November 19 is World Toilet Day. Billions of people around the world do not have a toilet. This can be bad. It means that they may not have clean water to drink.

Toilets did not always flush. What did people use before toilets flushed?

There were public toilets. The toilets were made of stone. The toilets were all in one room.

A chamber pot is a kind of toilet. A chamber pot is a big bowl. A chamber pot is emptied outside. In big cities, they were emptied in the street.

An outhouse is a kind of toilet. An outhouse is outside. An outhouse is a small house. An outhouse has one toilet. An outhouse is built over a hole in the ground. This is where the waste goes.

The first flushing toilet was made in 1596. This toilet was made for royalty and was only owned by kings and queens. This toilet was also very smelly.

In 1775, the toilet got an upgrade. A man invented a new kind of pipe. The pipe was bent. The pipe was in the shape of a U. The pipe is called a U-bend. The pipe’s bend is important. The pipe traps the smelly water. The pipe is still used today. This pipe made people want a flushing toilet.

Flushing toilets changed the way we build homes. In the past, homes were built without bathrooms. Toilets were mostly outside. People now needed a room just for the toilet. People began to build homes that had rooms for toilets. People needed running water for toilets. People needed running water for bathtubs. People put the toilet and bath in the same room. People began to call this room a bathroom.