Today's doodle marks the 174th birthday of Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli:
From The Columbia Encyclopedia:
Schiaparelli, Giovanni Virginio (jōvän'nē vērjē'nyō skyäpärĕl'lē), 1835–1910, Italian astronomer. He was director (1862–1900) of the Brera Observatory, Milan. He is especially noted for having detected (1877) on the surface of the planet Mars the markings that he called canali (channels), later misinterpreted as canals. He showed that meteor swarms travel through space in cometary orbits and suggested that Mercury and Venus rotate on their axes. He discovered the asteroid Hesperia (1861) and several double stars.
I saw a neat one today...honoring Dr. Seuss:
Now how cool is that!?!