley's 355th Birthday





Edmond [or Edmund] Halley was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.

From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Upon his return to England, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and with the help of King Charles II, was granted a master's degree from Oxford.

Halley encouraged and helped fund the publication of Isaac Newton's influential Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica [1687]. From observations Halley made in September 1682, he used Newton's laws of motion to compute the periodicity of Halley's Comet in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets. It was named after him upon its predicted return in 1758, which he did not live to see.

Beginning in 1698, Halley made sailing expeditions and made observations on the conditions of terrestrial magnetism. In 1718, he discovered the proper motion of the "fixed" stars.

[9A]

December 12, 2018

"Baya" Fatima Haddad’s 87th Birthday






Born in Bordj El Kiffan, a suburb of Algiers, on this day in 1931, Fatima Haddad was an Algerian artist known simply as Baya. Her vivacious watercolors, gouaches, and ceramics depict powerful images of women and nature in an expressive and personal style that defies easy categorization.

Orphaned as a young girl, Baya was adopted in 1942 by the French art collector Marguerite Camina Benoura, who employed Baya’s grandmother as a housekeeper. Showing talent from an early age, Baya made “fascinating small animals and strange female figures” in the sand of her beachside hometown. She was exposed to Benoura’s collection of modern art, including works by Matisse, and by age nine she was painting as well.

The art dealer Aimé Maeght, known for representing Miró, Calder, Léger, Braque, Giacometti, and Chagall, exhibited Baya’s first solo show of paintings at his Paris gallery when she was only 16 years old. “I speak not as others have, to deplore an ending, but rather to promote a beginning,” wrote the influential poet and critic André Breton in her exhibition catalog. “And at this beginning, Baya is queen.”

Picasso invited her to work with him in 1948, and traces of her influence can be seen in his Women of Algeria series. She married the musician El Hadj Mahfoud Mahieddine and raised a family during a time of revolution in Algeria, but declined an offer to move to France, in affirmation of her Algerian identity. Baya became so beloved in her homeland that a portrait of the artist and one of her paintings appeared on Algerian postage stamps in 2008.

Breaking conventional rules of composition and perspective, Baya’s bold, colorful paintings explode with energy, evoking a world of ecstatic women with their eyes wide open.

Happy Birthday, Baya!

[9A]

26 Jan 2022

Soad Hosny's 79th birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 79th birthday of Egyptian actress, singer, and dancer Soad Hosny. Known as a highly versatile performer who became an icon of women’s empowerment, Hosny is remembered as one of Egypt’s most influential actresses.

Soad Muhammad Kamal Hosny was born to a large, artistic family in Cairo, Egypt on this day in 1943. Her career in show business began at just three years old as a singer for “Papa Sharo,” a popular Egyptian children’s radio program. She performed her first starring role at 17 in the 1959 Arabic adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, “Hassan and Naima,” a breakout role that marked the start of a prolific on-screen career spanning more than 80 comedies, musicals, dramas, and romance films alongside some of Egypt’s top entertainers.

Dubbed the “Egyptian Cinderella,” Hosny helped redefine 1960s popular culture in Egypt by juxtaposing refined glamor and rebellious independence. Hosny's work is said to have been intertwined with many social and political moments in modern Middle Eastern history and has long been recognized for making specific efforts to address gender equality. Her acting, singing, and dancing transcended genre barriers as she delivered nuanced performances in roles ranging from ingenue to bold revolutionary in some of Egypt’s most iconic films over more than three decades.

Today, the young and daring characters that Hosny portrayed in films remain a source of inspiration for some of Egypt’s contemporary young feminist activists.

Here’s to a star that keeps on shining— Soad Hosny!

[9A]

February 22, 2013

Victor Brecheret's 119th Birthday





Victor Brecheret, born Vittorio Breheret [December 15, 1894 – December 17, 1955], was an Italian-Brazilian sculptor. He lived most of his life in São Paulo, except for his studies in Paris in his early twenties. Brecheret's work combines techniques of European modernist sculpture with references to his native country through the physical characteristics of his human forms and visual motifs drawn from Brazilian folk art. Many of his subjects are figures from the Bible or classical mythology.

[9A]

February 22, 2016

Maria Erika Olofsdotter Kruukka’s 150th Birthday




Junosuando, Sweden, where Erika Kruuka was born in 1866, gets cold--really cold. In a region where temperatures regularly dip below 0 degrees fahrenheit, there are few things to give one’s neighbors as sacred as warmth, and Krukka did just that when she knitted her first pair of Lovvika gloves at the request of a local tradesman. Her singularly Swedish mittens soon kept the biting cold at bay all over the small town of Lovvika, and demand quickly grew. Being the enterprising woman that she was, Kruukka taught the craft to several women in her village, whereupon a successful business and beloved symbol of Swedish culture was born.

To celebrate what would have been the pioneering artisan’s 150th birthday, artist Lydia Nichols has featured Erika hard at work on one of her woolen masterpieces. Happy birthday, Ms. Kruukka.

[9A]

February 22, 2016

Draginja Ljočić Milošević’s 161st Birthday





Today marks the 161st birthday of Draginja Ljočić Milošević. Milošević was one of Serbia’s first ever female doctors and the first woman accepted into the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

Doodler Jennifer Hom wanted to highlight the tools of Draginja’s trade. In this early sketch, we see Milošević’s hand clasping a small leather bag, inspired by the stara tora lekarska, one typical of the era and region.

With refinements to the Google logo, the angle and shape of the bag, and some coloring, Jennifer put the finishing touches on the Doodle you see today. Happy Birthday, Draginja Ljočić Milošević!

[9A]

February 22, 2013

Edward Gorey's 88th Birthday



Edward St. John Gorey [February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000] was an American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist noted for his illustrated books. His characteristic pen-and-ink drawings often depict vaguely unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings.

[9A]

Mar 7, 2013

Volodymyr Dakhno's 81st Birthday



Volodymyr Dakhno was a Ukrainian animator, animation film director and scriptwriter. He was a laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine [1988], and a People's Artist of Ukraine [1996]. Dakhno was best known for the animation series Cossacks. He worked at Kievnauchfilm, which has since been renamed Ukranimafilm.

[9A]

Mar 9, 2013

Luis Barragan's 111th Birthday




Luis Ramiro Barragán Morfín was a Mexican architect and engineer. His work has influenced contemporary architects visually and conceptually. Barragán's buildings are frequently visited by international students and professors of architecture. He studied as an engineer in his home town, while undertaking the entirety of additional coursework to obtain the title of architect.

Barragán won the Pritzker Prize, the highest award in architecture, in 1980, and his personal home, the Luis Barragán House and Studio, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.

[9A]

28 Nov 2020

Celebrating Henri Salvador







In honor of a French entertainer par excellence, today’s Doodle, illustrated by Toulouse, France-based guest artist Sébastien Gravouil, celebrates multi-talented singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and comedian Henri Salvador. Salvador established himself as a beloved French figure across a seven-decade career and is widely credited with helping to introduce rock ‘n’ roll to France. On this day in 2000, he received the prestigious Prix in honorem award from France’s Charles Cros Academy. Today’s Doodle artwork highlights Salvador’s wide-ranging contributions to French culture, including his beloved rock ‘n’ roll music, children’s lullabies, and animated character voice overs.

Henri Gabriel Salvador was born July 8th, 1917 in Cayenne, French Guiana and at the age of 12 moved to Paris with his family. Inspired by the music of Belgian jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, Salvador soon took up the guitar and began to perform in Parisian cafes. Before long he caught the attention of Reinhardt himself, who invited Salvador to join his band.

After several years in the French Army during World War II, Salvador joined French bandleader Ray Ventura on a years-long South American tour, and upon his return to Paris, he saw success from his very first recording in 1947. Salvador was invited twice in 1956 to perform on the famous television showcase “The Ed Sullivan Show” in New York. In the U.S. he experienced the excitement of rock ‘n’ roll, which he helped to channel into some of France’s very first rock hits. In addition, Salvador’s 1957 song “Dans Mon Île” [On My Island] was credited by Brazilian musician Antonio Carlos Jobim as his inspiration in developing the iconic bossa nova style.

Among many accolades, Salvador was named Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2004. Salvador released his final album in 2006.

[9A]

4 Dec 2020

Celebrating Noken Papua



Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Depok-based guest artist Danu Fitra, celebrates Noken, the craft of traditional handmade bags that holds great cultural and socio-economic significance throughout Indonesia’s Papua and West Papua Provinces. In recent years the longevity of this staple of Papuan heritage has come under threat, but following its addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List in Need of Urgent Safeguarding on this day in 2012, great strides have been taken to secure Noken’s sustainability for future generations.

Noken bags are typically made from materials like tree fibers, bark, or leaves, which are processed into strong threads and then knotted or woven together. This complex handcraft has been passed down through the generations and demands refined tactile skill, dedicated care, and no shortage of artistic vision. The end product is a durable and versatile bag commonly used to transport and store things like food or firewood, and even to carry small children or animals!

Outside of its everyday use, Noken has traditionally fulfilled many social and economic purposes as well. For example, Noken serves as a symbol of cultural unification among more than 250 ethnic groups in the region; due to its value, it can be used as a type of savings; and it often plays a symbolic role in the peaceful resolution of disputes.

[9A]

7 Dec 2020

Kateryna Bilokur's 120th birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the 120th birthday of Ukrainian painter Kateryna Bilokur, a self-taught virtuoso who earned international renown for her detailed and vivid paintings, especially those featuring her signature focus on flowers. Through a courageous devotion to her craft, Bilokur overcame great adversity to earn recognition alongside the master artists of her time.

Kateryna Bilokur was born on this day in 1900 in Bohdanivka, a village in Ukraine’s Kyiv region. She was denied a primary education and spent her days as a farm worker, but she refused to let this stand in her way. She crafted brushes out of raw materials and paints out of foods like beets and elderberries to pursue her artistic passion in her free time, with nature as her muse.

Then when she was nearly 40, her life took a fortuitous turn. Inspired by a song on the radio, Bilokur wrote a letter of admiration to the Ukrainian singer Oksana Petrusenko with an original work attached. Petrusenko was so impressed that she helped pave the way for the first exhibitions of Bilokur’s work. Over the next two decades, her unique depictions of transcendent natural beauty reached an international audience, notably earning huge praise from the Spanish master Pablo Picasso at a 1954 exhibition in Paris.

For her lifetime achievements, Bilokur was named a People’s Artist of Ukraine, the highest arts award for Ukrainian citizens.

[9A]

18 Dec 2020

26th anniversary of the Grotte Chauvet Discovery






On this day in 1994, three speleologists [cave specialists] by the name of Jean-Marie Chauvet, Éliette Brunel, and Christian Hillaire were exploring in the Ardèche region of southern France when they happened upon something remarkable: an enormous display of what turned out to be some of the earliest-known and best-preserved figurative drawings ever made by humankind. Today’s Doodle celebrates this groundbreaking discovery–now known as Grotte Chauvet [French for Chauvet Cave]–which forever altered the archaeological understanding of prehistoric man’s artistic expression and creative development.

Through carbon dating, the extraordinary drawings have been traced back to the Aurignacian period over 30,000 years ago. Thanks to a rock fall that sealed the entrance more than 10,000 years later, the Chauvet Cave–and the more than 1,000 drawings documented on its limestone walls–then remained untouched, preserved for millennia in pristine quality.

As illustrated in today’s Doodle, the cave features depictions of 14 different species— from horses and lions to dangerous prehistoric creatures like the long-extinct wooly rhinoceros and mammoth. The deepest gallery features representations of the human body, while other walls display abstract series of red dots. The images demonstrate great artistic vision and technique through their anatomical accuracy, illusion of depth and movement, masterful use of colors, and skillful combination of both painting and engraving. In addition to the paintings, the cave is also home to human footprints and some 4,000 prehistoric animal fossils.

In recognition of the site's vast significance to the human story, UNESCO inscribed the Chauvet Cave onto the World Heritage List in 2014.

[9A]

24 Dec 2020

Aliye Berger’s 117th birthday






Today’s Doodle celebrates Turkish artist Aliye Berger, widely credited as one of the country’s pioneers in the art of engraving. While also known for her paintings and drawings, Berger earned great renown for her expressive and joyful black-and-white carvings. Her work often utilized unconventional materials to provide a unique window into both Turkish life and her inner psychological world.

Aliye Berger was born into a family of artists on this day in 1903 on the island of Büyükada off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey. Although she was fascinated with painting from a young age, Berger instead learned to play the violin as a child. It wasn’t until 1947, after she followed her sister to London, that she first began to study engraving under the mentorship of the artist John Buckland-Wright.

Berger returned to Turkey in 1951 with over a hundred original art pieces and held her first exhibition that year in Istanbul. She soon earned huge critical acclaim when her oil painting “Güneşin Doğuşu” [“Sun Rising”] won a prestigious international competition in 1954. Despite the late start of her artistic career, Berger produced a prolific body of work over the following decades, and her rare gift has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions around the world.


In honor of her contributions to the arts, a large posthumous retrospective of Berger’s work was held at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts in 1975.

[9A]

2 Feb 2015

110th Anniversary of first publication of Bécassine




Bécassine is a French comic strip and the name of its heroine, appearing for the first time in the first issue of La Semaine de Suzette on February 2, 1905. She is considered one of the first female protagonists in the history of French comics.

Bécassine is one of the most enduring French comics of all time, iconic in its home country, and with a long history in syndication and publication.

[9A]

3 Feb 2015

Setsubun 2015







Setsubun is the day before the beginning of spring in the old calendar in Japan. The name literally means 'seasonal division', referring to the day just before the first day of spring in the traditional calendar, known as Setsubun; though previously referring to a wider range of possible dates, Setsubun is now typically held on February 3 with the day after – the first day of spring in the old calendar – known as Risshun . Both Setsubun and Risshun are celebrated yearly as part of the Spring Festival in Japan. In its association with the Lunar New Year, Setsubun, though not the official New Year, was thought of as similar in its ritual and cultural associations of 'cleansing' the previous year as the beginning of the new season of spring.

Setsubun was accompanied by a number of rituals and traditions held at various levels to drive away the previous year's bad fortunes and evil spirits for the year to come.

[9A]

5 Feb 2015

Gabriel Vargas’ 100th Birthday







Gabriel Bernal Vargas was a Mexican cartoonist, whose comic strip La Familia Burrón was created in 1937.This cartoon has been described as one of the most important in Mexican popular culture.

In 1937, Vargas began drawing La Familia Burrón as a separate piece which documented parents, Regino Burrón and Borola Tacuche de Burrón, their two teenage children, Regino and Macuca Burrón, and Foforito Cantarranas, a younger kid who was adopted by the Burróns. La Familia Burrón profiled a lower class family's daily comedic struggles in an impoverished Mexican barrio

Vargas won Mexico's "Premio Nacional de Periodismo" [National Journalism Prize] in 1983 and the "Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes en el área de Tradiciones Populares" [National Sciences and Arts Prize] in 2003.

[9A]

2 May 2022

Celebrating Elijah McCoy




Today’s Doodle celebrates the birthday of Elijah McCoy, a Black Canadian-American engineer and inventor who revolutionized train efficiency with his inventions. He held 57 patents in his lifetime, most of which were related to locomotives and railways.

In 1837, McCoy’s parents bravely escaped a life of enslavement in Kentucky through the Underground Railroad and sought freedom in Canada. Elijah was born in Colchester, Ontario and returned to the U.S. with his family at a young age. He grew up with a passion for problem-solving, mechanics, and trains. At age 15, he decided to further his education in the field and moved to Edinburgh, Scotland to become a mechanical engineer apprentice.

Upon his return, McCoy settled in Michigan as opportunities to find work in Canada were very limited. In 1866, Black Americans faced rampant racial discrimination, which made finding a job that aligned with his level of experience in mechanical engineering extremely difficult. He joined the Michigan Central Railroad as a fireman and oiler, and quickly identified how inefficient it was to have to stop trains every few miles in order to manually lubricate their engines.

Six years into his role, McCoy addressed this issue by inventing what was colloquially known as an “oil-drip cup.” The cup caused oil to steadily flow around the engine without needing to stop the train. Consequently, McCoy obtained his first patent, “Improvement in Lubricators for Steam Engines.” Future variations of his invention were later used to revolutionize oil-drilling and mining equipment along with construction and factory tools.

McCoy continued to design new inventions while working as a consultant to engineering companies, including patents for a lawn sprinkler and ironing board. He eventually founded the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company in 1920, which produced lubrication devices displaying his name.

In 2001, Elijah McCoy was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio and has a dedicated exhibit in the Detroit Historical Museum. McCoy’s innovations and ingenuity kept trains chugging and have laid the tracks for the well-oiled machines of today.

Happy birthday, Elijah McCoy!

[9A]

2 May 2016

Mario Miranda’s 90th birthday





Mario Miranda was a beloved cartoonist best known for his works in the Times of India and The Illustrated Weekly of India. Based primarily on the bustling cityscape of Mumbai, Miranda’s works often feature complex, multi-layered scenes. Humanity floods the canvas and yet each character maintains their individuality.

Our guest Doodler today is Aaron Renier, another artist known for portraying large crowds. “I approached Mario’s work by pretending I was drawing with him,” says Renier. “I chose his most popular style, very flat with criss-crossing interactions.” In this homage to Miranda, we see a rich litany of people, each unique in their perspective. “That is what I liked most about his work,” Renier explains, “trying to pick out who knows who, who's watching who, who's annoyed by who, who's enamored by who. Hopefully people will see something of [Miranda’s] spirit in it.”

Mario Miranda’s works live on throughout India, and on what would have been his 90th birthday, we honor his legacy.

[9A]

4 May 2019

Eddie Aikau’s 73rd Birthday







Today’s Doodle celebrates Eddie Aikau, big wave surfer, lifeguard, and enduring symbol of Hawaiian heritage. Born on the island of Maui on this day in 1946, Eddie moved to Oahu with his family in 1959 and went on to become the first lifeguard hired by Honolulu officials to work on the North Shore of the island.

Not a single life was lost while he served as a lifeguard at Waimea Bay, making some 500 rescues without the assistance of a jet ski or any modern equipment. Eddie was famous for making rescues even in surf that reached 30 feet high. His fearlessness went on to inspire the slogan “Eddie would go.”

Hailing from a surfing family, Eddie was one of the first native Hawaiians to win the prestigious Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship in 1977, just four years after his older brother Clyde, who was the very first. Aside from his distinguished surfing career, Eddie found other ways to represent the culture of his native island. In 1978, Eddie joined the crew of the Hokule'a, a historically accurate double-hulled canoe retracing the ancient Polynesian migration route to Hawaii. The vessel sprung a leak and capsized in rough waters. Eddie was last seen heroically paddling off on his surfboard towards the nearest island to seek help for the crew, who were later rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Today, Eddie’s legacy lives on through the Eddie Aikau Foundation as well as the prestigious Eddie Aikau Invitational, which has seen some of big-wave surfing’s greatest names competing with maximum respect for the authenticity of surf culture.

Here’s to you, Eddie.

[9A]

12 September 2014

Ernesto Carneiro Ribeiro's 175th Birthday



Fellow grammarians, today you meet your hero on our homepage in Brazil. We’re celebrating the 175th birthday of linguist, educator and physician Ernesto Carneiro Ribeiro, who worked to revise Brazil’s official grammar code to include conversational speech.

[9A]

October 10, 2014

Francisco Giner de los Ríos' 175th Birthday









Our homepage in Spain celebrates the 175th birthday of intellectual Francisco Giner de los Ríos. Once described as a Spanish Socrates, de los Ríos advocated for an independent and high quality education in his homeland. His ideas motivated him to establish the “Institución Libre de Enseñanza” [“Free Teaching Institution”], which collaborated with renowned figures like Bertrand Russell, Charles Darwin, León Tolstoi and H. G. Wells.

[9A]

October 10, 2011

Fridtjof Nansen's 150th Birthday






Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen [ 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930] 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.

In the final decade of his life, Nansen devoted himself primarily to the League of Nations, following his appointment in 1921 as the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the displaced victims of World War I and related conflicts. Among the initiatives he introduced was the "Nansen passport" for stateless persons, a certificate that used to be recognized by more than 50 countries. He worked on behalf of refugees until his sudden death in 1930, after which the League established the Nansen International Office for Refugees to ensure that his work continued. This office received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938. His name is commemorated in numerous geographical features, particularly in the polar regions.

[9A]

November 18, 2017

Pedro Infante’s 100th Birthday



What’s in a name? If nicknames count, the answers are infinite for beloved Mexican singer and actor Pedro Infante. Often compared to Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, and Elvis Presley, the artist’s monikers — from "El Rey de Rancheras" to "El ídolo de Guamúchil" to "El Inmortal" — illustrate his myriad talents and enduring charm.

Born in 1917 in the fishing town of Mazatlán, Infante apprenticed to a carpenter and learned music from his father. Though deft at many instruments [he even crafted his own guitar], his voice was his most exceptional talent. As part of his father’s band, “La Rabia” in his teenage days, Infante experimented with the style that made him most famous. Mixing feeling with technique, his soulful croon forever changed the way the mariachi was sung and he helped popularize the genre around the world.

But singing was just the first act in Infante’s story. In 1943 he starred in "La Feria de las Flores," and also created his first musical record, "El Soldado Raso." This marked the beginning of a 14 year career in which Infante acted in nearly 60 films and recorded 366 songs, becoming one of the most prominent and loved figures in "La época de Oro del Cine Mexicano" [the Golden Era of Mexican cinema].

As today’s Doodle shows, Infante’s passions went beyond stage and screen, though they often appeared intertwined. An avid boxer off-camera, Infante stepped into the ring for 1953’s "Pepe El Toro," one of his most iconic roles. In "A Toda Máquina," Infante played the part of a motorcycle cop, dignifying the profession and immortalizing high-speed “acrobacias” — a sequence of dizzying, two-wheeled pirouettes that are still performed in many of Mexico’s parades and civil events today.

Infante was posthumously awarded a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival for his performance in "Tizoc," his last film. Today we celebrate what would have been the artist’s 100th birthday with scenes illustrating the vibrant parallels between his life and work — all beginning with a classic Infante pose.

[9A]

May 13, 2019

60th Anniversary of Torres del Paine National Park





Described by an early visitor as "one of the most ... spectacular sights that human imagination can conceive," Torres del Paine became a national park on this day in 1959. Initially named Lago Grey, the park was expanded and renamed in 1970. Today’s Doodle celebrates the splendor of this natural treasure situated near the Andes mountains at the southernmost tip of Chile.

First settled by the ancient Aonikenk people, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine takes its name from the Paine Massif mountain range and three granite torres or towers that rise some 2000 meters above the Patagonian steppe.

The rugged beauty of the land—forests, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and an enormous blue glacier—attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to enjoy camping, hiking, cycling, kayaking, and boating. Since the 15th century, the area has also been home to the nomadic Kaweskar people who coexist with wild pumas, condors, and llama-like creatures known as guanacos.

The national park was added to UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserve system in 1978 and even received 5 million votes to be elected the “Eighth Wonder of the World” in 2013.

[9A]

May 13, 2016

Daeng Soetigna's 108th Birthday





Music can instantly transport a listener to a unique place and time. The melodic sounds of the angklung are no exception.

One rap of the hand on this Indonesian bamboo instrument, and we’re transported to the tranquil islands of Southeast Asia. For this, we can thank Daeng Soetigna, whose novel seven-note diatonic angklung brought the tones of Indonesia to an international audience. While the oldest known angklung dates back to the 17th century, it was Soetigna’s modifications in 1938 that lifted it out of obscurity and into orchestras, concerts, and classrooms around the world.

We celebrate Soetigna’s ingenuity, and contribution to modern musical education with this bamboo-themed doodle by Lydia Nichols.

[9A]

December 14, 2013

Tycho Brahe's 467th Birthday





Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer, known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical observations. He was born in the then-Danish peninsula of Scania, which became part of Sweden the century afterwards. Tycho was well known in his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. He has been described as "the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical facts". Most of his observations were more accurate than the best available observations at the time.

Scientific legacy

Although Tycho's planetary model was soon discredited, his astronomical observations were an essential contribution to the scientific revolution. The traditional view of Tycho is that he was primarily an empiricist who set new standards for precise and objective measurements. This appraisal originated in Gassendi's 1654 biography, Tychonis Brahe, equitis Dani, astronomorum coryphaei, vita. It was furthered by Johann Dreyer's biography in 1890, which was long the most influential work on Tycho. According to historian of science Helge Kragh, this assessment grew out of Gassendi's opposition to Aristotelianism and Cartesianism, and fails to account for the diversity of Tycho's activities.

Cultural legacy

Stjerneborg observatory in Hven Island, constructed in 1589, now a museum
Tycho's discovery of the new star was the inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Al Aaraaf". In 1998, Sky & Telescope magazine published an article by Donald W. Olson, Marilynn S. Olson and Russell L. Doescher arguing, in part, that Tycho's supernova was also the same "star that's westward from the pole" in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Tycho is directly referenced in Sarah Williams' poem The Old Astronomer: "Reach me down my Tycho Brahé,—I would know him when we meet". Though, the poem's oft quoted line comes later: "Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; / I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night." Alfred Noyes also wrote a long biographical poem in honor of Brahe.

The lunar crater Tycho is named in his honour, as is the crater Tycho Brahe on Mars and the minor planet 1677 Tycho Brahe in the asteroid belt. The bright supernova, SN 1572, is also known as Tycho's Nova and the Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen is also named after him, as is the palm genus Brahea.

Brahe Rock in Antarctica is named after Tycho Brahe.