Tourneur Vtor-norV Cyril (b. c. 1575—d. Feb. 28, 1626, Kinsale, County Cork, Ire.) English dramatist. His early years were devoted to lit¬ erature; after c. 1613 he served in the government. His reputation rests
largely on The Atheist’s Tragedie (1611), a verse drama rich in macabre imagery. He may be the author of The Revenger’s Tragedie (1607), but most recent scholarship attributes it to Thomas Middleton; though earlier than The Atheist’s Tragedie, it is more mature in its structure and sombre brilliance. Tourneur also wrote the poetical satire The Transformed Meta¬ morphosis (1600).
Tours \'tlir\ City (pop., 1999: 132,820), northwest-central France. Gal¬ lic tribes inhabited the site before the Roman conquest. In the 3rd cen¬ tury ad it was made an episcopal see, but the Christian community remained small until St. Martin became bishop in the 4th century; a mag¬ nificent basilica was raised above his tomb in the late 5th century, attract¬ ing pilgrims for hundreds of years. In the 5th century Tours became part of the Frankish dominion; Charles Martel defeated Moorish invaders nearby at the Battle of Tours/Poitiers in 732. Under Alcuin it developed as a centre of learning. Though it prospered in the Middle Ages, it declined with the 17th-century emigration of the Protestant Huguenots. It was the seat of French government during the siege of Paris (1870) in the Franco- Prussian War. The chief tourist hub for the Loire valley, Tours still has the remains of the basilica of St. Martin. Tours is the birthplace of Honore de Balzac.
Tours/Poitiers \pwa-'tya\, Battle of (October 732) Victory won by the Frankish mayor of the palace Charles Martel over Muslim invaders from Spain. Charles led Frankish troops against a Muslim army seeking to gain control of Aquitaine. The Arab leader, 'Abd-al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, was killed, and the Arabs retreated. The battle itself was part of Charles’s campaign against the Muslims in the south and was not decisive. It did, however, mark the end of the Muslim invasions of Frankish territory and contributed to Frankish consolidation of the region. The Frankish victory greatly enhanced Charles’s prestige and that of his family, the Carolin- GIANS.
Toussaint-Louverture Vtii- 1 sa n -Tu-v3r- 1 tur\ orig. Francois Domi¬ nique Toussaint (b. c. 1743, Breda, near Cape Francis, Saint- Domingue—d. April 7, 1803, Fort-de-Joux, Fr.) Leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution. Born a slave, he was freed in 1777. In 1791 he joined a slave rebellion and soon assembled an army of his own, which he trained in guerrilla warfare. When France and Spain went to war in 1793, he and other black commanders joined the Spaniards, but in 1794 he switched his allegiance to the French because France, unlike Spain, had recently abolished slavery. His revolt created the first independent nation in Latin America. He rose from lieu¬ tenant governor to governor-general of Saint-Domingue and gradually rid himself of nominal French superiors. Treaties with the British secured their withdrawal, and he began trade with them and the U.S. In 1801 he turned his attention to Santo Domingo, the Spanish-controlled portion of Hispaniola, driving out the Spanish and freeing the slaves there. He made himself governor-general for life. He was deposed by the French in 1802 and died in custody in France. See also Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
Toutates See Teutates
Towada \to-'wa-da\, Lake Lake, northern Honshu, Japan. It occupies a volcanic crater and is 27 mi (44 km) in circumference. The third deep¬ est lake in Japan, it is 1,096 ft (334 m) deep at its centre. It lies in Towada-Hachimantai National Park, a popular recreation area.
tower Any freestanding or attached structure that is relatively tall in proportion to its base. The Romans, Byzantines, and medieval Europeans built defensive towers as part of the fortifications of their city walls (e.g., the Tower of London). Indian temple architecture uses towers of various types (e.g., the sikhara ). Towers were an important feature of churches and cathedrals built in the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Some Gothic church towers were designed to carry a spire; others had flat roofs. The Italian campanile could either be attached to a church or freestanding. The use of towers declined somewhat during the Renaissance but reappeared in Baroque architecture. The use of steel frames enabled buildings to reach unprecedented heights; the Eiffel Tower in Paris was the first structure to reveal the true vertical potential of steel construction.
Tower, Joan (b. Sept. 6, 1938, New Rochelle, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. com¬ poser. She studied piano as a child, attended Bennington College, and completed her music studies at Columbia University. In 1969 she formed the Da Capo Chamber Players, for which she played piano and wrote many pieces; she left the group in 1984. She is chiefly known for her colourful and often whimsical orchestral compositions, including Sequoia
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1928 I Tower of London ► Toynbee
(1981), Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1987), and Silver Ladder (1987). Since 1972 she has taught at Bard College.
Tower of London Royal fortress on the northern bank of the River Thames. The central keep, or donjon, known as the White Tower because of its limestone, was begun c. 1078 by William I the Conqueror inside the Roman city wall. In the 12th—13th century the fortifications were extended beyond the wall, the White Tower becoming the nucleus of a series of concentric defenses. The only entrance from the land is at the southwest¬ ern corner; when the river was still a major highway, the 13th-century water gate was much used. Its nickname, Traitors’ Gate, derives from the prisoners brought through it to the Tower, long used as a state prison; many were murdered or executed there.
towhee Vto-.he, 'to-,e,\ Any of several North American songbirds (pas¬ serine family Fringillidae, sometimes Emberizidae), long-tailed thicket- dwellers that noisily scratch the ground for food. The name is from the call of the rufous-sided towhee {Pipilo erythrophthalmus), known as chewink in the southeastern U.S.; it ranges from Canada to Central America. About 8 in. (20 cm) long, it has a dark hood, white-cornered tail, and rusty flanks; western sub¬ species have white-spotted wings.
The brown towhee (P. fuscus) of the western U.S. is a plain-looking bird.
The green-tailed towhee ( Chlorura chlorura ), also western, is gray, white, and greenish, with a red-brown cap.
town meeting Legislative assembly of a U.S. town in which all or some voters are empowered to conduct the community’s affairs. Town meetings first took place in New England in the colonial era and are still largely a New England phenomenon, partly because the region’s towns tend to hold powers that are granted to counties elsewhere. The meetings are normally held annually. Executive authority is usually held by a three- or five-member board. Open town meetings, which are widely regarded as an exceptionally pure form of democracy, allow all registered voters to vote on articles listed on the agenda, or warrant; representative town meetings allow only elected members to vote.
Townes, Charles H(ard) (b. July 28, 1915, Greenville, S.C., U.S.) U.S. physicist. He studied at Furman University, Duke University, and the California Institute of Technology and worked for Bell Labs before joining the faculty of Columbia University (1948). In the early 1950s he and his students constructed the first maser and showed that a similar device producing visible light was also possible. For his role in the inven¬ tion of the maser and later the laser, he shared a 1964 Nobel Prize with Aleksandr M. Prokhorov (b. 1916) and Nikolay G. Basov (b. 1922).
Townsend family U.S. cabinetmakers in Newport, R.I., of the 17th— 18th century. The brothers Job (1699-1765) and Christopher (1701-1773) were the first generation involved in furniture making. Job’s daughter married his apprentice John Goddard (see Goddard family). Five of Job’s sons and two of Christopher’s sons became cabinetmakers. The Goddard- Townsend group was best known for case furniture characterized by block fronts (divided into three panels, with the central panel recessed) and decorative carved shell motifs, frequently in the graceful and somewhat ornate style developed by Thomas Chippendale.