MilitaryCat

Montpensier, Anne-marie-louise D'orléans, Duchess (duchesse) De

2005-04-04T22:54:00.000-07:00

Byname La Grande Mademoiselle princess of the royal house of France, prominent during the Fronde and the minority of Louis XIV. She was known as Mademoiselle because her father, Gaston de France, Duke d'Orléans and uncle of Louis XIV, had the designation of Monsieur. From her mother, Marie de Bourbon-Montpensier, she inherited a huge fortune, including Eu and Dombes as well

Holstein, Friedrich Von

2005-04-04T18:15:00.000-07:00

Holstein was raised on his family's estate in Pomerania and their town house in Berlin. Throughout his youth, his family spent a great deal of time traveling abroad, and Holstein became fluent in several foreign languages. A sickly boy, he was educated mostly by private tutors, and, after studying at the University of Berlin, he joined the legal section of the Prussian

Indian National Congress

2005-04-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

Byname Congress Party broadly based political party of India. Formed in 1885, the Indian National Congress dominated the Indian movement for independence from Great Britain and formed most of India's governments from the time of independence through the mid-1990s.

Syria

2005-04-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

As 1996 began, Syria resumed peace talks with Israel. Two rounds of

Kohima

2005-04-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Nagaland state, northeastern India. The town lies in the Naga Hills, 30 miles (48 km) southeast of the railroad at Dimapur. Kohima was the point of the farthest Japanese advance into British India during World War II; it was held briefly by Japanese troops in 1944 until retaken by the British. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 53,122.

Insurance, Property insurance

2005-04-01T13:29:00.000-08:00

Two main types of contracts—homeowner's and commercial—have been developed to insure against loss from accidental destruction of property. These contracts (or forms) typically are divided into three or four parts: insuring agreements, identification of covered property, conditions and stipulations, and exclusions.

Nigeria

2005-03-31T13:06:00.000-08:00

During 2000 Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo took a variety of steps to secure Nigeria's transition to democracy. Chief among these were reform of the military and the curbing of government corruption. President Obasanjo, himself a former general, continued to force the retirement of officers who had held political positions under previous military governments. In June he

Leaf Beetle

2005-03-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

Any member of the 25,000 species of leaf-feeding insects of the family Chrysomelidae (order Coleoptera). Leaf beetles occur throughout the world but are concentrated in the tropics. They are oval and short-legged and tend to be less than 12 mm (0.5 inch) long; the antennae are about half the body length. Many are important pests. The family is divided into numerous subfamilies.

Clarence River

2005-03-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

Coastal river, northeastern New South Wales, Australia, rising in the McPherson Range near the Queensland border, flowing south and northeast for 245 mi (394 km), and emptying into the Pacific 40 mi below Grafton. Its chief tributaries are the Timbarra, Mitchell, and Orara. Woodford, Chatsworth, and Harwood are the largest of its many islands, most of which are subject to floods. The

Biblical Literature, Manuscripts and printed editions of the Septuagint

2005-03-29T17:17:00.000-08:00

The manuscripts are conveniently classified by papyri uncials (capital letters) and minuscules (cursive script). The papyri fragments run into the hundreds, of varying sizes and importance, ranging from the formative period of the Septuagint through the middle of the 7th century. Two pre-Christian fragments of Deuteronomy from Egypt are of outstanding significance.

Plow

2005-03-29T16:56:00.000-08:00

The antecedent of the plow is the prehistoric digging stick. The earliest plows were doubtless digging sticks fashioned with handles for pulling or pushing. By Roman times, light, wheelless plows with iron shares (blades)

Narraganset

2005-03-29T02:11:00.000-08:00

The Narraganset maintained good relations with whites

Mahi River

2005-03-27T19:51:00.000-08:00

Stream in western India, rising in the western Vindhya Range, just south of Sardarpur, and flowing northward through Madhya Pradesh state. Turning northwest, it enters Rajasthan state and then turns southwest to flow through Gujarat state and enter the sea by a wide estuary past Cambay after about a 360-mile (580-kilometre) course. The silt brought down by the Mahi has contributed

Palauan Language

2005-03-27T06:58:00.000-08:00

Major language of Palau, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is classified as belonging to the eastern branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family of languages. Like Chamorro, which is spoken in the Mariana Islands, it is considered to be of the Indonesian type of languages, with closest relations to the Philippine languages. Palauan, with about 14,000 speakers in the

Heian Period

2005-03-26T00:58:00.000-08:00

In Japanese history, the period between 794 and 1185, named for the location of the Imperial capital, which was moved from Nara to Heian-kyo (Kyoto) in 794. The Chinese pattern of centralized government that was first adopted in the Nara period (710–784) gradually changed as the growth of private estates (shoen), exempt from taxation, encroached upon the public domain and reduced the substance

Biosphere, Humidity

2005-03-25T23:04:00.000-08:00

Most terrestrial organisms must maintain their water content within fairly narrow limits. Water commonly is lost to the air through evaporation or, in plants, transpiration. Because most water loss occurs by diffusion and the rate of diffusion is determined by the gradient across the diffusion barrier such as the surface of a leaf or skin, the rate of water loss

Xavier, Saint Francis

2005-03-24T05:21:00.000-08:00

After all the members of the band had completed their studies, they reassembled in Venice, where Xavier was ordained priest on June 24, 1537. Having for more than a year sought passage to the Holy Land in vain, the seven, along with fresh recruits, went to Rome to put themselves at the disposal of the Pope. Meanwhile, as a result of their preaching and care of the sick throughout central

Gnosticism

2005-03-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

The designation Gnosticism, derived from the Greek gn

Russell, Ken

2005-03-22T21:56:00.000-08:00

The son of a shoe-store owner, Russell became a cadet at the Nautical College at Pangbourne and subsequently joined the British Merchant Navy. After training as an electrician in the

Ma'amadot

2005-03-22T04:25:00.000-08:00

(Hebrew: “stands,” or “posts”), 24 groups of Jewish laymen that witnessed, by turns of one week each, the daily sacrifice in the Second Temple of Jerusalem as representatives of the common people. Gradually ma'amadot were organized in areas outside Jerusalem, so that the people could hold special services in their villages while their representatives were present in the Temple.

Guanacaste

2005-03-21T14:44:00.000-08:00

Province, northwestern Costa Rica, bounded on the north by Nicaragua, on the east by Alajuela province, and on the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. Occupying one-fifth of the national territory, Guanacaste's 4,000 sq mi (10,400 sq km) were formerly open deciduous forest, which have been turned into savanna grasslands, with dry forests in the north. It rises into the Guanacaste Cordillera

Mcnamara, Robert S(trange)

2005-03-20T10:25:00.000-08:00

After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1937, McNamara earned a graduate degree at the Harvard Business School (1939) and later joined the Harvard faculty. Disqualified by poor

Anawrahta

2005-03-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

During his reign Anawrahta united the northern homeland of the Burmese people with the Mon kingdoms of the south. He extended his dominion as far north as the kingdom

Heiberg, Johan Ludvig

2005-03-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

Playwright, poet, literary historian, and critic whose romantic idealism in a sense epitomized the Danish Romantic school, which he helped bring to an end when he established a new era of topical, sophisticated, and satirical literature. Heiberg also introduced both Hegelian philosophy and vaudeville, or ballad opera,

Sailfish

2005-03-19T13:48:00.000-08:00

(genus Istiophorus), valued food and game fish of the family Istiophoridae (order Perciformes) found in warm and temperate waters around the world. The sailfish has a long, rounded spear extending from its snout but is distinguished from related species, such as marlins, by its slimmer form, long pelvic fins, and, most especially, its large, saillike

Deng Yingchao

2005-03-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

Deng's involvement in political and social causes began in her youth. She joined the movement to abolish the custom of binding women's feet

Amorphous Solid, Magnetic glasses

2005-03-17T01:04:00.000-08:00

The last entry in the Table is an application of metallic glasses having magnetic properties. These are typically iron-rich amorphous solids with compositions such as Fe0.8B0.2 iron-boron and Fe0.8B0.1Si0.1 iron-boron-silicon. They are readily formed as long metallic glass ribbons by melt spinning or as wide sheets by planar flow casting. Ferromagnetic glasses are mechanically

Modernism

2005-03-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

In Roman Catholic church history, a movement in the last decade of the 19th century and first decade of the 20th that sought to reinterpret traditional Catholic teaching in the light of 19th-century philosophical, historical, and psychological theories and called for freedom of conscience. Influenced by non-Catholic biblical scholars, Modernists contended that the

Shochiku Co., Ltd.

2005-03-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Leading Japanese motion-picture studio, the films of which are usually home-centred dramas aimed toward an audience of women. The company was formed in 1902 as a production company for kabuki performances. The business was expanded in 1920 to include motion-picture production, and, shortly afterward, the corporation established the Shochiku Kinema Company to train actors

Wolf, Friedrich August

2005-03-16T02:05:00.000-08:00

Extremely precocious, Wolf learned Greek, Latin, and French as a child. He was largely self-taught when in 1777 he

Ma Yuan

2005-03-15T23:44:00.000-08:00

It was in landscape painting that Ma's genius lay. He executed a number of large landscape screens, all of which are now lost. He also painted tall, hanging scrolls in which, according to an early Chinese writer, “there are steep mountains rising imposingly, with streams winding around them and waterfalls partly hidden among the trees.” The author also wrote that Ma made

Basidiomycetes

2005-03-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

A large and diverse class of fungi (division Mycota) including jelly and shelf, or bracket, fungi; mushrooms, puffballs, and stinkhorns; and the rusts and smuts. The club-shaped spore-bearing organ (basidium) usually produces four sexual spores (basidiospores). Basidia are borne on fruiting bodies (basidiocarps), which are large and conspicuous in

Minhah

2005-03-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

Minhah consists

Lippi, Fra Filippo

2005-03-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

Florentine painter in the second generation of Renaissance artists. While exhibiting the strong influence of Masaccio (e.g., in “Madonna and Child,” 1437) and Fra Angelico (e.g., in “Coronation of the Virgin,” c. 1445), his work achieves a distinctive clarity of expression. Legend and tradition surround his unconventional life.

Pemberton, John Clifford

2005-03-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

Pemberton grew up and was educated in Philadelphia, entered West Point in 1833, and graduated four years later. He fought in the Mexican War and was cited for bravery while participating in many of

Biblical Literature, II Maccabees

2005-03-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

The Second Book of the Maccabees, or its source, was probably written in the same period as I Maccabees. The book is preceded by two letters to the Jews of Egypt: the first from the year 124 BCE and the second one written earlier (164 BCE) commemorating the rededication of the Temple. In the preface of the book, the author indicates that he has condensed into one book the lost five-volume

Tobey, Mark

2005-03-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

Tobey studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and worked for a time as a fashion illustrator and portraitist in New York City. He converted

Alexis

2005-03-12T14:57:00.000-08:00

After his mother, Eudoxia, was forced to enter a convent (1698), Alexis was brought up by his aunts and, after 1702, was educated by the tutor Baron Heinrich von Huyssen. Although he dutifully obeyed his father—participating in the

Computer Crime

2005-03-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

Since the first reported case of computer abuse in 1958, computers have been involved in most types of crimes, including theft, burglary, larceny, fraud, embezzlement,

Outcaste

2005-03-11T08:37:00.000-08:00

In the Hindu caste system, an individual or group that has been thrown out of caste, usually for some ritual offense. The outcasting may be temporary or permanent. In the 19th century, a Hindu faced excommunication for going abroad, where it was presumed he would be forced to break caste restrictions and, as a result, become polluted. Such an offender would be reinstated

Berber Languages

2005-03-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Also called Berbero-Libyan languages, group of languages that make up one of the constituent branches of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Hamito-Semitic) language family; the other branches are Egyptian, Semitic, Cushitic, and Chadic. The Berber languages are spoken in scattered areas throughout northern Africa from Egypt westward to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Niger River northward to the Mediterranean

France, History Of, Charles Martel

2005-03-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

The situation was rectified by Pepin's illegitimate son, Charles Martel. Defeating the Neustrians at Amblève (716), Vincy (717), and Soissons (719), he made himself master of northern Francia. He then re-established Frankish authority in southern Gaul, where the local authorities could not cope with the Islamic threat; he stopped the Muslims near Poitiers (Battle of Tours; 732) and used this

Siberian Chronicles

2005-03-09T03:38:00.000-08:00

The origin, reliability, and interrelationships of the

Mesopotamia, History Of, Ethnic, geographic, and intellectual constituents

2005-03-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

From the ethnic point of view, Mesopotamia was as heterogeneous at the end of the 3rd millennium as it had been earlier. The Akkadian element predominated, and the proportion of speakers of Akkadian to speakers of Sumerian continued to change in favour of the former. The third group, first mentioned under Shar-kali-sharri of Akkad, are the Amorites. In Ur III some members

Olson, Elder (james)

2005-03-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1938, Olson taught for several years at the Armour Institute of Technology

Argentina, La

2005-03-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

She studied ballet with her parents, both of whom were professional dancers of Spanish birth. At the age of 11 she became premiere danseuse at the Madrid Opera, but she resigned at 14 to study the

Panama Canal, The canal

2005-03-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

The Panama Canal lies at a latitude of 9° N. The canal does not, as is generally supposed, cross the isthmus from east to west. It runs due south from its entrance at Colón on the Atlantic side through the Gatún (Gatun) Locks to a point in the widest portion of Gatún Lake; it then turns sharply toward the east and follows a course generally to the southeast until it reaches the

Annelid, Distribution and abundance

2005-03-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

Annelids are found worldwide in all types of habitats, especially oceanic waters, fresh waters, and damp soils. Most polychaetes live in the ocean, where they either float, burrow, wander on the bottom, or live in tubes they construct; their colours range from brilliant to dull, and some species can produce light. The feather duster (Manayunkia speciosa) inhabits the Great

La Perouse Strait

2005-03-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

Russian Proliv Laperuza, Japanese Soya-kaikyo, international waterway between the islands of Sakhalin (Russia) and Hokkaido (Japan). The strait, named after the French explorer Jean-François de Galaup, Count de La Pérouse, separates the Sea of Okhotsk from the Sea of Japan. It is 27 miles (43 km) wide at its narrowest part, between Cape Krilon (Sakhalin) and Cape Soya (Hokkaido) and varies in depth from 167 to 387 feet (51 to 118 m). The strait is characterized

Qom

2005-03-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

In the 8th century, Qom was one of the centres of Shi'ism; in 816 Fatimah, the sister of the imam (leader of Shi'ite Islam) 'Ali ar-Rida, died in the town and was buried there. It became a place of pilgrimage in the 17th century, when the Safavid rulers built a golden-domed

Dennison, Aaron Lufkin

2005-03-04T06:22:00.000-08:00

Apprenticed at the age of 18 to a watchmaker in Brunswick, Maine, he learned the prevailing

Northern Territory, Transportation

2005-03-04T05:28:00.000-08:00

The transport system is relatively undeveloped by Western standards, reflecting the small population base and the vast distances to be traversed. The backbone of the road system is provided by the Stuart Highway, which runs south from Darwin to the South Australian border and connects most of the territory's urban centres. Upgraded by the military in World War

T4 Program

2005-03-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

Henry Friedlander, The Origins of the Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution (1995), provides an overview of the T4 Program and its historical context. Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (1986, reissued 2000), studies the relationship between German physicians and the Holocaust. Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (1988), assesses the place of Nazi medicine in medical history and the history of science.

Køge

2005-03-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

City, Roskilde amtskommune (county commune), eastern Sjælland (Zealand), Denmark. The city lies on Køge Bay of The Sound (Øresund). First mentioned in the 11th century and chartered in 1288, it became a market centre and base for herring fisheries in the late 13th century. In 1677 Admiral Niels Juel won a great naval victory over the Swedes in the bay. Medieval remains include St. Nicholas

Skate Sailing

2005-03-02T04:43:00.000-08:00

The skate sail is generally rectangular or triangular in shape and about 50 to 60 square feet (5 to 6 square m) in area. It is stretched to

Saudi Arabia

2005-03-02T04:21:00.000-08:00

The coastal parts of the territory that was to become Saudi Arabia participated in the broad trends of Arabian Peninsula history in the Islamic period—the rise of Islam in western Arabia in the 7th century,

Epistemology, Impact of modern science on epistemology

2005-03-01T21:37:00.000-08:00

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), a cleric, argued in On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543) that the Earth revolves around the Sun. His theory was epistemologically shocking for at least two reasons. First, it goes directly counter to how humans experience their relation to the Sun; it is everyone's prescientific view that the Sun revolves around the Earth. If science can

Enderby Land

2005-03-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Region of Antarctica, bordering on the Indian Ocean and extending from Prince Olav Coast of Queen Maud Land (west) to Edward VIII Bay and Kemp Coast (east). Primarily a barren, ice-capped plateau in the interior sections, it rises to rugged peaks along the coast, where the Napier Mountains exceed 7,400 feet (2,260 m). The English navigator John Biscoe, sailing for Enderby Brothers, a London

Yam

2005-03-01T00:16:00.000-08:00

True yams are botanically distinct

Earth, Seismology: wave-velocity and density distributions

2005-02-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

The main difficulty with studying the Earth's interior is apparent from Figure 15 . Rock fragments (called xenoliths) are brought up volcanically from depth, thus providing samples of the upper mantle. These samples, however, seem to originate at depths no greater than 150 to 200 kilometres. Therefore, the material making up more than 90 percent of the interior is inaccessible

'abbas I

2005-02-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

'Abbas, distrustful of Europeans and European-educated Egyptians, reacted to the reforms of Muhammad 'Ali by closing down or neglecting the public and military

Dewey Decimal Classification

2005-02-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

Also called Dewey Decimal System, system for organizing the contents of a library based on the division of all knowledge into 10 groups, with each group assigned 100 numbers. The 10 main groups are: 000–099, general works; 100–199, philosophy and psychology; 200–299, religion; 300–399, social sciences; 400–499, language; 500–599, natural sciences and mathematics; 600–699, technology; 700–799, the arts; 800–899, literature and rhetoric; and 900–999, history, biography, and geography. These 10 main groups

Advocate

2005-02-27T00:12:00.000-08:00

In law, a person who is professionally qualified to plead the cause of another in a court of law. As a technical term, advocate is used mainly in those legal systems that derived from the Roman law. In Scotland the word refers particularly to a member of the bar of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates. In France avocats were formerly an organized body of pleaders, while the

Amyntas Iii (or Ii)

2005-02-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

Amyntas came to the throne during the disorders that plagued Macedonia after the death of the powerful king Archelaus (ruled c. 413–399). Amyntas soon had to fight off attacks by the Illyrians

Dominican Republic, Flag Of The

2005-02-24T23:23:00.000-08:00

Christopher Columbus visited the island of Hispaniola in 1492, claiming it for the Spanish monarchy. However, French colonists in the 17th century established a state known as Saint-Domingue (Saint-Dominique) in the western part of the island, which subsequently became Haiti. The Spanish-speaking area in the east was conquered by the newly independent Republic of Haiti

Economic Affairs, United States.

2005-02-24T19:53:00.000-08:00

The report of the Dunlop Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations became available in January 1995. Though the commission made a number of recommendations, the report was widely viewed as a disappointing document that failed to address a number of problems affecting American labour-management relations. Admittedly, any radical proposals would have

Cologne, University Of

2005-02-24T11:42:00.000-08:00

The University of Cologne was abolished by the French in 1798 after they had occupied Cologne. The university was refounded in 1919 as an autonomous,

Joust

2005-02-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

Western European mock battle between two horsemen charging each other with levelled lances, each attempting to unhorse the other. Early medieval tournaments consisted of mêlées, mock battles between two bodies of armed horsemen; later both the mêlée and the joust took place at tournaments, and in the 15th century the joust tended to supersede the mêlée. Jousting

Arts, Central Asian, Turkish literature

2005-02-23T02:42:00.000-08:00

Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta, vol. 2 (1965), a collection of monographs on literatures of Turkish-speaking peoples—see Alessio Bombaci, “The Turkic Literatures: Notes on the History and Style”; also his Letteratura turca (1969), an important survey with several chapters on Central Asian Turkish literature; Janos Eckmann, Chagatay Manual (1966), mainly a grammar containing selections of Central Asian literary texts and a vocabulary; Talat Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (1968), an excellent introduction to the language and literature of the Central Asian Turks before Islam; Sir Gerard Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-13th Century Turkish (1972), and Turkish and Monogolian Studies (1962); and the Handbuch der Orientalistik, vol. 5, pt. 1 (1963), three important studies of the arts of the Central Asian peoples; E. Denison Ross, “The Tonyukuk Inscription,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies (London University), vol. 6 (1930), English translation of one of the oldest Turkish inscriptions. (Tibetan literature): J. Bacot, F.W. Thomas, and G.C. Toussaint, Documents de Touen-houang relatifs à l'histoire du Tibet, (1940); J. Bacot, Trois mystères tibétains (1921); W.Y. Evans Wentz (ed.), Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines (1935), The Tibetan Book of the Dead, 3rd ed. (1957), The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation (1954), Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa, 2nd ed. (1951); H.V. Guenther, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation by sGam-po-pa (1959), and The Life and Teaching of Naropa (1963). E. Obermiller, History of Buddhism by Bu-ston (1931); G.N. Roerich, The Blue Annals of gZhon-nu-dpal (1949, 1953); D.S. Ruegg, The Life of Bu-ston Rin-po-che (1966); R.A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization (1972); G.C. Toussaint, Le Dict de Padma (1933); T.V. Wylie, The Geography of Tibet According to the 'Dzam-ling rgyas-bshad (1963). (Mongolian literature): Richard P. Lister, The Secret History of Genghis Khan (1969), a retelling of the ancient chronicle of Genghis' life and successors; Charles R. Bawden, The Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobci (1955), a translation with notes of a major native historical work incorporating folk elements; The Mongolia Society, Mongolian Folktales, Stories, and Proverbs in English Translation (1967), a small collection of typical old tales; Ts. Zhamtsarano, The Mongol Chronicles of the Seventeenth Century, trans. by Rudolf Loewenthal (1955), a description of five major historical chronicles; Walther Heissig, “Mongolische Literature,” in Altaistik, vol. 5 of the Handbuch der Orientalistik, pt. 2, pp. 227–274 (1964), the best overall general sketch; Ludmilla K. Gerasimovich, History of Modern Mongolian Literature, 1921–1964 (1970; originally published in Russian), a careful survey of the modern decades and writers.

Grant, Bernie

2005-02-23T01:39:00.000-08:00

In full Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant British politician who, with Paul Boateng and Diane Abbott, was one of the first persons of African descent to win election to the House of Commons. The son of educators, he attended St. Stanislaus College, one of the finest schools in British Guiana. In the early 1960s he moved to the United Kingdom and became

God, Truce Of

2005-02-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

It is traceable to at least the Synod of Elne (1027), which suspended all warfare from Saturday night until prime on Monday. By 1042 the truce extended from Wednesday evening to Monday morning in every week and also, in most

Seacole, Mary

2005-02-21T18:38:00.000-08:00

Her father was a Scottish soldier and her mother a free black Jamaican woman who was skilled in traditional medicine and provided care for invalids at her boardinghouse. In 1836 Grant married Edwin Horatio Seacole, and, during their trips to

Alcoholic Beverage

2005-02-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

Alcoholic beverages are fermented from the sugars in fruits, berries, grains, and such other ingredients as plant saps, tubers, honey, and milk and may be distilled to reduce the original watery liquid to a liquid of much greater alcoholic

Fish Owl

2005-02-21T11:21:00.000-08:00

The brown fish owl (K. zeylonensis) ranges from the eastern Mediterranean to Taiwan and Japan. Pel's fishing owl (S.

Alabama

2005-02-20T23:18:00.000-08:00

Studies of the state's history include Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton, Alabama (1977, reissued 1984), a brief synthesis including more recent scholarship; Thomas Perkins Abernathy, The Formative Period in Alabama, 1815–1828, 2nd ed. (1965), the story of Alabama as a part of the Mississippi Territory; J. Mills Thornton III, Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800–1860 (1978, reprinted 1981), on the decades leading to the Civil War; Walter L. Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (1905, reprinted 1978), which includes an account of the factors leading to the secession of Alabama from the Union in 1861; Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins, The Scalawag in Alabama Politics, 1865–1881 (1977); and Allen J. Going, Bourbon Democracy in Alabama, 1874–1890 (1951, reprinted 1972). Historical discussions of race relations are provided in Peter Kolchin, First Freedom: The Response of Alabama's Blacks to Emancipation and Reconstruction (1972); Robert J. Norrell, Reaping the Whirlwind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee (1985); and Dan T. Carter, Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South, rev. ed. (1979). Scholarly journal articles on historical topics may be found in The Alabama Review (quarterly).

Nagasaki

2005-02-19T02:28:00.000-08:00

Ken (prefecture), northwestern Kyushu, Japan, facing the East China Sea. It includes the islands of Tsushima, Iki, Hirado, and the Goto Archipelago. The prefecture has an irregular shape, with rounded Shimabara Peninsula in the southeast; Cape Nomo and Nishisonoki Peninsula enclose Omura Bay also in the southeast. Dominated by mountains, the limited agricultural land

Marseillaise, La

2005-02-18T20:19:00.000-08:00

After France declared war on Austria on April 20, 1792, P.F. Dietrich, the mayor of Strasbourg (where Rouget de Lisle was then quartered), expressed the need for a marching song for the French troops. “La

Isinglass

2005-02-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

Sired by Isonomy and foaled by Dead Lock, he was owned by H. McCalmont and trained by J. Jewitt. After winning three races in 1893, as a two-year-old, ridden by Tom Loates, he won the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby, and

Henderson, (james) Fletcher

2005-02-18T07:04:00.000-08:00

Like Duke Ellington, he was untypical of his black contemporaries in being conventionally educated, having majored in chemistry and mathematics at Atlanta University, Ga. On arrival in New York City in 1920 for graduate work, he drifted into professional music and became a bandleader

Margaret Of Provence

2005-02-17T08:24:00.000-08:00

Although Blanche of Castile, Louis IX's mother, had arranged the marriage, she was jealous of her daughter-in-law, whom she supervised strictly; Jean, Sire de Joinville, chronicler of Louis's reign, tells several

Colby, Frank Moore

2005-02-16T20:22:00.000-08:00

Early in his career Colby taught history and economics at Columbia University, Amherst College (Amherst, Mass.), and New York University (New York City). To supplement his income, he began writing for encyclopaedias, and so began his lifelong career. In 1898 he became editor of the International

Argos

2005-02-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

The name Argos (adjectival form Argive) apparently signified an agricultural plain and was applied to several districts in ancient Greece. Historically, the Argolis was the easternmost portion of the Peloponnesian peninsula, and the city

Qantas Airways Limited

2005-02-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

Australian airline, the oldest in the English-speaking world, founded in 1920 as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd. (from which the name Qantas was derived). Its first operations were taxi services and joy flights. By the late 20th century, however, its scheduled air routes extended throughout Australasia and farther termini of San Francisco and Vancouver;

Oasis

2005-02-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

Fertile tract of land that occurs in a desert wherever a perennial supply of fresh water is available. Oases vary in size, ranging from about 1 hectare (2.5 acres) around small springs to vast areas of naturally watered or irrigated land. Underground water sources account for most oases; their springs and wells, some of them artesian, are supplied from sandstone aquifers

Mountain, Intracontinental mountain belts

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

In some regions, mountain belts have been formed by crustal shortening within a continental mass, rather than where two continents have collided. Some 40,000,000 to 80,000,000 years ago, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming formed in this way, and today both the Tien Shan and the Atlas Mountains of northwestern Africa are actively forming within a continent. In general, intracontinental

Celestial Globe

2005-02-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

Some globes were made in ancient Greece; Thales of Miletus (fl. 6th century BC) is generally credited with having constructed the first. Probably the oldest in existence is the

Amphibolite

2005-02-14T03:37:00.000-08:00

A rock composed largely or dominantly of minerals of the amphibole group. The term has been applied to rocks of either igneous or metamorphic origin. In igneous rocks, the term hornblendite is more common and restrictive; hornblende is the most common amphibole and is typical of such rocks. Hornblendite is an ultramafic rock (dominantly dark minerals) and is also

Cyrus Ii

2005-02-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

Byname Cyrus The Great conqueror who founded the Achaemenian empire, centred on Persia and comprising the Near East from the Aegean Sea eastward to the Indus River. He is also remembered in the Cyrus legend—first recorded by Xenophon, Greek soldier and author, in his Cyropaedia—as a tolerant and ideal monarch who was called the father of his people by the

Italian Literature, Poetry

2005-02-13T03:47:00.000-08:00

Lyric poetry in the 16th century was dominated by the model of Petrarch mainly because of the acceptance of the Renaissance theory of imitation and the teaching of Bembo. Almost all the principal writers of the century wrote lyric poems in the manner of Petrarch. Surprising originality was to be found in Della Casa's poems, and Galeazzo di Tarsia stood out from contemporary

Interior Design, Historical developments

2005-02-13T02:02:00.000-08:00

On Islamic art, an excellent work is David Talbot Rice, Islamic Art (1965); a more detailed survey is Maurice S. Dimand, A Handbook of Muhammadan Art, 3rd ed. rev. (1958). A.U. Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, 14 vol. (1938–67), should be consulted for this aspect. Franz Boas, Primitive Art, new ed. (1955), discusses the principles behind the decoration of a wide variety of art of this kind, with special attention to the North Pacific Coast of North America. Eric Larrabee and Massimo Vignelli, Knoll Design (1981), is a history of modern commercial interior design.

Sa'adia Ben Joseph

2005-02-12T05:47:00.000-08:00

Arabic Sa'id Ibn Yusuf Al-fayyumi Jewish exegete, philosopher, and polemicist whose influence on Jewish literary and communal activities made him one of the most important Jewish scholars of his time. His unique qualities became especially apparent in 921 in Babylonia during a dispute over Jewish calendrical calculations. He produced his greatest

Farès, Nabile

2005-02-11T01:19:00.000-08:00

In his first novel, Yahia, pas de chance (1970; “Yahia, No Chance”), Farès introduced a quest that was to haunt his later works; the search for the

Jean Le Bel

2005-02-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

A soldier and the constant companion of Jean, Count de Beaumont, with whom he went to England and Scotland in 1327, Le Bel wrote his Vrayes Chroniques (“True Chronicles”), recounting the events of the reign of Edward III,

Alloway

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

Southern suburb of the town of Ayr, South Ayrshire council area, historic county of Ayrshire, Scotland, famous as the birthplace of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. There is a museum alongside the thatched cottage where he was born in 1759 and a memorial built in 1820 in the form of a Grecian temple. The Brig o' Doon, immortalized in Burns's poem “Tam o' Shanter,” is nearby.

Performing Arts

2005-02-10T02:11:00.000-08:00

'atbarah

2005-02-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Atbara town, northeastern Sudan. It lies on the right (east) bank of the Nile River at the mouth of the seasonal Atbara River. The junction of two major road and railway lines to Khartoum, it has become an important commercial and agricultural centre. The Sudan government railways' administrative headquarters and workshops are located there, and the town also has an airport.

Mufulira

2005-02-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Town, north-central Zambia. Mufulira is situated just southwest of the Congo (Kinshasa) frontier. One of the country's chief copper-mining centres, the rich local deposits have been exploited for many years. Smelting and refining of copper and an explosives-manufacturing plant are surface industries in the town. Pop. (1990) 152,944.

Pere Ubu

2005-02-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

American avant-garde art rock band generally considered to be a major force and influence in postpunk music. The original members were David Thomas (b. June 14, 1953), Peter Laughner (b. c. 1953—d. June 22, 1977), Tom Herman (b. April 19, 1949), Allen Ravenstine (b. May 9, 1950), Scott Krauss (b. Nov. 19, 1950), and Tim Wright. Later members included Tony Maimone (b. Sept. 27, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.), Jim Jones (b. March 12, 1950), Chris Cutler (b. Jan. 4, 1947), Mayo

Biblical Literature, The Sibylline Oracles

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

The Sibylline Oracles is a collection of oracles in Greek verse containing pagan, Jewish, and Christian material from various periods. It comprised 15 books (books IX, X, and XV are lost), of which 4,240 verses are extant. Sibyl is the name (or title) of a legendary ancient pagan prophetess. In the Hellenistic period, eastern nations fabricated Sibylline oracles as propagandistic

Ashburton, John Dunning, 1st Baron

2005-02-07T01:41:00.000-08:00

English jurist and politician who defended the radical John Wilkes against charges of seditious and obscene libel (1763–64) and who is also important as the author of a resolution in Parliament (April 6, 1780) condemning George III for his support of Lord North's government despite the unpopularity of its policies during