Nikolaï Vassilievitch Gogol, the great Russian and Ukrainian writer, was born on April 1 (O.S. March 20) of 1809 in the village of Sorotchintsky, in Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine, and died in Moscow on March 4 (O.S. February 21) of 1852. Google.ru decided to celebrate the famous writer’s anniversary re-designing its homepage in honour of the author of «Dead Souls».

Even if it’s not related to the Russian writer, it will be recalled that Google brand name is a play on the word googol, a math term meaning 1 followed by 100 zeros.

See also: Zorgloob