Google doodles

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24 Aug 2017
Ukraine Independence Day 2017





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

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

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

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30 April 2021
Teachers' Day 2021 [30 April]

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1 May 2021
Labour Day 2021

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1 May 2015
Labour Day 2015 [France]

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8 May 2015
Parents' Day 2015









South Korea celebrates Parent’s Day every year on May 8 -- but did you know the holiday was known as Mother’s Day until 1973? Today, sons and daughters around the country -- and in our Doodle -- thank both parents [as well as grandparents] with carnations and other tokens of appreciation.

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17 January 2019
Konstantin Stanislavski's 156th Birthday




Born in Moscow on this day in 1863, Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was raised in a prominent Russian family that supported his interest in theater as it grew from a hobby to a passion. He focused on acting at first, relentlessly refining his craft in a quest to bring emotional truth to the stage.

He later became interested in directing and production, founding the renowned Moscow Arts Theater in 1898. Their 1904 premiere of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard is widely considered a masterpiece of modern theater.

Among his contributions to the world of theatre, Stanislavksi developed an influential system for training actors, and his ideas were profoundly important to the development of what is now known as method acting. “There are no small parts,” Stanislavski observed. “Only small actors.” By devising a series of seven questions, he helped aspiring actors to understand their characters and motivation more fully The questions, which are featured in the animation of today’s Doodle include:

1. Who Am I?
2. Where Am I?
3. What Time Is It?
4. What Do I Want
5. Why Do I Want It?
6. How Will I Get What I Want?
7. What Must I Overcome To Get What I Want?

As simple as they may seem, answering these questions required extensive research and reflection. During rehearsals, Stanislavski would often comment “I do not believe you,” pushing actors to bring their performances to life by digging into their own psyches.

In recognition of his contributions to Russian theater, he was awarded the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Lenin, and the title “People's Artist of the U.S.S.R.”

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20 Jan 2019
Louay Kayali’s 85th Birthday






Today’s Doodle celebrate the work of Louay Kayali, a modern painter born in Syria and trained in Italy whose quietly powerful portraits convey the strength, resilience, and nobility of everyday folk—bakers, fisherman, and pregnant mothers.

Born in Aleppo on this day in 1934, Louay Kayali began painting at the age of 11 and held his first exhibition when he was 18 at Al-Tajhis Al-Oula School. Awarded a scholarship, Kayali moved to Italy in 1956 for advanced studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and went on to represent Syria at the 1960 Venice Biennale—a prestigious international art exhibition.

Joining the faculty of the Higher Institute for the Fine Arts in Damascus in 1962, Kayali’s instruction made a profound impact on future generations of Syrian artists. During the mid-1960s, he began a series of charcoal works which marked a departure from his previous paintings. The emotionally challenging images in his 1967 traveling exhibition “Fi Sabil al-Qadiyyah” [For the Sake of the Cause] depicted human suffering, reflecting upheaval in the Arab world. Upset by scathing reviews of the show, the artist announced that he would no longer paint, and destroyed much of his work.

Fortunately, he did return to painting, showing new work throughout the 1970s, including a joint exhibition with his old friend Fateh al-Moudarres.

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22 Jan 2019
Lev Landau’s 111th Birthday






Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, on this day in 1908, Lev Davidovich Landau was a Soviet theoretical physicist who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research into liquid helium’s behavior at extremely low temperatures.

Described by classmates as a “quiet, shy boy,” young Landau was brilliant at math and science, but struggled in relating to his classmates. Having completed his studies by age 13, Landau was ready to start college long before his peers. Enrolling in the Physics Department of Leningrad University, his first publication, On the Theory of the Spectra of Diatomic Molecules was already in print when he was just 18 years old.

Completing his Ph.D. at age 21, Landau earned a Rockefeller fellowship and a Soviet stipend which allowed him to visit research facilities in Zurich, Cambridge, and Copenhagen, where he had the opportunity to study with Nobel Laureate Niels Bohr. Renowned for his work in quantum theory, Bohr had a profound impact on the young physicist.

Elected to the U.S.S.R.’s Academy of Sciences in 1946, Landau also received the Lenin Science Prize for his monumental Course of Theoretical Physics—a ten-volume study co-written with his student Evgeny Lifshitz. His wide-ranging research has linked his name to many concepts that he was first to describe including: Landau Levels, which are the focus of today’s Doodle, Landau diamagnetism, Landau damping, and the Landau energy spectrum. His legacy is also kept alive by the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Moscow—and there is even a crater on the moon named after him!

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26 Jan 2019
Australia Day 2019





Today’s Doodle celebrates the natural beauty of the Fitzgerald River National Park, located on Western Australia’s rugged south coast. The land around the coastal hills known as “the Barrens” is teeming with life. Stretching across the Shires of Ravensthorpe and the Jerramungup, the park protects one of the most biodiverse regions in the world.

More than 1,800 species of plants live in the park—75 of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The park is also home to 184 bird species, 41 reptile species, 12 frog species, and 22 mammal species, including the adorable honey possum featured in today’s Doodle. These mouse-sized marsupials, also known as “Noolbenger,” have prehensile tails longer than their bodies, pointed snouts, and long tongues covered with bristles to help them drink nectar from native flowers like the Banksia.

Tiny but thirsty, one honey possum can drink up to 7 milliliters of nectar per day—roughly equivalent to a human drinking 50 liters of soda! They also help the plants reproduce by spreading pollen as they feast. ​

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31 Jan 2019
Celebrating Nasi Lemak






Today’s Doodle celebrates the rich, fragrant, and spicy dish, known as Nasi Lemak. The dish — considered the national dish of Malaysia and widely eaten year-round — is what many Malaysians start their day with. Also popular in Singapore and Thailand, the humble delicacy is believed to have originated as a hearty farmer’s breakfast on the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula.

Although the name translates from Malay as “rich rice” [a reference to the coconut milk included in the recipe] there is another origin story for the name. According to legend, the daughter of a widow named Mak Kuntum accidentally spilled coconut milk into the rice pot. “What did you cook?” Mak asked and her daughter answered. "Nasi le, Mak!" [Rice, mother!]

There are many variations of the dish across the multiethnic melting pot of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and other indigenous and imported cultures, but the fundamental recipe — featured in today’s video Doodle — is rice cooked with santan or coconut milk and flavored with pandan leaf and galangal root, served with ikan bilis [fried anchovies], crispy peanuts [skin on], sliced cucumber, hard-boiled egg, and sambal [hot sauce] or a splash of tamarind juice, with an optional piece of fried chicken or beef rendang on the side. Sold at roadside stalls wrapped in a “bungkus” of banana leaf or brown paper, Nasi Lemak is so popular it’s also eaten for lunch and dinner, too!

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31 January 2012
Discovery of the Iguazu Falls






Iguazú Falls or Iguaçu Falls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian unit of Paraná. Together, they make up the largest waterfall in the world.

The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River rises near the heart of the city of Curitiba. For most of its course, the river flows through Brazil; however, most of the falls are on the Argentine side. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the border between Argentina and Brazil.

The name Iguazú comes from the Guarani or Tupi words "y" , meaning "water", and "ûasú ", meaning "big". Legend has it that a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In a rage, the deity sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The first European to record the existence of the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541.

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31 Jan 2012
Atahualpa Yupanqui's 104th Birthday




Atahualpa Yupanqui was an Argentine singer, songwriter, guitarist, and writer. He is considered the most important Argentine folk musician of the 20th century.

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6 Feb 2012
François Truffaut's 80th Birthday





François Roland Truffaut was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry, having worked on over 25 films.

Truffaut's film The 400 Blows is a defining film of the French New Wave movement, and has four sequels, Antoine et Colette, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, and Love on the Run, between 1958 and 1979. Truffaut's 1973 film Day for Night earned him critical acclaim and several accolades, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

His other notable films include Shoot the Piano Player [1960], Jules and Jim [1962], The Soft Skin [1964], The Wild Child [1970], Two English Girls [1971], The Last Metro [1980], and The Woman Next Door [1981]
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Truffaut also wrote the notable book Hitchcock/Truffaut [1966] which detailed his interviews with film director Alfred Hitchcock during the 1960s.

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8 Feb 2012
Ito Jakuchu's 296th Birthday




Itō Jakuchū was a Japanese painter of the mid-Edo period when Japan had closed its doors to the outside world. Many of his paintings concern traditionally Japanese subjects, particularly chickens and other birds. Many of his otherwise traditional works display a great degree of experimentation with perspective, and with other very modern stylistic elements.

Compared to Soga Shōhaku and other exemplars of the mid-Edo period eccentric painters, Jakuchū is said to have been very calm, restrained, and professional. He held strong ties to Zen Buddhist ideals, and was considered a lay brother; but he was also keenly aware of his role within a Kyoto society that was becoming increasingly commercial.

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11 Feb 2012
May Ziade's 126th Birthday






May Elias Ziadeh was a Lebanese-Palestinian poet, essayist and translator, who wrote different works in Arabic and in French.

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12 Feb 2012
Anna Pavlova's 131st Birthday







Anna Pavlovna Pavlova, born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; 12 February, was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognized for her creation of the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour around the world, including South America, India and Australia.

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15 Feb 2012
Serbian National Day 2012






National Day is a holiday celebrated every February 15 in Serbia to commemorate the outbreak of the First Serbian Uprising in 1804, which evolved into the Serbian Revolution against Ottoman rule. The revolution ultimately resulted in the recognition of Serbia's National by the Ottoman Empire.

On the same day in 1835, during the rule of Miloš Obrenović, the first modern Serbian constitution was adopted in Kragujevac, known as the Sretenje Constitution or ‘Candlemas Constitution’.

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17 Feb 2012
Agniya Barto's 106th birthday




Agniya Lvovna Barto was a Soviet poet and children's writer of Russian Jewish origin.

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21 Feb 2012
Carnival 2012

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24 Feb 2012
Estonian Independence Day 2012

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25 Feb 2012
Kuwait National Day 2012

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27 Feb 2012
Dominican Republic Independence Day 2012

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29 Feb 2012
Gioachino Rossini's 220th Birthday/Leap Year 2012






Every so often two things happen on the same day that we'd be remiss not to celebrate. In the past there's been St. George's Day and Shakespeare's birthday in the UK, Fourth of July and Rube Goldberg's birthday in the US, and Valentine's Day/Figure skating for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In this day's case, it's the 220th birthday of Italian composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini and leap year. [Or, if you're only counting actually leap day's for birthdays it's something like Gioachino's 53rd.]

At any count, in the grand tradition of opera singing cartoons, I created an illustration that captures the climatic scene of Rossini's most famous work, The Barber of Seville, as portrayed by a cast of goofy-looking frogs.

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29 Feb 2012
Marcela Paz's 110th Birthday





Marcela Paz was the pen name of Esther Huneeus Ramos Falla Salas de Claro, a Chilean writer. She also used the pen names of Paula de la Sierra, Lukim Retse, P. Neka and Juanita Godoy. She was a recipient of the National Prize for Literature.

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1 Mar 2012
Quinquela Martín's 122nd Birthday







Benito Quinquela Martín was an Argentine painter. Quinquela Martín is considered the port painter-par-excellence and one of the most popular Argentine painters. His paintings of port scenes show the activity, vigor and roughness of the daily life in the port of La Boca.

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5 Mar 2012
Heitor Vila Lobos' 125th Birthday







Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time.

A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras and his Chôros. His Etudes for classical guitar [1929] were dedicated to Andrés Segovia, while his 5 Preludes [1940] were dedicated to his spouse Arminda Neves d’Almeida, a.k.a. "Mindinha." Both are important works in the classical guitar repertory.

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7 Mar 2012
Alessandro Manzoni's 227th Birthday









Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzon was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel The Betrothed, generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. The novel is also a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, both for its patriotic message and because it was a fundamental milestone in the development of the modern, unified Italian language. Manzoni also contributed to the stabilization of the modern Italian language and helped to ensure linguistic unity throughout Italy. He was an influential proponent of Liberal Catholicism in Italy. His work and thinking has often been contrasted with that of his younger contemporary Giacomo Leopardi by critics.

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12 Mar 2012
Chinese Arbor Day 2012

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13 Mar 2012
Mohammed Abdel Wahab's 110th Birthday







Mohamed Abdel Wahab, was a prominent 20th-century Egyptian singer, actor, and composer. He's best known for his Romantic and Egyptian patriotic songs.

He was known of his Egyptian nationalist and revolutionary songs like "Ya Masr tam El-Hanna" [Oh Egypt, happiness is here], "Hay Ala El-Falah" [The call of duty], "El Watan El Akbar", "Masr Nadetna falbena El-nedaa" [Egypt has called us and indeed we answered the call], "Oulo le Masr" [Tell Egypt], "Hob El-watan Fard Alyi", "Sout El-Gamaheer", "Ya Nessmet El-Horria" [The breeze of Freedom], "Sawae'd men Beladi".

He also contributed and composed the national anthems of Tunisia, "Humat al-Hima", The United Arab Emirates, "Īsiy Bilādī", and "Libya" which was from 1951 to 1969 and again since 2011.

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14 Mar 2012
Akira Yoshizawa's 101st Birthday


We’re excited to have Robert J. Lang here to talk about today’s doodle in honor of Akira Yoshizawa. Lang is considered one of the world’s masters of the art of origami. His design techniques are used by origami artists around the world, and he lectures widely on the connections between origami art, science, mathematics and technology. - Ed.

Akira Yoshizawa is widely regarded as the father of the modern origami art form. Over the course of his life, he created tens of thousands of origami works and pioneered many of the artistic techniques used by modern-day origami artists, most notably the technique of wet-folding, which allowed the use of thick papers and created soft curves, gentle shapes and rounded, organic forms. He also developed a notation for origami that has now been the standard for origami instruction for more than 50 years.

Yoshizawa took up Japan's traditional folk art of origami in his 20s, and eventually left his job at a factory to focus full-time on his origami creations. His work came to the attention of the west in 1955, after an exhibition of his works in Amsterdam, and rapidly spread around the world. In his last decades, he received worldwide renown and invitations from all over, culminating in his award in 1983 of the Order of the Rising Sun.

I had the great fortune to meet Yoshizawa several times. In 1988, he came to New York to visit The Friends of the Origami Center of America, and spoke at a panel discussion I attended. There, he addressed a wide range of topics: one's mental attitude, the importance of character, of natural qualities, of having one's "spirit within [the artwork's] folds." Although he was the consummate artist, his work and approach was infused with the mathematical and geometric underpinnings of origami as well as a deep aesthetic sense:

“My origami creations, in accordance with the laws of nature, require the use of geometry, science, and physics. They also encompass religion, philosophy, and biochemistry. Over all, I want you to discover the joy of creation by your own hand…the possibility of creation from paper is infinite.” - Akira Yoshizawa

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15 Mar 2012
Hungarian National Day 2012

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19 Mar 2012
200th Anniversary of Spain's Constitution

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20 Mar 2012
First Day of Spring 2012

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4 Apr 2012
Senegal Independence Day 2012

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9 Apr 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.

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15 Apr 2012
Wilhelm Busch's 180th Birthday





Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day.

Busch drew on the tropes of folk humour as well as a profound knowledge of German literature and art to satirize contemporary life, any kind of piety, Catholicism, Philistinism, religious morality, bigotry, and moral uplift.

His mastery of drawing and verse became deeply influential for future generations of comic artists and vernacular poets. Among many notable influences, The Katzenjammer Kids was inspired by Busch's Max and Moritz. Today, the Wilhelm Busch Prize and the Wilhelm Busch Museum help maintain his legacy. The 175th anniversary of his birth in 2007 was celebrated throughout Germany. Busch remains one of the most influential poets and artists in Western Europe.

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21 Apr 2012
Brasilia's Anniversary









This doodle was a co-creation between Oscar Niemeyer, who is one of the city of Brasilia's most important architects, and his grand-grandson, Paulo Sergio. Together they took Niemeyer's original drawings for the city and digitally crafted them into the Google logo.

[9A]

24 Apr 2012
Gideon Sundback's 132nd Birthday





Few have heard of Swedish-American inventor Gideon Sundback, though most people use one of his inventions every day. I certainly hadn't heard of him before I began work on this doodle celebrating his work on the zipper, which he filed a patent for in 1914.

Such an iconic piece of fabric fastening needs little introduction, so I collaborated with doodle engineer Kris Hom to develop an interactive zipper on the homepage which zips opens to reveal search results for "Gideon Sundback."

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27 Apr 2012
Theo Angelopoulos' 77th Birthday






Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer.
An acclaimed and multi-awarded film director who dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on,Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely respected filmmakers in the world.

He started making films in 1967. In the 1970s he made a series of political films about modern Greece.
Angelopoulos' films, described by Martin Scorsese as that of "a masterful filmmaker", are characterized by the slightest movement, slightest change in distance, long takes, and complex, carefully composed scenes. His cinematic method is often described as "sweeping" and "hypnotic."

In 1998 his film Eternity and a Day went on to win the Palme d'Or at the 51st edition of the Cannes Film Festival, and his films have been shown at many of the world's esteemed film festivals.

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4 May 2012
Keith Haring's 54th Birthday






In the early 1980s, as a native Manhattanite raised by and among artists, I was aware of Keith Haring and his work, but my 1984 job interview would be the first time we would meet. After some awkward small talk, we quickly realized that we had many friends and social activities in common. At that age [we were both just 25], such things meant a great deal. He hired me as his personal assistant and studio manager, and I worked alongside him until his premature death from AIDS-related illnesses in 1990. We shared many interests, worked well together, and established a deep, reciprocal trust. When he became ill and decided to create the Keith Haring Foundation, I was honored to accept his offer to be its executive director. I have now held that position for 23 years, and my responsibility and privilege is to promote and manage a legacy: respecting past connections and relationships, cultivating and nurturing new ones, staying true to Keith's artistic and philanthropic goals, and doing whatever is needed to ensure his place in history.

Keith tapped into the collective unconscious and expanded upon a universal language of symbols and messages – executed in simple lines, energized by the spirit [and for a time, context] of graffiti and fueled by his intense commitment to make his work as accessible as possible. Although he first came to the public’s attention through his chalk drawings in the New York City subway stations, he utilized the same graphically compelling visual vocabulary in thousands of works on paper, canvas, limited edition prints and multiples, sculpture, public murals and, eventually, merchandise – avenues of dissemination that to him were all of equal importance. This ambitious, populist spirit and prolific output brought his work to the widest audience imaginable.

Curious and cautious about the role technology was beginning to play in our society, Keith often included images of computers in his work. He was both excited by and nervous about the impact of the personal computer on our daily lives. Using his art to convey these and other social concerns was at the root of his ever-increasing popularity. Over the past 30 years, images he created that speak about racism, drug addiction, AIDS and tolerance have become iconic.

Keith once expressed his fantasy that in the future, his images might be "beamed" around the world in seconds. That future is now, and I firmly believe that for Keith, the Internet would have been a realization of that excitement and cautious curiosity. That the world’s largest search engine is honoring Keith's birthday is nevertheless a perfect, 21st century, tribute to his art and ambitions.

As Keith himself said in 1984, "Art lives through the imaginations of the people who are seeing it. Without that contact, there is no art. I have made myself a role as an image-maker of the twentieth century and I daily try to understand the responsibilities and implications of that position. It has become increasingly clear to me that art is not an elitist activity reserved for the appreciation of a few, but for everyone, and that is the end toward which I will continue to work."

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7 May 2012
Władysław Reymont's 145th Birthday






Władysław Stanisław Reymont was a Polish novelist and the 1924 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is the award-winning four-volume novel Chłopi [The Peasants].

Born into an impoverished noble family, Reymont was educated to become a master tailor, but instead worked as a gateman at a railway station and then as an actor in a troupe. His intensive travels and voyages encouraged him to publish short stories, with notions of literary realism. Reymont's first successful and widely-praised novel was The Promised Land from 1899, which brought attention to the bewildering social inequalities, poverty, conflictive multiculturalism and labour exploitation in the industrial city of Łódź [Lodz]. The aim of the novel was to extensively emphasize the consequences of extreme industrialization and how it affects society as a whole. In 1900, Reymont was severely injured in a railway accident, which halted his writing career until 1904 when he published the first part of The Peasants.

Władysław Reymont was very popular in communist Poland due to his style of writing and the symbolism he used, including socialist concepts, romantic portrayal of the agrarian countryside and toned criticism of capitalism, all present in literary realism. His work is widely attributed to the Young Poland movement, which featured decadence and literary impressionism.

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12 May 2012
Edward Lear's 200th Birthday







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

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13 May 2012
Mother's Day 2012





What can we get our folks for Mothers/Fathers day right? We've given them tools, ties, flowers, drawings, letter pressed cards [last year's doodle] all classic gifts that they never seem to get tired of. This year we thought why not give Mom and Dad something a little more special... an animated doodle!

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19 May 2012
The Start of Turkish Youth Week

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25 May 2012
Jordan Independence Day 2012

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3 Jun 2016
Rhee Seund Ja’s 98th birthday





Seund Ja Rhee was a South Korean painter, engraver, draughtswoman, and illustrator. She also designed tapestries and mosaics. She was a prolific artist with more than 1,000 paintings, 700 prints, 250 ceramics, and numerous drawings. She exhibited mainly in France and in South Korea, with 84 solo exhibitions and almost 300 group exhibitions during her lifetime. In 1958, she moved to Tourrettes, Var [France] where she finally built the "Milky Way", a large atelier and exhibition room

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3 Jun 2016
Copa América Centenario





Today marks the 100th year of the Copa América Games! This year, for the first time, the United States will host the longest running fútbol tournament of the Americas. Starting today, 16 teams will compete in 32 matches across 10 U.S. cities. Today's fiery matchup takes place at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara — right around the corner from Google headquarters in Mountain View. We'll be listening for the roar of the crowd!

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5 Jun 2016
Denmark National Day 2016










Happy Grundlovsdag, Denmark!


Today's Doodle features Copenhagen's iconic statue The Little Mermaid, or Den Lille Havfrue, by Edvard Eriksen. Modeled after a famous Danish ballerina [and Eriksen's less-shy wife], she looks to the coast in the nation's capital. Commissioned in 1909, and based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, she is a symbol of the city. She splashed onto her now-unmistakable perch in 1913, and attracts tourists from around the world.

Crowds of people will visit her today, as most Danish offices and shops close at noon. Many Danes spend Constitution Day in thoughtful reflection on the political progress of their nation.

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6 Jun 2016
Sweden National Day 2016




Happy National Day, Sweden!

Today's shows a Hälsingegård, or decorated farmhouse in Hälsingland, Sweden. These houses are examples of the highest level of ancient timber building, which dates all the way back to the middle ages. Seven of these exceptional buildings were marked by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2012, and are the pride of this north-eastern portion of Sweden.

Today in Stockholm, people will celebrate national pride with festivals and music and lots of blue and yellow. The Swedish Royal Family will attend a concert at Skansen, an outdoor museum in Stockholm. For the newly-Swedish, there's a welcome festival called Hejfestivalen, or "Hi Festival". It's held on Södermalm island, and is meant to welcome new arrivals to meet and mingle with other Swedes.

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9 Jun 2016
Phoebe Snetsinger’s 85th birthday





Sometimes it takes dire circumstances to compel us toward action. Phoebe Snetsinger, who would have been 85 years old today, became the world’s most prolific bird-watcher — a feat she achieved by surmounting tremendous odds.

It wasn’t until 1981 — when she was diagnosed with cancer — that Phoebe truly came into her own as a birder. In subsequent years, she scoured the globe for obscure or unknown bird species, ultimately raising her bird count to 8,393, the highest in the world at the time. Some of the notable birds she sighted include the Blackburnian Warbler and the Red-Shouldered Vanga, depicted among many other interesting birds by animator Juliana Chen.