In honor of what would have been Nelson Mandela's 96th birthday, Google created an interactive animated logo to commemorate the South African leader on Friday.

Mandela, who is known as one of the most iconic and influential leaders in modern day history, died on Dec. 5, 2013, reports USA Today. He committed his life to fighting apartheid, a system of laws enacted in 1948 that oppressed the black population of South Africa.

Early in his career, he used methods of violence and radical tactics to end apartheid and subsequently, spent 27 years behind bars as a political prisoner, from 1962 to 1990. However, four years after being released from prison, he went on to become South Africa's first black president in 1994.

Today, Mandela is lauded for bringing democracy to South Africa, and for using his words as a weapon to combat racism.

Google Doogle celebrated Mandela's legacy by featuring six of his most notable and influential quotes on Google's home page, along with creative illustrations.

The Google Doodle, which was shown worldwide, allows people to click through slides to see his famous quotes, like "education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world" and "the greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall."

"Something that stood out to me about Nelson Mandela was his eloquent way with words," wrote the doodle's designer, Katy Wu, in a blog post. "I thought his words gave a great insight into the kind of man he was, so I wanted to focus the creative direction of the doodle on his quotes against a backdrop of the history of South Africa."

Wu went on to say that Mandela's character helped inspire her doodle.

"After learning more about Mandela as a person I started to understand that he was a man with a lot of character, and not always just a serious figure. That started to give me more ideas about how to approach this doodle," she said.