Benavente Y Mart�nez, Jacinto

One of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922. He returned drama to reality by way of social criticism: declamatory verse giving way to prose, melodrama to comedy, formula to experience, impulsive action to dialogue and the play of minds. Benavente showed a preoccupation with

Sothern, Edward Hugh

The son of the English comedian Edward Askew Sothern, he made his first stage appearance with his father's company in New York City in 1879. He toured England in 1882 and 1883 and became leading comedian in John

Al Bu Sa'id Dynasty

Ahmad ibn Sa'id, who had been governor of Suhar, Oman, in the 1740s under the Persian Ya'rubids, managed to displace the Ya'rubids by about 1749 and become imam of Oman and of Zanzibar, Pemba, and Kilwa, in East Africa. His successors—known as sayyids, or, later, as sultans—expanded their possessions

Aaron, Hank

For coverage of Aaron's home-run race, see George Plimpton, One for the Record: The Inside Story of Hank Aaron's Chase for the Home-Run Record (1974). Autobiographies include Hank Aaron and Dick Schaap, Home Run: My Life in Pictures (1999); and Hank Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler, I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (1991).

Andreanof Islands

Group of the Aleutian Islands, southwestern Alaska, U.S. They lie between the Pacific Ocean (south) and the Bering Sea (north) and extend east-west for about 270 miles (430 km) between the Fox and Rat island groups. The Andreanof Islands were strategically important in World War II, and there is a U.S. military installation on Shemya Island.

Pavane

(probably from Italian padovana, “Paduan”), majestic processional dance of the 16th- and 17th-century European aristocracy. Until about 1650 the pavane opened ceremonial balls and was used as a display of elegant dress. Adapted from the basse danse, an earlier court dance, the pavane presumably traveled from Italy to France and England by way of Spain; in southern

San Fernando

Capital of Colchagua provincia, O'Higgins región, central Chile, lying on the Rapel River, at 1,112 feet (339 m) above sea level, in a fertile longitudinal valley. Founded in 1742, it became the provincial capital in 1840. San Fernando's rodeos rank among Chile's best, for the city is in the heart of huaso (“cowboy”) country. In addition to livestock, the surrounding region yields wheat, forage crops,

Annelid, Circulatory system

The circulatory system in the lower oligochaetes consists of a dorsal vessel that arises from a blood sinus or capillary network surrounding the intestine and conveys blood forward; a ventral vessel that conveys blood backward; and connective vessels between the two. The blood vessel walls consist of an outer membranous (peritoneal) layer containing muscle

Zeiss, Carl

In 1846 Zeiss opened a workshop in Jena for producing microscopes and other optical instruments. Realizing that improvements in optical instruments depended on advances in optical theory, he engaged as research

'id Al-adha

Also spelled  Eid al-Adha , also called  'Id al-Qurban  or  al-'Id al-Kabir (Major Festival) , Turkish  Kurban Bayram  the second of two great Muslim festivals, the other being 'Id al-Fitr. 'Id al-Adha marks the culmination of the hajj (pilgrimage) rites at Mina, Saudi Arabia, near Mecca, but is celebrated by Muslims throughout the world. As with 'Id al-Fitr, it is distinguished by the performance of communal prayer (salat) at daybreak on its first day. It begins on the 10th of Dhu'l-Hijja, the last month of the Islamic

Devey, George

Devey was educated in London and studied painting before he trained as an architect. His considerable, and exclusively domestic, practice included designs for lodges, cottages, and country mansions containing design

Hsin-yang

Pinyin  Xinyang  city in southern Honan sheng (province), China. Hsin-yang is in the very south of the Honan plain, in the basin between the Ta-pieh Mountains and the Huai River. It has traditionally been on a cultural divide between the plain and the hilly districts to the south. It was also a natural route centre on the Shih River, a tributary of the Huai. The Shih has become passable for relatively

Odonata, Wings and flight

Odonates use their wings

Albalag, Isaac

Jewish philosopher who rendered a Hebrew translation of parts of the Maqasid al-falasifah (“Aims of the Philosophers”), a review of doctrines of earlier thinkers by the Arabic philosopher al-Ghazali, to which Albalag added his own views and comments. In defending philosophy against the accusation that it undermined religion,

'arad

Town, southern Israel, in the northeast Negev, named for the biblical Arad, the ruins of which are visible at Tel 'Arad, about 5 1/2 miles (9 km) east-northeast. The book of Numbers (21:1–3) tells how the Canaanite king of 'Arad fought the Israelites during the exodus from Egypt, but his cities were “utterly destroyed” by Israel's armies. The city's name appears on the Temple of Amon, al-Karnak, Egypt,

China, Royal burials

The royal cemetery lay less than two miles northwest of Hsiao-t'un, at Hsi-pei-kang. The hierarchy of burials at this and other cemeteries in the area reflected the social organization of the living. Large pit tombs, some nearly 42 feet deep, were furnished with four ramps and massive grave chambers for the kings. Retainers who accompanied their lords in death lay in or near

Xiong Foxi

Xiong Foxi began writing, directing, and acting in plays as a youth and, while at Yen-ching University, helped to establish the Min-chung Hsi-chü She (People's Dramatic Society). After graduate work at Columbia University,

Confession Of Faith

The medieval Christian Church did not attempt an official codification of

Monaco, Flag Of

The complex princely

Ribbon Seal

(Histriophoca fasciata), earless seal of the family Phocidae found in the North Pacific and the Bering Sea. The male, growing to about 1.7 m (5.6 feet) in length and 95 kg (210 pounds) in weight, is dark brown with broad, yellowish, ribbonlike markings. The smaller female and the young are paler, and the bands are less conspicuous. The ribbon seal lives alone or in small groups and feeds on fish,

Ying-k'ou

Pinyin  Yingkou , conventional  Newchwang  city and port in Liaoning sheng (province), China. Ying-k'ou is situated near the mouth of the Hun River, some 11 miles (18 km) from the mouth of the Liao River. Ying-k'ou began to develop as a river port in the second quarter of the 19th century, replacing Niu-chuang and T'ien-chuang-t'ai farther upstream. At first the new port was called Mo-kou-ying (Mo-kou Encampment) after the garrison of

Lupino Family

The earliest traceable Lupino—who spelled his name Luppino—flourished probably in Italy, c. 1612, and billed himself as Signor Luppino. His descendant, George William (1632–93), a singer, reciter, and puppet master, went to England as a political refugee. His son, George Charles (1662–1725), was a performer and puppeteer at the age of eight. After

Aerodynamics

Branch of physics that deals with the motion of air and other gaseous fluids and with the forces acting on bodies passing through such a fluid. Aerodynamics seeks, in particular, to explain the principles governing the flight of aircraft, rockets, and missiles. It is also concerned with the design of automobiles, high-speed trains, and ships, as well as with the construction

Ghassan

The Ghassanid king al-Harith ibn Jabalah (reigned 529–569) supported the Byzantines against Sasanian Persia

Smith Sound

The sound was discovered in 1616 by William Baffin and named for Sir Thomas Smythe (Smith), promoter of voyages to find a Northwest Passage. It was not until the mid-19th century that any explorer reached

Anatolian Religion, Divination

Divination, through which the cause of divine displeasure was ascertained, was mainly of three kinds: augury (divination by flight of birds), haruspicy (divination by examining the entrails of sacrificial animals), and an enigmatic procedure using tokens with symbolic names, arts said to be practiced respectively by the “bird-watcher,” the seer, and the “old woman.” The

Kresge, S.s.

Kresge worked as a traveling salesman before going into business with one of his customers, John G. McCrory, the owner of several department and five-and-ten-cent stores. They became partners in 1897 in two new five-and-dime

Clovis I

Clovis was the son

Syriac Alphabet

Writing system used by the Syriac Christians from the 1st century AD until about the 14th century. A Semitic alphabet, Syriac was an offshoot of a cursive Aramaic script. It had 22 letters, all representing consonants, and was generally written from right to left, although occasionally vertically downward. Diacritical marks to represent vowels were introduced in the 8th

Duran, Profiat

Duran was the descendant of a scholarly Jewish family of southern France. He was educated in Germany and then took a position as tutor with a wealthy family in Catalonia. There, in 1391, in a wave of Spanish religious persecution,

Annenberg, Walter Hubert

American publisher and philanthropist (b. March 13, 1908, Milwaukee, Wis.—d. Oct. 1, 2002, Wynnewood, Pa.), used his wealth to promote conservative political causes and to support education and the arts. He was the son of an immigrant, Moses L. Annenberg, whose businesses included the Philadelphia Inquirer, horse racing publications, and wire betting services. The father, as well as his son

Yahrzeit

Also spelled  yortzeit , or  jahrzeit  in Judaism, the anniversary of the death of a parent or close relative, most commonly observed by burning a candle for an entire day. On the anniversary, a male (or female, in Reform and Conservative congregations) usually recites the Qaddish (doxology) in the synagogue at all three services, and males may be called up (aliyah) for the public reading of the Torah. If the anniversary

Atlantic

County, southeastern New Jersey, U.S., bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Mullica River and Great Bay to the northeast, and the Tuckahoe River and Great Egg Harbor to the south. It constitutes a coastal lowland bisected by the Great Egg Harbor River, which runs through swampy ground. The coastal shoreline contains Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge,

Brân

(Celtic: “Raven”), gigantic Celtic deity who figured in the Mabinogion (a collection of medieval Welsh tales) as “crowned king over this Island” (i.e., Britain). Because of his stature, he and his court had to live in a tent, as no house had ever been built large enough to contain him. The most important aspect of Brân's myth concerned his wondrous severed head. The ancient Celts worshiped

Black Oak

(Quercus velutina), North American timber tree belonging to the red oak group of the genus Quercus in the beech family (Fagaceae), distributed throughout the eastern United States. It usually grows to about 25 m (80 feet) tall and may grow to 45 m on rich soils; it is common on exposed slopes and ridges, as it cannot tolerate shade. The tree's blackish outer bark is ridged in irregular

Qatar

The National Council for Culture, Arts, and Heritage and several other agencies and departments oversee literary, artistic, and cultural activities as well as recreation and tourism. The Qatar National Museum, in Doha, includes displays of the country's history and archaeology, a model lagoon in which Qatari sailing and pearling vessels are displayed, and a museum

Pigou, Arthur Cecil

Educated at King's College, Cambridge, Pigou was considered one of Alfred Marshall's best students. When Marshall retired as a professor of political economy in 1908, Pigou was named as Marshall's replacement. Pigou was responsible for disseminating

Gray, Sir James

English zoologist who played a leading part in changing the main objective of 20th-century zoological research from evolutionary comparative anatomy to the functional analysis of living cells and living animals, particularly through his editorship (1925–54) of the Journal of Experimental Biology. He was noted for his work

Dewey Decimal Classification

Also called  Dewey Decimal System,   system for organizing the contents of a library based on the division of all knowledge into 10 groups, with each group assigned 100 numbers. The 10 main groups are: 000–099, general works; 100–199, philosophy and psychology; 200–299, religion; 300–399, social sciences; 400–499, language; 500–599, natural sciences and mathematics; 600–699, technology; 700–799, the arts; 800–899, literature and rhetoric; and 900–999, history, biography, and geography. These 10 main groups

Tsuruya Namboku Iv

Little is known of his early years, but in 1755 he became an apprentice of the dramatist Sakurada Jisuke I. About 1780 he married the daughter of Tsuruya Namboku III, a well-known Kabuki actor of the time.

Region

In the social sciences, a cohesive area that is homogeneous in selected defining criteria and is distinguished from neighbouring areas or regions by those criteria. It is an intellectual construct created by the selection of features relevant to a particular problem and the disregard of other features considered to be irrelevant. A region is distinguished

Frundsberg, Georg Von

In 1499 Frundsberg took part in Maximilian's struggle against the Swiss, and, in the same year, he was among the imperial troops sent to assist Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan,

Uccello, Paolo

The standard and most readable and complete work on Uccello (and his followers) in English is John Pope-Hennessy, Paolo Uccello, 2nd ed. (1969). Eve Borsook discusses Uccello's Florentine frescoes in The Mural Painters of Tuscany, from Cimabue to Andrea del Sarto (1960). Uccello's role in the investigation of perspective is mentioned by John White in The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, 2nd ed. (1967); and this subject is treated more fully by Alessandro Parronchi in Studi su la dolce prospettiva (1964).

Eiselsberg, Anton, Freiherr Von

Eiselsberg studied medicine at Vienna, Würzburg, Zürich, and Paris. In 1884 he received his M.D. from Vienna, where he was a pupil of and assistant

Great Karoo

Karoo also spelled  Karroo , Afrikaans  Groot Karoo , also called  Central Karoo  plateau basin in Western Cape province, South Africa, lying between the Great Escarpment (north) and the Swartberg (south). It represents the effect of headwater erosion by rivers flowing southwest and southeast from the escarpment. The Great Karoo is divided into a western basin and a much larger eastern basin. The western, which is the headwater basin for the Doring

Colby, Frank Moore

Early in his career Colby taught history and economics at Columbia University, Amherst College (Amherst, Mass.), and New York University (New York City). To supplement his income, he began writing for encyclopaedias, and so began his lifelong career. In 1898 he became editor of the International

Madder

Also called  Dyer's Madder,  any of several species of plants belonging to the genus Rubia of the madder family, Rubiaceae. Rubia tinctorum and R. peregrina are native European plants, and R. cordifolia is native to the hilly districts of India and Java. Rubia is a genus of about 40 species; its members are characterized by lance-shaped leaves that grow in whorls and by small yellowish flowers that

Agonism

Ethologists believe that the most general and probably

Magnus Ii Eriksson

The son of Ingeborg, daughter of the Norwegian king Haakon V, and of Duke Erik, brother of the Swedish king Birger Magnusson, Magnus was

Atmospheric Sciences, Elements of cloud formation

The formation of cloud droplets and cloud ice crystals occurs associated with suspended aerosols of natural and anthropogenic origin, which are ubiquitous in the Earth's atmosphere. In the absence of such aerosols, relative humidities much greater than 100 percent with respect to a flat surface are required for water vapour to condense spontaneously into liquid

Swains Island

Coral atoll, American Samoa, southwestern Pacific Ocean, 280 miles (450 km) north of Tutuila. The atoll is 15–25 feet (5–8 m) above sea level; it is circular in shape, with 8 miles (13 km) of shoreline, and encloses a freshwater lagoon. It has an area of about 1 square mile (2.6 square km). Probably first known to Europeans in the 19th century, the atoll was named for a whaling captain. It is not geographically a

Poznan Riots

After the death of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (March 1953), the rigidly authoritarian Communist regime in Poland relaxed some of its policies. It abolished

Webster - ashburton Treaty

(1842), treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain establishing the northeastern boundary of the U.S. and providing for Anglo–U.S. cooperation in the suppression of the slave trade. The treaty established the present boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, granted the U.S. navigation rights on the St. John River, provided for extradition in enumerated nonpolitical criminal

Tachikawa

City, Tokyo to (metropolis), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Chuo Line (railway), east of Tokyo city. In 1922 an army airfield was constructed nearby, and large munitions and aircraft factories were concentrated in the city. After World War II the military installations were taken over by the U.S. Air Force; the air base was returned to Japan in 1977. Tachikawa is now a commercial centre