Doodle 4 Google: May 2010

John Harsányi's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/harsany10-hp.png

John Charles Harsanyi (Hungarian: Harsányi János Károly) (born May 29, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary; died August 9, 2000 in Berkeley, California, United States) was a Hungarian-Australian-American economist and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner.

He is best known for his contributions to the study of game theory and its application to economics, specifically for his developing the highly innovative analysis of games of incomplete information, so-called Bayesian games. He also made important contributions to the use of game theory and economic reasoning in political and moral philosophy (specifically utilitarian ethics) as well as contributing to the study of equilibrium selection. For his work, he was a co-recipient along with John Nash and Reinhard Selten of the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Isaac Albeniz´s 150th birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/albeniz10-hp.gif

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (Spanish pronunciation: [iˈsak alˈβeniθ]) (29 May 1860, Camprodon – 18 May 1909, Cambo-les-Bains) was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms (many of which have been transcribed by others for guitar). [Read more on Wikipedia]

Milutin Milankovich's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/milankovich10-hp.gif

Milutin Milanković (Serbian Cyrillic: Милутин Миланковић) (born in Dalj, Austria-Hungary on 28 May 1879, died Belgrade, Yugoslavia on 12 December 1958), was a Serbian geophysicist and civil engineer, best known for his theory of ice ages, suggesting a relationship between Earth's long-term climate changes and periodic changes in its orbit, now known as Milankovitch cycles. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Portrtait by Paja Jovanović, 1943

Doodle 4 Google US

Makenzie Melton's 'Rainforest Habitat
Source: http://www.google.com/logos/d4gwinner10-us-hp.gif

Jordan's National Day

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/jordannationalday2010-hp.gif

Argentina's Bicentennial Independence

The Argentina Bicentennial is a series of celebrations and observances celebrated on May 25, 2010, and throughout the year. They commemorated the 200th anniversary of the May Revolution, a sequence of historical events that led to the Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros' being ousted from office and replaced with the Primera Junta, the first national government.

Bicentennial celebrations began on Friday, May 21, in Buenos Aires, with millions of people in attendance, making it the biggest outdoor festivities Argentina has seen since it celebrated its return to democratic rule after seven years of military dictatorship in 1983. [Read more on Wikipedia]

PAC-MAN's 30th Anniversary Doodle

Pacman is taking over Google!

The iconic arcade game celebrates its 30th anniversary on May 22, and Google has created a one-of-a-kind Pacman Google Doodle in its honor.

Google frequently switches up its primary-colored logo in order to celebrate the birthdays and anniversaries of luminaries, pop culture icons, and important innovations (Sesame Street and the barcode have been among the honorees), but the Pacman Google logo is unique in that it is the first playable Google Doodle.

According to Google, the Pacman logo has a total of 256 levels. Users can click the "Insert Coin" button to get the game going, or click it twice to kick-off a two-player game. (See it in action in the video below.) Pacman will be up on Google for a total of 48 hours--from 8AM PT on Friday through Sunday morning. The programmer behind the Pacman Doodle was reportedly the son of a game and pinball technician and used to accompany his father to arcade parlors and help him tinker with the games.

PAC-MAN™ & ©1980 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc.
Homepage: http://www.google.com/pacman/
Source: http://www.google.com/logos/pacman10-hp.png

Pac-Man (Japanese: パックマン Pakkuman) is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game—and, subsequently, Pac-Man derivatives—became a social phenomenon that sold a bevy of merchandise and also inspired, among other things, an animated television series and a top-ten hit single. [Read more on Wikipedia]

150th Anniversary of Martin Kukucin's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/kukucin10-hp.gif

Martin Kukučín (own name Matej Bencúr, * 17 May 1860 Jasenová, † 21 May 1928 Pakrac, Croatia) was a Slovak prose writer, dramatist and publicist. He was the most notable representative of Slovak literary realism, and considered to be one of the founders of modern Slovak prose. [Read more on Wikipedia]

YouTube turns five

Five years ago, after months of late nights, testing and preparation, YouTube’s founders launched the first beta version of YouTube.com in May, with a simple mission: give anyone a place to easily upload their videos and share them with the world. Whether you were an aspiring filmmaker, a politician, a proud parent, or someone who just wanted to connect with something bigger, YouTube became the place where you could broadcast yourself.

Over time, these aspirations have created a vibrant and inspiring community that helped transform a murmur of interest into something far greater than any of us ever could have imagined. Today, to celebrate its birthday, YouTube has just announced a major new milestone: it’s streaming a whopping two billion views per day (the company notes that this is “nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major US television networks combined”) and launching the YouTube Five Year channel. There, you’ll find the “My YouTube Story” project which features people from all over describing how YouTube has changed or shaped their lives.

Source: http://s.ytimg.com/yt/img/doodles/5year-vfl165239.jpg

So, in the spirit of the day, YouTube's excited to launch http://www.youtube.co.za, a South African version of YouTube and our first domain on the continent. The goal here is to give South Africans a way to easily discover local content and content producers. From now on when users in South Africa visit the site, they will see, for example, the most popular and most viewed videos in South Africa along with local content that closely matches their interests.

Source: http://s.ytimg.com/yt/img/doodles/za_yoodle-vfl165239.png

Teacher's Day

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/teachersday10-hp.gif

Singapore Art Festival

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/festival10-hp.gif

The Singapore Arts Festival (Chinese: 新加坡艺术节) is an annual arts festival held in Singapore. Organised by the National Arts Council, it is one of the most significant events in the regional arts scene. The festival, usually held in mid-year for a stretch of one month, incorporates theatre arts, dance, music and visual arts, among other possibilities. Besides local participants, approximately 70% of the events are put up by international artists.

Today, the Singapore Arts Festival has become an international showcase with a distinctive Asian flavour, known for its bold and innovative collaborations at the cutting-edge of contemporary arts.

The 33rd edition of the Singapore Arts Festival will run from 14 May to 13 June 2010.

This year's theme, Between You and Me is all about getting closer to the arts. For the first time, the Festival will actively reach out to everyone through an outreach programme called com.mune. Together with a stellar showcase of international performances, the Festival will truly touch you in ways you never imagined possible. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937) was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys who inspired him in writing about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (included in The Little White Bird), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a "fairy play" about this ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. This play quickly overshadowed his previous work and although he continued to write successfully, it became his best-known work, credited with popularising the name Wendy, which was very uncommon previously. Barrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, which continues to benefit from them. [Read more on Wikipedia]

James Matthew Barrie in 1890

Mother's Day

Global - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/mothersday10-hp.gif

US - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/mothersday10-us-hp.gif

Happy Queima das Fitas! (Burning of the Ribbons Day)

The Queima das Fitas (Portuguese for Burning of the Ribbons) is a traditional festivity of the students of some Portuguese universities, organized originally by the students of the University of Coimbra. [Read more on Wikipedia]

170th Birthday of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/tchaikovsky10-hp.gif

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильич Чайковский, tr. Pëtr Il'ich Chaikovskiy IPA: [ˈpʲɵtr ɪlʲˈjitɕ tɕajˈkofskʲɪj]; often Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky /ˈpiːtər ˈɪlɨtʃ tʃaɪˈkɒvski/ in English; May 7, 1840 [O.S. April 25] – November 6, 1893 [O.S. October 25])[a 2] was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. His wide ranging output includes symphonies, operas, ballets, instrumental and chamber music and songs. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, his last three numbered symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by Nikolay Kuznetsov, 1893

Election Day in U.K.

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/election10_uk-hp.gif

Rocket Festival

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/rocket10-hp.gif

A Rocket Festival (Thai: ประเพณีบุญบั้งไฟ Prapheni Bun Bang Fai , Lao: ບຸນບັ້ງໄຟ Bun Bang Fai') is a merit-making ceremony traditionally practiced by Ethic Lao people throughout much of northeast Thailand and Laos, by numerous villages and municipalities near the beginning of the rainy season. Celebrations typically include preliminary music and dance performances, competitive processions of floats, dancers and musicians on the second day, and culminating on the third day in competitive firings of home-made rockets. Local participants and sponsors use the occasion to enhance their social prestige, as is customary in traditional Buddhist folk festivals throughout Southeast Asia. See also Gift culture. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Patios Cordobeses

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/patioscordobeses10-hp.png

The Festival of the Patios is a contest yards Córdoba (Spain) held, usually during the second and third week of May. Participants open, free of charge for their yards so they can be visited within the schedule established for that purpose. In recent years, the contests are indicated patios with potted hedges flanking the doors are placed so that they can be identified clearly.

Umm Kalthum's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/ummkulthum2010-hp.gif

Umm Kulthum (Arabic: أم كلثوم‎, born أم كلثوم إبراهيم البلتاجي , Umm Kulthum Ebrahim Elbeltagi; see Kunya; Egyptian Arabic: Om Kalsoum) (circa 1900-February 3, 1975). Various spellings include Om Koultoum, Om Kalthoum, Oumme Kalsoum, Umm Kolthoum and Ümmü Gülsüm . She was an Egyptian singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Tamay ez-Zahayra village that belongs to El Senbellawein, she is known as the Star of the East (kawkab el-sharq). More than three decades after her death, she is still recognized as one of the Arab world's most famous and distinguished singers of the 20th century. Umm Kulthum is widely regarded as the greatest female singer in Arab music history. [Read more on Wikipedia]

World Expo Opens in Shanghai

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/worldexpo10-hp.gif

The 2010 World Expo has opened in the city of Shanghai in what China hopes will be further proof of its rising global influence.

Almost 250 countries and international organisations are showcasing their culture in an event themed around sustainable development.

Many are doing so in pavilions with radical architecture.

World leaders, including France's President Sarkozy, are attending the lavish opening ceremony.

Doodle 4 Google