GreatDrawer

Arts, Central Asian

2005-04-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

Also called Wild Pig, any of the wild members of the pig species Sus scrofa (family Suidae, order Artiodactyla), the ancestors of domestic pigs. See boar.

Hyrax

2005-04-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

Also called Dassie, any of the small hoofed mammals of the order Hyracoidea. Both hyraxes and the unrelated pikas (order Lagomorpha) are also sometimes called rock rabbits; the term is misleading for hyraxes, which are neither rabbits nor exclusively rock dwellers. The term cony (coney) in the Bible actually refers not to the true cony (also a lagomorph) but to the

Glinka, Mikhail

2005-04-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

Glinka first became interested in music at age 10 or 11, when he heard his uncle's private orchestra. He studied at the Chief Pedagogic Institute at St. Petersburg

Qatar

2005-04-02T20:16:00.000-08:00

The National Council for Culture, Arts, and Heritage and several other agencies and departments oversee literary, artistic, and cultural activities as well as recreation and tourism. The Qatar National Museum, in Doha, includes displays of the country's history and archaeology, a model lagoon in which Qatari sailing and pearling vessels are displayed, and a museum

Wild Rice

2005-04-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

Also called Indian Rice, Water Rice, or Water Oats (species Zizania aquatica), coarse annual grass of the family Poaceae whose grain, now often considered a delicacy, has long been an important food of North American Indians. Despite its name, the plant is not related to rice (Oryza sativa). Wild rice grows in shallow water in marshes and along the shores of streams and lakes in north-central North America.

Pre-columbian Civilizations, Deities

2005-04-01T00:30:00.000-08:00

The ancient tribes of central Mexico had worshiped fertility gods for many centuries when the Aztec invaded the valley. The cult of these gods remained extremely important in Aztec religion. Tlaloc, the giver of rain but also the wrathful deity of lightning, was the leader of a group of rain gods, the Tlaloques, who dwelt on mountaintops. Chalchiuhtlicue (“One Who Wears

Calasso, Roberto

2005-03-29T14:16:00.000-08:00

While a student at the University of Rome, where he received a degree in English literature, Calasso began working for Adelphi Edizioni, a publisher of classic and modern literature.

Lewes

2005-03-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

Town (“parish”), Lewes district, administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England. Lewes lies at a gap in the South Downs and along the River Ouse where it is still tidal. A castle was built there in the 11th century, and its ruins still dominate the town, which grew as a market centre and river port of some importance, although the port later gave way to Newhaven

Sabatier, (louis-) Auguste

2005-03-27T23:45:00.000-08:00

French Protestant theologian and educator who helped revolutionize biblical interpretation by applying methods of historical criticism and promoted the development of liberal theology and the Roman Catholic Modernist movement by his interpretation of Christian doctrine as the symbolism of religious feelings. Among his principal

Extraterritoriality

2005-03-27T02:32:00.000-08:00

Also called Exterritoriality, or Diplomatic Immunity, in international law, the immunities enjoyed by foreign states or international organizations and their official representatives from the jurisdiction of the country in which they are present. Extraterritoriality extends to foreign states or international organizations as entities and to their heads, legations, troops in passage, war vessels, mission premises,

Ulanova, Galina

2005-03-26T04:54:00.000-08:00

The daughter of dancers Sergey Ulanov and Marie Romanova of the Mariinsky Ballet (called the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet during the Soviet period), Ulanova was trained in the

Dulles, Allen W.

2005-03-25T06:28:00.000-08:00

The younger brother of U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles received an M.A. from Princeton in 1916 and then served in various diplomatic posts until 1922, when he was named chief

Paddle Tennis

2005-03-24T06:27:00.000-08:00

Small-scale form of tennis similar to a British shipboard game of the 1890s. Frank P. Beal, a New York City official, introduced paddle tennis on New York playgrounds in the early 1920s. He had invented it as a child in Albion, Mich. It became popular, and national championship tournaments are still held in the United States. Platform tennis, a later development, is sometimes called

Kumarajiva

2005-03-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

Before his ordination at the

World War I, Vittorio Veneto

2005-03-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

After the stabilization of the Italian front on the Piave River at the end of 1917, the Austrians made no further move until the following June. They then tried not only to force the Tonale Pass and enter northeastern Lombardy but also to make two converging thrusts into central Venetia, the one southeastward from the Trentino, the other southwestward across the lower

Pierce, Franklin

2005-03-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

(For an additional writing by Pierce, see The Military Academy.)

Afghan War

2005-03-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

The roots of the war lay in the overthrow of the centrist government of President

Salchow, Ulrich

2005-03-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

Salchow was a generous competitor, and he acknowledged the talents of others. At the 1902 World Championships, Madge Syers finished second

Cartier-bresson, Henri

2005-03-18T10:58:00.000-08:00

Cartier-Bresson

Mitropoulos, Dimitri

2005-03-17T21:43:00.000-08:00

Mitropoulos studied in Athens, where his opera Soeur Béatrice (after Maeterlinck) was performed in 1919. Later in Berlin he studied piano under the brilliant pianist, composer, and teacher Ferruccio Busoni. An excellent pianist, Mitropoulos sometimes conducted from the keyboard (e.g., in 1930 and

Sakakah

2005-03-17T15:16:00.000-08:00

Oasis, northwestern Saudi Arabia. It lies on an old caravan route from the Mediterranean Sea coast to the central and southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Sakakah lies north of the desert an-Nafud and northeast of al-Jawf oasis. The government tried to improve agricultural conditions in the area. The main products of the oasis are dates and dairy products.

Boner, Ulrich

2005-03-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

Boner, known to have been of a Bernese family, is mentioned in records between 1324 and 1349. He compiled and translated his collection of fables for Johann von Ringgenberg, his Bernese patron. The form that Boner used was referred to as bîschaft

A Cappella

2005-03-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

The a cappella style arose about the time of the composer Josquin des Prez, in the late 15th century, and reached preeminence with Palestrina in the late 16th century in the music

Ramazan Dynasty

2005-03-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

In 1352 Ramazan, founder of the dynasty, was recognized by the Mamluk sultan of Egypt as the ruler of the Üçok branch of Oguz Turkmen in Çukurova. After a period of attempts to overthrow Mamluk suzerainty, the dynasty's principality about 1418 came under direct Mamluk control and lost its

Oahu

2005-03-15T05:18:00.000-08:00

Island, Honolulu county, Hawaii, U.S., separated from the islands of Kauai (northwest) and Molokai (southeast) by the Kauai and Kaiwi channels. Of volcanic origin with an area of 607 square miles (1,574 square km), Oahu is third in size and the most populated of the Hawaiian Islands. Two parallel mountain groups, the Koolau Range (see photograph) and Waianae Ranges, are connected by a central

Yarim

2005-03-13T21:41:00.000-08:00

Town, southwestern Yemen. It lies in the heart of the Yemen Highlands, on an upland plateau dominated by the massif of nearby Mount Sumarah, which rises to about 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level. In antiquity the Yarim area was the core of the state of Himyar, which ruled over much of southern Arabia from about 115 BC to about AD 575; the Himyarite capital of Zafar (q.v.) was about 9 miles (15 km) south of Yarim. The

Buzzard

2005-03-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

Any of several birds of prey of the genus Buteo and, in North America, various New World vultures (family Cathartidae), especially the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura; see photograph). Similarly, in Australia a large hawk of the genus Hamirostra is called a black-breasted buzzard. In North America, Buteo species are called buteos, buzzard hawks, or simply

China

2005-03-13T13:24:00.000-08:00

On Oct. 1, 1999, Pres. Jiang Zemin and leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrated the 50th anniversary of communist rule in China with a massive military parade through downtown Beijing. When Mao Zedong had proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) half a century earlier, China was just emerging from a long and bloody civil war. Few observers

Regional Development Program

2005-03-12T01:31:00.000-08:00

Any government program designed to encourage the industrial and economic development of regions that are stagnant or in which a large portion of the population is experiencing prolonged unemployment. The measures taken may include loans, grants, and tax incentives to private industries relocating in such areas; assistance in developing power, light, transportation,

Eusebius Of Emesa

2005-03-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

A friend of the Roman emperor Constantius II, whom he often accompanied on expeditions against the Persians, Eusebius was appointed (c. 339) to the see

Cinquain

2005-03-10T22:39:00.000-08:00

A five-line stanza. The American poet Adelaide Crapsey (1878–1914), applied the term in particular to a five-line verse form of specific metre that she developed. Analogous to the Japanese verse forms haiku and tanka, it has two syllables in its first and last lines and four, six, and eight in the intervening three lines and generally has an iambic cadence. An example is her poem “November

Rawlinson, Sir Henry Creswicke

2005-03-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

British army officer and Orientalist who deciphered the Old Persian portion of the trilingual cuneiform inscription of Darius I the Great at Bisitun, Iran. His success provided the key to the deciphering, by himself and others, of Mesopotamian cuneiform script, a feat that greatly expanded knowledge of the ancient

Allgemeine Enzyklopädie Der Wissenschaften Und Künste

2005-03-10T02:37:00.000-08:00

(German: “Universal Encyclopaedia of Sciences and Arts”), monumental uncompleted German encyclopaedia of which 167 volumes were published from 1818 to 1889. Founded by a German bibliographer, Johann Samuel Ersch, who began work on it in 1813, the Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste is noteworthy for containing the longest known encyclopaedia article—the article

Ten Days Of Penitence

2005-03-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

Hebrew Aseret Yeme Teshuva, the first 10 days of the Jewish religious year. See yamim nora'im.

Fabricius Ab Aquapendente, Hieronymus

2005-03-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

He spent most of his life at the University of Padua, where he studied under the eminent anatomist Gabriel Fallopius. As Fallopius' successor to the chair of surgery and anatomy (1562–1613), Fabricius built a reputation that attracted students from

Levin, Meyer

2005-03-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Levin first became known with the novel Yehuda (1931). In 1945 he wrote and produced the first Palestinian feature film, My Father's House (book, 1947), which tells of Jews who are driven out of Poland and reunite in Palestine. Other major works are Citizens (1940)—about the

Guétary, Georges (lambros Worloou)

2005-03-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

Egyptian-born French singer whose career of over 50 years on the musical theatre stage, in cabarets, on recordings, on television, and in films included a notable role as the man who lost Leslie Caron to Gene Kelly in An American in Paris (b. Feb. 8, 1915--d. Sept. 13, 1997).

Bae Systems

2005-03-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

Major British manufacturer of aircraft, missiles, avionics, and other aerospace and defense products. It was formed in 1999 from the merger of British Aerospace PLC (BAe) with Marconi Electronic Systems, formerly part of General Electric Company PLC. BAe, in turn, dates to the merger in 1977 of British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and two other firms. Headquarters

Atmosphere, Ionospheric physics and chemistry

2005-03-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

Most of the ionization in the ionosphere is effected by photoionization. Photons of short wavelength (i.e., high energy) are absorbed by atmospheric gases. A portion of the energy is used to eject an electron, converting a neutral atom or molecule to a pair of charged species: an electron, which is negatively charged, and a companion positive ion. Ionization in the F1 region

Tercet

2005-03-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

Also spelled tiercet a unit or group of three lines of verse, usually containing rhyme, as in William Shakespeare's “The Phoenix and the Turtle”: Death is now the phoenix' nest; And the turtle's loyal breastTo eternity doth rest,

Arcaro, Eddie

2005-03-04T07:32:00.000-08:00

Byname of George Edward Arcaro American jockey who was the first to ride five Kentucky Derby winners and two U.S. Triple Crown champions (winners of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes). In 31 years of riding Thoroughbreds (1931–61), he won 549 stakes events, a total of 4,779 races, and more than $30,000,000 in purses. On Feb. 20, 1958, at Santa Anita Race Track in California, he became

Frieze

2005-03-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

The frieze in

Anglo-saxon Chronicle

2005-03-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

Chronological account of events in Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, a compilation of seven surviving interrelated manuscript records that is the primary source for the early history of England. The narrative was first assembled in the reign of King Alfred (871–899) from materials that included some epitome of universal history: the Venerable Bede's Historia ecclesiastica

Switzerland

2005-03-02T06:38:00.000-08:00

Many Swiss were considerably startled in 1997 at finding themselves being buffeted by an onslaught of criticism, some of it from within Switzerland itself, concerning their country's actions during and after World War II. (See Sidebar

West Bridgewater

2005-03-01T23:07:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Plymouth county, eastern Massachusetts, approximately 25 miles (40 km) south of Boston. The area was deeded by Massasoit, a Wampanoag Indian chief and sachem (intertribal leader) of all Wampanoags, to six people in trust for 56 proprietors of Duxbury plantation for the price of knives, hatchets, hoes, coats, and cotton. It was settled by colonists in 1656. Some mills were

Chemical Bonding

2005-03-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

Any of the interactions that account for the association of atoms into molecules, ions, crystals, and other stable species that make up the familiar substances of the everyday world. When atoms approach one another, their nuclei and electrons interact and tend to distribute themselves in space in such a way that the total energy is lower than it would be in any alternative

Polar Motion

2005-02-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

Polar motion is primarily made up of two discrete periodic

Canada, Anglican Church Of

2005-02-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

Self-governing Anglican church that dates from the Church of England congregations established in Canada during the 18th century. In 1750 Canada's first Anglican church was built in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Additional congregations were formed as settlers came from England and as many American colonists who remained loyal to England resettled in Canada during and after

Bilbays

2005-02-27T00:56:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Bilbeis, or Bilbis, town, southwestern ash-Sharqiyah muhafazah (governorate) in the eastern Nile River delta, Lower Egypt. Bilbays lies northeast of Cairo, on the main road from Ismailia and Port Said and on the al-Isma'iliyah Canal. Its name is an Arabic corruption of the Coptic Phelbes. Situated on a caravan and natural invasion route from the east, Bilbays was conquered in AD 640 by the Arabs, who in 727 resettled

Kirkcaldy (of Grange), Sir William

2005-02-25T21:21:00.000-08:00

Kirkcaldy was one of the Protestant conspirators who murdered the powerful cardinal David Beaton at St. Andrews Castle in May 1546. From 1550 to 1556 he served in France as a secret agent for England. He returned to Scotland in 1557 and two years later joined the Protestant lords

Acceptance

2005-02-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

An exporter of goods, for

Gahn, Johan Gottlieb

2005-02-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

Swedish mineralogist and crystallographer who discovered manganese in 1774. His failure to win fame may be related to the fact that he published little. He saved the notes, papers, and letters of his friend Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who discovered chlorine, but not his own. His essays on the balance and use of the blowpipe in analysis

Mountain

2005-02-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

Most mountains and mountain ranges are parts of mountain belts that have formed where two lithospheric plates have converged and where, in most cases, they continue to converge. In effect, many mountain belts mark the boundaries of lithospheric plates, and these boundaries in turn intersect other such boundaries. Consequently, there exist very long mountain systems

Van Der Waals Forces

2005-02-24T20:32:00.000-08:00

Relatively weak electric forces that attract neutral molecules to one another in gases, in liquefied and solidified gases, and in almost all organic liquids and solids. The forces are named for the Dutch physicist Johannes van der Waals, who in 1873 first postulated these intermolecular forces in developing a theory to account for the properties of real gases. Solids

Reform Judaism

2005-02-24T03:01:00.000-08:00

A religious movement that has modified or abandoned many traditional Jewish beliefs, laws, and practices in an effort to adapt Judaism to the changed social, political, and cultural conditions of the modern world. Reform Judaism sets itself at variance with Orthodox Judaism by challenging the binding force of ritual, laws, and customs set down in the Bible and in

Cloudberry

2005-02-22T02:09:00.000-08:00

Eskimos

Light Bulb

2005-02-22T00:12:00.000-08:00

Electric incandescent lamp based on a glowing metallic filament enclosed within a glass shell filled with an inert gas such as nitrogen. See incandescent lamp; lamp.

Skalkottas, Nikos

2005-02-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

Skalkottas began violin studies at the age of five, continuing them later at the Athens conservatory and in Berlin, where he also studied composition. Influenced by Schoenberg, with whom he studied (1927–31), he began using the 12-tone method in his compositions but adhered to traditional forms.

Anicca

2005-02-21T00:45:00.000-08:00

Sanskrit Anitya, in Buddhism, the doctrine of impermanence, one of the basic characteristics of all existence. Anicca, anatta (the absence of a self), and dukkha (“suffering”) together make up the ti-lakkhana, or three characteristics of all phenomenal existence. That the human body is subject to change is empirically observable in the universal states of childhood, youth, maturity, and old

Scylitzes, John

2005-02-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

Scylitzes was a high officeholder at the Byzantine court. He may have written a legal work for Alexius I in 1092. In his history he drew on the work of others for the early part and then largely relied on sources no longer extant and on contemporary oral tradition. In some manuscripts

Bond, Julian

2005-02-20T05:08:00.000-08:00

The son of prominent educators, Bond attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he helped found a civil rights group and led a sit-in movement intended to desegregate Atlanta lunch

Crichton, Charles Ainslie

2005-02-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

British film director who achieved near-legendary status with a series of classic comedies he made for Ealing Studios in the 1940s and '50s, notably Hue and Cry (1947), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953); by the 1960s he had retreated to directing for television, but he made a triumphant big-screen comeback—and garnered an Academy Award nomination—for A Fish Called

Aschaffenburg

2005-02-19T07:37:00.000-08:00

City, Bavaria Land (state), south-central Germany. It lies on the right bank of the canalized Main River near the mouth of the Aschaff River and at the foot of the forested Spessart (mountains), 20 miles (35 km) southeast of Frankfurt. Originally a Roman settlement, it came under the jurisdiction of the electors of Mainz in about 982 and was chartered in 1173. In 1292 a synod was held there, and in

Epistemology, Analytic philosophy

2005-02-19T01:49:00.000-08:00

Analytic philosophy, the prevailing philosophy in the Anglo-American world in the 20th century, has its origins in symbolic logic on the one hand and in British empiricism on the other. Some of its important contributions have been nonepistemological in character, but in the area of epistemology its contributions have also been of the first order. Its main characteristics

Tyrone

2005-02-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

Former (until 1973) county, Northern Ireland. It was bounded by the former counties of Londonderry (north) and Fermanagh and Monaghan (south), and by former County Armagh and Lough (lake) Neagh (east). It had an area of 1,260 square miles (3,263 square km). In the north, the Sperrin Mountains rise to 2,224 feet (678 m), the highest peaks being Sawel and Mullaghcloga. To the southwest, Bessy Bell (1,387 feet) and Mary Gray

Lear, William P(owell)

2005-02-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

The child of immigrant parents

France, History Of, The sons of Clovis

2005-02-16T19:53:00.000-08:00

Following the death of Clovis in 511, the kingdom was divided among his four sons. This partition was not made according to ethnic, geographic, or administrative divisions. The only factor taken into account was that the portions be of equal value (defined in terms of the royal fisc, which had previously been the imperial fisc, and tax revenues from land and trade, which were

Melaka

2005-02-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

Formerly Malacca, town and port, West Malaysia (Malaya), on the Strait of Malacca, at the mouth of the sluggish Melaka River. The city was founded about 1400, when Paramesvara, the ruler of Tumasik (now Singapore), fled from the forces of the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit and found refuge at the site, then a small fishing village. There he founded a Malay kingdom the kings of which, aided by the Chinese,

Smith, John

2005-02-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

English explorer and principal founder of the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Va. Smith played an equally important role as a cartographer and a prolific writer who vividly depicted the natural abundance of the New World, whetting the colonizing appetite of prospective English

Anderson, John Henry

2005-02-15T05:51:00.000-08:00

Described on playbills as “Professor Anderson, the Wizard of the North,” he first performed in 1831. Seasons at Edinburgh (1837) and Glasgow (1838–39) followed. In London (1840) he made use of the most elaborate collection of magical apparatus

Amalienborg

2005-02-14T06:17:00.000-08:00

Architectural complex in Copenhagen, Den., built during the reign (1746–66) of King Frederick V and comprising the four buildings of the Amalienborg royal palace and the octagonal courtyard surrounded by them. The complex was designed and constructed by the Danish architect Nicolai Eigtved, who also designed numerous other buildings in the surrounding district. At the

Furniture, England

2005-02-14T03:39:00.000-08:00

After the Restoration, from 1660 onward, there was almost revolutionary progress in English cabinetmaking, as it came to be called at about this time. On its return, the exiled court introduced French and Dutch fashions, and the English craftsmen were considerably helped in supplying the tastes of the nobility by a large influx of foreign workmen. Furniture became lighter,

China, Yüan China and the West

2005-02-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

As mentioned above, Mongol rulers favoured trade in all their dominions. In China, too, they eliminated state trade controls that had existed under the Sung and Chin, so that internal and external trade reached unprecedented proportions. It seems, however, that China's transcontinental trade with the Middle East and Europe was in the hands of non-Chinese (Persians,

Argentite

2005-02-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

Argentite, like several other sulfides, selenides, and tellurides of silver and copper, forms isometric crystals at high temperatures, but upon

øverland, Arnulf

2005-02-13T00:55:00.000-08:00

The early death of Øverland's father, an engineer, left the family in economic straits, but his mother managed to support Øverland while he attended school. He studied philology briefly

Maucherite

2005-02-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

A nickel arsenide mineral with chemical composition approximating Ni3As2 or Ni11As8, assigned to the group of sulfide minerals. It often occurs with niccolite (to which it alters), as at Mansfeld, Ger.; Los Jarales, Málaga, Spain; and Ontario, Can. Its crystals belong to the tetragonal system. It is identical to the furnace product placodine. For chemical formula and detailed

Blood Count

2005-02-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

Determination of the number of red blood cells (RBC's, or erythrocytes) and white blood cells (WBC's, or leukocytes) in a given volume of blood. The readings vary with sex, age, physiological state, and general health, but a cubic millimetre of blood of a normal individual contains approximately 5,000,000 red cells and 7,000 white cells. A differential blood count is the enumeration of the

Coraciiform

2005-02-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Also called rollerlike bird any member of the order Coraciiformes, including the kingfishers, todies, motmots, bee-eaters, rollers, hoopoes (see photograph), and hornbills (see photograph). Among the members of the order that have attracted special attention are certain kingfishers that plunge headfirst into water for fish and are associated with classical

Guadalquivir River

2005-02-11T04:26:00.000-08:00

The Guadalquivir is the second longest river of Spain (after the Ebro), and it has several distinctive characteristics.

Woman Suffrage

2005-02-10T20:11:00.000-08:00

Women were excluded from voting in ancient Greece and Republican Rome, as well as in the few democracies that had emerged in Europe by the end of the 18th century. When the franchise was widened, as it was in the United Kingdom in 1832, women continued to be denied all voting rights. The question of women's voting

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

2005-02-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

American manufacturer of computer workstations, servers, and software with headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

Peter V

2005-02-10T02:48:00.000-08:00

He wished to convert the

Macdonald, John Sandfield

2005-02-09T04:16:00.000-08:00

Macdonald was called to the bar in 1840, and the next year he was elected to the Canadian Parliament for Glengarry, a seat he held for 16 years. He supported constitutional government and in 1849–51 served as solicitor general. He held the posts of speaker

William Clito

2005-02-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

Son of Duke Robert II Curthose (and grandson of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders), William Clito was supported by Louis VI of France in claiming the duchy when his father

Nervous System, Dendrites

2005-02-08T21:10:00.000-08:00

Besides the axon, neurons have other branches called dendrites that are usually shorter than axons and are unmyelinated. Dendrites are thought to form receiving surfaces for synaptic input from other neurons. In many dendrites these surfaces are provided by specialized structures called dendritic spines, which, by providing discrete regions for the reception

China, East Turkistan

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

To the west of Kashgaria in East Turkistan, a khanate of Khokand emerged in Ferghana after 1760 as a powerful caravan trade centre. When Muslim rebellion spread rapidly from Shensi and Kansu to East Turkistan, a Khokandian adventurer, Yakub Beg, seized the opportunity to invade Kashgaria and established power there in 1865; he soon showed signs of advancing to the Ili region

Ear, Human, Auditory nerve fibres

2005-02-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

The vestibulocochlear nerve consists of two anatomically and functionally distinct parts: the cochlear nerve, which innervates the organ of hearing, and the vestibular nerve, which innervates the organs of equilibrium. The fibres of the cochlear nerve originate from an aggregation of nerve cell bodies, the spiral ganglion, located in the modiolus of the cochlea.

Burgred

2005-02-05T23:08:00.000-08:00

In 852 or 853 he called upon Aethelwulf of Wessex to aid him in subduing the North Welsh. The request was granted and the campaign proved successful, the alliance being sealed by the marriage of Burgred to Aethelswith, daughter of Aethelwulf. In 868 the Mercian king appealed to Aethelred and Alfred for assistance

Dur Sharrukin

2005-02-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

Modern Khorsabad ancient Assyrian city located northeast of Nineveh, in Iraq. Built between 717 and 707 BC by the Assyrian king Sargon II (reigned 721–705), Dur Sharrukin exhibits careful town planning. The city measured about one mile square (2.59 square km); its outer walls were pierced by seven fortified gates. An inner wall enclosed a temple to Nabu (a god of vegetation and the patron of the art of writing), the

Gabar

2005-02-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

Any member of the small Zoroastrian minority in Iran. The name Gabar was formerly applied derogatorily to the Iranian Zoroastrians; the term is linguistically related to the Arabic kafir, meaning “infidel.” The Zoroastrians who remained in Persia (modern Iran) after the Arab–Muslim conquest (7th century AD) had a long history as outcasts. Although they purchased some toleration

Jesus Christ, Early heresies

2005-02-04T16:58:00.000-08:00

These misinterpretations

Priesthood, The ancient Middle East

2005-02-04T03:43:00.000-08:00

In the Nile valley the occupant of the throne (the pharaoh) was regarded as a god incarnate, the sacred king. Because he was believed to be the epitome of all that was divine, he alone was the intermediary between mankind and the gods whom he summed up in his complex personality. Before Menes, founder of the 1st dynasty (c. 3100–2890 BC), centralized the rule of Upper and Lower Egypt, the high

Sabellic Dialects

2005-02-03T21:45:00.000-08:00

A group of inscriptions from eastern central Italy, sometimes referred to as Sabellic,

Triad

2005-02-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

In music, a chord of three tones, consisting of a root with its third and fifth and constituting the harmonic basis of tonal music. See chord.

Strachey, John

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

Early geologist who was the first to suggest the theory of stratified rock formations. He wrote Observations on the Different Strata of Earths and Minerals (1727) and stated that there was a relation between surface features and the rock structure, an idea that was not commonly accepted until a century later.

Atlanta Campaign

2005-02-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

In the American Civil War, an important series of battles in Georgia (May–September 1864) that eventually cut off a main Confederate supply centre and influenced the Federal presidential election of 1864. By the end of 1863, with Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, firmly under the control of the North, Atlanta, an important Confederate

Rowland, Henry Augustus

2005-02-01T00:36:00.000-08:00

In 1872 Rowland became an instructor of physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,

Aligarh

2005-01-31T23:58:00.000-08:00

Also called Koil or Kol city, west-central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies southeast of Delhi. The city itself is usually called Koil, or Kol; Aligarh is the name of a nearby fort. The city is an agricultural trade centre; the processing of agricultural products and manufacturing are also important. Aligarh Muslim University (1875) and its affiliated colleges are located there, as are a

Gradient Wind

2005-01-31T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hypothetical wind that accounts for air flow along a curved trajectory. It is an extension of the concept of geostrophic wind—i.e., the wind assumed to move along straight and parallel isobars (lines of equal pressure). The gradient wind represents the actual wind better than does the geostrophic wind, especially when the wind speed and trajectory curvature are large,

John I

2005-01-30T23:33:00.000-08:00

Also called John The Redhead, French Jean Le Roux duke of Brittany (from 1237), son of Peter I. Like his father, he sought to limit the temporal power of the clergy; consequently he was excommunicated, upon which he journeyed to Rome to win absolution. Subsequently, he and his wife, Blanche of Champagne, traveled with St. Louis on the crusade to Tunisia (1270).