Google doodles

[9A]

January 17, 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.

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.”

[9A]

April 13, 2019
Songkran 2019





Marking the beginning of the Thai New Year, today’s Doodle celebrates Songkran, a three-day holiday that has been known to last for a whole week.

While the original festivities involved sprinkling water on one another for purification, and washing away bad luck for the year to come, Songkran has evolved into one big, joyous national water fight. In Chiang Mai, the action starts a day early with a grand procession around the northern Thai city. The Bangkok street party known as Silom takes place along a 4-kilometer street replete with vendors selling water balloons, squirt guns, street food, and drinks. On the island of Phuket, pickup trucks filled with water throwers patrol the crowded streets near the Patong Beach area, while live music and cultural events take place in Phuket Town’s Saphan Hin Park.

[9A]

Mar 28, 2018
Hannah Glasse’s 310th Birthday





If the thought of Yorkshire pudding and gooseberry fool makes your mouth water, you have Hannah Glasse to thank for making these two delectable dishes staples in English cuisine. Born on this day in 1708, Glasse was a pioneering English cook and author of the most popular cookbook of the 18th century. Published in 1747, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was unique; it was one of the first cookbooks written in a simple and conversational style, which meant that any English speaker and reader – regardless of their class – could learn how to cook.

Glasse’s cookbook was popular not only because it was easy to read, but also because of its massive scope. It included a whopping 972 recipes, covering everything from puddings and soups, to what to serve at Lent, to preparing food for the sick.

Today’s Doodle features Glasse whipping up a batch of classic Yorkshire puddings. Her recipe for Yorkshire pudding, among many others, is one of the earliest known ever published.

[9A]

Mar 5, 2018
Celebrating the Edelweiss Flower





Today's Doodle celebrates Leontopodium nivale – more commonly known as the edelweiss flower – which for centuries has beckoned soldiers, hikers, and other adventurers from the slopes of the highest mountains of Europe. The name edelweiss was first found in writing on this date in 1784, and is a direct German translation of the words ‘noble’ and ‘white’.

The flower only blooms in the summer months of June through September. Its characteristic double-star shape and wooly-white texture make it highly recognizable both in nature and in folklore.

Embarking on a quest to find the edelweiss requires bravery, determination, and a little bit of luck. Romance is also a central theme in the story of this flower because its white blooms are thought to represent deep love and devotion. In fact, the gift of an edelweiss was once the equivalent of giving an engagement ring, a true sign of adoration and faithfulness.

Once on the brink of extinction, the edelweiss is no longer at risk, and blooms more and more across the mountainous landscape of Europe.

[9A]

May 11, 2017
80th Anniversary of Los Glaciares National Park





Argentina’s stunning Los Glaciares National Park was established on May 11, 1937. Although the park is only 80 years old, its biggest attractions have been shaping the landscape for millennia.

The park’s northern boundary is a cluster of soaring, sharp-toothed peaks, including the forbidding Mt. Fitz Roy. Dominating the southern stretch is the awe-inspiring Perito Moreno Glacier, a towering wall of ice grinding a path through the Patagonian Andes. Its terminus, where the glacier flows into Argentina’s largest freshwater lake, is 5 km wide at an average height of 74 m above the lake’s surface.

As the powdery blue glacier advances, the ice often gives way with a resounding crack, plunging into the chilly lake and calving enormous icebergs. This dramatic icefall makes it one of the park’s most popular tourist attractions. Visitors can also hike across the rippled surface of the glacier.

Los Glaciares National Park was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981, as an area of outstanding natural beauty and an important example of the geological processes of glaciation.

[9A]

Mar 15, 2017
140th Anniversary of the First Cricket Test Match





The first officially-recognized test cricket match took place 140 years ago today. It was a contest between the established English side and the newly-formed Australian team. Australia won the first match, but England won the second match to draw the series 1:1. The rivalry between the English and Australian teams, forged on the field, endures to this day.

Today’s Doodle hits the deck with a lighthearted rendering that captures the spirit of sportsmanship and the inaugural test match. Mustachioed and musclebound, the batsmen, bowlers and opposition fielders spring into action, never losing sight of the red ball.

[9A]

Mar 5, 2017
Samia Gamal’s 93rd Birthday


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A child of 1920s Egypt, Samia Gamal went on to become a celebrated film actress, renowned for her belly dancing talents. Best known for Raqs Sharqi [[Oriental dancing), she took inspiration from all styles of dance, from ballet to ballroom.

After establishing herself, it wasn’t too long before her talents were recognised and she was starring in films in her home country and abroad.

By the late 1940’s she was a huge star and was named “National Dancer of Egypt.” She continued to appear in numerous films into the ‘60s — an era that saw the star stepping out in New York and performing her fusion of Latin-style belly dancing.

On what would be her 93rd birthday, we celebrate Samia Gamal, an Egyptian icon whose talents are admired as much today by aspiring dancers and film fans as they were in the height of her fame.

[9A]

Feb 23, 2017
Weiberfastnacht 2017



Today's Doodle is all about dressing up in your finest wig and going all out for Weiberfastnacht. Germany welcomes the opening of Karneval every year with Weiberfastnacht, when celebrations and parties erupt through the carnival regions of Germany. Also known as Old Womens Day, these festivities are often led by women, who might cut off men's ties in one tradition, or storm their town hall, in another. However Germans choose to revel on this day, one thing's for certain: this is a time of joy.

Weiberfastnacht traces its roots back to the Middle Ages, when it was one of the only occasions for women to attend parties and have as much fun as their male counterparts. Although its origins lie with women, no one needs an excuse to celebrate, and men are out in the streets just as much to enjoy the holiday. The streets fill up with merrymakers in costume and confetti flies everywhere. The Krapfen, or jam-filled doughnuts, are plentiful, as is the festive Karneval music, and even the Chicken Dance. There's something for everyone at Weiberfastnacht!

[9A]

July 24, 2012
Amelia Earhart's 115th Birthday





The name Amelia Earhart conjures up feelings of admiration and respect in the minds of millions of people. But personally, Amelia Earhart is more than just a name in the footnotes of history. Her enduring legacy as one of the world’s most celebrated aviatrices embodies the true spirit of American adventure. This legend, born 115 years ago in Atchison, Kansas, is an American heroine and one of my favorite icons.

Representing Amelia Earhart’s family for the past 25 years has grown my appreciation for their beloved relative, who is a beacon of hope and a symbol of courage in our society. Today’s Google Doodle, celebrating her 115th birthday, is the perfect tribute to the woman who is remembered for her groundbreaking achievements in aviation and her fight for gender equality. She is truly an admirable role model. As the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean, she was awarded the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross. Nicknamed “Lady Lindy”, Earhart set numerous aviation records before her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean on her final flight in 1937.

While her aviation achievements are legendary, her commitment to women’s rights is also noteworthy. Throughout her remarkable career she focused on proving that women were equal to men in “jobs requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness, and willpower.”

[9A]

Feb 6, 2020
María Teresa Vera's 125th Birthday





Today’s Doodle honors the life and work of Cuban singer and guitarist María Teresa Vera, who also composed the nation’s rural folk song style, trova. Known as the Grande Dame of Cuban Music, she is widely regarded as one of the country’s most influential musicians.

Born on this day in 1895 in Guanajay, Cuba, Vera picked up the guitar at a young age after becoming a part of a bohemian community of trova musicians. Known as “troubadours,” the wandering street entertainers taught Vera how to compose trova songs and perform the genre’s poetic lyrical vocals together with the guitar. In 1911, Vera performed her first concert in Havana‘s Politeama Grande theater.

One of the first female voices of trova, Vera formed several successful duos and bands to perform original compositions along with her interpretations of other Cuban styles. Some of her songs became regular features on Havana’s radio stations, and her music helped to clear the path for the rise of popular Cuban music around the world in the 1930s and 40s. Throughout her career, she recorded close to two hundred songs, but those close to her say she could play more than a thousand.

[9A]

Feb 6, 2020
Waitangi Day 2020







Today’s Doodle celebrates New Zealand’s Waitangi Day, a recognition of the signing of the nation’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, on this day in 1840. To commemorate the country’s rich collection of bird fauna, the artwork depicts three of the nation’s endemic birds: the iconic flightless Kiwi in the centre, with the Tūī and the Kererū on either side.

The islands of New Zealand are home to around 168 different native birds, and over half of these species cannot be found anywhere else in the world. With the Tūī, prized by the Māori people for their imitation skills using its two voice boxes, the Kererū [[whose unique flying noises are a distinctive sound in New Zealand’s bush) and the Kiwi [[the world’s only bird with nostrils at the end of their long bill) New Zealand’s avian community has developed unique characteristics from evolving on the isolated South Pacific island.

[9A]

Jan 22, 2020
Celebrating "Sawaddee"





Today’s Doodle celebrates sawaddee, the Thai way to greet friends and strangers alike. A custom adopted on this day in 1943, this salutation is presented with a wai: a prayer-like pose delivered in concert with a bow that accompanies the expression of sawaddee. The gesture altogether is meant to convey respect and warmth.

Originally coined by linguist Phraya Upakit Silapasan from the root word, “Svasti,” the Sanskrit word for “blessing” or “well-being,” sawaddee soon became an official part of the Thai vocabulary.

Known as the “Land of a Thousand Smiles,” Thailand is world-renowned for its friendly people and gracious hospitality. Today, sawaddee can be heard across the country—from the idyllic beaches of the south, to the temples of the mountainous north, and everywhere in between—epitomizing the welcoming spirit of Thailand.

[9A]

Dec 28, 2019
Thanpuying Puangroi Apaiwong's 105th Birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates Thai composer Thanpuying Puangroi Apaiwong on her 105th birthday. Of her more than 100 compositions, she is best known for the classic “Bua Kao” [[“White Lotus”), which was awarded as “Song of Asia” by UNESCO in 1979 and made her a staple in the national repertoire.
Born Mom Puangroi Sanit Wong in Bangkok on this day in 1914, she learned to play the piano and the guitar at a young age. Composing and playing tunes for her family, she showed an undoubted passion and went on to study music at Trinity College London.

During the first half of the twentieth century, as foreign music like Western classical and jazz gained popularity, a new genre named Phleng Thai sakon [[roughly translating to "international-style Thai music") arose. The genre blended elements from traditional Thai music with instruments of Western classical, and Apaiwong became one of its leading artists. She composed music for plays and movies, for the royal family, and for special national occasions.

Apaiwong devoted her life to music, playing weekly for nearly 22 years with a group of classical musicians to raise funds for various educational institutions. She was also awarded the Performing Arts award by the Board of National Culture in 1986, as well as five royal decorations for her contributions.

[9A]

Dec 4, 2019
Celebrating Lorentz National Park





Today’s Doodle celebrates the anniversary of Indonesia’s Lorentz National Park, the largest protected area in Southeast Asia. This massive nature sanctuary, spanning over 9,600 square miles [[about 24,864 square kilometers), is located in the Papua province, right at the intersection of two colliding continental plates.

The Lorentz National Park contains several ecosystems, including grasslands, swamps, ocean beaches, rainforests, and alpine mountains topped by rare tropical glaciers. Its most famous mountain, Puncak Jaya, is the tallest peak in Southeast Asia.

Renowned for biodiversity, its various climates are home to an abundance of animals, including tree kangaroos and tigers, many species of rare birds like the Pesquet’s parrot seen in today’s Doodle, and outliers like the echidna – a “spiny anteater” mammal that lays eggs. It’s also home to at least seven indigenous human ethnic groups, all living according to traditions dating back thousands of years.

Named after Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz, a Dutch explorer who visited the area in 1909, the park was established by the Indonesian government in 1997. While threatened by logging, poaching, and pollution, the Lorentz National Park is rigorously protected by the World Wildlife Federation and UNESCO, which has designated it a World Heritage Site. It’s an unofficial wonder of the world, containing many more wonders within.

[9A]

Nov 29, 2019
María Ylagan Orosa's 126th Birthday





Today’s Doodle honors Filipino food scientist, war hero, and humanitarian María Ylagan Orosa, credited with over 700 recipes—including the iconic local condiment banana ketchup—on what would have been her 126th birthday.

Born in the municipality of Taal within the Batangas province, Orosa went on to become an outstanding student, winning a partial government scholarship in 1916 to attend the University of Seattle. While living in a YMCA and working odd jobs, Orosa completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in pharmaceutical chemistry, as well as an additional degree in food chemistry.
Orosa was then offered a position as an assistant chemist for the State of Washington before returning to the Philippines in 1922 to focus on addressing the problem of malnutrition in her homeland.

Orosa’s knowledge of chemistry led to numerous culinary innovations. For instance, by fitting a traditional earthenware pot with two sheets of metal, she invented the Palayok Oven, providing remote villages lacking access to electricity with a more effective means of cooking over an open fire.

Although adobo and lumpia are synonymous with Filipino cuisine, Orosa’s banana ketchup is not far behind. Using mashed bananas as a base instead of tomatoes, she made the sauce a long-lasting hit.
Two other inventions made her a war hero: Soyalac [[a nutrient rich drink derived from soya beans) and Darak [[rice cookies packed with vitamin B-1, which could also prevent beriberi disease) saved countless lives during World War II.

In recognition of Orosa's contributions to Filipino society, the National Historical Institute installed a marker in her honor at the Bureau of Plant Industry in Manila in 1983.

[9A]

Jan 14, 2017
Chava Flores’s 97th Birthday





In 1946, after trying his hand at various different professions, Chava Flores, a musician and music lover, began work at a small printing press. That decision would lead him to create Álbum de Oro de la Canción, the magazine that would eventually secure Chava’s status as “The musical chronicler of Mexico City.”

Through the magazine, Chava met Mexico’s most influential songwriters and composers, inspiring his own vibrant musical style that he showcased over his long career as a composer. His repertoire was as singular as it was prolific, spanning more than 200 songs [[like ”Sábado Distrito Federal”). Chava’s talents expanded beyond the realm of music into other arts, landing him roles in films like Mi Influyente Mujer and Rebeldes sin Causa.

Today’s Doodle celebrates the legacy of Chava Flores, a prolific musician and actor who chronicled urban life in Mexico through his unique approach to songwriting.

[9A]

Jan 7, 2017
Sandford Fleming’s 190th Birthday





It was Ireland in 1876 when a mistake printed in a timetable caused Sandford Fleming to miss his train but alter time as we know it.

Historically, regions used solar time to set their own clocks. It worked well enough until trains came along and the need for standardized time arose, which brings us back to Fleming.

Following his missed train, Fleming—a Canadian inventor and engineer of Scottish birth—proposed a worldwide standard time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute on February, 8, 1879. He advocated for dividing the world into 24 time zones beginning at the Greenwich Meridian and spaced at 15 degree intervals. His proposal gave way to the International Prime Meridian Conference which convened in 1884 and was attended by 25 nations. It was here that Fleming’s system of international standard time was adopted.

Fleming was also known for helping build the Intercontinental Railway, serving as chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and designing Canada’s first postage stamp. Today’s Doodle reflects Fleming’s legacy on this, the 190th anniversary of his birth.

[9A]

October 22, 2018
Varvara Stepanova’s 124th Birthday





A poet, painter, photographer, and designer of books, magazines, posters, stage scenery, textiles and clothing, Stepanova defied societal norms of “women’s work” as she and other members of the Russian Constructivist movement subverted the notion of art as a rarified activity for elites and intellectuals.

Born in Kovno, Lithuania, on this day in 1894, Stepanova was raised in a peasant family before enrolling in the renowned Kazan art school in Odessa in 1910, a time of great creative and political upheaval in Russia.

In 1918, she published a series of books containing her “nonobjective visual poetry” whose words were chosen for sound and shape as much as meaning. By the 1920s she found herself at the forefront of the Russian avant-garde, co-founding the Constructivist movement along with her partner Aleksandr Rodchenko and such distinguished colleagues as Kasimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, and Lyubov Popova.

[9A]

May 11, 2011
Martha Graham's 117th Birthday




Martha Graham [[1894–1991) is known as one of the great creative minds of the 20th Century, often compared with such greats as Picasso, Einstein, and Stravinsky because she made such radical change through the power of her discoveries. In the 1920s and 30s she created a completely new style of dancing and revolutionized dance and theater worldwide. Many of Graham’s groundbreaking ideas are referenced in the five dancing figures of the Martha Graham Google Doodle.

[9A]

Mar 18, 2018
Isidro Baldenegro López’s 52nd Birthday





The forest is lush and dense. The mountains are jagged and snow-topped, depending on the time of year. The canyons are vast and deep. Sierra Tarahumara, also known as the Sierra Madre Occidental, is the land to which Isidro Baldenegro López dedicated his life.

Baldenegro, born in 1966 in the village of Coloradas de la Virgen in those same mountains, watched his father take a stand against illegal logging activities in their home region — a courageous position that cost his father his life. Young Isidro decided to carry on with defending what he believed to be the sacred hills for his community. He organized peaceful sit-ins and non-violent resistance in the face of illegal logging and organized crime. In 2003, he was arrested and jailed on false charges of arms and drug possession. Released after 15 months, Baldenegro went on to win the Goldman Prize in 2005 for his environmental activism.

[9A]

Mar 6, 2014
Elizabeth Browning's 208th Birthday





Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime.Elizabeth's volume Poems [[1844) brought her great success, attracting the admiration of the writer Robert Browning.Elizabeth's work had a major influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson.

[9A]

Feb 28, 2014
André Franquin's 57th Anniversary of Gaston Lagaffe



Gaston is a Belgian gag-a-day comic strip created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou. The series focuses on the everyday life of Gaston Lagaffe [[whose surname means "the blunder"), a lazy and accident-prone office junior who works at Spirou's office in Brussels. Gaston is very popular in large parts of Europe [[especially in Belgium and France) and has been translated into over a dozen languages, but except for a few pages by Fantagraphics in the early 1990s [[as Gomer Goof), there was no English translation until Cinebook began publishing English language editions of Gaston books [[again named 'Gomer Goof') in July, 2017.

[9A]

21 Dec 2018
Connie Mark’s 95th Birthday



Today’s Doodle honors the life and legacy of trailblazer Connie Mark, who served in the women’s branch of the British army in Jamaica during World War II. Later moving from her native Jamaica to England, she became a community activist, promoting Caribbean culture and ensuring that the women and people of color who contributed to the war effort received equal recognition.

Connie Mark was born Constance Winifred McDonald in Kingston, Jamaica on this day in 1923. While her family tree included ancestors from Scotland, Calcutta, and Lebanon, Mark also had roots in Africa and grew up speaking Jamaican Patois [[also known as Jamaican Creole) with roots in the Ghanaian language Twi.

At age 19, Mark was recruited to work in the British Military Hospital of Kingston as a medical secretary, typing reports of battle injuries. Although she was promoted twice during her service spanning a decade, Mark was denied the usual pay raise for unknown reasons. Due to this, she became an unwavering advocate for fair pay and continued advocating for proper recognition of Caribbean servicewomen throughout her life.

After settling in Britain in the 1950s, Mark became even more passionate about Caribbean culture and joined several charitable and educational projects. She organized community events, using oral history and poetry to instill pride in the youth of Caribbean and African descent.
At the age of 68, Mark received the British Empire Medal, and two years later was given a Member of the British Empire [[MBE) award in recognition of a lifetime of public service.

[9A]

20 January 2019
Manlee Kongprapad’s 136th Birthday





Dance has a rich history in Thailand, dating back more than 500 years. Over the centuries, royal courts have been important patrons of classical dance, one of the region’s most celebrated art forms, which incorporates theatrical elements to interpret epic tales of history and culture.

Today’s Doodle celebrates Thai dancer Manlee Kongprapad, born in Bangkok’s Yai District on this day in 1885, who fell in love with dance at an early age and overcame a humble upbringing to distinguish herself within royal circles as a renowned performer and later as a teacher.

Kongprapad was raised by a single mother who worked in a palace kitchen. Her mother’s job gave her the opportunity to watch royal dance performances, the young Kongprapad quickly became enchanted by the dancers’ ornate costumes and graceful movements. She was so captivated that she briefly ran away from her mother to practice the choreography. Receiving training from masters of the ancient art form, she became so proficient that she was recognized as a favorite of the court—even inventing some of her own moves that are still practiced to this day.

Kongprapad would eventually become a part of the first generation of teachers to provide formal dance training at Thailand’s first School of Drama and Musicology, which was founded in 1934 and later renamed the College of Dramatic Arts. In doing so, she helped preserve the rich cultural tradition that had changed her life, opening up similar opportunities for future generations of dancers.

[9A]

15 Jan 2019
Celebrating Sake Dean Mahomed






A man of many talents, Sake Dean Mahomed was an entrepreneur who made a name for himself by building cultural connections between India and England. On this day in 1794, he became the first Indian author to publish a book in English and later, to open an Indian restaurant in England—ushering in what would become one of Great Britain’s most popular cuisines. Mahomed went on to find success as the “The Shampooing Surgeon of Brighton,” opening a spa in the British seaside town that attracted the rich and royal.

In 1810, after moving to London, Mahomed opened the Hindostanee Coffee House, Britain’s first Indian restaurant. The Epicure’s Almanack—an early London restaurant guide—hailed it as a place for nobility to enjoy hookah and Indian dishes of the highest perfection. Nonetheless, Mahomed was forced to close his luxurious restaurant in 1812 and sought to reinvent himself.

Moving his family to the beachside town of Brighton, he opened a spa named Mahomed’s Baths offering luxurious herbal steam baths. His specialty was a combination of a steam bath and an Indian therapeutic massage—a treatment he named “shampooing” inspired by the Hindi word champissage meaning “a head massage.” He also published a book about the therapeutic benefits of the treatment with testimonials from his patients. In 1822, King George IV appointed Mahomed as his personal ‘shampooing surgeon’, which greatly improved his business. A portrait of Mahomed hangs in the Brighton Museum, commemorating this man who helped merge the cultures of his two homelands.

[9A]

18 Oct 2018
Laura Esther Rodríguez Dulanto’s 146th Birthday





Born in the Supe District of Lima on this day in 1872, Laura Esther Rodríguez-Dulanto was a physician who broke many barriers for women in Peru. Though she excelled in school from a very young age, her parents were frustrated that educational options were limited for women—no matter how gifted or motivated they might be.

There were no secondary schools for girls, much less universities or postgraduate programs. Nevertheless, Rodríguez-Dulanto’s parents persisted, appealing to local authorities until a special jury was appointed by the Ministry of Education to allow the gifted young student to advance her studies. With help from her older brother Abraham, who would teach her everything he learned after returning home from school, Rodríguez-Dulanto passed her high school exams. With a combination of intelligence, motivation, and a very supportive family, Laura Esther Rodríguez-Dulanto became the first Peruvian woman to attend college as well as the first female physician in the nation’s history.

Though it was a great achievement to begin her studies at the National University of San Marcos, 19-year-old Rodríguez-Dulanto still faced numerous obstacles. While the male students worked with human cadavers in anatomy class, she would have to sit behind a screen to conceal her presence. During her third year of medical school, she was allowed to perform dissections in a special room, accompanied by her brother who was also studying medicine. In September 1900, her hard work paid off when she earned her Bachelor of Medicine, taking her Hippocratic Oath a month later.

Rodríguez-Dulanto specialized in gynecology, publishing papers on ovarian cysts and uterine fibroids. She went on to co-found Peru’s first nursing school, teaching anatomy, physiology and hygiene, and paving the way for other women to pursue careers in medicine. Her legacy is honored with a bust in a public park in Lima, Peru, as well as a hospital in her home town of Supe, which is named after her.

[9A]

23 September 2018
Chuseok 2018





Today is the Korean holiday Chuseok, celebrating the fall harvest moon. It’s one of the most important holidays on the calendar, an official day off work for the Asian peninsula nation. The days before and after Chuseok are also festive, creating a three-day holiday.

Most Koreans use Chuseok to visit their hometowns and feast with their families, resulting in mass exoduses into the suburbs or country. Once there, families will honor their ancestors by weeding their grave sites, and preparing food for memorial services at home. The official food of Chuseok is songpyeon: rice cakes with subtle nutty flavors, steamed over pine needles. Songpyeon are historically made with that year’s new rice crop, utilizing the harvest. The rice cakes are part of the ancestral offering and the family’s feast.

As depicted in our Doodle, many Koreans celebrate Chuseok in multigenerational groups while wearing traditional hanboks, color-blocked suits and high-waisted dresses. Hanboks are worn during important ceremonies and holidays in Korea and what could be more important than spending a special day with family.

[9A]

20 Sept 2018
Josefa Llanes Escoda’s 120th Birthday





When Josefa Llanes Escoda was attending elementary school in Dingras, her hometown in the Philippines, she went to class despite an impending typhoon. “I'll not let the weather keep me away from school,” the determined young student told her mother. After graduating as valedictorian, she went on to join the Red Cross and win a scholarship to the United States, where she studied social work, earning a masters degree from Columbia University.

Born on this day in 1898, Escoda was the eldest of seven children and always showed a great interest in women’s issues. A strong advocate for female suffrage, she worked tirelessly to make sure voting rights were extended to all citizens. She founded the Boy's Town in Manila for underprivileged youth in 1937 and the Girl Scouts of the Philippines in 1940, changing the lives of young people in her native country for the better.

Escoda’s face appears on the 1000 peso bill and streets, buildings, and a monument have been dedicated in her honor. As a living legacy to her work, the Girl Scouts of the Philippines honor Escoda by celebrating her birthday each year with acts of service, carrying the example she set forward for generations to come.

[9A]

12 Sept 2018
Caio Fernando Abreu’s 70th Birthday





Born on this day in 1948 in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, Caio Fernando Abreu is one of his country’s most celebrated contemporary writers, whose work explored the LGBTQ+ experience and sensitive themes such as loneliness, alienation, and AIDS.

Abreu studied dramatic arts in college and worked as an editor and pop culture journalist before focusing on writing stories, novels, and plays. In 1975 he won honorable mention in a national fiction contest, but he is best known for his collection of stories Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso, which translates from Portuguese as “Dragons do not know the paradise.” First published in 1987, it was eventually translated into French and English and retitled simply ‘Dragons...’
I’ve got a dragon living with me.

No, it’s not true.
I haven’t really got a dragon. And even if I did have, he wouldn’t live with me.
These enigmatic and evocative lines from ‘Dragons…’ reflect the central theme of this work. In Abreu’s fiction “Dragons” represent individuals living at the margins of society—drag queens, gay teens, bisexual men, and a range of others —unknowable, lonely, powerful, untamable, invisible, and perceived by the mainstream as dangerous. Today’s Doodle pays tribute to Abreu’s courageous and compassionate spirit, and his insightful and emotionally charged body of work.

Like many Brazilian artists and writers at the time he ran afoul of the DOPS, the "Department for Political and Social Order," a government agency that maintained files on anyone considered a potential enemy of the state. His novel Onde Andara Dulce Veiga [[Whatever Happened to Dulce Veiga?) won the Best Novel award in 2000 from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics and he won won three Jabuti Prizes, Brazil’s most prestigious literary honor. Two of Abreu's short stories were adapted into films and plays, and his novel Onde Andará Dulce Veiga became a 2008 feature film, directed by his friend Guilherme de Almeida Prado.

[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]

11 November 2018
Miriam Tlali’s 85th Birthday



Born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg on this day in 1933, Miriam Tlali was raised in Sophiatown, a black cultural hub that was demolished by the South African government in the 1950s, forcing residents to relocate to Soweto. Tlali was inspired to write by her experiences as a black woman in South Africa during the apartheid regime. She was also encouraged by the example of her father’s family, who owned a printing press in Lesotho and published a newspaper for many years.

Tlali was a gifted student but struggled to afford her education. Finding work as a bookkeeper and typist in a furniture store, she drew on her experiences to write the novel Muriel at Metropolitan, published in 1975. Although she was unhappy with the title [[she intended her book to be called Between Two Worlds)and with the fact that her publisher deleted several chapters from her manuscript, the novel made history as Tlali became the first black South African woman to publish a novel.

Despite the fact that her first book was banned in South Africa, Tlali returned in 1980 with Amandla, which focused on a young activist named Pholoso, inspired by the example of Steve Biko to rally a youth movement against the racial divisions of the apartheid regime. Courageously speaking out against injustice made her a target of government-backed forces that harassed and arrested Tlali in an attempt to intimidate her. She would sometimes bury her manuscripts underground to avoid having them confiscated, but she never backed down.

Tlali helped establish Skotaville Press, which published her 1984 collection of stories and essays Mihotli. She was also co-founder of Staffrider, a black literary journal for which she wrote the column “Soweto Speaking.” Life in the black township was an ongoing interest for Tlali, who published a collection of short stories called Footprints in the Quag: Stories and Dialogues from Soweto in 1989, when she also worked as a visiting scholar at Yale University’s Southern African Research Program.
By the early 1990s apartheid legislation was repealed and South Africa had its first multiracial democratic elections in 1994. In 1995 Tlali was honoured by the South African government's Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology with a Literary Lifetime Achievement Award, and received the Order of Ikhamanga from the President of South Africa in 2008.

[9A]

10 Nov 2018
Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu’s 131st Birthday





“The future of women in engineering is great,” declared a 1912 edition of Romania’s daily newspaper Minerva, reporting the news that “Miss Elisa Leonida passed the last final exam with great success, obtaining a Diploma in Engineering.”

On this day in 1887, Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu was born in the Romanian port city of Galați. After graduating with high marks from the Central School of Girls in Bucharest, she earned a baccalaureate from Mihai Viteazul High School. But when she applied to the School of Highways and Bridges, she was rejected because of her gender.

Undeterred, she applied to the Royal Technical Academy in Berlin, where one of the deans said she would be better off focusing on “Kirche, kinder, and kuche” [[Church, children, and cooking). She persisted in earning her degree in three years to become one of the first woman engineer in Europe.
Becoming the first female member of A.G.I.R. [[General Association of Romanian Engineers), eventually running laboratories for the Geological Institute of Romania. Zamfirescu oversaw numerous Economic Studies analyzing Romania’s supply of natural resources like coal, shale, natural gas, chromium, bauxite and copper. She was known for paying special attention to the training of staff and spending long hours mentoring young chemists.

The mother of two daughters, she also taught physics and chemistry at the Pitar Moş School of Girls as well as at the School of Electricians and Mechanics in Bucharest. In 1993, her legacy was commemorated in Romania’s capital city by naming a street in her honor.

[9A]

1 Nov 2018
Joseph Burr Tyrrell’s 160th Birthday





Today’s Doodle celebrates Joseph Burr Tyrrell, an explorer, mapmaker, geologist, and miner whose discovery of a fossilized Albertosaurus sarcophagus skull set off Western Canada’s “great dinosaur rush.”

Born in Weston, Ontario on this day in 1858, Tyrrell contracted scarlet fever as a child, but he didn’t allow impaired hearing and eyesight to hold him back. Upon graduation from the University of Toronto, he was encouraged by his father to become a lawyer, but his doctor advised him to work outdoors for the sake of his health. Joining the Geological Survey of Canada, he embarked on his first expedition in 1883, charting a westward path through the Rockies for the Canadian Pacific railroad.

The following year the 26-year-old led his own expedition, mapping a vast area known as “the Badlands,” which was once an ancient ecosystem filled with giant reptiles. While searching for coal, Tyrrell discovered dinosaur bones in Red Deer Valley, stumbling upon the enormous skull and skeleton of a creature that turned out to be 70 million years old. After carefully excavating the fossils he shipped them back to Calgary. The weight of his discovery broke the axle of the wagon carrying it, but the fossils eventually made their way to paleontologists who called the creature Albertosaurus Sarcophagus, a newly discovered genus named for the new Canadian province of Alberta and related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Excitement over the Tyrrell’s discovery inspired many other paleontologists to explore Drumheller, where a museum named for Tyrrell opened in 1985, boasting one of the world’s leading collections of dinosaur fossils. However, Tyrrell never claimed to be a paleontologist, focusing instead on the coal deposits he found in Drumheller, which became an important energy resource for Canada.

"My idea of peace and comfort was a tent by a clear brook anywhere north of 50 degrees of North Latitude," wrote Tyrrell during one of his many adventures. "A ground-sheet and blankets enough, a side of salt pork and a bag of flour… For glory, I had the stars and the Northern Lights."

[9A]

31 Oct 2018
40th Anniversary of Titicaca National Reserve





Today’s Doodle honors the 40th anniversary of the La Reserva Nacional del Titicaca [[Titicaca National Reserve), which protects one of the rarest ecosystems on earth. Lake Titicaca is one of the planet’s few remaining ancient lakes, estimated to be 3 million years old. Situated in the Andes mountains some 3,810 meters above sea level, it holds the title for highest elevation of any major lake in the world and largest freshwater lake in South America.

Funded by the Peruvian state, the Titicaca National Reserve also supports the ancient civilization of the Uros people, who live on floating islands made from reeds, like the one seen in today’s Doodle. The Uros moved to these islands when the Incas expanded onto their land, and still live and fish there.

The National Reserve is also a living zoo of rare animals that require protection, including the Lake Titicaca frog, whose baggy skin enables it breathe under the surface of the lake. In the national reserve there’s also the Ballivian Sponge, which has been living there for 7,000 years; 60 species of birds; and mammals including the wild guinea pig, the vizcacha [[a chinchilla-like rodent), and Andean wolves, llamas, alpacas, skunks, and foxes.

This truly amazing place is unlike any other on Earth, rich in biodiversity and culture — and the reserve is invaluable to its continued survival.

[9A]

28 Oct 2018
39th Anniversary of the MassKara Festival




Today’s Doodle marks the 39th anniversary of the MassKara festival in the Philippines, a popular celebration known for its vibrant masks, feathers, costumes [[like the one’s seen in Today’s Doodle) and dancing on the streets.

While the festival is at its peak on this particular day, it is a month-long celebration that includes, in addition to street dancing and singing, contests for pig-chasing, pole-climbing, and fireworks shows.

MassKara [[Spanish-derived portmanteau of “a mass of people” and “face”) was started as a city government’s effort to uplift the city of Bacolod, located on the island of Negros. At the time, the prominent sugar industry was suffering and an economic depression had set in. The celebratory festival was intended to bring back joy and laughter in the lives of the people. It was not just embraced but has since become an integral part of the culture and a tourists delight,

[9A]

25 Oct 2018
Tyrus Wong’s 108th Birthday



https://www.google.com/doodles/tyrus...108th-birthday [[animated)

Along the beach in Santa Monica, California, on the fourth Saturday of every month, an elderly gentleman could be found flying kites with his wife and three daughters. The panda bears, butterflies, and centipedes floating in the breeze were of his own design.

Today’s Doodle honors the life and legacy of Tyrus Wong [[born Wong Gen Yeo) the Chinese-American artist responsible for some of the best-known images in American popular culture. Drawing inspiration from Chinese artists of the Song Dynasty, Wong applied his unique vision to paintings, prints, and even the Walt Disney film Bambi.

Born on this day in 1910 in a village in southern China’s Guangdong Province, ten-year-old Wong and his father traveled to America seeking a better life. After living a short time in Sacramento, they eventually settled in Los Angeles.

Although Wong’s father recognized his love of art from an early age, he could only afford for Wong to practice calligraphy using water and newspapers as well as study Chinese art at the Los Angeles Central Library. There, he was introduced to his favorite paintings, the spare landscape paintings of the Song Dynasty [[960–1279 AD). In junior high school, Wong earned a scholarship to the Otis Art institute, supporting himself as a waiter in Chinatown. He and fellow artists like Benji Okubo and Hideo Date formed the Oriental Artists’ Group of Los Angeles, organizing shows of their work. In 1932, Wong’s work was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago along with works by Picasso, Matisse, and Paul Klee.

In 1938, Wong was hired by Walt Disney Studios as an "inbetweener" intern [[illustrators who create the sketches between key animator sketches, forming the movement of a character or object), drawing thousands of illustrations that were photographed to make animated films. His most notable work was on the Disney film Bambi, where he served as a lead illustrator, profoundly influencing the art of the beloved classic. Unfortunately, when Bambi hit theaters in 1942, Wong was only credited as one of many “background artists,” leading his major contributions to go unrecognized for years.
Wong went on to work for Warner Brothers, drawing and painting storyboards that shaped the look of other landmark Hollywood films like The Wild Bunch, Sands of Iwo Jima, and Rebel Without A Cause—all of which earned Academy Award nominations.

The artist’s contributions to Hollywood went largely unrecognized until 2001, when he was named a “Disney Legend.” Twelve years later, the Walt Disney Family Museum also staged a career retrospective “Water to Paper, Paint to Sky.”

[9A]

1 Oct 2018
Mary Prince’s 230th Birthday




On this day in 1788, Mary Prince was born in Brackish Pond, Bermuda. Sold from master to master throughout her life, Prince ended up on the island of Antigua in 1815 where she joined the Moravian church in 1817 and learned to read. Despite not having received a formal education, Prince went on to be recognized as a National Hero of Bermuda for her work to abolish slavery.

In December 1826 Prince married Daniel James, a former slave who had managed to buy his freedom. Her master at the time punished her for marrying a free black man with permission and in two years time the husband and wife were separated because Prince’s family moved to England taking her with them.

After the passage of Great Britain’s Slave Trade Act in 1807, slavery was no longer allowed in England, although the institution of slavery continued in the British colonies. Prince was legally free on British soil, but she had no means to support herself. Under the prevailing rules of the time, if she tried to return home to her husband, she would risk being enslaved again.

In 1829 Prince became the first woman to present a petition to Parliament, arguing for her human right to freedom. That same year some of her associates in the anti-slavery “abolitionist” movement introduced a bill proposing that any West Indian slave brought to England by his or her owners must be freed. It did not pass, but momentum was beginning to shift in favor of the abolitionist cause.
Two years later Prince published her autobiography, making her the first black woman to publish a slave narrative in England. Her book played a decisive role in turning British public opinion against the centuries-old institution of human enslavement.

“I have been a slave myself,” Prince wrote in The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave. “I know what slaves feel—I can tell by myself what other slaves feel, and by what they have told me. The man that says slaves be quite happy in slavery—that they don't want to be free—that man is either ignorant or a lying person. I never heard a slave say so.”

Published in 1831, the book caused a sensation, going through three printings in the first year alone. In one of the book’s many heartbreaking passages, Prince recalled being sold “like sheep or cattle” on the same day as her younger sisters Hannah and Dina were sold to different masters. “When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and mourned over us, begging of us to keep up a good heart, and do our duty to our new masters. It was a sad parting; one went one way, one another, and our poor mammy went home with nothing.”

Two lawsuits for libel were filed against the book’s publisher in 1833, and Mary Prince testified at both, effectively rebuking any claims that the book was inaccurate or defamatory. After that there is no record of her movements—she may have stayed in England or returned home to her husband in Bermuda.

On August 1, 1838, some 800,000 slaves living in British colonies throughout the Caribbean were finally set free, following the passage of Great Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act, which was passed by Parliament two years after the publication of Mary Prince’s book.

[9A]

1 Oct 2018
Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy's 100th Birthday



Known as Dr. V to colleagues and patients, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, founded the Aravind Eye Hospital, which started as an 11-bed facility and has grown into a network of clinics providing life-changing care to citizens of a nation struggling with high rates of blindness. Born on this day in 1918, Govindappa Venkataswamy was raised in Vadamalapuram, a rural village in Southern India. He began his education at a school with no paper or pencils—spreading sand from the riverbank on the ground, students would write with their hands. From such humble beginnings he went on to earn a B.A. in chemistry from American College in Madurai, an M.D. from Stanley Medical College in Madras in 1944.

Joining the Indian Army Medical Corps straight out of medical school, Dr. V’s plans for a career in obstetrics were derailed when he was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis so severe that he was confined to his bed for a year. Simple acts like walking or holding a pen became a serious challenge, but somehow he managed to return to school and study for a degree in ophthalmology in 1951. Despite his health issues, he learned how to perform surgery to remove cataracts—the leading cause of blindness. Dr. V could perform 100 surgeries in a day. Addressing the problem of blindness in a holistic fashion, he set up eye camps in rural communities, a rehab center for blind people, and a training program for ophthalmic assistants, personally performing over 100,000 successful eye surgeries. In 1973 he received the Padmashree award from the Government of India for outstanding service to the nation.

Facing mandatory retirement at age 58, Dr. V began the next phase of his career in 1976, establishing the GOVEL Trust in order to fund the first Aravind Eye Hospital. The 11-bed facility was financed by doctors mortgaging their homes and donating their own furniture. The vision was to devote six beds to those patients who could not pay anything and to cover those costs with the other five beds, serving patients paying only as much as they could afford.

Today Aravind Eye Hospital has nearly 4,000 beds performing over 400,000 eye surgeries each year, with 70% of patients paying little or nothing. This seemingly miraculous result has been made possible by a relentless focus on efficiency and good management. Dr. V lowered the cost of cataract operations to nearly $10 per patient. His team of paramedicals do most of the prep work required for each surgery, freeing doctors to do what they do best. Each year Aravind performs 60% as many eye surgeries as the NHS in Great Britain, doing so at one-one thousandth of the cost.

As Dr V said, “Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must also be the joy of doing something beautiful.”

[9A]

27 Sept 2018
Google's 20th Birthday [[US)

[[THIS IS GREAT!! Must watch video. 9A)



https://www.google.com/doodles/googles-20th-birthday-us [[animated)

Twenty [[ish ) years ago, two Stanford Ph.D. students launched a new search engine with a bold mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Though much has changed in the intervening years—including now offering Search in more than 150 languages and over 190 countries—Google is still dedicated to building products for everyone.
Today’s video Doodle takes a stroll down memory lane by exploring popular searches all over the world throughout the last two decades.

So whether you’ve searched for the status of your favorite object orbiting the sun, the latest on the world’s biggest events, or how to impress on the dance floor:

[9A]

31 Aug 2018
85th Anniversary of the Biskupin Settlement Discovery





Leading a group of students across some marshy fields 90 kilometers northeast of Poznan, Poland, school teacher Walenty Szwajcer noticed some fragments of pottery and wooden poles. The water levels had gone down that summer. At first he believed them to be the roofs of sunken houses, but what he discovered 85 years ago today was actually a window into a lost world.

The oak and fir poles were part of a fortified settlement dating from the Iron Age, around 780 B.C. Its builders had lived on the Biskupin peninsula raising sheep, goats, pigs, cattle and tarpan horses. The site was so well-preserved that Biskupin would soon be nicknamed “the Polish Pompeii.” The teacher would received numerous accolades from the Polish government for his extraordinary discovery, which is celebrated in today’s Doodle.

Eminent archaeologist Józef Kostrzewski, who began the excavation of Biskupin in 1933, uncovered streets, more than 100 houses, a breakwater and the palisades that protected the settlement. The sophistication of the settlement’s architecture transformed our understanding of the Iron Age, winning Biskupin a place in scholarly articles and textbooks, even today.

In later excavations, teams of conservationists meticulously recovered more than 5 million artifacts dating from the Paleolithic Age to the Middle Ages. Objects made of bronze, stone, and iron provide crucial insights into the lives of the people who lived there centuries ago. Biskupin remains one of the most important historic sites in Europe, demonstrating the accomplishments of early Lusatian culture.

A museum there welcomes more than 150,000 visitors a year, many of whom first learned of Biskupin in classrooms and an annual festival keeps the history of this ancient settlement alive.

[9A]

30 Aug 2018
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky’s 155th Birthday




https://www.google.com/doodles/serge...155th-birthday [[interactive)

In today’s smartphone era, many people carry the equipment needed to create a color photograph in their pockets. But at the start of the 20th century, photography was a much more complicated process. Between 1909 and 1915 Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky traveled through Russia in a railroad car specially equipped with a mobile darkroom to document Russian life using a technique he called ”optical color projection.”

Born in Murom, Vladimir Province, Russia, on this day in 1863, Prokudin-Gorsky was a chemist who became interested in photography. He traveled to Germany to study with Adolf Miethe, a pioneer of the color separation method, and soon developed his own formulation for photographic emulsion so he could create life-like photos in natural colors. His portrait of the great Russian author Leo Tolstoy was widely reproduced, bringing Prokudin-Gorsky a measure of fame. As a result, Tsar Nicholas II agreed to sponsor his ambitious project.

Prokudin-Gorsky’s images of people, landscapes, architecture, historic sites, industry, and agriculture were created by exposing three glass plates through three different color filters—green, red and blue—and then combining them to create a composite color image-a technique displayed in today’s animated Doodle. He captured thousands of images that offer a rare glimpse of Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution and First World War.

Prokudin-Gorsky planned to use the resulting photos to educate Russian school children about their vast country. Today,his body of work is preserved on thousands of glass plates, which are prized by historians and scholars.

[9A]

18 Aug 2018
2018 Asian Games




Today’s Doodle celebrates the start of the 18th Asian Games, also known as Asiad. Organized by the Olympic Council of Asia and held every four years, the Asian Games are the second largest multi-sport event in the world, behind only the Olympic Games. This year’s host country is Indonesia, with events happening in the country’s oldest city, Palembang, and the capital city of Jakarta.

Athletes from six Asian countries competed at the first Far Eastern Championship Games in 1913 in Manila. Although these games were discontinued in 1938, there was widespread support for a competition promoting the Olympic ideals of a peaceful society and the “harmonious development of humankind.”

This year, athletes from 45 countries will compete in 55 events. Swimming and track and field always attract a big audience at the Asian Games, and there are many other sports represented too, ranging from football, fencing, weight lifting, and martial arts, to jet skiing and the card game bridge.

This year also marks the debut of another genre of non-physical events: esports, or competitive video games. Esports will be considered a “demonstration” category this year, so no official medals will be given, but they plan to do so at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

[9A]

14 Aug 2018
27th Anniversary of Bunaken National Park




The Indonesian government set aside five islands and surrounding waters in 1991, providing protection to the 58 different types of coral and more than 90 species of fish located in Bunaken National Park. Located to the north of the island of Sulawesi, Bunaken National Park is a place where Hawksbill turtles forage on reefs amid colorful schools of damselfish, clownfish, angelfish, and a dazzling array of marine dwellers.

Spectacular sea creatures are not the only inhabitants of the 280-square-mile marine park, located in the northern part of Sulawesi province. There are some 20,000 human beings, most of whom rely on fishing for at least part of their daily nutrition. Groupers, snappers, and napoleon wrasse feed along the vast coral walls that contain an impressive amount of biodiversity—nearly 70% percent of the marine species found in this part of the world.

Although illegal fishing still occurs, and coral is vulnerable to climate change, the Indonesian government applied for the park to be listed as one of UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, which provides additional protections. Indonesian schools educate students about the fragility of the ecosystem they live within, ensuring that future generations learn how to safeguard this national treasure.

[9A]

1 Jul 2018
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's 372nd Birthday




Today’s Doodle celebrates the birthday of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, one of the most notable inventors and mathematicians of his time. Born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1646, Leibniz was raised in an academic family. It was not long before his thirst for innovation led him to develop mathematical tools that are the foundation for the ones used to this day.

Leibniz earned a master’s degree in philosophy at young age of 17, and a law degree at 20. In 1673, he invented the first mechanical calculator, called the “Step Reckoner,” which could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It is also said that Leibniz invented calculus independently of Sir Isaac Newton while studying in Paris in the 1670s - a point which is still heavily contended.

Leibniz was also inspired by works in different genres throughout time, including ancient philosophers of Greece and China. He wrote about the “monad,” a metaphysical idea of essential particles that was opposed to atoms. Leibniz believed all existence was made up of essential particles that were both biological and spiritual, impossible to be disentangled.

While Leibniz’s early calculator did not use the binary system, he invented that, too, in 1679. His concept of breaking information down to 0s and 1s, detailed in his 1703-published Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire [[Explanation of Binary Arithmetic), is the basis of all computer programming. Today’s Doodle nods to this by spelling “Google” in binary.

[9A]

14 March 2018
30th Anniversary of Pi Day!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2q_uOagB5M

Happy Pi Day!

Celebrated each year on March 14th [[3.14), Pi Day is dedicated to the mathematical constant, Pi. First recognized 30 years ago in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw, Pi Day observers often celebrate with a slice of their favorite pie in honor of the number’s delicious sounding name.

Notated by the Greek letter “π”, pi represents the ratio between a circle’s circumference [[perimeter) to its diameter [[distance from side to side passing through the center), and is a fundamental element of many mathematical fields, most significantly Geometry. Though modern mathematicians have calculated more than one TRILLION decimal places beyond the standard “3.14,” pi is an irrational number that continues on to infinity! It’s an important ingredient in the formula for the area of a circle, A=πr².

Today’s delectable Doodle - baked & built by award-winning pastry chef and creator of the Cronut® Dominique Ansel - pays homage to this well-rounded mathematical constant by representing the pi formula [[circumference divided by diameter) using — what else — pie!

[Jerry Oz]

These are great, Nina. I'd add but I'm afraid anything I posted has already been dropped in the thread. I could imagine a history or English teacher giving kids an assignment to take the doodles from a particular week and with the information about the person/place/thing honored, to write a paper about it. So much interesting history about so many different subjects and the descriptions/synopses barely touch on them.

Thanks for posting. If SDF had a "like" function, you'd probably have 7 pages of them from me and a few others.

[9A]

Wow, thanks Jerry. I am having so much fun searching for these. First I wanted them all to be music related, but eventually strayed into all sorts of topics. Occasionally I had to get info from Wikipedia to supplement -- especially with the older doodles. My big fear is that I will repeat a doodle. Some of them just tickle me. Either the graphics were great or the topic is amusing -- like the dogs in the Russian space program. I remember them. I also appreciate the very colorful ones.

I am waiting for certain holidays that are coming up and saving doodles to honor them.
There are even some for "respect the elderly."

Ralph is amused by the rising count of "views." I tell him there are probably three people doing all the viewing.

I still can't figure out some of the games, but I'll defer to techies like you. Jump in to comment or supplement anytime.

I'm also enjoying "Word Association." Sometimes it gets pretty funny and challenging.

[9A]

24 Sept 2018
Celebrating Altamira Cave





Charging bisons, wild horses, and mysterious handprints—primeval evidence of humanity’s creative genius, miraculously well preserved after some 36,000 years. Today’s Doodle celebrates the 139th anniversary of the first discovery of cave paintings at the Altamira caves in Cantabria, northern Spain—a masterpiece of the prehistoric era.

Nicknamed “the Sistine Chapel of paleolithic art,” Altamira was discovered in 1879 by the amateur botanist and archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola who first noticed animal bones and flint tools there. He returned his daughter Maria, who first noticed the red and black paintings covering its walls and ceiling, rendered in charcoal and hematite, depicting animals including European bison and bulls.

Early claims of the caves’ paleolithic origin were mostly dismissed as fake. Some argued that the art, which includes abstract shapes as well as depictions of wildlife, was too sophisticated for the time.

Then in 1902 a French study of Altamira proved these paintings were in fact paleolithic, dating to between 14,000 and 20,000 years ago. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Altamira caves are open for public visitation.

[9A]

10 December 2017
Celebrating Grazia Deledda





When Grazia Deledda submitted a short story to a fashion magazine at the age of 13, she could not have known she was setting the stage for a decades-long career and a Nobel Prize. Today’s Doodle celebrates her accomplishments as one of Italy’s great authors.

Deledda was born in 1871 in the village of Nuoro on the island of Sardinia, which is off the western coast of Italy. Her family and surroundings were instrumental in shaping her future as a writer. Her father was a sociable man with many friends in the surrounding towns, and his visitors became the basis for many of the characters in her novels. She was also inspired by her island home, often using Sardinia’s landscape as a metaphor for the challenges her characters faced.

As a female writer in the late 19th century, Deledda faced her own challenges as well. Her formal education ended at age 11, and she relied on private lessons and self-study in order to further her craft. Her work — which often touched on themes like temptation and sin — was often criticized by those in her traditional hometown, despite the inspiration she drew from the region.

These obstacles didn’t sway her though, and Deledda continued to produce many highly praised works. In 1926, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, making her the first Italian woman and the fourth woman ever to receive a Nobel Prize.

[9A]

24 Nov 2017
Celebrating Mensch ärgere dich nicht




Mensch ärgere dich nicht, or “Do not get angry,” is a game whose very title tackles the ire that board games can provoke. The premise is simple: the first player to move all of their pieces to the other side of the board wins. But don’t trust the dice — they’ll inevitably force soon-to-be winners back to square one.

The game was invented between 1907 and 1908 by Josef Friedrich Schmidt. Born on this day in 1871, Schmidt was a Munich resident who worked in the city. Inspiration struck when he decided to create an engaging pastime for his three young children. He devised a game similar to others across the globe, including the Indian game Pachisi and the English game Ludo. Today's Doodle, featuring game piece characters made of clay playing the game, was created by stop-motion animator Max Mörtl, with assistance from 2D animator Robert Loebel.

The timelessness of this game is a huge part of what lends it its status as one of the most beloved forms of entertainment in Germany. If today’s Doodle inspires you to give Mensch ärgere dich nicht a shot and your opponent snatches away your victory at the eleventh hour, don’t get angry with us!