NarrowDoor

Stafford

2005-04-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

Founded by Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great, the town of Stafford had its own mint from the reign of Aethelstan to that of Henry II. Stafford town was chartered in

Alcobaça

2005-04-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Town and concelho (township), Leiria distrito (“district”), west-central Portugal. It lies at the confluence of the Alcoa and Baça rivers, just south-southwest of the city of Leiria. Alcobaça is notable for its Cistercian monastery (Mosteiro de Santa Maria), founded in 1152 by King Afonso I in thanksgiving for the reconquest of Santarém from the Moors and rebuilt in the 13th century.

Amsterdam

2005-04-04T02:57:00.000-07:00

To the scores of tourists who visit each year, Amsterdam is known for its historical attractions, for its collections of great art, and for the distinctive colour and flavour of its old

Performing Arts, Great Britain and Ireland.

2005-04-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) was plunged into turmoil again when its artistic director, Adrian Noble, resigned on April 24, 2002. Noble's announcement came the week after his West End production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a new musical based on the 1968 movie, opened to good reviews and a healthy advance at the box office at the London Palladium. Cynics saw Chitty's flying car

Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Allegory

2005-04-02T16:51:00.000-08:00

In terms of allegory, the Greco-Roman and Hebraic-Christian cultures both have a common

Dehua Porcelain

2005-04-02T16:48:00.000-08:00

Wade-Giles romanization Te-hua Chinese porcelain made at Dehua in Fujian province. Although the kiln began production some time during the Song period (960–1279), most examples of the porcelain are attributed to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The characteristic product of Dehua was the white porcelain known to the French as blanc de chine, which had the appearance of blancmange, or milk jelly. Figures of Buddhist deities,

Malabarese Catholic Church

2005-04-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

A Chaldean rite church of southern India (Kerala) that united with Rome after the Portuguese colonization of Goa at the end of the 15th century. The Portuguese viewed these Christians of St. Thomas, as they called themselves, as Nestorian heretics, despite their traditional alignment with Rome since about the 6th century. Although the Malabarese formally acknowledged

Jurassic Period, Eurasia and Gondwana

2005-03-31T15:37:00.000-08:00

The Tethyan geosyncline on the margins of both Eurasia and Gondwana accumulated thick sequences of Jurassic rock ranging from carbonates and evaporites to sandstone. The carbonates include shallow-water marl, limestone and reefs, and deep-water siliceous limestone. The presence of radiolarian cherts strongly indicates a deep-water origin for some of the sediments.

Computers, Bigger brains

2005-03-31T03:40:00.000-08:00

The computers built during the war were built under unusual constraints. The British work was largely focused on code breaking, the American work on computing projectile trajectories and calculations for the atomic bomb. The computers were built as special-purpose devices, although they often embodied more general-purpose computing capabilities than their

Plant, Principal pathways and cycles

2005-03-30T02:17:00.000-08:00

The 6-carbon sugar glucose, a product of photosynthesis, may be translocated in the form of sucrose (a 12-carbon sugar) to nourish nonphotosynthesizing parts of the plant, or it may be polymerized into starch for storage. (Trehalose, another 12-carbon sugar, replaces sucrose in some nonvascular plants.) When required, sucrose and starch are hydrolyzed to glucose and then enter

Dacke War

2005-03-29T15:45:00.000-08:00

Led by Nils Dacke, an outlaw, the peasants of the province of Småland took up arms against the King in the spring of 1542 in protest against the royal

Computers, The personal computer revolution

2005-03-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

Michael S. Malone, The Big Score: The Billion-Dollar Story of Silicon Valley (1985), explains how the invention of the semiconductor transformed Silicon Valley.

Anderson, Poul William

2005-03-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

American science-fiction writer (b. Nov. 25, 1926, Bristol, Pa.—d. July 31, 2001, Orinda, Calif.), was the prolific author of more than 100 books of science fiction and fantasy. Over a period of about half a century, he tapped his knowledge of both science and Scandinavian folklore and mythology to create powerfully imaginative depictions of the future, writing in such varied styles as farce, adventure

Israel, A cold peace

2005-03-27T01:21:00.000-08:00

Thus, “seven lean years” after the Yom Kippur War and three decades after independence, Israel had reached peace with Egypt, the Soviets were sidelined, and the Jewish state's alliance with the United States was consolidated. However, trouble loomed, as a civil war in Lebanon allowed an increasingly well-armed PLO to raid Israel's northern border. Israel had also begun

Character Writer

2005-03-26T07:04:00.000-08:00

Any writer who produced a type of character sketch that was popular in 17th-century England and France. Their writings stemmed from a series of character sketches that the Greek philosopher and teacher Theophrastus (fl. c. 372 BC) had written, possibly as part of a larger work and probably with the intention of instructing and amusing his students of rhetoric. Theophrastus'

Kofoid, Charles Atwood

2005-03-25T09:18:00.000-08:00

Kofoid graduated from Harvard University (1894) and in 1900 began a long affiliation with the University of California at Berkeley. He became a full professor there in 1910, and for most

Parallelism

2005-03-25T00:48:00.000-08:00

In rhetoric, component of literary style in both prose and poetry, in which coordinate ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one element with another of equal importance and similar wording. The repetition of sounds, meanings, and structures serves to order, emphasize, and point out relations. In its simplest form parallelism consists

Nicaea, Council Of

2005-03-24T05:10:00.000-08:00

(787), the seventh ecumenical council of the Christian church, meeting in Nicaea (now Iznik, Tur.). It attempted to resolve the Iconoclastic Controversy, initiated in 726 when Emperor Leo III issued a decree against the worship of icons. The council declared that icons deserved reverence and veneration but not adoration. Convoked by the patriarch Tarasius, the council was attended

Guitar

2005-03-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

Plucked stringed musical instrument that probably originated in Spain early in the 16th century, deriving from the guitarra latina, a late-medieval instrument with a waisted body and four strings. The early guitar was narrower and deeper than the modern guitar, with a less pronounced waist. It

Eight Masters Of Nanjing

2005-03-23T09:10:00.000-08:00

Pinyin Jinling Bajia , Wade-Giles romanization Chin-ling Pa-chia group of Chinese artists who lived and worked during the late 17th century in Nanjing (known as Jinling during the early Tang dynasty, c. 7th century). Although their group identity derives largely from the locale in which they worked, certain aesthetic similarities are discernible: their paintings, usually landscapes, are often uneven in quality and

Weser River

2005-03-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

Just

Devrient, Karl August

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

Nephew of the great Romantic actor Ludwig Devrient, he began his career in 1819 in Brunswick. From 1821 to 1835 he acted in Dresden, where he married his first wife, the singer

Girandole

2005-03-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

Elaborate wall bracket incorporating one or more candleholders and frequently a mirror to reflect the light. An object of luxury, it was usually embellished with carving and gilding. Although the name is Italian in origin, girandoles reached the greatest heights of fashion (in the second half of the 18th century) in France and England. At the beginning of this period

Gabelentz, Hans Conon Von Der

2005-03-19T23:03:00.000-08:00

After completing his university studies, Gabelentz did research on the Chinese

Faraday, Michael

2005-03-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

Faraday, who became one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century, began his career as a chemist. He wrote a manual of practical chemistry that reveals his mastery of the technical aspects

Devrient, Karl August

2005-03-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

A liberal independent political organization in the United States. It was formed in 1947 by a group of labour leaders, civic and political leaders, and academics who were liberal in their views on national affairs, internationalist in world outlook, and anticommunist in conviction. The ADA is devoted to the propagation of liberal ideas, the election of liberal public

Trigonal System

2005-03-18T22:02:00.000-08:00

Components of crystals in the trigonal system, like those of the hexagonal system, are located by reference to four axes—three of equal length with 120° intersections and one perpendicular to the plane

Rockefeller, John D., Jr.

2005-03-17T23:28:00.000-08:00

After graduation from Brown University in 1897, he joined his father in business but never assumed

Goulburn Islands

2005-03-17T05:01:00.000-08:00

Group of islands in the Arafura Sea off the northern coast of Arnhem Land in Northern Territory, Australia. They comprise South Goulburn Island (30 square miles [78 square km]), lying 2 miles (3 km) offshore across Macquarie Strait; North Goulburn Island (14 square miles [36 square km]), 10 miles (16 km) offshore; and some small sandy islets. Perhaps sighted in 1644 by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman,

Andrews, Dana

2005-03-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

A onetime accountant, Andrews in 1931 hitchhiked to Los Angeles, where he worked at various jobs before attracting notice with his first successful motion picture, The Westerner (1940). Some

Nizam Al-mulk

2005-03-15T13:22:00.000-08:00

Original name Abu 'ali Hasan Ibn 'ali Persian vizier of the Turkish Seljuq sultans (1063–92), best remembered for his large treatise on kingship, Seyasat-nameh (The Book of Government; or Rules for Kings).

Essequibo River

2005-03-15T10:42:00.000-08:00

River in east central Guyana, the largest river between the Amazon and the Orinoco. It rises in the Acarai Mountains on the Brazilian border and flows northward for approximately 630 miles (1,010 km) through savannas and forests to the Atlantic Ocean. It reaches the Atlantic Ocean 13 miles (21 km) west-northwest of Georgetown, the national capital. Its estuary, 20 miles (32 km) wide, is obstructed

Clapton, Eric

2005-03-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

Clapton was raised by his grandparents after his mother abandoned him at an early age. He began playing the guitar in his teens and briefly studied at the Kingston College of Art. After playing lead guitar with

Kahn, Florence Prag

2005-03-13T18:57:00.000-08:00

Florence Prag graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1887. Her ambition to study law was frustrated by the family's finances, and

Dahlbergh, Eric, Count (greve)

2005-03-13T06:46:00.000-08:00

After serving as an engineer (1655–57) in Sweden's Polish campaign, Dahlbergh returned to fight

Quidor, John

2005-03-13T05:44:00.000-08:00

At age nine Quidor moved with his family to New York City. He began his career

Bonaparte, Charles Joseph

2005-03-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

After graduating from Harvard Law School (1872), Bonaparte began the practice of law in Baltimore in 1874. He was active in organizations advocating municipal and civil

Wandering Jew

2005-03-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

In horticulture, any of several popular houseplants in the family Commelinaceae. See spiderwort; Zebrina.

Sculpture, Western, Early Christian

2005-03-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

Early in the 20th century it was thought that Christian art began after the death of Christ or, at least, in the second half of the 1st century AD. But later discoveries and studies showed that a truly Christian art—that is, with a style quite distinctive from Pagan Roman art—did not exist before the end of the 2nd or beginning of the 3rd century. When it ended, or rather developed

Alexis

2005-03-10T23:51:00.000-08:00

Alexis was a hemophiliac, and at that time there was no medical treatment that could alleviate his condition or lessen his vulnerability

Miracle, Sacred places

2005-03-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

Miracles are often connected with special sacred places. Normally these are natural shrines, such as sacred groves, or temples and sanctuaries in which a god or spirit lives or has manifested himself or in which his statue, symbol, holy objects, or relics are enshrined. Holy places, such as Mecca and the Ka'bah in Islam or the Buddhist stupas, are centres of pilgrimages

Prosper Of Aquitaine, Saint

2005-03-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

Latin Prosper Tiro early Christian polemicist famous for his defense of Augustine of Hippo and his doctrine on grace, predestination, and free will, which became a norm for the teachings of the Roman Catholic church. Prosper's chief opponents were the Semi-Pelagians, who believed in the power of man's innate will to seek God, but at the

Ghent, State University Of

2005-03-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Dutch Rijksuniversiteit Te Gent, state-financed coeducational institution of higher learning with limited autonomy in Ghent, Belg. Founded in 1817 under King William I of The Netherlands, the university at first conducted its instruction in Latin; in 1830 the language was changed to French; in 1916, during the German occupation of World War I, to Flemish (Dutch); in 1918 back to French; and by 1930 back permanently to Flemish.

Music

2005-03-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

In 1994 several pioneers of free improvisation were especially newsworthy. Anthony Braxton (see BIOGRAPHIES) was one of two jazz artists to receive a MacArthur Foundation fellowship during the year. Only a fraction of his music had been documented on recordings, so the appearance of Composition No. 96 (Leo), played by an orchestra directed by Braxton, was welcome even if it

Polenta

2005-03-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

A porridge or mush usually made of ground corn (maize) cooked in salted water. Cheese and butter or oil are often added. Polenta can be eaten hot or cold as a porridge; or it can be cooled until firm, cut into shapes, and then baked, toasted, panfried, or deep-fried. It is a traditional food of northern Italy, especially the Piedmont region, and of Corsica, where chestnut flour is

Ijsselmeer Polders

2005-03-07T04:20:00.000-08:00

The Zuiderzee project, which involved the construction of a dam (Afsluitdijk; completed 1932) enclosing the IJsselmeer

Yesuj

2005-03-06T15:34:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Yasuj, town, southwestern Iran. The town has a sugar mill and other local industry producing bricks and mosaic tiles, livestock feed, mats and baskets, and carpets and rugs. Roads link it with Dogonbaden, Dehdasht, Shiraj, Nurabad, and Bandar-e Bushehr. There is a thermoelectric power station located at Yesuj. Pop. (1986) 29,991.

Gravimetric Analysis

2005-03-06T14:14:00.000-08:00

A method of quantitative chemical analysis in which the constituent sought is converted into a substance (of known composition) that can be separated from the sample and weighed. The steps commonly followed in gravimetric analysis are (1) preparation of a solution containing a known weight of the sample, (2) separation of the desired constituent, (3) weighing the isolated

Kennelly, Arthur Edwin

2005-03-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

After working as an office boy for a London engineering society, as an electrician, and on a cable-engineering ship, in 1887 Kennelly joined Thomas Edison's

Blanqui, (louis-)auguste

2005-03-06T03:47:00.000-08:00

Blanqui's father was a subprefect in the little town of Puget-Théniers in the French Maritime Alps. In 1818 Blanqui

Nizhnevartovsk

2005-03-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

City and port, Khanty-Mansi autonomous okrug (district), Tyumen oblast (province), west-central Russia. It lies along the right bank of the Ob River. The city grew rapidly, especially in the 1970s, as a result of the discovery of large oil fields nearby. Along with Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk is a major administrative centre of the middle Ob oil fields. It also has a gas-processing plant.

Ulanova, Galina

2005-03-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

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

Papandreou, Andreas

2005-03-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

The son of Georgios Papandreou, he attended the American College in Athens and studied law at the University of Athens. A Trotskyite, he was imprisoned briefly by the dictator Ioannis Metaxas and, when freed, fled to the United States, where he received

Taft, William Howard

2005-03-03T02:39:00.000-08:00

For additional writings by Taft, see Limited Presidential Power and The Cabinet and the Congress.

Manaus

2005-03-01T17:09:00.000-08:00

City and river port, capital of Amazonas estado (“state”), northwestern Brazil. It lies along the north bank of the Negro River, 11 miles (18 km) above that river's influx into the Amazon River. Manaus is situated in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, 900 miles (1,450 km) inland from the Atlantic coast. The city, on a terrace overlooking the river, is traversed by several side channels called

Sorb

2005-03-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

German Sorben, any member of a Slavic minority living in eastern Germany. The Sorbs are concentrated in the Spree River valley, in the area of Bautzen (Budyšin) and Cottbus. This area was part of the traditional region of Lusatia (q.v.), whose history is intimately bound up with the Sorbs. The Sorbs are descendants of two small Slavic tribes, the Luzici and the Milcani, who were subgroups of the

Ardennes

2005-03-01T06:11:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Ardenne wooded plateau covering part of the ancient Forest of Ardennes, occupying most of the Belgian provinces of Luxembourg, Namur, and Liège; part of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; and the French département of Ardennes. It is an old plateau comprising the western extension of the Middle Rhine Highlands, stretching in a northeast-southwest direction and covering more

Amphibian, Larval stage

2005-03-01T00:21:00.000-08:00

The amphibian larva represents a morphologically distinct stage between the embryo and adult. Most aquatic larvae depend on the environment for their food supply. Salamander and caecilian larvae remain more like their respective adults in structure, function, and nutritional requirements than do anuran larvae. Not long after emerging from their shells, larval

Zaghlul, Sa'd

2005-02-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad, Sa'd Zaghlul (1936), a full-length biography (in Arabic and not available in translation), is uncritically favourable to the subject. In English see E. Kedourie, “Sa'ad Zaghlul and the British,” in A. Hourani (ed.), Middle Eastern Affairs: Number Two, pp. 139–160 (1961), written by a hostile critic with a wide knowledge of Arabic sources; and the reasonably impartial obituary notice in The (London) Times (Aug. 24, 1927).

Welland Canal

2005-02-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

Waterway in southern Ontario, Can., that provides navigation for large vessels between Lake Erie to the south and Lake Ontario to the north and forms an important link in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The canal was necessary because the Niagara River, the natural connection between Lakes Erie and Ontario, has impassable falls and rapids. The modern Welland Canal extends

Holi

2005-02-26T04:36:00.000-08:00

Hindu spring festival celebrated on the full-moon day of Phalguna (February–March). The festival, probably of ancient origin, has many characteristics of a saturnalia. Participants throw coloured waters and powders on one another, and, on this one day only, the usual restrictions of caste, sex, status, and age are disregarded. In the streets the celebrations are often marked

Huyton-with-roby

2005-02-26T00:40:00.000-08:00

Urban area, metropolitan borough of Knowsley, metropolitan county of Merseyside, historic county of Lancashire, England. It lies on the eastern periphery of Liverpool. Although mentioned (as Hitune and Rabil) in Domesday Book (1086), the record of William the Conqueror's land survey of England, the town was not important until its rapid development as a suburban area for

Arecales

2005-02-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

Order of flowering plants that contains only one family, the palms (Palmae). About 2,800 species are known. See palm.

Gadfly Petrel

2005-02-24T09:13:00.000-08:00

Any of several species of petrels distinguished from others by their fluttering type of flight. See petrel.

Argentina, Colonial centres

2005-02-24T03:49:00.000-08:00

San Miguel de Tucumán's leadership lasted from the latter

Dance, Western, The French dance suite

2005-02-24T00:23:00.000-08:00

At the great balls of the French court at Versailles, the minuet was the high point of the festivities, which culminated in a suite of dances. The opening branle, led by the king and his escort, was a measured circling around, one couple after another. Next came the courante, which had been toned down from its earlier rather capricious figurations. Over the years it assumed

Oyapock River

2005-02-23T16:35:00.000-08:00

Portuguese Rio Oiapoque, river that forms the border between French Guiana and the Brazilian state of Amapá. It rises in the Tumuc-Humac Mountains and flows northeast for 311 miles (500 km) to empty into the Atlantic near Cape Orange. The country through which it passes is thinly populated and is mostly covered by an unbroken tropical rain forest. Near the river's mouth are the ports of Saint-Georges,

Duroc, Géraud-christophe-michel, Duc (duke) De Frioul

2005-02-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

The son of Claude de Michel, chevalier du Roc, who was a cavalry officer, Duroc went to the Châlons artillery school, emigrated in 1792, but changed his mind, returned to France, entered the Metz school (1793), and was drafted to the artillery of the army of Italy.

Ear, Human

2005-02-22T16:17:00.000-08:00

The human ear, like that of other mammals, contains sense organs that serve two quite different functions: that of hearing and that of postural equilibrium and coordination

Earth Sciences, Geologic time and the age of the Earth

2005-02-22T02:34:00.000-08:00

By mid-century the fossiliferous strata of Europe had been grouped into systems arrayed in chronological order. The stratigraphic column, a composite of these systems, was pieced together from exposures in different regions by application of the principles of superposition and faunal sequence. Time elapsed during the formation of a system became known as a

Industrial Glass

2005-02-22T01:31:00.000-08:00

Solid material that is normally lustrous and transparent in appearance and that shows great durability under exposure to the natural elements. These three properties—lustre, transparency, and durability—make glass a favoured material for such household objects as windowpanes, bottles, and lightbulbs. However, neither any of these properties alone nor all of

Minamata

2005-02-21T07:20:00.000-08:00

City, Kumamoto ken (prefecture), southeastern Kyushu, Japan, on Yatsushiro Bay. A company town of the Nippon Chisso Hiryo Company, its main products are chemical fertilizer, carbide, and vinyl chloride. Minamata was traditionally a fishing port and has regular sea-route connections to Amakusa-shimo Island, the main island of the Amakusa Archipelago. Hot springs are

Italy, Literature

2005-02-19T11:22:00.000-08:00

Italian literature, and indeed standard Italian, have their origins in the 14th century Tuscan dialect, the language of its three founding fathers, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. After unification, writers began to explore subjects theretofore considered too lowly for literary consideration, such as poverty and living conditions in the Mezzogiorno. Writers such

Bene Beraq

2005-02-19T08:53:00.000-08:00

Near the presumed location of ancient Bene Beraq, a

Andesite

2005-02-19T01:38:00.000-08:00

Any member of a large family of rocks that occur in most of the world's volcanic areas. Andesites occur mainly as surface deposits and, to a lesser extent, as dikes and small plugs. Many of the deposits are not normal lava flows but rather flow breccias, mudflows, tuffs, and other fragmental rocks; the peperino near Rome and the trass of the Eifel district in Germany are examples.

Gabo, Naum

2005-02-18T23:29:00.000-08:00

Gabo studied medicine and natural science, then philosophy and art history, at the University of Munich in Germany; he also took engineering classes at the Technical

Computers, Early history and overviews

2005-02-18T18:51:00.000-08:00

Charles Eames and Ray Eames, A Computer Perspective, ed. by Glen Fleck (1973, reprinted 1990), is a pictorial record of the authors' creation of a computer exhibition for IBM that covered developments from the 1890 U.S. Census up to the stored-program computer, 1890–1950.

Domett, Alfred

2005-02-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

Following study at Cambridge and being admitted to the bar, Domett travelled to New Zealand (1842) and, after a half-hearted attempt at farming, devoted his time to

Ta-pa Mountains

2005-02-18T06:06:00.000-08:00

Wade–Giles romanization Ta-pa Shan, Pinyin Daba Shan, mountain range dividing Szechwan province from Shensi province, China. Like the Tsinling Mountains to the north, from which it is separated by the Han River valley and the basin near Han-chung in Shensi, it is an eastward continuation of the Kunlun Mountains. The Ta-pa range is a broad belt of mountains running roughly northwest to southeast, forming the northern rim

Adalbert

2005-02-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

The youngest son of Frederick, Count of Goseck (on the Saale River), Adalbert attended the cathedral school at Halberstadt, becoming subsequently subdeacon and, in 1032, canon. In May 1043 he was appointed archbishop

Tea And Coffee Service

2005-02-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

Set of vessels and implements for making and serving tea and coffee, the items often of matched design. Elaborate 18th-century examples had tea and coffee pots, a milk or cream jug, a pair of tea caddies, a sugar bowl and pair of tongs, teaspoons and a small tray for them, a tea strainer, and cups and saucers. All of these were normally placed on a tray, while an urn or kettle on a separate

Lawrance, Charles Lanier

2005-02-16T04:04:00.000-08:00

After attending Yale University Lawrance joined a new automobile firm that was later ruined by the financial panic of 1907. He then went to Paris, where he studied architecture at the Beaux-Arts School

Bukhara

2005-02-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

Uzbek Bukhoro, also spelled Buchara or Bokhara city and administrative centre, Bukhoro oblast (province), Uzbekistan, on the Shakhrud Canal in the delta of the Zeravshan River, at the centre of Bukhara oasis. Founded not later than the 1st century AD, it was already a major trade and crafts centre when the Arabs captured it in 709. The capital of the Samanid dynasty in the 9th–10th centuries, it later was seized by the Qarakhanids

Sholem Aleichem

2005-02-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

Drawn to writing as a youth, he became a private tutor of Russian at the age of 17 and later served as a government rabbi in Lubin. His first writing had been in Russian and Hebrew, but between 1883, when his first story in Yiddish appeared, and his death, he published over 40 volumes of novels, stories, and plays

India, Aurangzeb

2005-02-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

The empire under Aurangzeb (ruled 1658–1707) experienced further growth but also manifested signs of weakness. For more than a decade, Aurangzeb appeared to be in full control. The Mughals suffered a bit in Assam and Cooch Behar, but they invaded gainfully the Arakanese in southern Myanmar (Burma), captured Chittagong, and added territories in Bikaner, Bundelkhand, Palamau, Assam,

Jacareí

2005-02-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

City, southeastern São Paulo estado (“state”), Brazil, lying along the Paraíba do Sul River. The settlement was granted town status in 1653 and was made the seat of a municipality in 1849. The local economy depends mainly upon dairying, but coffee, rice, corn (maize), fruits, and feijão (beans) are also cultivated in the surrounding area. Food processing, distilling, tanning, and the manufacture

Biblical Literature, The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians

2005-02-12T04:33:00.000-08:00

The authenticity of Ephesians as a genuinely Pauline epistle has been doubted since the time of the Dutch Humanist Erasmus in the 16th century. It is most reasonable to consider it as “deutero-Pauline”—i.e., in the tradition of Paul but not written by him. The problem of Ephesians cannot be solved apart from that of Colossians, because many similarities are noted in the style

Murieta, Joaquín

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

A Joaquín Murieta was recorded as baptized in Sonora, Mex., in 1830; while still a teenager, he married and migrated with his wife to California (1848). In the Gold Rush he tried prospecting,

Arabian Desert, Animal life

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

The animal life is varied and unique. Desert insects include the fly, the malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquito, fleas, lice, roaches, ants, termites, beetles, and mantids (predatory insects that camouflage themselves as leaves, twigs, or pebbles). Also found are the scavenging dung beetle, myriads of butterflies, moths, and caterpillars, and the pestiferous locust that

Television And Radio

2005-02-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

At the prompting of the American Radio Relay League, which represented 170,000 amateur (ham) radio operators, President Clinton on October 22 signed a congressional resolution recognizing the continuing importance of amateur radio and urging the FCC to permit the service to employ new technology and provide "reasonable accommodation" for its future growth. Although not

Murdoch, (keith) Rupert

2005-02-11T10:03:00.000-08:00

In 1998 one of the most talked-about conflicts in baseball took place off the field and in the boardroom. Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch revealed in late 1997 that he planned to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers for a record-high price of $350 million. Despite the protest of media giant and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner, a longtime critic of Murdoch, on March 19, 1998, the sale was approved

Jackdaw

2005-02-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

Also called Daw (species Corvus monedula), crowlike black bird with gray nape and pearly eyes of the family Corvidae (q.v.; order Passeriformes). Jackdaws, which are 33 cm (13 inches) long, breed in colonies in tree holes, cliffs, and tall buildings: their flocks fly in formation around the site. They lay four to six light, greenish blue eggs that are spotted and blotched. The bird's

Arran

2005-02-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

Arran is called “Scotland in miniature” because of the beauty and variety of its scenery. The north

Ironbridge

2005-02-09T11:20:00.000-08:00

Also spelled Iron-bridge, structure that is generally considered the first cast-iron bridge, spanning the River Severn at Ironbridge, near Coalbrookdale, in Shropshire, England. It is now a British national monument. The bridge's semicircular arch spans 100.5 feet (30.6 m) and has five arch ribs, each cast in two halves. Designed by Abraham Darby or Thomas Pritchard, the bridge was erected by Darby in 1777–79. (A similar

Mexico City, The colonial city

2005-02-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

Cortés razed Tenochtitlán in 1521 and constructed a Spanish city on its ruins. The conquerors divided the central area among themselves and relegated the defeated to the periphery. The city was chartered and its cabildo, or town council, recognized in 1522; it was given leadership over other cabildos of New Spain in 1535. It soon became the most important city of the Americas, with

China, Administration of the state

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

The T'ang unification had been far more prolonged and bloody than the Sui conquest. That the T'ang regime lasted for nearly three centuries rather than three decades, as with the Sui, was largely the result of the system of government imposed on the conquered territories. The emperor Kao-tsu's role in the T'ang conquest was understated in the traditional histories compiled

Teapot Dome Scandal

2005-02-08T03:56:00.000-08:00

Also called the Oil Reserves, or Elk Hills, Scandal, in American history, scandal of the early 1920s surrounding the secret leasing of federal oil reserves by the secretary of the interior, Albert B. Fall. After President Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Fall secretly granted to Harry F. Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive

Jordan, The Latin kingdom and Muslim domination

2005-02-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

The area was devastated in the 6th and 7th centuries by the intermittent warfare between Byzantium and Sasanian Persia. In 627 the emperor Heraclius finally defeated the Persians and reestablished order, but Byzantium, gravely weakened by the long struggle, was unable to face the unexpected menace of a new power that had arisen in Arabia. In 636 the Muslims, led by the famous

Arminius

2005-02-07T17:26:00.000-08:00

Arminius was a chief

Scandinavian Literature, Contemporary trends

2005-02-06T23:12:00.000-08:00

In reaction to the literature of the 1940s and 1950s, which was much concerned with artistic form and the individual approach to life, the 1960s was a period of political and social commitment in poetry and fiction alike. Recurrent topics were the war in Vietnam and bitter onslaughts on the Swedish welfare state. Inde pendent lyric poetry, however, continued to be produced by writers