Robert Noyce's 84th Birthday
Google Doodles
Diego Rivera’s 125th Birthday
Diego Rivera's 125th Birthday
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the renowned Mexican painter Diego Rivera’s 125th birthday. The doodle is a colorful yet almost real depiction of a mural, representing a piece of Mexico.
Born into a wealthy family in Guanajuato in 1886, he belonged to a family of Spanish nobles. At a young age of 10, Rivera studied art at the Academy of San Carlos, Mexico City. He continued to study in Europe. Following his arrival in Europe, he studied in Spain and Paris, and worked with several artists in Montparnasse.
The Mexican and the Russian Revolutions played a vital role in influencing his art and communism. He used his art as a medium to show the world, the lives of the working-class people of Mexico. He was famous for his works in frescos and is believed to have played a pivotal role in establishing the Mexico Mural Movement. This paved way for him to create a series of murals in public buildings. Though controversial, several of his murals found a place in the US. One of his famous murals, featuring Vladimir Lenin was destroyed.
He was married to famous artist Frida Kahlo in 1929. The couple divorced in 1939 and remarried a few years later.
Finland’s Independence Day 2011
Finland's Independence Day
Today’s Google Doodle is dedicated to the 94th Finland’s Independence Day 2011 celebrations. This, being the first time Google has a Doodle dedicated to the Finnish Republic, the logo, painstakingly designed by Sophia Foster-Dimino, will be exclusively visible only to Finland Web browsers.
The quest for the Finnish Independence began in early 1240 AD against the Swedish regime and continued till 1917, when the Russian regime was finally thwarted on December 6th, 1917 from the last Russian Czar. No country in the history of the world has ever had to fight two foreign foes, emerge successful and grow up to be one of the finest democracies in the world.
The Doodle perfectly symbolizes the culture and diversity of Finland by creating a chic collage of the lakes, the scenic landscapes and the ducks against the backdrop of the Finnish flag fluttering high. This is in itself, a perfect testimony to the pristine, peace-loving yet competitive country. The Doodle sure captures the Finnish essence extremely well, but the absence of Santa Claus is rued, considering it is Christmas time! Anyways, more power to you, Google!
Thailand’s National Day 2011
Thailand's National Day 2011
As the Thai Consul General Chalee Sakolvari started off the nation wide celebrations of Thailand’s National Day on the fifth of December at the Park Hyatt, Google gave cause for more celebration as they designed a doodle in honor of the grand occasion.
Widely heralded as the ‘Land of White Elephants’, Thailand is recently experiencing a rapid spurt in growth of their economy with its vast array of tourist attractions pulling in large platoons of foreigners. Thailand is a land of varied cultures with the majority being Thai and a sprinkling of Chinese and Malay. The people of Thailand celebrate their National Day on the day, the much loved, respected and revered monarch of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej celebrates his birthday. The King, who is celebrating his 84th birthday and is into the 60th year of his reign, is the world’s longest-serving current head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history.
Google have created a doodle along the lines of the national flag of Thailand. The letters in ‘Google’ are stenciled with the colors as they appear in the national flag with strips of red and blue encasing the white strip in the middle. This year’s Thai National Day doodle follows in the footsteps of the previous year’s doodle that had the second ‘g’ taking the geographic outline of the country.
Nino Rota’s 100th Birthday
Nino Rota’s 100th Birthday
Today’s Google Doodle is dedicated to the renowned Italian composer, Nino Rota’s 100th birthday. The doodle is neither interactive not animated. It however, depicts a smiling and peaceful Nino Rota, clad in a suit, playing the piano with a single spotlight on him.
Born in a musical family in Milan on December 3, 1911, Nino Rota wrote his first composition when he was a 11-year old. He has studied composition under well-known composers like Giacomo Orefice, Ildebrando Pizzetti and Alfredo Casella. He graduated from the Santa Cecilia Academy, Rome in 1930. Following his graduation, Rota moved to the United States, and lived there till 1932. This experience coupled with his natural genius led him to become a professional composer. He then returned to Italy and graduated in literature and pursued a teaching career, which also paved way for the maestro to become the director of the Liceo Musicale, Bari for almost 3 decades.
Nino Rota has provided film scores for Italian directors Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. His famous compositions include Godfather, Death on the Nile and Amarcord. He won an Academy Award for the Best Original Score in 1974 for Godfather.
UAE’s 40th national day. “My UAE” Doodle 4 Google Winner.
The Winner of the UAE National day Doodle4Google contest : Andrew Osama
Today’s Google Doodle is titled “My UAE” and was the winner of many entries in Google’s Doodle 4 Google contest for the UAE’s 40th Independence Day. Each year Google invites primary and secondary school students from several countries to create original Doodles for their nation; previous winners of the contest include Bo Zhang for China, Amelia Abbott for New Zealand, Janelle San Juan for Australia, and Mai Dao Ngoc for Germany.
The United Arab Emirates, or UAE, gained their independence from Great Britain in 1971. The government of the UAE is made up of seven monarchical rulers, or emirs, who choose one of the monarchs to be the president of the federation of emirates; the constitution of the UAE provides for the union between these seven monarchs, but does not change the power of the monarchs over their individual territories.
Being in control of the sixth-largest oil reserve in the world, the UAE is fairly high on the Human Development Index, and is classified as a high-income developing economy by the IMF. This is evidenced in the high wealth rate of the capital, Abu Dhabi, and of the UAE’s largest city, Dubai. The nation has an open economy and one of the highest GDPs and per-capita income levels in the world.
Perhaps as a result of the strong economy in the UAE, education and health care in the country are extremely high in quality. In 1989, only 53.5% of the population was literate; due to government programs and increased emphasis on educational standards, that number jumped to an estimated 98.8% in 2009. In addition, the UAE is ranked fourth in the world for health care by the World Health Organization and has some of the highest healthcare standards in the Middle East, thus attracting many “medical tourists” who come to the UAE for specialized operations.
The Google Doodle today was designed by an Emirati student and is being displayed in the UAE for twenty-four hours in celebration of the UAE’s 40th national Independence Day (December 2, 2011.)
Next Doodle
December 25: Christmas Holiday Series 2011
January 1: Happy New Year 2012
2012: "My Future Australia" Doodle