--- title: Google Doodle: Polio Vaccine Creator Dr. Jonas Salk's 100th Birthday description: Dr. Jonas Salk made polio nearly extinct in just two years canonical: https://time.com/3543224/google-doodle-jonas-salk-polio-vaccine/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-28T12:34:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:21.422Z og:title: Google Doodle Celebrates 100th Birthday of Scientist Behind Polio Vaccine og:description: Dr. Jonas Salk made polio nearly extinct in just two years og:url: https://time.com/3543224/google-doodle-jonas-salk-polio-vaccine/ og:site_name: TIME og: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 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-10-28 at 8.12.15 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Doodle Celebrates 100th Birthday of Scientist Behind Polio Vaccine twitter:description: Dr. Jonas Salk made polio nearly extinct in just two years twitter: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 ---  # Google Doodle Celebrates Jonas Salk, Scientist Behind Polio Vaccine by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Oct 28, 2014 12:34 PM UTC  Google by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Oct 28, 2014 12:34 PM UTC 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/) 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) 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"}}]}] ```