title: Toluca

text: The center of the town is the Zócalo, also known as "Plaza de los Mártires" ("Plaza of the Martyrs"), which includes buildings such as the Palace of the State Government and the Justice Palace (Palacio de Justicia). The square is named after events that took place after the Battle of Tenango Hill during the Mexican War of Independence. Insurgent commander José Maria Oviedo was faced with the royalist army of Rosendo Porlier, who succeeded in driving the rebels northward to Toluca. Viceroy Venegas ordered reinforcements for Porlier's army and dispersed the insurgents, causing them to lose artillery and supplies. In addition, the royalist forces took over a hundred prisoners and executed them in the main square. The bodies of the prisoners were buried in a mass grave behind what is now the Municipal Palace. A temple was built over the spot after the end of the Revolution. A monument to Father Miguel Hidalgo, the "father" of the Mexican Revolution is in the center of the square. It was created in Florence by Rivalta in 1899. The pedestal has reliefs depicting the storming of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas and the Battle of Monte de las Cruces.


title: Toluca

text: The central plaza is surrounded by state and municipal government buildings. The state government palace and the Chamber of Deputies are recent constructions, but the buildings housing the state court and the municipal palace date from the 19th century. The state court building originally was the home of the state government and was designed by Ramón Rodriguez Arangoiti, who also designed the imperial wing of the Chapultepec Castle. The municipal palace was completed in 1873 on land that once belonged to a Franciscan monastery. The Chamber of Deputies building contains murals done by Leopoldo Flores, which together are known as "Construction: Images and Flight" depicting man constructing buildings and himself at the same time. The municipal palace and the Chamber of Deputies are decorated with Neoclassic façades, but the other government buildings, built in the 1960s are faced with tezontle in the style of the 18th-century palaces in Mexico City.


title: Toluca

text: The Temple of La Merced is one of the most ancient convents still preserved and one of the most important founded by Spaniards. It is a beautiful building of a religious order called "mercenarios", and it shows architectural styles from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Its principal façade has 3 naves and was constructed in the 18th century on the remains of the old Temple of San Francisco. The interior of the temple exhibits neoclassical style with gold-leaf. It features oil paintings from the aforementioned times, such as the "Birth of San Pedro Nolasco", founder of the "Mercenarios" order. The temple became a hospice for orphans and beggars. Baroque construction style can be seen in the pilasters, niches and the order's shield. Inside, you can see paintings of Felipe Gutierrez, a Mexican painter who graduated from the San Carlos Academy. It is located in downtown Toluca on Jose Ma. Morelos street.


title: Toluca

text: Los Portales represent the social and commercial life of the city. They are a composed of three sets of arches or portals that extend on the 3 sides of the city block that extends behind the main cathedral. Behind the sets of arches there is walking space that takes you around the stores that are contained within. The western arches follow the perimeter of what was the La Asunción Franciscan monastery. The eastern and southern arches were completed in 1836 by José María González Arratia. The original western arches were built by the Buenaventura Merlín. Each side consists of basket-handle arches, each with a balcony. Each side has its own name. The eastern one, with 37 arches, is called "20 de Noviembre" or "Constitución"; the southern one, with 44 arches, is called "Madero" and the western one, with 35 arches, is called "Reforma". There are four additional arches at the entrance to Avenida Independencia. Near Los Portales are some of the city's oldest businesses, some of which date from the 19th century such as the pharmacy on Calle Santos Degollado, a brass and iron workshop on Avenida Lerdo and a leather workshop on Avenida Juárez.


title: Toluca

text: The Plaza de Fray Andrés de Castro is located next to Los Portales and connected to the older arches by means of a passageway with a transparent roof. It is a semi-enclosed space which was once the sacristy of the La Asunción Franciscan Monastery. The sacristy was built by Felipe de Ureña and José Rivera and is essentially a reproduction of the Santa María del Puerto hermitage in Madrid and is one of the few remaining buildings of the old monastery. The square in front was recently remodeled but still contains traditional stores selling garapiña, traditional candies, tacos and other regional foods. The Municipal Historic Archive is located above the passageway leading to Los Portales.


title: Toluca

text: The Cathedral of Toluca was begun in 1867 by José Francisco de Paula on land originally belonging to the Asunción de Toluca Franciscan monastery. The building was originally designed by Agustín Carrillo. However, in 1870, Ramon Rodriguez Arangoiti redesigned the cathedral, based on his experience with old Roman basilicas although the present-day building still contains a number of the elements of the original design such as the aisle that runs parallel to the façade serving as a narthex, allowing access to the central and two side naves. The straight central nave is lighted by round arched windows. The outside façade consists of two parts. The first has seven columned areas, as well as niches with the images of Saint John, Saint Thomas, Saint Peter and Saint James. The second part rises above the main doors with three columned areas containing balconies, stained-glass windows and balustrades, terminating in a rectilinear pediment with an image of the Ascension of the Lord. In this, the cathedral shares design elements with the Cathedral of Mexico City. Above this, there is a clock with sculptures depicting the Fathers of the Greek Orthodox Church, Saint John Chrisotomus, Saint Basil the Great, Saint Athanasius and Saint Gregory of Nyssa. The cathedral is topped by a dome with a bronze statue of Saint Joseph, who is the patron saint of the city, holding the infant Jesus. Overall the cathedral is a mix of styles, represents the various stages in which it was built and remodeled.


title: Toluca

text: The Tercer Orden Temple is located to the side of the main cathedral. Its façade is integrated into the main cathedral's in the popular indigenous Baroque architecture of the 18th century. It was the seat of the bishopric until 1978, when it was moved to the main cathedral. The temple contains a number of paintings, including "The Three Orders" and "The Family Tree of Saint Francis".The Cosmovitral is located in a stone and ironwork building in the center of Toluca, designed in 1910 by engineer Manuel Arratia in order to accommodate the "16 de Septiembre" market. It was constructed in Art Nouveau and Neoclassical style, with an area of . It is now a botanical garden with more than 400 species of plants from all over the world. It also features a series of stained glass windows that are considered the largest in the world. These windows were created and designed by a Mexican artist named Leopoldo Flores. Cosmovitral was inaugurated in 1980 and completed in 1990. The stained glass ceiling represents the Milky Way and joins the "Hombre Sol" (Sun Man) with the Galaxy of Andromeda. It is a monumental piece measuring with more than 30 thousand pieces and half a million glass pieces of 28 different colors coming from many different parts of the world such as Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Japan, Canada and the United States. It has a series of scenes that symbolize man's search of the light, the good and the wisdom to elevate his spirit to liberate him from the shadows of evil and the ignorance in an epic tale without beginning or end. At the spring equinox, the solar disc crosses the heart of "El hombre Sol" (the sun man), causing an explosion of light.


title: Toluca

text: Toluca has a lot of green areas and among them is the Sierra Morelos park, this park is one of the largest in the city that covers 302 hectares is located on the slopes of Cerro de La Teresona and houses an important population of forests of pine, eucalyptus and oak.


title: Toluca

text: The Santa Veracruz Temple is the home of a famous image of "Our Lord of the Holy Cross" also known as a "Black Christ". This image was originally housed in the San Francisco Temple, but the increasing number of worshippers dictated the building of its own sanctuary. Construction began in 1753, but because of friction between the Franciscans and worshippers, it was not completed until 1797. Although the original plans included two towers, only one was built, containing two hexagonal bodies, pairs of columns and balconies with semicircular rails. Both bodies are topped with domes, each bearing a cross. The space that was reserved for the second tower instead has an ornate clock.


title: Toluca

text: Toluca, being the capital of the State of Mexico, is home of several important museums. It is second only to Mexico City in number of museums. Some of them honor important Mexican artists such as José María Velasco Gómez, Felipe Santiago Gutiérrez, and Luis Nishizawa, among others.


title: Toluca

text: Toluca is home to a series of traditional festivities such as the typical solemn "silent procession" that takes place every Holy Friday when the Catholic congregation from Toluca and its surroundings get together in the centre of the city to express their respect and devotion for Jesus Christ's sacrifice. Easter and Lent are celebrated in a similar way.


title: Toluca

text: Currently, there are two official orchestras: a State one and a Municipal one. The one from the State is the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México. Higher education institutions have marching bands, and in some towns there are wind bands.


title: Toluca

text: The dancing institutions include the Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura. There are also schools of dance such as the Escuela de Bellas Artes and the UAEM.


title: Toluca

text: There is also a youth marching band of Toluca called "Eagles of Anahuac". This band was formed about 35 years ago and was the first youth marching band in the country.


title: Toluca

text: Mexican food mixes European and Mesoamerican elements. In Toluca the most famous dish is chorizo, a regional sausage made of ground pork and tomato sauce, pumpkin mole, pipian and other ingredients such as salt, pepper, white wine, almonds, potatoes, vinegar, garlic and chile. In Mexico, the word "chorizo" is used as a nickname for anything (anybody) from Toluca. Other popular dishes, which must be mentioned are "tacos de carnitas" (pork tacos) and "tacos de plaza" made of barbacoa, pork, chicharron (fried pork rind), papalo (Porophyllum ruderale), onion, coriander, nopales, cueritos, chili sauce, salt and lime.


title: Toluca

text: The traditional food includes vegetables from the region such as "quelites", "quintoniles", "huazontles", spinach, "verdolagas", carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and so forth.


title: Toluca

text: Toluca has a variety of traditional candies such as "alegrías", "jamoncillos" (a candy bar with flavors such as lemon, pineapple, apple or chocolate), "lemons" (lemons decorated with coconut), "chilacayotes" (pumpkin in syrup), "cocadas" (mainly made with coconut), "palanquetas" (a peanut bar covered with melted sugar).


title: Toluca

text: Traditional drinks include "mosquito" and, as in many other regions of Mexico, "tepache". "Mosquito" is a drink obtained from the infusion of fruit in alcohol. "Mosquito" can be also flavored with sugar, syrup or honey. "Tepache", the popular beverage of fermented pineapple and other fruit, is not native to the Valley of Toluca since this tropical plant does not grow there.


title: Toluca

text: Toluca is home of the Liga MX football club Deportivo Toluca. Their home is one of the landmarks of the city, the Estadio Nemesio Díez (Nemesio Diez Stadium), located between Constituyentes and Morelos avenues downtown. Its nickname is "La Bombonera" (The Bonbon Box).


title: Toluca

text: Famous boxers often use Toluca as a training center. These have included Julio César Chávez and Puerto Rico's Wilfredo Vazquez, among others.


title: Toluca

text: Professional wrestler Tito Santana is billed from Toluca, although he is actually from Mission, Texas.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: The bilateral relationship between Taiwan and the United States of America are the subject of the Japan-U.S. relations during Japanese colonial rule and China-U.S.relations before the government of the Republic of China (ROC) led by the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) retreated to Taiwan and its neighboring islands as a result of the Chinese Civil War and until the U.S. ceased recognizing the ROC in 1979 as "China" as a result of the One China policy following the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations under the Carter administration. Prior to relations with the ROC, the United States had diplomatic relations with the Qing dynasty beginning on until 1912.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: After the United States established diplomatic relations with the Beijing government, or People's Republic of China (PRC), under the Communist Party of China's rule as "China" in 1979, Taiwan–United States relations became unofficial and informal. Until , informal relations between the two states were governed by the U.S. Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which allows the United States to have relations with the "people on Taiwan" and their government, whose name is not specified. U.S.–Taiwan relations were further informally grounded in the "Six Assurances" in response to the third communiqué on the establishment of US–PRC relations. Following the passage of the Taiwan Travel Act by the U.S. Congress on March 16, 2018, relations between the United States and Taiwan have since maneuvered to an official and high-level basis. Both sides have since signed a consular agreement formalizing their existent consular relations on September 13, 2019. The United States removed self-imposed restrictions on executive branch contacts with Taiwan on January 9, 2021.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: The policy of deliberate ambiguity of US foreign policy to Taiwan is important to stabilize cross-strait relations and to assist Taiwan from an invasion by the PRC if possible, whereas a policy of strategic clarity on Taiwan would likely induce PRC opposition and challenges to US legitimacy in East Asia or beyond. As stipulated by the TRA, the United States continues to be the main provider of arms to Taiwan, which is often a source of tension with the PRC. Both states maintain representative offices functioning as "de facto" embassies. Taiwan is represented by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), and the United States by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In 1784, the United States attempted to send a consul to China, but this was rejected by the Chinese government, with official relations beginning on June 16, 1844, under President John Tyler, leading to the 1845 Treaty of Wangxia.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: Two American diplomats in the 1850s suggested to Washington that the U.S. should obtain the island of Taiwan from China, but the idea was rejected. Aboriginals on Taiwan often attacked and massacred shipwrecked western sailors, and American diplomats tried to help them. In 1867, during the Rover incident, Taiwanese aborigines attacked shipwrecked American sailors, killing the entire crew. They subsequently skirmished against and defeated a retaliatory expedition by the American military and killed another American during the battle.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: Prior to the annexation of Hawaii, the Revive China Society, a predecessor to the Kuomintang (KMT) was founded in 1894 in Honolulu in opposition to the Qing.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: As Taiwan was under Japanese control, following the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, which overthrew the Qing dynasty, the William Taft administration recognized the government of the Republic of China (ROC) as the sole and legitimate government of China despite a number of governments ruling various parts of China. China was reunified by a single government, led by the Kuomintang (KMT) in 1928, which subsequently gained recognition as China's only legitimate government despite continued internal strife. The first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for writing about China was an American, born in the United States but raised in China, Pearl S. Buck, whose 1938 Nobel lecture was titled "The Chinese Novel".


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In the Japanese era, the United States also hosted a consulate in Taihoku, Formosa (today Taipei) from 1913. The consulate was closed in 1941 due to United States declaration of war on Japan. The site is now protected as the Former American Consulate in Taipei.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: During the Pacific War, the United States and the Republic of China were allied against Japan. In October 1945, a month after Japan's surrender, representatives of Chiang Kai-shek, on behalf of the Allies, were sent to Formosa to accept the surrender of Japanese troops. However, during the period of the 1940s, there was no recognition by the United States Government that Taiwan had ever been incorporated into Chinese national territory. Chiang continued to remain suspicious of America's motives.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: As the Korean War broke out, the Truman Administration resumed economic and military aid to the ROC on Taiwan and neutralized the Taiwan Strait by United States Seventh Fleet to stop a Communist invasion of Formosa (as well as a potential ROC counter-invasion of the mainland). US military presence in Taiwan consisted of the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) and the United States Taiwan Defense Command (USTDC). Other notable units included the 327th Air Division. Until the US formally recognized the People's Republic of China in 1979, Washington provided ROC with financial grants based on the Foreign Assistance Act, Mutual Security Act and Act for International Development enacted by the US Congress. A separate Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty was signed between the two governments of US and ROC in 1954 and lasted until 1979.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: During the early Cold War the United States deployed nuclear weapons on Taiwan as part of the United States Taiwan Defense Command. In 1972, United States president Richard Nixon ordered nuclear weapons to be removed from Taiwan and this was implemented by 1974.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: At the height of the Sino-Soviet Split, and at the start of the reform and opening of People's Republic of China, the United States strategically switched diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (ROC) to the People's Republic of China (PRC) on January 1, 1979, to counter the political influences and military threats from the Soviet Union. The US Embassy in Taipei was 'migrated' to Beijing and the Taiwanese Embassy in the US was closed. Following the termination of diplomatic relations, the United States terminated its Mutual Defense Treaty with Taiwan on January 1, 1980.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On April 10, 1979, U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which created domestic legal authority for the conduct of unofficial relations with Taiwan. U.S. commercial, cultural, and other interaction with the people on Taiwan is facilitated through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a private nonprofit corporation. The institute has its headquarters in the Washington, DC area and has offices in Taipei and Kaohsiung. It is authorized to issue visas, accept passport applications, and provide assistance to U.S. citizens in Taiwan. A counterpart organization, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), has been established by Taiwan. It has its headquarters in Taipei, the representative branch office in Washington, DC, and 11 other Taipei Economic and Cultural Offices (TECO) in the continental U.S. and Guam. The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) continues to provide the legal basis for the unofficial relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan, and enshrines the U.S. commitment to assisting Taiwan maintain its defensive capability.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: After de-recognition, the U.S. still maintains unofficial diplomatic relations with Taiwan through Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office; the current head of TECRO in Washington, D.C. is Stanley Kao. The American Institute in Taiwan, a non-profit institute headquarters in the US soil under the laws of the District of Columbia in Arlington County, Virginia and serves as the semi-official, working-level US representation and AIT has branch offices in Taipei and Kaohsiung. The Chairman of AIT is Raymond Burghardt. Christopher J. Marut was appointed to be the new AIT Taipei Office Director in August 2012. With the absence of diplomatic recognition, in the present state, Taiwan-US relations are formally guided by the service of enactment of Taiwan Relations Act by US Congress for the continuation of Taiwan-US relations after 1979.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: Taiwan helped Ronald Reagan circumvent the Boland Amendment by providing covert support to the Contras in Nicaragua.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: Taiwan's secret nuclear weapons program was revealed after the 1987 Lieyu massacre, when Colonel Chang Hsien-yi Deputy Director of Nuclear Research at INER, who was secretly working for the CIA, defected to the U.S. in December 1987 and produced a cache of incriminating documents. The CIA oversaw negotiations with the Taiwanese which led them to abandon their nuclear ambitions in return for security guarantees. Since the end of the nuclear weapons program the “Nuclear Card” has played an important part in Taiwan's relationship with the United States.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In 1997 the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, traveled to Taiwan and met with President Lee Teng-hui.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In July 2002, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) became the first Taiwanese government official to be invited into the White House since 1979.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: The Taiwan Policy Act of 2013 was raised and passed in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs by the US Congress to update the conditions of US-Taiwan relations. In 2015 Kin Moy was appointed to the Director of the AIT.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: U.S. commercial ties with Taiwan have been maintained and have expanded since 1979. Taiwan continues to enjoy Export-Import Bank financing, Overseas Private Investment Corporation guarantees, normal trade relations (NTR) status, and ready access to U.S. markets. In recent years, AIT commercial dealings with Taiwan have focused on expanding market access for American goods and services. AIT has been engaged in a series of trade discussions, which have focused on copyright concerns and market access for U.S. goods and services.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On December 16, 2015, the Obama administration announced a deal to sell $1.83 billion worth of arms to the Armed Forces of Taiwan, a year and eight months after U.S. House passed the Taiwan Relations Act Affirmation and Naval Vessel Transfer Act of 2014 to allow the sale of "Oliver Hazard Perry"-class frigates to Taiwan. The deal would include the sale of two decommissioned U.S. Navy frigates, anti-tank missiles, Assault Amphibious Vehicles, and FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, amid the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. China's foreign ministry had expressed its disapproval for the sales and issued the U.S. a "stern warning", saying it would hurt China–U.S. relations.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: A new $250 million compound for the American Institute in Taiwan was unveiled in June 2018, accompanied by a "low-key" American delegation. The Chinese authorities estimated this action as violation of "one China" policy statement and claimed the US to stop any relations with Taiwan.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In September 2018, the United States approved the sale of $330 million worth of spare parts and other equipment to sustain the Republic of China Air Force.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In July 2019, the US State Department approved the sale of M1A2T Abrams tanks, Stinger missiles and related equipment at an approximate value of $2.2 billion to Taiwan.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In May 2020, the US State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale of 18 MK-48 Mod 6 Advanced Technology Heavy Weight Torpedoes for Taiwan in a deal estimated to cost $180 million.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On 9 August 2020, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar visited Taiwan to meet President Tsai Ing-wen, the first visit by an American official since the break in diplomatic relations between Washington and Taipei in 1979. In September 2020, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith J. Krach attended the memorial service for former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In September 2020, the US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft met with James K.J. Lee, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, who was secretary-general in Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs until July, for lunch in New York City in what was the first meeting between a top Taiwan official and a United States ambassador to the United Nations. Craft said she and Lee discussed ways the US can help Taiwan become more engaged within the U.N., and she pointed to a December 2019 email alert from Taiwan that WHO had ignored, recognizing and warning about the danger of the person-to-person transmission of the new highly contagious Covid-19 virus in China.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In an October 2020 deal of $2.37 billion between the U.S and Taiwan, the U.S. State Department approved the potential sale to Taiwan of 400 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles including associated radars, road-mobile launchers, and technical support.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In January 2021, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met with United States Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft by video link. Craft said: "We discussed the many ways Taiwan is a model for the world, as demonstrated by its success in fighting COVID-19 and all that Taiwan has to offer in the fields of health, technology and cutting-edge science... the U.S. stands with Taiwan and always will." Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said: "Certain U.S. politicians will pay a heavy price for their wrong words and deeds." On her last day in office later that month, Craft called Taiwan "a force for good on the global stage -- a vibrant democracy, a generous humanitarian actor, a responsible actor in the global health community, and a vigorous promoter and defender of human rights."


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In June 2021 a congressional delegation made up of Tammy Duckworth, Dan Sullivan (U.S. senator) and Christopher Coons briefly visited Taiwan and met with President Tsai Ing-wen. Their use of a C-17 military cargo aircraft drew strong protest from China.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On March 3, 2021, the Biden Administration reasserted the strength of the relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan in the administration's Interim National Security Strategic Guidance. On March 8, 2021, the Biden Administration made the following statement during a press briefing: "We will stand with friends and allies to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values in the Indo-Pacific region.  We maintain our longstanding commitments, as outlined in the Three Communiqués, the Taiwan Relations Act, and the Six Assurances.  And we will continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability."


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On May 23, 2022, President Biden, during his trip to Asia, vowed to defend Taiwan with US military in the case of an invasion by China. At the end of May Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth led a congressional delegation to Taiwan.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In late May 2022, the State Department restored a line on its fact sheet on US-Taiwan relations which it removed earlier in the month and stated it did not support Taiwanese independence. However, another line which was also removed in the earlier fact sheet that acknowledged China’s sovereignty claims over Taiwan was not restored while a line that stated the U.S would maintain its capacity to resist any efforts by China to undermine the security, sovereignty and prosperity of Taiwan in a manner that was consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act was added to the updated fact sheet.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On August 2, 2022, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives led a congressional delegation to Taiwan, leading to a military and economic response from China. Later in August a congressional delegation led by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey also visited Taiwan and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb (who became the first Indiana Governor to visit Taiwan since 2005). At the end of August Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn visited Taiwan. At the end of August and beginning of September Arizona Governor Doug Ducey visited Taiwan.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In 1949, when Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's troops decamped to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war, Washington continued to recognize Chiang's "Republic of China" as the government of all China. In late 1978, Washington announced that it would break relations with the government in Taipei and formally recognize the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the "sole legal government of China."


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: Washington's "one China" policy, however, does not mean that the United States recognizes, nor agrees with Beijing's claims to sovereignty over Taiwan. On July 14, 1982, the Republican Reagan Administration gave specific assurances to Taiwan that the United States did not accept China's claim to sovereignty over the island (Six Assurances), and the U.S. Department of State informed the Senate that "[t]he United States takes no position on the question of Taiwan's sovereignty."


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: The U.S. Department of State, in its U.S. Relations With Taiwan fact sheet, states "[T]he United States and Taiwan enjoy a robust unofficial relationship. The 1979 U.S.–P.R.C. Joint Communiqué switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. In the Joint Communiqué, the United States recognized the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, acknowledging the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: The United States position on Taiwan is reflected in "the six assurances to Taiwan", the Three Communiqués, and the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: 2. The United States has not agreed to hold prior consultations with the Chinese on arms sales to Taiwan;


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: 6. The United States would not exert pressure on Taiwan to enter into negotiations with the Chinese. The "Three Communiqués" include The Shanghai Communiqué, The Normalisation Communiqué, and The August 17 Communiqué, which pledged to abrogate official US-ROC relations, remove US troops from Taiwan and gradually end the arms sale to Taiwan, but with the latter of no timeline to do so, an effort made by James Lilley, the Director of American Institute in Taiwan.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: President Bush was asked on 25 April 2001, "if Taiwan were attacked by China, do we (The U.S.) have an obligation to defend the Taiwanese?" He responded, "Yes, we do...and the Chinese must understand that. The United States would do whatever it took to help Taiwan defend herself." He made it understood that "though we (China and the U.S.) have common interests, the Chinese must understand that there will be some areas where we disagree." On the advice of his advisors, Bush later made clear to the press that there was no change in American policy.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On 19 June 2013, ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed gratitude for a US Congress's bill in support of Taiwan's bid to participate in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). On July 12, 2013, US President Barack Obama signed into law H.R. 1151, codifying the US government's full support for Taiwan's participation in the ICAO as a non-sovereign entity. The United States has continued the sale of appropriate defensive military equipment to Taiwan in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act, which provides for such sales and which declares that peace and stability in the area are in U.S. interests. Sales of defensive military equipment are also consistent with the 1982 U.S.-P.R.C. Joint Communiqué.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: Maintaining diplomatic relations with the PRC has been recognized to be in the long-term interest of the United States by seven consecutive administrations; however, maintaining strong, unofficial relations with Taiwan is also a major U.S. goal, in line with its desire to further peace and stability in Asia. In keeping with its China policy, the U.S. does not support "de jure" Taiwan independence, but it does support Taiwan's membership in appropriate international organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and the Asian Development Bank, where statehood is not a requirement for membership. In addition, the U.S. supports appropriate opportunities for Taiwan's voice to be heard in organizations where its membership is not possible.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On 24 August 2010, the United States State Department announced a change to commercial sales of military equipment in place of the previous foreign military sales in the hope of avoiding political implications. However pressure from the PRC has continued and it seems unlikely that Taiwan will be provided with advanced submarines or jet fighters.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: Taiwan has indicated that it is willing to host national missile defense radars to be tied into the American system, but is unwilling to pay for any further cost overruns in the systems.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On December 2, 2016, U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump accepted a congratulatory call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen, which was the first time since 1979 that a President-Elect has publicly spoken to a leader of Taiwan. Donald Trump stated the call was regarding "the close economic, political and security ties between Taiwan and the US". The phone call had been arranged by Bob Dole, who acted as a foreign agent on behalf of Taiwan.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On 16 March 2018, President Trump signed the Taiwan Travel Act, allowing high-level diplomatic engagement between Taiwanese and American officials, and encourages visits between government officials of the United States and Taiwan at all levels. The legislation has sparked outrage from the PRC, and has been applauded by Taiwan.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On 17 July 2018, Taiwan's Army officially commissioned all of its Apache attack helicopters purchased from the United States, at cost of $59.31 billion NT(US$1.94 billion), having completed the necessary pilot training and verification of the fleet's combat capability. One of the helicopters was destroyed in a crash during a training flight in Taoyuan in April 2014 and the other 29 have been allocated to the command's 601st Brigade, which is based in Longtan, Taoyuan. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said the commissioning of the Apaches was "an important milestone" in meeting the island's "multiple deterrence" strategy to counter an invasion and to resist Beijing's pressure with support from Washington, which has been concerned about Beijing's growing military expansion in the South China Sea and beyond.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On 26 March 2020, President Trump signed the TAIPEI Act, aiming to increase the scope of US relations with Taiwan and encouraging other nations and international organizations to strengthen their official and unofficial ties with the island nation.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: In late October 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on all United Nations member states to support Taiwan's participation in the U.N. system. The comments came a day after the 50th anniversary of U.N. Resolution 2758, in which the People's Republic of China was designated as the representative of China at the U.N., while the Republic of China (R.O.C.) was expelled.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On December 15, 2021, the US House of Representative and Senate have both passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, in which calls for the enhancements of the security of Taiwan, including inviting the Taiwanese navy to the 2022 Rim of the Pacific exercise in the face of "increasingly coercive and aggressive behavior" by China. President Joe Biden later signed the act on Dec 27th.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: On 27 January 2022, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Vice President of Taiwan Lai Ching-te had a brief conversation during the presidential inauguration ceremony of Xiomara Castro of Honduras.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: The United States operates a "de facto" embassy in Taipei called the American Institute in Taiwan. It also operates a "de facto" consulate in Kaohsiung called the American Institute in Taiwan Kaohsiung Branch Office.


title: Taiwan–United States relations

text: Taiwan operates several diplomatic missions in the United States, with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States located in Washington, D.C. This mission is also accredited to Cuba, the Bahamas, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago, despite Taiwan not having official relations with them. Other than the mission in Washington, Taiwan also operates representative offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Guam, and Denver.


title: Anthony Johnson (actor)

text: Anthony Johnson (February 1, 1966 – September 6, 2021), sometimes credited as A. J. Johnson, was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for his role as "Ezal" in the 1995 comedy film "Friday".


title: Anthony Johnson (actor)

text: Born in Compton, California, his father Eddie Smith was a stuntman and a co-founder of the Black Stuntmen's Association. Johnson had credited his father for helping him enter the film industry, by getting him to work in film productions. He had also credited the comedian Robin Harris for helping him earlier on in his career as a stand-up comedian and giving him another chance even when he was jeered for his bad performance.


title: Anthony Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson began acting in his early twenties. In 1990, he landed a starring role as E.Z.E. in "House Party", after which he started doing stand-up in bars in Los Angeles. He later appeared in "Lethal Weapon 3" as a drug dealer and in "Menace II Society". His biggest role was in the 1995 comedy "Friday", as Ezal, a crackhead and thief. He also appeared in "Panther", "The Players Club", "B*A*P*S", "I Got the Hook-Up", "Def Jam's How to Be a Player" and "Repos", and in rap videos: in Dr. Dre's "Dre Day" (1992), he played Sleazy-E, a parody of Eazy-E, and he appeared again as Sleazy-E in the video for Eazy-E's "Real Muthaphuckkin G's" (1993), this time being assaulted.


title: Anthony Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson has three daughters, no children with his ex-wife. He also had two siblings: a brother named Edward Smith, and a sister named Sheila.


title: Anthony Johnson (actor)

text: In July 2009, it was reported that Johnson had a heart attack at LaGuardia Airport while on his way to a comedy show. However, Johnson said in 2018 that it was instead a panic attack.


title: Anthony Johnson (actor)

text: Johnson died on September 6, 2021, aged 55, at a Los Angeles County hospital, after being found unresponsive in a store. His death was publicly announced on September 20 by his representative LyNea Bell. Johnson died of multi-system organ failure stemming from chronic ethanol use according to his autopsy report. It also stated that he had contracted COVID-19 but was asymptomatic.


title: Blue law

text: Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for religious reasons, specifically to promote the observance of the Christian day of worship, but since then have come to serve secular purposes as well.


title: Blue law

text: Blue laws commonly ban certain business and recreational activities on Sundays and impose restrictions on the retail sale of hard goods and consumables, particularly alcoholic beverages. The laws also place limitations on a range of other endeavors, including travel, fashions, hunting, professional sports, stage performances, movie showings, and gambling. While less prevalent today, blue laws continue to be enforced in parts of the United States and Canada as well as in European countries, such as Austria, Germany, Norway, and Poland, where most stores are required to close on Sundays.


title: Blue law

text: In the United States, the Supreme Court has upheld blue laws as constitutional, recognizing their religious origins but citing secular justifications that have resulted, most notably the provision of a day of rest for the general population. Meanwhile, various state courts have struck down the laws as either unenforceable or in violation of their states' constitutions. In response, state legislators have re-enacted certain Sunday laws to satisfy the rulings while allowing some of the other statutes to remain on the books with no intention to enforce them.


title: Blue law

text: The Roman Emperor Constantine promulgated the first known law regarding prohibition of Sunday labor for apparent religion-associated reasons in 321 AD:


title: Blue law

text: The earliest laws in North America addressing Sunday activities and public behavior were enacted in the Jamestown Colony in 1619 by the First General Assembly of Virginia. Among the 70 laws passed by the Assembly was a mandate requiring attendance by all colonists at both morning and afternoon worship services on Sundays. The laws adopted that year also included provisions addressing idleness, gambling, drunkenness, and excessive apparel. Similar laws aimed at keeping the Sabbath holy and regulating morals were soon adopted throughout the colonies.


title: Blue law

text: The first known example of the phrase "blue laws" in print was in the March 3, 1755, edition of the "New-York Mercury", in which the writer imagines a future newspaper praising the revival of "our [Connecticut's] old Blue Laws". In his 1781 book "General History of Connecticut", the Reverend Samuel Peters (1735–1826) used the phrase to describe numerous laws adopted by 17th-century Puritans that prohibited various activities on Sunday, recreational as well as commercial. Beyond that, Peters' book is regarded as an unreliable account of the laws and probably was written to satirize their puritanical nature.


title: Blue law

text: While the historical roots of Sunday trade laws in the United States are generally known, the origin of the term "blue laws" remains a mystery. According to a "Time" magazine editorial in 1961, the year the Supreme Court heard four cases on the issue, the color blue came to be associated with colonial laws in opposition to the red emblem of British royalty. Other explanations have been offered. One of the most widely circulated is that early blue laws adopted in Connecticut were printed on blue paper. However, no copies have been found that would support this claim. A more plausible explanation, one that is gaining general acceptance, is that the laws adopted by Puritans were aimed at enforcing morality and thus were "blue-nosed", though the term "blue" may have been used in the vernacular of the times as a synonym for puritanism itself, in effect, overly strict.


title: Blue law

text: As Protestant moral reformers organized the Sabbath reform in 19th-century America, calls for the enactment and enforcement of stricter Sunday laws developed. Numerous Americans were arrested for working, keeping an open shop, drinking alcohol, traveling, and engaging in recreational activities on Sundays. Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley write that throughout their existence, organizations advocating first-day Sabbatarianism, such as the Lord's Day Alliance in North America and the Lord's Day Observance Society in the British Isles, were supported by labor unions in lobbying "to prevent secular and commercial interests from hampering freedom of worship and from exploiting workers".


title: Blue law

text: In Canada, the "Ligue du Dimanche", a Roman Catholic Sunday league, supported the Lord's Day Act in 1923 and promoted first-day Sabbatarian legislation. Beginning in the 1840s, workers, Jews, Seventh Day Baptists, freethinkers, and other groups began to organize opposition. Throughout the century, Sunday laws fueled churchstate controversy, and as an issue that contributed to the emergence of modern American minority-rights politics. On the other hand, the more recent "Dies Domini", written by Pope John Paul II in 1998, advocates Sunday legislation in that it protects civil servants and workers; the North Dakota Catholic Conference in 2011 likewise maintained that blue laws, in accordance with the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church", "ensure that, for reasons of economic productivity, citizens are not denied time for rest and divine worship". Similarly, Chief Justice Earl Warren, while recognizing the partial religious origin of blue laws, acknowledged the "secular purpose they served by providing a benefit to workers at the same time that they enhanced labor productivity".


title: Blue law

text: The Ladenschlussgesetz "shop closing" laws on Sundays and Christian holidays are in effect, since 1956.


title: Blue law

text: In Denmark the closing laws restricting retail trade on Sundays have been abolished with effect from October 1, 2012. From then on retail trade is only restricted on public holidays (New Years Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Day of Prayer, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday, Whit Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day) and on Constitution Day, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve (on New Year's Eve from 3 pm only). On these days almost all shops will remain closed. Exempt are bakeries, DIYs, garden centres, gas stations and smaller supermarkets.


title: Blue law

text: Prior to 1994, trading laws forbade sale of certain products on a Sunday; the distinction between those that could and could not be sold was increasingly seen as arbitrary, and the laws were inadequately enforced and widely flouted. For example, some supermarkets would treat the relatively modest fines arising as a business cost and open nonetheless.


title: Blue law

text: The Sunday Trading Act 1994 relaxed restrictions on Sunday trading. This produced vocal opposition from bodies such as the Keep Sunday Special campaign, and the Lord's Day Observance Society: on religious grounds, on the grounds that it would increase consumerism, and that it would reduce shop assistants' weekend leisure time.


title: Blue law

text: The legislation permits large shops (those with a relevant floor area in excess of 280 square metres; 3000 sq. ft.) to open for up to six hours on Sunday. Small shops, those with an area of below 280 square metres (3000 sq. ft.), are free to set their own Sunday trading times. Some large shops, such as off-licences, service stations and garages, are exempt from the restrictions.


title: Blue law

text: Some very large shops (e.g. department stores) open for longer than six hours on a Sunday by allowing customers in to browse 30 minutes prior to allowing them to make a purchase, since the six-hour restriction only applies to time during which the shop may make sales.


title: Blue law

text: Christmas Day and Easter Sunday are non-trading days. This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter, but not to small shops (those with an area of below 280 square metres; 3000 sq. ft.).


title: Blue law

text: Prior to 1996, shops were generally closed on Sundays. A new law regarding opening times changed that, leaving most of that decision up to local municipalities.


title: Blue law

text: The "Zondagswet" ("Sunday law"), a law on Sabbath desecration, is mainly to ensure that church services remain undisturbed on Sundays and Christian holidays. It forbids public festivities on a Sunday before 13:00, as well as making noise that carries further than 200 meters (yards), although activities that are unlikely to disturb church services, are exempt.


title: Blue law

text: Prior to 2008, no football was permitted to be played on Sundays by clubs affiliated to the Irish Football Association in Northern Ireland.


title: Blue law

text: In Belfast, public playgrounds were closed on Sundays until 1965. Swings in public parks were tied up and padlocked to prevent their use. Similar laws formerly applied to cinemas, pubs and parks.


title: Blue law

text: Since 2007, blue laws were enacted and resulted in stores closing on the 13 state holidays in Poland - these are both religious and secular days of rest. In 2014, an initiative by the Law and Justice party failed to pass the reading in the Sejm to ban trading on Sundays and state holidays.


title: Blue law

text: However, since 2018, the ruling government and the President of Poland has signed a law that restricts store trading from March 1, 2018, to the first and last Sunday of the month, Palm Sunday, the 3rd and 4th Advent Sundays, as well as trading until 14.00 for Easter Saturday and Christmas Eve.


title: Blue law

text: In 2019, the restriction was extended, and trading was permitted solely on the last Sunday of the month, as well as Palm Sunday, the 3rd and 4th Advent Sundays, as well as trading until 14.00 for Easter Saturday and Christmas Eve.


title: Blue law

text: From 2020, stores may only be open on 7 Sundays in the year: Palm Sunday, the 3rd and 4th Advent Sundays, the last Sunday of January, April, June and August as well as trading until 14.00 for Easter Saturday and Christmas Eve. As a result of restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2nd Advent Sunday was later added as a shopping day.


title: Blue law

text: The "Lord's Day Act", which since 1906 had prohibited business transactions from taking place on Sundays, was declared unconstitutional in the 1985 case "R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd." Calgary police officers witnessed several transactions at the Big M Drug Mart, all of which occurred on a Sunday. Big M was charged with a violation of the "Lord's Day Act". A provincial court ruled that the "Lord's Day Act" was unconstitutional, but the Crown proceeded to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. In a unanimous 6–0 decision, the "Lord's Day Act" was ruled an infringement of the freedom of conscience and religion defined in section 2(a) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.


title: Blue law

text: A Toronto referendum in 1950 allowed only team sports to be played professionally on Sunday. Theatre performances, movie screenings, and horse racing were not permitted until the 1960s.


title: Blue law

text: The Supreme Court later concluded, in "R. v. Edwards Books and Art Ltd." [1986] (2 S.C.R. 713), that Ontario's "Retail Business Holiday Act", which required some Sunday closings, did not violate the Charter because it did not have a religious purpose. Nonetheless, as of today, virtually all provincial Sunday closing laws have ceased to exist. Some were struck down by provincial courts, but most were simply abrogated, often due to competitive reasons where out-of-province or foreign merchants were open.


title: Blue law

text: In the United States, judges have defended blue laws "in terms of their secular benefit to workers", holding that "the laws were essential to social well-being". In 1896, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field, opined with regard to Sunday blue laws:


title: Blue law

text: Many states prohibit selling alcohol for on and off-premises sales in one form or another on Sundays at some restricted time, under the idea that people should be in church on Sunday morning, or at least not drinking.


title: Blue law

text: Many blue laws in the United States restrict the purchase of particular items on Sundays. Some of these laws restrict the ability to buy cars, groceries, office supplies, and housewares among other things. Though most of these laws have been relaxed or repealed in most states, they are still enforced in some other states.


title: Blue law

text: In Texas, for example, blue laws prohibited selling housewares such as pots, pans, and washing machines on Sunday until 1985. In Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, car dealerships continue to operate under blue-law prohibitions in which an automobile may not be purchased or traded on a Sunday. Maryland permits Sunday automobile sales only in the counties of Charles, Prince George's, Montgomery, and Howard; similarly, Michigan restricts Sunday sales to only those counties with a population of less than 130,000. Texas and Utah prohibit car dealerships from operating over consecutive weekend days. In some cases these laws were created or retained with the support of those whom they affected, to allow them a day off each week without fear of their competitors still being open.


title: Blue law

text: Blue laws may also prohibit retail activity on days other than Sunday. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine, for example, blue laws prohibit most retail stores, including grocery stores, from opening on Thanksgiving and Christmas.


title: Blue law

text: Research regarding the effect of the repeal of blue laws has been conducted, with Professor Elesha Coffman of Baylor University writing:


title: Blue law

text: Beginning in the mid-19th century, religious and ethno-cultural minorities arrested for violating state and local blue laws appealed their convictions to state supreme courts. In "Specht v. Commonwealth" (Pa. 1848), for example, German Seventh Day Baptists in Pennsylvania employed attorney Thaddeus Stevens to challenge the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's Sunday law. As in cases in other states, litigants pointed to the provisions of state constitutions protecting religious liberty and maintained that Sunday laws were a blatant violation. Though typically unsuccessful (most state supreme courts upheld the constitutionality of Sunday laws), these constitutional challenges helped set a pattern by which subsequent minorities would seek to protect religious freedom and minority rights.


title: Blue law

text: The Supreme Court of the United States held in its landmark case, "McGowan v. Maryland" (1961), that Maryland's blue laws violated neither the Free Exercise Clause nor the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It approved the state's blue law restricting commercial activities on Sunday, noting that while such laws originated to encourage attendance at Christian churches, the contemporary Maryland laws were intended to serve "to provide a uniform day of rest for all citizens" on a secular basis and to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest. That this day coincides with Christian Sabbath is not a bar to the state's secular goals; it neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days.


title: Blue law

text: "McGowan" was but one of four Sunday closing cases decided together by the Court in May 1961. In "Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market of Mass., Inc.", the Court ruled against a Kosher deli that closed on Saturday but was open on Sunday. The other two cases were "Braunfeld v. Brown", and "Two Guys from Harrison-Allentown, Inc. v. McGinley". Chief Justice Earl Warren declared that "the State seeks to set one day apart from all others as a day of rest, repose, recreation and tranquility--a day which all members of the family and community have the opportunity to spend and enjoy together, a day on which there exists relative quiet and disassociation from the everyday intensity of commercial activities, a day on which people may visit friends and relatives who are not available during working days."


title: Blue law

text: In March 2006, Texas judges upheld the state blue law that requires car dealerships to close either Saturday or Sunday each weekend.


title: Blue law

text: In the Cook Islands and Niue, there also exist blue laws. In the Cook Islands, these were the first written legislation, enacted by the London Missionary Society in 1827, with the consent of the "ariki" (chiefs). Laws in Niue ban certain activities on Sunday, reflecting the country's history of observing the Christian Sabbath tradition.


title: Blue law

text: In the Kingdom of Tonga, the Vavaʻu Code (1839) was a form of blue law inspired by the teachings of Methodist missionaries. With the inauguration of the Tongan Constitution on June 4, 1875, the sixth clause stipulates: "The Sabbath Day shall be kept holy in Tonga and no person shall practise his trade or profession or conduct any commercial undertaking on the Sabbath Day except according to law; and any agreement made or witnessed on that day shall be null and void and of no legal effect."


title: Norse–Gaels

text: The Norse–Gaels (; ; , 'foreigner-Gaels') were a people of mixed Gaelic and Norse ancestry and culture. They emerged in the Viking Age, when Vikings who settled in Ireland and in Scotland became Gaelicised and intermarried with Gaels. The Norse–Gaels dominated much of the Irish Sea and Scottish Sea regions from the 9th to 12th centuries. They founded the Kingdom of the Isles (which included the Hebrides and the Isle of Man), the Kingdom of Dublin, the Lordship of Galloway (which is named after them), and briefly (939–944 AD) ruled the Kingdom of York. The most powerful Norse–Gaelic dynasty were the Uí Ímair or House of Ivar.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: Over time, the Norse–Gaels became ever more Gaelicised and disappeared as a distinct group. However, they left a lasting influence, especially in the Isle of Man and Outer Hebrides, where most placenames are of Norse–Gaelic origin. Several Scottish clans have Norse–Gaelic roots, such as Clan MacDonald, Clan MacDougall and Clan MacLeod. The elite mercenary warriors known as the gallowglass (') emerged from these Norse–Gaelic clans and became an important part of Irish warfare. The Viking longship also influenced the Gaelic ' or "", which were used extensively until the 17th century. Norse–Gaelic surnames survive today and include MacIvor, MacAskill and (Mac)Cotter.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: The meaning of "Gall-Goídil" is "foreigner Gaels" or "foreign Gaels" and although it can in theory mean any Gael of foreign origin, it always was used of Gaels (i.e. Gaelic-speakers) with some kind of Norse identity. This term is subject to a large range of variations depending on chronological and geographical differences in the Gaelic language, e.g. Gall Gaidel, Gall Gaidhel, Gall Gaidheal, Gall Gaedil, Gall Gaedhil, Gall Gaedhel, Gall Goidel, Gall Ghaedheil, etc. The modern term in Irish is Gall-Ghaeil or Gall-Ghaedheil, while the Scottish Gaelic is Gall-Ghàidheil.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: The Norse–Gaels often called themselves Ostmen or Austmen, meaning East-men, a name preserved in a corrupted form in the Dublin area known as Oxmantown which comes from Austmanna-tún (homestead of the Eastmen). In contrast, they called Gaels Vestmenn (West-men) (see Vestmannaeyjar and Vestmanna).


title: Norse–Gaels

text: Other terms for the Norse–Gaels are Norse-Irish, Hiberno-Norse or Hiberno-Scandinavian for those in Ireland, and Norse-Scots or Scoto-Norse for those in Scotland.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: The Norse–Gaels originated in Viking colonies of Ireland and Scotland, the descendants of intermarriage between Norse immigrants and the Gaels. As early as the 9th century, many colonists (except the Norse who settled in Cumbria) intermarried with native Gaels and adopted the Gaelic language as well as many Gaelic customs. Many left their original worship of Norse gods and converted to Christianity, and this contributed to the Gaelicisation.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: Gaelicised Scandinavians dominated the region of the Irish Sea until the Norman era of the 12th century. They founded long-lasting kingdoms, such as the Kingdoms of Man, Dublin, and Galloway, as well as taking control of the Norse colony at York.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: The Norse are first recorded in Ireland in 795 when they sacked Lambay Island. Sporadic raids then continued until 832, after which they began to build fortified settlements throughout the country. Norse raids continued throughout the 10th century, but resistance to them increased. The Norse established independent kingdoms in Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork and Limerick. These kingdoms did not survive the subsequent Norman invasions, but the towns continued to grow and prosper.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: The term Ostmen was used between the 12th and 14th centuries by the English in Ireland to refer to Norse–Gaelic people living in Ireland. Meaning literally "the men from the east" (i.e. Scandinavia), the term came from the Old Norse word austr or east. The Ostmen were regarded as a separate group from the English and Irish and were accorded privileges and rights to which the Irish were not entitled. They lived in distinct localities; in Dublin they lived outside the city walls on the north bank of the River Liffey in Ostmentown, a name which survives to this day in corrupted form as Oxmantown. It was once thought that their settlement had been established by Norse–Gaels who had been forced out of Dublin by the English but this is now known not to be the case. Other groups of Ostmen lived in Limerick and Waterford. Many were merchants or lived a partly rural lifestyle, pursuing fishing, craft-working and cattle raising. Their roles in Ireland's economy made them valuable subjects and the English Crown granted them special legal protections. These eventually fell out of use as the Ostmen assimilated into the English settler community throughout the 13th and 14th centuries.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: The Lords of the Isles, whose sway lasted until the 16th century, as well as many other Gaelic rulers of Scotland and Ireland, traced their descent from Norse–Gaels settlements in northwest Scotland, concentrated mostly in the Hebrides.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: The Hebrides are to this day known in Scottish Gaelic as Innse Gall, "the islands of foreigners"; the irony of this being that they are one of the last strongholds of Gaelic in Scotland.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: Land). It has its Scottish clan home on eastern Loch Fyne under Strathlachlan forest. The name or variations therof is common from this mid/southern Scottish area to Irish Donegal to the extreme west.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: It is recorded in the "Landnámabók" that there were papar or culdees (Gaelic monks) in Iceland before the Norse. This appears to tie in with comments of Dicuil and is given weight by recent archaeological discoveries. The settlement of Iceland and the Faroe Islands by the Norse have included many Norse–Gael settlers as well as slaves and servants. They were called Vestmen (Western men), and the name is retained in Vestmanna in the Faroes and the Vestmannaeyjar off the Icelandic mainland.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: A number of Icelandic personal names are of Gaelic origin, including Njáll, Brjánn, Kjartan and Kormákur (from Niall, Brian, Muircheartach and Cormac). Patreksfjörður, an Icelandic village, was named after Saint Patrick. A number of placenames named after the papar exist on Iceland and the Faroes.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: According to some circumstantial evidence, Grímur Kamban, seen as the founder of the Norse Faroes, may have been a Norse Gael.


title: Norse–Gaels

text: Heinrich Zimmer (1891) suggested that the Fianna Cycle of Irish mythology came from the heritage of the Norse-Gaels. He suggested the name of the heroic "fianna" was an Irish rendering of Old Norse "fiandr" "enemies", and argued that this became "brave enemies" > "brave warriors". He also noted that Finn's Thumb of Knowledge is similar to the Norse tale "Fáfnismál". Linguist Ranko Matasović, author of the "Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic", derives the name "fíanna" from reconstructed Proto-Celtic "*wēnā" (a troop), while linguist Kim McCone derives it from Proto-Celtic "*wēnnā" (wild ones).


title: Norse–Gaels

text: Even today, many surnames particularly connected with Gaeldom are of Old Norse origin, especially in the Hebrides and Isle of Man. Several Old Norse words also influenced modern Scots English and Scottish Gaelic, such as "bairn" (child) from the Norse "barn" (a word still used in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland).


title: Continuous track

text: Continuous track is a system of vehicle propulsion used in tracked vehicles, running on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels. The large surface area of the tracks distributes the weight of the vehicle better than steel or rubber tires on an equivalent vehicle, enabling continuous tracked vehicles to traverse soft ground with less likelihood of becoming stuck due to sinking.


title: Continuous track

text: Modern continuous tracks can be made with soft belts of synthetic rubber, reinforced with steel wires, in the case of lighter agricultural machinery. The more common classical type is a solid chain track made of steel plates (with or without rubber pads), also called caterpillar tread or tank tread, which is preferred for robust and heavy construction vehicles and military vehicles.


title: Continuous track

text: The prominent treads of the metal plates are both hard-wearing and damage resistant, especially in comparison to rubber tyres. The aggressive treads of the tracks provide good traction in soft surfaces but can damage paved surfaces, so some metal tracks can have rubber pads installed for use on paved surfaces. Other than soft rubber belts, most chain tracks apply a stiff mechanism to distribute the load equally over the entire space between the wheels for minimal deformation, so that even the heaviest vehicles can move easily, just like a train on its straight tracks.


title: Continuous track

text: The stiff mechanism was first given a physical form by Hornsby & Sons in 1904 and then made popular by Caterpillar Tractor Company, with tanks emerging during World War I. Today, they are commonly used on a variety of vehicles, including snowmobiles, tractors, bulldozers, excavators and tanks.


title: Continuous track

text: Polish mathematician and inventor Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński designed caterpillar vehicles in the 1830s to compete with the railways.


title: Continuous track

text: The British polymath Sir George Cayley patented a continuous track, which he called a "universal railway" in 1825. In 1837, Russian army captain Dmitry Andreevich Zagryazhsky (1807 – after 1860) designed a ""carriage with mobile tracks"" which he patented the same year, but due to a lack of funds and interest from manufacturers he was unable to build a working prototype, and his patent was voided in 1839.


title: Continuous track

text: Patented in 1832 by John Heathcoat (also Heathcote) M.P. for Tiverton, the Heathcote steam plough was demonstrated in 1837 and press coverage fortunately provided a wood cut of this unusual tracked vehicle. The continuous tracks were made of sections of wood bolted to continuous iron bands which were driven by the 'drums' at each end. A strong chassis provided the bearings for the drums, carried the steam engine, fuel and winch. The chassis was supported on "numerous small wheels or rollers" which ran upon the lower iron bands, which "thus form a perfectly portable and smooth road for the platform". The drums were in diameter, apart. The tracks were each wide with a gap in-between giving an overall width of . The twin-cylinder steam engine could be used either to drive the plough winch or to drive the vehicle along, at a speed of up to . Although the machine weighed 30 tons complete with 6 tons of fuel, its ground pressure was only , considerably less than a man. The successful demonstration was carried out on Red Moss at Bolton-le-Moors on 20 April 1837. The steam plough was lost when it sank into a swamp by accident and was then abandoned as the inventor did not have the funds to continue development.


title: Continuous track

text: Although not a continuous track in the form encountered today, a dreadnaught wheel or "endless railway wheel" was patented by the British Engineer James Boydell in 1846. In Boydell's design, a series of flat feet are attached to the periphery of the wheel, spreading the weight. A number of horse-drawn wagons, carts and gun carriages were successfully deployed in the Crimean War, waged between October 1853 and February 1856, the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich manufacturing dreadnaught wheels. A letter of recommendation was signed by Sir William Codrington, the General commanding the troops at Sebastopol.


title: Continuous track

text: Boydell patented improvements to his wheel in 1854 (No. 431) – the year his dreadnaught wheel was first applied to a steam engine – and 1858 (No. 356), the latter an impracticable palliative measure involving the lifting one or other of the driving wheels to facilitate turning.


title: Continuous track

text: A number of manufacturers including Richard Bach, Richard Garrett & Sons, Charles Burrell & Sons and Clayton & Shuttleworth applied the Boydell patent under licence. The British military were interested in Boydell's invention from an early date. One of the objectives was to transport Mallet's Mortar, a giant 36 inch weapon which was under development, but, by the end of the Crimean War, the mortar was not ready for service. A detailed report of the tests on steam traction, carried out by a select Committee of the Board of Ordnance, was published in June 1856, by which date the Crimean War was over, consequently the mortar and its transportation became irrelevant. In those tests, a Garrett engine was put through its paces on Plumstead Common. The Garrett engine featured in the Lord Mayor's show in London, and in the following month that engine was shipped to Australia. A steam tractor employing dreadnaught wheels was built at Bach's Birmingham works, and was used between 1856 and 1858 for ploughing in Thetford; and the first generation of Burrell/Boydell engines was built at the St. Nicholas works in 1856, again, after the close of the Crimean War.


title: Continuous track

text: Between late 1856 and 1862 Burrell manufactured not less than a score of engines fitted with dreadnaught wheels. In April 1858, the journal "The Engineer" gave a brief description of a Clayton & Shuttleworth engine fitted with dreadnaught wheels, which was supplied not to the Western Allies, but to the Russian government for heavy artillery haulage in Crimea in the post-war period. Steam tractors fitted with dreadnaught wheels had a number of shortcomings and, notwithstanding the creations of the late 1850s, were never used extensively.


title: Continuous track

text: In August 1858, more than two years after the end of the Crimean War, John Fowler filed British Patent No. 1948 on another form of "Endless Railway". In his illustration of the invention, Fowler used a pair of wheels of equal diameter on each side of his vehicle, around which pair of toothed wheels ran a 'track' of eight jointed segments, with a smaller jockey/drive wheel between each pair of wheels, to support the 'track'. Comprising only eight sections, the 'track' sections are essentially 'longitudinal', as in Boydell's initial design. Fowler's arrangement is a precursor to the multi-section caterpillar track in which a relatively large number of short 'transverse' treads are used, as proposed by Sir George Caley in 1825, rather than a small number of relatively long 'longitudinal' treads.


title: Continuous track

text: Further to Fowler's patent of 1858, in 1877, a Russian, Fyodor Blinov, created a tracked vehicle called "wagon moved on endless rails". It lacked self-propulsion and was pulled by horses. Blinov received a patent for his "wagon" in 1878. From 1881 to 1888 he developed a steam-powered caterpillar-tractor. This self-propelled crawler was successfully tested and featured at a farmers' exhibition in 1896.


title: Continuous track

text: Steam traction engines were used at the end of the 19th century in the Boer Wars. But neither dreadnaught wheels nor continuous tracks were used, rather "roll-out" wooden plank roads were thrown under the wheels as required.


title: Continuous track

text: In short, whilst the development of the continuous track engaged the attention of a number of inventors in the 18th and 19th centuries, the general use and exploitation of the continuous track belonged to the 20th century, mainly in the United States and England.


title: Continuous track

text: A little-known American inventor, Henry Thomas Stith (1839–1916), had developed a continuous track prototype which was, in multiple forms, patented in 1873, 1880, and 1900. The last was for the application of the track to a prototype off-road bicycle built for his son. The 1900 prototype is retained by his surviving family.


title: Continuous track

text: Frank Beamond (1870–1941), a less-commonly known but significant British inventor, designed and built caterpillar tracks, and was granted patents for them in a number of countries, in 1900 and 1907.


title: Continuous track

text: A first effective continuous track was not only invented but really implemented by Alvin Orlando Lombard for the Lombard Steam Log Hauler. He was granted a patent in 1901 and built the first steam-powered log hauler at the Waterville Iron Works in Waterville, Maine, the same year. In all, 83 Lombard steam log haulers are known to have been built up to 1917, when production switched entirely to internal combustion engine powered machines, ending with a Fairbanks diesel-powered unit in 1934. Alvin Lombard may also have been the first commercial manufacturer of the tractor crawler.


title: Continuous track

text: At least one of Lombard's steam-powered machines apparently remains in working order. A gasoline-powered Lombard hauler is on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta. In addition, there may have been up to twice as many Phoenix Centipeed versions of the steam log hauler built under license from Lombard, with vertical instead of horizontal cylinders. In 1903, the founder of Holt Manufacturing, Benjamin Holt, paid Lombard $60,000 for the right to produce vehicles under his patent.


title: Continuous track

text: At about the same time a British agricultural company, Hornsby in Grantham, developed a continuous track which was patented in 1905. The design differed from modern tracks in that it flexed in only one direction, with the effect that the links locked together to form a solid rail on which the road wheels ran. Hornsby's tracked vehicles were given trials as artillery tractors by the British Army on several occasions between 1905 and 1910, but not adopted.


title: Continuous track

text: The Hornsby tractors pioneered a track-steer clutch arrangement, which is the basis of the modern crawler operation. The patent was purchased by Holt.


title: Continuous track

text: The name "Caterpillar" came from a soldier during the tests on the Hornsby crawler, "trials began at Aldershot in July 1907. The soldiers immediately christened the 70bhp No.2 machine the 'caterpillar'."


title: Continuous track

text: Holt adopted that name for his "crawler" tractors. Holt began moving from steam to gasoline-powered designs, and in 1908 brought out the "Holt Model 40 Caterpillar". Holt incorporated the Holt Caterpillar Company, in early 1910, later that year trademarked the name "Caterpillar" for his continuous tracks.


title: Continuous track

text: Caterpillar Tractor Company began in 1925 from a merger of the Holt Manufacturing Company and the C. L. Best Tractor Company, an early successful manufacturer of crawler tractors.


title: Continuous track

text: With the Caterpillar D10 in 1977, Caterpillar resurrected a design by Holt and Best, the high-sprocket-drive, since known as the "High Drive", which had the advantage of keeping the main drive shaft away from ground shocks and dirt,


title: Continuous track

text: In a memorandum of 1908, Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott presented his view that man-hauling to the South Pole was impossible and that motor traction was needed. Snow vehicles did not yet exist however, and so his engineer Reginald Skelton developed the idea of a caterpillar track for snow surfaces. These tracked motors were built by the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company in Birmingham, tested in Switzerland and Norway, and can be seen in action in Herbert Ponting's 1911 documentary film of Scott's Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition. Scott died during the expedition in 1912, but expedition member and biographer Apsley Cherry-Garrard credited Scott's "motors" with the inspiration for the British World War I tanks, writing: "Scott never knew their true possibilities; for they were the direct ancestors of the 'tanks' in France."


title: Continuous track

text: In time, however, a wide array of vehicles were developed for snow and ice, including ski slope grooming machines, snowmobiles, and countless commercial and military vehicles.


title: Continuous track

text: Continuous track was first applied to a military vehicle on the British prototype tank Little Willie. British Army officers, Colonel Ernest Swinton and Colonel Maurice Hankey, became convinced that it was possible to develop a fighting vehicle that could provide protection from machine gun fire.


title: Continuous track

text: During World War I, Holt tractors were used by the British and Austro-Hungarian armies to tow heavy artillery and stimulated the development of tanks in several countries. The first tanks to go into action, the Mark I, built by Great Britain, were designed from scratch and were inspired by, but not directly based on, the Holt. The slightly later French and German tanks were built on modified Holt running gear.


title: Continuous track

text: A long line of patents disputes who was the "originator" of continuous tracks. There were a number of designs that attempted to achieve a track laying mechanism, although these designs do not generally resemble modern tracked vehicles.


title: Continuous track

text: In 1877 Russian inventor Fyodor Abramovich Blinov created a horse-drawn tracked vehicle called "wagon moved on endless rails", which received a patent the next year. In 1881–1888 he created a steam-powered caterpillar-tractor. This self-propelled crawler was successfully tested and showed at a farmers' exhibition in 1896.


title: Continuous track

text: According to "Scientific American", Charles Dinsmoor of Warren, Pennsylvania invented a "vehicle" on endless tracks, patented as No. 351,749 on November 2, 1886. The article gives a detailed description of the endless tracks.


title: Continuous track

text: Alvin O. Lombard of Waterville, Maine was issued a patent in 1901 for the Lombard Steam Log Hauler that resembles a regular railroad steam locomotive with sled steerage on front and crawlers in rear for hauling logs in the Northeastern United States and Canada. The haulers allowed pulp to be taken to rivers in the winter. Prior to then, horses could be used only until snow depths made hauling impossible. Lombard began commercial production which lasted until around 1917 when focus switched entirely to gasoline powered machines. A gasoline-powered hauler is on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine.


title: Continuous track

text: After Lombard began operations, Hornsby in England manufactured at least two full length "track steer" machines, and their patent was later purchased by Holt in 1913, allowing Holt to claim to be the "inventor" of the crawler tractor. Since the "tank" was a British concept it is more likely the Hornsby, which had been built and unsuccessfully pitched to their military, was the inspiration.


title: Continuous track

text: In a patent dispute involving rival crawler builder Best, testimony was brought in from people including Lombard, that Holt had inspected a Lombard log hauler shipped out to a western state by people who would later build the Phoenix log hauler in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, under license from Lombard. The Phoenix Centipeed typically had a fancier wood cab, steering wheel tipped forward at a 45 degree angle and vertical instead of horizontal cylinders.


title: Continuous track

text: In the meantime, a gasoline-powered motor home was built by Lombard for Holman Harry (Flannery) Linn of Old Town, Maine to pull the equipment wagon of his dog & pony show, resembling a trolley car only with wheels in front and Lombard crawlers in rear. Linn had experimented with gasoline and steam-powered vehicles and six-wheel drive before this, and at some point entered Lombard's employment as a demonstrator, mechanic and sales agent. This resulted in a question of proprietorship of patent rights after a single rear-tracked gasoline-powered road engine of tricycle arrangement was built to replace the larger motor home in 1909 on account of problems with the old picturesque wooden bridges. This dispute resulted in Linn departing Maine and relocating to Morris, New York, to build an improved, contour following flexible lag tread or crawler with independent suspension of halftrack type, gasoline and later diesel powered. Although several were delivered for military use between 1917 and 1946, Linn never received any large military orders. Most of the production between 1917 and 1952, approximately 2500 units, was sold directly to highway departments and contractors. Steel tracks and payload capacity allowed these machines to work in terrain that would typically cause the poorer quality rubber tyres that existed before the mid-1930s to spin uselessly, or shred completely.


title: Continuous track

text: Linn was a pioneer in snow removal before the practice was embraced in rural areas, with a nine-foot steel v-plow and sixteen foot adjustable leveling wings on either side. Once the highway system became paved, snowplowing could be done by four wheel drive trucks equipped by improving tyre designs, and the Linn became an off highway vehicle, for logging, mining, dam construction, arctic exploration, etc.


title: Continuous track

text: Modern tracks are built from modular chain links which together compose a closed chain. The links are jointed by a hinge, which allows the track to be flexible and wrap around a set of wheels to make an endless loop. The chain links are often broad, and can be made of manganese alloy steel for high strength, hardness, and abrasion resistance.


title: Continuous track

text: Track construction and assembly is dictated by the application. Military vehicles use a track shoe that is integral to the structure of the chain in order to reduce track weight. Reduced weight allows the vehicle to move faster and decreases overall vehicle weight to ease transportation. Since track weight is completely unsprung, reducing it improves suspension performance at speeds where the track's momentum is significant. In contrast, agricultural and construction vehicles opt for a track with shoes that attach to the chain with bolts and do not form part of the chain's structure. This allows track shoes to break without compromising the ability of the vehicle to move and decrease productivity but increases the overall weight of the track and vehicle.


title: Continuous track

text: The vehicle's weight is transferred to the bottom length of track by a number of road wheels, or sets of wheels called bogies. Road wheels are typically mounted on some form of suspension to cushion the ride over rough ground. Suspension design in military vehicles is a major area of development; the very early designs were often completely unsprung. Later-developed road wheel suspension offered only a few inches of travel using springs, whereas modern hydro-pneumatic systems allow several feet of travel and include shock absorbers. Torsion-bar suspension has become the most common type of military vehicle suspension. Construction vehicles have smaller road wheels that are designed primarily to prevent track derailment and they are normally contained in a single bogie that includes the idler-wheel and sometimes the sprocket.


title: Continuous track

text: Many World War II German military vehicles, initially (starting in the late 1930s) including all vehicles originally designed to be half-tracks and all later tank designs (after the Panzer IV), had slack-track systems, usually driven by a front-located drive sprocket, the track returning along the tops of a design of overlapping and sometimes interleaved large diameter road wheels, as on the suspension systems of the Tiger I and Panther tanks, generically known by the term "Schachtellaufwerk" (interleaved or overlapping running gear) in German, for both half-track and fully tracked vehicles. There were suspensions with single or sometimes doubled wheels per axle, alternately supporting the inner and outer side of the track, and interleaved suspensions with two or three road wheels per axle, distributing the load over the track.


title: Continuous track

text: The choice of overlapping/interleaved road wheels allowed the use of slightly more transverse-orientation torsion bar suspension members, allowing any German tracked military vehicle with such a setup to have a noticeably smoother ride over challenging terrain, leading to reduced wear, ensuring greater traction and more accurate fire. However, on the Russian front, mud and snow would become lodged between the overlapping wheels, freeze, and immobilize the vehicle. As a tracked vehicle moves, the load of each wheel moves over the track, pushing down and forward that part of the earth or snow underneath it, similarly to a wheeled vehicle but to a lesser extent because the tread helps distribute the load. On some surfaces, this can consume enough energy to slow the vehicle down significantly. Overlapped and interleaved wheels improve performance (including fuel consumption) by loading the track more evenly. It also must have extended the life of the tracks and possibly of the wheels. The wheels also better protect the vehicle from enemy fire, and mobility is improved when some wheels are missing.


title: Continuous track

text: This relatively complicated approach has not been used since World War II ended. This may be related more to maintenance than to original cost. The torsion bars and bearings may stay dry and clean, but the wheels and tread work in mud, sand, rocks, snow, and other surfaces. In addition, the outer wheels (up to nine of them, some double) had to be removed to access the inner ones. In WWII, vehicles typically had to be maintained for a few months before being destroyed or captured, but in peacetime, vehicles must train several crews over a period of decades.


title: Continuous track

text: Transfer of power to the track is accomplished by a drive wheel, or "drive sprocket", driven by the motor and engaging with holes in the track links or with pegs on them to drive the track. In military vehicles, the drive wheel is typically mounted well above the contact area on the ground, allowing it to be fixed in position. In agricultural crawlers it is normally incorporated as part of the bogie. Placing suspension on the sprocket is possible, but is mechanically more complicated. A non-powered wheel, an "idler", is placed at the opposite end of the track, primarily to tension the track, since loose track could be easily thrown (slipped) off the wheels. To prevent throwing, the inner surface of the track links usually have vertical guide horns engaging grooves, or gaps between the doubled road and idler/sprocket wheels. In military vehicles with a rear sprocket, the idler wheel is placed higher than the road wheels to allow it to climb over obstacles. Some track arrangements use return rollers to keep the top of the track running straight between the drive sprocket and idler. Others, called "slack track", allow the track to droop and run along the tops of large road wheels. This was a feature of the Christie suspension, leading to occasional misidentification of other slack track-equipped vehicles.


title: Continuous track

text: Continuous track vehicle steer by applying more or less drive torque to one side of the vehicle than the other, and this can be implemented in a variety of ways.


title: Continuous track

text: Tracks may be broadly categorized as "live" or "dead" track. "Dead" track is a simple design in which each track plate is connected to the rest with hinge-type pins. These dead tracks will lie flat if placed on the ground; the drive sprocket pulls the track around the wheels with no assistance from the track itself. "Live" track is slightly more complex, with each link connected to the next by a bushing which causes the track to bend slightly inward. A length of live track left on the ground will curl upward slightly at each end. Although the drive sprocket must still pull the track around the wheels, the track itself tends to bend inward, slightly assisting the sprocket and somewhat conforming to the wheels.


title: Continuous track

text: Tracks are often equipped with rubber pads to improve travel on paved surfaces more quickly, smoothly and quietly. While these pads slightly reduce a vehicle's cross-country traction, they prevent damage to any pavement. Some pad systems are designed to remove easily for cross-country military combat.


title: Continuous track

text: Starting from late 1980s, many manufacturers provide rubber tracks instead of steel, especially for agricultural applications. Rather than a track made of linked steel plates, a reinforced rubber belt with chevron treads is used.


title: Continuous track

text: In comparison to steel tracks, rubber tracks are lighter, waste less power on internal friction, make less noise and do not damage paved roads. However, they impose "more" ground pressure below the wheels, as they are not able to equalize pressure as well as the stiff mechanism of track plates, especially the spring loaded "live" tracks. Another disadvantage is that they are not disassemblable into tracks and therefore cannot be repaired, having to be discarded as whole if once damaged.


title: Continuous track

text: Previous belt-like systems, such as those used for half-tracks in World War II, were not as strong, and during military actions were easily damaged. The first rubber track was invented and constructed by Adolphe Kégresse and patented in 1913; in historic context rubber tracks are often called Kégresse tracks. First rubber-tracked agricultural tracked was Oliver Farm Equipment HGR in 1945-1948, which was ahead of its time and only seen small-scale production.


title: Continuous track

text: The disadvantages of tracks are lower top speed, much greater mechanical complexity, shorter life and the damage that their all-steel versions cause to the surface on which they pass: They often cause damage to less firm terrain such as lawns, gravel roads, and farm fields, as the sharp edges of the track easily rout the turf. Accordingly, vehicle laws and local ordinances often require rubberised tracks or track pads. A compromise between all-steel and all-rubber tracks exists: attaching rubber pads to individual track links ensures that continuous track vehicles can travel more smoothly, quickly, and quietly on paved surfaces. While these pads slightly reduce a vehicle's cross-country traction, in theory they prevent damage to any pavement.


title: Continuous track

text: Additionally, the loss of a single segment in a track immobilizes the entire vehicle, which can be a disadvantage in situations where high reliability is important. Tracks can also ride off their guide wheels, idlers or sprockets, which can cause them to jam or to come completely off the guide system (this is called a 'thrown' track). Jammed tracks may become so tight that the track may need to be broken before a repair is possible, which requires either explosives or special tools. Multi-wheeled vehicles, for example, 8 X 8 military vehicles, may often continue driving even after the loss of one or more non-sequential wheels, depending on the base wheel pattern and drive train.


title: Continuous track

text: Prolonged use places enormous strain on the drive transmission and the mechanics of the tracks, which must be overhauled or replaced regularly. It is common to see tracked vehicles such as bulldozers or tanks transported long distances by a wheeled carrier such as a tank transporter or train, though technological advances have made this practice less common among tracked military vehicles than it once was.


title: Continuous track

text: The pioneer manufacturers have been replaced mostly by large tractor companies such as AGCO, Liebherr Group, John Deere, Yanmar, New Holland, Kubota, Case, Caterpillar Inc., CLAAS. Also, there are some crawler tractor companies specialising in niche markets. Examples are Otter Mfg. Co. and Struck Corporation., with many wheeled vehicle conversion kits available from the American Mattracks firm of Minnesota since the mid-1990s.


title: Beak

text: The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship, and feeding young. The terms "beak" and "rostrum" are also used to refer to a similar mouth part in some ornithischians, pterosaurs, cetaceans, dicynodonts, anuran tadpoles, monotremes (i.e. echidnas and platypuses, which have a beak-like structure), sirens, pufferfish, billfishes and cephalopods.


title: Beak

text: Although beaks vary significantly in size, shape, color and texture, they share a similar underlying structure. Two bony projections – the upper and lower mandibles – are covered with a thin keratinized layer of epidermis known as the rhamphotheca. In most species, two holes called "nares" lead to the respiratory system.


title: Beak

text: Although the word "beak" was, in the past, generally restricted to the sharpened bills of birds of prey, in modern ornithology, the terms beak and bill are generally considered to be synonymous. The word, which dates from the 13th century, comes from the Middle English "bec", which itself comes from the Latin "beccus".


title: Beak

text: Although beaks vary significantly in size and shape from species to species, their underlying structures have a similar pattern. All beaks are composed of two jaws, generally known as the upper mandible (or maxilla) and lower mandible (or mandible). The upper, and in some cases the lower, mandibles are strengthened internally by a complex three-dimensional network of bony spicules (or trabeculae) seated in soft connective tissue and surrounded by the hard outer layers of the beak. The avian jaw apparatus is made up of two units: one four-bar linkage mechanism and one five-bar linkage mechanism.


title: Beak

text: The upper mandible is supported by a three-pronged bone called the intermaxillary. The upper prong of this bone is embedded into the forehead, while the two lower prongs attach to the sides of the skull. At the base of the upper mandible a thin sheet of nasal bones is attached to the skull at the nasofrontal hinge, which gives mobility to the upper mandible, allowing it to move upwards and downwards.


title: Beak

text: The base of the upper mandible, or the roof when seen from the mouth, is the palate, the structure of which differs greatly in the ratites. Here, the vomer is large and connects with premaxillae and maxillopalatine bones in a condition termed as a "paleognathous palate". All other extant birds have a narrow forked vomer that does not connect with other bones and is then termed as neognathous. The shape of these bones varies across the bird families.


title: Beak

text: The lower mandible is supported by a bone known as the inferior maxillary bone—a compound bone composed of two distinct ossified pieces. These ossified plates (or rami), which can be U-shaped or V-shaped, join distally (the exact location of the joint depends on the species) but are separated proximally, attaching on either side of the head to the quadrate bone. The jaw muscles, which allow the bird to close its beak, attach to the proximal end of the lower mandible and to the bird's skull. The muscles that depress the lower mandible are usually weak, except in a few birds such as the starlings and the extinct Huia, which have well-developed digastric muscles that aid in foraging by prying or gaping actions. In most birds, these muscles are relatively small as compared to the jaw muscles of similarly sized mammals.