A thought bubble

Two things struck me as Google Chrome opened to its eponymous search engine today:
1)Who is Mies van der Rohe? (Judging by the layout of the title, he/she was some sort of architect, designer &c)
2) Why do we need to celebrate his 126th birthday?

Obviously, Wiki can help me with the first question, but the second remains far more apocryphal. Someone out there knows the answer, and if they see this post within a year (obviously before Van der Rohe's 127th birthday), I wonder if I would be able to be privy to the information

#justsayin