Toyota

While still a department of Toyota Industries, Toyota created its first product, the Type A engine in 1934, and its first passenger car in 1936, the Toyota AA.

Toyota Standard Sedan AA 1936. By BsBsBs

Toyota Motors was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda on August 28, 1937, as a spinoff from his father's company Toyota Industries to create automobiles.

The first vehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda"  from the family name of Kiichirō Toyoda. In 1936 the company decided for a new name and held a competition. Toyota was chosen out of the 27,000 entries because the number of strokes to write Toyota in Japanese (eight) was thought to bring luck and prosperity.

The Toyota Land Cruiser originated after the Imperial Japanese Army captured an American Jeep during World War II and ordered Toyota to reverse-engineer it. 

Introduced in 1966, the Toyota Corolla was the first mass-market car to have a radio fitted as standard. 

The Toyota Corolla was also the first Japanese car to threaten the American and European dominance of the industry, thanks to its efficiency. The Corolla was the best-selling motor vehicle worldwide by 1974 and has continued since then to be one of the best-selling cars in the world. 

The first commercial hybrid car, the Toyota Prius, first went on sale in Japan on December 10, 1997 and was launched worldwide three years later. 

The first Prius, model NHW10. By Benespit 

Since becoming fashionable among ecologically aware Hollywood celebrities the Toyota Prius has inspired a legion of impressionable "civilian" consumers to follow suit. Toyota Motor Company announced on March 11, 2009 it had sold over 1 million gas-electric hybrid vehicles in the U.S.

As of January 2017, the Prius liftback is the world's top selling hybrid car with almost 4 million units sold.

A Swiss couple Emil and Liliana Schmid have earned their place in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest driven journey in the same car. As of April 4, 2017 they had driven 741,065 km (460,476 miles) and traveled across 186 countries in the same Toyota Land Cruiser in a journey that started on October 18, 1984 and is still ongoing.

Today the Toyota Motor Corporation produces vehicles under five brands - the Toyota brand, Hino, Lexus, Ranz, and Daihatsu.

Toyota is the largest automobile manufacturer (by production) ahead of the Volkswagen Group and General Motors. In 2012 Toyota became the world's first automobile manufacturer to produce more than 10 million vehicles per year.

In 2017, Toyota's corporate structure consisted of 364,445 employees worldwide and, as of October 2016, it was the fifth-largest company in the world by revenue.

Toyota Motor unseated General Motors as the top-selling automaker in the United States in 2021, becoming the first manufacturer based outside the country to achieve that feat in the industry’s history.

The Toyota Supra which Brian drives at the end of Furious 7 actually belonged to the late actor Paul Walker.

Source The Independent

Toy Story

Toy Story is a 1995 American computer animated fantasy comedy adventure movie directed by John Lassiter. 

It was the first Disney/Pixar animated movie and the first animated movie to be completely done with computers instead of hand-drawn animation. 

Wikipedia

At Pixar, Lasseter created short, computer-animated films to show off the Pixar Image Computer's capabilities, and the 1988 short Tin Toy – a story told from the perspective of a toy, referencing Lasseter's love of classic toys—would go on to claim the 1988 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the first computer-generated film to do so.

In the 1990s, Disney approached Lasseter about creating a Christmas special follow-up to Tin Toy, called A Tin Toy Christmas. Originally the film was going to only be six minutes long, but Lasseter asked for 30 minutes. Peter Schneider, former President of Walt Disney Studios, then green-lit a full-length feature instead.

Pixar made the movie while Disney packaged it and sold the reels of the movie to movie theaters. 

Toy Story was released on November 22, 1995. Due to tension between Pixar and Disney over whose film it really was, Toy Story had two premiers, one hosted by Disney and one hosted by Pixar chairman Steve Jobs. Disney invited actors and other Hollywood celebrities, Jobs invited people from the tech industry.

“Toy Story” wasn't the original film title. During production, the crew used the working name “Toy Story” - which they decided to keep - but other titles for the film included "Toyz in the Hood", "The Cowboy & The Spaceman", "I'm With Stupid" and "Did Not, Did Too."

Toy Story had many rejected titles when looking for an official one, some of these including "Toyz in the Hood" and "The Cowboy & The Spaceman", in the end however they went with Toy Story which was originally just a temporary placeholder name during the creation of the project.

Director John Lasseter revealed that his own childhood toys inspired the characters of Woody and Buzz Lightyear. 

John Lasseter (left) holding the action figure of Buzz Lightyear,

In the film's first test, Buzz Lightyear was originally called Tempus From Morph. It was later changed to Lunar Larry and then Buzz Lightyear to honor Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

Comic actor Tim Allen is the voice of Buzz Lightyear, but Jim Carrey was one of several people considered for the role. Billy Crystal was originally offered the part of Buzz, but he declined. Crystal later said in an interview that it was the biggest mistake of his career.

Sheriff Woody Pride is voiced by Tom Hanks in the feature-length films and short films. Tom Hanks' brother, Jim Hanks, provides the voice for Woody in the Toy Story video games, short films, toys and basically anything that isn't the Pixar movies.

Woody was based on a pull-string Casper doll Lassiter once owned. He was originally a spooky-looking ventriloquist doll and was mean to the other toys. Disney felt a ventriloquist would be too scary for children, so Lasseter changed him to a pull-string toy. He also gave Woody a different, much nicer personality.

Woody as he appears in Toy Story 3

The Space Ranger took inspiration from the superior GI Joe action figure that the young Lassiter moved on to when he grew bored of his pull-string Casper doll.

Woody’s owner Andy was named after and based on Andy Luckey, the son of legendary animator Bud Luckey, Pixar's fifth employee and the creator of Sheriff Woody Pride. 

In all three Toy Story movies the number 95 is sprinkled throughout several scenes. The number is a reference to 1995, when the first film was released.

In their most productive week, the Pixar team animated 3½ minutes of the film Toy Story.

The toys never blink both eyes at the same time, instead blinking one eye at a time. It's an animation trope called ‘Offset Blink’. 

While Toy Story 2 was in production, an employee accidentally deleted the film. Luckily, a pregnant animator had a copy on her home computer since she wanted to work while taking care of her new baby.

The Etch a Sketch's appearance in Toy Story 2 increased sales of the product by 20% and saved The Ohio Art Company from financial ruin.

Sources NME, IBTimes

Toy

A toy is a plaything, which is usually for children. They can be for adults, and animals too. 

Pixiebay

The earliest toys were made from rocks, sticks or clay. In Ancient Egypt, children played with dolls made of clay and sticks.

Dolls may be the world’s oldest toys. Examples have been found in Egyptian tombs from 2000 BC.

Model soldiers date back 4,000 years to ancient Egypt.

In Ancient Greece children played with dolls made of wax, terracotta or sticks. 

Little horse on wheels, Ancient Greek children's toy. By Sharon Mollerus

The Greeks made charming small terra-cotta figures, known as Tanagra figurines, probably for use as ornaments or as children's toys. 

The yo-yo is the second oldest known toy in the world (only the doll is older), and was born over 3,000 years ago in the days of ancient Greece.

Boy playing with a terracotta yo-yo, Attic kylix, c. 440 BC, 

When Greek children, especially girls became adults, it was required to sacrifice the toys to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood.

Toys became more widespread with the changing attitudes towards children as a result of the Enlightenment. Children began to be seen as people rather than just extensions of their household and they had a right to flourish and enjoy their childhood. 

Tin soldiers were first produced in Germany in the 1730s by molding the metal between two pieces of slate. They became widespread midway through the 18th century, inspired by the military exploits of Frederick the Great.

The Jigsaw puzzle was invented by the English mapmaker and geographer John Spilsbury in around 1760. He used a marquetry saw to produce maps cut in pieces to help children learn geography.

John Spilsbury's "Europe divided into its kingdoms, etc." (1766). Wikipedia

The kaleidoscope is an optical toy, where the user sees many beautiful, colorful patterns. It was invented in 1816 by Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster (December 11, 1781 – February 10, 1868). The word "kaleidoscope" is derived from the Ancient Greek kalos, "beautiful, beauty", eidos, "that which is seen: form, shape" and skope, "to look to, to examine." 

A patent was granted for the kaleidoscope in July 1817. Unfortunately the manufacturer originally engaged to produce the product had shown one of the patent instruments to some of the London opticians to see if he could get orders from them. Soon the instrument was copied and marketed before the manufacturer had prepared any number of kaleidoscopes for sale. An estimated 200,000 kaleidoscopes sold in London and Paris in just three months, most of them copies, which did not give a correct impression of Brewster's invention.

A toy kaleidoscope tube. Wikipedia

Stuffed toys are less than 150 years old with the first stuffed toy being a felt elephant originally sold as a pincushion by the German Steiff company in 1880. 

In 1892, the Ithaca Kitty became one of the first mass-produced stuffed animal toys in the United States, started a fad for plush toys that lasted from its introduction until after World War I.

Snow globes were accidentally invented in 1900 by a medical tool repair man. Austrian Erwin Perzy I  was trying to make a brighter light bulb for operating rooms, so he tried using a water filled glass with reflective particles to do this. The effect looked like snow to him which is how he got the idea for snow globes.

Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit was the first soft toy to be patented, in 1903, making Peter the oldest licensed character.

Joshua Lionel Cowen tried to make an electric train at age 7, but it exploded. Years later, in 1910 his efforts were successful and the Lionel train was born. It cost $6 and consisted of an electric flatcar and 30 feet of track.

Three Polish-Jewish brothers, Herman, Hillel, and Henry Hassenfeld started by selling pencils in 1923. When two decades later, they specialized in producing toys, including Mr. Potato Head, the company was renamed "Hasbro."

Silly Putty (originally called nutty putty) is a silicone plastic "clay" with unusual physical properties, that is sold as a toy for children.  It was first created when Scottish-born engineer James Wright, while attempting to develop a substitute for rubber, dropped a lump of gooey stuff on a General Electric laboratory floor and it bounced. Accidentally, he had invented Silly Putty.

Silly Putty was introduced as a toy on March 6, 1950 by Peter C. L. Hodgson, Sr. a marketing consultant, who packaged one-ounce portions of the rubber-like material in plastic eggs.

Silly Putty in the form of a solid cube

In 1952, little Anne Odell's school restricted students to toys no bigger than a matchbox. So her father an engineer, made her a tiny die-cast steamroller—the first ever matchbox car.

The first toy product ever advertised on US television was Mr. Potato Head, which was introduced in 1952.

The original Mr. Potato Head didn't come with a plastic body. The pieces were meant to be put into an actual potato.

The green clay humanoid character Gumby wasn't originally meant as a toy. Illustrator Art Clokey conceived the sweet, supple icon as a character for an animated jazz video, but studio heads quickly recognized his greatest fans would be children.

American children were first introduced to Play-Doh in the mid 1950s. Play-doh was originally designed as wallpaper cleaner two decades earlier by Joe McVicker. It was his sister-in-law, nursery school teacher Kay Zufall, who discovered its potential as a children's toy.

The inventors of Hot Wheels (Elliot Handler) and the Barbie dolls (Ruth Handler) were married for over two decades before either toy was invented. Barbie and Ken were named after their children.

1960 was the year of the Etch-a-Sketch. The Etch A Sketch toy was invented in the late 1950s by André Cassagnes, an electrician with Lincrusta Co, who named the toy L'Écran Magique (The Magic Screen). When The Ohio Art Company saw the product, they decided to take a chance it and renamed the toy Etch A Sketch. The very first Etch A Sketch rolled off of the Ohio Art Co. production line on July 12, 1960 and it quickly became the most popular drawing toy in the business. 

The Etch a Sketch's appearance in Toy Story 2 in a scene used to present sketches related to the investigation of Woody's kidnapping increased sales of the product by 20% and The Ohio Art Company was saved from financial ruin.

The Taj Mahal, complete with ripples in the reflection By Etcha - 

On March 5, 1963, the Hula Hoop was officially patented by Arthur "Spud" Melin, one of the co-founders of Wham-O, the company that popularized the toy. The Hula Hoop quickly became a sensation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with millions of Americans buying and twirling the colorful plastic hoops around their waists. The Hula Hoop craze even sparked a number of related products and spin-off toys, such as the Super Hoop, the Shoop-Shoop Hula Hoop, and the Hula Hoopla game.

Rubber ducks have been around since at least the 1940s, but they had a popular resurgence when on February 25, 1970 Jim Henson performed the song "Rubber Duckie" as Ernie on Sesame Street. Ernie frequently spoke to his duck and carried it with him in other segments of the show. The rubber duck bath toy has been an iconic American symbol ever since.

Silly String (also known as aerosol string) is a toy of flexible, sometimes brightly colored, plastic string propelled as a stream of liquid from an aerosol can. After being invented in 1972, one of the inventors was trying to sell their idea to Wham-O, when they sprayed the can all over the person who was meeting with them and all over their office. They were asked to leave, however, a day later received a telegram asking them to send 24 cans for a test market.

Young girls playing with Silly String. By Eden Keller from Mechanicsburg 

In 1982, Air Force and NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson was performing experiments in his bathroom for a new type of refrigeration system. Johnson shot a stream of water across the room and thought, "This would make a great gun." The Super Soaker went on to make him some $73 million in royalties.⁠ 

The Rubik's Cube, a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974, is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.

The stick (yep, the small tree branch) was inducted into the (U.S.) National Toy Hall of Fame in 2008. Organizers called it one of the world's oldest toys and said sticks "promote free play - the freedom to invent and discover."

LEGO is the largest toy company in the world. 

McDonald's is the world's largest distributor of toys.

Here is a list of songs about toys. 

Town

A town is a populous place bigger or less rural than a village.

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HISTORY

The Neolithic town of Khirokitia was situated on the slope of a hill in the valley of the Maroni River towards the southern coast of Cyprus. Khirokitia was one of the first known examples of an organised functional society in the form of a collective settlement. It had a paved public street with lanes leading off to courtyards of round tent-like houses. Khirokitia was occupied from the 7th until the 4th millennium BC.

There was a widespread and long-lasting tradition in what is now Southeastern and Eastern Europe of building settlements, and living in them, just to burn them to the ground every 75 -80 years. This lasted from as early as 6500 BC (the beginning of the Neolithic) to as late as 2000 BC (the end of the Chalcolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age). The reasons for this are still being researched.

In ancient China, towns were often arranged in patterns so that if seen from above, the whole community would resemble an animal or a symbolic design. Some were arranged to resemble dragons, snakes, stars and sunbursts.

Hippodamus of Miletus (498 – 408 BC), was an ancient Greek architect who is considered to be "the father of European urban planning". Hippodamus developed a new way of laying out the towns and cities of Greece. Using a rectangular grid, he brought together a number of large units, each of which was dedicated to some function of the town's life.

Hippodamus laid out the port town of Piraeus with wide streets radiating from the central Agora, which was called the Hippodameia in his honor. 

Map of Piraeus, showing the grid plan of the town

Plymouth, England, became the first town incorporated by the English Parliament on November 12, 1439. At the time the settlement was called Sutton. 

When the town walls of Sutton were built in 1404, the townsfolk were still under the local governmental control of the Priors of Plympton. They petitioned King Henry IV to be granted a charter allowing self-government, but one was not forthcoming.  In 1439 another attempt was made, to both King – by then Henry VI – and Parliament and this time Parliament passed an Act giving the place municipal status, the first time that Parliament had granted such powers. The name Plymouth first officially replaced Sutton in a charter of King Henry VI the following year.

Prysten House, 1498, is the oldest surviving house in Plymouth By Pierre Terre,

Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in Spanish Florida on September 8, 1565. He named the settlement "San Agustín", as his ships bearing settlers, troops, and supplies from Spain had first sighted land in Florida eleven days earlier on August 28, the feast day of St. Augustine. It is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in the continental United States. 

View of St. Augustine from the top of the lighthouse on Anastasia Island. By Ebyabe

The North Carolina town of Whynot was first settled in the 18th century by German and English people. The community was originally spelled with two separate words, "Why Not". It has its name because as residents were arguing over a name for the settlement, some person stood up and said "Why not name the town Why Not and let's go home?" And so they did.

The world's first water-powered cotton spinning mill was Cromford Mill, a five-storey cotton mill built in the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire, England by Richard Arkwright, the father of the factory system in 1771. Arkwright then built homes for the textile workers, making Cromford the first company town.

World Urbanism Day, also known as "World Town Planning Day" is an opportunity to unite planners and celebrate town planning around the globe. The day was founded in 1949 by Professor Carlos Maria della Paolera of the University of Buenos Aires, a graduate at the Institut d'urbanisme in Paris, to advance public and professional interest in planning. It is celebrated in more than 30 countries on four continents on November 8th.

FUN TOWN FACTS

Washington is the most common place name in the United States, with 88 different cities and towns throughout the country named Washington. Springfield takes second place and Franklin third place.

The town named Agloe, New York doesn't exist actually exist. Map Makers have made it up to catch people infringing on their copyrighted maps. It's an example of a Paper Town. 

The Arizona town of Why was originally known as just "Y" due to the Y-shaped intersection of two roads. It changed its name to "Why" due to an Arizona state law requiring town names to be at least 3 letters long.

Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! in Quebec, Canada, is the only town in the world with two exclamation points in its name.

Hum in Istria, Croatia is the world's smallest town. Hum has a museum, an inn, a railway station and two churches. According to the 2021 census its population was 52.

Hum (Croatia) By Ivana - Own work, 

Inhabitants of Arlesey, Bedfordshire (population 5,584) claim it is the longest town in Britain. Its main street is three miles long.

Rudyard, Montana is the only town in the contiguous United States in which you could dig a hole through the center of the earth and emerge from the other side on dry land. (Kerguelen Island in the Indian Ocean sits opposite of northern Montana.)

Sources Chronicle of The World, Information-Britain

Tower Of London

The Tower of London is a fortress on the Thames bank to the east of the city of London. The castle was founded in 1066.

Pixiebay

The White Tower was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 to intimidate the citizens of London. This later became part of the Tower of London. It is said that he ordered bull's blood to be mixed with the mortar symbolizing strength and a royal power that would last forever. 

An English royal collection of animals were housed in the Tower of London from the thirteenth century until 1834, when the last animals were moved to a new zoo in Regent's Park.

The castle was used as a prison from 1100 until 1952, but predominantly served as a royal residence. Below is a depiction of the imprisonment of Charles, Duke of Orléans, in the Tower of London during the Hundred Years War from a 15th-century manuscript.

Among the prisoners who were executed at the Tower of London were Thomas More, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Archbishop William Laud and The Duke of Monmouth.

The first person to be imprisoned in the Tower of London was a bishop, Ranulf Flambard, in 1100. He escaped using a rope smuggled inside a wine barrel.

Corporal Josef Jacobs was the last person to be executed at the Tower of London on August 15, 1941.  Jakobs was a German spy who was selected for a mission to parachute into Britain and gather intelligence. Jakobs landed in Kent, England, on the night of July 19, 1941 and was quickly captured by the British Home Guard. Jakobs was tried by a military court and found guilty of espionage. He was convicted of being a German spy 

Josef Jakobs's execution took place at the miniature rifle range in the grounds of the Tower of London. He was tied and blindfolded in a brown Windsor chair. Eight soldiers from the Holding battalion of the Scots Guards, armed with .303 Lee-Enfield rifles, fired a volley of shots at him. He was pronounced dead at 7:15 am.

Chair in which Jakobs sat when he was executed. By Hu Nhu 

The notorious Nazi, Rudolf Hess was the last prisoner kept in the Tower of London.

In the latter half of the 19th century, the Tower was restored to what was felt to be its medieval appearance and many post-medieval structures were cleared out. 

Today the Tower of London is a barracks, armory and museum. It is one of the United Kingdom's most popular tourist attractions. 

Under the ceremonial charge of the Constable of the Tower, the Tower of London is cared for by the charity Historic Royal Palaces and is protected as a World Heritage Site.

The Tower of London is guarded by 37 Yeoman Warders, who were originally formed in 1485 by Henry VII. Their Beefeater nickname may have derived from their meat diet.  In 1813, the daily ration for 30 men on duty was 24lb of beef, 18lb of mutton and 16lb of veal.

The Warders of the Tower of London were specifically named Yeomen Extraordinary of the Guard in the 16th century. 

Sources Daily Express, Hutchinson Encyclopedia

Tower

A tower is a tall self-supporting structure, either stand alone or a feature on top of a large building. They are distinguished from "buildings" in that they are not built to be habitable but to serve other functions, including sending radio signals, for observation, or to hold up bridges.

Most churches have a bell tower that is designed to hold bells. 

A church with a tower. By Baldiri 

The earliest known fortifications at the ancient city of Jericho was a Neolithic Tower dated to the eighth millennium BC. The tower stood 26 feet tall and inside was an internal staircase with 22 stone steps.

Ziggurats were towers built by the ancient Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians for local religions, predominantly Mesopotamian religion and Elamite religion. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex which included other buildings. 

Many believe the biblical Tower of Babel refers to the Etemenanki, a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk in the city of Babylon. A Babylonian text describes it as having a base of 295 feet square with seven platforms over 108 feet high. The top platform had a temple where the god met with humanity. Access was achieved by ramps or stairways.

The Tower of London is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078.

Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begun in 1173. It would take two centuries to complete. It leans at a 3.97 degree angle.

Thomas Turton Peterson built on his private estate from 1879–1885 a 200ft 14 story tower made out of concrete with no steel reinforcement. It's still standing today and is the tallest non-reinforced concrete structure in the world. It was designed as his mausoleum.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris is 934ft high, plus a 79ft of antenna. It was the world’s tallest man-made structure for 41 years. It was surpassed by the Chrysler Building in New York City in 1930.

The Eiffel Tower Wikipedia

The Ostankino Tower is a television and radio tower in Moscow,  which was built to mark the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. Completed in 1967 it stands 540.1 metres (1,772 ft) tall and was the first free-standing structure to exceed 500 m (1,600 ft) in height. 

When the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York was topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m) in December 1970, it became the tallest building in the world.

The Sears Tower is an 108-story, 1,451-foot skyscraper, which was completed in 1973. It surpassed the World Trade Center towers to become the tallest building in the world.

The CN Tower is a 553.33 m high (1,815.4 ft) concrete communications and observation tower in downtown Toronto. Upon completion in 1976, it was the world's tallest free-standing structure and tallest tower. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of Burj Khalifa and Canton Tower, respectively, both in 2010. It remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere.

The Tokyo Skytree, which opened to the public on May 22, 2012, is the tallest tower in the world standing 634 meters tall (2,080 ft). A broadcasting, restaurant and observation tower in Sumida, it is the third tallest (man-made) structure on Earth, after after the Merdeka 118 (678.9 m or 2,227 ft) and the Burj Khalifa (829.8 m or 2,722 ft)

A tower on a mosque is called a minaret. A muezzin calls Muslims to prayer from the minaret five times a day. 

A minaret on an Iranian mosque. By Emesik

A pagoda is any kind of tower with multiple eaves. Most pagodas were built for Buddhist religious purposes in East and Southeastern Asia and their original purpose was to house relics and sacred writings.

A survey of 2,000 people found that the clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben was the most popular landmark in the United Kingdom. 

The tallest free-standing bell tower in the world is the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, located at the University of Birmingham, England. It stands approximately 110 metres (360 ft).

The Most SNP is a road bridge over the Danube in Bratislava,  Slovakia. It is the only bridge in the world that is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. 

The Most SNP. By I, Alberto Fernandez Fernandez,

Towel

A towel is a cloth or absorbent paper used for drying a body or wiping clean a surface.

Pixiebay

The word towel occurs twice in the King James Bible. Both times it appears in chapter 13 of the Gospel of John, which describes how Jesus washed his disciples' feet then used using a towel to wipe their feet dry.

Bath towels were traditionally invented in the city of Bursa, now in Turkey, which was the capital of the Ottoman State in the 14th-century.

Charles Dickens was the first to use towel as a verb rather than a noun in 1865. He wrote in Our Mutual Friend, II. iii. iv. 25, "I mean to apron it and towel it.."

Hand towels (the paper variety) were invented in 1907 by Arthur Scott of Philadelphia. They were invented to stop the spread of the common cold in school classrooms. Paper towels for kitchen use followed in 1931.

Early paper towels. Wikipedia

The phrase "throw in the towel" meaning to concede defeat was first recorded in 1915. The allusion is to boxing, in which a trainer would throw a towel into the ring to admit that his man had lost. Before that it was "throw up the sponge",

Douglas Adams wrote in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy that a towel "is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."

Towel Day was first observed on May 25, 2001, two weeks after Douglas' Adams' death at the age of 49. On this day, fans carry towels with them as a way to remember Adams and his work.

Boxing promoter Don King charged Mike Tyson $8,000 a week for towels.

Towels are a central part of the culture in Belarus, even appearing on the country's flag. At a traditional Belarusian wedding, the bride walks to the church dragging a towel.

Source Daily Express

Battle of Tours

By 654 Islam had spread into all over of North Africa plus the Eastern Mediterranean area. Many areas were ripe for conquest as the divisions caused by Christian doctrinal conflict were weakening defenses against the Muslim invaders.

Also there was much nominal and ineffectual Christianity being practiced, which made it easy for the new religion to take hold. For instance Christianity arrived in Nubia part of modern day Sudan, in the sixth century and it became the state religion. However the Christian faith never caught on among the general public as the church services were in Greek, which none of the people spoke so they failed to understand what was going on. In time it fizzled out to be replaced by Islam.

On the death of King Witiza in 710, Roderic, Duke of Baetica in southern Spain was made King and Witiza's family turned to the North African Muslims for help. The following year Tariq ibn Ziyad, the governor of Tangier, landed at Gibraltar with 7000 men and defeated King Roderic in battle. For the next 300 years most of the Iberian peninsular was to be under Islamic control.

In 732 an army of around 60,000 Muslims led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus crossed the Pyrenees and invaded France. Their western advance was halted by Charles Martel, the King of the Francs at the Battle of Tours, near Poitiers on October 10, 732.

Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours. Charles de Steuben 

Though the Frankish army numbered 30,000, less than half the Muslim force, Abd-ar-Rahman was killed and Charles Martel's men emerged from the battle victorious. Charles's victory stopped the northward advance of the Islamic forces from the Iberian Peninsula and preserved Christianity in Europe during a period when Muslim rule was overrunning the remains of the Byzantine and Persian Empires. The progress of Islam, that was filling the Christian world with alarm, had been checked.

Tournament (medieval)

A tournament or tourney was an armed combat, usually under royal license, between knights, designed to show their skills and valor. 

Tournaments were introduced into England from France in the 11th century. They were formalized in the 15th century.

The earliest known use of the word "tournament" comes from the peace legislation by Count Baldwin III of Hainaut for the town of Valenciennes, dated to 1114. It refers to the keepers of the peace in the town leaving it 'for the purpose of frequenting javelin sports, tournaments and such like.'

Early versions of tournaments tended to be confused occasions of mock battles between groups of knights. 

In the morning, after attending mass, the knights would go to the tourney field. Here the combats or jousts between the knights were fought. Sometimes two knights fought alone, sometimes whole companies met in combat. Along the sides of the field were handsome pavilions filled with fair maidens, young pages, beautiful ladies and jewel-bedecked nobles. 

Depiction of mounted combat in a tournament from the Codex Manesse (early 14th century)

The points of the weapons used in tournaments were usually encased in blocks of wood to make the encounter less dangerous, but the sport was so rough and the knights jousted in such earnest that many were wounded and some were killed. 

Points were scored in the combats according to the number of broken lances or blows sustained.

The jousting with the two knights charging on either side of an anti-collision barrier was the most dramatic. The joust was attended by much excitement, with the blowing of trumpets, the clash of steel, the shouts of heralds, and the applause of the spectators. It continued until one or the other of the knights was overcome. If he was still alive, the defeated knight then yielded his horse and armor to his adversary and was assisted from the field by the squires. 

Manuscript miniature illustration of a joust

Later tournaments sometimes lasted for several days, feasting, dancing, and hawking filling the hours not given to fighting. 

Hawking was a sport indulged in by the ladies and the squires as well as by the knights and almost every lady had her own hawk or falcon. 

Tournaments flourished until the 16th century, and have modern revivals.

Source Compton's Encyclopedia

Tourism

Tourism is the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, who are travelling for pleasure. 

Tourism is at least 2,000 years old. It began when wealthy citizens of Ancient Rome opted to spend summers in the countryside or on the coast.

The world's first known tourist guide was published in 330 AD. The Itinerarium Burdigalense, or ‘Bordeaux Itinerary', explained where pilgrims could find water supplies and where they could change horses and donkeys on their long voyage to the Holy Land.

The modern tourist industry began on July 5, 1841, when Thomas Cook organized a trip from Market Harborough to Loughborough in the English Midlands for a temperance meeting.

By 1845, Cook's tourist industry had grown to offering trips to Glasgow for a guinea.

Thomas Cook's first foreign trip was a 'grand circular tour' of Belgium, Germany and France, ending in Paris, where the British tourists were greeted by band music and a cannon salute on arrival.

The word "tourist" for individuals travelling for recreation has been in the English language since at least 1772. "Tourism" came into use in 1811 and "package holiday" in 1959.

Englishman in the Campagna by Carl Spitzweg (c. 1845)

The first cruise ship in the world, Prinzessin Victoria Luise, was launched in June 1900 in Hamburg, Germany. 

American multimillionaire Dennis Tito, a former NASA engineer, became the world's fee-paying space tourist on April 28, 2001, when he launched aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft to the International Space Station. Tito spent seven days aboard the ISS, conducting experiments and taking photographs of the Earth from space.

Tourism gives rural communities the ability to protect and promote their natural surroundings, as well as their culture and heritage. The United Nations World Tourism Organization has celebrated World Tourism Day as international observances on September 27 since 1980. This date was chosen as on that day in 1970, the Statutes of the UNWTO were adopted. 

Tourism accounts for five per cent of the world's economy. Fuels, chemicals and automotive products are the only sectors earning more in global exports.

In 2017 there were 1.323 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide, with a growth of 6.8% as compared to 2016. The top international tourism destinations in 2017 was France with 86.9 million arrivals, followed by Spain with 81.8 million. 

In 2020 the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide declined sharply due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There were 1.466 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2019 and just 409.5 billion in 2020. They rose by approximately nine percent in 2021 to 446.3 billion. 

Cruise lines pay almost no taxes thanks to a maritime law loophole called "flags of convenience." Despite being headquartered in Miami, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have all of their ships registered in the Bahamas. Carnival Cruise Line has all of its ships registered in Panama.

Tour de France

The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple stage bicycle race. Riders have to cover approximately 4800 km / 3000 miles of primarily French countryside during a three-week period each July. About 10 million people watch the race live each year.

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HISTORY

Stagnating sales for sports newspaper L'Auto led to a crisis meeting on November 20, 1902. The last to speak was their chief cycling journalist, a 26-year-old named Géo Lefèvre, who suggested holding a cycling race across France.  The editor Henri Desgrange announced the race a couple of months later.

The plan worked. Before the first race started in 1903 L'Auto sold 25,000 copies. Afterwards it stood at 65,000. Five years later it had surpassed the 250,000 mark.

The first Tour de France was won by Maurice Garin. During that first race in 1903 each stage was over 400 km (249 ml) long.

Maurice Garin, winner of the first Tour de France standing on the right. 

The second Tour de France, which took place in 1904, was marred by controversy and accusations of cheating. The first four finishers -- Hippolyte Aucouturier, Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq, Ferdinand Payan, and Marcel Cadolle -- were all disqualified after it was discovered that they had taken a train during the race. The disqualification caused a great deal of outrage at the time, and it was several years before the Tour de France regained its credibility.

In the early years of the Tour the race comprised of just six stages. But the riders were expected to ride through the night, with no breaks for sleep.

In the 1907 Tour de France, some participants treated the race as a pleasure ride, stopping for lunch when they chose and spending the night in the best hotels they could find.

During the early years of the Tour de France, regulations required that riders fend entirely for themselves. Beer, brandy and wine were drank copiously as they were considered safer to drink than water from questionable roadside wells or springs.

In 1986, Greg LeMond became the first non-European professional cyclist to win the Tour de France. He remains the only American cyclist to have won the Tour.

In 1999 Lance Armstrong came back from testicular cancer to win his first Tour de France. He went on to win it a record seven consecutive times between 1999-2005.

Armstrong riding on Stage 17 of the 2009 Tour de France. By McSmit 

In 2012, a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) investigation concluded that Armstrong had used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career. As a result he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

FUN TOUR DE FRANCE FACTS

While the Tour De France route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same with the appearance over three weeks of racing of time trials, the passage through the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and the Alps, and the finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

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The Tour de France consists of 21 day-long stages over a 23-day period and cover around 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi).

There are nine days racing on the flat, five days over hills, two time trials and five days over the mountains. 23 mountains are scaled including parts of the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Alps.

The race alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise circuits of France.

80mph is the cyclists' top speed when they're going downhill. During the time trial, their average speed is 31mph.

Each rider loses an average of 4.4lb each on tour.

One of the 'unwritten rules' is if the Tour is passing through where one of the riders grew up, everyone will slow down to let that rider lead the whole Tour through his hometown.

Around half the world's population is said to watch television coverage of the Tour de France, which is broadcast to 188 countries.

Taken From: Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999. Kent on Sunday 8th July 2007