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Summer Solstice 2017 (Southern Hemisphere)



Today, the sun “stands still” — it’s the Summer Solstice! The sun will travel its longest path across the sky, granting people who live in the southern hemisphere with more than 12 hours of daylight. This occurs when the South Pole is most inclined (about 23.4°) toward the sun.

Today’s Doodle celebrates the Solstice, which marks the end of spring and the start of summer. On the day with the shortest noontime shadow, everyone gets the chance to soak up the extra rays of sunlight.

Happy summer!

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Winter Solstice 2017 (Northern Hemisphere)



As 2017 slowly winds to a close, you may have noticed the sun beginning to set earlier and earlier, and you’re right! As the seasons begin to change, so too does the earth’s allocation of daylight.

December 21st marks the 2017 winter solstice, as well as the first day of winter on the astronomical calendar. On this day, the tilt of the earth’s North Pole is at its farthest from the sun, resulting in the shortest day and the longest night of the calendar year.

Though most refer to the solstice as an entire day, in reality, the solstice is defined as a single moment: when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn. This year, that moment will occur at 16:28 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). After this point in time, periods of daylight will once again begin to grow longer.

Happy winter!

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Mohammed Rafi’s 93th Birthday



In the early 1930’s, a little boy named Pheeko would wait for a traveling fakir to stop by his home village of Kotla Sultan Singh and follow him on his rounds, imitating his chants as they went along. Later, living in the cultural and film hub of Lahore, Pheeko hummed songs during work at a relative’s barber shop. Customers noticed his talent – as did his brother, who arranged for Pheeko to train under Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan in the face of immense opposition from their father.

Pheeko grew up to be Mohammed Rafi, the king of playback singing in India. Pheeko has nearly five thousand songs to his credit across a range of genres (including romantic ballads, rock and roll, and classical music) and languages (including Hindi, English, Arabic, Persian, Sinhalese, Creole, and Dutch).

The dreamy romance of ‘Chaudhvi ka Chand’ won Rafi his first Filmfare award in 1960, to be followed by five more. In 1977 he was awarded the National Award for ‘Kya Hua Tera Wada.’ He was feted by the Indian government with the Padma Shri in 1967.

Today’s Doodle by Mumbai-based illustrator Sajid Shaikh depicts Rafi as the king of playback singing in Bollywood. It shows the journeys of famous Rafi songs as they progressed from the studio, onto the silver screen and into the hearts of fans forever.

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Marlene Dietrich’s 116th birthday



Born Maria Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin on this day in 1901, Marlene Dietrich lit up the silver screen during Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Dietrich rocketed to international fame from the moment she appeared in her breakout role as cabaret singer Lola-Lola in Germany’s first talking picture, Der Blaue Engel (1930) and its English version, The Blue Angel. The actress crossed the Atlantic soon after its premiere, continuing to work with Blue Angel director Josef von Sternberg in a string of memorable Hollywood films, including Morocco, Shanghai Express, and The Devil Is a Woman.

But Dietrich was more than a femme fatale with an unforgettable voice. Ever the risk-taker, she turned pat notions about femininity upside down, donning a tuxedo and top hat in her part as a sultry nightclub dancer in Morocco, and wearing men’s silk suits offscreen. A U.S. citizen as of 1939, she captivated World War II troops as a USO entertainer and was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom and French Légion d'Honneur for her wartime work.

Dietrich’s Doodle was illustrated by artist Sasha Steinberg who captured her mid-performance, suited up in her gender-bending tux and top hat. Steinberg, who is also a drag performer under the name Sasha Velour and winner of RuPaul's Drag Race (Season 9), counts Dietrich as a major influence in creating their drag alter ego.

“She was a wild original!” says Velour. “Despite the pressures of the time, she followed her own course, especially in terms of politics and gender. As a drag queen, that's particularly inspiring to me. Plus, she just had this power to her...in every role she's mysterious and strong, brilliant. That's what I aspire to be when I step on the stage.”

Happy 116th birthday, Marlene!

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Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa’s 113th Birthday

Munjane Manjinolu

Pasuralli nadevaaga

Anjisuva Sanjeyolu

Usirannu yelevaaga

Yele poove aalisuve

Naa ninna geeteyanu

Yele poove solisuve

Naa ninna preetiyanu!

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Amidst the early morning dew

Walking across the greenery

And in the evening that is scary

While taking a breath,

Oh flower, I listen to your song

Oh flower, I defeat your love!

Today we celebrate the life and literature of Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa, a renowned 20th century Indian poet and author. Known more famously by his pen name Kuvempu, he is considered one of the greatest Kannada writers of his time. The Kannada language is spoken mainly in Kuvempu’s home state of Karnataka, and he strongly advocated for it to be the main medium of education.

Kuvempu’s poem featured above is ‘Poovu’ (The Flower), rhapsodizing on the beauty of the poet’s natural surroundings. Kuvempu loved his writing to reflect the simple wonder of the world around him, especially flowers. To celebrate Kuvempu’s life and work, today’s Doodle by illustrator Upamanyu Bhattacharyya (and Swati Shelar, who helped with the Kannada lettering) shows Kuvempu surrounded by nature in his beloved home.

Happy birthday, Kuvempu!

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Etab's 70th Birthday



A Saudi Arabian musical pioneer, Tarfa Abdel-Kheir Adam was one of the first female singers from the Gulf to perform publicly. Her talent, first discovered when she was 13 years old, spread worldwid—and she became known by the stage name “Etab”.

Etab's strong personality helped kick-start her career in the 1960s, later launching her to international pop stardom. With more than 15 albums to her name, Etab mixed traditional and contemporary Arab songs to create a style of her own, collaborating with top poets and singers from around the region. She used her distinctive, husky voice not just for singing, but also for advocating for female equality within her field. Etab was a prominent member of the Union of Arab Artists and the Egyptian Music Syndicate.

Today’s Doodle celebrates the cultural legacy of Etab, who would've been 70 years old today.

Happy Birthday, Etab!

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Emma Ihrer’s 161st Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates the 161st birthday of Emma Ihrer - feminist, trade union leader, and a principal founder of Germany’s proletarian women’s movement in the late 1800s.

Born Emma Rother in 1857, she moved to Berlin after marriage. There, she found work as a milliner, which gave her close contact with the realities faced by working women at the time. Moved by their plight, Ihrer took to the pen and became a prolific writer, authoring several papers and journals on the need for, and ways in which women could achieve full equality.

Ihrer’s works also questioned some of the most fundamental societal assumptions of her time, such as why women valued housework or childbearing so highly when both were considered inferior occupations by men. She also critiqued “studies” that correlated the size of a person’s brain to their intelligence (supposedly “proving” that women were inferior). She famously stated that if that were the case, then whales could be sent to university instead.

Ihrer founded and chaired societies and trade unions, at the expense of frequent clashes with the government that landed her in in court on more than one occasion. But her hard-fought battles brought women’s rights to the forefront of political discussions in the early twentieth century and led to several legislative victories.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag and Danke, Emma Ihrer!

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Fearless Nadia’s 110th Birthday



Born Mary Ann Evans on this day in 1908 in Perth, Australia, the blue-eyed blonde actress “Fearless Nadia” earned her nickname as the original Bollywood stuntwoman in the 1930s and 1940s.

After learning the ropes of outdoor living in Peshawar, she first joined a touring dance troupe in Bombay, then the Zarco Circus. After changing her name to Nadia on the advice of a fortune teller, she was cast in cameos before striking upon the winning film formula: Fearless Nadia, action heroine.

In her first lead role, JBH Wadia’s 1935 film Hunterwali (The Lady of the Whip), Fearless Nadia blazed onto the screen in leather shorts, a mask, and cape, performing all of her own stunts. Over the years, she swung from chandeliers, sprang from speeding trains, and even tamed lions. After leaving the cameras behind in the early 60’s, Riyad Wadia’s 1993 documentary Fearless: The Hunterwali Story brought the passionate trailblazer back to the limelight once again.

Gutsy stunt star Fearless Nadia is ready to rumble in today’s Doodle, which was created by Bangalore-based comic illustrator Devaki Neogi. The illustration draws inspiration from the action movie posters of old-time Hindi cinema.

Happy Birthday, Fearless Nadia!

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Har Gobind Khorana’s 96th Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates Har Gobind Khorana, an Indian-American biochemist whose passion for science started under a tree in the small village of Raipur, India, and grew into Nobel Prize-winning research on nucleotides and genes.

Dr. Khorana was born in 1922 as the youngest of five children. His father instilled the importance of learning by helping his children to read and write, which wasn’t common for villagers at the time. Scholarships helped propel the budding scientist through his scholastic journey, obtaining his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1948.

Dr. Khorana conducted research at universities in England, Switzerland, and Canada, and it was at the University of Wisconsin that he and two fellow researchers received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968. Together, they discovered that the order of nucleotides in our DNA determines which amino acids are built. These amino acids form proteins, which carry out essential cell functions.

His accomplishments didn’t stop there. Fewer than five years later, Dr. Khorana made a second scientific breakthrough when he constructed the first synthetic gene. He received a host of awards during his lifetime, including the National Medal of Science.

Bangalore-based illustrator Rohan Dahotre drew today’s Doodle, which celebrates Dr. Khorana’s pioneering work in understanding our DNA.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Khorana!

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25th Anniversary of Rafflesia Arnoldii



If screens emitted scents, you’d be in for quite the stench. The pale green fumes bursting from today’s Doodle evoke the odor of Rafflesia arnoldii, an Indonesian plant that produces the largest flower in the world. This day marks the 25th anniversary of its distinction as a national rarity in its native Indonesia.

Known as bunga bangkai, or “the corpse flower” among locals, Rafflesia arnoldii gives off the aroma of rotting flesh, which baits the carrion flies that pollinate it. Its plump, red-brown petals, freckled with white spots, only emerge from Tetrastigma, the vine-like plants that host it, when it’s ready to reproduce — making it an incredibly uncommon sight. Once in the open, Rafflesia arnoldii grows to around 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter and blooms for just a few days.

But there’s more to this parasitic plant than its pungent perfume. Rafflesia arnoldii was named an Indonesian national “rare flower” in 1993’s Presidential Decree No. 4. This wondrous species is represented in the intricate patterns of traditional Indonesian batik, especially in the Bengkulu province of Sumatra, where it is often found.

Today, we celebrate Rafflesia arnoldii’s special (and smelly) place in Indonesian history!