Horse trainer, born in Churchtown, Co Cork, S Ireland. He made an immediate impact on the post-war English National Hunt scene with Cottage Rake, which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in three consecutive years from 1948. On the flat he trained, in 1966, the winners of the Oaks, the 1000 Guineas, the Eclipse Stakes, and the Champion Stakes. In 1977, his horse, The Minstrel, won the Derby, the Irish De…
Composer, born in New York City, New York, USA. Abandoning the chance to go to Yale and then a job on Wall Street, he went to work as a song plugger on Tin Pan Alley. After serving with the navy in World War 1, he returned to work as an accompanist and composer. His music for Wildflower (1923), No, No, Nanette (1925), Hit the Deck! (1927), and Great Day! (1929) included such popular songs as Tea…
Lyricist, born in New York City, New York, USA. He studied journalism, wrote poetry at Columbia University, and translated plays for the Shuberts before meeting composer Richard Rodgers in 1918. They collaborated on four songs for Poor Little Ritz Girl (1920) and did their first complete score for The Garrick Gaities (1925). During the next 18 years they collaborated on a string of successful Broa…
A key figure in the Algerian War of Independence against France, and Algeria's first prime minister (19623) and president (19635), born in Maghnia, NW Algeria. He fought with the Free French in World War 2, and in 1949 became head of the Organisation Spéciale, the paramilitary wing of the Algerian nationalist Parti du Peuple Algérien. In 1952 he escaped from a French-Algerian prison to Cairo…
Egyptian statesman and president (1981 ), born in al-Minufiyah, NE Egypt. A former pilot and flying instructor who rose to become commander of the Egyptian Air Force, he was vice-president under Anwar Sadat from 1975 until the latter's assassination in 1981. As president he has struggled to further Egypt's economic development, to meet the threat posed by Muslim extremists, and to follow a balan…
Somali soldier and president (196991). Educated at a military academy in Italy, he served as a police officer in the British and Italian trust administrations (194150). He joined the Somali army as a colonel in 1960, and became president after a military coup. Towards the end of his rule, the country broke up into warring factions, and he was deposed, leaving behind civil war, famine, and an i…
Writer, born in Birmingham, West Midlands, C England, UK. She was educated at a Quaker boarding school in Birmingham, trained as a nurse, moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1959, and has lived there ever since, working in a variety of occupations as a nurse, orchardist, and teacher. Her first book was a volume of short stories, Five Acre Virgin and Other Stories (1976), which she followed with M…
Anthropologist, born in London, UK. He studied at London, Florence, and Columbia universities, held posts at the Wellcome History Museum in London, New York University, Hahnemann Medical College, PA, and Rutgers University, NJ (194955). Throughout his work on human biosocial evolution, he had argued strongly against the view that cultural phenomena are genetically determined. Best known as the a…
Bandit queen, born at or near Carthage, Missouri, USA. Her brothers were killed while fighting with Quantrill's Raiders in the Civil War and in gunfights. She was romantically linked with Thomas Coleman Younger, James H Reed, Sam Starr, a Cherokee, and Jim July, also a Cherokee. Said to be the leader of a band of horse thieves. She usually wore either velvet and feathers or buckskin and moccas…
Painter and lithographer, born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. Except for a brief foray to Boston, he spent most of his life in Gloucester. He began his career as a lithographer, a skill that influenced his later oil paintings. He influenced many other painters, such as Frederick Church, who admired his ability to record the clarity of light and sky. In the late 20th-c he was rediscovered as a …
Tanzanian statesman and president (198595), born in Zanzibar, E Tanzania. He trained as a teacher on the island and in Britain, before returning to hold progressively important posts in teaching. He then joined the ministry of education and, after working in a trading corporation on the mainland, entered the government of Julius Nyerere. He held a variety of ministerial and ambassadorial posts u…
Writer, born in Monroeville, Alabama, USA. She attended Huntington College (19445), studied law at the University of Alabama (19459), and attended Oxford University for one year. She was an airline reservation clerk in New York City during the 1950s before returning to Monroeville. Her first and only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), received critical acclaim and was made into a highly succ…
Writer and playwright, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He studied at Purdue (18901) and Princeton (18913). He hoped to become a painter but, lacking skill, he turned to writing popular novels and plays. His novels include The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921), and he also wrote novels for children, such as Penrod (1914) and Seventeen (1916). His best-known play is Monsieu…
Poet and writer, born in Springfield, Illinois, USA. He studied at Hiram College, Ohio (18971900), prepared for the ministry, then studied art in Chicago (1901) and New York (1905). He travelled throughout the USA reciting his poetry to earn a living (190612), and after the publication of his first major poem, General William Booth Enters Into Heaven (1913), he became an extremely popular …
Motor-racing driver, born in London, UK. He won 14 races from a record 176 starts (since surpassed) between 1958 and 1975, and was world champion in 1962 (in a BRM) and in 1968 (Lotus). He won the Monaco Grand Prix five times (19635, 19689). In 1975 he started his own racing team, Embassy Racing, but was killed when the plane he was piloting crashed near Hendon, N London. His son, Damon, also …
Writer and translator, born on the island of Lefkas, Greece. He was raised in Ireland, England, and France, moved to the USA in 1869, settled first in Cincinnati, then in New Orleans as a journalist and French translator. In 1890 Harpers' New Monthly Magazine sent him to Japan to write a series of articles. He stayed there for the rest of his life, becoming a teacher, marrying a Japanese woman, Ko…
Film actor, born in Los Angeles, California, USA. He became well known as Rodney Harrison in the television series Peyton Place, a character he played for nearly five years. His films include Love Story (1970), Paper Moon (1973), Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Chances Are (1989), Faithful (1996), Hacks (1997), and People I Know (2002). Born in Los Angeles, California to an Irish-America…
Composer, born in Paris, France. He studied law there from a sense of family duty, but at the same time developed an interest in musical composition under the guidance of César Franck. He helped to found the Schola Cantorum in 1894, and taught there and at the Conservatoire until his death. His works include several operas and orchestral pieces, notably Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français…
Painter, born in Cody, Wyoming, USA. He grew up in Wyoming and California, moved to New York City, and studied intermittently with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League (c.192932). His paintings of the 1930s, such as Birth (1937), anticipate the turbulent impasto and sexual imagery of his later work. His first major exhibition was organized by Peggy Guggenheim (1943) when he was usin…
Madam, born in Avanovo, Russia. Emigrating to the USA at age 12, she worked in factories, and in 1920 opened a house of prostitution in New York City. Her clients included politicians, gangsters, and vice squad police, and this was said to be the reason she survived so long. Subpoenaed by the Seabury Commission in 1930, she refused to testify. She closed down in 1943 and moved to Los Angeles. She …
Painter, born in Siegen, WC Germany. He was educated at Antwerp, and was intended for the law, but began to study art, travelling to Venice in 1600. He entered the service of the Duke of Mantua, and was sent to Spain as a diplomat (1605). There he executed many portraits and works on historical subjects. He then travelled in Italy, producing work much influenced by the Italian Renaissance, and in …
Composer, born in Berlin, Germany. Brought to England in 1933, he studied at the Royal Manchester College (19525) and in Paris. He was professor of music at Leeds University (19716), then at Cambridge, where he is a fellow of Trinity Hall. His compositions include the operas Arden Must Die (1967), Behold the Sun (1985), and Arianna (1995), as well as concertos, cantatas, and chamber music. …
Fire-arm inventor, born in Oberndorf, SW Germany. With his brother Wilhelm (183482) he was responsible for the improved needle-gun (adopted by the German army in 1871) and for the improved breech-loading cannon. He produced the Mauser magazine-rifle in 1897. Meisner was the inventor of the Mauser magazine rifle. The Mauser company, established by the two Mauser brothers, estab…
Legal scholar, born in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. He studied at Lombard College (1912) and the University of Illinois (1915 PhD), and taught at Harvard (191619), the University of Minnesota (191923), and the University of Chicago (192356). He was an adviser to the US State Department (19435) and to the Nuremberg Tribunal (1945). Among his books are The Enforcement of International Law th…
Composer, who assumed the name of his patron, born in Crema, NE Italy. A pupil of Monteverdi, he was organist and maestro di capella of St Mark's in Venice. As an opera and church composer he prepared the way for Alessandro Scarlatti. He began to write for the stage in 1639 (Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo), and soon established so great a reputation that he was summoned to Paris in 1660 to pro…
Chemist and French statesman, born in Paris, France. He became the first professor of organic chemistry at the Collège de France (1865), and was foreign minister (18956). He helped to found the study of thermochemistry, introducing a standard method for determining the latent heat of steam. His syntheses of many fundamental organic compounds helped to destroy the classical division between orga…
Painter, born in Bordeaux, SW France. He studied under Gustave Moreau, and was one of the original Fauves. After initial hardships, he became primarily an Impressionist landscape painter and travelled widely, painting many pictures of Le Havre, Algiers, and the Seine, such as his Pont neuf. A close friend of Matisse, his later work, mainly landscapes and town views, was characterized by a simp…
Composer, born in Palermo, Sicily, S Italy. He produced his first opera in Rome (1679), where he became maestro di cappella to Queen Christina of Sweden. He was musical director at the court in Naples (16831702, 170925), and became a leading figure in Italian opera. He reputedly wrote over 100 operas, of which 40 survive complete, the most famous being Tigrane (1715). He also wrote 10 Masses, …
Labour leader and social reformer, born in Savin, Poland. Emigrating to the USA in 1892, she went to work in her early teens sewing caps. In 1903 she helped organize a New York City local of the United Cloth and Cap Makers and took the lead in getting women elected to the union, and in 1904 she was elected to the union's executive board, the highest position yet held by a woman in any American lab…
Conservationist and ecologist, born in Burlington, Iowa, USA. He grew up a sportsman and a naturalist, graduated from Yale (1908), and after a year in Yale's forestry school, joined the US Forest Service. Assigned to the Arizona-New Mexico district, he spent 15 years in the field, rising to chief of the district. By 1921 he had begun to campaign for the preservation of wildlife areas for recreatio…
Sculptor, born in Paris, France. He trained in Paris and Brussels, and began to produce sculptures which, with their varying surfaces and finishes, resembled the Impressionist painters' effects of light and shade. The great La Porte de l'enfer (The Gate of Hell) was commissioned for the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1880, and during the next 30 years he was mainly engaged on the 186 figures f…
Writer of crime novels, born in London, UK. He served in the army in South Africa, where he later (1899) became a journalist, and in 1905 published his first success, the adventure story The Four Just Men. He wrote over 170 novels and plays, and is best remembered for his crime novels, such as The Clue of the Twisted Candle. He later became a film scriptwriter. His autobiography, People, appeared …
Architect, born in Edinburgh, EC Scotland, UK. He studied in London, where he practised. He was a leader of the trend away from Victorian style back to traditional Georgian design, as in New Scotland Yard (1888) and the Piccadilly Hotel (1905). Richard Norman Shaw (Edinburgh May 7, 1831 – London November 17, 1912), was the most influential British architect from the 1870s to the 1900s, kn…
Irish nationalist and writer, born in London, UK. He studied at Cambridge, fought in the South African and First World Wars, and wrote a popular spy story, The Riddle of the Sands (1903), and several works of non-fiction. After the establishment of the Irish Free State, he joined the Irish Republican Army, and was active in the Civil War. He was captured and executed. His son Erskine Hamilton Chil…
Clergyman and diarist, born in Hardenhuish, Wiltshire, S England, UK. He was a curate at Clyro in Radnorshire and then vicar of Bredwardine on the Wye until his early death from appendicitis. His notebooks (18709), giving a vivid and affectionate picture of rural life in the Welsh marches, were discovered in 1937 and published as Kilvert's Diary, in three volumes (193840). Robert Franci…
Novelist, born in Cardiff, S Wales, UK. He started as an errand boy, became a newspaper reporter and literary critic, and established himself as a writer with his best-selling Oh Absalom (1938), renamed My Son, My Son. Other novels include Fame is the Spur (1940), Dunkerleys (1946), These Lovers Fled Away (1955), and Time and the Hour (1957), as well as three autobiographical works. Howard …
Poet and art critic, born in Lancaster, Lancashire, NW England, UK. On leaving Oxford, he joined the British Museum, and became keeper of Oriental prints and paintings (191333). His poetic works include Lyric Poems (1894), Odes (1901), and Collected Poems (1931). He also wrote plays, and translated Dante into terza rima. He was professor of poetry at Harvard (19334). Extracts from his poem F…
Film actor, born in London, UK, the nephew of Sir Carol Reed. Educated at Ewel Castle, he became known through his role as Bill Sykes in Carol Reed's musical, Oliver! (1968). His many films include Women in Love (1969), The Devils (1971), Three Musketeers (1974), Second Chance (1983), Treasure Island (1990), Funny Bones (1995), and Parting Shots (1998). Often in the public eye for his behaviour of…
Travel writer and journalist, born in London, UK, the brother of Ian Fleming. He studied at Oxford, and became assistant literary editor of the Spectator. In 1932 he joined an expedition to Central Brazil following Colonel Percy Fawcett who had disappeared without trace in 1925. It provided the colourful copy which surfaced in Brazilian Adventure (1933), a landmark in travel literature and an imme…
Socialite, philanthropist, and writer, born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA. Largely self-educated, she was a magazine journalist and the author of four books. She married three times (once divorced, twice widowed). Her third husband, Vincent Astor, left her with a fortune that allowed her to become a philanthropist of major proportions. She awarded an average of 100 grants a year ($9 million a …
British writer, playwright, and broadcaster, born in Karachi, SE Pakistan (formerly India). He studied at Oxford, and was an announcer on Radio Hong Kong while there on National Service (19567). He appeared in the BBC programme That Was the Week that Was (19623), presented The Late Show (1978), and has narrated on many documentaries. His non-fiction work includes The Complete Murders of the Bl…
Writer and publisher, born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, SC England, UK. He studied at Cambridge, and founded the periodical New Writing (193641). He was managing director of the Hogarth Press, and with his sister, Rosamond, ran John Lehmann Ltd (194653). In 1954 he inaugurated the London Magazine, which he edited until 1961. His works include Forty Poems (1942), Virginia Woolf and her World…
Writer, born in St Mary's Co, Maryland, USA. After serving in the army in World War 1, he went to San Francisco, where he became a Pinkerton detective and advertising copywriter. After the success of his first novels he became a Hollywood scriptwriter, and also published some short stories in The Black Mask. Most of his work came out in a five-year period, starting with Red Dust (1929) and ending …
Feminist and literary critic, born in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, USA. Her father, Timothy Fuller, was a prominent Massachusetts lawyer-politician who, disappointed that his child was not a boy, educated her rigorously in the classical curriculum of the day. Not until age 14 did she attend school (18246) and then returned to Cambridge and her course of reading. Her intellectual precociousness …
Tennis player, born in Bournemouth, Dorset, S England, UK. She was brought up in South Africa. She competed at Wimbledon for 20 years, and won the singles there in 1977 when she was ranked number 2. In 1968 she took the US Open title, and she also won the Italian championship in 1971 and the Australian championship in 1972. She was a Wightman Cup player for 16 years, and towards the end of her car…
Physiologist, born in Grenå, NC Denmark. He studied at Copenhagen, and became professor of animal physiology there (191645). He researched the process of respiration, gas exchange in the lung, and the supply of oxygen to muscle tissue, discovering the motor-regulating mechanism of capillaries. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1920. Schack August Steenberg Krog…
Swindler, born in Kiev, Ukraine. He went to Paris in 1900 and was naturalized in 1914. He floated a series of fraudulent companies, and in 1933 was discovered to be handling bonds to the value of more than 500 million francs on behalf of the municipal pawnshop in Bayonne. He fled to Chamonix, and probably committed suicide; but in the meantime the affair had revealed widespread corruption in the g…
Teacher, born in Framingham, Massachusetts, USA. Community-minded and socially conscious, she started teaching in 1970. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials were impressed with a course she developed for Concord High School (New Hampshire) entitled The American Woman. The first teacher selected for the NASA Teacher in Space programme, she died along with the crew when…
Protestant religious leader, born in Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, USA. Raised on an uncle's farm in New York state, he studied at Williams College (1859), served several New England Congregational churches and was religious editor for The Independent (18715). In 1882 he accepted the pastorship of the First Congregational Church of Columbus, OH, where he remained for the rest of his life. An advocat…
Novelist, born in Talbingo, New South Wales, SE Australia. A freelance writer in Sydney and Melbourne, she emigrated in 1906 to the USA, and remained abroad, living in England and America, until 1933. Her best-known novel, My Brilliant Career (1901, filmed 1979), was described as the very first Australian novel on account of its original and distinctive Australian character. Its sequel, My Car…
US statesman and 22nd and 24th president (18859, 18937), born in Caldwell, New Jersey, USA. Basically self-educated, he was admitted to the bar in Buffalo, New York (1859) and began his climb up the political ladder as a Democrat, becoming a reformist mayor (1881) and New York governor (1882). His efficiency, honesty, and independence from the state political machine took him to the presidency…
Composer and conductor, born in Glasgow, W Scotland, UK. He showed early flair for composition, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in his first symphony in 1968. Two other symphonies followed, together with numerous orchestral, chamber, and vocal works, and operas including Where the Wild Things Are, (197983). He became a co-director of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1983. Knussen made h…
Radio astronomer, born in Belfast, NE Northern Ireland, UK. She attended school in York and went on to study at Glasgow and Cambridge. In 1967 she was a research student at Cambridge working with Antony Hewish when she noticed an unusually regular signal, shown to be bursts of radio energy at a constant interval of just over a second - the first identified pulsar. After 1982 she worked as a senior…
Swedish politician and prime minister (196976, 19826), born in Stockholm, Sweden. He studied in the USA at Kenyon College, then took up law at Stockholm University. He joined the Social Democratic Labour Party (SAP) in 1949, entered the government in 1963 and held several ministerial posts before assuming the leadership of the Party and becoming prime minister. Although losing his parliamentar…
Finnish statesman and prime minister (19725, 19779, 19827), born in Keuruu, SWC Finland. He studied at what is now the University of Tampere and worked as an editor at the publishing house of Tammi. He gained international experience with UNESCO in Paris, and in the ministry of education, before moving into politics. He was secretary-general of the Social Democratic Party in 1969, and its ch…
Museum curator and photohistorian, born in Ashland, Wisconsin, USA. A professor of art history and photography at Albright College in Buffalo, he won a Guggenheim (1954) to do a photographic study of architect Louis Sullivan. Director at the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (196291), he wrote books to establish criteria for evaluating the seemingly casual snapshot photograph…
Irish nationalist, born in Dublin, Ireland. A Protestant, he studied at Dublin, was called to the bar in 1789, acted as secretary of the Catholic Committee, and helped to organize the Society of United Irishmen (most of whose members were Protestants), who aimed for political freedom for Ireland and the end of British rule. Tone had to flee to the USA and to France (1795). He induced France to inv…
Novelist, born in New Amsterdam, NE Guyana. He studied at Queen's College, Georgetown, and worked as a surveyor. In 1959 he moved to London, UK. One of the pre-eminent Caribbean writers, his masterpiece is The Guyana Quartet (1985, a compilation of novels written 19603); starting with a poetic exploration, it evolves into a composite picture of Guyana, its various landscapes and racial communiti…
Cricketer, born in Finchley, NW Greater London, UK. He studied at Kent College, Canterbury, and joined the Kent county staff at the age of 16. First capped as wicket-keeper for England in 1946, he played in 91 Test matches, a record that stood for a decade. He also claimed a then-record 219 catches and stumpings in agile, often theatrical fashion, with muttonchop sideboards to the fore. He once ba…
Painter, born in Plymouth, Devon, SW England, UK. A pupil and assistant of Reynolds, he painted portraits and historical pictures, among them the well-known Princes in the Tower and Prince Arthur and Hubert. He is also remembered by Hazlitt's Conversations with Northcote. James Northcote (October 22, 1746 - July 13, 1831), was an English painter. In 1775 he left Reynolds…
Journalist, born in Croydon, S Greater London, UK. A lecturer at the Egyptian University in Cairo (192730), he joined the Manchester Guardian (19303), was assistant editor of the Calcutta Statesman (19345), and joined the editorial staff of the Evening Standard. Serving with the Intelligence Corps during World War 2, he received the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre. Resuming his jour…
Writer of children's stories, born in Newbury, Berkshire, S England, UK. Educated in Reading, he was a television cameraman (194766) before becoming a full-time writer. He created the much-loved character Paddington Bear in A Bear Called Paddington (1958), who has since featured in many books, as well as in a long-running television short cartoon. In 1983 he began a series of novels for adults r…
US statesman and 28th president (191321), born in Staunton, Virginia, USA. The son of a Presbyterian minister, he studied at Princeton and Johns Hopkins, gaining his PhD with the first of his major books on American government, Congressional Government (1885). After teaching at Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan (188590), he moved to Princeton, and as its president (1902) his reforms had a wide impact on …
Oceanographer, born in Stockholm, Sweden. He began making contributions to oceanography while still a student at Uppsala University, with a report (1902) explaining why drift ice movement diverged from wind direction. After working at the International Laboratory for Oceanographic Research in Oslo (19028), he was appointed professor of mathematical physics at Lund (191039). He designed several…
Archaeologist, born in Sydney, New South Wales, SE Australia. He studied at Sydney and Oxford universities, and his early books, notably The Dawn of European Civilisation (1925), and The Most Ancient Near East (1928), established him as the most influential archaeological theorist of his generation. He was professor of archaeology at Edinburgh (192746) and director of the University of London In…
Folk and ballad singer, and songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The brother of pop-folk musicians, Alex, Kate and Livingston Taylor, as a teenager he turned to the guitar and played with brother Alex's band. In 1965 he committed himself to a psychiatric hospital for 10 months, after which he went to New York City and played with a folk-rock group, the Flying Machine. He first gained wi…
Seismologist and inventor, born in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a physicist at the Carnegie Institution (192437) before joining the California Institute of Technology (193764). He devised and developed many seismic detection instruments, including a seismograph for measuring travel-time curves of earthquake waves that became the basis for the Geneva Conference nuclear detection system.…
German politician, Hitler's deputy as Nazi Party leader, born in Alexandria, N Egypt. Educated at Bad Godesberg, he fought in World War 1, then studied at Munich. He joined the Nazi Party in 1920, and became Hitler's close friend and (in 1934) deputy. In 1941, on the eve of Germany's attack on Russia, he flew alone to Scotland to plead the cause of a negotiated Anglo-German peace. He was temporari…
Actor, born in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, USA. The son of Ukrainian immigrants, he worked at a number of jobs, including professional boxer, before service in the US Army Air Corps during World War 2. He later entered Stanford University and graduated with a drama degree in 1947. After parts in a number of Broadway productions, he made his film debut in Panic in the Streets (1950). Success foll…
Jazz trumpeter and bandleader, born in Montreal, Canada. He began playing the piano and violin as a child before switching to the trumpet at age nine. Highly talented, he performed as a featured soloist with the Canadian Broadcasting Company Orchestra at age 13, and left school two years later to become a professional musician. He was soon leading his own band, and in the late 1940s moved to the U…
Baseball manager and executive, born in Lucasville, Ohio, USA. After playing four years in the majors and a 10-year career as a manager of the St Louis Browns and Cardinals (191325), he became vice-president of the Cardinals (192542) and created a farm system of 32 minor-league teams that supplied countless star players for the parent major-league club. A religious man, he never played, at…
Socialist, social worker, and writer, born in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. Appalled by the misery of the depression of 1893, he decided to become a social worker. He was organizing secretary of Chicago's Board of Charities (18961902) and lived at Hull House (18991902), and wrote a survey of working-class housing for the City Homes Association (1901). A man of independent means, he became head wo…
Astronomer, born in Schröttinghausen, NW Germany. He studied at Münster and Göttingen, and worked at the Hamburg Observatory (191931). He moved to the USA in 1931, and spent the rest of his career at the Mt Wilson (193158) and Palomar (194858) Observatories. His work gave new estimates for the age and size of the universe. Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (March 24, 1893 - June 25, 19…
Composer, born in Leipzig, EC Germany. His early efforts at composition were unsuccessful, and in Paris (183942) he made a living by journalism and hack operatic arrangements. His Rienzi (1842) was a great success at Dresden, and he was appointed Kapellmeister, but his next operas, including Tannhäuser (1845), were failures. Deeply implicated in the revolutionary movement, he fled from Saxony (…
Actor, born in Cadiz, Ohio, USA. Leaving school at age 14 he worked at various jobs, from oilfield handyman to telephone repairman. In 1918 he was drawn to the stage and for several years he acted in productions from New York City to Oregon. In 1924 he entered Hollywood films as an extra, then enjoyed a hit on Broadway in Machinal (1928). He launched his film career in 1931 when he became a hit in…
Playwright, born in Elmira, New York, USA. He began by writing plays based on historical figures, such as Beau Brummel (1890), Nathan Hale (1898), and Barbara Freitchie (1899), but he soon moved towards social comedy, at which he was immensely successful (though modern critics complain about their contrived endings). Among his popular works were The Moth and the Flame (1898), Captain Jinks of the …
Playwright, born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied at Cambridge and Harvard, and was called to the bar in England (1925) and Northern Ireland (1926). His first play, an Expressionistic satire called Shadowdance, was rejected by Lady Gregory for the Abbey Theatre. Retitled The Old Lady Says No, it became a major success at the Gate Theatre in 1929. He had a further triumph with The Moon on the Yel…
Actor, born in Joplin, Missouri, USA. After naval service in World War 2, he studied drama at the University of Oklahoma, later joining the Actors' Studio in New York. His film debut came in The Raiders (1952), but it was with his role as deputy Chester Goode (195564) in the classic Western series Gunsmoke that he became well known, winning a Best Supporting Actor Emmy in 1959. He was memorable …
Composer, and writer on music, born in Dresden, Staffordshire, C England, UK. Championed by such figures as Beecham and Wood, his success seemed secure, but he suffered a long period of neglect after World War 1. A revival of interest in his music occurred in the last decade or so of his life. He wrote 32 symphonies, a huge setting of Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, a violin concerto, and five opera…
Writer and poet, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He studied at the US Naval Academy and the University of Pittsburgh (1915 BS). He served briefly on the Mexican border with the National Guard, then with the US Army in France during World War 1, and his war diary, Toward the Flame (1926), was highly regarded in its day. After graduate study at Harvard, he taught English at a high school in C…
Painter, born in London, UK. He studied at the Royal Academy, shared a studio with Rossetti, and helped inaugurate the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which aimed at detailed and uncompromising truth to nature. His first public success was The Light of the World (1854, Keble College, Oxford). The influence of several visits to the East appeared in The Scapegoat (1856) and The Finding of Chri…
Footballer, born in Swansea, SC Wales, UK. He joined Leeds United Football Club in 1949 at the age of 17, and gained his first cap for Wales the next year as the youngest-ever Welsh full cap (18 years, 71 days). He was top scorer in the league for Leeds in 19534 with 42 goals, still a club record. In 1957 he made history as the first British player to sign for a foreign club when he transferred …
Cricketer, born in Norfolk, E England, UK. He played in 39 Tests, and in 1938 became one of a handful of players to have scored 1000 runs before the end of May. With Compton he shared a record third-wicket Test partnership of 370 against South Africa at Lord's in 1947. John Hugh Edrich (born 21 June 1937) in Blofield, Norfolk, is a former English cricketer who played for Surrey and England.…
Oceanographer and seismologist, born in Lockney, Texas, USA. He taught at Lehigh University (193043), then at Columbia University (194472), where he became founding director of its Lamont (now LamontDoherty) Geological Observatory (1949). He left the observatory to join the Marine Biomedical Institute of the University of Texas (19724). A pioneer in oceanography, his gravity and seismograp…
Ceramic artist, born in St Kilda, Victoria, SE Australia, the elder son of Arthur Merric Boyd. He studied at the pioneering porcelain works at Yarraville, Victoria, and then served with the Royal Flying Corps in World War 1 at Wedgwood, Stoke-on-Trent. He returned to Australia in the early 1920s, founding a famous studio at Murrumbeena, outside Melbourne, and experimenting with new ceramic techniq…
Writer, playwright, essayist, and critic, born in Thamesville, Ontario, SE Canada. He studied in Canada and at Balliol College, Oxford, worked as a teacher, actor, and journalist, was editor of the Peterborough Examiner (194263), and became professor of English at the University of Toronto (196081). His reputation as one of Canada's foremost writers rests on three trilogies: the Salterton Tr…
Novelist, born in London, UK. He spent four years in business, then entered Lincoln's Inn to train as a lawyer, but gradually took to literature, becoming a master of the mystery story. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868), the first full-length detective story in the English language. William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was a…
US mayor, born in Seaboard, North Carolina, USA. The son of a sharecropper, he earned a BA from Morgan State College and an MPA from the Wharton School. He worked as a probation officer, a building supervisor, and an insurance claims adjustor. He became the first African-American mayor of Philadelphia (198591). A meticulous, sober man, he was much criticized for allowing police to bomb the headq…
Rock singer and songwriter, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was a fashion model before singing with the group, the Great Society (1965), and the next year joined Jefferson Airplane, the first popular San Francisco rock band. After releasing such successful albums as Surrealistic Pillow (1967) and Volunteers (1969), the Airplane disbanded. In 1974 she formed Jefferson Starship, which released t…
An academy founded in Florence in 1583 by a group of scholars who called themselves Brigata dei Crusconi (among them Anton Francesco Grazzini). It formulated the idea of publishing a dictionary which would preserve the classical Florentine language. The Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca was published in 1612 and spanned similar work in other countries. The Accademia della Crusca is …
A novel written by the Dutch writer Jan Wolkers in 1969. A spectacular popular success, it is the account of a tragic love story in which love and life are set against death and decay. The book caused public commotion for the uninhibited description of sexual acts. It was also made into a film which is still considered one of the highlights of Dutch cinema. Turkish Delight, or lokum…
An Old High German creation poem in nine alliterative long-rhyme verses followed by a short prose prayer. It is one of the earliest Christian documents in German literature, while showing strong Germanic influences in style and content. The manuscript dates back to the Bavarian monastery of Wessobrunn at the start of the 9th-c, and is presumably based on a Rhenisch-Franconian original from Fulda. …
Political scientist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, the brother of Amy Lowell and Percival Lowell. After practising law (188097), he taught at Harvard (18971909) and served as its president (190933), during which time he revamped the undergraduate curriculum and pioneered the opening of Harvard's graduate schools of architecture, business administration, education, and public health. He…
Hotel executive, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He worked for his father's Chicago law firm until 1936. With his brother Jack Pritzker (190479), he founded the Marmon Group, a family-owned corporate empire that came to include the Hyatt Hotels, Braniff Airlines, and McCall's magazine, among other companies. A noted philanthropist, he funded the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicin…
Physicist, born in Strzelno, C Poland. His family emigrated to the USA in 1854. He trained at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, studied physics at various centres in Europe, and became professor of physics at Chicago from 1892. He established the speed of light as a fundamental constant, and in 1907 became the first US scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. He invented an interferome…
Sculptor, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, the father of Alexander Sandy Calder. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (188690), and in Paris (1890), and was based in Pittsfield, MA and New York City. He is known for public works, such as the Swann Memorial in Philadelphia (1924), and for sculptural portraits. Alexander Stirling Calder (January 11, 1870
Pharmacologist, born in Stamford, New York, USA. He taught at Columbia (19048) and Northwestern (190810) Universities before settling at the University of Pennsylvania (191046). In World War 2 he chaired the Committee on Medical Research, which made penicillin available for widespread use. Richards served as chairman of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Department of…
Mathematician and Idealist philosopher, born in Ramsgate, Kent, SE England, UK. He studied at Cambridge, where he was senior lecturer in mathematics until 1910. He then taught at London (191014), becoming professor of applied mathematics at Imperial College (191424), and was then professor of philosophy at Harvard (192437). He collaborated with his former pupil, Bertrand Russell, in writing …
Railway builder, born in Wilton, Maine, USA. He left a career as a lawyer in Minnesota (18629) to start working for the railroads. He was involved in several of the Midwestern and Northwestern railways until 1883, when he organized and began construction of the Minneapolis & Northwestern Railroad. He became the company's president, and when it merged with the Chicago, St Paul & Kansas City (1887…
Journalist and poet, born at Narambla, New South Wales, SE Australia. He lived at Illalong station until he was 10, when he went to school in Sydney, and later contributed some early verse to the Sydney Bulletin. A World War 2 correspondent, he wrote several books of light verse, including The Man From Snowy River and Other Verses (1895), and The Animals Noah Forgot (1933). He is probably best kno…
Critic, born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, SWC England, UK, the brother of Francis Herbert Bradley. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, where he became a fellow in 1874. He was professor of literature and history at Liverpool (1882), of English language and literature at Glasgow (1890), and of poetry at Oxford (19016). He made his name with his magisterial Shakespearean Tragedy (1904). …
Biochemist, born in London, UK. He studied at Cambridge, and worked for the Wool Industry Research Association in Leeds (193846), the Medical Research Council (194859), the Abbotsbury Laboratories (195970), and the Wellcome Research Laboratories (19703). He later held university appointments at Sussex, Houston, and Lausanne. His work on nutrition led him to the study of protein structure, …
Poet and teacher, born in Whiteville, North Carolina, USA. He studied at Wake Forest College, NC (1949 BS) and the University of California, Berkeley (19512). He worked in New Jersey (195261) and began teaching at Cornell University (1964), and became a noted poet in the transcendental tradition. Ammons was born in 1926 and raised in rural North Carolina, near Whiteville, the youngest o…
Physicist, born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He went to the USA to study at the University of Chicago (1914). He spent his teaching and research career there (191750), except for the years that he worked on the Manhattan Project (19415). He made major contributions to the field of mass spectroscopy and was the discoverer of uranium-235 (1935). Arthur Jeffrey Dempster (August 14, 1886 - …
50°47N 6°04E, pop (2000e) 252 000. Manufacturing city in Cologne district, W Germany; 64 km/40 mi SW of Cologne, near the Dutch and Belgian borders; N capital of Charlemagne's empire; 32 German emperors crowned here; annexed by France, 1801; given to Prussia, 1815; badly bombed in World War 2; railway; technical college; textiles, glass, machinery, chemicals, light engineering, foodstuffs, r…
Cathedral in the city of Aachen, W Germany. The main part was formerly the Imperial Palace Chapel of Charlemagne built (790805) in Carolingian-Romanesque style. It was used as the coronation church for German kings (9361531) and in the chapel gallery is the coronation chair of Charlemagne. His tomb is marked by a stone slab over which hangs a bronze chandelier. The rich cathedral treasury cont…
Physicist, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Niels Bohr. He studied at the universities of Copenhagen and London, and worked in his father's Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen from 1946, becoming professor of physics at Copenhagen (1956). He was director of the Institute (196370), and from 1975 to 1981 director of Nordita (Nordic Institute for Theoretical Atomic Physics). With …
A southern African mammal (Orycteropus afer); length, 11·5 m/3¼5 ft; long ears, pig-like snout, long sticky tongue, strong claws; digs burrows; inhabits grassland and woodland; eats ants and termites; mainly nocturnal; also known as ant bear or earth pig. It is the only member of the order Tubulidentata. (Family: Orycteropodidae.) The Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized ma…
A rare southern African carnivore (Proteles cristatus) of the hyena family; slender, yellow with black stripes; inhabits dry plains; eats mainly termites; lives in a den (often an abandoned aardvark burrow); nocturnal; also known as maned jackal. The Aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) is a small hyena, native to Eastern and Southern Africa. The aardwolf looks most like the Striped Hy…
Largest river entirely in Switzerland; emerges from L Grimsel in the Bernese Alps and flows N then W through L Brienz, L Thun, and L Biel to enter the Rhine; length, 295 km/183 mi; navigable from the Rhine to Thun. The Aar (German: Aare) is the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. The Aar rises in the great Aar glaciers in the canton of Bern and …
Biblical patriarch, the first high priest of the Israelites, and said to be the founder of the priesthood; the elder brother of Moses. He was spokesman for Moses to the Egyptian pharaoh in his attempts to lead their people out of Egypt. He later joined rebellious Israelites in making a golden calf for idolatrous worship. He and his sons were ordained as priests after the construction of the Ark of…
Cartographer, born in Winston, Durham, NE England, UK. In about 1770 he moved to London, and by 1790 had established a great map-making business. His nephew, John Arrowsmith (17901873), was also an eminent cartographer. His maps were very numerous, and the neatness and finished style of their execution gained for them a very extensive reputation, which, however, on closer examination, the…
US statesman, politician,and adventurer, born in Newark, New Jersey, USA. After serving with distinction in the American Revolution, he became a lawyer, engaged himself in some dubious land speculation, and was chosen a US senator (Democrat-Republican, New York, 17917). He was nominated in 1800 by the Democratic-Republican Party for vice-president, but because of the process then dictated by the…
Biologist, born in Haifa, Israel. He studied at Jerusalem (1974) before serving in the Israel Defence Forces (197477), and became Professor at the Unit of Biochemistry and Director of the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in Medical Sciences at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) in Haifa, Israel (1992 ). In 2004, he shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Avram Hershko and I…
Composer, born in New York City, New York, USA. He studied in New York with Rubin Goldmark and in France (19214) with the later-famous pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. Back in New York, he began the wide-ranging activities that would characterize his career: painstaking composition, piano performer, promotion of new music, and teaching. His first successes came from performances of his works by such n…
Merchant, born in Chatham, New Jersey, USA. His parents moved to Niles, MI, where he did odd jobs until 1865, when he moved to Chicago and became a clerk for Field, Palmer, & Leiter. Working as a travelling salesman for a dry-goods wholsealer (c.1870), he noted the disparity between the cash prices farmers received and the high cost of retail products. In 1872, with partner George Thorne, he put o…
Teacher and photographer, born in New York City, New York, USA. An English teacher, he started taking photographs in 1930, focusing on the textures of everyday objects. He taught photography at the Illinois Institute of Technology (195171). Aaron Siskind (1903-1991) was an American abstract expressionist photographer. Siskind's work focuses on the details of nature and archite…
Television producer, born in Dallas, Texas, USA. He studied journalism at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, then moved to Hollywood in the 1950s where he began as a bit-part television actor. His early work as a producer included Zane Grey Theatre (195661), Johnny Ringo (195960), and The Mod Squad (196873). With actor Danny Thomas (191491) he set up ThomasSpelling Productions …
A device for performing calculations by sliding bead counters, representing various values, along a set of rods or in grooves. It may have originated in Babylonia, and was used in ancient China, Greece, and Rome. It became widespread in Europe in the Middle Ages, as well as in China and Japan, where it is still in use. In Japan, for example, it is taught in primary schools as part of arithmetic, a…
30°20N 48°16E, pop (2000e) 418 000. Oil port in Khuzestan province, WC Iran, close to the Iraq border; on Abadan I, in Shatt al-Arab delta, at head of Persian Gulf; terminus of Iran's major oil pipelines; airport; severely damaged in the IranIraq War. Abadan (آبادان in Persian) is a city in the Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran (Persia). It lies on Abadan Island, on the Ar…
A primitive marine snail which feeds on algae on rocky shores; characterized by a single row of holes extending back from the front margin of its ovoid shell; collected for decoration and for human consumption; also called ormer. (Class: Gastropoda. Order: Archaeogastropoda.) …
Swedish pop singing group, formed in 1973 by Björn Ulvaeus (1945 , guitar, vocals), married to Agnetha Fältskog (1950 , vocals), and Benny Andersson (1945 , keyboards, vocals), married to Anni-Frid (known as Frida) Lyngstad (1945 , vocals). The group's name derives from their first-name initials. Their major international breakthrough came with the winning song in the 1974 Eurovision Son…
Israeli diplomat and statesman, born in Cape Town, SW South Africa. He studied in England, taught at Cambridge, and worked in the Middle East Arab Centre in Jerusalem (1944). He was Israeli UN representative in New York City (1948), and ambassador in Washington, DC (19509). He then returned to Israel, where he won a seat in the Knesset, and until 1974 served under several prime ministers, most n…
Rabbi and Zionist leader, born in Sirvintos, Lithuania. He was brought to the USA in 1902, and studied at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, the University of Cincinnati, and Western Reserve University. He served as rabbi of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Cleveland (191763) and published several books, including Religion in a Changing World (1930) and The World Crisis and Jewish Survival (1941…
Ancestor of the Abbasid dynasty of the Islamic empire who ruled as caliphs of Baghdad (7501258). He was the paternal uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. A rich merchant of Mecca, he was at first hostile to his nephew, but ultimately became one of the chief adherents of Islam. …
A building or group of buildings used by a religious order for worship and living. It houses a community under the direction of an abbot or abbess as head, who is elected for a term of years or for life. Abbeys were centres of learning in the Middle Ages. An abbey (from the Latin abbatia, which is derived from the Syriac abba, "father"), is a Christian monastery or convent, under the govern…
Jazz singer, composer, arranger, and film actress, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. While a teenager, she sang at school and church functions and then toured locally with a dance band. At age 19 she won an amateur singing contest in Michigan and went to California, where she sang in nightclubs (under her name, Anna Marie). She went to Hawaii as a resident club singer, but in 1954 returned to sing i…
A theatre situated in Dublin's Abbey Street, the centre of the Irish dramatic movement founded by Lady Gregory and W B Yeats. Best known for its championship of Synge and of the early plays of O'Casey, the Abbey was a major theatrical venue (opened 1904) throughout the first 30 years of the 20th-c. The present theatre was opened in 1966 after the earlier building had burnt down in 1951. The…
52º55N 7º20W. Town in County Laois, SC Ireland; located near the R Nore, 14 km/9 mi S of Portlaoise; built by the de Vesci family (mid 18th-c) close to the former site of a Cistercian monastery; birthplace of Sir Jonah Barrington; Abbeyleix House (1773) designed by James Wyatt; formerly famous for its carpet industry; designated a heritage town of Ireland. Abbeyleix or Abbeylaois (Maini…
Radical activist and writer, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. After graduating from Brandeis University (1959), he joined civil-rights workers in the South before returning to Worcester to work as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company. He cut his teeth as an activist in Worcester (c.19606), where he especially assisted minority youth. Moving to New York City (1963), he ran a theatre and …
51º43N 0º25W, pop (2000e) 9000. Town in Hertfordshire, SE England, UK; birthplace of Nicholas Breakspear (Pope Adrian IV); parish church of St Lawrence (1154). Abbots Langley is a large village in the English county of Hertfordshire. Nicholass Breakspear who became Pope Adrian IV, the only English Pope, was born here. It is presumed that after the death of his wife, h…
Comedy film partners: Bud Abbott, originally William A Abbott (18961974), born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA and Lou Costello, originally Louis Francis Cristillo (190859), born in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. Both men had theatrical experience before teaming up as a comedy double act, Costello playing the clown and Abbott his straight man. They began performing on radio (1938), appeared on Bro…
A reduced version of a word, phrase, or sentence. Initialisms or alphabetisms reflect the separate pronunciation of the initial letters of the constituent words (TV, COD); acronyms are pronounced as single words (NATO, laser); clipped forms or clippings are reductions of longer forms, usually removing the end of the word (ad from advertisement), but sometimes the beginning (plane), or both beginni…
Philanthropist and art patron, born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. She was the daughter of Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, and the mother of Nelson A Rockefeller. A debutante who married John D Rockefeller Jr (1901), she directed much of her generous philanthropy towards art. She was instrumental in founding (1929) the Museum of Modern Art, of which she was a major benefactor, and with her husband she…
Abolitionist, born in Pelham, Massachusetts, USA. Inspired by her Quaker faith, by 1835 she was becoming active in the anti-slavery movement in Lynn, MA where she was a teacher. Her first major public address on the subject, at the second women's anti-slavery convention in Philadelphia (1838), was so effective that she was persuaded by abolitionist leaders to devote herself to being an anti-slaver…
Emir of Córdoba, who ruled from 912 and proclaimed himself caliph in 929. Under him the Umayyad emirate reached the peak of its power, extending its boundaries in successful campaigns against the Fatimids and the kings of León and Navarre. Abd-ar-Rahman III, (Arabic: عبد الرحمن الثالث ) Emir and Caliph of Cordoba (912-961) was the greatest and most successful of the princes…
A political situation which occurs when the ruler of a country gives up the throne or other high office. Most abdications take place under duress: the ruler is forced to abdicate following a wartime defeat, a revolution, or a constitutional crisis. Napoleon Bonaparte was forced to abdicate twice - once in 1814, and again in 1815. Edward VIII of Britain was forced to abdicate in 1936 because of pub…
A small stork (Ciconia abdimii) native to Africa and the SW Arabian Peninsula; feeds in drier habitats than other storks; eats insects, especially locusts. …
The lower part of the trunk, extending from within the pelvic floor to under the cover of the chest wall. Except for the vertebral column, pelvis, and ribs, it is bounded entirely by muscles. It contains most of the alimentary canal (from stomach to rectum), the liver, pancreas, spleen, kidneys, and bladder, and the internal organs of reproduction. The cavity has a lining (the peritoneum) which co…
Senegalese politician and president (19812000), born in Louga, NW Senegal. After studying at Paris University he returned to work as a civil servant before entering politics, becoming prime minister in 1970, then president. In 1982 he became president of the loose Confederation of Senegambia, and was re-elected president of Senegal (1983, 1988, 1993). Abdou Diouf (Wolof: Abdu Juuf) (born …
Jazz pianist, born in Cape Town, SW South Africa. His group, Jazz Epistles, recorded the country's first black jazz album (1960). He was invited by Duke Ellington (1962) to work in the USA. Since then, he has worked as a soloist and leader in America and Europe, notably in the 1980s with his septet Ekaya (Home). He also plays cello, soprano saxophone, and flute, and is remarkable for his jazz …
Theoretical physicist, born in Jhang Maghiana, C Pakistan. He studied at Punjab University and Cambridge, and became professor of mathematics at the Government College of Lahore and at Punjab University (19514). He lectured at Cambridge (19546), and became professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College, London (1957), and founder-director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physi…
Jurist, born in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. After teaching at Yale Law School (19337), he served in government agencies (193745) before becoming an adviser to the US delegation at the organizational meeting of the UN (1945). He began to practise law privately in Washington, DC, combining a corporate practice with cases in defence of civil liberties. He became an unofficial adviser to Lyndon Johns…
Basketball promoter, born in London, UK. He went to the USA as a boy, and while coaching a boys' basketball team at Welles Park, IL he was invited to coach a Negro American Legion team. When this team lost its sponsorship, he kept it together himself, re-christened it the Harlem Globetrotters, had his tailor-father make new uniforms, and arranged for their first game in Hinckley, IL (Jan 1927). In…
Clergyman and politician, born in Umtali (now Mutare), E Zimbabwe. Ordained in 1953, he studied in the USA and in 1968 became the first black bishop of the United Methodist Church. In 1971 he became president of the African National Council (ANC), a non-violent organization intended to pave the way for an internal settlement of the political situation in Rhodesia. In 1975 the ANC split into two fa…
Poet, novelist, and essayist, born in Poitiers, W France. He won the national poetry prize with his first collection of poems, Les Familiers (1906), and took up the psychological novel with La Vie et l'amour (1913, Life and Love). He was minister of education in the Vichy government (19424), fled to Spain and was sentenced to death in his absence (1945). He returned to France (1958) and was bani…
Film-maker, born in Paris, France. A pioneer of French cinema with Louis Delluc and Marcel l'Herbier, his greatest work was Napoléon Bonaparte (1926), which also achieved a belated success in Paris in 1983 in an improved version. He was the first winner of the Grand Prix national du cinéma in 1974, and received the César d'honneur in 1980. Abel Gance (October 25, 1889 - November 10, 1981…
51º43N 3º27W, pop (2001e) 27 500. Town in the Cynon Valley, Rhondda Cynon Taff, S Wales; 32 km/20 mi NNW of Cardiff; birthplace of Henry Austin Bruce (Baron Aberdare). Aberdare (Welsh: Aberdâr) is an industrial town in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff in the traditional county of Glamorgan, in south Wales, situated (as the name implies) at the confluence of the Dar and …
57°10N 2°04W, pop (2000e) 223 200. Seaport city council (Aberdeen City), and administrative centre of Aberdeenshire council, NE Scotland, UK; on the North Sea, between Rivers Dee (S) and Don (N), 92 km/57 mi NE of Dundee; royal burgh since 1179; airport; helicopter port; ferries to Orkney and Shetland; railway; university (1494); Robert Gordon University (1992, formerly Institute of Technolo…
51°42N 3°21W. Village in Merthyr Tydfil county, S Wales, UK; coal-mining region; scene of major disaster in 1966 when a landslip of mining waste engulfed several houses and the school, killing 144, including 116 children. Aberfan (in Welsh, the 'f' is pronounced like the 'v' in English) is a small village 5 miles (8 km) south of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. On Friday, 21 Oct…
52°25N 4°05W, pop (2000e) 12 700. Administrative centre of Cardiganshire county, W Wales, UK; university and resort town, at the mouth of the Ystwyth and Rheidol Rivers, on Cardigan Bay; built around a castle of Edward I, 1227; college of University of Wales (1872); National Library of Wales (1955); railway; boatbuilding, brewing, agricultural trade; university theatre summer season. Ab…
5°19N 4°01W, pop (2000e) 3 049 000. Industrial seaport and former capital (193583) of Côte d'Ivoire, W Africa; on N shore of Ebrié lagoon; port facilities added in early 1950s; airport; railway; university (1958); farm machinery, metallurgy, car assembly, electrical appliances, plastics, soap, coffee and cocoa trade, timber products, tobacco, food processing, beer, chemicals; Ifan museum.…
Letter writer, born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, USA. In 1764 she married John Adams, who worked away from home, which prompted her to become a prolific letter writer. Her correspondence became highly valued as a contemporary source of social history and comment during the early days of the republic. Her husband became second president of the USA (17971801), and she was the first lady of the newl…
US first lady (18503), born in Stillwater, New York, USA. She was a schoolteacher, and Millard Fillmore was originally one of her students; they married in 1826. She started the first White House library, but died of bronchial pneumonia shortly after the presidency began. Abigail Powers Fillmore (March 13, 1798 – March 30, 1853), wife of Millard Fillmore, was First Lady of the United St…
Suffragist, born near Groveland, Illinois, USA. She moved with her family to Oregon (1852) and taught at a school briefly. In 1853 she married a farmer, but in 1863 he was injured and became an invalid. She supported their six children as a teacher and by running a millinery shop, and became keenly aware of inequality between the sexes. She organized the Equal Rights Society in Oregon (1870) and, …
Journalist, born in Sioux City, Iowa, USA. The twin of rival agony aunt Ann Landers, she launched her own Dear Abby advice column in 1956. It too became an internationally syndicated column, and she gained a dedicated following as well as many public service awards, particularly for publicizing public-health issues. Abigail Van Buren is a pseudonym or pen name used by the writers of…
38º55N 97º14W, pop (2000e) 6500. Seat of Dickinson Co, EC Kansas, USA; located on the Smoky Hill R in the heart of an agricultural region; settled in 1850s; incorporated in 1869 and prospered as the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail, a major cattle-driving route; birthplace of C Olin Ball; Eisenhower Centre includes the boyhood home of Dwight D Eisenhower; Greyhound Hall of Fame; trade an…
US soldier, born in Ballston Spa, New York, USA. He trained at West Point, and fought in the Mexican War and against the Seminoles in Florida. He commanded the Federal troops that fired the first shot in defence of Fort Sumter as the Civil War commenced, and then distinguished himself at the Battle of Gettysburg. He retired from the army in 1873, and wrote many newspaper and magazine articles as w…
Protestant clergyman, born in Gardner, Massachusetts, USA. The son of a Revolutionary War veteran, he preached as a Baptist. Appointed to a Universalist pulpit in Charlestown, MA (1812), he soon grew to doubt the divine origin of the Scriptures. Becoming increasingly radical, he moved to Philadelphia and later New York before breaking with the Universalists in 1829. In 1838, after a series of fail…
The scientific study of the nature and origins of psychologically abnormal states. In contrast to clinical psychology and psychiatry, where the emphasis is on the assessment and treatment of individuals, abnormal psychology seeks more general theories about disorders, in such areas as personality, intelligence, and social behaviour. Abnormal psychology is the scientific study of abnormal be…
7°14N 2°00E, pop (2000e) 90 900. Town in Zou province, S Benin, W Africa; 105 km/65 mi NW of Porto Novo; capital of old Yoruba kingdom of Dahomey; burned by the Portuguese and abandoned to the French, 1892; Royal Palace of Djema, including the tomb of King Gbehanzin (still guarded by women), a world heritage site. Abomey is a town in Benin, formerly the capital of the ancient kingdom …
The spontaneous or induced termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable. In the UK and for legal purposes, this is taken to be the 24th week, although some fetuses expelled before then may survive. In the USA and in some European countries, the time limit may be set some weeks earlier. There is no consensus on the matter in the USA, but the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) made …
Psychologist, born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. A professor at Brooklyn College (193751) and Brandeis University (195161), he is regarded as the founder of humanistic psychology. His seminal Motivation and Personality (1954) explored the new humanistic model, and introduced such psychological concepts as the need hierarchy, self-actualization, and peak experience. Born in Brooklyn, New Y…
Mathematician, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is known primarily for his work with associative and non-associative algebras and Riemann matrices. A National Academy of Science member, he chaired the University of Chicago Mathematics Department (195862), fought for government funding of mathematics during the 1950s and 1960s, and was vice-president of the International Mathematical Union (197…
Editor and writer, born in Podberezya, Russia. He continued his early revolutionary political activism after emigrating to the USA (1882), where he taught English to immigrants. He founded (1897) and for 50 years edited the influential Yiddish-language Jewish Daily Forward. He also wrote realistic novels of Jewish immigrant life, written variously in English and Yiddish; the best known in English …
Poet, born in London, UK. He studied at Cambridge, and was publishing poetry at the age of 15. During the Civil War he went with the queen to Paris, was sent on Royalist missions, and carried on her correspondence in cipher with the king. After the Restoration (1660), he retired to Chertsey. His main works were the influential Pindarique Odes (1656), and his unfinished epic on King David, Davideis…
Mathematician, born in Vitry, NE France. A Protestant, he moved to England in c.1686, and supported himself by teaching. His principal work is The Doctrine of Chances (1718) on probability theory, but he is best remembered for the fundamental formula on complex numbers known as de Moivre's theorem. Abraham de Moivre (May 26, 1667 in Vitry-le-François, Champagne, France – November 27, 175…
Educational reformer, born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. After a 19-year career in secondary school teaching, he graduated in psychology at Harvard (1906). His Carnegie Foundation report on medical education in the USA and Canada (1910), exposed the abuses of a profit-driven system lacking standards for students, curricula, or facilities, and sparked a revolution in American medical education. He …
Geologist, born in Wehrau, Germany. A teacher at Freiburg in Saxony from 1775, he was one of the first to frame a classification of rocks, and gave his name to the Wernerian or Neptunian theory of deposition, which he advocated in controversy with James Hutton. Abraham Gottlob Werner (September 25, 1749 or 1750 – June 30, 1817), was a German geologist who set out a controversial theory ab…
Paediatrician, born in Westphalia, Germany. After taking his MD from the University of Bonn (1851), he was imprisoned for treason in the German Revolution of 1848. He escaped (1853) and eventually made his way to New York City, where he established a famous paediatrics practice. The first professor of diseases of children in the USA (1860, New York Medical College), he opened the first free clinic…
Educator and writer, born in Warsaw, Poland. He studied and taught Jewish theology in Germany until 1938, when he was deported to Warsaw. He went to the USA in 1941, and became professor of Jewish ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (194672). A spokesman on issues of social injustice, he wrote many scholarly and popular books including Unknown Documents on the Hist…
Dutch theologian, politician, and prime minister (19015), born in Maassluis, W Netherlands. A minister of religion (186374), he was editor-in-chief of the anti-revolutionary newspaper De Standaard from 1872, became co-founder of the Anti-Revolutionaire Partij (ARP) and was its leader until his death, and a member of parliament (ARP, 18747, 18941901, 190812). In 1880 he founded the Free U…
US statesman and 16th president (18615), born near Hodgenville, Kentucky, USA. Born in a log cabin to a modest farm family, he moved early with his family to Indiana. His mother died in 1818 and his stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston, provided a fine model who inspired the ambitious but unschooled boy to discipline and educate himself. The Lincolns moved to Illinois (1830) and, after twice sailing …
Painter, born in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1917, 1919), and lived in Paris (192040) before returning to New York. He taught at several schools, including the New School, New York (194755) and Yale University (19523). He is known for his surrealistic and religious paintings, such as Moses (1957). Abraham Rattner (1893-1978…
Logician and mathematician, born in Walbrzych, Poland (formerly, Waldenburg, Germany). Fleeing Nazism, he worked with the British during the war on aerodynamics. This study led him to Princeton (19601) where he made his best-known discovery, non-standard analysis. Teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles (19627), and Yale (196773), he is known for work in algebra and model theor…
Legal scholar, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He taught at Harvard Law School (195561, 1965) and served as a State Department adviser (19614). Considered an authority on international law, he was appointed chairman of the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation Committee (197780). Abram Chayes (July 18, 1922-April 16, 2000), American scholar of international law closely associate…
Economist, born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. At the age of 24 he published a widely recognized article which facilitated a new view of welfare economics. He was one of America's leading experts in Soviet economics, a professor at both Columbia University and Harvard, and a consultant to the Rand Corp. Abram Bergson, born Abram Burk (April 21, 1914, New York City - April 23, 2003), was an Am…
Third and favourite son of King David of Israel in the Old Testament. A handsome, vain young man, he rebelled against his father and drove him from Jerusalem, but in an ensuing battle he was killed by Joab. Absalom or Avshalom (אַבְשָׁלוֹם "Father/Leader of/is peace", Standard Hebrew Avšalom, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAḇšālôm), in the Bible, is the third son of David, king of…
A localized collection of pus in an organ or tissue, surrounded by an inflammatory reaction which forms a well-defined wall (an abscess cavity). It is commonly due to infection with pus-forming (pyogenic) bacteria, but occasionally a foreign body is responsible. An abscess is a collection of pus that has accumulated in a cavity formed by the tissue on the basis of an infectious process (usu…
The temperature of a system for which a reversible isothermal process involves no heat transfer. It represents the state of lowest possible total energy of a system, and is denoted by 0 K (?273..15°C). It is unattainable, according to the third law of thermodynamics. Absolute zero is the lowest possible temperature where nothing could be colder and no heat energy remains in a substance. A…
A declaration of forgiveness of sins. In Christian worship, it is understood as God's gracious work in Jesus Christ, pronounced by a priest or minister either in private after confession or as part of the liturgy in public worship. Absolution in a liturgical church refers to the pronouncement of God's forgiveness of sins. Absolution is an integral part of the sacrament of penanc…
A theory of kingship elaborated and practised in early modern Europe, associated notably with Louis XIV of France; sometimes equated loosely with systems of government in which one person exercises unlimited power. Absolute power was justified by the belief that monarchs were God's representatives on Earth. Armed with this notion of Divine Right, kings were owed unquestioning obedience by their su…
A form of art in which there is no attempt to represent objects or persons, but which relies instead on lines, colours, and shapes alone for its aesthetic appeal. It seems to have emerged c.1910, and was partly a reaction against 19th-c Realism and Impressionism. Early abstract artists include Kandinsky, Miró, Pevsner, and Brancusi. Stylistically, abstract art ranges from the geometrical (Mon…
The expression in art of the meaninglessness of human existence. Originating in France in the early 1950s, it is explored in Camus' Le Mythe de Sysiphe (1942, The Myth of Sisyphus), where human efforts are seen as pointless but compulsory. Its potential for comedy and terror has been exploited especially in the theatre (Theatre of the Absurd), as in the plays of Ionesco, Beckett, Albee, Stoppard, …
Syrian historian, born in Armenia. A master of Syriac, Arabic, and Greek, he was equally learned in philosophy, theology, and medicine. At the age of 20, he was made a bishop, and as Bishop of Aleppo rose to the second highest dignity among the Eastern Jacobite (Monophysite) Christians. Abu al-Faraj may refer to: …
22°22N 31°38E. The site of two huge sandstone temples carved by Pharaoh Rameses II (c.13041273 BC) out of the Nile bank near Aswan; now a world heritage site. They were dismantled and relocated in the 1960s when the rising waters of the newly-constructed Aswan High Dam threatened their safety. Abu Simbel (Arabic أبو سنبل or أبو سمبل) is an archaeological site comprising tw…
9°05N 7°30E, pop (2000e) 472 000. New capital (from 1991) of Nigeria, in Federal Capital Territory, C Nigeria; planned in 1976, to relieve pressure on the infrastructure of Lagos; under construction at the geographical centre of the country; government offices began moving from Lagos in the 1980s. Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria, with an estimated population of 2.5 million. …
The unjust or improper use of legal proceedings. In civil law, it includes the bringing of a suit where there is no reasonable prospect of success, or for such reasons as to burden the defendant with an onerous lawsuit. It is also abuse of process to take court proceedings, whether civil or criminal, which are clearly groundless, or doomed to failure. A bankruptcy petition made as a means of extor…
A place of learning or association formed for scientific, literary, artistic, or musical purposes, the word deriving from the Greek hero Academus, who gave his name to the olive grove where Plato taught (387 BC). From the Renaissance the term was applied in Europe to institutions of higher learning (eg the Accademia della Crusca, 1587) and advanced teaching (until the term university became wi…
An American academy widely known since 1927 for its annual awards for creative merit and craftsmanship in film production, commonly known as the Oscars. It has been influential in establishing technical standards. The awards are announced in a widely publicized ceremony in March, and deal with a wide range of categories, including awards of merit for technical achievement in film science and engin…
Part of France's American empire; what is today Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, Canada. The first settlement was established at Port Royal in 1605 by Champlain, and the area was exchanged between France and England until the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) handed most of Acadia to Britain. In 1755, 10 000 Acadians were evicted from the territory by the British for resolving to purs…
A plant with thick, prickly leaves (Acanthus spinosus), stylized representations of which are often used to decorate mouldings or carved parts of a building. It was first used by the Greeks in the 5th-c BC, especially on the capitals of Corinthian columns. In recent centuries it is often found in carved furniture decoration. (Family: Acanthaceae.) Acanthus (plural: acanthus, rarely acanthus…
6°51N 99°56W, pop (2000e) 713 000. Port and resort town in Guerrero state, S Mexico; on the Pacific Ocean, 310 km/193 mi SW of Mexico City; airfield; leading Mexican tourist resort (the Mexican Riviera); historic town area of Fort San Diego; badly damaged by hurricane Pauline in 1997. Acapulco (Officially: Acapulco de Juárez) is a city and major sea port in the state of Guerrero …
Acronym for Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, a UK body set up under the Employment Protection Act (1975) under the management of a council appointed by the secretary of state for employment. Its function is to provide facilities for conciliation, arbitration, and mediation in industrial disputes. Acas, the employment relations service (previously known as the Advisory, Concil…
For linear motion, the rate of change of velocity with time; equals force divided by mass; symbol a, units m/s2; a vector quantity. For rotational motion, the rate of change of angular velocity with time; equals torque divided by moment of inertia; angular acceleration symbol ?, units radians/s2; a vector quantity. In physics or physical science, acceleration (symbol: a) is defined as the r…
The acceleration on an object close to the Earth, due to the Earth's gravitational field; symbol g. Its value is taken as 9·806 65 m/s2 (standard acceleration of gravity, internationally adopted value), but its actual value varies between 9·76 and 9·83 over the Earth's surface because of geological variations, and decreases with height above sea level. The nominal acceleration due to gr…
An instrument which measures an object's acceleration (rate of change in velocity). It is used to detect earthquakes (seismographs), measure vibrations, and provide input to navigation and guidance equipment. While distance and speed can be measured directly, acceleration cannot. Instead, an accelerometer measures the force that is applied when a mass accelerates, using Newton's second law of moti…
The emphasis on a syllable in speech, resulting from a combination of loudness, pitch, and duration; also known as accentuation, and sometimes referred to as stress. It can be clearly heard in the contrast between the two forms of present (noun), present (verb). A similar notion is found in music, where a particular note or beat can be given extra emphasis. Accent may refer to: …
The features of pronunciation which mark a speaker's regional background or social class. Accent is to be distinguished from dialect, which involves the study of other linguistic features, such as grammar and vocabulary. Accent may refer to: …
A sparrow-like bird native to N Africa, Europe, and Asia; brownish-grey to chestnut above, often streaked; grey beneath; feeds on ground; eats insects in summer, seeds in winter. (Genus: Prunella, 12 species. Family: Prunellidae.) …
Before the Children Act (1989) in English and Welsh law, a situation where custody of a child was granted by a court to a parent or guardian following a divorce, a judicial separation, or the annulment of a marriage, and the non-custodial parent was given permission to be with the child. The concept of access has now been replaced by that of contact. …
The length of time required to retrieve information from computer memory or other computer storage media, such as magnetic disks or tapes. Access times from integrated circuit memory are much shorter than those from magnetic disks. …
A person who knowingly, voluntarily, and with a common interest participates with at least one other in committing a crime, either as the person who actually carries out the crime (principal), or as accessory (or secondary party). The accessory is someone who either incites the crime or assists the principal before or after it has been committed. At law, an accomplice is a person who active…
A portable musical instrument of the reed organ type, fed with air from bellows activated by the player. In the most advanced models a treble keyboard is played with the right hand, while the left operates (usually) six rows of buttons, producing bass notes and chords. The earliest type was patented in Vienna in 1829, since when, despite continuous improvements to its tone and mechanism, it has re…
The profession which deals with matters relating to money within an organization. Traditionally its role was that of recording the organization's economic transactions; but it now handles a wide range of activities, including financial planning, management accounting, taxation, and treasury management (managing money), as well as recording and presenting accounts for management, owners, and the ta…
5°33N 0°15W, pop (2000e) 1 253 000. Seaport capital of Ghana, on the Gulf of Guinea coast, 415 km/258 mi SW of Lagos; founded as three forts and trading posts, 17th-c; capital of Gold Coast, 1877; capital of Ghana, 1957; airport; railway; university (1948) at Legon 13 km/8 mi W; food processing, fishing, brewing, engineering, scrap metal trade, cacao, gold, timber, fruit, export of zoo an…
53º46N 2º21W, pop (2002e) 36 800. Town in Hyndburn borough, Lancashire, NW England, UK; 8 km/5 mi E of Blackburn; birthplace of Sir Harrison Birtwistle; railway; coal, textiles, bricks, tiles, engineering; Accrington Stanley Football Club (non-league). Accrington is a small former mill town in Lancashire, England; The 2001 census gave the population of Accrington town prop…
A process involving the adoption and acceptance of the ideas, beliefs, and symbols of another society. This may occur by immigration, when incoming members of a society adopt its culture, or by emulation, when one society takes on cultural features from another, such as happened in colonial contexts. Acculturation is the modification of the culture of a group or individual as a result of co…
A device to store electricity, by accepting a charge and later releasing it; also called a battery. It is a leadacid system, with plates of lead oxides and an electrolyte of sulphuric acid. Each cell produces 2 volts of direct current. Accumulators are widely used to start car engines, and also to propel electric vehicles such as milk floats. Other systems include nickel-iron (Nife) and nickel-c…
CH3CHO, IUPAC ethanal, boiling point 21°C. The product of gentle oxidation of ethanol, intermediate in the formation of acetic acid; a colourless liquid with a sharp odour. A reducing agent, the compound is actually the one detected in the breathalyzer test. Acetaldehyde, sometimes known as ethanal, is an organic chemical compound with the formula CH3CHO or MeCHO. In the ch…
CH3COOH, IUPAC ethanoic acid, boiling point 118°C. The product of oxidation of ethanol. The pure substance is a viscous liquid with a strong odour. Its aqueous solutions are weakly acidic; partially neutralized solutions have a pH of about 5. Vinegar is essentially a 5% aqueous solution of acetic acid. Acetic acid, also known as ethanoic acid, is an organic chemical compound best recognize…
CH3COCH3, IUPAC propanone, boiling point 56°C. A volatile liquid with an odour resembling ethers. It is a very widely used solvent, especially for plastics and lacquers. In chemistry, acetone (also known as propanone, dimethyl ketone, 2-propanone, propan-2-one and β-ketopropane) is the simplest representative of the ketones. …
CH3CO, IUPAC ethanoyl. A functional group in chemistry, whose addition to a name usually indicates its substitution for hydrogen in a compound. In organic chemistry, acetyl, sometimes called ethanoyl, is a functional group, the acyl of acetic acid, with chemical formula -COCH3. The acetyl radical contains a methyl group single-bonded to a carbonyl. The acetyl radical is …
An acetyl ester of choline (C7H16NO2+) which functions as a neurotransmitter in most animals with nervous systems. In mammals it is present in the brain, spinal cord, and ganglia of the autonomic nervous system, as well as the terminals of motor neurones (which control skeletal muscle fibres) and the post-ganglionic fibres of the parasympathetic nervous system. The chemical compound acetylc…
HC?CH, IUPAC ethyne, boiling point ?84°C. The simplest alkyne, a colourless gas formed by the action of water on calcium carbide. It is an important starting material in organic synthesis, and is used as a fuel, especially (mixed with oxygen) in the oxyacetylene torch. Acetylene (IUPAC name: ethyne) is the simplest alkyne hydrocarbon, consisting of two hydrogen atoms and two carbon atoms c…
The archaic name for the Greeks, found frequently in Homer. The Achaeans (in Greek Ἀχαιοί, Akhaioi) is the collective name given to the Greek forces in Homer's Iliad (used 598 times). An alternative name, used interchangeably, is Danaans (Δαναοί, used 138 times) and Argives (Ἀργεῖοι, used 29 times). "Achaeans" is the name of the tribe that, reinforced by the Aeol…
In classical Greece, the inhabitants of Achaea, the territory to the S of the Corinthian Gulf. The Achaeans (in Greek Ἀχαιοί, Akhaioi) is the collective name given to the Greek forces in Homer's Iliad (used 598 times). An alternative name, used interchangeably, is Danaans (Δαναοί, used 138 times) and Argives (Ἀργεῖοι, used 29 times). "Achaeans" is the name of the…
A dry fruit, not splitting to release the single seed. It is usually small, often bearing hooks, spines, or other structures which aid in dispersal. An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. In many species, what we think of as the "seed" is actually an achene, a fruit containing the seed. Typical achenes are the fruits of buttercup, buckwhe…
In Greek mythology, the chasm or abyss of the Underworld, and the name of one of the rivers there which the souls of the dead have to cross. It is also the name of a river in Epirus, which disappeared underground, and was thought to be an entrance to Hades. The Acheron is a river in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. Acheron translates as "river of woe" and it was believed to be a branc…
Writer and journalist, born in Rome, Latium, Italy. He wrote a number of plays (Centocinquanta la gallina canta, 1924) and novels whose humour rests on illogical events and paradox (Agosto, moglie mia non ti conosco, 1930; Il povero Piero, 1959). At its best, his work seems to anticipate the Theatre of the Absurd. …
Italian politician and shipowner, born in Piano di Sorrento, Campania, SW Italy. He founded in 1923 Italy's biggest shipping company, and was mayor of Naples (19518). He was president of the Partito Nazionale Monarchico (National Monarchist Party), then of the PDIUM (Italian Democratic Party of Monarchist Unity). He was a monarchist deputy (195868) and senator (196872). After the Monarchist …
Italian politician, born in Turin, Piedmont, NW Italy. He became leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1898, and the following year initiated a programme of change that would lead to the PCI becoming PDS or Partito Democratico della Sinistra (Democratic Party of the Left) and dropping the hammer and sickle symbol. He resigned from the leadership in 1994 and became president of the Foreign…
Italian politician, born in Gallipoli, NW Turkey. A member of the Fascist action squads, he became deputy leader of the Partito Nazionale Fascista or PNF (National Fascist Party) (19213, 192631). Mussolini rewarded him by making him party leader (19319). As such, he emphasized the more showy and in-your-face elements of the Fascist doctrine. He was then in charge of the MVSN (Milizia Volonta…
A legendary Greek hero, son of Peleus and Thetis, who dipped him in the R Styx so that he was invulnerable, except for the heel where she had held him. When the Trojan War began, his mother hid him among girls on Scyros, but he was detected by Odysseus and so went to Troy. The whole story of the Iliad turns on his excessive pride; in his anger he sulks in his tent. When his friend Patroclus is kil…
An inherited form of dwarfism, in which growth of the limb bones is disproportionately shortened. There is a characteristic bulging of the forehead, and a saddle nose. Circus dwarfs are commonly achondroplastic. Achondroplasia is a type of genetic disorder that is a common cause of dwarfism. This condition occurs at a frequency of about 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 40,000 births. …
Usually, a substance reacting with metals to liberate hydrogen gas, or dissolving in water with dissociation and the formation of hydrogen ions. Acids are classed as strong or weak depending on the extent to which this dissociation occurs. More general concepts of acidity are that an acid is a proton donor or an electron pair acceptor. Strong acids are corrosive. The word "acid" comes from …
A term first used in the 19th-c to describe polluted rain in Manchester, England. Colloquially it is used for polluted rainfall associated with the burning of fossil fuels. Acid pollution can be wet (rain, snow, mist) or dry (gases, particles). A number of gases are involved, particularly sulphur dioxide (SO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NO). Reactions in the atmosphere lead to the production of sulph…
Jazz musician, composer, and bandleader, born in Pensford, Somerset, SW England, UK. He took up the clarinet while doing National Service, later joining Ken Colyer's Band as clarinettist, and forming the Bristol Paramount Jazz Band in 1951. Hit singles include Somerset (1960), Stranger on the Shore (1961, first number 1 simultaneously in UK and USA), and Aria (1976). Still performing a…
A chronic inflammation of the sebaceous glands in the skin (which secrete a fatty product known as sebum), notably affecting the face, upper chest, and back. It is particularly found in adolescents. Acne is a group of skin rashes that have different causes. …
The fruit of the oak tree, actually a specialized nut borne in a cup-shaped structure, the cupule. Acorns are one of the most important wildlife foods in areas where oaks occur. Large mammals such as pigs, bears and deer also consume large amounts of acorns; In some of the large oak forests in southwest Europe, pigs are still turned loose in oak groves in the autumn, to fill and fatte…
A device allowing a computer or terminal to communicate with other computers over a telephone network using a standard telephone handset. Digitally coded data is transmitted as audio signals. A combination of the BT line socket and the modem on a chip has made the acoustic coupler obsolete. In telecommunications, the term acoustic coupler has the following meanings: Prior to the…
The study of sound: the production, detection, and propagation of sound waves, and the absorption and reflection of sound. It includes the study of how electrical signals are converted into mechanical signals, as in loudspeakers, and the converse, as in microphones; also, how sound is produced in musical instruments, and perceived by audiences in concert halls; the protection of workers from damag…
An acronym for a grouping of c.70 developing countries from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. It was established in the 1970s to facilitate the making of agreements with the European Union on economic assistance and trade. The countries are: Annex VI of the agreement lists the following designations: …
32°55N 35°04E, pop (2000e) 53 000. Ancient town in Northern district, NW Israel; resort centre on the Mediterranean Sea; capital of the Crusader kingdom after capture of Jerusalem in 1187; railway; ancient and modern harbour; fishing, light industry; crypt of the Knights Hospitallers of St John, 18th-c city walls, 18th-c mosque. An acre is the name of a unit of area in a number of diffe…
C13H9N, melting point 111°C. A coal-tar base structurally related to anthracene. An important class of dyestuffs is derived from it. Acridine, C13H9N, is an organic compound and a nitrogen heterocycle. Acridine is also used to describe compounds containing the C13N tricycle. Acridine is structurally related to anthracene with one of the central carbon atoms is replaced by nitro…
An adult disorder which arises from the over-secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary gland, usually due to a tumour. There is enlargement of many tissues, with coarsening and thickening of the subcutaneous tissues and the skin, and enlargement of the skull, jaw, hands, and feet. Acromegaly (from Greek akros "high" and megas "large" - extremities enlargement) is a hormonal disorder that…
The citadel of ancient Athens. Rising high above the city, the fortified outcrop contained the national treasury and many sacred sites and shrines, most of them (such as the Parthenon and the Erechtheum) associated with the worship of Athene, the patron goddess of Athens. The present ruins date mainly from the second half of the 5th-c BC. The term acropolis in its general sense is not restricted t…
CH2=CH.COOH, IUPAC prop-2-enoic acid. The simplest unsaturated carboxylic acid. Its nitrile, CH2=CH.C?N, is the monomer of a range of polymers used as fibres and paints. Its methyl ester and the related CH2=C(CH3)COOCH3, methylmethacrylate, form other polymers used in paints, adhesives, and safety glass. Acrylic acid or 2-propenoic acid is a chemical compound (formula C3H4O2) and it is th…
A bill sanctioned by the US legislature, consisting of the two houses of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The bill must then be signed by the president to become law. An Act of Congress is a statute or resolution adopted by both houses of the United States Congress to which one of the following events has happened: The President promulgates Acts of Congress…
In law, any natural phenomenon such as an earthquake, hurricane, or flood which, without human intervention, exclusively and directly causes an accident or injury; known in Scots law as a damnum fatale. An exceptionally severe gust of wind which directly causes a car to veer off the road constitutes an act of God. Heavy rain or fog to which drivers do not respond appropriately, with the result tha…
A bill which has passed five stages (first reading, second reading, committee stage, report stage, third reading) in both houses of the UK parliament, and received the royal assent. The same kind of procedure applies in other parliamentary systems, although the specific stages through which a bill passes may vary. By constitutional convention, a Bill which contains provisions significantly …
A hunter in Greek mythology, whose story epitomizes the fate of a mortal who encounters a god. He came upon Artemis, the goddess of chastity, while she was bathing and therefore naked: she threw water at him, changing him into a stag, so that he was pursued and then killed by his own hounds. In Greek mythology, Actaeon (or Aktaion), son of Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theb…
A disorder caused by infection with Actinomyces israeli. Chronic abscesses are formed in many tissues, notably in and around the face and neck, where they discharge onto the skin. The filaments of the micro-organism form yellow granular masses in the abscesses (sulphur granules), which can be seen with the aid of a microscope. Actinomycosis (ak-tuh-nuh-my-KOH-sihs), is a rare infectious dis…
In mechanics, the difference between kinetic energy K and potential energy V (K?V), summed over time; symbol I or S, units J.s (joule.second). Formally, action is the sum over time of the lagrangian. It is crucial to the least-action formulation of mechanics, and to the path-integral formulation of quantum theory. Action may refer to: In music In other areas …
A form of abstract art which flourished in the USA from the late 1940s, its leading exponent being Jackson Pollock. The snappy term was introduced by the critic Harold Rosenberg in 1952 in preference to the more cumbersome abstract expressionism, though the latter has not gone out of use. Many US art historians, for example, consider action painting to be a genre within abstract expressionism. The…
A brief electrical signal transmitted along a nerve or muscle fibre following stimulation. At the site of the action potential, the inside of the fibre temporarily becomes positively charged with respect to the outside, because of a transient change in the permeability of the fibre's plasma membrane to sodium and potassium ions (ie sodium flows in and later potassium flows out of the fibre). It pr…
The arrangement of atoms during a chemical reaction involving two or more reacting molecules which is unstable, and which decomposes either to regenerate starting material or to form products. In chemistry an activated complex is a transitional structure in a chemical reaction that results from an effective collision between molecules and that persists while old bonds are breaking and…
In an optical system, the controlled manipulation of optical elements to compensate for movements and distortions of the system which would otherwise degrade its performance. An example is in astronomy, where large telescope mirrors (c.8 m/25 ft in diameter) flex under their own weight as they move to track celestial objects. The reflecting surface of a suitable thin mirror can be continually mo…
A New Testament book, the second part of a narrative begun in Luke's Gospel, which traces the early progress of Jesus's followers in spreading the Christian faith. It begins with the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, but concentrates largely upon the growth of the Jerusalem Church, its spread to Samaria and Antioch, and the missionary journeys of Paul to Asia Minor, the Aegean lands, and Rome. …
A statistician specializing in life expectancy, sickness, retirement, and accident matters. Actuaries are employed by insurance companies, pension funds, and the government to calculate probability and risk. They advise on the premiums needed to provide pensions and to cover risks of various types. An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncerta…
A mechanical or electrical device used to bring other equipment into operation; sometimes called a servomotor. It commonly refers to the equipment used for the automatic operation of brake valves in car or train brake systems. Some examples of actuators of these various agents include: …
A system of treatment said to be the forerunner of acupuncture. It involves the application of pressure using thumb and fingers, but sometimes also the palms, knees, elbows, and feet, to stimulate acupuncture points and meridians. Practitioners may have a background in martial arts such as tai chi chuan, and the healing aspects of these arts include acupressure techniques together with dietary adv…
(Lat acus needle + punctura piercing) A medical practice known in China for over 3000 years, which has come to attract attention in the West. It consists of the insertion into the skin and underlying tissues of fine needles, usually made of steel, and of varying lengths according to the depth of the target point. The site of insertion of each needle is selected according to the points and …
IUPAC alkanoyl. In chemistry, the general name for an organic functional group R.CO, where R represents H or an alkyl group. In chemistry, the terms acyl or acyl group refer to a functional group obtained from an acid by removal of a hydroxyl group. Most commonly, the acyl group is derived from a carboxylic acid of the form RCOOH. The names of acyl groups are typic…
Countess of Holland, the only daughter of Dirk VII of Holland and Zeeland. She married Louis II, Count of Loon, hoping he would support her claim to Holland against her uncle, the future Count William I. The quarrel was absorbed into the European dispute between the Guelphs/England and the Hohenstaufens (Ghibellines)/France. During hostilities she was captured and taken prisoner to England. Louis …
A computer programming language developed for the US Department of Defense which permits the development of very large computer systems, and can cope with complex real-time applications. It was named after Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, who worked with Charles Babbage. Meanings of Ada: …
Writer and poet, born in St Germans, Norfolk, E England, UK. By the time she married George Cross at the age of 26, she had published short stories, poems, and a book of hymns. They left almost immediately for Australia, where her husband was to be a missionary priest, and settled eventually in Melbourne. A woman with a strong sense of class, her writing called attention to women's social position…
Architectural critic, born in New York City, New York, USA. As architecture critic and columnist of the New York Times (196382) she denounced the despoliation of American cities by banal new buildings and property speculation. Her work helped change zoning laws and promote historic preservation. She won the first Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism in 1970, and was named a MacArthur Fello…
Writer, born in Lodi, Lombardy, N Italy. A primary-school teacher, she achieved popular and critical success with her first collections of feminist-themed poems, Fatalità (1892) and Tempeste (1894). Later collections, Il libro di Mara (1919) and I canti dell'isola (1925), are indebted to d'Annunzio, while Christian and family themes are central to Vespertina (1931) and Il dono (1936). Her prose w…
Actress, born in Limerick, Ireland. A great beauty and especially suited to comic roles, she went to the USA as a child. She debuted at age 14 in Mrs John Drew's company of actors in Philadelphia, and an early programme misprint caused her to change her name to Rehan. She gained popularity in both New York and London, appearing to greatest acclaim in the role of Katherina in The Taming of the Shre…
The Mesopotamian god of storms, known throughout the area of Babylonian influence; the Syrians called him Hadad, and in the Bible he is Rimmon, the god of thunder. He helped to cause the Great Flood in Gilgamesh. His symbol was the lightning held in his hand; his animal was the bull. This article is about the Sumerian god Adad also known as Ishkur. The Akkadian god Adad is cognate in name a…
Actress, born near New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. After the deaths of her stepfather and her first husband, she supported herself as a dancer and circus rider, before making her acting debut in 1857. She appeared throughout the USA in Mazeppa (1861), almost naked, and bound to a wild horse on stage, which brought her considerable notoriety. She was paid £500 a performance (the highest ever salary f…
German archbishop, born of a noble Saxon family. In 1043 he was appointed Archbishop of Bremen and Hamburg. As papal legate to the North (1053), he extended his spiritual sway over Scandinavia, and carried Christianity to the Wends. Adalbert is the name of several historical characters: …
Writer, born in Oberplan, Böhmerwald, S Austria. The son of a weaver, he was brought up by his grandparents and studied law and natural sciences, as well as painting, before becoming a tutor and later inspector of schools. A masterly prose writer of the Biedermeier period, he moved from Romanticism and the influence of Jean Paul towards a harmonious classical ideal in which he prized especially t…
The national poet of Poland, born near Navahrudak, WC Belarus (formerly Novogrodek). He studied at Wilno, and published his first poems in 1822. After travelling in Germany, France, and Italy, he wrote his masterpiece, the epic Pan Tadeusz (1834, Thaddeus). He taught at Lausanne and Paris, and in 1853 went to Italy to organize the Polish legion. Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (pronounced: [miʦ'k
Biblical characters described in the Book of Genesis as the first man and woman created by God. Adam was formed from the dust of the ground and God's breath or spirit; Eve was made from Adam's rib. Biblical traditions describe their life in the garden of Eden, their disobedience and banishment, and the birth of their sons Cain, Abel, and Seth. Their fall into sin is portrayed as a temptation by th…
Poet, musician, and innovator of the earliest French secular theatre, probably born in Arras, N France. He was court poet and musician to Robert II of Artois, and followed him to Naples in 1283. He wrote numerous lyrical plays, polyphonic love songs, motets, rondeaux, and dramatic jeux, such as Le Jeu de la fuellée (c.1276, Play of the Greensward),a kind of satirical review of the inhabitants of …
Painter, born in Frankfurt, WC Germany. He worked in Venice after 1598, and in Rome after 1600. Basing his style on a close study of Tintoretto and other Italian masters, he excelled in the portrayal of atmosphere and effects of light, and exerted a profound influence on the development of German landscape painting. Adam Elsheimer (1578 in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany — 1610 in Rome, Italy)…
Philosopher and historian, born in Logierait, Perth and Kinross, E Scotland, UK. He became professor first of natural philosophy (1759) then of moral philosophy (1764) at Edinburgh, and was a member of the Scottish common sense school of philosophy along with Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart. He travelled to Philadelphia as secretary to the commission sent out by Lord North to negotiate with the…
Showman, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. A horse trader who became circus owner by default in 1862, he thrived in the business until his death, drawing crowds with the great clown Dan Rice, and rivaling P T Barnum. Adam Forepaugh (February 28, 1831-January 20, 1890) was an entrepreneur, businessman, and circus owner. He owned and operated a circus from 1865 through 1890 under vario…
Poet, born in Fayal in the Azores. He was raised and educated in England. A wild and reckless youth, his father sent him to South Australia, where he became a horsebreaker and amateur steeplechaser. During the next few years he moved several times, published three volumes of poetry without success, suffered a series of mishaps, and finally committed suicide. Much of his best work is collected in S…
Novelist and film critic, born in London, UK. He studied at Cambridge University, and became a columnist for The Independent in 1986. His novels include The Darker Proof (1987), Monopolies of Loss (1992), The Waters of Thirst (1993), and Blind Bitter Happiness (1997). Adam Mars-Jones (born October 26, 1954) is a British novelist and critic. He was born in London, studied at West…
Ecclesiastical historian. As a canon at Bremen Cathedral from c.1066, he compiled a monumental Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (History of the Archbishopric of Hamburg, completed c.1075), the most important source for the history, geography, and politics of N Europe for the 811th-c. Adam of Bremen (also: Adam Bremensis) was one of the most important German medieval chroniclers. …
Geologist, born in Dent, Cumbria, NW England, UK. He studied mathematics at Cambridge, and became professor of geology there in 1818. In 1835 he calculated the stratigraphic succession of fossil-bearing rocks in North Wales, naming the oldest of them the Cambrian period. His best-known work was on British Palaeozoic Fossils (1854). With Sir Roderick Murchison he studied the Alps and the Lake Distr…
Economist and philosopher, born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, E Scotland, UK. He studied at Glasgow and Oxford, lectured in Edinburgh, and became professor of logic at Glasgow (1751), but took up the chair of moral philosophy the following year. In 1776 he moved to London, where he published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), the first major work of political economy. Thi…
6°49N 80°30E. Sacred mountain in Sri Lanka, rising to 2243 m/7359 ft NE of Ratnapura; pilgrimages are made (DecApr) to the foot-shaped hollow found on the mountain's summit, believed to be the footprint of Buddha by Buddhists, of Adam by Muslims, of the god Siva by Hindus, and of St Thomas the Apostle by some Christians. Sri Pada, also known as Adam's Peak or Adam's Mount, is a 2,243 …
42º38N 73º08W, pop (2000e) 8800. Town in Berkshire Co, NW Massachusetts, USA; bordered E by the Hoosac Range, W by Mt Greylock (Massachusetts' highest peak); incorporated, 1778; named for patriot Samuel Adams; birthplace of Susan B Anthony, annual celebratory week in her honour (Jul); scenic area of natural beauty with dense forests, mountain streams, and abundant wildlife. …
37°00N 35°19E, pop (2000e) 1 103 000. Commercial capital of Adana province, S Turkey, on R Seyhan; fourth largest city in Turkey; railway; airfield; university (1973); centre of a fertile agricultural region. Coordinates: 37°48′N 35°57′E Adana, Turkey (the ancient Antioch in Cilicia or Antioch on the Sarus) is the capital of Adana Province. One of the larg…
pop (2001e) 1 837 000; area 17 253 km²/6661 sq mi. Province in S Turkey, bounded S by the Mediterranean Sea; drained by the R Seyhan; capital, Adana; chief towns Ceyhan, Kozan and Ozmaniye. Coordinates: 37°48′N 35°57′E Adana, Turkey (the ancient Antioch in Cilicia or Antioch on the Sarus) is the capital of Adana Province. One of the largest and most dyn…
The process of adjustment of an individual organism to environmental conditions. It may occur by natural selection, resulting in improved survival and reproductive success, or involve physiological or behavioural changes that are not genetic. As well as being a process, an adaptation can also be the end product of such a process, ie any structural, behavioural, or physiological character that enha…
The process of taking a work of art from one medium and interpreting it in terms of another. The process can be seen in many domains: in the illustration of scenes from classical epic, mythology, and the Bible through the use of painting, statuary, and stained glass; in the dramatization of sacred texts (eg the mediaeval miracle and mystery plays) and historical records (eg history plays); and…
The process of taking a work of art from one medium and interpreting it in terms of another. The process can be seen in many domains: in the illustration of scenes from classical epic, mythology, and the Bible through the use of painting, statuary, and stained glass; in the dramatization of sacred texts (eg the mediaeval miracle and mystery plays) and historical records (eg history plays); and…
The continual adjustment of optical components to counter the effects of distortions introduced during the passage of light from object to imaging device. The field is especially important in astronomy, where adaptive optical techniques allow most distortion due to atmospheric turbulence to be removed, improving the resolution of ground-based optical telescopes by about ten times. Adaptive optical…
A burst of evolution in which a single ancestral type diverges to fill a number of different ecological roles or modes of life, usually over a relatively short period of time, resulting in the appearance of a variety of new forms. This phenomenon may occur after the colonization of a new habitat, such as the radiation of Darwin's finches in the Galápagos Is. Adaptive radiation describes th…
A substance which maintains or stimulates the body's mechanisms for adapting to change in both the internal and external environment. Health and survival depends upon keeping a physiological balance even in the presence of adverse factors such as infectious organisms, toxins, and radiation. Herbs such as Eleutherococcus senticosus are used as general adaptogens, but the term is also applied to mor…
A horse-like antelope (Addax nasomaculatus) native to N African deserts; resembles the oryx, but has thicker, spiralling horns; pale with clump of brown hair on the forehead; never drinks; lives in herds. The Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) is a critically endangered desert antelope that lives in the several isolated regions in the Sahara. …
A venomous snake of the family Viperidae; three species: Vipera berus (European adder or common European viper, the only venomous British snake) and the puff adders; also Australian death adders of family Elapidae (2 species). The name is used in place of viper for some other species, such as the horned adder/viper and saw-scaled adder/viper. The word was nædre in Old English, which de…
A medical condition resulting from the destruction of the adrenal glands by infection (commonly tuberculosis) or by an auto-immune reaction. A fall in the output of corticosteroids causes physical weakness, mental apathy, low blood pressure, and increased skin pigmentation. Without treatment, death is unavoidable. Taking synthetic steroids by mouth restores the patient to normal health, but these …
A chemical reaction in which a product contains all atoms of two or more reactants, eg the chlorination of ethylene, CH2=CH2+Cl2?CH2Cl.CH2Cl. Similarly, addition polymerization is the formation of a polymer without elimination from the reactants, for example, the formation of polyethylene, nCH2=CH2?(CH2.CH2)n. The product of an addition reaction is known as an adduct. There are two main…
Footballer, born in Mahdia, Tunisia. He joined his first club, Africain de Tunis, at the age of 10 and stayed there for the next 14 years, winning two Tunisian League titles and one Tunisia Cup. He won his first international cap in September 1993, and has since become his country's most capped player, being picked more than 70 times. After mixed fortunes with French club Nantes and Spanish team R…
34°56S 138°36E, pop (2000e) 1 131 000. Port capital of South Australia, on the Torrens R where it meets the St Vincent Gulf; founded, 1837; the first Australian municipality to be incorporated, 1840; airfield; railway; three universities (1874, 1966, 1991); oil refining, motor vehicles, electrical goods, shipbuilding; trade in wool, grain, fruit, wine; fine beaches to the W, including Maslin …
Poet, born in Brooklyn Heights, New York, USA. She studied at Vassar (18971901), then went to Rome, where she studied archaeology (19045). She returned to the USA to work as a schoolteacher (19024, 1908), and lived once again in Rome (190813). Using an innovative verse form called cinquains, she anticipated the Imagist poets, as seen in her Verses (1915). She died of tuberculosis at a sana…
US governor, born in Rockland, Maine, USA. He trained at West Point (1861), and saw continuous action, distinguishing himself at the First Battle of Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Petersburg. Governor of the Mississippi military district (186870), he served in the US Senate (Republican, Mississippi, 18704). Returning as governor of Mississippi (18746), he was unable to quell widespread disorder, …
Poet and biologist, born in Champagne, NE France. The French Revolution drove his parents to Prussia, and he served in the Prussian army (17981807). In Geneva he joined the literary circle of Madame de Staël and later studied at Berlin. He accompanied a Russian exploring expedition round the world as naturalist (181518), and on his return was appointed keeper of the Botanical Garden of Berlin…
Singer, born in Madrid, Spain. At seven she sang in New York, and there made her debut in 1859. She appeared in London in 1861. Her voice was an unusually high, rich, ringing soprano, and she is best remembered for her comedy roles, notably in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. She made her home in Craig-y-Nos Castle, near Swansea, and in 1898 became a naturalized British citizen. Adelina Pat…
C4H5N5. A base derived from purine; one of the five found in nucleic acids, where it is generally paired with thymine or uracil. Adenine is one of the two purine nucleobases used in forming nucleotides of the nucleic acids DNA and RNA. …
A molecule formed by the condensation of adenine, ribose, and triphosphoric acid: HOP(O)OHOP(O)OHOP(O)OHOH. It is a key compound in the mediation of energy in both plants and animals. Energy is stored when it is synthesized from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and phosphoric acid, and released when the reaction is reversed. Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP), discovered in 1929 by Karl…
The principal Sikh scripture, originally called the Granth Sahib (Hindi Revered Book). The name Adi Granth distinguishes it from the Dasam Granth, a later second collection. The text used today is an expanded version of Guru Arjan's original compilation, and is revered by all Sikhs. The Guru Granth Sahib (Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, gurū grantha sāhiba) — …
In thermodynamics, a process in which no heat enters or leaves a system, such as in a well-insulated system, or in some process so rapid that there is not enough time for heat exchange. Sound waves in air involve adiabatic pressure changes. The compression and power strokes of a car engine are also adiabatic. In thermodynamics, an adiabatic process or an isocaloric process is a process in w…
Universalist clergyman and reformer, born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, USA. A Universalist minister who preached throughout Massachusetts (182341), he was founder of the Hopedale Community, one of the first of such American Utopian enterprises, in Milford, MA (184168). He preached non-resistance throughout the Civil War, then saw his community turned into an industrial centre while remaining a…
