Beresteczko, Battle Of

In 1648 Khmelnytsky organized an insurrection among the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who lived along the Dnieper River, against their Polish rulers, who had been trying to limit the Cossacks' autonomy by reducing their numbers,

Biblical Literature, In Judaism

After the kingdoms of Israel and Judah had fallen, in 722 BCE (before the Common Era, equivalent to BC) and 587/586 BCE, respectively, the Hebrew people outlived defeat, captivity, and the loss of their national independence, largely because they possessed writings that preserved their history and traditions. Many of them did not return to Palestine after their exile. Those who did return

Daigak Guksa

A son of the Koryo king Munjong, Uich'on became a Buddhist monk at age 11, and in 1084 he went to the Sung court of China and stayed a year and a half studying and collecting Buddhist literature. When Uich'on returned home to Korea, he brought with him the doctrines of the Chinese T'ien T'ai (Korean pronunciation

Costa-gavras

The son of a Russian-born father and a Greek mother, Costa-Gavras left Athens in 1952 to go to Paris,

Computers, Interpreters

HLL coding was attempted right from the start of the stored-program era in the late 1940s. Shortcode, or short-order code, was the first such language actually implemented. Suggested by John Mauchly in 1949, it was implemented by William Schmitt for the BINAC computer in that year and for UNIVAC in 1950. Shortcode went through multiple steps: first it converted the alphabetic statements

Baragwanathia

A genus of fossil plants from the Early Devonian Epoch (about 408 to 387 million years ago) of Australia, of interest as being perhaps the earliest club moss class (or subdivision) Lycopsida. The plants exceeded the size of present-day lycopsids, some being up to 28 cm (11 inches) long.

Hess, Germain Henri

After practicing medicine for several years in Irkutsk, Russia, Hess became professor of chemistry in 1830 at the Technological Institute, University of St. Petersburg. His early investigations concerned minerals and the natural

Shadows, The

London-based instrumental rock group whose distinctive sound exerted a strong influence on young British musicians in the 1960s. The original members were Hank B. Marvin (original name Brian Robson Rankin; b. Oct. 28, 1941, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, Eng.), Bruce Welch (original name Bruce Cripps; b. Nov. 2, 1941, Bognor Regis, Sussex), Jet Harris (byname of Terence Harris; b.

Italy

Officially �Italian Republic�, Italian �Italia� or �Repubblica Italiana� country of south-central Europe, occupying a peninsula that juts deep into the Mediterranean Sea. It has a shape that has been likened frequently to a high-heeled boot about to prod its triangular subject island of Sicily. Another important island, Sardinia, lies some 160 miles (260 kilometres) west of Italy's �shin.� The magnificent mountain barrier of the Alps forms a northern

Chu Y�-chien

A Ming prince, Chu was a direct descendant of the first Ming dynasty emperor, Hung-wu (reigned 1368 - 98). Upon the fall of the Ming capital, Peking,

Smith, Bessie

Smith grew up in poverty and obscurity. She may have made a first public appearance at the age of eight or nine at the Ivory Theatre in her hometown. About 1919 she was discovered by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, one of the first of the great blues singers, from whom she received some

Cunningham, Glenn

At the age of 7, Cunningham and his older brother Floyd were badly burned in a schoolhouse fire; Floyd died and Glenn was not expected to be able to walk. Cunningham overcame this adversity, running - and winning - races in high school,

Daigo, Go-

In full� Go-daigo Tenno, �personal name �Takaharu� emperor of Japan (1318 - 39), whose efforts to overthrow the shogunate and restore the monarchy led to civil war and divided the imperial family into two rival factions.

Chacao

City, northwestern Miranda state, northern Venezuela. The city, in a valley in the central highlands, was formerly a commercial centre in an agricultural area producing coffee, corn (maize), sugarcane, and fruit. With the growth of the national capital, it has become a residential and commercial part of the Caracas metropolitan area. Highways and expressways connect

Saint Clair's Defeat

(November 4, 1791), one of the worst defeats ever suffered by U.S. forces in Indian warfare, precipitated by British-Indian confrontation with settlers and militia in the Northwest Territory following the American Revolution. Despite specific provisions in the Treaty of 1783 for the evacuation of its forts on the northwestern border, Britain had failed to yield these lucrative

Feld, Eliot

Feld performed in the original stage and

Messenger

(foaled 1780), racehorse who, though a Thoroughbred who sired many successful Thoroughbred (flat) racers, was most important as the foundation sire of the Standardbred (harness racehorse) breed. A son of Mambrino and grandson of Matchem, he was foaled in England but was taken to Philadelphia in 1788. His descendants became known for their trotting ability, and his great-grandson

Nithard

A son of Charlemagne's daughter Bertha and the renowned poet and imperial chancellor Angilbert, Nithard was reared at court. On the death of the

S�-carneiro, M�rio De

S�-Carneiro studied in Paris at the Sorbonne. His first poems, Dispers�o (�Dispersion�), were written in Paris and published in 1914. In the same year he published a novel, A Confiss�o de L�cio (�The Confession of L�cio�), and back in Portugal he

Saxhorn

Any of a family of brass wind instruments patented by the Belgian instrument-maker Antoine-Joseph Sax, known as Adolphe Sax, in Paris in 1845. Saxhorns, one of many 19th-century developments from the valved bugle, provided military bands with a homogeneous series of valved brass in place of the miscellany of valved instruments that had come into use since 1825 (such as fl�gelhorns,

Andosol

One of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Andosols are highly porous, dark-coloured soils developed from parent material of volcanic origin, such as volcanic ash, tuff, and pumice. They are found from Iceland to Indonesia, but they typically occur in wooded highland areas of the continental lands bordering

Paragonite

Mica mineral similar to muscovite, a basic silicate of sodium and aluminum; a member of the common mica group. It was thought to be an uncommon mineral, but experiment and investigation have shown that it is widespread in metamorphic schists and phyllites, in gneisses, in quartz veins, and in fine-grained sediments. It seems probable that much paragonite has been mistaken

Nepal, Flag Of

Hundreds of independent states existed on the Indian subcontinent prior to the period of British control there in the 17th - 19th centuries. Many of these countries, including Nepal, had state flags of their own, their symbols usually representing the ruling dynasty. Frequently, the flag designs, shapes, and colours were (by European standards) unusual. Most of those flags

Wangaratta

City, northern Victoria, Australia. It lies at the confluence of the Ovens and King rivers, northeast of Melbourne. The site was first settled in 1837 by a sheepherder, George Faithfull, and was proclaimed a town in 1845. Its name is derived from an Aboriginal term meaning either �meeting of the rivers� or �home of the cormorants.� The city is a junction of the Hume and Ovens highways

Yamaga Soko

Original name �Yamaga Takasuke�, also called �Jingozaemon� military strategist and Confucian philosopher who set forth the first systematic exposition of the missions and obligations of the samurai (warrior) class and who made major contributions to Japanese military science. Yamaga's thought became the central core of what later came to be known as Bushido (Code of Warriors),