Today’s Google Doodle celebrates International Women’s Day, an event for “globally recognizing and applauding women’s achievements as well as for observing and highlighting gender inequalities and issues.”

The Doodle replaces their standard search logo with a simple illustration that forms Google’s “G” with the female gender sign. The second “o” is a yellow flower, while the first “o” and the “e” are reminiscent of the bindi, a symbol associated with Indian women.

Whereas last year’s International Women’s Day Google Doodle linked to their event page promoting IWD events such as Join Me On the Bridge, the 2012 version links to a search for “International Women’s Day.”

International Women’s Day began in the United States as National Women’s Day. It took place the last Sunday of February in 1909, so named by the Socialist Party of America after unrest and debate over oppression and inequality the year prior. In 1908, 15,000 women had marched through New York City demanding voting rights, equal pay, and shorter work hours.

Internationally, leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany Clara Zetkin proposed an International Women’s Day at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. She found unanimous support with the more than 100 female attendees representing 17 countries at the event.

1911 marked the first March celebration of IWD, as more than a million men and women in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland took part in demonstrations and rallies for women’s rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.

IWD continued to strengthen and grow for decades, until the United Nations designation of 1975 as International Women’s Year. Since then, the event is held annually on March 8th, with demonstrations, rallies and celebrationsaround the globe.

IWD is now an official holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal (for women only), Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia. Google has used their search page to celebrate famous/notable women and women’s issues several times over the past year: