Google's home page changes on an almost daily basis to celebrate the year's biggest moments. Since 1 January 2012 Google has helped celebrate the 26th anniversary of Martin Luther King Day, International Women's Day, Israel's 64th Independence Day, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and the 115th birthday of American aviation pioneer and author Amelia Earhart, amongst others. Here we look back at some of Google's finest "Google Doodle's" of 2012.
14 February - Valentine's Day
Valentines Day's Doodle featured Tony Bennett's version of Cold, Cold Heart accompanying an animated love story of a boy trying to woo a girl. Google's logo's trademark colours were used throughout the video which ended with a collage of six couples; a man and an alien couple, a girl and a frog couple, a cat and a dog couple, an interracial couple, a gay male couple, and a chocolate chip cookie and milk couple.
23 May - Robert Mogg's 78th birthday
On 23 May Google celebrated American electronic music pioneer Robert Mogg's 78th birthday with a mini-sythesiser doodle which when clicked on allowed Google users to create their own electronic ditties that could shared on Google+. Ryan Germick, who leads the Google Doodle team, described it as the most "technically ambitious" homepage yet.
30 May - Peter Carl Fabergé's 166th birthday
Russian jeweller, Peter Carl Fabergé, was honoured by Google on 30 May to celebrate his 166th birthday. The Doodle featured six of his most famous creations - jewelled Fabergé eggs - decorated with diamonds, precious metals and gemstones.
27 July - London 2012 Olympic Games
On 27 July Google celebrated the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games with a Doodle showing five athletes playing different sports including football, swimming/diving, running/jumping, javelin, fencing and basketball. On the following day Google continued its archery Olympic doodles which have features since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
15 August - Julia Child's 100th birthday
On 15 August Julia Child's 100th birthday was recognised by Google with a Doodle featuring the American chef, author, and television personality along with a table full of food items such as fish, turkey and cake, cleverly arranged to form the Google logo.
8 September - Star Trek: The Original Series 46th anniversary
On 8 September Google paid tribute to the 46th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series with a Doodle changing each of the search engines letters into classic Star Trek characters. The letter 'G' took the honour of being Mr. Spock.
8 November - Bram Stoker's 165th birthday
In early November Google celebrated the 165th birthday of Dracula writer Bram Stoker with a Google Doodle based on his famous gothic fiction novel.
15 December - Newton tribute
After the Newton school shooting in December Google added a small glowing candle to its main search page. When users hovered their cursor over the candle a text box containing the simile message "Our hearts are with the families and community of Newton" appeared. Rather than appearing in place of Google's logo like most Doodles the candle was shown below the search box.
20 December - 200th anniversary of Grimm's Fairytales
The 200th anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales was celebrated on 20 December with an interactive Doodle of Little Red Riding Hood illustrated by Matthew Cruikshank. The interactive Doodle told the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood, her Grandmother and the infamous wolf.
31 December - Happy New Year
Google has celebrated New Year's Eve with today's Google Doodle which celebrates some of its best Doodle's of the year. The interactive Doodle allows users to pick one of the characters in the Doodle to be redirected to the specific Doodle. Featured in the Doodle is Robert Doisneau's 100th Birthday Doodle, Charles Dickens 200th Birthday, and Gustav Klimt's 150th birthday.
