Pandit Ravi Shankar’s 96th birthday Google Doodle

Today we celebrate Pandit Ravi Shankar, who was born 96 years ago today. Shankar evangelized the use of Indian instruments in Western music, introducing the atmospheric hum of the sitar to audiences worldwide.

He performed frequently with the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and composed a concerto with sitar for the London Symphony Orchestra. Shankar also taught George Harrison of the Beatles how to play the sitar, and widely influenced popular music in the 1960s and 70s.

In 1956 he began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. His influence on the latter helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in pop music throughout the 1960s.

First Modern Olympic Games at Athens in 1896. Google shows Doodle for 120th Anniversary.

Today is the 120th anniversary of the first modern Olympic games, which started in Athens, Greece in 1896. Officially called the Games of the I Olympiad, the events took place inside the Panathenaic Stadium.
The Search Engine Google is showing a Doodle for marking this event.

It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era. Because Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, Athens was considered to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games.

Despite many obstacles and setbacks, the 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. 

The 1896 games included 9 different sports and 43 events. Most noteworthy was the marathon — it had the greatest number of international athletes ever.

 Equally noteworthy was its winner, Spyridon "Spyro" Louis, the only Greek champion in the athletics division, and a national hero for the host country. His monumental victory on that historic day continues to inspire Greek pride.

Google Doodle for Clara Rockmore’s 105th Birthday

Today( Mar 9, 2016) the Search engine Google is showing an interactive animated Doodle for the 105th Birthday of Clara Rockmore.

Clara Rockmore was a Lithuanian expert performer of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument.

Rockmore was a child prodigy on the violin and entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory at the age of five. She remains to this day the youngest student ever to be admitted to the institution.

Unfortunately, bone problems due to childhood malnutrition forced her to abandon violin performance past her teen years. That however led her to discover the newborn electronic instrument and arguably become the greatest ever virtuosa of the theremin.

She died in New York City on May 10, 1998, at age 87.

Why is there a Leap Day? Google Shows Doodle for Leap Year 2016

Today's (29th February 2016) Google Doodle celebrates Leap Day! Why is there a Leap Day? Google Shows Doodle for Leap Year 2016

The 29th of February only happens every four years. This is to keep our calendar in sync with the rotation of the Earth around the sun. Without Leap Day, we'd be out of sync by about six hours per year. 

Leap Day happens every four years unless that year is divisible by 100. If you were around in 1900, you would have missed out on the magic of February 29. 

Anyone born on Leap Day, will not get chance to celebrate their birthday every year.

Dmitri Mendeleev Google Doodle.182nd Birthday of Father of the Periodic Table

Today (8th February, 2016) the Search Engine Google is showing a Doodle for the 182nd Birthday of Dmitri Mendeleev in many countries.

Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian chemist and inventor. He formulated the Periodic Law, created his own version of the periodic table of elements, and used it to correct the properties of some already discovered elements and also to predict the properties of eight elements yet to be discovered.

Around 400 BC, the ancient Greeks organized the worldly elements into four groups: air, water, earth, and fire. In the seventeenth century, Robert Boyle explained the material world in terms of elements, mixtures, and compounds. And in 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev made sense of the 56 elements known at the time, showing how they related to each other in a distinct pattern. His periodic table let elements fall into "periods" according to atomic mass and valence (the power that determines how they combine). 

Scholars had attempted to organize the elements into a table before, but Mendeleev's work extended beyond mere chart-making. Mendeleev used the logic of his table to argue for the existence of yet-to-be discovered elements (like gallium and germanium), and even to predict their behaviors. Some of these predictions were wrong, but the basic principles behind his periodic organization continue to stand at the foundation of modern chemistry. The periodic table of the elements (now with 118 elements and counting) adorns science classrooms worldwide.

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Frederick Douglass Google Doodle

Frederick Douglass (February 1818 to February 20, 1895).He was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman.

Frederick Douglass was the son of an enslaved woman and an unknown white father. 

Douglass published two autobiographies in his life.

Douglass Was the First African American Nominated for Vice President of the United States.

Amrita Sher-Gil Google Doodle 103rd Birthday.The first female artist of Indian modern art

Today's (30 January, 2016) Google Doodle honors Amrita Sher-Gil on her 103rd Birthday.Amrita Sher-Gil was an eminent Indian painter born to a Punjabi Sikh father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, sometimes known as India's Frida Kahlo, and today considered an important woman painter of 20th century in India.