Diego Garcia

Discovered by the Portuguese in the early 16th century, it was for

Scabious

Also called  Scabiosa   (genus Scabiosa), any of about 100 species of annual and perennial herbs of the teasel family, Dipsacaceae, order Dipsacales. They are native to temperate Eurasia, the Mediterranean region, and the mountains of eastern Africa. Some are important garden plants. All species have basal leaf rosettes and leafy stems. The flower heads have many crowded, small,

Pius V, Saint

Original name  Antonio Ghislieri   Italian ascetic, reformer, and relentless persecutor of heretics, whose papacy (1566–72) marked one of the most austere periods in Roman Catholic church history. During his reign, the Inquisition was successful in eliminating Protestantism in Italy, and the decrees of the Council of

Altman, Sidney

Altman attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S., 1960, in physics) and the University of Colorado (Ph.D., 1967, in biophysics). He was a molecular biology fellow at Harvard University

Philipon, Charles

Philipon settled in Paris in 1823, took to lithography, and began to draw caricatures for a living. He was an excellent draftsman with a fertile and irrepressible sense of satire. Moreover, he had vigorous political opinions, an

Avidius Cassius, Gaius

The son of a high civil servant of the emperor Hadrian (ruled 117–138), Avidius directed operations in Rome's war against the Parthians (161–165). In 164–165 Avidius advanced into Mesopotamia and then sacked Ctesiphon, Parthia's capital, and Seleucia—both located in present-day central Iraq. Soon he was made commander of all Roman military

Nemours, Henri I De Savoie, Duc De

Henri had helped the Roman Catholic Savoyards to capture Saluzzo (1588) and had fought for the Holy League in Daupiné, of which he became governor in 1591. Becoming duc de Nemours in 1595, he submitted the following year to King Henry IV. After taking part in campaigns at Rouen and Amiens, he retired to his

Mauna Loa

Volcano, south-central Hawaii Island, Hawaii, U.S., and a part of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (established as Hawaii National Park in 1916). One of the largest single mountain masses in the world, Mauna Loa (meaning “long mountain”) rises to 13,678 feet (4,169 m) above sea level. Its dome is 75 miles (120 km) long and 64 miles (103 km) wide, and its lava flows occupy more than 2,000 square miles (5,120 square km) of the island. Mokuaweoweo,

Owain Gwynedd

Together with his brother Cadwaladr, Owain led three expeditions (1136–37) against the English stronghold of Ceredigion to the south. The brothers ravaged the region and established themselves there. Upon his father's death in 1137, Owain took the throne of North

Aries

Aries contains no very bright stars. The first point of Aries, or vernal equinox, is an intersection of the

Malaysia, Sabah

Sabah (North Borneo) was the last region to be brought under British control. In the early 1700s Brunei transferred its claims over much of Sabah to the sultan of Sulu, but, except in the northeast, actual Sulu power remained limited. Occasional resistance to Brunei or Sulu influence, as well as extensive coastal raiding and confusion of suzerainty, invited Western interest

Kamakura-bori

(Japanese: “Kamakura carving”), in Japanese lacquerwork, technique in which designs are carved in wood and then coated with red or black lacquer. Originally, it was an imitation of a Chinese carved lacquer (tiao-ch'i, called tsuishu in Japanese) in which many layers of lacquer are built up to a considerable thickness (often in several colours) and then cut back to achieve the

Esso

Any of several foreign affiliates of the Exxon Corporation (q.v.).

Nova Lima

City, east-central Minas Gerais estado (“state”), Brazil. It lies along the Cristais River at 2,444 feet (745 m) above sea level. Nova Lima was made the seat of a municipality in 1891 and became a city in 1936. It is known for its Mineração Morro Velho (“Old Mountain Mine”), British-owned from 1834 until 1959, when it was sold to a Brazilian concern. The air-cooled shaft, which penetrates 8,501 feet (2,591 m), is one of the deepest

Alcan Aluminium Limited

Canadian multinational company incorporated in 1928 (as Aluminium Limited) and now the largest Canadian industrial enterprise, operating in more than 100 countries. It has mining and refining operations for bauxite; smelting plants for aluminum; hydroelectric plants; fabricating plants for a wide variety of aluminum products; transportation operations; facilities

Corchorus

Genus of flowering plants of the linden family Tiliaceae (order Malvales). The bark of C. capsularis and to a lesser extent that of C. olitorius constitute the chief source of jute (q.v.), and these species are much cultivated in India and Bangladesh. The leaves and young shoots are eaten as a vegetable in Europe and as a potherb in West Africa. The seeds, however, are poisonous.

Constantine, Arch Of

(AD 312), one of three surviving ancient Roman triumphal arches in Rome. Erected hastily to celebrate Constantine's victory over Maxentius, it incorporates sculptures from many earlier buildings, including part of a battle frieze and figures of prisoners from the Forum of Trajan, a series of Hadrianic roundels, and a set of eight Aurelian panels.

Riss Glacial Stage

Major division of Pleistocene time and deposits (1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago) in Alpine Europe. The Riss Glacial Stage, during which mountain glaciers descended from the highlands, followed the Mindel-Riss Interglacial Stage and preceded the Riss-Würm Interglacial Stage, both periods of relatively moderate climatic conditions. The Riss is correlated with the Gipping Glacial

Lateen Sail

Triangular sail that was of decisive importance to medieval navigation. The ancient square sail permitted sailing only before the wind; the lateen was the earliest fore-and-aft sail. The triangular sail was affixed to a long yard or crossbar, mounted at its middle to the top of the mast and angled to extend aft far above the mast and forward down nearly to the deck. The

Aksakov, Konstantin Sergeyevich

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

Cummings, E.e.

In full  Edward Estlin Cummings   American poet and painter who first attracted attention, in an age of literary experimentation, for his eccentric punctuation and phrasing. The spirit of New England dissent and of Emersonian “Self-Reliance” underlies the urbanized Yankee colloquialism of Cummings' verse. Cummings' name is often styled “e.e. cummings” in the

Nova Friburgo

Nova Friburgo has textile mills but is best known as a summer mountain resort built in Swiss Alpine style. It can be reached by railroad and highway from Niterói, southwest, and from Rio de Janeiro, the state capital. Pop. (1991 prelim.) mun., 166,941.

Hardin, John Wesley

Reaching adolescence as the defeated South entered the Reconstruction period, Hardin was virulently antiblack and anti-Yankee and, in 1868 at the age of 15, killed his first man, an ex-slave. From then on

Wu-hsing

The city was established as a county, Wu-ch'eng, in

Raff, Joachim

Raff became a schoolteacher in 1840 and taught himself the piano, violin, and composition. After early compositional efforts influenced by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, he joined ranks with the

Performing Arts, Asia.

The most attractive films to emerge from Japan were Kohei Oguri's Sleeping Man, which portrayed relationships in a village where people still feel close to older traditions governing the approach to nature, life, and death, and Higashi Yoichi's Village of Dreams, a magical evocation of the world of childhood. Adapted from the nostalgic memoirs of the artist Tashima

Gongbi

Wade-Giles romanization  kung-pi  in Chinese painting, meticulous brush technique that delimits details very precisely and without independent or expressive variation. It is often highly coloured and usually depicts figural or narrative subjects. The term gongbi is also used to refer to paintings that are generally more descriptive than interpretive. Gongbi paintings are considered to be

Elimination Reaction

Any of a class of organic chemical reactions in which a pair of atoms or groups of atoms are removed from a molecule, usually through the action of acids, bases, or metals and, in some cases, by heating to a high temperature. It is the principal process by which organic compounds containing only single carbon-carbon bonds (saturated compounds) are transformed to compounds

Abelard, Peter

The outline of Abelard's career is well known, largely because he described so much of it in his famous Historia calamitatum (“History of My Troubles”). He was born the son of a knight in Brittany south of the Loire River. He sacrificed his inheritance and the prospect of a military career in order to study philosophy, particularly logic, in France. He provoked bitter quarrels