FertileSnow

Mühlhausen

2005-04-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

Also called Mühlhausen in Thüringen city, Thuringia Land (state), central Germany, on the Unstrut River, in the Thüringer Becken (Thuringian Basin). Originally a Germanic village and later a Frankish settlement, it was first documented in 775. It was granted royal privileges and was where Philip of Swabia was elected German king in 1198. Created a free imperial city after 1256, it joined the Hanseatic League c. 1420. After the

Cremona

2005-04-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

City, capital of Cremona provincia, Lombardia (Lombardy) regione, northern Italy, on the north bank of the Po River southeast of Milan. It was founded by the Romans in 218 BC on the site of an earlier Gallic village of the Cenomani. Virgil, the Roman poet, went to school there. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Cremona was repeatedly sacked by the Goths and the Huns before being

Saxophone

2005-04-02T06:03:00.000-08:00

A saxophone has a conical metal (originally brass) tube with about 24 openings controlled by padded

Län

2005-04-02T05:16:00.000-08:00

Administrative subdivision (county) of Sweden; see landskap.

San Antonio

2005-04-01T15:59:00.000-08:00

San Antonio was founded May 1, 1718, when a Spanish military expedition from Mexico established

Ireland

2005-03-31T18:09:00.000-08:00

The Irish economic boom that peaked in 1999–2000 finally petered out in 2002, which would be remembered as the year in which readjustments had to be made in light of new realities. Budget surpluses became a memory; spending for health and education was cut back; and infrastructure developments were scaled down or deferred. It became clear that in framing a budget for 2003, the government

Género Chico

2005-03-30T07:46:00.000-08:00

(Spanish: “little genre”), Spanish literary genre of light dramatic or operatic one-act playlets, as contrasted with the género grande of serious drama or opera. Developed primarily in the theatres of Madrid during the later 19th century, género chico works usually dealt with Madrid's lower classes, whose way of life was regarded with mingled sentimentality and satiric

Ear, Human, Hearing tests

2005-03-29T21:32:00.000-08:00

Before the development of electroacoustic equipment for generating and measuring sound, the available tests of hearing gave approximate answers at best. A person's hearing could be specified in terms of the ability to distinguish the ticking of a watch or the clicking of coins or the distance at which conversational speech or a whispered voice could be understood.

Trifid Nebula

2005-03-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

(catalog numbers NGC 6514 and M 20), bright, diffuse nebula in the constellation Sagittarius, lying several thousand light-years from the Earth. It was discovered by the French astronomer Legentil de La Galaisière before 1750 and named by the English astronomer Sir John Herschel for the three dark rifts that seem to divide the nebula and join at its centre. Of about the ninth magnitude

Marpurg, Friedrich Wilhelm

2005-03-27T18:29:00.000-08:00

Nothing is known of his musical education. In 1746 he was secretary to a Prussian general in Paris, where he met Voltaire and the composer Jean Rameau. He later lived in Berlin and Hamburg and from 1763 to 1795 directed the Prussian

Brick And Tile

2005-03-26T23:45:00.000-08:00

The brick, first produced in a sun-dried form at least 6,000 years ago and the forerunner of a wide range of structural clay products used today, is a small building unit in the form of a rectangular block, formed from clay or shale or mixtures and burned (fired) in a kiln, or oven, to produce

Baraita

2005-03-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Baraitha (Hebrew: “Outside Teaching,” or “Exclusion”), plural Baraitot, Baraitoth, or Baraithoth, any of the ancient oral traditions of Jewish religious law that were not included in the Mishna (the first authoritative codification of such laws). The Baraitot that are found dispersed singly throughout the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds are often recognizable by such introductory words as “it was taught” or “the rabbi taught.” Other Baraitot are found in independent

Kiraly, Karch

2005-03-23T09:39:00.000-08:00

When Kiraly was four years old, he moved with his family to Santa Barbara, California. His father, Laszlo Kiraly, had played on the Hungarian national

Switzerland, Barbarian invasions

2005-03-22T23:46:00.000-08:00

The first of the barbaric incursions took place in AD 259. By AD 400 Roman Switzerland had disintegrated and the lands of the Romanized Celts were occupied by Germanic tribes such as the Burgundians and Alemannians. The Burgundians, few in number, occupied the lands of western Switzerland. Although they retained political control, they lost contact with their former homelands

Biot-savart Law

2005-03-21T05:31:00.000-08:00

An electric current flowing in a conductor, or a moving electric charge, produces a magnetic field, or a region in the space around the conductor in which magnetic

Regla

2005-03-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

City, northern Ciudad de la Habana provincia, west-central Cuba. Situated on the southeastern shore of La Habana Bay, Regla was a centre for smuggling activities in the 19th century. It is now an industrial suburb of Havana, with which it is linked by ferry as well as by land. Its foundries, petroleum refineries, shipyards, docks, and warehouses suggest its importance as both

Cumbres De Monterrey National Park

2005-03-19T05:12:00.000-08:00

Park in the Sierra Madre Oriental, Nuevo León estado (“state”), northeastern Mexico. Established in 1939, it has a total area of 952 square miles (2,465 square km). Among the attractions are its mountainous setting (more than 7,000 feet [2,100 m] above sea level), with scenic pine and oak forests on the lower slopes; Santa Catarina Canyon; and Cola de Caballo (Spanish: “Horse Tail”) Falls, southwest of

Induction Heating

2005-03-19T00:43:00.000-08:00

Method of raising the temperature of an electrically conductive material by subjecting it to an alternating electromagnetic field. The electric currents induced in the object (although it is electrically isolated from the source of the field) bring about dissipation of power in the form of heat. Induction-heating methods are applied most widely in metalworking

Euler-chelpin, Hans Von

2005-03-18T02:33:00.000-08:00

After graduating from the University of Berlin (1895), Euler-Chelpin worked with Walther Nernst and in 1897 became assistant to Svante Arrhenius at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Ringtailed Cat

2005-03-17T08:44:00.000-08:00

Carnivorous mammal, a species of cacomistle (q.v.).

China, The Chinese Revolution (191112)

2005-03-17T00:04:00.000-08:00

The Chinese Revolution was not triggered by the United League itself but by the Hupeh army troops urged on by the local revolutionary bodies not incorporated in the league. An accidental exposure of a mutinous plot forced a number of junior officers to choose between arrest or revolt in Wu-han. The revolt was initially successful because of the determination of

Himeji

2005-03-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

City, Hyogo ken (prefecture), western Honshu, Japan. It is situated west of Kobe, near the Inland Sea. It developed as a castle town around the white, five-storied Himeji, or Shirasagi (“Egret”), Castle, built in the 14th century and reconstructed in 1577 and 1964. A large part of the city was destroyed by bombing during World War II. The city recovered and grew rapidly after the war. It is now the

Marsh Marigold

2005-03-15T02:55:00.000-08:00

The stem of a marsh marigold is hollow, and the leaves are kidney-shaped, heart-shaped, or round. The glossy flowers are 2.5 to 5 cm (1 to 2 inches) across and have pink, white, or yellow sepals. Petals are absent. The stems, leaves, and roots

Toulouse I, Ii, And Iii, Universities Of

2005-03-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

French Universités De Toulouse I, Ii, Et Iii three autonomous coeducational state institutions of higher learning founded at Toulouse, Fr., in 1970 under the 1968 law reforming higher education, to replace the former University of Toulouse founded in 1229: the University of Social Sciences, specializing in law and economics; the University of Toulouse-le-Mirail, a liberal arts institution; and the University Paul-Sabatier,

Vysotsky, Vladimir

2005-03-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

Vysotsky's parents were divorced soon after his

Pyralid Moth

2005-03-13T02:52:00.000-08:00

Cosmopolitan

Mercadante, Saverio

2005-03-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

Mercadante was born out of wedlock. He was taken

Benjamin, Asher

2005-03-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

American architect who was an early follower of Charles Bulfinch. His greatest influence on American architecture, lasting until about 1860, was through the publication of several handbooks, from which many other 18th-century architects and builders, including Ammi Young and Ithiel Town, copied plans. These books included

Brabant Revolution

2005-03-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

(1789–90), a short-lived revolt of the Belgian provinces of the Austrian Netherlands against Habsburg rule. Centred in the province of Brabant, the revolution was precipitated by the comprehensive reforms of the Holy Roman emperor Joseph II (reigned 1765–90); these violated various medieval charters of provincial and local liberties, including Brabant's Joyeuse Entrée, which was

Keating, Paul

2005-03-09T17:27:00.000-08:00

Growing up in working-class Bankstown, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, Keating left school at age 14. He became involved in trade union activity, drifted into labour politics, and was elected in 1969 to the House of Representatives at age

Hackl, Georg

2005-03-09T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hackl was born and raised in the Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden, just four miles from the Königssee luge

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

2005-03-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

American novelist and short-story writer who was a master of the allegorical and symbolic tale. One of the greatest fiction writers in American literature, he is best-known for The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851).

Induration

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

Hardening of rocks by heat or baking; also the hardening of sediments through cementation or compaction, or both, without the introduction of heat. The classic example is the rock called hornfels, which is formed at contacts with igneous intrusions and in which heat and fluids from the intruding magma reconstitute the original wall rock into a hardened, flinty rock

Ch'eng Huang

2005-03-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Cheng Huang (Chinese: “Wall and Moat”), in Chinese mythology, the spiritual magistrate and guardian deity of Chinese cities. Because dead spirits reputedly informed the god of all good and evil deeds within his jurisdiction, it was popularly believed that devout prayers offered in Ch'eng Huang's temple would be liberally rewarded. The wide popularity of his cult was also due in part

Yadin, Yigael

2005-03-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

Yadin, the son of an archaeologist, was educated at Hebrew University (M.A., 1945; Ph.D., 1955). He was a member of the Haganah military organization from 1932 to 1948 and served as chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 1949 to

Jhelum

2005-03-06T17:16:00.000-08:00

Town, Punjab province, northeastern Pakistan. The town lies just west of the Jhelum River (there bridged by both road and rail) and is connected by rail and the Grand Trunk Road with Peshawar and Lahore. The old town, across the river, may have been Bucephala, founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. Although once a salt-trade centre, Jhelum is now a major timber market.

Poland

2005-03-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

Parliamentary elections in September 1997 brought a dramatic reversal in Polish politics. The Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS), a loose coalition of some 30 right-wing groups dominated

Aschelminth, Critical appraisal

2005-03-04T20:53:00.000-08:00

The true evolutionary relationships of the five aschelminth classes is a problem because it is difficult to reconstruct a possible common ancestor and because there are no relevant fossils. Since it is a fundamental principle of zoology that the classification of animals should be based on their evolutionary history, some zoologists treat each of the five

Hybrid

2005-03-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

Offspring of parents that differ in genetically determined traits. The parents may be of different species, genera, or (rarely) families. The term hybrid, therefore, has a wider application than the terms mongrel or crossbreed, which usually refer to animals or plants resulting from a cross between two races, breeds, strains, or varieties of the same species. There are

Rus

2005-03-04T13:08:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ros ancient people who gave their name to the land of Russia. Their origin and identity are much in dispute. Traditional Western scholars believe them to be Scandinavian Vikings, an offshoot of the Varangians, who moved southward from the Baltic coast and founded the first consolidated state among the eastern Slavs, centring on Kiev. Russian scholars, along with some

Denon, Dominique Vivant, Baron

2005-03-03T02:25:00.000-08:00

Denon studied law in Paris but turned to the theatre, writing a successful comedy at age 23. He drew and painted and was commissioned by Louis XV to arrange a cabinet of carved gems. Between 1772 and 1787 he carried

Chicago Defender

2005-03-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

Founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott, the Chicago Defender originally was a four-page weekly newspaper. Like

Earth, Outer magnetic field

2005-03-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

The actual configuration of the Earth's outer magnetic field as recently determined by spacecraft is summarized in Figure 7. The diagram shows projections of magnetic field lines into the noon–midnight meridian at a time near an equinox. At this time the Earth's rotation axis is perpendicular to the Earth–Sun line. The dipole axis will be tilted another plus or minus

Standish, Myles

2005-03-02T00:50:00.000-08:00

As a young man, Standish fought in the Netherlands, where he probably met the English religious exiles who later became known as the Pilgrims. He sailed with them to America on the “Mayflower” in 1620, serving as their military leader when they established Plymouth in

Procter, William Cooper

2005-03-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

The soapmaking firm of Procter & Gamble was founded in Cincinnati by Procter's grandfather, William Procter, a candlemaker, who joined with James Gamble, an Irish soapmaker, in 1837. The company expanded steadily with the successful

La Romana

2005-03-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

City and port, southeastern Dominican Republic, on the Caribbean Sea opposite Catalina Island. Founded near the end of the 19th century, La Romana grew rapidly after the establishment of a large sugar mill in 1911. In addition to sugarcane, the surrounding region produces coffee, tobacco, beeswax, cattle, and hides. The city has food-processing and soap, shoe, and furniture plants.

God (anderson Ind.), Church Of

2005-02-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

Christian fellowship that considers itself a “reformation movement” among Christians and not a church or sect; it accepts its title for identification purposes only. Its members believe that they have organized themselves to carry on the work of the church, but they do not believe they have organized the church, which is made up of all Christians and cannot be limited

Aquinas, Thomas, Saint

2005-02-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

Mercator Projection

2005-02-27T09:13:00.000-08:00

Type of map projection introduced in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator. It is often described as a cylindrical projection, but it must be derived mathematically. The meridians are equally spaced, parallel vertical lines, and the parallels of latitude are parallel, horizontal straight lines, spaced farther and farther apart as their distance from the Equator increases. This

Amazon River

2005-02-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

Portuguese, Rio Amazonas, Spanish Río Amazonas, the greatest river of South America and the largest drainage system in the world in terms of the volume of its flow and the area of its basin. The total length of the river—measured from the headwaters of the Ucayali-Apurímac river system in Peru—is about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres), which is slightly shorter than the Nile River but still the equivalent of the distance from New

Merck, Johann Heinrich

2005-02-26T19:21:00.000-08:00

After studying law at Giessen, Merck was appointed first a paymaster at Darmstadt and later an official in the war department for the court of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Beverley

2005-02-26T03:15:00.000-08:00

Town, unitary authority of East Riding of Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England, just north of Kingston upon Hull. The town of Beverley grew in close association with a monastery established in the 7th century. Destroyed by the Danes in 806, the monastery was refounded by the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan (reigned 925–939). The great Beverley Minster that dominates the town

Sundsvall

2005-02-25T04:32:00.000-08:00

Town and seaport in Västernorrland län (county), northern Sweden. It lies at the mouth of the Selånger River on the Gulf of Bothnia. It was chartered in 1624 by Gustavus II Adolphus. In 1721 it was burned by the Russians and in 1803 and 1888 it suffered further disastrous fires. The town centre, therefore, dates largely from the 1890s, when it was entirely rebuilt in brick and stone. Lying between

Quaking Grass

2005-02-24T07:13:00.000-08:00

The various species are native to Eurasia. Briza maxima, B. media, and B. minor (shivery grass) are cultivated as ornamentals and have become naturalized in temperate

Azo Dye

2005-02-24T05:41:00.000-08:00

The oldest

France, History Of, World War I

2005-02-23T23:50:00.000-08:00

Before a change in policy could be imposed, however, a new crisis in the Balkans threatened a general war. The assassination of the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, inaugurated five weeks of feverish negotiations, in which France's role has been much debated. Some historians have accused Poincaré and his supporters of a willingness to go to

Patagonia

2005-02-23T11:55:00.000-08:00

Semiarid scrub plateau that covers nearly all of the southern portion of mainland Argentina. With an area of about 260,000 square miles (673,000 square kilometres), it constitutes a vast area of steppe and desert that extends from latitude 37° to 51° S. It is bounded, approximately, by the Patagonian Andes to the west, the Colorado River to the north (except where the region extends north of

Biblical Literature, Other types

2005-02-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

There is an unconscious tendency to conform hermeneutical principles to the climate of opinion in and around the community concerned, and to change the hermeneutic pattern as the climate of opinion changes. It is not surprising that in the circles where Pseudo-Dionysius (early-6th-century writings attributed to Dionysius, a convert of St. Paul) was revered as a teacher,

Rurik

2005-02-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

Rurik was a Viking, or Varangian, prince. His story is told in the The Russian Primary Chronicle (compiled at the beginning of the 12th century) but is not accepted at face value by modern historians. According to the chronicle, the people of Novgorod, tired of political strife, invited the Varangians about AD 862 to

Novartis Ag

2005-02-22T06:23:00.000-08:00

Ciba-Geigy originated in the merger of two smaller Swiss firms, Ciba AG and J.R. Geigy SA. Ciba developed from a silk-dyeing business owned by Alexander Clavel,

Baraboo

2005-02-21T21:48:00.000-08:00

City, seat (1840) of Sauk county, south-central Wisconsin, U.S. It lies on small hills 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Madison. Baraboo originated in the early 19th century as a trading post established by the French trapper Jean Baribault, who lived along the river that was named (somewhat phonetically) for him. Incorporated in 1882, the community developed as a distribution centre for dairy

Great Malvern

2005-02-21T17:45:00.000-08:00

Also known as Malvern town, Malvern Hills district, administrative and historic county of Worcestershire, England. Great Malvern was formerly the largest of several villages and hamlets on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills but has since grown to incorporate them. Malvern Chase, a medieval administrative entity, was granted to the earl of Gloucester by Edward I (reigned 1272–1307). Little

Capital Punishment

2005-02-20T22:14:00.000-08:00

Also called death penalty execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a criminal offense. Capital punishment should be distinguished from extrajudicial executions carried out without due process of law. The term death penalty is sometimes used interchangeably with capital punishment, though imposition of the penalty is not always followed by execution

Ai

2005-02-19T16:12:00.000-08:00

Ancient Canaanite town destroyed by the Israelites under their leader Joshua (Joshua 7–8). Biblical references agree in locating Ai (Hebrew: ha-'Ay, “The Ruin”) just east of Bethel (modern Baytin in the West Bank). This would make it identical with the large early Bronze Age site now called At-Tall. Excavations there in 1933–35 by a French expedition uncovered a large temple and other remains

Burbage, Richard

2005-02-18T22:11:00.000-08:00

The son of the actor and theatre manager and owner James Burbage, Richard had attained wide popularity as an actor by age 20. He was a member of the Earl of Leicester's company and remained with it through its evolution into the King's Men in 1603. He

Anderson, Marian

2005-02-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

Anderson displayed vocal talent as a child, but her family could not afford to pay for formal training. From the age of six, she was tutored in the choir of the Union Baptist Church, where she sang parts written for bass, alto, tenor, and soprano voices. Members of the

Hood, John B(ell)

2005-02-18T02:23:00.000-08:00

A graduate of West Point who served in the U.S. Cavalry until the outbreak of hostilities, Hood rapidly rose to

Switzerland, Economic development

2005-02-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

A major period of economic growth began after 1815. There was a general improvement in agriculture, and tourism, especially from England, began to develop. But the industrial sector of the economy made the most significant gains. The exclusion of the English from European markets by the continental blockade, while initially detrimental to the textile industry, forced

Switzerland, The Swabian War

2005-02-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

After Bern had repelled Burgundy in the west, the time had come for Zürich to defend the east against renewed Austrian threats. The fledgling ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian I (ruled 1493–1519), attempted to reestablish control throughout his domain, which included Switzerland. He united Tirol and Vorarlberg, thus threatening the confederation from the east. Responding

Powell, Colin

2005-02-16T19:01:00.000-08:00

The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell grew up in the Harlem and South Bronx sections of New York City and attended the City College of New York (B.S., 1958), serving in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). He entered the army upon

Jeffreys (of Wem), George Jeffreys, 1st Baron

2005-02-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

Born into the Welsh gentry, Jeffreys was admitted to the bar in 1668, and in

Chuang-tzu

2005-02-16T01:53:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Zhuangzi, personal name (Wade-Giles romanization) Chou the most significant of China's early interpreters of Taoism, whose work (Chuang-tzu) is considered one of the definitive texts of Taoism and is thought to be more comprehensive than the Tao-te Ching, which is attributed to Lao-tzu, the first major patriarch of Taoism. Chuang-tzu's teachings also exerted a great influence on the development of Chinese Buddhism and had

Bellanca, Dorothy Jacobs

2005-02-14T18:04:00.000-08:00

Dorothy Jacobs immigrated with her family to the United States from Latvia in 1900. They settled in Baltimore, Maryland. At age 13 Jacobs left school and went to work in a clothing factory. Working conditions quickly led her to the cause

Switzerland, Wind systems

2005-02-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

Prevailing winds are mainly from the west, but in valleys air currents are channeled into particularly frequent or violent local winds such as the Bise, a cold northeast wind that sweeps across the Mittelland and funnels down Lake Geneva to the city of Geneva. Foehn (German: föhn) winds, which are associated with the leading edge of a low-pressure system moving across

Heirloom

2005-02-14T04:47:00.000-08:00

An item of personal property that by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate. The owner of such an heirloom may dispose of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away from the estate. If he dies intestate (without a will), the object goes to his heir at law; otherwise it goes to whoever takes the estate under his will. Such

France, History Of, Republican factions

2005-02-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

With the republican regime apparently safe from outside attack, rival factions developed among the republicans. During the 1880s the labels Radical and Opportunist began to be attached to the two wings of the republican movement. On the left, the Radicals saw themselves as heirs to the Jacobin tradition: they stood for a strong centralized regime, intransigent anticlericalism,

Tinkisso River

2005-02-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

River, rising in the southern outliers of the Fouta Djallon mountains of Guinea, northeast of Mamou. It flows 250 miles (400 km) north-northeast and east, past Dabola and Bissikrima, across grassy plains and savannas of stunted trees, to enter the Niger River just south of Siguiri. Alluvial gold deposits have long been worked along the Tinkisso River.

Taaffe, Eduard, Count (graf) Von

2005-02-12T09:57:00.000-08:00

Taaffe, who was of Irish descent

Talence

2005-02-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

Town, Gironde département, Aquitaine région, southern suburb of Bordeaux, southwestern France. It is a centre for jet-aircraft production and has light industry and wine making. An extension of Bordeaux University (now Bordeaux University I), with housing for 30,000 students, was erected there in the 1960s and has since become a major educational and research centre. Pop. (1990) 36,172.

Arinos River

2005-02-11T14:54:00.000-08:00

Portuguese Rio Arinos, river, west-central Brazil. It rises in the Araporé Mountains northeast of Diamantino and flows west for a short distance and then north-northwest across the Mato Grosso Plateau to its junction with the Juruena River, which is a major headstream of the Tapajós River.

Ashtabula

2005-02-10T04:12:00.000-08:00

City, Ashtabula county, northeastern Ohio, U.S. It lies along Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Ashtabula River, 65 miles (105 km) northeast of Cleveland. The site was settled in 1801; its name, of Algonquian Indian origin, possibly means “river of many fish” and was applied to the township (1808). In the 1850s Hubbard Homestead and other houses in the city were stations on the Underground Railroad, an escape

Chasseur

2005-02-09T20:03:00.000-08:00

(French: “hunter”), member of an armoured unit of the French army. Originally (1743) chasseurs, or chasseurs à pied (“on foot”), were light-infantry regiments. By the outbreak of World War I there were 30 battalions of chasseurs of which 12 were known as chasseurs alpins—units specially trained for mountain warfare. After World War II, chasseurs were formed as independent battalions for

Falconiform

2005-02-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

Falconiforms have no obvious evolutionary links with other birds. Currently they are placed between ducks, on the one hand, and game birds on the other; but they bear no clear resemblance to either, while fossil evidence does not indicate intermediate links. The most obvious physical specializations of falconiforms—the cutting, tearing bill and taloned feet—do

Gironella, José María

2005-02-09T05:20:00.000-08:00

Spanish author best remembered for his long historical novel Los cipreses creen en Dios (1953; The Cypresses Believe in God), in which the conflicts within a family portrayed in the novel symbolize the dissension that overtook the people of Spain during the years preceding the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. The book, which won

Cosimo Ii

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

Cosimo II succeeded his father, Ferdinand I, in 1609; and, guided by his mother, Christine of Lorraine, and by Belisario Vinta, he followed his father's example and sought to establish a balance between France and Spain. He used his

Mountain, Volcanic structures along subduction zones

2005-02-07T03:42:00.000-08:00

Linear or arcuate belts of volcanoes are commonly associated with subduction zones. Volcanoes typically lie 150 to 200 kilometres landward of deep-sea trenches, such as those that border much of the Pacific Basin. The volcanoes overlie a zone of intense earthquake activity that begins at a shallow depth near such a trench and that dips beneath the volcanoes. They often

Halide Mineral

2005-02-06T23:23:00.000-08:00

Compositionally and structurally, three broad categories of halide minerals are recognized; these categories, which are

Acts Of The Apostles, The

2005-02-06T00:51:00.000-08:00

Abbreviation Acts, fifth book of the New Testament, a valuable history of the early Christian church. Acts was written in Greek, presumably by the Evangelist Luke, whose gospel concludes where Acts begins, namely, with Christ's Ascension into heaven. Acts was apparently written in Rome, perhaps between AD 70 and 90, though some think a slightly earlier date is also possible. After an introductory

Indian Evidence Act

2005-02-05T21:59:00.000-08:00

Act passed by the British Parliament in 1872 that set forth the rules of evidence admissible in Indian courts and that had far-reaching consequences for the traditional systems of caste government in India. Since ancient times, the way of resolving intracaste disputes had been by discussing the grievances in open meetings of the caste council. All information that

Epistatic Gene

2005-02-05T01:47:00.000-08:00

In genetics, a gene that determines whether or not a trait will be expressed. The system of genes that determines skin colour in man, for example, is independent of the gene responsible for albinism (lack of pigment) or the development of skin colour. This gene is an epistatic gene. When the albino condition occurs, the genes that determine skin colour are present but not

Mardi Gras

2005-02-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

(French: Fat Tuesday), festive day celebrated in France on the Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday; q.v.) before Ash Wednesday, which marks the close of the pre-Lenten season. In the United States the festival is most elaborately celebrated in New Orleans. See carnival.

Faience Patriotique

2005-02-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

French 18th-century earthenware, chiefly plates and jugs, decorated with themes drawn from the French Revolution and its ideology or from national political events. The first example of a faience patriotique was a Moustiers dish occasioned by the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, but it was the Revolution that inspired the greatest production of faience patriotique. A number

Dyne

2005-02-03T03:08:00.000-08:00

Unit of force in the centimetre-gram-second system of physical units, equal to the force that would give a free mass of one gram an acceleration of one centimetre per second per second. One dyne equals 0.00001 newton.

Ventilating

2005-02-02T21:19:00.000-08:00

The hazards of poor ventilation were not clearly understood until the early

Middletown

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

City, coextensive with the town (township) of Middletown, Middlesex county, central Connecticut, U.S., on the Connecticut River. Settled by Puritans in 1650 and incorporated as a town in 1651, it occupies the site of the Indian village of Mattabesec (Mattabesett). It was named in 1653 for its position between the upstream towns and the river mouth. The city, chartered in 1784, consolidated with

Aksakov, Konstantin Sergeyevich

2005-02-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

The son of the novelist Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov, he entered Moscow University, where he was influenced by the work of the German philosopher G.W. Hegel. From the mid-1830s Aksakov focused, along with Yury F. Samarin

Andersen, Hans Christian

2005-02-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

Elias Bredsdorff, Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and Work, 1805–75 (1975, reissued 1994); Bo Grønbech, Hans Christian Andersen (1980); Sven Hakon Rossel (ed.), Hans Christian Andersen: Danish Writer and Citizen of the World (1996); and Jackie Wullschläger, Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller (2000).

Arguedas Mendieta, Antonio

2005-01-31T10:00:00.000-08:00

Bolivian political leader (b. 1929?, Bolivia—d. Feb. 22, 2000, La Paz, Bol.), rose to become Bolivia's minister of the interior during the 1964–69 military dictatorship of Gen. René Barrientos; recruited by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1965, he aided efforts to defeat a guerrilla group in eastern Bolivia led by Che Guevara. Following the capture and execution of Guevara in 1967, Arguedas became disenchanted

Luther, Martin, Augustinian Order at Erfurt

2005-01-31T03:38:00.000-08:00

In joining the eremitical order of St. Augustine, Luther had joined an important mendicant order, which by the middle of the 15th century had over 2,000 chapters. As a result of reforms carried through in 1473, the house at Erfurt, to which Luther went, accepted the strict, observant interpretation of the rule. Under Johann von Staupitz, Luther's mentor and vicar general to the order,

Lévka Mountains

2005-01-30T09:58:00.000-08:00

Bearing a stream during the