Category: mapping

Twin towns or sister cities are part of a diplomacy effort to develop relationships between cities in the United States and international countries. Sister cities hope to promote cooperation, cultural understanding, and economic benefits to each of the participating places. In the U.S., there are over 700 cities dedicated to bridging the cultural gap of their international counterparts. In fact, several U.S. cities maintain relationships with over 20 international cities. Some of these pairings are more interesting than others. For example, one international travel destination known for its tall, twinkling tower is officially committed to just one other international city. However, many cities in the U.S. claim they’re paired with the Ville Lumière. When it comes to international relations, more issues may arise, like the time a Japanese city severed ties with a city in California after over 60 years together. Thankfully, that burned bridge didn’t impact the relationships between other Japanese and American cities because there are over 200 sister city relationships between the two. Is Japan the country the U.S. pairs with the most? Find out the answer to that question and more as you read about the twin towns and sister cities of the U.S.

View Twin Towns and Sister Cities in a full screen map

The map above contains hoards of information about the almost 2,000 international sister cities of over 700 U.S. cities. Find out where in the world your city has ties by taking advantage of the search bar in the upper right-hand corner of the map.

Tons of Twins & a Surplus of Sisters

The idea of twin towns and sister cities came about near the end of World War II to foster friendship and understanding among different cultures and former foes as an act of peace and reconciliation, and to encourage trade and tourism. Now, not every city in the U.S. partakes in this cultural exchange, nor does every state. Arizona and Hawaii, for example, have more in common than eschewing Daylight Savings Time. According to Wikipedia, they also don’t have any sister cities. The same goes for Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, at least, according to where we got our data. Don’t fret though. There are still nearly 2,000 international sister cities that pair with more than 700 U.S. cities on the map. Obviously, many U.S. cities must have more than one sister city to get numbers that high.

The following seven places each have over 20 international partners, making them the U.S. cities with the most international ties:

• Laredo, Texas
• Chicago, Illinois
• Miami-Dade County, Florida
• Los Angeles, California
• Miami, Florida
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Seattle, Washington

Laredo, Texas cultivates relationships with 41 international cities, most of which are located in the same country. Thirty of Laredo’s sister cities are located in Mexico, which makes sense as Laredo is right on the Mexico–U.S. border. Chicago is the second of the largest and most active sister city organizations in the U.S pairing with 28 cities. However, some of these cities are mere “friendship cities,” not sister cities. The most notable of Chicago’s pairs is Paris, France, a city we’ll touch more on later. Miami-Dade County, Los Angeles, Miami, Cleveland, and Seattle, each have multiple sister cities. Miami-Dad and Miami pair with 27 and 24 cities, respectively. The City of Angels partners with 25 cities, Cleveland maintains 22 relationships, and Seattle does the same with 21 cities around the world. It’s worth noting that while San Francisco does not have over 20 sister cities like the above, it still has an impressive number: 19. Like Chicago, San Francisco has a friendship pact with Paris.

Riveting Relationships

We pointed out that two of the U.S. cities with the most partnerships, Chicago and San Francisco, include Paris, France, on their list of sister cities. But tell that to France. Paris dubs its relationship with other cities as merely “friendship pacts.” Since 1956, Paris has only ever officially been partnered with Rome, which gave way to the phrase “only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris.” Paris keeps friendship pacts with plenty of cities but will only ever officially belong to Rome.

One year after Paris and Rome made their relationship exclusive, San Francisco developed a partnership with Osaka, Japan. But in 2018, the Mayor of Osaka severed ties with San Fran after a controversy over a statue. The statue in question commemorates the thousands of women who were raped by Japanese soldiers during World War II, and the Mayor of Osaka, Japan, was clearly not pleased.

On a lighter note, did you know there’s a city of Dublin in the U.S.? It’s located in California, and its sister city is Dublin, Ireland. Similarly, Orange, California, is sister cities with all things orange — Orange, France, and Orange, Australia. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find evidence of a city named Naranja in any Spanish-speaking country, otherwise, we’re sure Orange, CA would extend an invitation to join the group.

We’ve saved the best riveting sister city relationship for last. The city of Boring, Oregon has but one sister city: Dull, Scotland. If you ever face that question on Jeopardy, you’ll be prepared.

Most Paired Countries

More than anywhere else in the world, cities in the U.S. partner with international cities in Japan the most. Whether it’s because of a close allyship or trade, cities in the U.S. have over 200 distinct relationships with Japan. The second country cities in the U.S. have ties to the most is Mexico. U.S. cities have more than 120 sister city connections to cities in Mexico. Then comes China. Cities in the U.S. pair together with the country over 100 different times.

On the other hand, we have U.S. cities that didn’t stray too far from home when it came time to find a sister city. For example, Anaheim, California is sister cities with another city in the U.S. — Orlando, Florida. Anaheim and Orlando aren’t the only ones, there are thirteen total U.S.-U.S. pairs.

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Have you ever visited one of your city’s sister cities? If so, you can make a map of where you’ve visited to easily remember your traveling memories. If you have fewer travel experiences than you’d like, you can use BatchGeo to make a map of where you want to go. Your map can motivate you to get out and see the world — consider it your own digital adventure book! If you’d rather read about the voyages of others, you can check out our map of all the international travels of U.S. presidents.

Wimbledon is one of the most prestigious tennis competitions in the world. And where there’s a competition, there are winners. In the case of Wimbledon singles champions, over 100 different gentleman and lady tennis players have won since the formation in 1877. Eleven of these winners may as well have a second home in London, England where the tournament takes place, seeing as they have won Wimbledon six or more times. In total, the incredible Wimbledon singles-winning athletes hail from 16 different countries around the world, some of which make more of a racket at Wimbledon singles tournaments than others. Find out who the ten greatest Wimbledon singles winners are and where they come from, along with the three countries that have taken home Wimbledon gold more often than the rest when you keep reading about where Wimbledon winners are from.

View Where Wimbledon Winners Are From in a full screen map

The map above notes every Wimbledon singles winner since 1877 for the gentlemen and 1884 for the ladies. We got our data here and here. However, you may notice a few years missing. This coincides with World Wars I and II, during which Wimbledon was not held.

The Ten-ish Tennis Players With the Most Wimbledon Wins

Every tennis player who competes at Wimbledon is noteworthy, as is each Wimbledon singles winner. But there are some tennis champions with multiple wins under their belt. The following tennis players have won more Wimbledon singles tournaments than any other competitor:

1. Martina Navratilova, 9 wins
2. Roger Federer, 8 wins
3. Helen Wills Moody, 8 wins
4. Pete Sampras, 7 wins
5. William Renshaw, 7 wins
6. Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, 7 wins
7. Serena Williams, 7 wins
8. Steffi Graf, 7 wins
9. Billie Jean King, 6 wins
10. Blanche Bingley Hillyard, 6 wins
11. Suzanne Lenglen, 6 wins

Martina Navratilova holds the #1 spot for most Wimbledon wins regardless of gender or era. Navratilova first won the courts of Wimbledon in 1978 and last won in 1990. Yet, no one since has won as many Wimbledons. Serena Williams may still have a chance to claim that #1 spot, though. Williams, Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, William Renshaw, and Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers are tied for #3 with the most Wimbledon wins. But while Sampras hasn’t won since 2000, and Renshaw and Chambers are both long past their prime — Renshaw last won in 1889 while Chambers’ last win was just before World War I — Serena Williams won recently in 2016. She may still surpass Martina Navratilova for the #1 ranking amongst Wimbledon singles winners. And, while not in the top ten, Serena’s talented sister Venus Williams is tied for the #5 most Wimbledon wins with five of her own.

More than sorting these impressive athletes by the number of Wimbledon singles wins and their rankings, we can note the countries the champions represented at Wimbledon. Martina Navratilova, Helen Wills Moody, Pete Sampras, Serena Williams, and Billie Jean King all competed on behalf of the U.S. while William Renshaw, Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers, and Blanche Bingley Hillyard were all British Wimbledon singles champions. Roger Federer hailed from Switzerland, Steffi Graf played for Germany, and Suzanne Lenglen for France. However, just because these tennis champions brought the most Wimbledon wins than any other player, their country isn’t guaranteed a spot with the most Wimbledon-winning countries in history. Well, except in a few cases.

Countries Making a Racquet at Wimbledon

The United States

Tennis players from the U.S. have won Wimbledon 89 times. Though the U.S. was established well before the first Wimbledon singles competition in 1877, America didn’t bring home a Wimbledon prize until May Sutton won the Ladies’ Singles in 1905. After Sutton’s second win in 1907, the U.S. went through a dry spell. Their next Wimbledon win didn’t come until Bill Tilden won the Gentlemen’s Singles in 1920. From that point on, the U.S. had a Wimbledon winner at least five times every decade. This included Helen Wills Moody, who won Wimbledon consecutively between 1927-1930, and then again in 1932, 1933, 1935, and 1938.

Transitioning from the Amateur Era to the Open Era of Wimbledon for America was Billie Jean King. King first won Wimbledon in 1966, again in 1967, and again once the Open Era started in ‘68. In total, King won two Amateur prizes and four Open Era ones between 1966 and 1975. After King came Martina Navratilova, who we know holds the coveted #1 spot for most Wimbledon wins ever. Navratilova first won in 1978, and again in ‘79. Despite some years where she didn’t win, Navratilova was in it for the long haul. She ended up victorious again in ‘82, and from then on, she was unstoppable, winning consecutively from 1982-1987, and in 1990 for her last victory.

More recent U.S. winners include Pete Sampras, who won from 1993-1995, and again between 1997-2000. Sampras’s win in 2000 was the last for U.S. Gentlemen’s Singles. However, American ladies are doing alright in the 21st century thanks to the Williams sisters. Although it hasn’t just been this century that women in tennis were succeeding. In total, 57 of all the U.S.’s Wimbledon wins were earned by the ladies while 32 were from gentlemen players, however, the Peruvian-born Alex Olmedo may count for another U.S. win. In this century, Venus was the first of the William sisters to win Wimbledon, doing so in 2000. She won again in 2001, but then her sister, Serena showed up on the scene, determined to dominate. For a while, it appeared Venus and Serena Williams would take turns winning Wimbledon; but since 2009, Serena has been the only Williams sister to earn the title. The score is currently Venus: 5; Serena: 7, and thanks to Serena, the U.S. earned its most recent win in 2016.

Australia

Australians are also quite good at tennis. Twenty-six Wimbledon winners have hailed from the land Down Under. Australia’s first winner was in 1907, just six years after the country was formed. This first W was thanks to Norman Brookes. After Brookes, Margaret Smith Court was the first Aussie woman to win Wimbledon in 1963. Interestingly, just nine of Australia’s 26 Wimbledon wins come from the Open Era, when professionals were allowed to compete. The other 17 wins took place during the Amateur Era. But Rod Laver won first place during both eras. He earned two Wimbledon for Australia during the Amateur Era, and then went on to win twice more during the Open Era. Eras aside, 21 of Australia’s wins were earned by the gentlemen and five wins were from the ladies. As for the country’s most recent win, it was back in 2002.

The United Kingdom

If the U.S. and Australia didn’t win their first Wimbledon until the 20th century, which country was coming in first place between Wimbledon’s creation in 1877 and then? In the early years of Wimbledon, the U.K. was the only major winner. They have won Wimbledon 73 times in total, 37 of which are thanks to the gentlemen and 36 are from the ladies. The U.K.’s racquet-welding ladies and gents won Wimbledon 50 times consecutively from its conception in 1877 until America’s May Sutton broke the winning streak of ladies after 21 years and Aussie Norman Brookes broke the 30-year gentlemen’s winning streak in 1907. It’s crazy to think that nearly 70% of the U.K.’s Wimbledon wins come from before 1908.

Notable during the U.K.’s golden age of tennis is William Renshaw, who as we’ve mentioned is tied for the #3 most wins in history (7), his last being in 1889. A historical version of Serena and Venus Williams, William Renshaw’s brother, Ernest, was the one who ultimately ruined William’s winning streak in 1888. For the U.K., the early days of Wimbledon were ripe with even more sibling rivalries. Nine of the U.K.’s Wimbledon wins come from brothers Laurence and Reginald Doherty. However, the gentlemen of the U.K. faced a couple of dry spells. Between 1910 and 1933, the U.K. did not win once for Gentlemen’s Singles. The same can be said between 1937 until 2013 when Andy Murray came to win and ending the long losing streak.

As for the U.K.’s ladies, Blanche Bingley Hillyard, Charlotte Cooper Sterry, and Lottie Dod ruled the tennis game from 1886 to 1901. Hillyard won six Wimbledons, and Sterry and Dod each won five for their country. Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers then won seven Wimbledons between 1903 and 1914. However, while the ladies of the U.K. dominated in the early days of Wimbledon, they have yet to win another competition since 1977. The gentlemen, on the other hand, won in 2016.

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Now that you know where the Wimbledon winners come from, keep an eye out in June and July to see if Serena Williams scores another Wimbledon win and eventually comes for Martina Navratilova’s #1 spot. Either way, it’s a win for the U.S. Another sporting event that takes place over the summer is the Tour de France. You can learn more about the winners, as well as the 2,200-mile route they take each year.

If you’re like us, you use Excel for a lot of things. Even if you have another contacts list, such as Google Contacts, you might find yourself exporting to Excel so you can easily view, sort, and filter. Excel also helps you prepare your list of names and addresses in a structured way so you can easily print them on address labels. Assuming you already have that Excel document with your list of friends, customers, leads, or other contacts, you are ready to go.

As with all things Microsoft, there is more than one way to accomplish what you need. For instance, there are many ways to start the Mail Merge process. We’ll describe just one of the easy ways to create labels with Mail Merge.

Note: In addition to labels, you can import your address list into Google Maps to create a map of sales leads, customers, friends, or other contacts.

How to Start

The first thing to know about creating a successful Mail Merge is what you are going to be creating, and to whom will you be sending it. Collect this data in your Excel spreadsheet, or create a list within Word. Let’s pretend we want to send out query letters to a few publishers for your great American novel. We’re going to make labels for envelopes with the following information:

• Company Name
• Contact Name
• Title
• Address Line 1
• Address Line 2
• City
• State
• Zip

The Mailing Tab

We’ll start from Word and the following instructions should work for Word 2010 on up. Open your Word program and click on the Mailings Tab.

Take this chance to save your document. If you can, turn on Autosave. It’s up in the upper left corner if you save your documents on OneDrive or a SharePoint server.

Gather Your Data

Double check that you have an Excel document ready with addresses, or add these examples we will be using:

Company Name	Contact Name	Title	Address Line 1	Address Line 2	City	State	Zip
Simon & Schuster	Burt Reynolds	Publisher – 37 Ink, Atria Publishing Group	1230 Avenue of the Americas		New York	NY	10019
Random House – Penguin	Donna Cortez	Senior Editor	1745 Broadway	Harmony	New York	NY	10019
Harper Collins	Becca Seacrest	Executive Editor	195 Broadway	22nd Floor	New York	NY	10007
Abrams	Zoë Kavinsky	Editor	195 Broadway	9th Floor	New York	NY	10007
Hatchette Book Group	Jamie Lynn		1290 Avenue of the Americas	Little, Brown	New York	NY	10104

Now we can begin using the Mail Merge wizard.

Begin the Wizard

The wizard is the place to begin. When it starts, a new pane will open on the right of your Word screen. It looks like this:

1. Choose the type of document you want to create. In this instance, we’ve selected “Labels.”
2. Click Next: Starting document

After you click Next, you have three choices.

If you already had something you wanted to use, select either of the second or third options. Since we’re starting from scratch, we chose, “Use the current document.”

Click Next: Select recipients

Enter Your Data

This is the important part of Mail Merge. You have several choices for data. If you’re using an existing list (usually one from an Excel file, but there are many other data types from which Word can extract data), you would choose “Browse” under Use an existing list. You can also use Outlook contacts if you have it. If you had already opened a list, you could also edit it from here.

You can also start from scratch when you click on “Type a new list” in the Select recipients group.

Click Next: Write your letter

When you click Next, a new window will pop up where you enter your data.

If you look at the field labels at the top, you may notice that it has labels for things the data did not include. You need to remove those fields before adding your own. To do this, click the “Customize Columns” button on the bottom left of the pop-up window.

Customize Columns

A new window will pop-up.

Enter in your data, pressing the tab button between every entry to continue to the next field. Once you’ve entered your data, click OK.

You will be asked to save your list. Word automatically saves your data as an Access Database file, and it automatically puts it into the default folder for Word’s data. Name it as something you will remember. Mailing Labels for Submissions, perhaps.

Click Save. Click OK.

You’ll notice on the wizard pane, that “choose an existing list” is now highlighted.

Click Next: Write your letter

Once you have successfully input your data and explored the wizard, close the wizard by clicking the X at the top right corner. Now you’ll work on our labels using the ribbon.

Use the Ribbon to Finish Your Labels

If you have a certain type of label you are using–such as: Avery Easy Peel Address Labels (5160)–then click on the “Start Mail Merge” button and choose “Labels.” Do not choose labels from the Create group as it just allows you to quickly print labels.

You will use this pop-up window to choose your type of label. Check the packaging for the labels’ number, so Word knows what you are talking about.

Sometimes, it is hard to find your label type, but most of the time you can. For ours, we had to look under, “Avery US Letter,” as they are in order by size of paper. Then we had to scroll all the way down to find 5160 Easy Peel Labels. When you find your label, Click OK.

Word will tell you it has to delete everything from the document. Go ahead and click OK since we have a blank document anyway.

As you can see, Word automatically propagates all the labels with <<Next Record>>

However, your “Address Block” has not yet been added, so no records would appear if you tried to finish it now. So, in the Write and Insert Fields group on the ribbon, click “Address Block.” Since your cursor is already at the right cell in the table, it will put <<AddressBlock>> in that cell. Now you’re ready to merge!

Merge Your Labels

When you click Address Block, a pop-up window will open, asking you to choose the way you want your addresses to look. We went with the default settings and hit OK.

You will now see <<AddressBlock>> in the first cell.

Click Update Labels in the Write and Insert Fields group on the ribbon.

Now your document should look something like this. Notice how <<AddressBlock>> Was thrown into every empty cell.

When you click “Preview Results,” it will propagate all fields. You may also notice that it looks terrible — Word added spaces between every line. Don’t worry, we’ll fix that quickly.

If you renamed a field, you may notice it is not showing up. To fix this, click the “Match Fields” button in the Write & Insert Fields group on the Mailings ribbon. We had to do this because we renamed “First Name” to “Contact Name.” By clicking on “Match Fields” we were able to choose what fields in our data match the fields that Word uses.

Edit and Make Pretty

To make your Mail Merge look more aesthetically pleasing, click on the little Plus sign on the table to choose the entire table OR click CTRL+A to select all. You can also click on the Select button in the Editing group on the Home tab and choose Select All. Word likes options.

Now go the Home tab on your ribbon. With your document text still selected, click on the little arrow on the bottom right of the Paragraph group on the Home tab.

A new window will pop-up.

Check the box that says, “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.”

Click OK.

Now, go back to the Mailings Tab.

Click, “Finish & Merge” in the Finish group on the Mailings tab.

Choose which records you want to use (we are using all records).

A new document will open containing your labels—ready to save and print!

Keep in mind you don’t have to use labels just for mailing. You can make gift tags, labels for products you sell or give away…the mind boggles with all the choices. Your imagination is the only thing stopping you from using Excel and Word to label your entire life.

Bring Your Excel Data Into the Real World

You’ve printed your addresses on labels, so that’s one way to add them to the real world. Every day thousands of BatchGeo users turn their spreadsheets into maps for research, community, and sales purposes. You can simply copy-paste to create a map, then share it with colleagues or friends.

View Santa Monica Mechanics (With Images) in a full screen map

Or, heck, maybe you’re just curious where all your friends live? Make a map of your holiday card list.