--- description: Dr. Jonas Salk made polio nearly extinct in just two years title: Google Doodle Celebrates 100th Birthday of Scientist Behind Polio Vaccine image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dc1c2db241826b5/698763000b72e30cd66db427/screen-shot-2014-10-28-at-8-12-15-am.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Google Doodle Celebrates Jonas Salk, Scientist Behind Polio Vaccine by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 28, 2014 12:34 PM CUT  Google by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 28, 2014 12:34 PM CUT Tuesday’s Google Doodle celebrates the 100th birthday of the American scientist behind the first effective polio vaccine: Dr. Jonas Salk. “Thank You, Dr. Salk!” reads a sign in the homepage animation, which depicts joyful, fully mobile children dancing and running around with dogs and balloons. Polio largely impacted children. [The Washington _Post_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/10/28/jonas-salk-google-says-thanks-to-the-heroic-polio-vaccine-developer-with-birthday-doodle/ "undefined") reports that according to the Salk Institute, “In the two years before \[the\] vaccine was widely available, the average number of polio cases in the U.S. was more than 45,000\. By 1962, that number had dropped to 910.” Salk was also depicted on the [March 29, 1954](http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19540329,00.html "undefined") cover of _Time Magazine_:  Time Magazine, Cover Credit: Boris Artzybasheff ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3543224/google-doodle-jonas-salk-polio-vaccine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3543224/google-doodle-jonas-salk-polio-vaccine/"},"headline":"Google Doodle Celebrates Jonas Salk, Scientist Behind Polio Vaccine","datePublished":"2014-10-28T12:34:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:21.422Z","description":"Dr. Jonas Salk made polio nearly extinct in just two years","url":"https://time.com/3543224/google-doodle-jonas-salk-polio-vaccine/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","viral","Google Doodle","polio"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dc1c2db241826b5/698763000b72e30cd66db427/screen-shot-2014-10-28-at-8-12-15-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dc1c2db241826b5/698763000b72e30cd66db427/screen-shot-2014-10-28-at-8-12-15-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2014-10-28 at 8.12.15 AM","caption":"","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/3543224/google-doodle-jonas-salk-polio-vaccine/","name":"Google Doodle Celebrates Jonas Salk, Scientist Behind Polio Vaccine"}}]}] ```