Barcode

Barcodes were conceived as a kind of visual Morse code by a Philadelphia student, Bernard Silver, and his friend Norman Woodhead, in 1949, but retailers were slow to take up the technology, which could be unreliable.

The first use of barcodes was to label railroad carriages traveling across the United States in the 1960s. A colored barcode was attached to steel plates on the side of train cars and scanned as they entered and exited railroad facilities.

Barcodes only became popular in the early 1970s, when Woodhead, then employed by IBM, devised the Universal Product Code. The UPC system was adopted by the food industry in North America.

Norman Joseph Woodland at IBM

In 1973 IBM offered its UPC bar code proposal to the grocery industry for free. The industry accepted a very close standard to their proposal. However, IBM also made the first technology capable of reading the bar codes, and made tons of money selling the equipment to grocery stores.

The first product to have a UPC barcode on its packaging was Wrigley's chewing gum in 1974.

The first place where a barcode was scanned was when a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum was sold in June 1974 in Troy, Ohio.

The first product to be scanned in the United Kingdom was a box of Melrose 100 Century teabags in 1978.

In 2015 an Australian woman named Chantelle put a bet on a horse called Prince of Penzance at 100-1 and won $825. She took a selfie with the winning bet slip, and posted the elated picture to Facebook, Somebody saw the post, put the barcode into an automated betting machine and stole her winnings before Chantelle could pick them up.

All countries have their individual authority for numbering, and each uses the first two or three digits for the full sequence of 13 figures. In USA and Canada the prefix is 00 to 09 and in Britain it is 50.

Barcode readers actually scan the white parts and not the black parts.

It costs about a tenth of a penny or one cent to slap on a barcode.

The world’s smallest ever scannable barcode was invented by Dr Stephen Buchmann and was used to monitor bees and their mating habits. Each separate line of the code was one thousandth of an inch (0.0254 mms) in width.

The bar codes of all newspapers and magazines anywhere in the world begin with the digits 977.

According to the barcode monitoring center, at least five billion barcodes are scanned each day.

Sources Risingsunoverport, The Independent November 3, 2007

Barclays Bank

Barclays Bank traces its origins back to 1690 when John Freame and Thomas Gould started trading as goldsmith bankers in Lombard Street, London. The name "Barclays" became associated with the bank in 1736, when James Barclay, son-in-law of John Freame, one of the founders, became a partner in the business.

In 1728, the bank moved to 54 Lombard Street, which was identified by the 'Sign of the Black Spread Eagle', over the years becoming a core part of the bank's identity.

ln 1785, when John Tritton, who had married a Barclay, was admitted as a partner, the business then became "Barclay, Bevan, Bening and Tritton."

In 1896 20 banks in London and the English province united under the banner of Barclays and Co., a joint-stock bank. The largest of them were Barclay, Bevan, Ransom, Tritton Bouverie and Co, and the East Anglian Gurney group of banks. They chose the name Barclay because it came first alphabetically among the list of directors. 

In 1917 the name was changed to Barclays Bank Ltd.

Barclays bank Melton Road Belgrave Leicester.  Victuallers

Barclays was the first UK bank to appoint a woman bank manager. In 1958 Hilda Harding was appointed manager of Barclays' Hanover Square branch in London. She remained there until her retirement in 1970.

In 1959 Barclays became the first British bank to order a computer for its accounting.

The first ever cash dispenser was fitted outside the bank's branch in Enfield, north London on June 27, 1967.

Barclays launched Barclaycard in June 1966, initially as a charge card. Following Bank of England agreement to the offering of revolving credit, it became the first credit card in the United Kingdom on  November 8, 1967. Barclaycard enjoyed the monopoly of the credit card market in the United Kingdom, until Lloyds Bank, Midland Bank and National Westminster Bank launched the Access Card in October 1972.

Barclays was the first UK bank to issue a debit card. They issued the Connect card in June 1987 to reduce the number of checks being used at the point of sale, which are costly for the banks to process.

Today, Barclays has over 4,750 branches, including more than 3,000 outside Britain in 50 countries. It employs 147,000 people and has 42 million customers. 

Sources Reuters, Wikipedia

Barcelona

Barcelona is Spain's second-largest city, its largest port, and its chief commercial center.

Barcelona was founded by the Carthaginians in the 3rd century BC.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Barcelona was a center of Catalan separatism, including the Catalan Revolt (1640–52) against Philip IV of Spain. 

Barcelona in 1563

The Great Plague of Seville decimated Barcelona in the early 1650s, Some estimate it halved the city's population.

Barcelona was devastated during the War of Spanish Succession in 1714 when during the Siege of Barcelona the capital city of Catalonia was forced to surrender to Spanish and French Bourbon armies.

FC Barcelona, one of the most successful football clubs in Spain, was founded by Swiss football pioneer Joan Gamper on November 29, 1899.

Work on Barcelona’s fantastical Sagrada Familia Roman Catholic church was expected to be complete by 2026 — 144 years after it was begun by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi in 1882. He joked that his client, God, was in no hurry to see it finished. The finish date has now been delayed further due to the coronavirus pandemic

Gaudi spent his last 15 years living as a hermit beneath the unfinished structure of his great Barcelona church. He was run over by a tram and looked so bedraggled that bystanders took him for a tramp and were slow in getting him to hospital, where he died on June 10, 1926.

Barcelona FC’s Camp Nou opened on September 24, 1957.  It is currently the largest stadium in Europe with a seating capacity of 99,354.

By Oh-Barcelona.com from Barcelona, Spain - The Camp Nou Stadium - Wikipedia

The city hosted the Summer Olympics between July 25 and August 9, 1992. It was the first and to date only Olympics to be held in Spain.

When Barcelona won the Riba Gold Medal in 1999, it was the first and only time that the winner was a city, not an architect.

Pope John Paul II was a fair goalkeeper in his youth and a honorary member of Barcelona FC.

Barcelona has built around 300 playgrounds for senior citizens that are meant to improve fitness and decrease isolation.

Barcelona's 197 foot Columbus Monument was built to mark how Christopher Columbus reported to Queen Isabella after his first voyage to the Americas. The statue shows him supposedly pointing to the New World, but he is actually pointing south, to Algeria.

La Rambla is a tree-lined pedestrian street in central Barcelona. It stretches for 1.2 km (0.75 mi) connecting the Plaça de Catalunya in its center with the Christopher Columbus Monument at Port Vell.

Barcelona is ranked the most popular city to visit in Spain. It received a record number 12 million visitors in 2019. 

Barbiturates

A Barbiturate is a Hypnosedative drug, commonly known as a ‘sleeping pill’, consisting of any salt or ester of barbituric acid C₄H₄O₃N₂. It works by depressing brain activity.

Below is barbituric acid, the parent structure of all barbiturates. 

By Manuel Almagro Rivas - Wikipedia

In 1864 the German chemist Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer succeeded in synthesising a new organic compound. The date, December 4th coincided with the feast of Saint Barbara, and so the German name given to the substance was called “Barbitursäure” or barbituric acid.

In 1887 a powerful hypnotic (to produce sleep) called sulphonal came into medical use. Sulphonal was the first really popular drug of the Bayer Company's laboratories in Germany, and helped finance research on further hypnotics.

In 1903 the German chemist Emil Fischer and pathologist Joseph Freiherr Von Mering  introduced new hypnotics and sedatives (to produce a calming effect), that became known as barbiturates. These are derived from barbituric acid with the addition of several small hydrocarbon sidechains and they took the place of the earlier drugs such as Sulphonal.

Tolerance develops quickly in the user so that increasingly large doses are required to induce sleep. A barbiturate's action persists for hours or days, and can cause confused, aggressive behaviour or disorientation.

Overdosing causes death by inhibiting the breathing center in the brain.

Most barbiturates, being highly addictive, are no longer prescribed and are listed as controlled substances.

Source Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2012. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.

Barbie doll

The idea for Barbie came about after Mattel toy partner Ruth Handler watched her daughter, Barbara, cut dolls out of magazines and carefully choose clothes and accessories to clothe them in. All other dolls on the market at the time were baby dolls, but Ruth realized there was enormous potential in a doll with adult features, allowing children to act out their dreams.

Ruth Handler

Barbie was named by Ruth after her daughter. Her full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts, and she is from Willows, Wisconsin.

Barbie was the first doll with developed breasts

Mattel designer Jack Ryan (1926-1991) created the popular image of the Barbie doll. Apart from Barbie's general appearance, Ryan designed both the hinge that enabled her knees and waist to bend and her pull-string voice box.

Ryan was also noted for being being the sixth husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor.

The Barbie Doll made her debut in a zebra-striped swimsuit at the New York Toy Fair on March 9, 1959. The first Barbie was introduced in both blonde and brunette. She took toy stores across the United States by storm and more than 351,000 dolls were sold that year at $3 (£2.00) each.

The first Barbie doll introduced in March 1959. Barbieologin at Wikimedia

March 9th is also used as Barbie's official birthday.

She was introduced to the United Kingdom in 1961.

Barbie wasn't given bendable legs until 1965.

In 1993 the Barbie Liberation Organization switched the voice boxes on talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls causing the barbies to say phrases like "vengeance is mine" and G.I. Joes to say "The beach is the place for summer." 300 to 500 dolls were modified.

After Aqua recorded their hit single "Barbie Girl" in 1997, Mattel sued the Danish band, in 2002, saying they violated the Barbie trademark and turned Barbie into a sex object, referring to her as a "Blonde Bimbo."

The live-action Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie was released in theaters on July 21, 2023. The film follows Barbie as she is kicked out of Barbieland for not being perfect enough. She then embarks on an adventure in the real world, where she learns to embrace her imperfections and to be herself.  

Mattel sells over 20-million Barbies a year. About half of American girls have owned at least one.

In 2003, Barbie was first banned then declared a threat to morality in Saudi Arabia.

In 2012, Iran banned the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the country from decadent Western cultural influences.

 "Hello Barbie" was released in 2015. She used speech recognition and connected to WiFi. When you pressed her belt buckle, Barbie saved what you said to the cloud so she could learn your likes and dislikes and incorporate them into future conversations. Some parents found it "too creepy".

A standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall, giving a height of 5 feet 9 inches at 1/6 scale. Barbie's vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). At 5'9" tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 and fit the weight criteria for anorexia.

Judged by the head size, if the Barbie doll were life-size she'd be 7ft 2in tall and, strangely, given that she is meant to be a teenage girl, her figure would be 36-13-38!

If Barbie were life-size her neck would be twice the length of a normal human’s neck.

On average, a Canadian girl owns seven Barbie dolls, whereas an American girl owns eight. 

The world’s largest collection of Barbie dolls is owned by Bettina Dorfmann, from Dusseldorf, Germany, who has 18,000 of them.

There are more than 200 different types of Barbie Dolls.

Barbie has held more than 130 different careers since she was first introduced in 1959.

Barbie has parents, eight siblings (two of which are now discontinued) and chose never to have children.

There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than there are Canadians in Canada.

Every second, two Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world.

Two and a half time more Barbies are sold every year than babies are born in the US.

There's a Barbie-like Islamic doll called "Fulla".

 Sources Greatfacts.com, Wikipedia, Daily Express

Samuel Barber

The American composer Samuel Barber was a major figure in contemporary classical music. Although the strong melodic emphasis of his music reflects the romantic tradition, his rhythmic and harmonic structures marked his style as a 20th-century composer. 

Samuel Barber was born on March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of pianist Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and physician Samuel Le Roy Barber.

Childhood home of Samuel Barber in West Chester, Pennsylvania

He composed his first work, Sadness, a 23-measure solo piano piece in C minor. when he was seven. 

At the age of 10, Samuel Barber wrote a short opera entitled The Rose.

At the age of 12, Barber was holding down a part-time $100-a-month organist’s post at Westminster Church in West Chester.

At 14 he became one of the first pupils at the new Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Samuel Barber, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1944

Barber had a brief career as a professional baritone in the 1930s, performing on the NBC Music Guild concert series and earning a weekly contract on NBC radio. 

Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings was premiered the NBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the conductor Arturo Toscanini in 1938. It was an immediate hit and remains his best-known score. The work endures in part due to its appearance in two well-known film soundtracks - Platoon and The Elephant Man.

His 1946 ballet Medea was written for the American dancer Martha Graham. 

Barber won the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: in 1958 for the opera Vanessa and in 1963 for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

When Barber's third opera Antony and Cleopatra officially opened the New Metropolitan Opera House in September 1966, the critical mauling the work received – mostly to do with Franco Zeffirelli’s over elaborate staging rather than the music itself – virtually finished him. Barber spent many years in isolation after its harsh rejection and suffered from depression, as well as being beset by alcoholism.

Barber died of cancer in 1981 in New York City at the age of 70. He was buried in Oaklands Cemetery in his hometown of West Chester.

Barber

BARBERS IN HISTORY

The word ‘barber’ comes from the Latin barba, "beard".

By https://wellcomeimages.org/

The barber's trade has been traced back to 3500 B.C in Ancient Egypt, where relics of razors have been found. Priests and men of medicine are the earliest recorded examples of barbers.

Barber shops first came into vogue in the Ancient Greek period. Men would have their beards, hair, and fingernails trimmed and styled in an agora, which also served as a social gathering where political, sports, and social news and gossip was exchanged.

Some Ancient Greek barbers were skilled artists and respected community members. Others were household slaves who were punished if they allowed a hair out of place.

Barbering was introduced to the Romans by the Greek colonies in Sicily in 296 B.C. After Publicus Ticinius Maenas, a wealthy Greek businessman, brought professional barbers from Sicily to Rome, barber shops quickly became very popular centers for daily news and gossip.

In Roman times all free men had to be clean shaven while slaves were forced to wear beards.

Roman barbers dressed cuts with spiders’ webs soaked in vinegar.

Roman Barbers use thin-bladed iron razors, shaved a face with an iron novacila, or Roman razor, which were sharpened with water and a whetstone. They didn't always use soap or oil, which is probably why it takes so long to shave a patron's face.

A decree was issued in 1092 Britain by which the ecclesiastical authorities forbade monks to grow beards. As a result many surgeons also became "beard-cutters” or barbers.

The barber pole was introduced in Britain featuring red and white spiraling stripes, which indicated the two crafts (surgery in red and barbering in white).

A red, white and blue striped pole By Ellin Beltz

Barbers developed a thriving bloodletting practice during the later Middle Ages. The theory behind it stemmed from a belief that blood was the product of food and that an excess of blood led to all kinds of ailments, The practice of bleeding, which entailed draining blood from the individual, called at times for releasing more blood than is now known to exist in the whole body. It frequently resulted in death or the need for lifelong care.

Barbers received higher pay than surgeons until surgeons were entered into British warships during naval wars.

In 1450, an Act of Parliament prohibited barbers from performing surgery.

Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning frame initially started off as a barber. After the death of his first wife, Patience Holt, by whom he had a son, he married Margaret Biggins in 1761. Margaret had a small income, which enabled Arkwright to expand his barbering business. He acquired a secret method for dyeing hair and traveled about the country purchasing human hair for use in the manufacture of wigs.

In 1940s Mississippi there was a man called the Phantom Barber who would break into people's houses at night, and cut their hair. His prime target was young girls with blonde hair.

Apprentice barbers in Copenhagen staged the longest strike in history from 1938 to 1961.

FUN BARBER FACTS

Danny DeVito is a qualified hairdresser.

It is illegal in Elkhart, Indiana, for a barber to threaten to cut off a youngster's ears.

Barbers are not allowed to eat onions between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. in Waterloo, Nebraska.

Forest Grove, Oregon, is home to the world’s tallest barber pole. Built in 1973, the red, white, and blue striped pole is 72 feet (22 meters) high.

Source Daily Express

Barbed Wire

Ironmonger Lucien Smith of Kent, Ohio patented the first artificial thorn hedge on June 25, 1867. It is better known today as barbed wire.

Joseph Farwell Glidden, a DeKalb, Illinois farmer invented a method for mass manufacturing of barbed wire in 1873. It was cheap to produce and easy to put up and Glidden made a fortune as miles of his wire criss-crossed American farms. It was the beginning of the end of open range in the west.

In 1876 commercial production was 1,500 tons (1,361 tonnes) and by 1900 annual barbed wire production had reached 200,000 tons (181,437 tonnes). By 1910 wooden fences had almost disappeared.

The widespread use of barbed wire in the United States in the late 19th century enabled improvements in cattle breeding and ranching. It became more affordable to fence much larger areas than before, and intensive animal husbandry was made practical on a much larger scale.

Barbed wire was used for military purpose the first time in the Spanish-American War during the siege of Santiago by the Spanish defenders.

Horses panic easily, and once caught in barbed wire, large patches of skin may be torn off. For this reason barbed wire was the single most important factor in rendering the  U.S. Cavalry ineffective and led to the cavalry's eventual dismantling.

Barbed wire was used extensively by all participating combatants in World War I to prevent movement, with deadly consequences. Barbed wire entanglements were placed in front of trenches to prevent direct charges on men below, increasingly leading to greater use of more advanced weapons such as high powered machine guns and grenades.

The Devil’s Rope Museum in Texas is a museum of barbed wire, housed in an old brassiere factory.

The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum has 2,000 varieties of barbed wire.

Source foodreference.com, Wikipedia

Barbecue

The first barbecuers may well have been prehistoric cavemen. Anthropologists say they may have started roasting meat some 1.4 million years ago.

In classical Greece, meat rarely was eaten, except during ritual feasts, when it was prepared as simply as a steak at a modern backyard barbecue. 

The word “barbecue” first appeared in print in 1653. It comes from a word Arawak Indians in Haiti used, who smoked strips of meat over an open fire on a grating of wood called a “berbekot”.

The word barbecue took on in America the meaning of meat cooked on an apparatus in the open air over a fire and the social gathering incorporating such cooking by the 1730s.

The abbreviation BBQ was first recorded in Los Angeles in 1938.

Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, hosted the first barbecue at the White House that featured Texas-style barbecued ribs.

The abbreviation “barbie” was first recorded in Australia in 1976.

Lexington, North Carolina is known as the Barbecue Capital of the World. October is Barbecue Month there, with a month-long Annual Barbecue Festival.

Texas A&M University offers a class on Texas Barbecue that teaches the history of barbecue, cooking methodology, flavorings and seasonings, and different types of barbecue. The class is offered in the fall and is held on Friday afternoons. 

The most popular foods for cooking on the grill are, in order: burgers (85 percent), steak (80 percent), hot dogs (79 percent) and chicken (73 percent).

The average barbecue grill has 124 % more germs on it than a toilet seat and is cleaned only twice a year.

Three out of four American households own a grill and they use it on average of five times per month.

Sources Daily Express, Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, Grilling Facts and Trivia, Food For Thought; Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce, Hpba.org

Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara (d235) of Nicomedia, Turkey, spent her youth on her own in a tower, especially built for her by her father to protect her from the world. She converted to Christianity, against the will of her fanatical heathen father and rejected an offer of marriage that she received through him. After attempts to un-convert proved unsuccessful, Barbara’s father struck off her head. 

When he had beheaded her, the father was struck by lightning on his way home and his body was consumed. Because of that event, St. Barbara has been associated with lightning and is prayed to during storms.

The beheading of St. Barbara" by Giulio Quaglio the Younger (1721 - 1723)

For the same reason Barbara is the patron saint of artillery, and her image was at one time frequently placed on arsenals and powder magazines; the powder storage room of a French warship is still called Sainte-Barbe. 

Palma Vecchio's Polyptych of Saint Barbara is a Renaissance painting that depicts Saint Barbara. The painting is known for its expressive depiction of the saint, which has been described as conveying both noble serenity and feminine grace.

The depiction of Saint Barbara in Polyptych of Saint Barbara is significant because she was a highly venerated saint during the Renaissance period, and her image was often used to symbolize Christian virtues such as chastity and faith. In Palma Vecchio's painting, Saint Barbara is shown with a serene expression, her eyes cast downward in prayer, and her hands clasped in front of her. Her long, flowing hair and delicate features are suggestive of her femininity, which is emphasized by the soft, warm colors of her clothing and the gentle curve of her neck.

Despite her feminine qualities, however, Saint Barbara is also depicted by Vecchio as a strong and resolute figure, a characteristic that was highly valued in Renaissance art. Her pose is erect and dignified, and her expression is one of peaceful resolve. This combination of feminine grace and inner strength makes her an inspiring figure for both men and women, and it is one of the reasons why her image has endured in Western art for centuries.

The Polyptych of Saint Barbara

Her feast day for Roman Catholics and Anglicans is December 4. 

Source Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia

Barbados

An island country in the Caribbean, Barbados is about 300 miles north of Venezuela. It is the easternmost island of the West Indies. 

Barbados was originally inhabited by Arawak Indians, who were wiped out soon after the arrival of the first Europeans, the Portuguese, in the early 17th century.

When first settled in 1625, Barbados was found to be almost totally covered in dense jungle, with a very large population of wild pigs.

Barbados became a British colony in 1627 and remained so until independence on November 30, 1966.

The island's first and second governors, Captain William Deane, and John Powell, respectively, were each arrested during their terms as governor, and returned to England in irons.
 
The first settlement in Barbados, Holetown, acquired its name due to the off loading and cleaning of ships in the very small channel located within the immediate vicinity of the town. These tasks left the area in an untidy and smelly condition....thus the Jamestown area became referred to as "the Hole", which evolved into "Holetown", as it known today. (This channel is no longer in use for such purposes).

The capital city, Bridgetown, was originally named "Indian Bridge" for the rude bridge which had been constructed over the river (now known as the Careenage) by the Indians. It was later called the "town of St. Michael" in official documents, before finally being named Bridgetown when a new bridge was built in place of the Indian Bridge, sometime after 1654.
 
The House of Assembly, in 1666, by special Act, ordered that all buildings under construction of wood be halted, and that all buildings in Bridgetown, including homes, must be built of stone, due to the fire which totally destroyed Bridgetown in that year. The Capital has since been devastated by fire several times.
 
The first slaves in Barbados were white (called Indentured Servants); people who, for various reasons, had been deemed enemies of the Crown. This practice was so prevalent during the period 1640 to 1650, that a phrase for punishment was coined "to be Barbadoed".

In 1688 fearing that slaves would use them to organize revolts, colonial officials in Barbados banned slave dances and the use of drums and horns.

In 1736 Barbados boasted 22 forts and 26 batteries, mounting a total of 463 cannon, along it's 21 miles (34 kms) of Western shoreline.

George Washington caught smallpox during a trip to Barbados in 1760. As a result he was permanently scarred.

The Lord Nelson Statue, erected on Bridgetown's Trafalgar Square on March 22, 1813, is older than the statue and square of the same name and fame in London.

Lord Nelson's statue in Barbados, West Indies, November 2000 

Trafalgar Square was renamed National Heroes Square in April 1999, in honor of the national heroes of Barbados.

On April 13, 1816 African-born slave Bussa led a rebellion from British-ruled slavery. His rebellion was defeated by British forces but Bussa became the first national hero of Barbados.

 
During the period 1841 - 1845, Barbados was considered the healthiest place in the world to live, having one death per 66 people, compared to world averages of approximately one death per 35 people.
 
People, in times past, traveled from all over the world to Barbados for it's healing qualities. These were to be immersed totally, with the exception of the head, in the sands of the beaches of Cattlewash in St. Andrew. This treatment was believed to cure many ills and lasted for some years before waning.
 
Barbados had on record, in 1846, 491 active sugar plantations, with 506 windmills.

The national flag of Barbados was officially adopted on November 30, 1966, the island's first Independence Day,  when it was raised for the first time by Lieutenant Hartley Dottin of the Barbados Regiment.

In 2021, Barbados transitioned from a parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the hereditary monarch of Barbados to a parliamentary republic with a ceremonial elected president as head of state. The last Governor-General, Dame Sandra Mason, replaced Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state, taking office on November 30, 2021.

South Carolina in the United States, was originally settled by Barbadians, and it's first Governor was a Barbadian.

Barbados is 34 kilometers (21 mi) long and 23 kilometers (14 mi) wide at its widest part; total area, 431 square kilometers (166 sq mi). 

The population of Barbados is an estimated 287,025 (2019). The average population density of 660 persons per square kilometer (1709 per sq mi) is notably high considering the predominantly rural agricultural character of the island. 

Close to 90% of the total population is of Afro-Caribbean descent ("Afro-Bajans") and mixed descent; the remaining portion is mainly composed of European and Indian descent. English is the official language. 

The economy of Barbados has traditionally been dependent on the growing of sugarcane and the production and export of refined sugar, molasses, and rum. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s it has diversified into the manufacturing and tourism sectors.  

Barbados is often spared the worst effects of the region's tropical storms and hurricanes during the rainy season. On average, a major hurricane strikes about once every 26 years.

The climate is tropical, tempered by sea breezes; Barbados' mean annual temperature is about 26.1° C (about 79° F). 

Barbados' highest point is Mount Hillaby, which isn't much of a mountain as such, "rising" to 1,120ft (340m) roughly at the heart of the country.

Barbados has a Rihanna Day on February the 22th to celebrate their most famous celebrity.

Sources Tripadvisor.co.uk, Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2012. Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia

Bar

The oldest bar in the world, the Cave Bar, occupies a 2,000-year-old Nabatean rock tomb in Petra, Jordan, where drinkers can sup into the small hours on summer nights.

The oldest bar in the western world is in Ireland. Archeological records have found that the walls of Sean’s Bar have been around, and serving, since 900 AD. Further, there are records of every owner of the pub back to its 10th century founding. It opened over 1100 years ago.

The façade of Sean's Bar. Wikipedia

Abraham Lincoln’s bodyguard, a drunk previously reprimanded for drinking on the job, was not at his post to protect the American president the night Lincoln died. Instead, he was at the Star Saloon next door boozing; the same bar where John Wilkes Booth was building up the courage to shoot the President.

In 1896, New York passed a pre-prohibition drinking law, the Raines law, to reduce Sunday drinking. The law had a loophole allowing bars to serve alcohol only with a meal. Staff added a sandwich to every drink order, then took it away, serving it to the next customer - the sandwich often lasted all day.

In 1977 a group of Chicago Sun-Times journalists bought a dive bar. They used it as a front to uncover and expose widespread political corruption and payoffs.

A 1700 year old baobab tree in Modjadjiskloof, South Africa had a 15-person full bar inside its 155 foot (47 meters) wide trunk called the Big Baobab Tree Bar. The bar closed and the tree eventually fell over in 2017.

Bars in the Veltins-Arena, a major football ground in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, are interconnected by a 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) long beer pipeline. With 15 small restaurants, 50 grilling stations and 35 cafés, the stadium can serve up to 2,500 kg (5,512 lbs) of sausages, 7,000 pretzels, and 1,000 square meters (10764 sq ft) of pizza in one day. These catering areas are connected to a 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) long beer-line, supplying them with roughly 52,000 liters (11,438 gallons) of beer per match day.

Wisconsin has the same number of bars as California despite a population that’s 85% smaller. 1 bar for every 1,862 residents compared to California’s 1 for every 11,962 residents.

When an Indian law required bars to be at least 500 meters (1,640 ft) from certain roads, one bar built a maze in front of its entrance to triple the walking distance from the door to the street. Regulators accepted this solution.

The Front Porch bar in Denver, Colorado, features Flip Night every Wednesday where you flip a coin after you order your drink. If you guess correctly, you get your drink for free. If you get it wrong you pay double.

Baptist

Baptists originated among early 17th century English Dissenters led by a preacher from Gainsborough called John Smyth. These “Baptists” were Christians who had rejected the Church of England and Catholic Church but couldn't accept orthodox Calvinism. They advocated adult baptism, as they couldn't understand how a baby can appreciate the importance of infant baptism.

Due to persecution in England the early Baptists were forced to emigrate to Amsterdam. John Smyth and fellow English Non-Conformist, Thomas Helwys, founded there the first official Baptist church in 1609.

The first English Baptist church was built at Spitalsfield, London by Thomas Helwys and a small group of fellow Christians in Newgate in 1612.

The first American Baptist church was established at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1612 when Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, was baptized before proceeding to baptize eleven others.

Frequently the subject of bitter persecution, the Baptist denomination at first grew slowly in America but growth accelerated in the 18th century largely as a result of the Great Awakening revival movement. 

In the 19th century the Baptists split over the issue of slavery. This led to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. 

The very first package tour was organized by an English Baptist minister named Thomas Cook who on the July 5, 1841, for a return fare of 1 shilling, took a party of 570 people from Leicester to a temperance rally 11 miles away at Loughborough. He subsequently organized other package tours as part of his fight against the demon drink.

Baptist churches are found today in almost every country in the world. According to a Baptist World Alliance census released in 2020, there are 241 Baptist denominations members in 126 countries, 169,000 churches and 47,000,000 baptized members.

The picture below shows a believer's baptism of adult by immersion at Northolt Park Baptist Church, London.

By brett jordan - https://www.flickr.com/photos/x1brett/

Another 15 percent of Americans identify themselves as Baptists or Southern Baptists, meaning this group accounts for nearly three in 10 Protestants. 

In a study published in 2014 using data from The National Survey of American Life: Coping with Stress in the 21st Century (NSAL), 49.08% of African American respondents identified as Baptist.

According to the 2005 English Church Census 8% of regular churchgoers in England are Baptists. There 2,386 Baptist churches with an average congregation of 107.

Censuses carried out by the Baptist denominations in 2020 revealed that the Nigerian Baptist Convention with 13,654 churches and 8,000,637 members claimed the most members on the African continent, the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists with 2,272 churches and 113,000 members in Europe and the Brazilian Baptist Convention with 9,018 churches and 1,790,227 members in South America.

The First Adult Baptism Of The Reformation

In 1523 the Zurich reformed Christians Conrad Grebel (d1526) and theologian Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) divided over the issue of whether Mass should be abolished or not. Two years later Zwingli, who had began to reform Zurich by working with the city council, officially severed ties with Grebel and his fellow radicals over the issue of infant baptism. When the council, ordered that any unbaptized infants must be submitted for baptism within eight days, Grebel stood his ground, refusing for his recently born child, Issabella, to be baptized.

Seven days later, at a meeting of those who sided with Grebel, George Blaurock, a married former priest, stepped over to Conrad Grebel and asked him for baptism in the same way as the early church-fully immersed upon confession of personal faith in Jesus Christ. Blaurock was baptized on the spot, the first adult baptism of the Reformation. Afterwards on this historic snowy January evening the former priest proceeded to baptize the others present. Grebel, who died of the plague the following year is often called the ‘Father of Anabaptists’.

Baptism

Baptism is the immersion in or sprinkling with water as a religious rite of initiation. It was practiced long before the beginning of Christianity.

St Augustine laid the foundations for infant baptism. He taught that people are born with an affinity for sin and as descendants of Adam and Eve share in the guilt of original sin. Therefore infant baptism was important.

The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was founded on January 21, 1525 when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.

The early Anabaptists were often drowned by their persecutors as the authorities reckoned if they wanted to be fully immersed- let them! King Ferdinand declared drowning (called the third baptism) "the best antidote to Anabaptism".

The picture below is a print from Anglican theologian Daniel Featley's book, The Dippers Dipt, or, The Anabaptists Duck'd and Plung'd Over Head and Ears, at a Disputation in Southwark, published in 1645.

The Honiton christening gown is an item of baptismal clothing used by the British royal family at every christening. The original gown was created for the christening of Victoria, Princess Royal, on February 10, 1841 and was used by the royal family until 2004, when it was retired for conservation. In total, the original gown was used by 62 royal children over a period of 163 years.

The phrase "in limbo" comes from the belief that unbaptized infants were deemed unable to go to heaven or hell (as they have not committed a sin).

A Swedish pastor was electrocuted as he stood in a pool of water for a baptism ceremony when one of his assistants handed him a live microphone.

The priest at young Boris Yeltsin’s christening was so drunk that he dropped baby Boris into the font then forgot he was there.

When the one-month-old Prince Charles was baptized by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Buckingham Palace, the water used was from the River Jordan.

In 2014, Pope Francis said he would baptize aliens if they asked. He did not want to close doors to green Martians with "long noses and big ears". 

Here is a list of songs about baptisms