--- title: Nelson Mandela Google Doodle for 96th Birthday description: Today's Google Doodle honors what would have been Nelson Mandela's 96th birthday canonical: https://time.com/3005070/todays-google-doodle-is-a-beautiful-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-18T14:56:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:32.805Z og:title: Today's Google Doodle Is a Beautiful Tribute to Nelson Mandela og:description: On what would have been his 96th birthday og:url: https://time.com/3005070/todays-google-doodle-is-a-beautiful-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Today's Google Doodle Is a Beautiful Tribute to Nelson Mandela twitter:description: On what would have been his 96th birthday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Today's Google Doodle Is a Beautiful Tribute to Nelson Mandela ## Video: How Google Makes its Doodles [Watch (HLS stream): How Google Makes its Doodles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2018-07-07. Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as_ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jul 18, 2014 2:56 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jul 18, 2014 2:56 PM UTC Seven months after Nelson Mandela’s death, Google is paying tribute to the iconic leader with an interactive illustration. It traces Mandela’s legacy through six of his most memorable and influential quotes paired with corresponding drawings. “Something that stood out to me about Nelson Mandela was his eloquent way with words,” the doodle’s designer, Katy Wu, writes in a [blog post](http://www.google.com/doodles/nelson-mandelas-96th-birthday). “I thought his words gave a great insight into the kind of man he was, so I wanted to focus the creative direction of the doodle on his quotes against a backdrop of the history of South Africa.”    Be sure to check out the rest of the doodle on [Google’s homepage](https://www.google.com) today. **MORE:** [The Indispensable Man: Nelson Mandela (1918–2013)](http://world.time.com/2013/12/05/the-indispensable-man-nelson-mandela-1918-2013/) **MORE:** [A Final Farewell to Madiba](http://world.time.com/2013/12/15/final-farewell-to-mandela/) **PHOTOS:** [Mourning Madiba: South Africans Say Goodbye to Nelson Mandela](http://world.time.com/2013/12/11/mourning-madiba-south-africans-say-goodbye-to-nelson-mandela/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3005070/todays-google-doodle-is-a-beautiful-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3005070/todays-google-doodle-is-a-beautiful-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/"},"headline":"Today's Google Doodle Is a Beautiful Tribute to Nelson Mandela","datePublished":"2014-07-18T14:56:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:32.805Z","description":"On what would have been his 96th birthday","url":"https://time.com/3005070/todays-google-doodle-is-a-beautiful-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Nelson Mandela","Internet","Google","Mandela"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3005070/todays-google-doodle-is-a-beautiful-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/","name":"Today's Google Doodle Is a Beautiful Tribute to Nelson Mandela"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Google Makes its Doodles","description":"Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/upF0qp1E/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-07T16:09:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3005070/todays-google-doodle-is-a-beautiful-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/","duration":"PT3M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3005070/todays-google-doodle-is-a-beautiful-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```