WideSkin

Aeschbacher, Hans

2005-04-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Trained as a printer, Aeschbacher taught himself to draw and paint and began sculpting about age 30. His earliest pieces were figurative and were composed mainly from terra-cotta and plaster. By 1945 he was working essentially with stone, and his sculptures became increasingly

Henry, O.

2005-04-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

Pseudonym of William Sydney Porter American short-story writer whose tales romanticized the commonplace—in particular the life of ordinary people in New York City. His stories expressed the effect of coincidence on character through humour, grim or ironic, and often had surprise endings, a device that became identified with his name and cost him critical

Theatre Guild

2005-04-03T10:39:00.000-07:00

A theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 for the production of high-quality, noncommercial American and foreign plays. The guild, founded by Lawrence Langner (1890–1962), departed from the usual theatre practice in that its board of directors shared the responsibility for choice of plays, management, and production. The first two seasons, which included plays by Jacinto

Melilite

2005-04-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

Any member of a series of silicate minerals that consist of calcium silicates of aluminum and magnesium; gehlenite is the aluminous end-member and åkermanite the magnesian end-member. These minerals crystallize from calcium-rich, alkaline magmas and from many artificial melts and blast-furnace slags. They occur in thermally metamorphosed limestones at contact

Bilandic, Michael Anthony

2005-04-02T06:16:00.000-08:00

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

Permafrost, Offshore structures

2005-04-02T04:25:00.000-08:00

One of the most active and exciting areas of permafrost engineering is in subsea permafrost. Knowledge of the distribution, type, and water or ice content of subsea permafrost is critical for planning petroleum exploration, locating production structures, burying pipelines, and driving tunnels beneath the seabed. Furthermore, the temperature of the seabed must

Arras

2005-03-31T21:27:00.000-08:00

Town, capital of Pas-de-Calais département, Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, former capital of Artois, northern France, on the Scarpe River, southwest of Lille. Of Gallo-Roman origin, it was the chief town (Nemetacum or Nemetocenna) of the Atrebates, one of the last Gallic peoples to surrender to Caesar. The woollen industry dates from the 4th century. The Middle Ages was a period

Juàzeiro

2005-03-30T23:24:00.000-08:00

From Juàzeiro southward to Pirapora in Minas Gerais state, the upper course of the

Aerospace Engineering, Aerospace engineering

2005-03-30T16:50:00.000-08:00

The use of rocket engines for aircraft propulsion opened a new realm of flight to the aeronautical engineer. Robert H. Goddard, an American, developed, built, and flew the first successful liquid-propellant rocket on March 16, 1926. Goddard proved that flight was possible at speeds greater than the speed of sound and that rockets can work in a vacuum. The major impetus in rocket

Earth Sciences, Properties and structure of the atmosphere

2005-03-29T22:09:00.000-08:00

Less than a year after the space age began with the launching of the Soviet Sputnik I in 1957, the U.S. satellite Explorer I was sent into orbit with a Geiger counter for measuring the intensity of cosmic radiation at different levels above the ground. At altitudes around 1,000 kilometres this instrument ceased to function due to saturation by charged particles. This and subsequent

Becque, Henry-françois

2005-03-29T16:35:00.000-08:00

Dramatist and critic whose loosely structured plays, based on character and motivation rather than on closely knit plots, provided a healthy challenge to the “well-made plays” that held the stage in his day. Although Becque disliked literary theory and refused identification with any school, he has been remembered as a forerunner of the

Climate, Variations in the distribution of land and sea due to crustal changes

2005-03-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

Mountain building, continental uplift, and the drifting of continents have profoundly influenced world climate. They operate on the scale of geologic periods, requiring many millions of years to complete their effects. An example of a climatic change caused by topographic variations is the creation of the cold deep waters of the ocean, which was favoured by such

Switzerland

2005-03-27T05:03:00.000-08:00

With political maneuvering for the next general elections--scheduled

Qarluq Confederation

2005-03-26T14:26:00.000-08:00

The internal political organization

Elgin, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl Of, 11th Earl Of Kincardine

2005-03-26T08:11:00.000-08:00

Third son of Charles Bruce, the 5th earl (1732–71), he succeeded his brother William Robert, the 6th earl, in 1771 at the age of five. Entering the army in 1785 and rising later to the rank of major general, Elgin began his diplomatic career in 1790. Envoy at Brussels

Li Keran

2005-03-25T23:56:00.000-08:00

Li showed a gift for painting, calligraphy, and music as a child. When he was 13, he began to study landscape

Ameghino, Florentino

2005-03-24T02:06:00.000-08:00

Ameghino's family immigrated to Argentina when he was a small child. He began collecting fossils as a youth and soon developed an interest

Marseille

2005-03-23T23:09:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Marseilles, ancient Massilia, or Massalia, city, capital of Bouches-du-Rhône département, France, and also the administrative and commercial capital of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, one of France's fastest growing régions. Located west of the French Riviera, Marseille is one of the major ports of the Mediterranean Sea. It is situated on the Mediterranean's Gulf of Lion within a semicircle of limestone hills and

Schemochrome

2005-03-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

Any one of many colourless, submicroscopic structures in organisms that serve as a source of colour by the manner in which they reflect light. Among those physical structures in organisms that fractionate light into its component colours are ridges, striations, facets, successive layers, and multiple fine, randomly dispersed light-scattering bodies.

Aribau, Buenaventura Carles

2005-03-22T04:07:00.000-08:00

After working in Madrid at the banking establishment of Gaspar Remisa (1830–41), Aribau became the director of the treasury and financial secretary to the royal household. Animated by a deep patriotism,

Foy, Maximilien(-sébastien)

2005-03-20T19:10:00.000-08:00

Foy served in the artillery and the infantry, attaining the rank of major in 1796, staff colonel in 1799, and brigadier

World War I

2005-03-20T11:33:00.000-08:00

Dwight E. Lee (ed.), The Outbreak of the First World War: Causes and Responsibilities, 4th ed. (1975), is a good introduction to the debate on the origins of World War I. A more detailed account is provided in Luigi Albertini, The Origins of the War of 1914, 3 vol. (1952–57, reprinted 1980; originally published in Italian, 1942–43). A comprehensive general account of the war is Bernadotte E. Schmitt and Harold C. Vedeler, The World in the Crucible, 1914–1919 (1984). The standard military histories are Basil Henry Liddell Hart, A History of the World War, 1914–1918, enl. ed. (1934, reprinted 1970); Cyril B. Falls, The Great War (1959); and Marc Ferro, The Great War, 1914–1918 (1973, reprinted 1987; originally published in French, 1969). J.E. Edmonds (comp.), A Short History of World War I (1951, reprinted 1968); and John Terraine, The Great War, 1914–1918: A Pictorial History (1965, reprinted 1978), are useful introductions. Naval operations during the war are discussed in Arthur J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904–1919, 5 vol. (1961–70). International diplomacy during the war is treated in Z.A.B. Zeman, The Gentlemen Negotiators (1971; U.K. title, A Diplomatic History of the First World War).

Fajardo

2005-03-20T05:41:00.000-08:00

Town, eastern Puerto Rico, on the Fajardo River lowlands. Founded in 1772, it was the scene of fighting during the Spanish–American War (1898). Its principal manufactures are cigars, furniture, and metal and electronic components. It is linked by railway to San Juan and lies about 2 miles (3 km) from its port, Playa de Fajardo, which exports sugar. The town is a tourist centre. The University

Cottrell, Frederick Gardner

2005-03-19T02:28:00.000-08:00

Cottrell taught chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1902 to 1911 and began his work on electrostatic precipitators in 1906. In 1912 he founded the Research Corporation, a nonprofit organization

Computers, Handheld computers

2005-03-18T04:39:00.000-08:00

The origins of handheld computers go back to the 1960s, when Alan Kay, a researcher at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, promoted the vision of a small, powerful notebook-style computer that he called the Dynabook. Kay never actually built a Dynabook (the technology had yet to be invented), but his vision helped to catalyze the research that would eventually make his dream

Ile-ife

2005-03-18T00:34:00.000-08:00

Also called Ife, or Ife-lodun, town, Osun state, southwestern Nigeria. The town lies at the intersection of roads from Ibadan (40 miles [64 km] west), Ilesha, and Ondo. It is one of the larger centres and probably the oldest town of the Yoruba people. Considered by the Yoruba to be a holy city and the legendary birthplace of mankind, it was held to have been founded by a son of the deity Oduduwa and was certainly the

Actuary

2005-03-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

Most actuaries are

Chadwick, Sir James

2005-03-16T23:24:00.000-08:00

Educated at the universities of Manchester and Cambridge, Chadwick also studied under Hans Geiger at the Technische Hochschule, Berlin. From 1923 he worked with Ernest Rutherford in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge,

Lowes, John Livingston

2005-03-16T22:54:00.000-08:00

Lowes received his A.B. degree from Washington and Jefferson College (Washington, Pa.) in 1888 and taught mathematics there until 1891, when he received his M.A. degree. After

Gide, André

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

Le Prométhée mal enchaîné (1899; Prometheus Misbound), a return to the satirical style of Urien's Voyage and Marshland, is Gide's last discussion of man's search for individual values. His next tales mark the beginning of his great creative period. L'Immoraliste (1902; The Immoralist), La Porte étroite (1909; Strait Is the Gate), and La Symphonie pastorale (1919; “The Pastoral Symphony”) reflect Gide's

Qatar, Agriculture

2005-03-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

The scarcity of fertile land and water imposes severe limitations on agriculture, and a large proportion of the country's food must be imported. Use of treated sewage effluent and desalinated water for irrigation have helped to expand the production of fruits, such as dates and melons, and of vegetables, such as tomatoes, squash, and eggplants. The cultivation of vegetables

Philip Iii

2005-03-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

Philip, the second son of Louis IX of France (Saint Louis), became heir to the throne on the death of his elder brother Louis (1260). Accompanying his father's crusade against

Epictetus

2005-03-15T05:45:00.000-08:00

Epictetus is most frequently mentioned in connection with a series of medallions on plates in the British Museum in London and the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris. The medallion paintings

Baseball

2005-03-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

Robert Verdi

Wage And Salary

2005-03-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

The purchasing-power theory of wages involves the relation between wages and employment and the business cycle and is not, therefore, a theory of wage determination. It stresses the importance of spending through consumption and investment as an influence upon the activity of the economy. The theory gained prominence during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when

Cézanne, Paul

2005-03-13T02:35:00.000-08:00

French painter, one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists, whose works and ideas were influential in the aesthetic development of many 20th-century artists and art movements, especially Cubism. Cézanne's art, misunderstood and discredited by the public during most of his life, grew out of Impressionism and

Hippolytus

2005-03-12T16:17:00.000-08:00

In Euripides' tragedy Hippolytus, he was son of Theseus, king of Athens, and the Amazon Hippolyte. Theseus' queen, Phaedra, fell in love

Maccarthy, Sir Desmond

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

MacCarthy was associated with the Bloomsbury group. He began his career as a freelance journalist, quickly moving to editorial work

La Baule-escoublac

2005-03-11T04:44:00.000-08:00

Also called La Baule, fashionable resort, Loire-Atlantique département, Bretagne région, France. It lies along the Atlantic coast near the mouth of the Loire River, west of Saint-Nazaire. Facing south and protected from the north wind by 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of dune-stabilizing maritime pines, it is on a crescent-shaped bay in the centre of a fine sand beach 5 miles (8 km) long. Headlands at each end of

Aureole

2005-03-10T22:50:00.000-08:00

Brightly illuminated area surrounding an atmospheric light source, such as the Sun, when the light is propagated through a medium containing many sizes of particles or droplets that are large compared to the wavelength of the light. Because the wavelength of visible light is about 0.00005 cm (0.5 micrometre), particles of size greater than about 0.0001 cm (1 micrometre) will give rise

Henderson, Arthur

2005-03-10T21:47:00.000-08:00

An iron molder at Robert Stephenson's locomotive works and foundry in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, Henderson became secretary of the Newcastle local of the

Toreva Block

2005-03-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

Landslide product consisting of a very large block of undisturbed material that has been tilted backward toward the parent cliff during movement down a gentle slope. In northeastern Arizona such blocks are thought to have formed during more humid periods of the last glacial advance of the Pleistocene Epoch (1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago). Toreva blocks also occur, however, as a simple

Hess, (walter Richard) Rudolf

2005-03-09T22:55:00.000-08:00

The son of a merchant, Hess served in the German army during World War I. After the

San Francisco, University Of

2005-03-09T22:32:00.000-08:00

Private, coeducational institution of higher learning, located near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Calif., U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic church. It offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs through six academic divisions: the College of Arts and Sciences, McLaren School of Business, the College of Professional

Kadu Languages

2005-03-09T02:29:00.000-08:00

Also called Kadugli-Krongo languages group of related languages spoken along the western and southern edge of the Nuba Hills in The Sudan. These languages were formerly classified as part of the Kordofanian group within the Niger-Congo language family, but they are now widely believed to form a subgroup within the Nilo-Saharan language family. The name Kadu is based on a widespread word for “people” in

X-trisomy

2005-03-08T02:58:00.000-08:00

Sex chromosome disorder of human females, in which three X chromosomes are present, rather than the normal pair. More common than Turner's syndrome, where only one X chromosome is present, X-trisomy usually remains undetected because affected individuals appear normal, experience puberty, and are usually fertile. Statistical studies suggest a slightly increased

Furniture, Cupboard

2005-03-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

Strictly speaking, the cupboard is a derivative form of the chest. Early Renaissance cupboards resembled two chests placed one on top of the other, but they were opened from the front by means of doors. The design and construction of the cupboard's pronounced front have always provided ample scope for artistic composition, and it is no mere coincidence that the cupboard

Francis Ferdinand, Archduke Of Austria-este

2005-03-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

Francis Ferdinand was the eldest son of the archduke Charles Louis, who was the brother of the emperor Francis Joseph. The death of the heir apparent, the archduke Rudolf, in 1889, made Francis Ferdinand next in succession to the Austro-Hungarian

Cambay, Gulf Of

2005-03-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

Also called Gulf of Khambhat trumpet-shaped gulf of the Arabian Sea, indenting northward the coast of Gujarat state, western India, between Bombay and the Kathiawar Peninsula. It is 120 miles (190 km) wide at its mouth between Diu and Daman, but it rapidly narrows to 15 miles (24 km). The gulf receives many rivers, including the Sabarmati, Mahi, Narmada (Narbada), and Tapti. Its shape and its orientation in relation to the southwest

Haber, Fritz

2005-03-06T06:44:00.000-08:00

Deciding on an academic career, he first took up organic chemical research at the University of Jena, but its orthodox methods gave

Ghana, Flag Of

2005-03-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

When Kwame Nkrumah organized the Convention People's Party in 1949 to work toward more self-government for the native African peoples of the British Gold Coast, a flag was developed for the movement. A simple horizontal tricolour of red-white-green, it became well known throughout the Gold Coast as a symbol of modernization and self-reliance. Self-government was introduced

Yuzu Nembutsu

2005-03-05T10:56:00.000-08:00

Japanese Buddhist sect that stresses the permeating effect (yuzu) of nembutsu, the invocation of the name of the Buddha Amida (Amitabha). Thus, the belief was that not only the person who chants the name but all humanity benefits from the practice of nembutsu. The sect was founded in the early 12th century by an evangelistic Tendai monk, Ryonin, and was a forerunner of the devotional

Craiova

2005-03-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

City, capital of Dolj judet (county), southwestern Romania. It is situated near the Jiu River, 115 miles (185 km) west of Bucharest. Settlement there is of long standing. Close to the city archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Roman fortress built under Trajan. From the late 15th to the 18th century Craiova was the residence of the military governors of the region. The city prospered

Papua New Guinea

2005-03-04T15:23:00.000-08:00

Officially Independent State of Papua New Guinea, island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It encompasses the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (the western half, Irian Jaya, belonging to Indonesia) and its offshore islands as well as the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, and the Admiralty Islands) and those of Bougainville and Buka. Together these islands cover 178,704 square miles

Alabama Agricultural And Mechanical University

2005-03-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

Byname Alabama A&M University public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Normal, Alabama, U.S., a historically black school. The university comprises the schools of Graduate Studies and Extended Education, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, and Engineering and Technology. It offers a range of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree

Triballi

2005-03-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

A Thracian people whose earliest-known home was the “Triballian plain” (probably the Plain of Kosovo), near the junction of the Angrus and Brongus rivers (the western and southern Morava) in the north-central Balkans. Sometime after 424 BC they were overcome by the Autariatae, an Illyrian tribe. In 339 BC the Triballi refused to allow Philip II of Macedon to pass through the Haemus

Yamoussoukro

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

Town and capital (de jure; administrative), south-central Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), located about 170 miles (274 km) northwest of the national capital, Abidjan. For more than three decades after Côte d'Ivoire achieved independence in 1960, Yamoussoukro served as the country's “second capital” because it was the birthplace, home, and unofficial headquarters of President Félix

Canute (i)

2005-03-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

Neither the place nor date of Canute's birth is known. As a youth he accompanied his father, Sweyn I Forkbeard, king of Denmark, on his invasion of England in 1013. Canute was left in charge of the fleet at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire,

Silica Gel

2005-03-01T11:54:00.000-08:00

Silica gel was known as early as 1640, but it remained a curiosity until its adsorbent properties were found useful in gas masks during World War I. It is generally prepared by acidification

Biblical Literature, The Letter of Paul to the Philippians

2005-02-28T04:12:00.000-08:00

In its present canonical form Philippians is, according to several scholars, a later collection of fragments of the correspondence of Paul with the congregation in Philippi that was founded by Paul himself. The first of the two major difficulties leading to this conclusion concerning redaction of the letter is created by a discrepancy between chapters 2 and 3—i.e.,

East Falkland

2005-02-28T00:26:00.000-08:00

One of the two major islands of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is 90 miles (140 km) long and 55 miles (88 km) wide and rises to Mount Usborne (2,312 feet [705 m]). The total area is 2,550 square miles (6,605 square km), excluding adjacent small islands. The town of Stanley is on the northeast shore. Pop. (1986) 1,620.

Wellesley (of Norragh), Richard Colley Wellesley, Marquess

2005-02-27T21:03:00.000-08:00

British statesman who, as governor of Madras and governor general of Bengal (both 1797–1805), greatly enlarged the British Empire in India and who, as lord lieutenant of Ireland (1821–28, 1833–34), attempted to reconcile

Gradient Wind

2005-02-27T18:42:00.000-08:00

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,

Midgard

2005-02-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Midgardr (Old Norse: Middle Abode) , also called Manna-Heim (“Home of Man”) in Norse mythology, the Middle Earth, the abode of mankind, made from the body of the first created being, the giant Aurgelmir (Ymir). According to legend, the gods killed Aurgelmir, rolled his body into the central void of the universe, and began fashioning the Midgard. Aurgelmir's flesh became the land, his blood the oceans, his bones the mountains, his teeth the cliffs, his

Briçonnet, Guillaume

2005-02-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

Briçonnet was the son of King Charles VIII's counsellor Guillaume Briçonnet (1445–1514), who after his wife's death took holy orders and became bishop of Saint-Malo, archbishop of Reims, archbishop of Narbonne,

Say, J.-b.

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

After completing his education, Say worked briefly for an insurance company and then as a journalist. In 1794 he became an editor of a new magazine dedicated to the ideas of the French Revolution; he later became editor in chief of

'arif, 'abd Al-salam

2005-02-25T03:04:00.000-08:00

'Arif, the son of a cloth merchant, graduated from military college in 1939 and during his military career trained with British troops in Germany. His rise to power began in 1958 when he, along with General 'Abd al-Karim Qasim, played a prominent role in the overthrow of the Hashimite

Gadsden

2005-02-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1866) of Etowah county, northeastern Alabama, U.S. It is situated on the Coosa River in the Appalachian foothills, 65 miles (105 km) northeast of Birmingham. The original farming settlement was known as Double Springs, and the town was founded there in 1846 as a steamboat station. It was renamed for James Gadsden, who later negotiated the Gadsden Purchase (1853) of territory from Mexico.

'ayyar

2005-02-24T05:31:00.000-08:00

Though 'ayyarun were found fighting for Islam on the frontiers of inner Asia, the most thorough documentation of these warriors describes their activities in Baghdad in the 10th–12th century, a picture that may not be typical of 'ayy

Indian Hemp

2005-02-23T06:45:00.000-08:00

Also called Hemp Dogbane (species Apocynum cannabinum), North American plant of the dogbane family Apocynaceae (order Gentianales). It is a branched perennial that grows up to 1.5 m (5 feet) tall and has smooth opposite leaves and small greenish white flowers. Indians used the fibres from the stem to make bags, mats, nets, and cordage. Its milky juice, or latex, yields rubber, and the dried roots of Indian

La Libertad

2005-02-23T05:21:00.000-08:00

Once the home of the Mochica and Chimú cultures—renowned for their ceramics, irrigation works, and vast urban

Gary

2005-02-23T01:48:00.000-08:00

City, Lake county, extreme northwest Indiana, U.S. It lies at the southern end of Lake Michigan in the Calumet district east of Chicago. In 1906 the town (named for Elbert H. Gary, chief organizer of the United States Steel Corporation) was laid out as an adjunct of the company's vast new manufacturing complex. The site was chosen because it lay on navigable water midway between

Saint Asaph

2005-02-23T00:31:00.000-08:00

Welsh Llanelwy cathedral village, Denbighshire (Sir Ddinbych) county, historic county of Flintshire (Sir Fflint), Wales. It stands beween the Rivers Clwyd and Elwy, from which its Welsh name derives. Asaph, the Celtic ecclesiastic to whom the cathedral is dedicated, was bishop there in the 6th century. The original wooden structure, destroyed by the English in the 13th century, was rebuilt

Pigneau De Béhaine, Pierre-joseph-georges

2005-02-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

Pigneau de Béhaine left France in 1765 and went to establish a seminary in southern Vietnam, then known as Cochinchina. He arrived at Ha Tien, near the Cambodian frontier,

Protestantism, The rise of Pietism

2005-02-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

Dutch Pietism—influenced by Englishman William Ames (1576–1633), whose Medulla Sacrae Theologiae (1623; The Marrow of

Olympic Mountains

2005-02-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

Segment of the Pacific mountain system of western North America. They extend across the Olympic Peninsula south of the Juan de Fuca Strait and west of Puget Sound in northwestern Washington, U.S. The mountains began to form about 35 million years ago when the Juan de Fuca Plate collided with and was forced under (subducted) the North American Plate, scraping off vast quantities

Parakou

2005-02-20T02:40:00.000-08:00

Town and administrative capital of Borgou province, central Benin (formerly Dahomey), West Africa. It is the terminus of the so-called Benin–Niger Railway, which was originally planned to extend to the Niger River. The railway runs northward from Cotonou, Benin's major port and commercial centre on the Gulf of Guinea, to Parakou, whence goods must be transported by road

Thebes

2005-02-19T09:31:00.000-08:00

Modern Greek Thívai major city of Boeotia nomós (department), northwest of Athens, Greece, and one of the chief cities and powers of ancient Greece. On the acropolis of the ancient city stands the present commercial and agricultural centre of Thebes. It is situated on a low ridge dividing the surrounding plain; the modern city is the seat of the Greek Orthodox bishop of Thebes and Levádhia.

Activity Coefficient

2005-02-18T06:36:00.000-08:00

In chemistry, the ratio of the chemical activity of any substance to its molar concentration. The measured concentration of a substance may not be an accurate indicator of its chemical effectiveness, as represented by the equation for a particular reaction, in which case an activity coefficient is arbitrarily established and used instead of the concentration

Peter Iii

2005-02-18T05:43:00.000-08:00

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.

Ayrer, Jakob

2005-02-17T17:26:00.000-08:00

A lawyer by profession, Ayrer spent

Muhallab Ibn Abi Sufra, Al-

2005-02-17T00:32:00.000-08:00

Al-Muhallab first served under the caliph Mu'awiyah, campaigning in India and raiding the country between Kabul and Multan. Later he was stationed in the eastern provinces, leading expeditions against the Central Asian city

Tell Atlas

2005-02-16T17:35:00.000-08:00

Also called Maritime Atlas, French Atlas Tellien, Arabic Tel Al-atlas, range of the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, extending about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from eastern Morocco through Algeria to Tunisia. In Morocco, from Ceuta east to Melilla (150 miles [240 km]), the Er-Rif mountain range of the Tell Atlas faces the Mediterranean Sea, and there, as along the whole coast eastward to Cape Bon in Tunisia, many rugged rocks rise dramatically above the general level.

Jackling, Daniel Cowan

2005-02-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

A graduate of the Missouri School of Mines, Rolla, in 1892, Jackling taught chemistry and metallurgy there (1891–93) and then worked (1894–95) as a chemist and metallurgist

Latrobe, Benjamin (henry)

2005-02-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

Latrobe attended the Moravian college at Niesky, Saxony, and traveled in France and Italy, acquiring a knowledge

'abd Al-rahman Iii

2005-02-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

Byname Al-Nasir li-Din Allah (Arabic: “Victor for the Religion of Allah”) , in full 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hakam al-Rabdi ibn Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil first caliph and greatest ruler of the Umayyad Arab Muslim dynasty of Spain. He reigned as hereditary emir (“prince”) of Córdoba from October 912 and took the title of caliph in 929.

Menken, Adah Isaacs

2005-02-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

The facts concerning Menken's early life are obscured by later and confused publicity stories. On various occasions she claimed various original names, birthplaces, and histories. It seems likely that her

Portugal, Conquest and exploration

2005-02-14T04:26:00.000-08:00

The idea of expansion into Africa was a logical result of the completion of the Reconquest in the peninsula, and the conquest of Ceuta in North Africa (1415) probably provided the impulse toward further expansion. The simple idea of fighting the Muslims on their own soil was linked with more complicated motives: the desire to explore in a scientific sense, the hope of finding

Pembroke, Richard Fitzgilbert, 2nd Earl Of

2005-02-13T19:29:00.000-08:00

The son of Gilbert FitzGilbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, he succeeded to his father's estates in southern Wales in 1148/49. Pembroke had evidently lost these lands by 1168; it was probably in that year that he agreed to aid Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster, who had

Nicholas Of Flüe, Saint

2005-02-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Byname Brother Klaus, German Sankt Niklaus von Flüe, or Bruder Klaus hermit, popular saint, and Swiss folk hero. His intervention in a conflict between cantonal factions over the admission of Fribourg and Solothurn to the Swiss Confederation led to the agreement of Stans (Dec. 22, 1481), which forestalled civil war and strengthened

Muravyov, Mikhail Nikolayevich, Graf

2005-02-13T00:39:00.000-08:00

Muravyov was the grandson of Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, known as the “hangman of Wilno” for his

Puebla, Battle Of

2005-02-12T21:16:00.000-08:00

The route taken by the French toward the capital

Liriope

2005-02-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

Genus of small marine jellyfish of the class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria). Its medusoid body is characteristically hemispherical and measures up to about 30 mm (1.2 inches) in diameter. Eight short tentacles hang down from the edges of the body, and a shorter stalklike structure, the manubrium, containing the mouth, extends downward from the centre. It is commonly believed

Disa

2005-02-11T06:44:00.000-08:00

Most species bear flowers ranging in colour from white to purple and in diameter from about 0.5 to 10 centimetres (about 0.2 to 4 inches). The upper sepal of each flower usually has a spur and stands upright,

Bailey, Donovan

2005-02-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey won the 100-m dash in 9.84 sec to earn the appellation "the world's fastest man." Then he ran the last leg of the 4 ´100-m relay and helped the Canadian team win a gold medal in that event. These were impressive accomplishments for a man who had emerged as a factor in international track only in 1994 and did not set a world record

Abu 'l-fadl 'allami

2005-02-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

Abu 'l-Fadl 'Allami studied with his father, Sheikh Mubarak Nagawri, a distinguished scholar, and after teaching in his father's school was presented to Akbar in 1574 by the poet Fayzi, Abu 'l-Fadl's older brother. Through his criticism of the traditional Muslim religious leaders, he

Mozaffar Od-din Shah

2005-02-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

The son of the Qajar ruler Naser od-Din Shah, Mozaffar od-Din was named crown prince and sent as governor to the northern province of Azerbaijan in 1861. He spent his 35 years as crown prince in the pursuit of pleasure; his relations with his father were frequently

Schaumburg-lippe

2005-02-09T06:35:00.000-08:00

Schaumburg, or Schauenburg, northeast of Rinteln, was the ancestral seat of a line of counts recorded from the early 12th century. Lutheran from 1559, this

Biblical Literature, Historical criticism

2005-02-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

Historical criticism places the documents in their historical setting and promotes their interpretation in the light of their contemporary environment. This is necessary for their understanding, whether they are historical in character or belong to another literary genre. If they are historical in character it is important to establish how faithfully they

Powder Metallurgy

2005-02-08T00:39:00.000-08:00

Fabrication of metal objects from a powder rather than casting from molten metal or forging at softening temperatures. In some cases the powder method is more economical, as in fashioning small metal parts such as gears for small machines, in which casting would involve considerable machining and scrap loss. In other cases melting is impractical because of the