Roland (de La Plati�re), Jeanne-marie

Jeanne-Marie Phlipon was the daughter of a Paris engraver. Brilliant and cultured, she absorbed the democratic ideas of Jean-Jacques

Schaff, Philip

Schaff was educated at the universities of T�bingen, Halle, and Berlin and was made a lecturer in 1842 at Berlin, where his interest in church history was aroused

Bell Island

Island in southeastern Newfoundland, Canada; it lies in Conception Bay 3 mi (5 km) off the Avalon Peninsula. Bell Island is 6 mi long and 3 mi wide, and has an area of 11 sq mi (28 sq km). Named after a large bell-shaped rock off its west end, it was one of the world's major iron-ore producers from 1895 to 1966. Fishing and subsistence agriculture are now the main economic activities on the densely populated

American Academy Of Arts And Sciences

Honorary society incorporated on May 4, 1780, in Boston, Mass., U.S., for the purpose of cultivating �every art and science.� Its membership - some 3,300 fellows in the United States and about 550 foreign honorary fellows (all scholars and national leaders) - is divided into four classes: the physical sciences, the biological sciences, the social arts and sciences, and the humanities and fine

Boner, Ulrich

Boner, known to have been of a Bernese family, is mentioned in records between 1324 and 1349. He compiled and translated his collection of fables for Johann von Ringgenberg, his Bernese patron. The form that Boner used was referred to as b�schaft

Gen�e, Dame Adeline

At eight she was adopted by her aunt and uncle, the dancers who trained her for the ballet. Her early appearances were in Germany. From 1897 until 1907 she was prima ballerina at the Empire Theatre in London.

Paraboloid

An open surface generated by rotating a parabola (q.v.) about its axis. If the axis of the surface is the z axis and the vertex is at the origin, the intersections of the surface with planes parallel to the xz and yz planes are parabolas (see Figure, top). The intersections of the surface with planes parallel to and above the xy plane are circles. The general equation for this

Aristides The Just

Little is known of Aristides' early life. He appears to have been prominent within the party that favoured resistance to Persia, but in 482 he was ostracized, probably because he opposed Themistocles' plan to use the silver from a new vein of the mines at

Hyderabad

Hyderabad was founded by the Qutb Shahi sultans of Golconda, under whom the kingdom of Golconda attained a position of importance second only to that of the Mughal Empire in the north. The old fortress town of Golconda had proved inadequate as the kingdom's capital, and so

Muhammad Ibn Falah

Muhammad ibn Falah was reputed to be descended from the seventh Shi'ite imam, Musa al-Kazim. He received a traditional Islamic religious education in al-Hillah, a famous centre for Shi'ite studies. As a student he was noted for his extremist religious views, which bordered on heresy, and he

Loquat

(Eriobotrya japonica), subtropical tree of the rose family (Rosaceae), related to the apple and other well-known fruit trees of the temperate zone. Ornamental in appearance and rarely more than 10 metres (33 feet) in height, the evergreen loquat is frequently planted in parks and gardens. The leaves, clustered toward the ends of the branches, are thick and

Arnulf I

On his father's death in 918, the inherited lands were divided between Arnulf and his brother Adolf, but the latter survived only a short time, and Arnulf succeeded to the whole inheritance. His reign was filled with warfare against the Norsemen, and he took an active part in the struggles in Lorraine between the emperor Otto

Kyoto

City, seat of Kyoto fu (urban prefecture), west-central Honshu island, Japan. It is located some 30 miles (48 kilometres) northeast of the industrial city of Osaka and about the same distance from Nara, another ancient centre of Japanese culture. Gently sloping downward from north to south, the city averages 180 feet (55 metres) above sea level, and it covers an area of about 236 square miles

Augrabies Falls

Also spelled �Aughrabies Falls, � series of separately channeled cataracts and rapids on the Orange River in arid Northern Cape province, South Africa. The falls, which form the central feature of Augrabies Falls National Park (established in 1966), occur where the Orange River leaves a plateau formation of resistant granite. The main fall of water is 305 feet (93 m); and the total drop is about 625 feet (191 m). At the bottom

Augrabies Falls

Also spelled �Aughrabies Falls, � series of separately channeled cataracts and rapids on the Orange River in arid Northern Cape province, South Africa. The falls, which form the central feature of Augrabies Falls National Park (established in 1966), occur where the Orange River leaves a plateau formation of resistant granite. The main fall of water is 305 feet (93 m); and the total drop is about 625 feet (191 m). At the bottom

National Botanic Gardens Of South Africa

Also called �Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens � one of the world's largest botanical gardens, occupying a 1,305-acre (528-hectare) site in Kirstenbosch, near Cape Town, Western Cape province, South Africa. The 6,200-species collection consists almost exclusively of Cape plants native to the fynbos (scrubland) and forests of southern Africa. The botanical garden was established in 1913. It includes such beautiful flowering plants as

Taraori, Battles Of

Muhammad had taken Lahore from the last of the

Cold War

The open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. The Cold War was waged on political, economic, and propaganda fronts and had only limited recourse to weapons. The term was first used by the American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch during a congressional

Malik Ibn Anas

Few details are known about Malik ibn Anas' life, most of which was spent in the city of Medina. He became learned in Islamic law and attracted a considerable number of students, his followers coming to be known as the Maliki school of law. His prestige

Osceola

City, southern seat (1832) of Mississippi county (the northern seat is Blytheville), northeastern Arkansas, U.S., on the Mississippi River, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Memphis, Tennessee. It was founded in 1830 by William B. Edrington, who bartered the site (probably Plum Point) from the Indians and developed it as a refueling station for riverboats. It was named for Osceola, the famed Seminole

Ta Hs�

Ta hs�eh states that world peace is impossible unless a ruler first regulates

'abd Allah, Khawr

Estuary (khawr) separating Kuwait and Iraq, probably a drowned river mouth of the Shatt (stream) al-Arab, whose mouth is now farther north and forms the southeastern part of the border between Iraq and Iran. It extends into Iraqi territory in the form of the Khawr az-Zubayr, on which the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr is located and which is linked by canal northwestward to the

Adam, Robert

Robert was the second son of William Adam, the foremost Scottish architect of his time. William, who as master mason to the Board of Ordnance in North Britain supervised the design of military buildings, also designed numerous country houses in a conservative Palladian style - the modified classic Roman style that was originally developed by the 16th-century architect

Gr�fe, Karl Ferdinand Von

German surgeon who helped to create modern plastic surgery. A superintendent of German military hospitals during the Napoleonic Wars (1800 - 15), he also served as professor of surgery and director of the surgical clinic at the University of Berlin (1810 - 40). He improved the English surgeon Joseph Carpue's adaptation of the �Indian method� and

Argentina, Independence

In Argentina the independence movement began in 1806 - 07, when British attacks on Buenos Aires were repelled in the two battles known as the Reconquista and the Defensa. Also important there, as elsewhere in Spanish America, were the ramifications of Napoleon I's intervention in Spain, beginning in 1808, which plunged that country into a civil war between two rival

Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich

As a young Jewish shoemaker, Kaganovich became involved in the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (in 1911) and in 1920 was made head of the Soviet government of Tashkent. His success in consolidating Soviet

Devaraja

The devaraja cult grew out of both Hindu and indigenous traditions. It taught that the king was a divine universal ruler, a manifestation

Zacatecas

City, capital of Zacatecas estado (�state�), north-central Mexico. It lies in a deep, narrow ravine, 8,189 feet (2,496 m) above sea level. Founded in 1548 (by Juan de Tolosa, Crist�bal de O�ate, Diego de Ibarra, and Baltasar Tremi�o), two years after silver was discovered in the area, it was given city status in 1585. The name means �place where zacate grass grows.� Until the 19th century, the mines around Zacatecas