BeautifulChest

Equatorial Guinea, Linguistic composition

2005-04-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

While each ethnic group speaks its own language, other linguistic influences are at work. The first is Spanish, the official language of the republic, which is taught in schools and used by the press and is the only means of communication common to both Bioko and the mainland. The second influence is pidgin English, which is used extensively in petty commerce and forms

Hula Valley

2005-04-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

Hebrew 'emeq Hula, valley in upper Galilee, northeastern Israel. The valley occupies most of the course of the Jordan River north of the Sea of Galilee. It is bounded by Dan and the settlement of Ma'yan Barukh (north), the Golan Heights (east), and the Hills of Naphtali (west), and on the south it slopes gradually down to the Sea of Galilee. It is approximately 16 miles (25 km) long, 4 miles (6 km) wide, and covers

Spallanzani, Lazzaro

2005-04-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Spallanzani was the son of a distinguished

Res Judicata

2005-04-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

It has long been held that one judicial contest is enough for the litigants on

Aube River

2005-04-02T05:06:00.000-08:00

River, north central France, navigable tributary of the Seine, which it joins above Romilly. The Aube and its tributary, the Aujon, rise on the Langres Plateau, flowing northwest for 154 mi (248 km) in trenchlike valleys across the dry oolitic limestone country. In front of the Côte des Bars escarpment, the valleys open out as stone gives way to clay at Montigny-le-Roi and Châteauvillain.

Sabine, Sir Edward

2005-03-31T20:26:00.000-08:00

He served in the Royal Artillery and was appointed astronomer to the Arctic expeditions of Sir John Ross (1818) and Sir William Parry (1819) in search of the Northwest Passage. In 1821 he began experiments

Arts, Central Asian, Turkic nomads, Mongols, and Siberian peoples

2005-03-31T05:59:00.000-08:00

This region includes primarily the great open spaces of Central Asia, from the Turkmen desert in the southwest to the Kazak steppes, Mongol plains, and from the Gobi to the vast subarctic Siberian evergreen forests, or taiga, and tundra, or Arctic plains, stretching to the Pacific. The considerable mobility and often close linguistic affinity of the peoples in the

Canals And Inland Waterways, Bridges, aqueducts, and tunnels for waterways

2005-03-29T20:12:00.000-08:00

Canals must frequently cross over or under roads and railways, rivers, and other canals. These crossings are made by a variety of bridges, sometimes carrying the road or railroad, sometimes carrying the canal. Most are fixed, though movable bridges are also used. On the Weaver River in England, four movable bridges, carrying main roads across the waterway, swing on

Wien, Wilhelm

2005-03-29T00:48:00.000-08:00

Wien obtained his doctorate at the University of Berlin in 1886 and soon began to work on the problem of

Thun Und Hohenstein, Friedrich, Count (graf) Von

2005-03-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

After the suppression of the 1848–49 revolutions in Germany and Austria, Thun, an astute politician, headed

Fischer, Ernst Otto

2005-03-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

Fischer served in the German army before and during World War II. In 1952 he received a doctorate in natural

Murad Ii

2005-03-26T08:26:00.000-08:00

Early in his reign, Murad had to overcome several claimants to the Ottoman throne who were supported by the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus and by many of the Turkmen principalities

Bilandic, Michael Anthony

2005-03-26T04:51:00.000-08:00

American politician and judge (b. Feb. 13, 1923, Chicago, Ill.—d. Jan. 15, 2002, Chicago), succeeded Richard J. Daley as mayor of Chicago and later served as chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. Bilandic had been a corporate lawyer for 28 years and was serving as chairman of Chicago's City Council finance committee by the time Mayor Daley died in his sixth term in office in December 1976. The City

Najd

2005-03-25T23:45:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Nejd, region, central Saudi Arabia, comprising a mainly rocky plateau sloping eastward from the mountains of the Hejaz. On the northern, eastern, and southern sides, it is bounded by the sand deserts of an-Nafud, ad-Dahna', and the Rub' al-Khali. It is sparsely settled, except for the fertile oases strung along the escarpment of Jabal (mountains) Tuwayq and the al-'Aramah plateau. The arid

Iridaceae

2005-03-25T06:30:00.000-08:00

The Iridaceae contains some 80 genera and an estimated 1,700 species of mostly perennial herbs; there are a few shrubs and evergreen herbs as well. The family is nearly worldwide in distribution, but it is

Württemberg

2005-03-24T20:04:00.000-08:00

Former German state, successively a countship, a duchy, a kingdom, and a republic before its partition after World War II. Its territory approximated the central and eastern areas of present-day Baden-Württemberg (q.v.) Land (state), of Germany. For the last period of its separate existence, Württemberg was bounded northeast and east by Bavaria, southeast by Bavaria and

Great Artesian Basin

2005-03-22T23:56:00.000-08:00

Also called Great Australian Basin, one of the largest areas of artesian water in the world, underlying about one-fifth of Australia. It includes most of the Darling and Lake Eyre catchments and extends northward to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Most of its 676,250 square miles (1,750,000 square km) underlies Queensland, with smaller segments extending under New South Wales, South Australia, and Northern Territory. Its floor

Gates, Frederick T.

2005-03-22T05:53:00.000-08:00

During his college days at the University of Rochester, N.Y., Gates worked as a bank clerk. His undergraduate studies were followed by three years at the Rochester Theological

Henrietta Anne Of England

2005-03-22T04:00:00.000-08:00

The youngest child of England's King Charles I (beheaded 1649), she was reared as an exile by her mother, Henrietta Maria, in Paris. Her brother Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660, and on March 30, 1661, Henrietta was

Earth Sciences, Glacier motion and the high-latitude ice sheets

2005-03-21T23:37:00.000-08:00

Beginning around 1948, principles and techniques in metallurgy and solid-state physics were brought to bear on the mechanics of glacial movements. Laboratory studies showed that glacial ice deforms like other crystalline solids (such as metals) at temperatures near the melting point. Continued stress produces permanent deformation. In addition to plastic deformation

Cuba, Flag Of

2005-03-21T21:50:00.000-08:00

In the 19th century in New York City, anti-Spanish Cuban exiles under the leadership of Narciso López adopted a flag suggested by the poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón. His design, which later became the national flag, incorporated three blue stripes representing the three military districts of Spanish-dominated Cuba and two white stripes symbolizing the purity of the patriot

Botero, Fernando

2005-03-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

As a youth, Botero attended a school for matadors for several years, but his true interest was in art. While still a teenager, he began painting and was inspired by the pre-Columbian and Spanish colonial art that surrounded him as well as by the political

Biblical Literature, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles

2005-03-19T10:36:00.000-08:00

The final books of the Hebrew Bible are the books of Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah, which once formed a unitary history of Israel from Adam to the 4th century BCE, written by an anonymous Chronicler. That these books constituted a single work—referred to as the Chronicler's history, in distinction to the Deuteronomic history and the elements of history from the priestly

Lake, Basins formed by glaciation

2005-03-19T05:30:00.000-08:00

The basin-forming mechanism responsible for the most abundant production of lakes, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, is glaciation. The Pleistocene glaciers, which seem to have affected every continent, were especially effective in North America, Europe, and Asia. The retreat of ice sheets produced basins through mechanical action and through the damming

Narcissus

2005-03-19T03:26:00.000-08:00

Any member of a genus (Narcissus) of bulbous, often fragrant, ornamental plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The genus contains about 40 species, native primarily to Europe. Daffodil, or narcissus (N. pseudonarcissus), jonquil (N. jonquilla), and poet's narcissus (N. poeticus) are popular garden flowers. The central crown of each yellow, white, or pink flower ranges in shape from

Camden

2005-03-18T00:03:00.000-08:00

Town, eastern New South Wales, Australia, on the Nepean section of the Hawkesbury River, in the Southern Highlands. The locality, originally known as Cowpastures, was renamed Camden Park in 1805, after the 2nd earl Camden, secretary of state for the colonies at that time, by John Macarthur, who bred merino sheep in Australia. The village, surveyed in 1836, was proclaimed a municipality

Gray Birch

2005-03-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Grey Birch, also called Oldfield Birch, Wire Birch, or Poplar-leaved Birch (Betula populifolia), slender ornamental tree of the family Betulaceae, found in clusters on moist sites in northeastern North America. Rarely 12 m (40 feet) tall, it is covered almost to the ground with flexible branches that form a narrow, pyramidal crown. The thin, glossy, dark green, triangular leaves have long, thin stems and flutter in the wind. In one variety, the leaves are

Jansen, Daniel

2005-03-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

Jansen grew up in a family of skating enthusiasts and competed in his first meets at the age of four. At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), he was the youngest skater

Ayrshire Whitework

2005-03-17T07:27:00.000-08:00

In embroidery, a type of drawn thread work done in white thread on white material. Although similar work had been executed earlier and in other centres (for example, in 13th- and 14th-century Germany) and other examples are known from the intervening period, whitework became associated with the county (shire) of Ayr in Scotland after 1780, when it became a centre for the manufacture

Saxon

2005-03-17T03:52:00.000-08:00

Member of a Germanic people who in ancient times lived in the area of modern Schleswig and along the Baltic coast. The period of Roman decline in the West was marked by vigorous Saxon piracy in the North Sea. During the early part of the 5th century AD, the Saxons spread rapidly through north Germany and along the coasts of Gaul and Britain. The coastal stretch from the Elbe

Armfelt, Gustaf Mauritz

2005-03-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

Appointed gentleman to Gustav III of Sweden in 1781, Armfelt was employed in the negotiations with Catherine II of Russia (1783) and with the Danish government (1787) and was one of the king's

Beachy Head

2005-03-15T03:03:00.000-08:00

Prominent headland on the English Channel coast in the administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, in the borough of Eastbourne. Its chalk cliffs, more than 500 ft (150 m) high, represent the seaward extension of the South Downs. The cliffs face southward and are therefore subjected to severe gales from the southwest. Erosion is concentrated along

Saxon

2005-03-14T05:15:00.000-08:00

Alliance of national and district associations, amateur athletic groups, and educational institutions formed in the United States in 1888 for the purpose of certifying athletes as amateurs in various sports. The AAU now serves as the governing body of numerous sports, including basketball, boxing, gymnastics, handball, swimming, diving, water polo, wrestling, weight

Salem Witch Trials

2005-03-14T00:20:00.000-08:00

(May–October 1692), in American history, a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 convicted “witches” to be hanged and many other suspects to be imprisoned in the town of Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Stimulated by voodoo tales told by a West Indian slave, Tituba, a few young girls claimed they were possessed by the devil and subsequently accused three

France, History Of, The abolition of feudalism

2005-03-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

Of course the violence of peasant insurgency worried the deputies of the National Assembly; to some it seemed as if the countryside were being engulfed by anarchy that threatened all property. But the majority was unwilling to turn against the rebellious peasants. Instead of denouncing their violence, they tried to appease peasant opinion. Liberal nobles and

Lignite

2005-03-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

Brown to black coal that has been formed from peat under moderate pressure; it is one of the first products of coalification and is intermediate between peat and subbituminous coal. Dry lignite contains about 60 to 75 percent carbon. It has been estimated that about 45 percent of the world's total coal reserves are lignitic, but these reserves have not been exploited to any

Sanddab

2005-03-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

Any of certain edible, American Pacific flatfishes of the genus Citharichthys (family Bothidae). As in other flatfishes, sanddabs have both eyes on the same side of the head; as in other bothids, the eyes are usually on the left side. The most common species of sanddab is the Pacific sanddab (C. sordidus), a brownish fish mottled, in the male, with dull orange. It grows to about

Aegina

2005-03-12T05:08:00.000-08:00

Modern Greek Aíyina island, one of the largest in the Saronic group of Greece, about 16 miles (26 km) south-southwest of Piraeus. With an area of about 32 square miles (83 square km), it is an eparkhía (“eparchy”) of the nomós (department) of Piraeus. The northern plains and hills are cultivated with vines and olive, fig, almond, and pistachio trees, while along the east coast stretches a ridge of light volcanic

Brân

2005-03-11T16:44:00.000-08:00

(Celtic: “Raven”), gigantic Celtic deity who figured in the Mabinogion (a collection of medieval Welsh tales) as “crowned king over this Island” (i.e., Britain). Because of his stature, he and his court had to live in a tent, as no house had ever been built large enough to contain him. The most important aspect of Brân's myth concerned his wondrous severed head. The ancient Celts worshiped

Sackbut

2005-03-10T17:17:00.000-08:00

The sackbut answered the need for a lower-pitched trumpet that composers of the time sought. Its telescoping slide mechanism is retained in the modern trombone.

Levuka

2005-03-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

Town on the east coast of Ovalau island, central Fiji, South Pacific, and capital of Lomaiviti Province at the western edge of the country's Eastern Division. Settled by a U.S. adventurer in 1822, the area was the centre of a cotton boom during the U.S. Civil War (1861–65), when world cotton supplies were disrupted. Levuka was chosen as the capital of Fiji in 1874, when the islands were annexed by

Insurance, General average clause

2005-03-10T05:06:00.000-08:00

The general average clause in ocean marine insurance obligates the insurers of various interests to share the cost of losses incurred voluntarily to save the voyage from complete destruction. Such sacrifices must be made voluntarily, must be necessary, and must be successful. For example, if a shipper's cargo is voluntarily jettisoned in a storm in order to save

New England Confederation

2005-03-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

Also called United Colonies of New England in British American colonial history, a federation of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth established in May 1643 by delegates from those four Puritan colonies. Several factors influenced the formation of this alliance, including the solution of trade, boundary, and religious disputes, but the principal impetus was a concern over defense against attacks

Music, Opera.

2005-03-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

Germany and The Netherlands provided particularly fertile ground for new operas. Commissioned by Brussels' Théâtre de la Monnaie, Peter Schat's Symposium--based on the death of Tchaikovsky and the controversial theory that he committed suicide to avoid exposure as a homosexual--was premiered by the Netherlands Opera. The Holland Festival also saw the first performances

Epistemology, Occurrent versus dispositional conceptions of knowledge

2005-03-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

A distinction closely related to the previous one is that between occurrent and dispositional conceptions of knowledge. The difference between occurrences and dispositions can be illustrated with respect to sugar. A sugar cube will dissolve if put into water. One can thus say that, even if the cube is not now dissolving as it sits on the table, it will do so under certain

Târgu Mures

2005-03-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Tîrgu Mures, Hungarian Marosvásárhely, city, capital of Mures judet (county), north-central Romania. It lies in the valley of the Mures River, in the southeastern part of the Transylvanian Basin. First mentioned in the 14th century, it was a cattle and crop market town called Neumarkt by the Germans, Agropolis by Greek traders, and Marosvásárhely by the Magyars. In the 15th century it had 30 guilds. The 18th–19th-century mathematician

K.c.v.o.

2005-03-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Knight commander of the Royal Victorian Order, member of the second highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Royal Victorian Order.

West Allis

2005-03-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

City, western suburb of Milwaukee, Milwaukee county, southeastern Wisconsin, U.S. Settlement began in 1880 when a station was established there by the Chicago and North Western Railway and named North Greenfield. It was renamed West Allis in 1902 when the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of heavy machinery, purchased a site of 100 acres (40 hectares) near the village

Qafsah

2005-03-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Gafsa, Latin Capsa, town, west-central Tunisia. The ancient name of the locality is applied to the Mesolithic Capsian industry (here dated about 6250 BC) of the earliest inhabitants. The original Numidian town was destroyed (106 BC) by the Romans; it was rebuilt later by Trajan and was then successively a centre of Byzantine, Arab, Berber, and Ottoman rulers. Qafsah is a noted irrigated fruit-growing oasis

Fusaro, Lake Of

2005-03-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

Italian Lago Del Fusaro, coastal lagoon in Napoli provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy, west of Naples. The lagoon is separated from the sea on the west by sand dunes. As the ancient Palus Acherusia (“Acherusian Swamp”), it may have been the harbour of nearby Cumae in antiquity. In the first century AD, an outlet was dug at its southern end, with a tunnel under the hill of Torre Gaveta; another outlet

France, History Of, Economy, society, and culture in the 14th and 15th centuries

2005-03-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

The long war, fought almost entirely in France, benefited few but the captains and peculators; it injured almost everyone. Even the best disciplined companies lived off the land, so that French peasants and defeated townsfolk in effect paid the expenses of both sides; and undisciplined mercenary bands were a wearisome scourge in times of truce after the middle of

Anthracite

2005-03-05T01:57:00.000-08:00

Also called Hard Coal, most highly metamorphosed variety of coal. It contains more fixed carbon (about 90 to 98 percent) than any other form of coal and the lowest amount of volatile matter (less than 8 percent), giving it the greatest calorific, or heat, value. Because of this, anthracite is the most valuable of the coals. It is, however, also the least plentiful. Anthracite makes up less than 2 percent of

Iron Act

2005-03-04T16:39:00.000-08:00

(1750), in U.S. colonial history, one of the British Trade and Navigation acts; it was intended to stem the development of colonial manufacturing in competition with home industry by restricting the growth of the American iron industry to the supply of raw metals. To meet British needs, pig iron and iron bar made in the colonies were permitted to enter England duty free. In the

Desgarcins, Magdeleine-marie

2005-03-04T02:55:00.000-08:00

Desgarcins made her debut at the Comédie-Française in Jean Racine's Bajazet (1788) and was at once made a full member of the company. When the conflicts of the Revolution caused a split in the company in 1791, she and François Talma, with whom she usually appeared, formed a new company

Biblical Literature, The Catholic Letters

2005-03-03T20:44:00.000-08:00

As the history of the New Testament canon shows, the seven so-called Catholic Letters (i.e., James, I and II Peter, I, II, and III John, and Jude) were among the last of the literature to be settled on before the agreement of East and West in 367. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, only I John and I Peter were universally recognized and, even after acceptance of all seven, their varying positions

Headphone

2005-03-03T18:47:00.000-08:00

Small loudspeaker (earphone) held over the ear by a band or wire worn on the head. Headphones are commonly employed in situations in which levels of surrounding noise are high, as in an airplane cockpit, or where a user such as a switchboard operator needs to keep the hands free, or where the listener is moving about or wants to listen without disturbing other people. A

Radical

2005-03-02T18:07:00.000-08:00

In politics, one who desires extreme change of part or all of the social order. The word was first used in a political sense in England, and its introduction is generally ascribed to Charles James Fox, who in 1797 declared for a “radical reform” consisting of a drastic expansion of the franchise to the point of universal manhood suffrage. The term radical thereafter began

Italian Literature, Fiction at the turn of the 21st century

2005-03-02T05:01:00.000-08:00

The competitive world of media- and market-driven culture thrives on self-promotion, provocation, “discoveries,” and “revelations.” Publishers and their talent scouts are eager to add “new voices.” The Sardinian Salvatore Satta, for example, was a professor of law whose considerable literary production—his best-known novel is Il giorno del giudizio (1979; The Day of

Museum And Picture Gallery

2005-03-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

Art museum in Vadodara (Baroda), Gujarat state, India. It was founded by the Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda in 1894 as a representative collection of masterpieces. The building was constructed between 1908 and 1914, and the gallery formally opened in 1921. The museum displays European paintings, especially English portraits by George Romney and examples from the schools of Sir Joshua Reynolds

Yap Ah Loy

2005-03-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

Yap Ah Loy arrived in the Malay state of Selangor in 1856 at the age of 19. He spent his first years in the peninsula as a miner and petty trader, but in 1862 his fortunes

Aalto, Alvar

2005-03-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

A definitive review of Aalto's work, extremely well illustrated with photographs and plans, is the two-volume work edited by Karl Fleig: Alvar Aalto (1963) and Alvar Aalto 1963–1970 (1971). A brief essay by Farederick Gutheim, Alvar Aalto (1960), contains descriptive and critical comments as well as many photographs. A similar book is George Baird, Alvar Aalto (1970). A substantial chapter on Aalto appears in Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, 5th ed. rev. (1967), and is an excellent critical treatment of Aalto's architecture. No purely biographical work exists.

Hancock, John

2005-02-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

After graduating from Harvard (1754), Hancock entered a mercantile house in Boston owned by his uncle Thomas Hancock, who later left him a large fortune. In 1765 he became a selectman of Boston and from 1769 to 1774 was a member of the Massachusetts

Downs

2005-02-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

Because

Radcliffe-brown, A(lfred) R(eginald)

2005-02-27T06:39:00.000-08:00

Radcliffe-Brown went to the Andaman Islands (1906–08), where his fieldwork won him a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. On an expedition to

Abelson, Philip Hauge

2005-02-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

After receiving a Ph.D. (1939) in nuclear physics from the University of California at Berkeley, Abelson worked

Sangallo Family

2005-02-26T02:52:00.000-08:00

Giuliano da Sangallo (1445?–1516) was an architect, sculptor, and military

Rowell, Galen

2005-02-25T22:53:00.000-08:00

American landscape photographer (b. Aug. 23, 1940, Berkeley, Calif.—d. Aug. 11, 2002, Bishop, Calif.), captured breathtaking images of some of the remotest parts of the world. Galen was an avid mountain climber and traveler; his photography was a natural extension of his love for the ever-decreasing wilderness around him. In turn, he used his work to further conservation awareness in an attempt

Monde, Le

2005-02-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

The newspaper was established in 1944—as soon as the German army had quit Paris but while World War II continued—on orders of the new government of General Charles de Gaulle as a means of providing a respected voice for France. It was printed on the

Cranston

2005-02-25T05:24:00.000-08:00

City, Providence county, central Rhode Island, U.S. It lies on the western shore of Narragansett Bay and adjoins Providence city. The first settlement was made on the Pawtuxet River in 1638 by William Arnold, an ancestor of Benedict Arnold and a compatriot of Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island colony. Separated from Providence in 1754, it became a town and was named for Samuel

Far'ah, Tall Al-

2005-02-23T14:29:00.000-08:00

Ancient site in southwestern Palestine, located on the Wadi Ghazzah near Tall al-'Ajjul, in modern Israel. The site was excavated between 1928 and 1930 by British archaeologists in Egypt under the direction of Sir Flinders Petrie, who identified the site as Beth-pelet. Other scholars, however, are probably correct in their belief that the site is instead ancient Sharuhen, an

Davenport Ware

2005-02-23T05:34:00.000-08:00

Cream-coloured earthenware made by John Davenport of Longport, Staffordshire, Eng., beginning in 1793. Davenport had great success with pierced openwork-rimmed plates, either painted or transfer printed. He produced domestic bone china from 1800 and by 1810 was operating on a large scale; the business continued until 1887. Gilding, an extensive use of coloured grounds, flower-encrusted

Dyson, Freeman (john)

2005-02-23T03:07:00.000-08:00

The son of a musician and composer, Dyson was educated at the University of Cambridge. As a teenager he developed a passion for mathematics, but his studies at Cambridge were interrupted in 1943, when he served in the Royal Air Force Bomber Command.

Burano

2005-02-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Northeastern suburb of Venice, Venezia province, northeastern Italy, comprising four islets in the Laguna Veneta (Venice Lagoon). The settlement is thought to have been founded in the 5th century by refugees from nearby Altino, fleeing in the path of Attila. The 16th-century church of S. Martino has paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. In the 16th century, lacemaking was

Malaysia, Malaya

2005-02-20T15:32:00.000-08:00

Except for Malacca, there was little Western influence in Malaya and northern Borneo until the late 18th century, when Britain became interested in the area. The British sought a source for goods to be sold in China, and in 1786 the English East India Company acquired Penang (or Pinang) Island, off Malaya's northwest coast, from the sultan of Kedah. The island soon became a major

Insurance, Warranties

2005-02-20T07:33:00.000-08:00

Examples of expressed warranties are the FC&S warranty and the strike,

Fuad Pasa, Mehmed

2005-02-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

The son of a well-known Turkish poet, Fuad Pasa was trained in medicine, but his knowledge of French allowed him to enter the diplomatic service, where he

Uesugi Family

2005-02-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

The Uesugi were already dominant in the Kanto region of Honshu when the appointment of the head of the family to the hereditary post of governor-general of Kanto in 1439 made them the second most powerful clan in Japan and the dominant power in the western part of the

Wilde, Cornel

2005-02-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

Wilde, a member of the 1936 Olympic fencing team, studied to become a physician at Columbia University in New York City, before finding

Arden, John

2005-02-19T00:53:00.000-08:00

Arden grew up in the industrial town of Barnsley, the character of which he captured in his play The Workhouse

Metamorphic Rock, Pyroxene-hornfels facies

2005-02-18T21:17:00.000-08:00

Rocks of the pyroxene-hornfels facies are characteristically formed near larger granitic or gabbroic bodies at depths of a few kilometres or at pressures of a few hundred bars. The mineral assemblages are again largely anhydrous, but, unlike the sanidinite facies, the minerals reflect distinctly lower temperatures. One of the classic descriptions of such rocks

Yang Hsiung

2005-02-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

As a quiet and studious young man he came to admire and practice the fu form. When he was over 40 years of age he went to live in the Imperial capital, Ch'ang-an (Sian), where his reputation as a poet won him a position

Sankt Gallen

2005-02-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

French Saint-gall, canton, northeastern Switzerland, bounded north by Lake Constance (Bodensee); east by the Rhine Valley, which separates it from the Austrian Vorarlberg Bundesland (federal state) and from Liechtenstein; south by the cantons of Graubünden, Glarus, and Schwyz; west by the canton of Zürich; and northwest by the canton of Thurgau. Appenzell Ausser-Rhoden and Appenzell Inner-Rhoden

Theophrastus

2005-02-16T03:17:00.000-08:00

Theophrastus was one of the few Peripatetics who fully

Peter Iii

2005-02-15T22:56:00.000-08:00

King consort of Portugal from 1777, with Queen Maria I. The younger son of John V of Portugal, he was married in July 1760 to the daughter of his elder brother, King Joseph. When she became queen as Maria I (February 1777), Peter became nominally king. He devoted himself entirely to religious practices.

Hale Observatories

2005-02-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

The Palomar and Wilson observatories were operated

Brugge-zeebrugge Canal

2005-02-15T08:19:00.000-08:00

Waterway built between 1896 and 1907 to connect Brugge (Bruges) in Belgium with the North Sea, thus restoring Brugge's ancient status as an ocean port. At 7.5 miles (12 km) long, the canal has a depth of 24 feet (7 m), a minimum width of 65.7 feet (20 m), a maximum width of 350 feet (110 m), and one lock.

Balashikha

2005-02-14T17:56:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Balašicha, city, Moscow oblast (province), western Russia, situated 15 miles (25 km) east of Moscow on the banks of the Pekhorka River. Balashikha developed in the 19th century, first as the site of a cloth factory and later as a centre for papermaking. In Soviet times it underwent rapid growth and was incorporated in 1939. The city is now a heavy-industrial centre, specializing in machine building.

Cameroon, History Of

2005-02-13T21:33:00.000-08:00

The British trust territory consisted of a strip

Gomberg, Moses

2005-02-13T10:09:00.000-08:00

At age 18 Gomberg migrated with his family to the United States because his father's antitsarist activities made them unwelcome in Russia.

Sachs, Hans

2005-02-13T06:55:00.000-08:00

Wagner's opera is partly a tribute to the common people—and Sachs was one of them. The son of a tailor, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker in

Xerxes I

2005-02-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

Xerxes was the son of Darius I and Atossa, daughter of Cyrus; he was the first son born to Darius after his accession to the throne. Xerxes was designated heir apparent by his father in preference to his elder brother Artabazanes. A bas-relief on the southern portico of a courtyard in the treasury of Persepolis, as well as the bas-reliefs on the east door of the tripylon

Acto Adicional Of 1834

2005-02-11T02:17:00.000-08:00

The abdication of the unpopular Brazilian emperor Pedro I in 1831 precipitated the surfacing of violently opposed factions and civil

New Church

2005-02-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

Also called Swedenborgians, church organized in the General Conference of the New Church, the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the U.S.A., and the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Its members are followers of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th-century Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. Swedenborg did not himself found a church, but he believed that his writings

Annapolis

2005-02-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

Settled in 1649 as Providence by Virginian Puritans, it later was known as Town Land at Proctor's and Anne Arundel Town. In 1694 the colonial capital was moved there from St. Mary's City. The next year it was renamed

Nahyan, Shaykh Zayid Ibn Sultan Al

2005-02-10T07:24:00.000-08:00

Zayid was raised as a desert nomad and was governor of Abu Zabi's Eastern Province from 1946 to 1966, when he deposed his brother Sheikh Shakhbut ibn Sultan and became emir. Zayid was the principal

New Comedy

2005-02-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

Greek drama from about 320 Bc to the mid-3rd century BC that offers a mildly satiric view of contemporary Athenian society, especially in its familiar and domestic aspects. Unlike Old Comedy, which parodied public figures and events, New Comedy features fictional average citizens and has no supernatural or heroic overtones. Thus, the chorus, the representative of forces larger than life, recedes

Bahnaric Languages

2005-02-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

Branch of the Mon-Khmer family of languages, itself a part of the Austroasiatic stock. The Bahnaric branch is divided into West, Northwest, North, Central, and South subbranches. North Bahnaric languages, such as Sedang and Halang, are spoken primarily in central Vietnam. Central Bahnaric languages, such as Bahnar itself, are spoken in central Vietnam and adjacent parts

Chancellor

2005-02-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

In western Europe, the title of holders of numerous offices of varying importance, mainly secretarial, legal, administrative, and ultimately political in nature. The Roman cancellarii, minor legal officials who stood by the cancellus, or bar, separating the tribune from the public, were later employed in the imperial scrinia (writing departments). After the fall of

Madurai

2005-02-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

Formerly (until 1949) Madura, city, south-central Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India, bounded on the west by Kerala state. It is the second largest, and probably oldest, city in the state. Located on the Vaigai River and enclosed by the Anai, Naga, and Pasu (Elephant, Snake, and Cow) hills, the compact old city, site of the Pandya (4th–11th century AD) capital, centres on Minaksi-Sundaresvara Temple. The temple, Tirumala Nayak

Aeon

2005-02-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

The first aeon was said to emanate directly