Happy Birthday Google!

21 years ago today, a search engine was founded by two students called Larry Page and Sergey Brin. That search engine is in fact Google, which is now the worlds most popular search engine, ranking above the likes of Bing, Baidu and even Yahoo!

To celebrate Google’s 21^st Birthday, we’ve compiled our favourite 21 Google Doodles:

What Are Google Doodles?

As described by the search engine itself,

“Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.”

More than 4,000 unique Doodles have been created since 1998, with a team of illustrators or “Doodlers” and engineers behind the creations. Despite this, the very first Google Doodle was in fact “a bit of a joke”, and looked like this:

1. 216^th Anniversary Of the First-Ever Parachute Jump

This Doodle was created in order to celebrate the 216^th anniversary of the first ever parachute jump, performed by Jacque Garnerin in October 1797.

2. Erwin Schrodinger’s 126^th Birthday

Using mathematical equations to “describe the likelihood of finding an electron in a certain position”, Erwin Schrodinger went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 before becoming Director at Ireland’s Institute for Advanced Studies.

3. 30^th Anniversary Of Pac Man

Originally named “Puck-Man” Pack Man turned 30 years old in 2010 and Google didn’t let the occasion go a miss. This Google Doodle enabled users to interact with a basic very of the game on Google’s Home Page.

4. 46^th Anniversary of Star Trek

Google took the famous Star Trek line “Live Long and Prosper” quite literally, celebrating the films 46^th anniversary in the most Google way possible; with a Google Doodle.

5. Earth Day 2013

In an attempt to help “save the planet” Google celebrates Earth Day with a new Doodle each year. Our favourite, however, is this one from 2013, showing us what the world could look like if we took care of the environment!

6. Canoe 2012 Summer Olympics

To celebrate the London 2012 Olympics, Google created a series of themed Doodles, including this one: The Canoe 2012 Summer Olympics. Users could paddle themselves down their way down the racing water, avoiding rocks and gliding through goals using the keyboard. Play here.

7. 150^th Anniversary Of The London Tube

London Underground or the “tube” was the world’s very first electric railway deep underground, serving transport across England including in London, Buckinghamshire, Herfordshire and Essex. To celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the London Tube, Google created a very fitting map of the underground that spelt out the search engines name.

8. Happy Valentine’s Day From Google & Robert Indiana

Courtesy of the Morgan Art Foundation, Google rolled out this creative Doodle on Valentine’s Day in 2011.

9. The 42^nd Anniversary Of Rio-Niterol Bridge Opening

Otherwise called the Presidente Costa e Silva Bridge, the Rio-Niterol Bridge is 9 miles long, connecting the city of Rio de Janeiro with Niteroi located on the east of Guanabara Bay. This Google Doodle celebrates two things: the 42^nd anniversary of the bridge and that fact that it is the longest bridge in Latin America – and the world – to date!

10. Juno Reaches Jupiter

Google saluted NASA’s Juno Mission with a Google Doodle and Tweet on 5^th July 2016.

 

Our #GoogleDoodle salutes @NASAJuno as it reaches Jupiter. Bravo, Juno! 👏🎉📷https://t.co/ohF7sOv1Vf pic.twitter.com/iArZFAtBzA

— Google (@Google) July 5, 2016

11. Celebrating The Studio For Electronic Music

Google celebrated The Studio for Electronic Music in Germany on 18^th October 2017 with this fun, quirky Doodle recognising the three composers; Robert Beyer, Herbert Eimethe and Wener Meyer-Eppler.

12. Jules Verne’s 183^rd Birthday

Famous for his novels “Around the World in Eighty Days” and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, Google celebrated Jules Verne’s 183^rd birthday with a Doodle that captured a sense of exploration.

13. 100^th Birthday Of Taro Okamoto

A Google Doodle specifically created for Japan showcases the creativity of Taro Okamoto, a Japanese artist famous for his abstract and “avant-garde paintings”.

14. 199^th Anniversary Of The First Documented Ice Cream Sundae

We all scream for ice cream! Google celebrated the 199^th anniversary of the FIRST documented ice cream sundae in April 2011 with this vintage 1950 design.

15. 20^th Anniversary Of Wallace & Gromit

Google celebrated the second decade of Wallace and Gromit with a Doodle which showcases the two characters at the work bench. At the time, this particular Doodle was one of three Doodles to be created outside of the search engines HQ!

16. First Day Of School (2011)

Happy first day of school! Google marked the beginning of the new school year in 2011 with this creative pencil-sharpening design.

17. 25^th Anniversary Of Tetris

Tile-matching puzzle video game Tetris received its very own Google Doodle in 2009 when it turned 25.

18. Freddie Mercury’s 65^th Birthday

British singer-songwriter Freddie Mercury is a legend in Google’s eyes, celebrating his 65^th birthday with a Doodle that could be seen around the world on 5^th September 2012.

19. Agatha Christie’s 120^th Birthday

Known for her 66 detective novels and short story collections, writer Agatha Christie’s 120^th birthday was celebrated on 15^th September 2010 with this Doodle:

20. 50^th Anniversary Of The First Man In Space

Google honoured the historic Apollo 11 Mission with a space-themed Doodle on 20^th July 2019, celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the first moon landing.

21. Google’s 21^st Birthday

Of course, we couldn’t leave out Google’s very own 21^st Birthday Doodle! 21 years ago on this day, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Larry Page published a paper about launching a prototype of a “large scale search engine”. 7,665 days later, Google is the most popular search engine with 70% of the search engine share.

For more information, get in touch with a member of our expert team on 0800 088 6000, today.