Les Paul
This June doodle, in honor of what would have been musician Les Paul's 96th birthday, proved so popular that Google ran it for two days in the United States. Those strings were playable, however, and in the U.S., users could record a 30-second snippet. Here at PCMag, we recorded The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun."
Freddie Mercury
Google celebrated the 65th birthday of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury with a cartoon video doodle set to the band's 1978 hit, "Don't Stop Me Now." The video is available on YouTube.
Art Clokey
On Oct. 12, 2011, Google celebrated the 90th birthday of Gumby creator Art Clokey with an interactive stop motion homepage doodle featuring well-known characters from the Gumby series. See this slideshow for more details on what emerged.
Jim Henson
This Sept. 23, 2011 doodle celebrated the 75th birthday of Muppets creator Jim Henson with an interactive homepage doodle that turned the average Web user into a puppeteer.
Jules Verne
This February 8 interactive doodle honored author Jules Verne's 183rd birthday. It also got its own standalone site.
Martha Graham
This May 11 doodle celebrated what would have been the 117th birthday of dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. The animated doodle featured dancers peforming some of Graham's most famous dances; more more, see the full slideshow.
Lucille Ball
Google on July 6 celebrated what would have been actress Lucille Ball's 100th birthday with a homepage doodle that incorporated footage from her iconic I Love Lucy TV show.
Roger Hargreaves
Sixteen different doodles celebrated what would have been the 76th birthday of children's book author Roger Hargreaves. For more, see a complete slideshow of all the Hargreaves doodles.
Richard Scarry
This June 5 doodle honors what would have been the 92nd birthday of childrens' book author Richard Scarry.