Google doodles

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Jun 17, 2018
World Cup 2018 - Day 4

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Jun 18, 2018
World Cup 2018 - Day 5

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Jun 18, 2018
Dragon Boat Festival 2018








June 18th marks the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar: the start of Dragon Boat Festival! Today, communities around Greater China and Southeast Asia celebrate their culture and remember ancient stories and traditions. The festival began as a way to pay tribute to Qu Yuan, a Chinese poet whose acts of patriotism are commemorated by dragon boat races each year.

The ancient tradition of Dragon boat racing has been a part of Asian culture for thousands of years. Participants row canoes shaped like fierce dragons, painted in vibrant colors to pay homage to ancient war canoes. The team of dragon boat sailors row as fast as they can toward a finish line while one team member sits toward the front of the ship and beats a drum to maintain their pace and keep spirits high. Today’s Doodle lets you sit in the back of the boat and become part of the action!

There are ways for everyone to celebrate the festival [even if you aren’t handling an oar]. Traditional Dragon Boat festival customs include preparing and eating zongzi, a traditional Chinese food made with rice and filled with various stuffings, and then wrapped in leaves of bamboo, banana, or lotus. Depending on where you’re celebrating, you may enjoy sweet dessert zongzi filled with fruit or nuts, or more savory zongzi stuffed with chicken or pork. These delicious treats are a symbol of luck and an essential part of celebrations.

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Jun 19, 2018
World Cup 2018 - Day 6

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Jun 20, 2018
World Cup 2018 - Day 7

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Jun 21, 2018
World Cup 2018 - Day 8

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Jun 22, 2018
World Cup 2018 - Day 9

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Jun 23, 2018

World Cup 2018 - Day 10

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Jun 9, 2011
Les Paul's 96th Birthday










The electric guitar brings back memories for me of exchanging riffs with friends and wearing out cassette tapes as I meticulously learned songs. Today, we’re attempting to recreate that experience with a doodle celebrating the birthday of musician and inventor Les Paul.

For the next 24 hours on the Google homepage, you’ll find an interactive, playable logo inspired by the guitar developed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee that made the sound of rock and roll possible.

As well as his guitar work, Les Paul experimented in his garage with innovative recording techniques like multitracking and tape delay. In keeping with this spirit of tinkering, those of you in the U.S. can click the black “compose” button to record your own 30-second track. Just strum the strings or trigger notes with the letters or numbers on your keyboards. Clicking the button again will display a link to share the songs you’ve made. [For example, here’s a little tune I put together.]

If you’re curious, the doodle was made with a combination of JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas [used in modern browsers to draw the guitar strings], CSS, Flash [for sound] and tools like theGoogle Font API, goo.gl and App Engine.

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April 23, 2021
Celebrating the Letter Ñ








Today’s Doodle artwork, illustrated by Barcelona-based guest artist Min, commemorates the consonant Ñ [pronounced “enye”]. The only letter in the Spanish alphabet that originated in Spain, the Ñ is not only a letter but a representation of Hispanic heritage and identity as well.

The Ñ’s story started with 12th-century Spanish scribes. While hand-copying Latin manuscripts, these scholars of the Middle Ages devised a plan to save time and parchment by shortening words with double letters. They combined the two figures into one and scrawled on top a tiny “n”—a symbol now known as a ”virgulilla” or tilde—to signify the change. Thus, “annus,” Latin for “year,” evolved into the Spanish “año.”

In 1803, it was officially entered into the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary, and in 1993, Spain passed legislation to protect its inclusion in computer keyboards on the grounds of its insuppressible cultural significance. In 2010, the United Nations declared April 23 a day to annually celebrate the Spanish language, one of the most commonly spoken in the world.

Today, the letter Ñ appears in more than 17,700 Spanish words, carving out a fundamental role within the language and Hispanic culture.



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Apr 13, 2011
240th Birthday of Richard Trevithick





Richard Trevithick
was a British inventor and mining engineer from Cornwall, UK. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive.

The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

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Apr 18, 2011
129th Birthday of Monteiro Lobato




José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato was one of Brazil's most influential writers, mostly for his children's books set in the fictional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo [Yellow Woodpecker Farm] but he had been previously a prolific writer of fiction, a translator and an art critic. He also founded one of Brazil's first publishing houses [Companhia Editora Nacional] and was a supporter of nationalism.

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Mar 17, 2011
150th Anniversary of the Italian Unification

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Mar 13, 2011
National Thai Elephant Day 2011

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Dec 20, 2010
Mehmet Akif Ersoy's Birthday






Mehmet Akif Ersoy was an Ottoman-born Turkish poet, writer, academic, politician, and the author of the Turkish National Anthem. Widely regarded as one of the premiere literary minds of his time, Ersoy is noted for his command of the Turkish language, as well as his patriotism and role in the Turkish War of Independence.

A framed version of the national anthem by Ersoy typically occupies the wall above the blackboard in the classrooms of every public as well as most private schools around Turkey, along with a Turkish flag, a photograph of the country's founding father Atatürk, and a copy of Atatürk's speech to the nation's youth.

He currently has a university in his name in Burdur. Ersoy's portrait was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 100 lira banknotes of 1983–1989.

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Dec 19, 2010
Edith Piaf's 95th Birthday




Édith Piaf [ born Édith Giovanna Gassion ] 19 December 1915 – 10 October 1963) was a French singer-songwriter, cabaret performer and film actress noted as France's national chanteuse and one of the country's most widely known international stars.

Piaf's music was often autobiographical and she specialized in chanson and torch ballads about love, loss and sorrow. Her most widely known songs include "La Vie en rose" [1946], "Non, je ne regrette rien" [1960], "Hymne à l'amour" [1949], "Milord" [1959], "La Foule" [1957], "L'Accordéoniste" [1940, and "Padam, padam..." [1951].

Since her death in 1963, several biographies and films have studied her life, including 2007's Academy Award-winning La Vie en rose—Piaf has become one of the most celebrated performers of the 20th century.

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Jan 19, 2009
Dr. Martin Luther King Day 2009, by Shepard Fairey / Studio Number One

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January 26, 2013
Republic Day 2013 [INDIA]

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Feb 1, 2013
María Elena Walsh's 83rd Birthday





María Elena Walsh [1 February 1930 – 10 January 2011] was an Argentine poet, novelist, musician, playwright, writer and composer, mainly known for her songs and books for children.

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February 1, 2016
Celebrating Frederick Douglass






Frederick Douglass [born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; c. February 1817 – February 20, 1895] was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, becoming famous for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Likewise, Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.

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Feb 12, 2016
475 Anniversary of Santiago City Foundation








A lot can happen in the 475 years of a city’s existence. Since its foundation on February 12th, 1541 by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, Santiago de Chile has emerged as a cultural icon and landmark city of South America. It's now the sixth largest city on the continent, with just over 5.5 million people.

The city was originally named after St. James, the patron saint of Spain. The name Santiago actually derives from a colloquial Latin pronunciation of St. James: Sanctu Iacobu. That’s why St. James in English is Santiago in Spanish. Write that one down for your next trivia night.

Today, we honor all the people who have called Santiago their home over the years. Doodler Mark Holmes chose to portray the varied architecture of the city, layered against the august backdrop of Chile’s astounding Andes mountain range. WIth deep admiration, we wish you a happy birthday, Santiago!

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Feb 22, 2016
Lantern Festival 2016







The Lantern Festival marks the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, the last day of the Spring Festival, and one very bright day for the night sky.

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Feb 22, 2016
Lantern Festival 2016 [HK]

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Feb 25, 2016
Lesya Ukrainka’s 145th Birthday







Today's Doodle celebrates the life and art of Lesya Ukrainka, famed Ukrainian lyric poet. She is known for beautiful poems, stories, and plays about other-worldly forest creatures and nymphs. Guest artist Nata Metlukh, a Ukrainian illustrator and animator living and working in San Francisco, chose to depict a scene from Ukrainka's play Лісова пісня, or "The Forest Song" which she published in 1912, a year before her death.

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Feb 27, 2016
Dominican Republic National Day 2016







Happy Dominican Republic Independence Day! Today's Doodle shows the Bayahibe Rose, the national flower of the Dominican Republic. The scientific name is Pereskia quisqueya, in honor of Quisqueya: a reference to the beautiful region where the rose originates. By any name, this rose is pretty sweet: it's one of the only species of cacti with leaves. It was discovered in 1977 and declared a new species three years later. The rose's brilliant color and originality match today's Independence Day celebrations in the Dominican Republic.

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Feb 10, 2019
Celebrating Molière







Today’s Doodle celebrates the life and work of actor and playwright Molière, who is widely considered the world’s foremost comic dramatist and perhaps the greatest artist in the history of French theater. His satirical plays fearlessly lampooned human folly and blended ballet, music, and comedy into a new genre that transformed buffoonery into witty social critique.

On this day in 1673, Molière premiered his final play, Le Malade Imaginaire [The Imaginary Invalid], a three-act comédie-ballet satirizing the medical profession. Molière starred in the title role of Argan, a severe hypochondriac who tries to convince his daughter to forsake her true love and marry his doctor’s son, so as to save on medical bills. In classic Molière fashion, the play’s dialogue pushes his characters’ vices and pretensions to the point of absurdity. Today’s Doodle provides a glimpse into Molière’s most memorable scenes from The Imaginary Invalid and other classics like School for Wives, Don Juan, and The Miser.

Baptized in Paris in 1622 as Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Molière was the son of a successful furniture maker and upholsterer to the royal court. Rejecting his father’s offer to take up the family trade, he assumed the stage name Molière and began a lifetime in the theater during the 1640s. Enduring years of financial hardship, Molière was imprisoned for debts before his breakthrough in 1658, when his company performed for a royal audience at the Louvre.

Despite royal support, Molière’s unsparing pen offended powerful interests who sought to censor his work. His religious satire Tartuffe was first performed in 1664 and immediately banned by the court of King Louis XIV. Five years later the ban was lifted and Tartuffe came to be considered one of his masterworks.

Inspiring future generations of comedians, Molière’s spirit lives on today through the work of humorists and satirists who share a fearless commitment to skewering hypocrisy with sharp-edged insights. As Molière wrote in the preface to Tartuffe, “The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.”

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Feb 11, 2019
Mary Mounib’s 114th Birthday







Today’s Doodle, created by Cairo-based artist Shennawy, celebrates the life and work of Mary Mounib, a female actor who became an iconic figure in Egyptian cinema.

Born on this day in 1905, Marie Salim Habib Nasrallah moved with her family from Damascus to Egypt, where they settled in Cairo. To help provide for her family, Mounib started working as a dancer at the Rawd al-Faraj amusement park before getting involved in local stage productions as a young girl.

In the 1930s Mounib joined the Rihani Ensemble, founded by the legendary comedian Naguib el-Rihani, and went on to appear in many plays before making her screen debut in 1934 with Ibn El Shaab [Man of the People]. She would continue to appear on screen throughout her long career in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s. Famous for playing the role of a protective mother, Mounib is remembered for her comic roles in Egyptian films like Inshudat El Radio [Song of the Radio], Nashid Al-Amal [The Chant of Hope], and Aser Elaeyon [The Prisoner of Her Eyes].

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Feb 26, 2019
Antonio Rivas Mercado’s 166th Birthday








An icon of Mexican architecture, Antonio Rivas Mercado left an indelible mark all over Mexico during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After extensive training in Europe, he returned home where he restored historic haciendas and government buildings, and taught at the National School of Fine Arts. He also designed such landmarks as the iconic Monumento a la Independencia aka “El Ángel,” [The Angel] in downtown Mexico City, which is depicted in today's Doodle by Mexican guest artist Elena Boils.

Born in Tepic, the capital of Nayarit, on this day in 1853, Mercado was sent by his parents to study in Europe, sailing by himself at age eleven. After graduating from England’s Jesuit College of Stonyhurst, he traveled to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Sorbonne.
Returning to Mexico in 1879, Mercado undertook important restorations such as the Hacienda de Tecajete in the State of Hidalgo and the facade of the City Hall in Mexico City. Mercado was known for a distinctly eclectic style, as seen in his designs for the Juárez de Guanajuato Theater, built between 1892 and 1903, which combines a neoclassical exterior with Neo-Moorish interior.

Mercado made a lasting impact as director of the National School of Fine Arts of Mexico City, where he separated the Architecture and Civil Engineering curriculum into two separate disciplines. His legacy lives on through his home in Mexico City’s Colonia Guerrero—also the home of his daughter, writer and patron of the arts Antonieta—which was restored and opened to the public.

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Feb 28, 2019
Weiberfastnacht 2019







Today, all throughout Germany’s Rhineland region, you can find locals celebrating Weiberfastnacht, or Women’s Carnival Day. During these celebrations of the Carnival, women in cities like Mainz, Cologne, and Düsseldorf enjoy the unofficial holiday by partaking in customs ranging from snipping off men’s ties to storming town halls.

The Weiberfastnacht tradition dates back to a 19th-century uprising in the small town of Beuel where a group of washerwomen grew tired of working 16 hour days, while the men got to go out and celebrate Carnival. In 1824 they founded the Beuel Ladies’ Committee and stormed city hall, an early expression of women’s rights in Germany. Their legacy lives on with celebrations all along the Rhine River.

The festivities begin precisely at 11:11 am when parades move through the streets to a soundtrack of light-hearted Schlager music as everyone enjoys food, drinks, and fun. Women also dress in vibrant and eclectic costumes, as depicted in today’s Doodle by Hamburg-based guest artist Christina Gransow.

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February 28, 2020
Marcel Pagnol's 125th Birthday








Today’s Doodle celebrates the 125th birthday of French filmmaker, playwright, and novelist Marcel Pagnol, often revered as one of the greatest figures in the history of French cinema. With his evocative, realist style, Pagnol painted a heartfelt and comical portrait of everyday French life, influencing generations of filmmakers in the process.

Marcel Paul Pagnol was born on this day in 1895 in the town of Aubagne, just outside of Marseilles in Southern France. He followed in the footsteps of his father, a local school superintendent, and pursued a career in education. In between lessons, Pagnol worked on his own plays, novels, and poetry, and when his comedic drama “Topaze” [1928] became a major hit on the Paris stage, he retired from teaching for good.

Establishing himself as an eminent playwright during cinema’s transformation from silent films to the sound era, Pagnol recognized a new world of opportunity in adapting his stories to the silver screen. By 1931, he had produced his first film, “Marius,” the leading installment of his famous “Marseilles” trilogy, which centered around life in the port town of his birth.

Credited as a pioneer of the neo-realist movement, Pagnol went on to direct and produce a collection of award-winning films, helping to shape French cinema’s golden decade of the 1930s and ‘40s.
In recognition of his contributions, in 1946, Pagnol became the first filmmaker ever elected as a member of the distinguished Acádemie française [“French Academy”], France’s official authority on the French language.

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May 8, 2018
Parents' Day 2018

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May 11, 2018
Teachers' Day 2018 [Puerto Rico]

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May 14, 2018
Celebrating Chantal Akerman







Today we celebrate the life of Chantal Akerman, a legend among feminist and avant garde filmmakers through history. Born in Brussels, Belgium in 1950, Akerman was especially close to her mother, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, who encouraged her to pursue a career.

This relationship between mother and daughter, as well as the daily, intimate lives of women, greatly influenced her filmmaking. Her most well-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles [Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels], debuted on May 14, 1975 and is now considered one of the most influential pieces in feminist film. Her works brought viewers into the most intimate moments of womens’ lives, highlighting the beauty and tension women experience in the most routine chores of life.

Akerman’s works have been recognized in exhibits around the world, including the Museum for Contemporary Art in Antwerp, Belgium; MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Centre George Pompidou, in Paris. Through her movies and the conversations they began, her influence on cinema and feminism live on.

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May 14, 2013
Doodle 4 Google 2013 - Greece Winner

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May 15, 2013
Teacher's Day 2013

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May 15, 2013
Frank Hornby's 150th Birthday






Frank Hornby [15 May 1863 – 21 September 1936] was an English inventor, businessman and politician. He was a visionary in toy development and manufacture, and although he had no formal engineering training, he was responsible for the invention and production of three of the most popular lines of toys based on engineering principles in the 20th century: Meccano, Hornby Model Railways and Dinky Toys. He also founded the British toy company Meccano Ltd in 1908, and launched a monthly publication, Meccano Magazine in 1916.

Hornby's inventions and initiatives made him a millionaire in the 1930s, and he entered politics in 1931 when he was elected as a Conservative MP for the Everton constituency. Hornby's legacy has persisted long after his death with enthusiasts all over the world still building Meccano models and collecting his toys. The 150th anniversary of Hornby's birth was celebrated in Liverpool and Brighton on 15 May 2013.

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May 20, 2013
Exposición Universal de Barcelona's 125th anniversary

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May 26, 2013
Mother’s Day 2013 International

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May 29, 2013
Leah Goldberg's 102nd Birthday





Leah Goldberg or Lea Goldberg was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, and comparative literary researcher. Her writings are considered classics of Israeli literature.

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Jun 1, 2013
Children’s Day 2013 [Poland]

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Jun 10, 2013
Maurice Sendak's 85th Birthday








Admired for his award-winning illustrations and beloved for his imaginative storytelling, Maurice Sendak is an American children's book legend. Whether they are monsters stomping through a forest, a boy cruising in a bread plane, or a parade of pigs celebrating a birthday, the unique characters of Sendak's books have sparked the imaginations of children for decades. His talents and ambitions, however, are not limited to children's books. He also created television shows and designed sets for operas and ballets.

To honor such a cherished cultural icon is no small task. How can anyone sing the praises of Maurice Sendak with enough affection? The doodlers and I decided to let Sendak's characters do the talking, or the walking rather. The doodle is a kind of parade-- sixteen of his characters march through their stories and gather around a birthday cake decked with candles that read "85." Even his dog, Herman, makes an appearance to wish Maurice a warm happy birthday.

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Jun 10, 2013
Portugal National Day 2013

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Jun 12, 2013
Philippine Independence Day 2013

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Jun 12, 2013
Dia Dos Namorados 2013

Dia dos Namorados is holiday celebrated on June 12 in Brazil. The date is celebrated with gifts, romantic activities, decorations and festivities.

The date is June 12th since it's close to Saint Anthony's Day on June 13. The term "Dia dos Namorados" is also used in other Portuguese-speaking countries to refer to Valentine's Day.

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Jun 15, 2013
Kobayashi Issa's 250th Birthday







Kobayashi Issa was a Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest of the Jōdo Shinshū. He is known for his haiku poems and journals. He is better known as simply Issa, a pen name meaning Cup-of-tea. He is regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki — "the Great Four."

Reflecting the popularity and interest in Issa as man and poet, Japanese books on Issa outnumber those on Buson and almost equal in number those on Bashō.

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Jun 16, 2013
Father's Day 2013

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Jun 16, 2013
Granadas Millenium





One of my favorite places I've ever visited: Granada, Spain.

When it popped up in the pipeline as a potential Google Doodle celebrating the Granadas Millenium, I knew I had to do it. A fellow doodler was gracious enough to let me take the assignment off his hands, though it meant I had to juggle the deadline with a mildly interactive Father's Day doodle on the same day.

While the doodle acknowledges a festive occasion, I really wanted to highlight the amazing juxtapositions of the city itself: A majestic Moorish/Medieval stronghold against the stuccoed Spanish houses. The expanse of the Sierra Nevada mountain range against the narrow winding alleyways. The city itself is at once wonderfully alive and sleepy with plenty to do or not do.

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Jun 17, 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".

A vocal nationalist and republican, Lawson regularly contributed to The Bulletin, and many of his works helped popularise the Australian vernacular in fiction. He wrote prolifically into the 1890s, after which his output declined, in part due to struggles with alcoholism and mental illness. At times destitute, he spent periods in Darlinghurst Gaol and psychiatric institutions. After he died in 1922 following a cerebral hemorrhage, Lawson became the first Australian writer to be granted a state funeral.

He was the son of the poet, publisher and feminist Louisa Lawson.

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Jun 20, 2013
Aleksander Fredro's 220th birthday




Aleksander Fredro was a Polish poet, playwright and author active during Polish Romanticism in the period of partitions by neighboring empires. His works including plays written in the octosyllabic verseand in prose as well as fables, belong to the canon of Polish literature. Fredro was harshly criticized by some of his contemporaries for light-hearted humor or even alleged immorality which led to years of his literary silence. Many of Fredro's dozens of plays were published and popularized only after his death. His best-known works have been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian and Slovak.

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Jun 21, 2013
Zlatko Grgić's 82nd Birthday












Zlatko Grgić was a Croatian animator who emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s.
Born in Zagreb, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Grgić was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 52nd Academy Awards for his 1979 film Dream Doll, produced by Bob Godfrey.

Grgić created the animated series Professor Balthazar for Zagreb Film and also animated 24 episodes of its series Maxi Cat [1971–73]. His other credits include the 1965 animated shorts Peti and Đavolja Posla [The Devil's Work]; Mali i veliki [[Le Petit et le grand) [1966]; Muzikalno prase [The Musical Pig [1966], winner of the Palme d'or at Cannes Film Festival, the 1968 shorts Tolerance and Suitcase as well as Ptica i crvek [The Bird and the Worm][1977].