Google has removed references to Black History Month and Women’s History Month, among other holidays and events, from its widely used online and mobile calendars. For years, Google Calendar automatically marked the start of Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March. But for 2025, those references are gone. The changes were first reported last week after users noticed the removals.
A Google spokesperson confirmed that the shift happened mid-2024 as part of a broader policy update. “For over a decade, we’ve worked with timeanddate.com to show public holidays and national observances in Google Calendar. Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world,” Google said in a statement shared with USA TODAY.
The company cited challenges in maintaining consistency across countries as the reason for scaling back its observances. “We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing — and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable,” the statement continued. “So in mid-2024, we returned to showing only public holidays and national observances from timeanddate.com globally, while allowing users to manually add other important moments.”
According to timeanddate.com, the Norway-based company maintains a database of more than 7,600 holidays but does not include observances like Black History Month unless designated as a national holiday.
Google’s decision comes amid broader shifts in how it engages with diversity, equity and inclusion(DEI) efforts. The company recently ended its diversity hiring goals, joining other tech giants in scaling back DEI initiatives following political and legal pressures. The move followed President Donald Trump’s return to office and his executive order dismantling federal DEI programs.
More recently, Google Maps announced it would rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” per the Trump administration’s updates to “official government sources.” The company also reinstated the name “Mount McKinley” for Alaska’s highest peak, reversing its previous recognition of the Indigenous name Denali.
Google Calendar users have also noticed that Indigenous Peoples Month (November), LGBTQ+ Pride Month (June), Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Hispanic Heritage Month were removed, sparking criticism on social media and Google’s user support forums.
Google Calendar users have also noticed the removal of Indigenous Peoples Month (November), LGBTQ+ Pride Month (June), Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Hispanic Heritage Month, sparking criticism across social media and Google’s user support forums.
“Anyone know a good search engine that isn’t so frightened of pumpkin head that it removes black history month from its calendar. Or reinvents the name of a bit of the sea? Shame on #Google,” wrote one user on X.com.
“Google Calendar has removed: Pride Month, Black History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day…Their reason was “this growing list was not sustainable,” though they managed to keep Columbus Day somehow,” said another user on X.com
While Google maintains that users can manually add these observances, critics argue that erasing them from a widely used platform diminishes visibility and recognition, especially at a time when DEI initiatives are increasingly under attack.
Google Calendar users have voiced frustration online, questioning why cultural moments that had been included for years were now deemed unsustainable. Some pointed out that Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and LGBTQ+ Pride Month are formally recognized by the U.S. government—even if they are not “public holidays” in the traditional sense.
By requiring users to manually add these observances, critics say Google is making a political statement—whether it intends to or not.