Pala Dynasty

Ruling dynasty in Bihar and Bengal, India, from the 8th to the 12th century. Its founder, Gopala, was a local chieftain who rose to power in the mid-8th century during a period of anarchy. His successor, Dharmapala (reigned c. 770 - 810), greatly expanded the kingdom and for a while was in control of Kannauj. Pala power was maintained under Devapala (reigned c. 810 - 850), who carried out raids in the north, the

Gage, Thomas

Gage's military career in North America began in 1754, when he sailed with his regiment to serve in the last French

Paleo-siberian Languages

Paleo-Siberian also spelled �Paleosiberian�, also called �Paleo-Asiatic languages �or �Hyperborean languages� languages spoken in Asian Russia (Siberia) that belong to four genetically unrelated groups - Yeniseian, Luorawetlan, Yukaghir, and Nivkh.

Leadbelly

Musical from childhood, Leadbelly played accordion, 6- and 12-string guitar, bass, and harmonica. He led a wandering life, learning songs by absorbing oral tradition.

Blackwood, Caroline

Blackwood, a descendant of the 18th-century dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan, lived in Northern Ireland until

Cadillac, Antoine Laumet De La Mothe

With permission

Cadillac, Antoine Laumet De La Mothe

With permission

Audiovisual Education

Audiovisual education has developed rapidly since the 1920s by drawing on new technologies of communication, most recently the computer. History has shown that pictures, specimens, demonstrations,

Say, Thomas

Say accompanied various expeditions in North American territory, including an exploration of the Rocky Mountains led by Stephen

Melk

Town, Bundesland (�federal state�) Nieder�sterreich, northeastern Austria. It lies at the confluence of the Danube and Melk rivers, west of Sankt P�lten. The town was the site of a Roman garrison and was the castle-residence of the Babenberg rulers of Austria from 976 to 1101. The castle and surrounding lands were given in 1111 to the huge Benedictine abbey of Melk (founded in 1089), which dominates

Cyrenaic

The school was called Cyrenaic because Cyrene in North Africa was the

Tasmanian Languages

Extinct languages spoken before 1877 by the indigenous people of Tasmania, who are also now extinct. No relationship between the Tasmanian languages and any other languages of the world has been discovered. Scholars originally divided the Tasmanian languages, all of which were related to each other, into two groups, a western group, spoken in western Tasmania and northern

Southampton, William Fitzwilliam, Earl Of

A son of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Aldwarke, near Rotherham, Fitzwilliam was a companion in boyhood of Henry VIII and was knighted for his services at the siege of Tournai in 1513. Later he was treasurer of Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey's household and was sent several times to France

Light

Electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye. In terms of wavelength, electromagnetic radiation occurs over an extremely wide range, from gamma rays with a wavelength of 3 10-14 centimetre to long radio waves measured in millions of kilometres. In that spectrum the wavelengths visible to humans occupy a very narrow band, from about 7 10-5 centimetre (red light)

Dion Chrysostom

Dion was banished in AD 82 for political reasons from both Bithynia and Italy. He wandered for 14 years through the lands near the Black Sea, adopting the life of poverty advocated by the Cynics. With the death of the emperor Domitian his exile

Paderborn

City, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), central Germany, on the Pader River, a small affluent of the Lippe, formed from rain seepage on the slope of the Eggegebirge and emerging from below the cathedral in about 200 springs. Paderborn was the birthplace of the Holy Roman Empire when Charlemagne met Pope Leo III there in 799 to discuss the founding of a German nation. Excavation

Genesis

Hebrew �Bereshit� (�In the Beginning�), the first book of the Old Testament. Its name derives from the opening words: �In the beginning . . . .� Genesis narrates the primeval history of the world (chapters 1 - 11) and the patriarchal history of the Israelite people (chapters 12 - 50). The primeval history includes the familiar stories of the Creation, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, and the Tower

Trace Element

Also called �Micronutrient, � in biology, any chemical element required by living organisms in minute amounts, usually as part of a vital enzyme, a cell-produced catalytic protein. Exact needs vary among species, but commonly required plant micronutrients include copper, boron, zinc, manganese, and molybdenum. Animals also require manganese, iodine, and cobalt. Lack of a necessary plant micronutrient

Parturition, Face presentation

When the child's head becomes bent back (extended) so that it enters and passes through the pelvis face first, the condition is known as a face presentation. The chin is then the leading pole and follows the same course that is followed by the back of the head in occipital presentations. If the chin lies to the front as it enters the pelvis, labour often is easy and of short

Steffani, Agostino

Steffani studied music in Venice, Rome, and Munich, where he served the Elector of Bavaria from 1674 to 1688, becoming by 1681 director of chamber music. He left Munich and entered the service of the Duke of Brunswick, later elector of Hanover, where he remained

Marwan Ii

The grandson of Marwan I, Marwan II was governor of Armenia and other territories for 12 years, gaining military experience which later led him to reorganize the Islamic army. In place of a clumsy system of divisions based on tribal

Nara

Ken (prefecture), southern Honshu, Japan. The prefecture occupies the central part of the Kii Peninsula. Its southern and northeastern portions are mountainous, while the northwest is composed of the lowland of the Nara Basin. The basin is separated from Osaka (west) by mountains and contains most of the prefecture's population, main cities, and transport facilities.

Effen, Justus Van

Dutch essayist and journalist whose straightforward didactic pieces, modelled on foreign examples, had a wholesome influence on the contemporary Dutch fashion of rococo writing. His other occupations included private tutor, secretary at the Netherlands embassy in London (1715 and 1727), and clerk in the Dutch government's warehouses

Carson, Rachel

Carson early developed a deep interest in the natural world. She entered Pennsylvania College for Women with the intention of becoming a writer but soon changed her major field of study from English to biology.

D�vid, Ferenc

After successively rejecting Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism, in 1566 D�vid became bishop of the Calvinist community at Kolozsv�r and court preacher to the Unitarian king

Sillanp��, Frans Eemil

The son of a peasant farmer, Sillanp�� began studying natural science but in 1913 returned to the country, married, and began to write. His first short stories were published in journals in 1915. From 1924 to 1927 he worked for a publishing company in Porvoo. A new creative

Joy Division/new Order

British rock group who, as Joy Division, refined the external chaos of 1970s punk into a disquieting inner turmoil, ushering in the postpunk era. They later, as New Order, pioneered the successful fusion of rock and 1980s African-American dance music styles. The principal members were Ian Curtis (b. July 15, 1956, Macclesfield, Cheshire, Eng. - d. May 18, 1980, Macclesfield), Bernard Albrecht (later Bernard

Chondrichthian, Food habits

All sharks are carnivorous and, with a few exceptions, have broad feeding preferences, governed largely by the size and availability of the prey. The recorded food of the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvieri), for example, includes a wide variety of fishes (including other sharks, skates, and stingrays), sea turtles, birds, sea lions, crustaceans, squid, and even carrion such as

Alcidamas

Prominent Sophist and rhetorician who taught in Athens. He was a pupil of Gorgias and a rival of Isocrates. His only extant work, Peri sophiston (�Concerning Sophists�), stresses the superiority of extempore (though prepared) speeches over written ones. The oration attributed to him entitled Odysseus is spurious. Only fragments of his other works survive. Aristotle

World War I, The Balkan front, 1918

At Salonika the Allies' politically ambitious but militarily ineffective commander in chief, General Sarrail, was replaced at the end of 1917 by General Guillaumat, who was in turn succeeded in July 1918 by General L.-F.-F. Franchet d'Esperey, who launched a major offensive in September with six Serbian and two French divisions against a seven-mile front held by only one Bulgarian