FemaleBeach

Hand, Learned

2005-04-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

In full Billings Learned Hand American jurist whose tough and sometimes profound mind, philosophical skepticism, and faith in the United States were employed throughout a record tenure as a federal judge (52 years, from April 10, 1909, until his death). Although he was never a justice of the Supreme Court, he is generally considered to have been a greater judge than all but a

Lightning

2005-04-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

A brief description of lightning follows. For a longer discussion of lightning within its meteorological context, see thunderstorm electrification in the article

Insurance, Types of policies

2005-04-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hospitalization insurance indemnifies for room

Gálvez, José, Marqués (marquess) De La Sonora

2005-04-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

Spanish colonial administrator particularly noted for his work as inspector general (visitador general) in New Spain (Mexico), 1765–71. Among his important accomplishments were the reorganization of the tax system, the formation of a government tobacco monopoly, the reorganization of the defenses of the northern frontier of the Viceroyalty,

Ahom

2005-04-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

Tribe that ruled much of Assam from the 13th century until the establishment of British rule in 1838. Their power in Assam reached its peak during the reign of King Rudra Singh (1696–1714). They originated in the Chinese province of Yunnan and began migrating into Indochina and northern Myanmar (Burma) in the first centuries AD. Their original language is now extinct, and they speak Assamese.

Ashur-uballit I

2005-03-31T08:29:00.000-08:00

(reigned c. 1365–30 BC), king of Assyria during Mesopotamia's feudal age, who created the first Assyrian empire and initiated the Middle Assyrian period (14th to 12th century BC). With the help of the Hittites he destroyed the dominion of the Aryan Mitanni (a non-Semitic people from upper Iran and Syria who had subjugated Assyria), ravaged Nineveh (near present Mosul, Iraq), and sent off the image

Marrano

2005-03-30T05:05:00.000-08:00

In the late 14th century, Spanish Jewry was threatened with extinction at the hands of mobs of fanatical Christians. Thousands

Dinaric Alps

2005-03-29T16:59:00.000-08:00

Serbo-Croatian Dinarsko Gorje , or Dinara Planina southeastern division of the Eastern Alps, running parallel to the Dalmatian (Adriatic) coast from Trieste and Slovenia south to Albania. Bounded by the Soca (Italian Isonzo) and Sava rivers (north), the Drina River (south), the Kolubara, Ibar, and Sitnica rivers (east), and the Adriatic Sea (west), the Alps rise to 8,274 ft (2,522 m) in Bobotov Kuk of Durmitor. The coast is indented with numerous

East Hampton

2005-03-27T23:01:00.000-08:00

Town (township), Suffolk county, southeastern New York, U.S. It lies on the southern shore of Long Island, 100 miles (161 km) east of New York City, and includes East Hampton village and Gardiners Island. Settled in 1648 by English yeomen from Kent and first called Maidstone, the town prospered as a whaling and fishing centre. Several colonial homes have survived. Lyman Beecher, father

ar Mountains

2005-03-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

Serbo-Croatian Šar Planina mountain range in western Macedonia, one of the most rugged and impassable in the Balkans, extending northeast–southwest for about 47 miles (75 km). A southern continuation along the Albanian frontier, which includes the Korab, Bistra, Jablanica, and Galicica massifs, makes the total length of about 100 miles (160 km). The Pindus mountain system in Greece is the southward extension

Judah Ha-levi

2005-03-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

Hebrew in full Yehuda Ben Shemuel ha-Levi Jewish poet and religious philosopher. His works were the culmination of the development of Hebrew poetry within the Arabic cultural sphere. Among his major works are the poems collected in Diwan, the “Zionide” poems celebrating Zion, and the Sefer ha-Kuzari (“Book of the Khazar”), presenting his philosophy of Judaism in dialogue

Gryphaea

2005-03-26T05:18:00.000-08:00

Extinct molluskan genus found as fossils in rocks from the Jurassic period to the Eocene epoch (between 208 million and 36.6 million years ago). Related to the oysters, Gryphaea is characterized by its distinctively convoluted shape. The left valve, or shell, was much larger and more convoluted than the flattish right valve. Fine markings extended across the shell

Chagatai

2005-03-25T22:43:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Tsagadai, Jagatai, or Chaghatai the second son of Genghis Khan who, at his father's death, received Kashgaria (now the southern part of Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China) and most of Transoxania between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya (ancient Oxus and Jaxartes rivers) as his vassal kingdom. His capital was at Almarikh near the present Kuldja (I-ning), in western Sinkiang. Chagatai appears to have

Bach, Johann Christian

2005-03-25T22:30:00.000-08:00

At the age of 20 he made his way

Ram Allah

2005-03-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ramallah, town, central Palestine, adjacent to the town of Al-Birah (east) and north of Jerusalem. Ram Allah (Arabic: “Height of God”) has since the Six-Day War of 1967 been under Israeli administration as part of the West Bank territory. An ancient settlement, it has buildings incorporating masonry from the time of Herod the Great (reigned 37–4 BC), but no complete structure antedates the Crusades of

Metallography

2005-03-24T20:27:00.000-08:00

Metal surfaces and fractures examined with the unaided eye or with a magnifying glass or metallurgical or binocular microscope at magnifications less than 10 diameters can reveal valuable information as to the crystalline, chemical,

Becket, Saint Thomas

2005-03-22T08:50:00.000-08:00

Thomas was born to Norman parents of the merchant class. He was educated first at Merton priory, then in a City of London school, and finally at Paris. Deeply influenced in childhood by a devout mother who died when he was 21, Thomas entered adult life as a city clerk and accountant in the service of the sheriffs. After three years he was introduced by his father to Archbishop

Duarte, José Napoleon

2005-03-22T02:13:00.000-08:00

Duarte studied civil engineering at Notre Dame University in the United States (B.S., 1948). In 1960 he was a founder of the centre-right Christian Democratic Party. While he was mayor of San Salvador (1964–70) his administration

Qatar

2005-03-21T11:41:00.000-08:00

Little is known of Qatar's history before the 18th century, when the region's population consisted largely of transient nomads and a few small fishing villages. Qatar's modern history begins conventionally in 1766 with the migration to the peninsula of families from Kuwait, notably the Al Khalifahs. Their settlement at the new town of Az-Zubarah grew into a small pearl-diving

'amuq

2005-03-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

In the

Mitchell, William

2005-03-19T20:39:00.000-08:00

Byname Billy Mitchell U.S. Army officer who early advocated a separate U.S. air force and greater preparedness in military aviation. He was court-martialed for his outspoken views and did not live to see the fulfillment during World War II of many of his prophecies: strategic bombing, mass airborne operations, and the eclipse of the battleship by the bomb-carrying

National Aquarium

2005-03-18T17:22:00.000-08:00

The facility houses more than 1,000 specimens of nearly 200 species of fishes in 54 individual display tanks ranging in capacity from 285 to

Amana Colonies

2005-03-18T13:16:00.000-08:00

Amana developed from the Community of True Inspiration, founded in 1714 in the German principality of Hesse by the pietistic mystics

Jammu And Kashmir, Resources and agriculture

2005-03-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

The state has limited mineral and fossil-fuel resources, and much of these are concentrated in the Jammu region. Small reserves of natural gas are found near Jammu, and bauxite and gypsum deposits occur in the Udhampur district. Other minerals include limestone, coal, zinc, and copper. The pressure of population on land is everywhere apparent, and all available resources

Puig, Manuel

2005-03-18T02:31:00.000-08:00

Puig spent his childhood in a small village on the pampas, but moved at age 13 to Buenos Aires, where he pursued his high school and university studies.

épinay-sur-seine

2005-03-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

Town, northern suburb of Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis département, Paris region, north-central France, on the Seine River. Épinay originated from a Gallic-Roman settlement called Spinogelum (Place of Thorns and Gorse), and in the Middle Ages it was the site of La Brache, a castle of the Frankish kings. During the Franco-German War a battle was fought there (Nov. 30, 1870). The town has a chemical

Taenia

2005-03-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

Genus of tapeworms parasitic in mammals. See tapeworm.

Sanger, John And George

2005-03-16T00:15:00.000-08:00

The brothers were assistants in their father's touring peep show and formed their own show in 1853. By 1871 they had leased Astley's Amphitheatre

Furniture, Decorative processes and techniques

2005-03-15T21:19:00.000-08:00

Whether constructional principles are exploited as a motif or elegance of overall shape is stressed through stylization, every piece of furniture can be embellished in one way or another. A piece of furniture may be embellished by effects produced in the structural wood itself or in another kind of wood added to the first; that is, by carving and turning or by inlay

Ear Disease, Perichondritis

2005-03-14T22:40:00.000-08:00

Infection of the cartilage of the outer ear, called perichondritis, is unusual but may occur from injury or from swimming in polluted water. It is due to a particular microorganism, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. There is a greenish or brownish, musty or foul-smelling discharge from the outer-ear canal, while the affected outer ear becomes tender, dusky red, and two to three

Arnold, Matthew

2005-03-14T21:56:00.000-08:00

It was Arnold's expressed desire that his biography should not be written; there are, however, a number of monographs and biographico-critical works, among them Lionel Trilling, Matthew Arnold (1939), the best full-length study; J. Dover Wilson, Leslie Stephen and Matthew Arnold As Critics of Wordsworth (1939); Sir E.K. Chambers, Matthew Arnold: A Study (1947); J.D. Jump, Matthew Arnold, “Men and Books Series” (1955); G. Robert Stange, Matthew Arnold: The Poet As Humanist (1967).

Davenport, Charles Benedict

2005-03-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

After receiving a doctorate in zoology at Harvard University in 1892, Davenport taught there until 1899, when

Coral Reef

2005-03-14T08:32:00.000-08:00

Coral polyps resemble sea anemones, to which they are closely related, but, unlike most anemones, most reef corals are colonial. Initial polyps divide themselves into

Tasmania, Prehistory and European exploration

2005-03-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

The flooding of Bass

Angus, Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl Of, Earl Of Morton

2005-03-12T05:26:00.000-08:00

During the regency of his uncle, the Earl of Morton, he rose rapidly to power. He became privy councillor

Alcoy

2005-03-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

The town is a rail

La Piedad Cavadas

2005-03-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

City, northwestern Michoacán estado (“state”), west-central Mexico. On the Lerma River, which forms the Michoacán-Guanajuato border, it is 314 miles (505 km) west-northwest of Mexico City and 119 miles (192 km) northwest of Morelia, the state capital. During the colonial era it was known as Zula la Vieja but was elevated to city rank and given its present name in 1871. Much of La Piedad's economy is

Dewar, Sir James

2005-03-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

Educated at the University of Edinburgh, Dewar became a professor at the University of Cambridge (1875) and at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London

Dance Notation

2005-03-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

The written recording of dance movements. The earliest surviving attempt at dance notation was in the form of letter-symbols found in the municipal archives of Cervera, Spain, from the last half of the 15th century. Also during this period, word abbreviations were found as dance notations in two documents from the library of Margaret of Austria—Livre des basses

Orbital

2005-03-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

In chemistry and physics, a mathematical expression, called a wave function, that describes properties characteristic of no more than two electrons in the vicinity of an atomic nucleus or of a system of nuclei as in a molecule. An orbital often is depicted as a three-dimensional region within which there is a 95 percent probability of finding the electron (see

Vanadic Anhydride

2005-03-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

Vanadium pentoxide, a compound of vanadium and oxygen widely used as an oxidation catalyst, as in the oxidation of unburned hydrocarbons in automobile exhaust (see vanadium).

Ossetic Language

2005-03-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

Eastern Iranian language spoken in the northern Caucasus by the Ossetes. There are two major dialects: (1) eastern, called Iron, and (2) western, called Digor. The majority of the Ossetes speak Iron, which is the basis of the literary language now written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Ossetic is the modern descendant of the language of the ancient Alani, a Sarmatian people, and the

Stahl, Georg Ernst

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

German physician and chemist who developed the phlogiston theory of combustion and of such related biological processes as respiration, fermentation, and decay. The theory dominated chemical thought for almost a century. He also, at times, believed in alchemy and animism.

Haratin

2005-03-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

Scholars speculate that the Haratin came into being as a result of ancient interbreeding between indigenous blacks and Indo-Europeans, possibly Berbers. In the 17th century they were forcibly recruited

Fagaras Mountains

2005-03-07T23:59:00.000-08:00

Romanian Muntii Fagaras mountain range, the highest section of the Transylvanian Alps (Southern Carpathian Mountains), south-central Romania. Their steep northern face rises above 8,000 feet (2,450 m) and overlooks the Fagaras Depression, through which flows the Olt River over a gentler gradient south to the Carpathian foothills. The mountains are heavily glaciated, with lakes, fretted peaks, and morainic

Deduction

2005-03-07T05:56:00.000-08:00

In logic, a rigorous proof, or derivation, of one statement (the conclusion) from one or more statements (the premises)—i.e., a chain of statements, each of which is either a premise or a consequence of a statement occurring earlier in the proof. This usage is a generalization of what the Greek philosopher Aristotle called the syllogism, but a syllogism is now recognized as

Bridge

2005-03-06T04:51:00.000-08:00

In stringed musical instruments, piece of elastic wood that transmits the vibrations of the string to the resonating body. Bridges are of two kinds. In the pressure bridge, the string is fastened at one end to a tuning peg or a wrest pin and at the other to a pin or a tailpiece; it passes over the bridge (or bridges), which may be glued to the soundboard (as in the piano) or held

Galashiels

2005-03-05T19:11:00.000-08:00

Town, Scottish Borders council area, southeastern Scotland. It is on Gala Water near its junction with the River Tweed, 33 miles (53 km) south-southeast of Edinburgh. The part of the town on the west bank of the Gala lies within the historic county of Selkirkshire, while the east bank belongs to the historic county of Roxburghshire. Woolen manufacture dates from the close of

Kyoto

2005-03-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

City, seat of Kyoto fu (urban prefecture), west-central Honshu island, Japan. It is located some 30 miles (48 kilometres) northeast of the industrial city of Osaka and about the same distance from Nara, another ancient centre of Japanese culture. Gently sloping downward from north to south, the city averages 180 feet (55 metres) above sea level, and it covers an area of about 236 square miles

Gonad

2005-03-04T04:11:00.000-08:00

The gonads in some lower invertebrate groups (e.g., hydrozoans) are temporary organs; in higher forms they are permanent. In some invertebrates, such as oligochaete worms and leeches, both

Melampus

2005-03-04T03:25:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, a seer who as a child received the understanding of the language of birds after two young snakes, whose lives he had saved, licked his ears when he was asleep. He later helped his brother Bias to marry Pero, daughter of King Neleus of Pylos. According to another legend, Melampus cured the insanity of the daughters of Proitus, prince of Tiryns; he and Bias

France, History Of, Economy

2005-03-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

Republican France remained a nation of small producers, traders, and consumers. The surge of industrialization that marked the era of Napoleon III had stopped short of a full-scale industrial revolution. The new dynamic sector of the economy was far outweighed by a static or slowly changing sector. The bulk of industry remained smaller and more dispersed than in

Staël, Germaine De

2005-03-03T03:23:00.000-08:00

In full Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baronne (baroness) de Staël-Holstein , byname Madame de Staël French-Swiss woman of letters, political propagandist, and conversationalist, who epitomized the European culture of her time, bridging the history of ideas from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. She also gained fame by maintaining a salon for leading intellectuals. Her writings include novels, plays, moral and political essays, literary

Khalil Ibn Ahmad, Al-

2005-03-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

When he moved to Basra, al-Khalil left the Ibadi sect of Islam, which was popular in his native Oman, for Sunnism (the largest branch of Islam). He lived simply and piously in Basra, where he taught. The renowned Sibawayh was

Wiener, Norbert

2005-03-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

Wiener, a child prodigy whose education was controlled by his father, a professor of Slavonic languages and literature

Lupemban Industry

2005-03-01T09:02:00.000-08:00

Also called Lupembian Industry, a sub-Saharan African stone tool industry dating from the late Pleistocene, beginning about 40,000 years ago. The Lupemban industry was derived from and replaced the Sangoan industry, which is found in forested areas of sub-Saharan Africa. The Lupemban industry is characterized by fairly small, well-shaped tools: chisels, adzes, planes (probably demonstrating intensive

China, Literature and scholarship

2005-02-28T22:16:00.000-08:00

As was the case with much of the painting, Ming poetry and belles lettres were deliberately composed “after the fashion of” earlier masters, and groups of writers and critics earnestly argued about the merits of different T'ang and Sung exemplars. No Ming practitioner of traditional poetry has won special esteem, though Ming literati churned out poetry in prodigious

Heinrich Julius

2005-02-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

A gifted scholar, theologian,

Gainsborough, Thomas

2005-02-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

Portrait and landscape painter, the most versatile English painter of the 18th century. Some of his early portraits show the sitters grouped in a landscape (“Mr. and Mrs. Andrews,” c. 1750). As he became famous and his sitters fashionable, he adopted a more formal manner that owed something to Anthony Van Dyck (“The Blue

Yodel

2005-02-27T20:01:00.000-08:00

Type of singing in which high falsetto and low chest notes are rapidly alternated; its production is helped by the enunciation of open and closed vowels on the low and high notes of wide intervals. Yodeling is also used as a means of communicating over moderate distances by the inhabitants of mountainous regions. It is associated with the Alpine peoples of Switzerland

Adamov, Arthur

2005-02-27T17:38:00.000-08:00

In 1912 Adamov's wealthy Armenian family left Russia and settled in Freudenstadt, Ger. He was subsequently educated in Geneva, Mainz, and Paris, where, having mastered French, he settled in 1924, associating with Surrealist groups. He edited a periodical, Discontinuit

Venizélos, Eleuthérios

2005-02-26T20:51:00.000-08:00

In full Eleuthérios Kyriakos Venizélos prime minister of Greece (1910–15, 1917–20, 1924, 1928–32, 1933), the most prominent Greek politician and statesman of the early 20th century. Under his leadership Greece doubled in area and population during the Balkan Wars (1912–13) and also gained territorially and diplomatically after World War I in negotiations with Italy, Bulgaria, and

Pacific, War Of The

2005-02-26T19:23:00.000-08:00

Spanish Guerra Del Pacífico (1879–83), conflict involving Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, which resulted in Chilean annexation of valuable disputed territory on the Pacific coast. It grew out of a dispute between Chile and Bolivia over control of a part of the Atacama Desert that lies between the 23rd and 26th parallels on the Pacific coast of South America. The territory contained valuable mineral resources, particularly

Chi-nan

2005-02-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

Well watered from natural springs, the area was settled in early times. From the 8th century BC it was the site of Li-hsia, a major

Shikarpur

2005-02-24T22:52:00.000-08:00

City, northern Sindh province, southern Pakistan. The city lies 18 miles (29 km) west of the Indus River and is connected by road and rail with Sukkur (20 miles [32 km] southeast), Jacobabad, and Larkana. It is a historical trade centre, founded in 1617 on a caravan route through the Bolan Pass into Afghanistan. Shikarpur's manufactures include brass and metal goods, carpets, cotton cloth, and embroidery.

Cambrai, Battle Of

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

Carried out by the 3rd Army under General Sir Julian Byng in order to relieve pressure on the French front, the offensive consisted of an assault against the Germans' Hindenburg line along a 10-mile (16-kilometre) front some 8 miles

Alka

2005-02-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

Also called Alkas, in Baltic religion, an open-air religious site, a natural sanctuary—forest, hill, river—that was sacred and inviolate. Trees could not be cut in such forests, sacred fields could not be plowed, and fishing was not allowed in the holy waters. The rituals of various religious cults, involving animal sacrifice and human cremation, took place at the alkas. The sense of the ancient

Paulownia Sun, Order Of The

2005-02-23T04:30:00.000-08:00

The badge, suspended from a green

Bulgakov, Sergey Nikolayevich

2005-02-23T00:27:00.000-08:00

Bulgakov began his clerical training at the seminary of Oryol, Russia, but he was influenced by Marxism to

Medicine

2005-02-22T16:02:00.000-08:00

The World Health Organization at its 1978 international conference held in the Soviet Union produced the Alma-Ata Health Declaration, which was designed to serve governments as a basis for planning health care that would reach people at all levels of society.

Guldberg, Cato Maximilian

2005-02-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

Guldberg was educated at the University of Christiania and taught at the royal military schools before becoming professor of mathematics at the University

Boileau(-despréaux), Nicolas

2005-02-21T05:46:00.000-08:00

He was the son of a government official who had started life as a clerk. Boileau made good progress at the Collège d'Harcourt and was encouraged to take up literary work by his brother Gilles Boileau, who

Shabazz, Betty

2005-02-21T01:46:00.000-08:00

Sanders was raised in Detroit, Michigan, by adoptive parents in a comfortable middle-class home and was active in a Methodist church. Upon high school graduation, she left Detroit to study elementary

La Chalotais, Louis-rené De Caradeuc De

2005-02-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

La Chalotais became advocate general in the Breton Parlement at Rennes in 1730 and attorney general in 1752. In

Sun River

2005-02-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

River in northwest-central Montana, U.S. It rises in Flathead National Forest, in Teton county near the Continental Divide, and flows southeastward for a course of 130 miles (209 km) into the Missouri River at Great Falls. The Sun River irrigation project includes a system of dams, reservoirs, and canals. Its three reservoirs are Gibson, Pishkun, and Willow Creek.

Italian Democratic Socialist Party

2005-02-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

In early 1947, socialists who opposed the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) for its cooperation with the Italian Communist Party (PCI) seceded to form the Socialist Party of Italian Workers (Partito

National Baptist Convention Of The United States Of America, Inc.

2005-02-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

The National Baptist Convention had its origins in the period after the American Civil War, when many independent

Computers, Machine language

2005-02-18T05:37:00.000-08:00

One implication of the stored-program model was that programs could read and operate on other programs as data; that is, they would be capable of self-modification. Konrad Zuse had looked upon this possibility as “making a contract with the devil” because of the potential for abuse, and he had chosen not to implement it in his machines. But self-modification was essential

Salcedo

2005-02-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

City, northern Dominican Republic. It lies in the fertile Cibao Valley between the mountain chains of the Cordillera Central and the Cordillera Septentrional. Salcedo serves as a commercial centre for the agricultural hinterland, which yields principally cacao, coffee, and corn (maize). It is accessible by secondary highway from San Francisco de Macorís and Moca.

Naval Warfare, War from land to sea and from sea to land

2005-02-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

While navies have always had as their ultimate objective an influence over events on land, aircraft and missiles have extended the range and amplified the influence. Likewise, land-based systems have made their growing influence felt on warships and sea-lanes alike. Putting ground forces ashore from the sea by amphibious landing is an operation that has neither

Florensky, Pavel Alexandrovich

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

In 1904 Florensky received a degree in philosophy and mathematics from Moscow University, and four years later he obtained his graduate degree from the Moscow Theological Academy, where he eventually taught. Ordained a

Displacement Law

2005-02-16T06:23:00.000-08:00

In physics, any of the statements (originally formulated in 1913) that radioactive decay produces daughter atoms whose position in the periodic table of the chemical elements is shifted from that of their parents: two lower for alpha decay and one higher for negative beta decay. See radioactive series.

World War I, Mesopotamia, 1914April 1916

2005-02-16T02:33:00.000-08:00

The British occupation of Basra, Turkey's port at the head of the Persian Gulf, in November 1914 had been justifiable strategically because of the need to protect the oil wells of southern Persia and the Abadan refinery. The British advance of 46 miles northward from Basra to al-Qurnah in December and the further advance of 90 miles up the Tigris to al-'Amarah in May–June 1915 ought to

Qiryat Shemona

2005-02-15T01:05:00.000-08:00

Town, at the northwest of the 'Emeq Hula (Hula Valley), extreme northern Israel. The name Qiryat Shemona (“Town of the Eight”) commemorates the eight martyrs of nearby Tel Hay (q.v.). The town, the only urban settlement of the valley, was founded in 1950 as an immigrants' transit camp (ma'abara) on the site of the former Arab village of Khalasah. Metulla, the northernmost settlement of Israel

Malik Ibn Anas

2005-02-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

Few details are known about Malik ibn Anas' life, most of which was spent in the city of Medina. He became learned in Islamic law and attracted a considerable number of students, his followers coming to be known as the Maliki school of law. His prestige

Bradley, Bill

2005-02-13T22:46:00.000-08:00

Bradley began to play basketball at the age of nine and became one of the best players in Missouri high school basketball history. At Princeton University, Bradley, a forward, was a playmaker and high scorer, averaging 30.1 points a game during three seasons, in each

Quintet

2005-02-13T22:08:00.000-08:00

Musical composition for five instruments or voices; also the group of musicians engaged in the performance of such a composition. The string quintet normally includes two violins, two violas, and a cello. Mozart's six works for this medium are usually considered his greatest achievement in chamber music. The composer and virtuoso cellist Luigi Boccherini favoured

Han-tan

2005-02-13T05:30:00.000-08:00

The area was already settled

Coleridge-taylor, Samuel

2005-02-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

Coleridge-Taylor's father, thwarted in his attempts to progress as a physician—through apparent racial prejudice—deserted his son and English wife and returned to his native West Africa. At the age of five Samuel began playing the violin and

Amda Tseyon

2005-02-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

The earliest Ethiopian chronicle tends to support this hypothesis, for it concerns Amda Tseyon's reign. Moreover, the earliest known examples of the written Amharic language are hymns praising

Sunbury

2005-02-11T04:36:00.000-08:00

Town, south-central Victoria, Australia, on the road and rail route between Bendigo and the state capital, Melbourne, 24 miles (39 km) to the southeast. The Aboriginal name for the area was Koora Kooracup, but, when a gold rush to Bendigo began in 1851, a hotel (built on Jacksons Creek to house travelers to the goldfield) was named Sunbury, after Sunbury, Middlesex, England; the town took

Carthusian

2005-02-11T02:07:00.000-08:00

Member of Order of Carthusians (O.Cart.) an order of monks founded by St. Bruno of Cologne in 1084 in the valley of Chartreuse, north of Grenoble, Fr. The Carthusians, who played an important role in the monastic-reform movement of the 11th and 12th centuries, combine the solitary life of hermits with a common life within the walls of a monastery. The monks live in individual cells, where they pray, study, eat, and sleep, gathering

Chat-thrush

2005-02-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

Any of the 190 species belonging to the songbird family Turdidae (order Passeriformes) that are generally smaller and have slenderer legs and more colourful plumage than true, or typical, thrushes. Chat-thrushes are sometimes treated as a distinct subfamily, Saxicolinae. They are found almost worldwide but are most common in the tropics, especially

Nördlingen

2005-02-10T14:21:00.000-08:00

City, Bavaria Land (state), southern Germany, on the Eger River. A seat of the bishop of Regensburg in 898, it became a free imperial city in 1215. Several battles in the Thirty Years' War (17th century) and the French Revolutionary Wars (18th century) were fought outside the medieval walls that still surround the old city. Notable buildings include the late-Gothic town hall, the Church of

Mountain

2005-02-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

Mountains and mountain belts exist because tectonic processes have created and maintained high elevations in the face of erosion, which works to destroy them. The topography of a mountain belt depends not only on the processes that create the elevated terrain but also on the forces that support this terrain and on the types of processes (erosional or tectonic)

Karbala'

2005-02-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

The city's religious importance derives from the Battle of Karbala' (AD 680) between the Sunnite and Shi'ite sects of Islam. Husayn ibn 'Ali, the Shi'ite leader and grandson of Muhammad, was killed, and his tomb remains one of the greatest Shi'ite shrines and pilgrimage

Bloat

2005-02-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

Also called hoven or tympanites disorder of ruminant animals involving distention of the rumen, the first of the four divisions of the stomach, with gas of fermentation. Bloated cattle are restless and noticeably uncomfortable and have distended left flanks. Bloat may occur after cattle have eaten alfalfa, winter wheat, and certain types of clover. Though deaths have occurred, economic losses

Thomism

2005-02-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Thomism continued to be presented in philosophy and theology courses or manuals, especially in the Dominican Order. Most Thomistic manuals of this period were watered with the opinions of other Schoolmen and remained remote from modern problems. In most Catholic seminaries and universities of the early 19th century, eclecticism

Ray, Charlotte E.

2005-02-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Ray studied at the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth in Washington, D.C., and by 1869 she was teaching at Howard University. There she studied law, receiving her degree in 1872. Her admission that year to the District of Columbia bar made her the first

To-lun

2005-02-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

Historically important as the site of Shang-tu (the Xanadu of Samuel Coleridge's poem “Kubla Khan”), it was founded by Kublai Khan in 1256 and became the summer capital of the Mongol emperors of China, known as the “city of 108 temples.” Excavations have revealed that the site