146 résultats pour "famous"
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Czech Republic - country.
enforcement of environmental regulations. Environmental considerations have also led some government officials to promote nuclear energy as a key source of powerfor the country’s future. The Czech Republic produces most of its energy by burning domestic coal. Much of the coal burned is low quality with a high ash and sulfur content—a key componentof acid rain—producing high levels of air pollution. Forests in the Czech Republic are among the most seriously affected by acid rain in all of Europe....
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Theodore Roosevelt.
in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The couple had five children, Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel Carow, Archibald Bullock, and Quentin. They also raised Alice, Roosevelt’s daughterfrom his first marriage. Discouraged with politics, Roosevelt enjoyed family life and literary pursuits. He wrote Essays on Practical Politics in 1888. The same year he also wrote an opinionated biography of Gouverneur Morris, an American statesman who helped draft the Constitution of the United States. The book revealed far mo...
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Theodore Roosevelt
in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The couple had five children, Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel Carow, Archibald Bullock, and Quentin. They also raised Alice, Roosevelt’s daughterfrom his first marriage. Discouraged with politics, Roosevelt enjoyed family life and literary pursuits. He wrote Essays on Practical Politics in 1888. The same year he also wrote an opinionated biography of Gouverneur Morris, an American statesman who helped draft the Constitution of the United States. The book revealed far mo...
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George Washington
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INTRODUCTION
George Washington (1732-1799), first president of the United States (1789-1797) and one of the most important leaders in United States history.
A2 Promotion This was Washington’s first experience with the difficulties of raising troops while lacking equipment, clothing, and funds. Apparently he thought his efforts worthy ofsome recognition and successfully applied to Dinwiddie for a lieutenant colonel’s commission. He left Alexandria, Virginia, early in April with about 150 poorly equippedand half-trained troops. A3 First Battles Before he had advanced very far, Washington received news that the French had driven Trent’s men back from...
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George Washington.
A2 Promotion This was Washington’s first experience with the difficulties of raising troops while lacking equipment, clothing, and funds. Apparently he thought his efforts worthy ofsome recognition and successfully applied to Dinwiddie for a lieutenant colonel’s commission. He left Alexandria, Virginia, early in April with about 150 poorly equippedand half-trained troops. A3 First Battles Before he had advanced very far, Washington received news that the French had driven Trent’s men back from...
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George Washington
A2 Promotion This was Washington’s first experience with the difficulties of raising troops while lacking equipment, clothing, and funds. Apparently he thought his efforts worthy ofsome recognition and successfully applied to Dinwiddie for a lieutenant colonel’s commission. He left Alexandria, Virginia, early in April with about 150 poorly equippedand half-trained troops. A3 First Battles Before he had advanced very far, Washington received news that the French had driven Trent’s men back from...
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Cyclopes (1) (Singular: Cyclops; Round-eyed)
Greek Three sons of Uranus and Gaia, large
and strong, each with one eye in the middle of his
forehead; siblings of the Hecatoncheires, hundredhanded
giants, and the younger Titans.
These Cyclopes served King Proetus of the city Tiryns. For him, they built the great walls of the city. They built similar walls around the city of Mycenae and the famous Lion Gate there. The stones they used were so massive that the term “cyclopean” has come to mean gigantic. They were also called “belly-hands” for they worked for their livings.
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Film Noir
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INTRODUCTION
Lynch's Blue Velvet
The motion picture Blue Velvet (1986) brought wide acclaim to American director David Lynch.
Double IndemnityBarbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray are featured in Double Indemnity (1944), a story of lust and greed in the film noirtradition, directed by Billy Wilder. The film’s events are related in flashbacks by protagonist Walter Neff (MacMurray), whomakes a dying confession about a plot to kill a man for his insurance money.Bettmann/Corbis Another common aspect of film noir is the femme fatale, a seductive woman who lures the protagonist into actions that ultimately lead to his downfall...
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Zeus (Day, Bright Sky) Greek The chief god
of Greek mythology.
induced Cronus into releasing his brothers and sisters, the siblings decided to go to war against Cronus and the Titans. For 10 long years, Zeus fought against the Titans, who were led by the mighty Atlas, for Cronus was now old. Finally Zeus enlisted the help of Gaia (Earth), who advised him to release the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed Ones (the Hecatoncheires), who had been imprisoned in the Underworld. Zeus did this, and in gratitude the Cyclopes gave Zeus the thunderbolt as a weapon. They...
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Roman Art and Architecture - history.
house, records office, and basilica. Imperial Forum, RomeThe Roman Forum was founded at the beginning of the Roman republic (around 500 bc), and it continued to develop into the late 2ndcentury ad. Among the ruins seen here are the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina (since converted into a church, background, left),the foundations of the Basilica Julia (foreground, center), and the three remaining columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux(background, right).Donadoni/Bruce Coleman, Inc. The basili...
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Seattle - geography.
Queen Anne Hill, north of downtown, was long isolated by its steep ascent but emerged as a fashionable residential area at the close of the 19th century. North of QueenAnne Hill and across the Lake Washington Ship Canal, Ballard was originally settled by Scandinavian immigrants. Annexed to Seattle in 1907, Ballard today is a residentialneighborhood with a strong Nordic heritage. To the east from Ballard along the north side of the Ship Canal, the neighborhoods of Fremont, Wallingford, and the Un...
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Cobra (snake) - biology.
Most cobras prey on small rodents or other small mammals. They also eat birds, snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, insects, and even eggs. Water cobras catch fish and kingcobras specialize in eating other snakes. Similar to other venomous snakes, cobras use venom to subdue their prey before swallowing it whole, generally head first. Thevenom may contain substances that also break down the prey for digestion. Despite their potent venom and dramatic threat displays, cobras are hunted and eaten by a num...
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Italian Literature
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INTRODUCTION
Italian Literature, literature written in the Italian language from about the 13th century to the present.
Dante’s Inferno and PurgatoryThis illustration comes from a late Gothic edition of The Divine Comedy by the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Lucifer,the devil, is at the center of Earth, and the mouth of hell, the inferno, opens below him. At the opposite pole is a mountainleading to purgatory. The manuscript is in the National Library in Florence, Italy.Scala/Art Resource, NY Dante is one of the great figures of world literature. He is remarkable for the loftiness of his thought, the vividne...
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George Frideric Handel
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INTRODUCTION
Handel's Water Music
In addition to his popular operas and oratorios, German-born composer George Frideric Handel wrote music in the 1700s
for the church and for royal celebrations.
During the 1720s and 1730s Handel worked primarily as a composer and producer of operas for the London stage. This extremely productive phase of his career beganwith the opening of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1719. The Royal Academy was founded with the support of the king and aristocratic subscribers for theproduction of Italian operas. Its directors sent Handel to continental Europe to hire some of the world’s greatest singers. Handel was not the only composer writingoperas for Aca...
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Shanghai - geography.
language. V EDUCATION AND CULTURE Shanghai is one of China’s leading centers of learning and culture. The metropolitan area is home to more than 40 institutions of higher learning. These include some ofChina’s most famous universities, such as Fudan University (founded in 1905), Tongji University (1907), and the East China Normal University (1951). A large branch ofthe Chinese Academy of Sciences is located in Shanghai, and extensive research is undertaken in areas such as semiconductors, laser...
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Antigua and Barbuda - country.
The monetary unit of Antigua and Barbuda is the East Caribbean (EC) dollar of 100 cents (2.70 East Caribbean dollars equal U.S.$1, a fixed rate since 1976). VI ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS The growth of the tourist industry has created some environmental problems, including uncontrolled disposal of sewage from hotels on the beach. Hotel developmentalso threatens the Antiguan mangrove trees. Water management is another major area of concern because of limited natural freshwater resources. Coral reefs...
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Aksum.
doctrine that Christ was both divine and human. The Council of Chalcedon condemned Monophysitism in 451, and since that time the Coptic Church has beenindependent of other Christian churches. After the Council of Chalcedon, priests who continued to teach Monophysitism were persecuted in the eastern Roman Empire, and many migrated to Aksum. The influxof priests, along with the support of the royal family, strengthened missionary efforts in Aksum. Many churches and monasteries were founded after 4...
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From Bulfinch's Mythology: Charlemagne - anthology.
The titles of some of Archbishop Turpin's chapters will show the nature of his history. They are these: 'Of the Walls of Pampeluna, that fell of themselves.' 'Of theWar of the holy Facundus, where the Spears grew.' (Certain of the Christians fixed their spears, in the evening, erect in the ground, before the castle; and found them,in the morning, covered with bark and branches.) 'How the Sun stood still for Three Days, and the Slaughter of Four Thousand Saracens.' Turpin's history has perhap...
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Westerns
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INTRODUCTION
Gene Autry
Known as the Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry was the star of nearly 100 Westerns during his career as an actor.
James Fenimore CooperNineteenth-century American writer James Fenimore Cooper, famed for his adventure novels of American frontier life, wasalso an ardent social critic. Cooper wrote a series of five novels, known collectively as the Leather-Stocking Tales, in whichhe detailed the adventures of a fictional frontiersman named Natty Bumppo. In Bumppo, Cooper portrayed a man ofnature and a friend of the Native Americans. In addition to fiction, Cooper wrote several nonfiction works criticizingAmeri...
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Prints and Printmaking
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INTRODUCTION
Prints and Printmaking, pictorial images that can be inked onto paper, and the art of creating and reproducing them.
Bewick’s The SkylarkBritish engraver Thomas Bewick’s The Skylark is part of his History of British Birds (2 vols., 1797 and 1804). Bewick wasthe first artist to demonstrate the full potential of wood engraving and is renowned for his fine natural history illustrations.Each illustration shows some of the bird’s natural habitat.Folio Society, London/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York Historically, the wood engraving was chiefly used for illustrations in magazines and books. It is similar to th...
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Ancient Greece - history.
Palace of KnossosThe ancient city of Knossos was a center of the Minoan civilization, an advanced society on Crete named after Minos, a legendaryCretan king. Skilled in such fields as engineering and architecture, the Minoans constructed the palace at Knossos in 1700 bc. Aserious fire at least three centuries later caused the collapse of the palace and foreshadowed the subsequent decline of the city.Wolfgang Kaehler Settlers had begun sailing from Asia Minor to Crete about 6000 BC because the i...
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Kolkata - geography.
area, and trains have north-south lines with a few east-west connections. There are two major train terminals: Sealdah in the east central part of Kolkata and Hāoraacross the river from the Central Business District. Electric trams operate in Kolkata proper. The aging buses, trains, and tram cars suffer from overloading, creatinguncomfortable rides. Subway construction started in 1972 and became operational with 7 km (4.3 mi) of line in 1984. By 1995 all of the subway’s 16.4-km (10.2-mi)route fr...
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Kansas - geography.
at the adjoining cities of Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri. Its chief headstreams are the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers, which join to form the KansasRiver at Junction City. Each of the headstreams has numerous tributaries. The Kansas River proper is only 270 km (170 mi) long, but the Smoky Hill River has a lengthof 870 km (540 mi), and the Republican River has a length of 720 km (450 mi). The main tributary flowing into the Kansas River is the Big Blue River. The Arkansas Rive...
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Kansas - USA History.
at the adjoining cities of Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri. Its chief headstreams are the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers, which join to form the KansasRiver at Junction City. Each of the headstreams has numerous tributaries. The Kansas River proper is only 270 km (170 mi) long, but the Smoky Hill River has a lengthof 870 km (540 mi), and the Republican River has a length of 720 km (450 mi). The main tributary flowing into the Kansas River is the Big Blue River. The Arkansas Rive...
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Byzantine Art and Architecture
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INTRODUCTION
Archangel Michael
This depiction of the archangel Michael, in Saint Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Italy, is an example of ancient enamel art.
This Byzantine ivory relief shows Christ the Pantocrator, or ruler of the world, raising his hand in a gesture of blessing. Itcomes from the cover of a lectionary, or book containing portions of the scriptures, and dates from the second golden ageof Byzantine art, the late 10th century. The relief is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York Mosaics were the favored medium for the interior adornment of Byzantine churches. The small cubes, or tesserae, t...
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Excerpt from Bleak House - anthology.
patience, courage, hope; so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart; that there is not an honourable man among its practitioners who would not give—who does notoften give—the warning, 'Suffer any wrong that can be done you, rather than come here!' Who happen to be in the Lord Chancellor's court this murky afternoon besides the Lord Chancellor, the counsel in the cause, two or three counsel who are never inany cause, and the well of solicitors before mentioned? There is the registrar below...
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Musical
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INTRODUCTION
George Gershwin
American pianist, songwriter, and composer George Gershwin was one of the most important figures in popular song in
the 1920s and 1930s.
C Extravaganzas Another predecessor of musical comedy, the extravaganza, evolved soon after the American Civil War (1861-1865) from traditional English pantomime. Extravaganzaswere typically based on fairy tales and Mother Goose. They introduced some of the elements—songs, dances, and comedy combined with spectacular stage sets andeffects—that American musical comedy later became known for. The first and most famous extravaganza show was The Black Crook (1866), often described as America’s fi...
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Baroque Art and Architecture
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INTRODUCTION
German Baroque Architecture
The baroque style of architecture flourished in Germany in the 18th century.
C Early baroque styles Conversion of Saint PaulItalian baroque painter Caravaggio painted scenes of realism and drama, often selecting lofty, religious themes anddepicting them with lower-class characters and settings with dramatic spotlighting. With its unidealized characters andfocus on the horse’s body, his Conversion of Saint Paul seems to record a stable accident, not a miraculous conversion byGod. This work was painted in 1601 and is in the Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Ita...
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São Paulo (city) - geography.
universities include the State University Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (1976), and the even larger University of São Paulo (1934), which incorporates the city’s famousand influential Faculty of Law. Important private universities are Mackenzie University, originally founded by Presbyterian missionaries from the United States (1870);the Paulista University (1972); the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (1946); and the University São Judas Tadeu (1971). The city is home to the São Pau...
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Popular Music
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INTRODUCTION
Satchmo Sings "Back O' Town Blues"
One of the founders of instrumental jazz music, American Louis Armstrong, known as Satchmo, also profoundly influenced
vocal jazz and popular song.
disseminating popular music until the 1920s remained printed sheet music. By the late 19th century, the music-publishing business was centralized in New York City,particularly in an area of lower Manhattan called Tin Pan Alley. “After the Ball” (1892) by Charles K. Harris, the first popular song to sell 1 million copies—in this case, ofsheet music—inspired rapid growth in the music-publishing industry. Composers were hired to rapidly produce popular songs by the dozens, and the techniques ofFost...
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Gothic Art and Architecture
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INTRODUCTION
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris
Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, was begun in 1163 and completed for the most part in 1250.
and by external arches, called flying buttresses. Consequently, the thick walls of Romanesque architecture could be largely replaced by thinner walls with glass windows,and the interiors could reach unprecedented heights. A revolution in building techniques thus occurred. With the Gothic vault, a ground plan could take on a variety of shapes. The general plan of the cathedrals, however, consisting of a long three-aisled nave interceptedby a transept and followed by a shorter choir and sanctuary,...
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Toys.
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INTRODUCTION
Toys, objects that serve as playthings for children. Although the
clay. These readily available elements were also used to make more elaborate toys as human society advanced. Archaeologists have found primitive, handmade toys such as wooden or cloth dolls, clay marbles, and terracotta figures that date back thousands of years. In ancientEgypt, Greece, and Rome, people placed dolls or clay figures in the graves or tombs of children for them to play with in the afterlife. The yo-yo may seem like a 20th-century fad, but it actually dates back at least 2,500 years...
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Roman Art and Architecture - History.
Racecourses or circuses were also built in many cities for holding chariot races and horse races. Rome’s circus-shaped Piazza Navona occupies the site of one that wasbuilt during the reign ( AD 81-96) of the emperor Domitian. The largest circus in Rome, the Circus Maximus, held about 200,000 spectators. E Public Baths Large cities and small towns alike also had public baths ( thermae ); under the Republic they were generally made up of a suite of dressing rooms and bathing chambers with hot- ,...
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Automobile Racing.
beginning in 1906 at Le Mans it came to refer to the principal F1 auto race in a given nation, except in the United States, where the term continues to be used lessdiscriminately. After the end of World War I in 1918, when automobile racing blossomed internationally, a series of GP races in several nations became reserved for F1competition, and an annual GP calendar was developed consisting of national races, such as the French Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix. An annual award calledthe Wor...
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Jupiter (planet) - astronomy.
Beneath the supercritical fluid zone, the pressure reaches 3 million Earth atmospheres. At this depth, the atoms collide so frequently and violently that the hydrogenatoms are ionized—that is, the negatively charged electrons are stripped away from the positively charged protons of the hydrogen nuclei. This ionization results in asea of electrically charged particles that resembles a liquid metal and gives rise to Jupiter’s magnetic field. This liquid metallic hydrogen zone is 30,000 to 40,000 k...
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Philadelphia (city, Pennsylvania) - geography.
national trend of migration from eastern cities to the warmer climate of the Sun Belt. Whereas in 1950 Philadelphia contained more than 2 million people and ranked as the third largest city in America, the city's population plunged to 1,517,550 by 2000.In 2006, the city's population was estimated at 1,448,394. While the city proper was decreasing in population, the metropolitan area centered on Philadelphia grew. In 2006 the region had 6.2 million inhabitants. Philadelphiaranked as the nation’s...
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Vermont - geography.
Forests cover 78 percent of Vermont. Most of the trees are deciduous, principally the maple, elm, birch, beech, oak, hickory, ash, cherry, and butternut. The state treeis the sugar maple, which provides Vermont’s famous maple syrup. Conifers are common in some mountain areas and include mainly the white pine, red spruce,hemlock, and cedar. A great variety of ferns have been found within the state. Among the more common wildflowers that grow in Vermont are anemones, arbutuses,violets, lilacs, dai...
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Vermont - USA History.
Forests cover 78 percent of Vermont. Most of the trees are deciduous, principally the maple, elm, birch, beech, oak, hickory, ash, cherry, and butternut. The state treeis the sugar maple, which provides Vermont’s famous maple syrup. Conifers are common in some mountain areas and include mainly the white pine, red spruce,hemlock, and cedar. A great variety of ferns have been found within the state. Among the more common wildflowers that grow in Vermont are anemones, arbutuses,violets, lilacs, dai...
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Mexico City - geography.
The park houses some of Mexico's most important public buildings, including Chapultepec Castle. Construction of the castle began in 1783. Positioned on the park’shighest elevation, the castle functioned as a fortress during colonial times. It once served as the presidential residence and now houses the National Museum of History,which includes murals by 20th-century Mexican painter Juan O'Gorman. Los Pinos, the official residence and working offices of the president, is also on the grounds, buti...
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Federal Republic of Germany - country.
B Rivers and Lakes Rivers have played a major role in Germany’s economic development. The Rhine River flows in a northwesterly direction from Switzerland through much of westernGermany and The Netherlands into the North Sea. It is a major European waterway and a pillar of commerce and trade. Its primary German tributaries include theMain, Mosel, Neckar, and Ruhr rivers. The Oder (Odra) River, along the border between Poland and Germany, runs northward and empties into the Baltic; it provides an...
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Manhattan Project - U.
other possible uses of nuclear energy, such as using uranium to operate large power plants or, perhaps, as power sources for ships or submarines. Then Nazi Germanyinvaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and Europe plunged into war. The scientists realized that any plans to build large-scale nuclear power plants would have to waituntil the war was over. Two weeks after the invasion of Poland, Hitler made a radio speech in which he threatened Britain with “a weapon against which there is no defense.”...
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Mars (planet) - astronomy.
The Martian core is probably much like Earth’s, consisting mostly of iron, with a small amount of nickel. If other light elements, particularly sulfur, exist there as well, thecore may be larger than presently thought. From studying Earth’s magnetic field and core, scientists theorize that the motions of the liquid rock in Earth’s core generateits magnetic field. Mars does not have a significant magnetic field, so scientists believe that Mars’s core is probably solid. However, spacecraft data in...
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Michigan - geography.
The interior location of Michigan in the northern part of North America results in a continental climate, characterized by four definite seasons with moist, mild to hotsummers and snowy, cold winters. Winds off of Lakes Michigan and Superior in winter create heavy snow accumulations in nearby areas. The tempering effects of LakeMichigan account for the presence of the state’s famous fruit-growing belt along the lake’s shore. Since the water is colder than the land in spring, the westerly windspa...
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Michigan - USA History.
The interior location of Michigan in the northern part of North America results in a continental climate, characterized by four definite seasons with moist, mild to hotsummers and snowy, cold winters. Winds off of Lakes Michigan and Superior in winter create heavy snow accumulations in nearby areas. The tempering effects of LakeMichigan account for the presence of the state’s famous fruit-growing belt along the lake’s shore. Since the water is colder than the land in spring, the westerly windspa...
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France - country.
In both the Paris and Aquitaine basins, fertile soils derived from limestone and wind-deposited dust, called loess, have supported prosperous agriculture since ancienttimes. Other lowlands in France are scattered and relatively small. They include the Alsace Plain in the east, bordering Germany, the valley of the Rhône River in thesoutheast, and the Languedoc Plain along the Mediterranean coast. A2 Uplands France contains several regions of uplands, the worn down remains of ancient mountain sys...
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Museum.
History museums are dedicated to promoting a greater appreciation and knowledge of history and its importance to understanding the present and anticipating thefuture. They range from historic sites and small historic house museums to large, encyclopedic institutions such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of AmericanHistory in Washington, D.C. Many cities and states have historical societies that operate museums or historic sites. History museums usually collect a wide range ofobjects, includi...