A yard, which equals 3 feet or 36 inches, was originally measured as the distance from an English king's nose to the end of his thumb.
The measurement was first made more than 800 years ago, and the king in question was Henry I, the youngest son of William the Conquerer. He ruled from 1100 to 1135.In 1866, England established the yard as the length of a specified bronze bar kept in Trafalgar Square at a temperature of 62 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the United States, a yard is defined as 0.9144 of one meter.