Today marks the 57th anniversary of the first patent of the barcode. Google’s latest doodle, a barcode on the place of its name on its homepage has brought an important aspect of our daily lives to our attention. We must thank Google for reminding us those small things that make a whole lot of difference in our lives, with our least knowledge.

Barcode was patented by Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, who sold the patent before the industry standard UPC ever took off. The Telegraph has a nice history piece here as does HowStuffworks.