Skip to main content

Dian Fossey's birthday marked by Google doodle

Dian Fossey
Dian Fossey sits with mountain gorillas in the Virunga mountains in Rwanda in 1982. Photograph: Associated Press
Dian Fossey, the American zoologist who was murdered in Rwanda in 1985 after a long battle to protect mountain gorillas, has been celebrated in a Google doodle.
Fossey, who would have been 82 on Thursday, was born in San Francisco on January 1932 and educated at the University of California.
The doodle features the African mountains and gorillas that featured strongly in her life. Fossey studied mountain gorillas for 18 years and her work and experience contributed to her 1983 book Gorillas in the Mist. The book was made into a film with Sigourney Weaver taking the role of Fossey.
Fossey was inspired to study in Africa by Louis and Mary Leakey. While studying the gorillas, she had a constant battle with poachers, many of whom she helped jail. Some of the gorillas she studied, in particular Digit in 1978, died in trying to protect their relatives from poachers.
Fossey was murdered in her cabin in a mountain reserve in Rwanda; the case remains open.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In pics: The Bachchan Family Tree

The Bachchans:  Bachchans are busy celebrating the arrival of Aishwarya and Abhishek's daughter. Let's meet the Bachchan clan Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan's father was a famous Hindi poet. He is most popular for his book 'Madhushala'. He passed away in 2003. Harivansh Rai Bachchan got married to Shyama in 1926. Shyama died after ten years of marriage. Harivansh married Teji Bachchan (in the picture) in 1941. They had two sons, Amitabh and Ajitab. Born in 1969, Amitabh Bachchan is the most popular Bollywood celebrity today. Ajitabh Bachchan (second from left) is Amitabh's younger brother Amitabh Bachchan is married to actress Jaya Bachchan. They have two children, Abhishek Bachchan and Shweta Nanda. Jaya was born in a Hindu Bengali family to Taroon Kumar Bhaduri and Indira Bhaduri. Her father was a writer, journalist and stage artist. Abhishek's elder sister Shweta Bachchan Nanda is married to industrialist Nikhil Nanda. Nikhil and Shweta have t
Post a Comment
Read more

Mary Anning: Google doodle celebrates 215th birthday of British palaeontologist

Anning became famous for her work collecting fossils from the Jurassic beds near her home in Lyme Regis Dorset Google has celebrated the 215th anniversary of the birth of British palaeontologist Mary Anning with a special doodle. Anning is best known for her work collecting fossils from the Jurassic period near her home in Lyme Regis Dorset. Today's colourful Google Doodle shows her uncovering a dinosaur's fossilised remains. Anning is recognised for contributing to fundamental changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life. Among her many discoveries was the first ever correctly identification skeleton of an ichthyosaur. Despite being recognised globally for her work in the field, she was not - as a woman - eligible to join the Geological Society of London. In 2010 Anning was included by the Royal Society iin a list of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science. Born in Lyme Regis on 21st May 1799. Her father, a cabinetmaker,
Post a Comment
Read more

Fanny Blankers-Koen’s 100th Birthday

On a rainy summer day in 1948, onlookers at London’s Wembley track saw an unexpected athlete make history. Dutch runner and 30-year-old mother of two Fanny Blankers-Koen outstrided her opponents in the women’s 200m by 0.7 seconds—the highest margin in Olympics 200m history and a record that still stands today.   Born near Baarn, the Netherlands, in 1918, Blankers-Koen had set a national record for the women’s 800m by age 17. At 18, she competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, placing fifth in the 4x100m and sixth in high jump. After the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were canceled, many thought Blankers-Koen would never make another Olympics. When she declared her intentions to compete in the 1948 London Games, she received letters from many criticizing her for continuing to race despite being a mother and insisting she stay home.   But words couldn’t break Blankers-Koen’s stride. She captured four golds during the 1948 London Games, winning the 100m, 80m hurdles
1 comment
Read more