Great
[greyt]
See W. Ullmann, Origins of the Great Schism (1948, repr. 1972); B. Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar Theory (1955, repr. 1969); E. F. Jacob, Essays in the Conciliar Epoch (3d ed. 1963); M. Gail, The Three Popes (1969); J. H. Smith, The Great Schism (1970).
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Licensed from Columbia University Press
See E. Walker, The Great Trek (5th ed. 1965).
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Large, aggressive shark (Carcharodon carcharias, family Lamnidae), considered the species most dangerous to humans. It is found in tropical and temperate regions of all oceans and is noted for its voracious appetite. Its diet includes fishes, sea turtles, birds, sea lions, small whales, carcasses, and ships' garbage. The great white is heavy-bodied and has a crescent-shaped tail and large, saw-edged, triangular teeth. It can reach a length of more than 20 ft (6 m) and is generally gray, bluish, or brownish, with the colour shading suddenly into a whitish belly. Though it is widely feared, only a few hundred humans are known to have ever been killed by the great white shark.
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Main space in a medieval manor house, monastery, or college, in which meals were eaten. In large manor houses it also served other purposes: Justice was administered there, entertainment enjoyed, and often at night its stone floor was strewn with rushes so that servants could sleep there.
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Mounted specimen of great auk (Pinguinus impennis)
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The early pre-Roman inhabitants of Britain (see Stonehenge) were Celtic-speaking peoples, including the Brythonic people of Wales, the Picts of Scotland, and the Britons of Britain. Celts also settled in Ireland circa 500 BC. Julius Caesar invaded and took control of the area in 55–54 BC. The Roman province of Britannia endured until the 5th century AD and included present-day England and Wales. Germanic tribes, including Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, invaded Britain in the 5th century. The invasions had little effect on the Celtic peoples of Wales and Scotland. Christianity began to flourish in the 6th century. During the 8th and 9th centuries, Vikings, particularly Danes, raided the coasts of Britain. In the late 9th century Alfred the Great repelled a Danish invasion, which helped bring about the unification of England under Athelstan. The Scots attained dominance in Scotland, which was finally unified under Malcolm II (1005–34). William of Normandy (see William I) took England in 1066. The Norman kings established a strong central government and feudal state. The French language of the Norman rulers eventually merged with the Anglo-Saxon of the common people to form the English language. From the 11th century, Scotland came under the influence of the English throne. Henry II conquered Ireland in the late 12th century. His sons Richard I and John had conflicts with the clergy and nobles, and eventually John was forced to grant the nobles concessions in the Magna Carta (1215). The concept of community of the realm developed during the 13th century, providing the foundation for parliamentary government. During the reign of Edward I (1272–1307), statute law developed to supplement English common law, and the first Parliament was convened. In 1314 Robert the Bruce (see Robert I) won independence for Scotland. The house of Tudor became the ruling family of England following the Wars of the Roses (1455–85). Henry VIII (1509–47) established the Church of England and incorporated Wales as part of England.
The reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) began a period of colonial expansion; in 1588 British forces defeated the “invincible” Spanish Armada. In 1603 James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne, becoming James I, and established a personal union of the two kingdoms. The English Civil Wars erupted in 1642 between Royalists and Parliamentarians, ending in the execution of Charles I (1649). After 11 years of Puritan rule under Oliver Cromwell and his son (1649–60), the monarchy was restored with Charles II. In 1689, following the Glorious Revolution, Parliament proclaimed the joint sovereigns William III and Mary II, who accepted the British Bill of Rights. In 1707 England and Scotland assented to the Act of Union, forming the kingdom of Great Britain. The Hanoverians ascended the English throne in 1714, when George Louis, elector of Hanover, became George I of Great Britain. During the reign of George III, Great Britain's North American colonies won independence (1783). This was followed by a period of war (1789–1815) with Revolutionary France and later with the empire of Napoleon. In 1801 legislation united Great Britain with Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, and it remained the world's foremost economic power until the late 19th century. During the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), Britain's colonial expansion reached its zenith, though the older dominions, including Canada and Australia, were granted independence (1867 and 1901, respectively).
The U.K. entered World War I allied with France and Russia in 1914. Following the war, revolutionary disorder erupted in Ireland, and in 1921 the Irish Free State (see Ireland) was granted dominion status. Six counties of Ulster, however, remained in the U.K. as Northern Ireland. The U.K. entered World War II in 1939. Following the war, the Irish Free State became the Irish republic and left the Commonwealth. India also gained independence from the U.K. Throughout the postwar period and into the 1970s, the U.K. continued to grant independence to its overseas colonies and dependencies. With UN forces, it participated in the Korean War (1950–53). In 1956 it intervened militarily in Egypt during the Suez Crisis. It joined the European Economic Community, a forerunner of the European Union, in 1973. In 1982 it defeated Argentina in the Falkland Islands War. As a result of continuing social strife in Northern Ireland, it joined with Ireland in several peace initiatives, which eventually resulted in an agreement to establish an assembly in Northern Ireland. In 1997 referenda approved in Scotland and Wales devolved power to both countries, though both remained part of the U.K. In 1991 the U.K. joined an international coalition to reverse Iraq's conquest of Kuwait (see Persian Gulf War). In 2003 the U.K. and the U.S. attacked Iraq and overthrew the government of
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(born Jan. 11, 347, Cauca, Gallaecia [Spain]—died Jan. 17, 395, Mediolanum) Roman emperor of the East (379–392) and of East and West (392–395). Born of Christian parents, he served in the military under his father, a general. He distinguished himself against the Sarmatians and was proclaimed coemperor by Gratian to rule in the eastern empire (379). To settle the contentious debate over true Christianity, he adopted the Nicene Creed as the Christian norm (380). He reached a treaty with the Visigoths (382). When the Spanish general Maximus overthrew the new coemperor in the western empire (387), Theodosius defeated the usurper (388) and claimed supreme authority over the whole empire (392). He argued with St. Ambrose over the role of the church in imperial affairs but did not grant power to the church. In 392 forces advocating paganism led by Arbogast and Eugenius took power in Rome. In 394 Theodosius defeated them and claimed the Christian God victorious over the pagan gods.
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(born 454—died Aug. 30, 526) King of the Ostrogoths and founder of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy. Sent by the Byzantine emperor Zeno to invade Italy in 488, he made himself sole ruler by 493 and murdered Odoacer by treachery. With Ravenna as his capital he staved off the Franks and Bulgarians, and he held sway over a kingdom that included Sicily, Dalmatia, and some German lands. An Arian (see Arianism), he tolerated Catholicism and promoted peace between Goths and Romans.
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(born March 17, 1874, Budapest, Hung., Austria-Hungary—died April 19, 1949, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Hungarian-born U.S. Reform rabbi, political activist, and Zionist leader. His family immigrated to the U.S. when he was an infant. He earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1901 and was trained as a rabbi. In 1907, after declining a post at an influential congregation because of inadequate assurances of free speech in the pulpit, he founded the Free Synagogue. In 1898 he attended the Second Zionist Congress and helped found the Zionist Organization of America. A prominent member of the Democratic Party, he helped win U.S. government approval of the Balfour Declaration. In 1922 he founded the Jewish Institute of Religion, a seminary for liberal rabbis, which merged with Hebrew Union College in 1950.
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(born Nov. 28, 1832, London, Eng.—died Feb. 22, 1904, London) English critic and man of letters. After attending Eton College and Cambridge University, he gained entry to literary circles and in 1871 began an 11-year tenure as editor of The Cornhill Magazine, for which he wrote literary criticism. His greatest learned work was his History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century (1876), but his most enduring legacy is the Dictionary of National Biography, which he edited from 1882 to 1891, personally writing many hundreds of its meticulous articles. He was the father of Virginia Woolf and the painter Vanessa Bell (1879–1961).
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(died circa AD 36, Jerusalem) First Christian martyr. As told in the Acts of the Apostles, he was a foreign-born Jew who lived in Jerusalem and joined the church at an early date. He was one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to care for elderly women, widows, and orphans. As a Hellenized Jew, he was strongly opposed to the Temple cult of Judaism. For expressing his opposition, he was brought before the Sanhedrin. His defense of Christianity so outraged his hearers that he was condemned to be stoned to death. One of those who assented to the execution was Saul of Tarsus (St. Paul).
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(born Aug. 30, 1794, Newark, N.J., U.S.—died Oct. 31, 1848, St. Louis, Mo.) U.S. Army officer. He served in the War of 1812 and later on the western frontier. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, he was ordered to seize New Mexico and California. Using diplomacy to persuade Mexican troops to withdraw, he marched unopposed to Santa Fe, where in 1846 he proclaimed a civil government for the province. Heading to California, he was informed that the conquest had already been completed by Robert F. Stockton and John C. Frémont. He arrived to discover that Mexican rebels had retaken most of the province. He then joined forces with Stockton to defeat the rebels in 1847. After initial opposition from Frémont, who had persuaded Stockton to appoint him governor, Kearny pacified the rest of California and established a stable civil government. He was then sent to Mexico, where he died of yellow fever.
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(born March 17, 1874, Budapest, Hung., Austria-Hungary—died April 19, 1949, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Hungarian-born U.S. Reform rabbi, political activist, and Zionist leader. His family immigrated to the U.S. when he was an infant. He earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1901 and was trained as a rabbi. In 1907, after declining a post at an influential congregation because of inadequate assurances of free speech in the pulpit, he founded the Free Synagogue. In 1898 he attended the Second Zionist Congress and helped found the Zionist Organization of America. A prominent member of the Democratic Party, he helped win U.S. government approval of the Balfour Declaration. In 1922 he founded the Jewish Institute of Religion, a seminary for liberal rabbis, which merged with Hebrew Union College in 1950.
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(died July 9, 1228, Slindon, Sussex, Eng.) English cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury (1207–28). Langton was living in Rome when Innocent III nominated him as archbishop of Canterbury to settle a disputed election. When King John refused to allow him into England, the pope excommunicated John (1209). John finally submitted and received Langton in 1213. The new archbishop encouraged baronial opposition to the king but opposed violence. He was present at the signing of the Magna Carta (1215) and influenced its provisions on ecclesiastical liberties.
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(born March 22, 1930, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. composer and lyricist. He studied piano and organ and at age 15 wrote his first musical under the tutelage of the musical comedy author Oscar Hammerstein II, a family friend. After studies with composer Milton Babbitt, he made his first mark on Broadway as lyricist for West Side Story (1957) and later Gypsy (1959). He wrote both music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962, Tony Award), A Little Night Music (1973, Tony Award), Sweeney Todd (1979, Tony Award), Sunday in the Park with George (1984, Pulitzer Prize), and Into the Woods (1987), among other works. His stage works are known for their intellectuality, musical complexity, and frequently dark tone.
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(born Nov. 4, 1816, Haddam, Conn., U.S.—died April 9, 1899, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. After graduating from Williams College in 1837, he practiced law in New York with his brother, the legal reformer David Dudley Field (1805–94). In 1849 he moved to California, where he later joined the state supreme court. In 1863 he was appointed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln to the Supreme Court of the United States; he served until 1897. He became chief architect of the constitutional approach that largely exempted U.S. industry from government regulation after the American Civil War, basing his interpretation principally on the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment (1868), which had been passed as a civil-rights measure. Field's stance toward industry would be maintained by the Court until the 1930s.
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(born Sept. 10, 1941, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died May 20, 2002, New York, N.Y.) U.S. paleontologist and evolutionary biologist. He received a Ph.D. in paleontology from Columbia University and joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1967. With Niles Eldredge (b. 1943), he developed the controversial theory of punctuated equilibrium (1972), a revision of Darwinism that proposed that the evolutionary creation of new species occurs in rapid bursts over periods as short as thousands of years, which are followed by long periods of stability. He was widely known as a popularizing writer on biological and evolutionary topics, especially in Natural History magazine; his numerous books include The Panda's Thumb (1980), The Mismeasure of Man (1981), and The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002).
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(born 970/975, Esztergom, Hung.—died Aug. 15, 1038, Esztergom; canonized 1083; feast day August 16) First king of Hungary (1000–38) and founder of the Hungarian state. The son of a Magyar chieftain, he was born a pagan but was later baptized as a Christian. After defeating his cousin to claim the throne, Stephen was crowned; his royal crown was a gift of Pope Sylvester II. His rule was peaceful except for an invasion by Conrad II (1030) and minor disputes with Poland and Bulgaria, and he organized Hungarian government and church administration on German models. He is the patron saint of Hungary.
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Stephen Harper.
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(born May 20, 1750, Bordeaux, France—died Dec. 26, 1831, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) French-born American financier and philanthropist. He became a sailor at age 14; by 1774 he was commanding a French ship involved in American coastal trade with the West Indies. He settled in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and resumed trading in 1783. He developed an efficient, worldwide trading fleet and amassed a fortune. In 1812 he bought out the Bank of the United States, renaming it the Bank of Stephen Girard. During the War of 1812 he purchased government bonds, which by 1814 constituted 95percnt of the U.S.'s war loan. He bequeathed his fortune to social-welfare institutions, including Stephen Girard College for male orphans (founded 1833).
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(born Aug. 15, 1938, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) U.S. jurist. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1964. After clerking for Arthur Goldberg (1964–65), he taught at Harvard (1967–81). He served as special counsel (1974–75) and chief counsel (1979–81) of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee before being appointed to the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (1980); he became its chief judge in 1990. From 1985 to 1989 he served on the commission that devised guidelines for federal sentencing. He was nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1994 by Pres. Bill Clinton. He was known as a pragmatic moderate acceptable to both Republicans and Democrats.
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(born Nov. 3, 1793, Austinville, Va., U.S.—died Dec. 27, 1836, Austin, Texas) U.S. founder of the first legal colony of English-speaking people in Texas when it was still part of Mexico. He was raised in the Missouri Territory and served in its legislature (1814–19). The economic panic in 1819 led his father to conceive a plan to colonize Texas on land obtained from the Mexican government. Austin continued the project after his father died (1821) and founded a colony of several hundred families on the Brazos River in 1822. He maintained good relations with the Mexican government. He tried to induce the Mexican government to make Texas a separate state in the Mexican confederation; when this attempt failed, he recommended in 1833 the organization of a state without waiting for the consent of the Mexican congress, and he was imprisoned. Released in 1835, he traveled to the U.S. to secure help when the Texas revolution broke out in October of that year. He is considered one of the state's founders. The city of Austin is named for him.
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(born Sept. 21, 1947, Portland, Maine, U.S.) U.S. writer. Educated at the University of Maine, he wrote a number of enormously popular books, which made him one of the world's best-selling writers. His books blend horror, the macabre, fantasy, and science fiction. Carrie (1974; film 1976), his first published novel and an immediate success, was followed by a long string of popular books, including The Shining (1977; film, 1980; television miniseries, 1997), The Dead Zone (1979; film, 1983), Pet Sematary (1983; film, 1989), and Misery (1987; film, 1990). Most of his novels have been adapted for television or film, and most have been translated into many languages.
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Stephen Decatur, detail from an engraving by Henry Meyer after a portrait by John Wesley Jarvis.
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Stephen Crane, detail of a painting by C.K. Linson, 1896.
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(born July 4, 1826, Lawrenceville, Pa., U.S.—died Jan. 13, 1864, New York, N.Y.) U.S. songwriter. He began writing songs as a child, influenced in part by black church services he attended with the family's servant and by songs sung by black labourers. In 1842 he published “Open Thy Lattice, Love,” and in 1848 he sold “Oh! Susanna” for $100; it quickly became an international hit. He later entered into a contract with the publisher Firth, Pond & Co. He was commissioned to write songs for Edwin P. Christy's minstrel show; his “Old Folks at Home” became one of the most popular songs of the century. In 1857, drinking heavily and in financial difficulties, he sold all rights to his future songs to his publishers for about $1,900. In 1860 he moved to New York; he died penniless at age 37, leaving about 200 songs, including “Camptown Races,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” and “Beautiful Dreamer,” and he is universally regarded as the greatest American songwriter of the 19th century.
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Leacock, photograph by Yousuf Karsh
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(born Dec. 18, 1946, King William's Town, S.Af.—died Sept. 12, 1977, Pretoria) South African political activist. A former medical student, in 1968 he founded the Black Consciousness movement, designed to raise black awareness of apartheid oppression. He was officially “banned” by the South African government in 1973 and was arrested several times in 1976–77. His death from head injuries suffered in police custody made him an international martyr for South African black nationalism. The initial inquest absolved the police of wrongdoing, but in 1997 five former officers confessed to Biko's murder.
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(born April 23, 1813, Brandon, Vt., U.S.—died June 3, 1861, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. politician. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1843–47) and Senate (1847–61), where he strongly supported the Union and national expansion. To settle the bitter dispute over the extension of slavery to the territories, he developed the policy of popular sovereignty. He was influential in the passage of the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Short and heavyset, he was dubbed “the Little Giant” for his oratorical skill. In 1858 he engaged in a number of widely publicized debates with Abraham Lincoln in a close contest for the Senate seat in Illinois (see Lincoln-Douglas Debates). The Democrats nominated Douglas for president in 1860, but a splinter group of Southerners nominated John C. Breckinridge, which divided the Democratic vote and gave the presidency to Lincoln. In 1861 he undertook a mission for Lincoln to gain support for the Union among the Southern border states and in the Northwest. His untimely death of typhoid was partly a result of these exertions.
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(born 1435—died July 2, 1504) Prince of Moldavia (1457–1504). With the help of the Walachian prince Vlad III Tcedilepeş, Stephen secured the throne of Moldavia. He repelled a Hungarian invasion (1467) and later attacked Walachia (1471), by then under Turkish vassalage. He defeated invading Turks (1475, 1476) and contended with Polish and Hungarian designs on Moldavia. In 1503 Stephen signed a treaty preserving Moldavian independence at the cost of an annual tribute to the Turks.
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(born Feb. 28, 1909, London, Eng.—died July 16, 1995, London) English poet and critic. While an undergraduate at Oxford, Spender met the poets W.H. Auden and C. Day-Lewis. In the 1930s they became identified with politically conscious, leftist “new writing.” His poems, expressing a self-critical, compassionate personality, appear in volumes from Poems (1933) to Dolphins (1994). He was better known for his perceptive criticism, as in The Destructive Element (1935), The Making of a Poem (1955), and The Struggle of the Modern (1963), and for his association with the influential review Encounter (1953–67). He also wrote short stories, essays, and autobiography.
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(born March 22, 1930, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. composer and lyricist. He studied piano and organ and at age 15 wrote his first musical under the tutelage of the musical comedy author Oscar Hammerstein II, a family friend. After studies with composer Milton Babbitt, he made his first mark on Broadway as lyricist for West Side Story (1957) and later Gypsy (1959). He wrote both music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962, Tony Award), A Little Night Music (1973, Tony Award), Sweeney Todd (1979, Tony Award), Sunday in the Park with George (1984, Pulitzer Prize), and Into the Woods (1987), among other works. His stage works are known for their intellectuality, musical complexity, and frequently dark tone.
Learn more about Sondheim, Stephen (Joshua) with a free trial on Britannica.com.
(born Feb. 28, 1909, London, Eng.—died July 16, 1995, London) English poet and critic. While an undergraduate at Oxford, Spender met the poets W.H. Auden and C. Day-Lewis. In the 1930s they became identified with politically conscious, leftist “new writing.” His poems, expressing a self-critical, compassionate personality, appear in volumes from Poems (1933) to Dolphins (1994). He was better known for his perceptive criticism, as in The Destructive Element (1935), The Making of a Poem (1955), and The Struggle of the Modern (1963), and for his association with the influential review Encounter (1953–67). He also wrote short stories, essays, and autobiography.
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(born March 21, 1925, London, Eng.) British director and producer. After directing plays in Stratford-upon-Avon, he became director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1947–50). He directed several innovative Shakespearean productions that aroused controversy. Appointed codirector of the Royal Shakespeare Co. in 1962, he directed critically acclaimed productions of King Lear (1962) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970). He won international fame with his avant-garde direction of Peter Weiss's play Marat/Sade (1964). His films include Lord of the Flies (1962), King Lear (1969), and the six-hour Mahabharata (1989). In 1970 he cofounded, with Jean-Louis Barrault, the International Centre for Theatre Research.
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(born Nov. 28, 1832, London, Eng.—died Feb. 22, 1904, London) English critic and man of letters. After attending Eton College and Cambridge University, he gained entry to literary circles and in 1871 began an 11-year tenure as editor of The Cornhill Magazine, for which he wrote literary criticism. His greatest learned work was his History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century (1876), but his most enduring legacy is the Dictionary of National Biography, which he edited from 1882 to 1891, personally writing many hundreds of its meticulous articles. He was the father of Virginia Woolf and the painter Vanessa Bell (1879–1961).
Learn more about Stephen, Sir Leslie with a free trial on Britannica.com.
(born Feb. 1, 1882, Compton, Que., Can.—died July 25, 1973, Quebec, Que.) Prime minister of Canada (1948–57). One of Canada's most prominent lawyers, he served in the Canadian House of Commons (1942–58) and in W.L. Mackenzie King's cabinet as minister of justice and attorney general (1942–46) and minister of external affairs (1945–48). As leader of the Liberal Party (1948), he succeeded King as prime minister. He promoted Canadian unity by equalizing provincial revenues and expanded social security and university education. He supported Canadian membership in NATO and helped establish the St. Lawrence Seaway.
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(born Feb. 1, 1882, Compton, Que., Can.—died July 25, 1973, Quebec, Que.) Prime minister of Canada (1948–57). One of Canada's most prominent lawyers, he served in the Canadian House of Commons (1942–58) and in W.L. Mackenzie King's cabinet as minister of justice and attorney general (1942–46) and minister of external affairs (1945–48). As leader of the Liberal Party (1948), he succeeded King as prime minister. He promoted Canadian unity by equalizing provincial revenues and expanded social security and university education. He supported Canadian membership in NATO and helped establish the St. Lawrence Seaway.
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Leacock, photograph by Yousuf Karsh
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(died July 9, 1228, Slindon, Sussex, Eng.) English cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury (1207–28). Langton was living in Rome when Innocent III nominated him as archbishop of Canterbury to settle a disputed election. When King John refused to allow him into England, the pope excommunicated John (1209). John finally submitted and received Langton in 1213. The new archbishop encouraged baronial opposition to the king but opposed violence. He was present at the signing of the Magna Carta (1215) and influenced its provisions on ecclesiastical liberties.
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(born Nov. 2, 1913, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 20, 1994, Century City, Calif.) U.S. film actor. He toured with circuses as an acrobat in the 1930s and served in North Africa and Italy during World War II. He first appeared in movie houses in The Killers (1946), which made him a star. He was noted for his portrayals of physically tough, emotionally sensitive characters. Lancaster's many films include Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), The Rose Tattoo (1955), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Elmer Gantry (1960, Academy Award), The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Leopard (1963), Atlantic City (1981), Local Hero (1983), and Field of Dreams (1989).
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(born Sept. 21, 1947, Portland, Maine, U.S.) U.S. writer. Educated at the University of Maine, he wrote a number of enormously popular books, which made him one of the world's best-selling writers. His books blend horror, the macabre, fantasy, and science fiction. Carrie (1974; film 1976), his first published novel and an immediate success, was followed by a long string of popular books, including The Shining (1977; film, 1980; television miniseries, 1997), The Dead Zone (1979; film, 1983), Pet Sematary (1983; film, 1989), and Misery (1987; film, 1990). Most of his novels have been adapted for television or film, and most have been translated into many languages.
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(born Aug. 30, 1794, Newark, N.J., U.S.—died Oct. 31, 1848, St. Louis, Mo.) U.S. Army officer. He served in the War of 1812 and later on the western frontier. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, he was ordered to seize New Mexico and California. Using diplomacy to persuade Mexican troops to withdraw, he marched unopposed to Santa Fe, where in 1846 he proclaimed a civil government for the province. Heading to California, he was informed that the conquest had already been completed by Robert F. Stockton and John C. Frémont. He arrived to discover that Mexican rebels had retaken most of the province. He then joined forces with Stockton to defeat the rebels in 1847. After initial opposition from Frémont, who had persuaded Stockton to appoint him governor, Kearny pacified the rest of California and established a stable civil government. He was then sent to Mexico, where he died of yellow fever.
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Stephen Harper.
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(born Sept. 10, 1941, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died May 20, 2002, New York, N.Y.) U.S. paleontologist and evolutionary biologist. He received a Ph.D. in paleontology from Columbia University and joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1967. With Niles Eldredge (b. 1943), he developed the controversial theory of punctuated equilibrium (1972), a revision of Darwinism that proposed that the evolutionary creation of new species occurs in rapid bursts over periods as short as thousands of years, which are followed by long periods of stability. He was widely known as a popularizing writer on biological and evolutionary topics, especially in Natural History magazine; his numerous books include The Panda's Thumb (1980), The Mismeasure of Man (1981), and The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002).
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(born May 20, 1750, Bordeaux, France—died Dec. 26, 1831, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) French-born American financier and philanthropist. He became a sailor at age 14; by 1774 he was commanding a French ship involved in American coastal trade with the West Indies. He settled in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and resumed trading in 1783. He developed an efficient, worldwide trading fleet and amassed a fortune. In 1812 he bought out the Bank of the United States, renaming it the Bank of Stephen Girard. During the War of 1812 he purchased government bonds, which by 1814 constituted 95percnt of the U.S.'s war loan. He bequeathed his fortune to social-welfare institutions, including Stephen Girard College for male orphans (founded 1833).
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(born July 4, 1826, Lawrenceville, Pa., U.S.—died Jan. 13, 1864, New York, N.Y.) U.S. songwriter. He began writing songs as a child, influenced in part by black church services he attended with the family's servant and by songs sung by black labourers. In 1842 he published “Open Thy Lattice, Love,” and in 1848 he sold “Oh! Susanna” for $100; it quickly became an international hit. He later entered into a contract with the publisher Firth, Pond & Co. He was commissioned to write songs for Edwin P. Christy's minstrel show; his “Old Folks at Home” became one of the most popular songs of the century. In 1857, drinking heavily and in financial difficulties, he sold all rights to his future songs to his publishers for about $1,900. In 1860 he moved to New York; he died penniless at age 37, leaving about 200 songs, including “Camptown Races,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” and “Beautiful Dreamer,” and he is universally regarded as the greatest American songwriter of the 19th century.
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(born Nov. 4, 1816, Haddam, Conn., U.S.—died April 9, 1899, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. After graduating from Williams College in 1837, he practiced law in New York with his brother, the legal reformer David Dudley Field (1805–94). In 1849 he moved to California, where he later joined the state supreme court. In 1863 he was appointed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln to the Supreme Court of the United States; he served until 1897. He became chief architect of the constitutional approach that largely exempted U.S. industry from government regulation after the American Civil War, basing his interpretation principally on the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment (1868), which had been passed as a civil-rights measure. Field's stance toward industry would be maintained by the Court until the 1930s.
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(born April 23, 1813, Brandon, Vt., U.S.—died June 3, 1861, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. politician. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1843–47) and Senate (1847–61), where he strongly supported the Union and national expansion. To settle the bitter dispute over the extension of slavery to the territories, he developed the policy of popular sovereignty. He was influential in the passage of the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Short and heavyset, he was dubbed “the Little Giant” for his oratorical skill. In 1858 he engaged in a number of widely publicized debates with Abraham Lincoln in a close contest for the Senate seat in Illinois (see Lincoln-Douglas Debates). The Democrats nominated Douglas for president in 1860, but a splinter group of Southerners nominated John C. Breckinridge, which divided the Democratic vote and gave the presidency to Lincoln. In 1861 he undertook a mission for Lincoln to gain support for the Union among the Southern border states and in the Northwest. His untimely death of typhoid was partly a result of these exertions.
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Stephen Decatur, detail from an engraving by Henry Meyer after a portrait by John Wesley Jarvis.
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Stephen Crane, detail of a painting by C.K. Linson, 1896.
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Grover Cleveland
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(born Nov. 2, 1913, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 20, 1994, Century City, Calif.) U.S. film actor. He toured with circuses as an acrobat in the 1930s and served in North Africa and Italy during World War II. He first appeared in movie houses in The Killers (1946), which made him a star. He was noted for his portrayals of physically tough, emotionally sensitive characters. Lancaster's many films include Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), The Rose Tattoo (1955), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Elmer Gantry (1960, Academy Award), The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Leopard (1963), Atlantic City (1981), Local Hero (1983), and Field of Dreams (1989).
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(born March 21, 1925, London, Eng.) British director and producer. After directing plays in Stratford-upon-Avon, he became director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1947–50). He directed several innovative Shakespearean productions that aroused controversy. Appointed codirector of the Royal Shakespeare Co. in 1962, he directed critically acclaimed productions of King Lear (1962) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970). He won international fame with his avant-garde direction of Peter Weiss's play Marat/Sade (1964). His films include Lord of the Flies (1962), King Lear (1969), and the six-hour Mahabharata (1989). In 1970 he cofounded, with Jean-Louis Barrault, the International Centre for Theatre Research.
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(born Aug. 15, 1938, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) U.S. jurist. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1964. After clerking for Arthur Goldberg (1964–65), he taught at Harvard (1967–81). He served as special counsel (1974–75) and chief counsel (1979–81) of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee before being appointed to the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (1980); he became its chief judge in 1990. From 1985 to 1989 he served on the commission that devised guidelines for federal sentencing. He was nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1994 by Pres. Bill Clinton. He was known as a pragmatic moderate acceptable to both Republicans and Democrats.
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(born Dec. 18, 1946, King William's Town, S.Af.—died Sept. 12, 1977, Pretoria) South African political activist. A former medical student, in 1968 he founded the Black Consciousness movement, designed to raise black awareness of apartheid oppression. He was officially “banned” by the South African government in 1973 and was arrested several times in 1976–77. His death from head injuries suffered in police custody made him an international martyr for South African black nationalism. The initial inquest absolved the police of wrongdoing, but in 1997 five former officers confessed to Biko's murder.
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(born Nov. 3, 1793, Austinville, Va., U.S.—died Dec. 27, 1836, Austin, Texas) U.S. founder of the first legal colony of English-speaking people in Texas when it was still part of Mexico. He was raised in the Missouri Territory and served in its legislature (1814–19). The economic panic in 1819 led his father to conceive a plan to colonize Texas on land obtained from the Mexican government. Austin continued the project after his father died (1821) and founded a colony of several hundred families on the Brazos River in 1822. He maintained good relations with the Mexican government. He tried to induce the Mexican government to make Texas a separate state in the Mexican confederation; when this attempt failed, he recommended in 1833 the organization of a state without waiting for the consent of the Mexican congress, and he was imprisoned. Released in 1835, he traveled to the U.S. to secure help when the Texas revolution broke out in October of that year. He is considered one of the state's founders. The city of Austin is named for him.
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St. Basil, detail of a mosaic, 12th century; in the Palatine Chapel, Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
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(born June 9, 1672, Moscow, Russia—died Feb. 8, 1725, St. Petersburg) Tsar of Russia (1682–1725). Son of Tsar Alexis, he reigned jointly with his half brother Ivan V (1682–96) and alone from 1696. Interested in progressive influences from western Europe, he visited several countries there (1697–98). After returning to Russia, he introduced Western technology, modernized the government and military system, and transferred the capital to the new city of St. Petersburg (1703). He further increased the power of the monarchy at the expense of the nobles and the Orthodox church. Some of his reforms were implemented brutally, with considerable loss of life. Suspecting that his son Alexis was conspiring against him, he had Alexis tortured to death in 1718. He pursued foreign policies to give Russia access to the Baltic and Black seas, engaging in war with the Ottoman Empire (1695–96) and with Sweden in the Second Northern War (1700–21). His campaign against Persia (1722–23) secured for Russia the southern and western shores of the Caspian Sea. In 1721 he was proclaimed emperor; his wife succeeded him as the empress Catherine I. For raising Russia to a recognized place among the great European powers, Peter is widely considered one of the outstanding rulers and reformers in Russian history, but he has also been decried by nationalists for discarding much of what was unique in Russian culture, and his legacy has been seen as a model for Joseph Stalin's brutal transformation of Russian life.
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(born Nov. 23, 912—died May 7, 973, Memleben, Thuringia) Duke of Saxony (936–61), German king (936–73), and emperor (962–73). He extended the frontiers of the German kingdom, winning territory from the Slavs in the east, forcing the Bohemians to pay tribute (950), and gaining influence in Denmark and Burgundy. In 951 Otto became king of the Lombards and married the queen of Italy. He quelled a rebellion by his son in 955 and defeated the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld. Crowned emperor by Pope John XII in 962, he deposed John in 963 and replaced him with Leo VIII. He returned to Italy (966–72) to subdue Rome, and he betrothed his son, Otto II, to a Byzantine princess (972). He also extended his authority over the church and promoted missionary activity in lands he had conquered. By his death, Otto had created the most powerful state in western Europe and laid the foundation for the later Holy Roman Empire.
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(born Sept. 5, 1638, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France—died Sept. 1, 1715, Versailles) King of France (1643–1715), ruler during one of France's most brilliant periods and the symbol of absolute monarchy of the Neoclassical age. He succeeded his father, Louis XIII, at age four, under the regency of his mother, Anne of Austria. In 1648 the nobles and the Paris Parlement, who hated the prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, rose against the crown and started the Fronde. In 1653, victorious over the rebels, Mazarin gained absolute power, though the king was of age. In 1660 Louis married Marie-Thérèse of Austria (1638–83), daughter of Philip IV of Spain. When Mazarin died in 1661, Louis astonished his ministers by informing them that he intended to assume responsibility for ruling the kingdom. A believer in dictatorship by divine right, he viewed himself as God's representative on earth. He was assisted by his able ministers, Jean-Baptiste Colbert and the marquis de Louvois. Louis weakened the nobles' power by making them dependent on the crown. A patron of the arts, he protected writers and devoted himself to building splendid palaces, including the extravagant Versailles, where he kept most of the nobility under his watchful eye. In 1667 he invaded the Spanish Netherlands in the War of Devolution (1667–68) and again in 1672 in the Third Dutch War. The Sun King was at his zenith; he had extended France's northern and eastern borders and was adored at his court. In 1680 a scandal involving his mistress, the marchioness de Montespan (1641–1707), made him fearful for his reputation, and he openly renounced pleasure. The queen died in 1683, and he secretly married the pious marchioness de Maintenon. After trying to convert French Protestants by force, he revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Fear of his expansionism led to alliances against France during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). Louis died at age 77 at the end of the longest reign in European history.
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(born Jan. 22, 1440, Moscow—died Oct. 27, 1505, Moscow) Grand prince of Moscow (1462–1505). Determined to enlarge the territory he inherited from his father, Ivan led successful military campaigns against the Tatars in the south (1458) and east (1467–69). He subdued Novgorod (1478) and gained control of most of the remainder of Great Russia by 1485. He also renounced Moscow's subjection to the khan of the Golden Horde (1480) and won a final victory over the khan's sons in 1502. Stripping the boyars of much of their authority, he laid the administrative foundations of a centralized Russian state. Ivan IV the Terrible was his grandson.
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(1914–18) International conflict between the Central Powers—Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—and the Allied Powers—mainly France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and (from 1917) the U.S. After a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914, a chain of threats and mobilizations resulted in a general war between the antagonists by mid-August. Prepared to fight a war on two fronts, based on the Schlieffen Plan, Germany first swept through neutral Belgium and invaded France. After the First Battle of the Marne (1914), the Allied defensive lines were stabilized in France, and a war of attrition began. Fought from lines of trenches and supported by modern artillery and machine guns, infantry assaults gained little ground and were enormously costly in human life, especially at the Battles of Verdun and the Somme (1916). On the Eastern Front, Russian forces initially drove deep into East Prussia and German Poland (1914) but were stopped by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg and forced back into Russia (1915). After several offensives, the Russian army failed to break through the German defensive lines. Russia's poor performance and enormous losses caused widespread domestic discontent that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Other fronts in the war included the Dardanelles Campaign, in which British and Dominion forces were unsuccessful against Turkey; the Caucasus and Iran (Persia), where Russia fought Turkey; Mesopotamia and Egypt, where British forces fought the Turks; and northern Italy, where Italian and Austrian troops fought the costly Battles of the Isonzo. At sea, the German and British fleets fought the inconclusive Battle of Jutland, and Germany's use of the submarine against neutral shipping eventually brought the U.S. into the war in 1917. Though Russia's armistice with Germany in December 1917 released German troops to fight on the Western Front, the Allies were reinforced by U.S. troops in early 1918. Germany's unsuccessful offensive in the Second Battle of the Marne was countered by the Allies' steady advance, which recovered most of France and Belgium by October 1918 and led to the November Armistice. Total casualties were estimated at 10 million dead, 21 million wounded, and 7.7 million missing or imprisoned. Seealso Battles of Caporetto and Ypres; Fourteen Points; Lusitania; Paris Peace Conference; Treaties of Brest-Litovsk, Neuilly, Saint-Germain, Sèvres, Trianon, and Versailles; Edmund H.H. Allenby, Ferdinand Foch, John French, Douglas Haig, Paul von Hindenburg, Joseph-Jacques-Césaire Joffre, Erich Ludendorff, John Pershing.
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Defensive wall, northern China. One of the largest building-construction projects ever carried out, it runs (with all its branches) about 4,500 mi (7,300 km) east to west from the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli) to a point deep in Central Asia. Large parts of the fortification date from the 7th to the 4th century BC. In the 3rd century BC the emperor Shihuangdi connected existing defensive walls into a single system fortified by watchtowers. These served both to guard the rampart and to communicate with the capital, Xianyang (near modern Xi'an) by signal—smoke by day and fire by night. Originally constructed partly of masonry and earth, it was faced with brick in its eastern portion. It was rebuilt in later times, especially in the 15th and 16th centuries. The basic wall is about 23–26 ft (7–8 m) high; at intervals towers rise above it to varying heights. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
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Emigration of some 12,000–14,000 Boers (see Afrikaners) from Cape Colony (South Africa) between 1835 and the early 1840s, in rebellion against British policies and in search of fresh pasturelands. The trek, regarded by Afrikaners as the origin of their nationhood, enabled the settlers to establish temporary military supremacy over the Xhosa, to penetrate into Natal and the Highveld, and to expand white settlement north to the Limpopo River. Seealso Andries Pretorius.
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Slogan used in 1965 by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson to identify his legislative program of national reform. In his first State of the Union address, Johnson described his vision of a “Great Society” that would include a “war on poverty” and federal support for education, medical care for the elderly, and legal protection for African Americans deprived of voting rights by state regulations. He also proposed a new department of housing and urban development to coordinate federal housing projects. Congress enacted almost all his programs, the largest number of such measures since the New Deal. Seealso Civil Rights Act of 1964; Medicare and Medicaid.
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West range of the Appalachian Mountains in the U.S. It extends along the North Carolina–Tennessee boundary and blends into the Blue Ridge to the east. The highest part lies within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and includes Clingmans Dome, which at 6,643 ft (2,025 m) is the highest peak. Covered by forests, it was originally the domain of the Cherokee, and the area includes the Cherokee Indian Reservation and parts of the Pisgah and Cherokee national forests. The mountains form a popular resort area that includes part of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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Lake, south-central Northwest Territories, Canada. Named for the Slave Indians, it is fed by several rivers, including the Slave, and drained by the Mackenzie River into the Arctic Ocean. The lake, with an area of 11,031 sq mi (28,570 sq km), is the fifth largest in North America. It is 300 mi (500 km) long and 30–140 mi (50–225 km) wide, with a maximum depth of more than 2,000 ft (600 m). While supporting a fishing industry, the lake is an integral part of the Mackenzie River waterway.
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(1378–1417) In Roman Catholic history, a period when there were two, and later three, rival popes, each with his own College of Cardinals. The schism began soon after the papal residence was returned to Rome from Avignon (see Avignon papacy). Urban VI was elected amid local demands for an Italian pope, but a group of cardinals with French sympathies elected an antipope, Clement VII, who took up residence at Avignon. Cardinals from both sides met at Pisa in 1409 and elected a third pope in an effort to end the schism. The rift was not healed until the Council of Constance vacated all three seats and elected Martin V as pope in 1417.
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Wasteland, northern Western Australia. It extends from Eighty Mile Beach on the Indian Ocean eastward into the Northern Territory and from the Kimberley Downs south to the Tropic of Capricorn and the Gibson Desert. An arid expanse of salt marshes and sand hills, it roughly coincides with the sedimentary Canning basin. Canning Stock Route (1,000 mi [1,600 km] long) spans the region from Wiluna via Lake Disappointment to Halls Creek.
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Natural area, south-central Colorado, U.S. It lies at the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley along the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Established in 1932 as a national monument, the 150,000-acre (60,700-hectare) region contains some of the highest inland sand dunes in the U.S., with changing crests that rise to 700 ft (215 m). In 2000 the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve was created, and after much land acquisition the monument officially became a national park in 2004.
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Lake, northern Utah, U.S. It is the largest inland body of salt water in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most saline in the world. It fluctuates greatly in size, depending on rates of evaporation and the flow of the rivers into it. Its surface area has varied from about 2,400 sq mi (6,200 sq km) at its highest levels in 1873 and the mid 1980s to about 950 sq mi (2,460 sq km) at its low level in 1963. At times of median water level, it is generally less than 15 ft (4.5 m) deep. Surrounded by stretches of sand, salt land, and marsh, the lake remains isolated, though in recent years it has become important as a source of minerals, as a beach and water-sports attraction, and as a wildlife preserve.
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Continental slope of central North America. It stretches from the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border in the south to the Mackenzie River delta along the Arctic Ocean in the north and from the Interior Lowlands and the Canadian Shield in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. The plains embrace parts of 10 U.S. states and 4 Canadian provinces, covering an area of about 1,125,000 sq mi (2,900,000 sq km). A high plateau of semiarid grassland, these prairie regions in both the U.S. and Canada produce the major proportion of wheat grown in each country and are also important cattle- and sheep-herding areas. Parts of the plains have reserves of coal and lignite, petroleum, and natural gas.
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River, central and eastern England. It rises in Northamptonshire and flows 156 mi (251 km) past Buckingham, Bedford, Huntington, and St. Ives to Earith, then to the North Sea. Locks make the river navigable upstream to Bedford.
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Cybele, terra-cotta statuette, from Camirus, Rhodes, early 5th century BC; in the British Museum, elipsis
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Failed industrialization campaign undertaken by the Chinese communists between 1958 and early 1960. Mao Zedong hoped to develop labour-intensive methods of industrialization that would emphasize manpower rather than the gradual purchase of heavy machinery, thereby putting to use China's dense population and obviating the need to accumulate capital. Rather than building large new factories, he proposed developing backyard steel furnaces in every village. Rural people were organized into communes where agricultural and political decisions emphasized ideological purity rather than expertise. The program was implemented so hastily and zealously that many errors occurred; these were exacerbated by a series of natural disasters and the withdrawal of Soviet technical personnel. China's agriculture was severely disrupted, causing widespread famine in 1958–62. By early 1960 the government had begun to repeal the Great Leap Forward; private plots were returned to peasants, and expertise began to be emphasized again.
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Chain of lakes, east-central North America. Comprising Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, it forms a natural boundary between the U.S. and Canada. The Great Lakes cover an area of about 94,850 sq mi (245,660 sq km) and constitute the largest freshwater surface in the world. Connected to form a single waterway that discharges down the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean, with the St. Lawrence Seaway they form a shipping lane more than 2,000 mi (3,200 km) long that carries oceangoing traffic as far west as Duluth, Minn. Large quantities of iron ore, coal, grain, and manufactured goods are moved between lake ports and shipped overseas. While commercial fishing was once a major industry on the lakes, pollution and other factors led to its collapse; recovery has been slow and partial. The lakes are used for many recreational activities, including boating and sailing.
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Region of hot, dry desert, northwestern India and southeastern Pakistan. Its undulating surface is composed of sand dunes separated by sandy plains and low, barren hills. Several saline lakes are found there. Covering some 77,000 sq mi (200,000 sq km), it is bordered by the Indus River plain, the Aravalli Range, and the Punjab plain.
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Main watershed of eastern Australia. It consists of a series of plateaus and mountain ranges roughly paralleling the coasts of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria that stretches for some 2,300 mi (3,700 km). Beginning in the north on the Cape York Peninsula, Queen., the range heads generally south to become the Australian Alps near the New South Wales–Victoria border. The range bends west in Victoria, ending in the Grampians, while a southern spur emerges from the Bass Strait to form the central uplands of Tasmania. First traversed by Europeans moving into the Australian Outback in 1813, the region is now important for agriculture, lumbering, and mining, and its national parks and other natural areas are major tourist attractions.
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Longest and most severe economic depression ever experienced by the Western world. It began in the U.S. soon after the New York Stock Market Crash of 1929 and lasted until about 1939. By late 1932 stock values had dropped to about 20percnt of their previous value, and by 1933 11,000 of the U.S.'s 25,000 banks had failed. These and other conditions, worsened by monetary policy mistakes and adherence to the gold standard, led to much-reduced levels of demand and hence of production, resulting in high unemployment (by 1932, 25–30percnt). Since the U.S. was the major creditor and financier of postwar Europe, the U.S. financial breakdown precipitated economic failures around the world, especially in Germany and Britain. Isolationism spread as nations sought to protect domestic production by imposing tariffs and quotas, ultimately reducing the value of international trade by more than half by 1932. The Great Depression contributed to political upheaval. It led to the election of U.S. Pres. Franklin Roosevelt, who introduced major changes in the structure of the U.S. economy through his New Deal. The Depression also advanced Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany in 1933 and fomented political extremism in other countries. Before the Great Depression, governments relied on impersonal market forces to achieve economic correction; afterward, government action came to assume a principal role in ensuring economic stability.
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Breed of working dog developed at least 400 years ago in Germany, where it was used for boar hunting. Tallest of the working breeds, it stands 28–32 in. (71–81 cm) tall and weighs 120–150 lbs (54–68 kg). It has a massive, square-jawed head and elegant body lines. Its short coat is black, golden brown, brindle, blue-gray, or white with black patches. It is typically swift and alert and is noted for courage, friendliness, and dependability. There is no known reason to associate Denmark with the breed.
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Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. Lying astride the Arctic Circle, it was visited before 1800 by North West Company traders and later named for the bears that inhabited its shores. Containing many small islands, Great Bear Lake is roughly 200 mi (320 km) long and 25–110 mi (40–175 km) wide and has a maximum depth of 1,356 ft (413 m). It is the largest lake entirely within Canada and the fourth largest in North America. The lake's waters abound with fish, including the speckled trout.
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Extensive complex of coral reefs, shoals, and islets in the Pacific Ocean, off the northeastern coast of Australia. The largest deposit of coral in the world, it extends for more than 1,250 mi (2,000 km) along the coast of Queensland and has an area of some 135,000 sq mi (350,000 sq km). The reef has been formed over millions of years from the skeletons of a mass of living marine organisms. In addition to at least 300 species of hard coral, marine life includes anemones, worms, gastropods, lobsters, crayfish, prawns, crabs, and a variety of fishes. Encrusting red algae form the purplish red algal rim that is one of the reef's characteristic features. A major tourist attraction, nearly all of it is within Great Barrier Reef National Park; the reef was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981.
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Religious revival in British North America from 1720 into the 1740s. It was part of a movement, known as Pietism or Quietism on the European continent and evangelicalism in England, that swept Western Europe in the late 17th and early 18th century under the leadership of preachers such as John Wesley. In North America the Great Awakening was a Protestant evangelical reaction against formalism and rationalism in religion, and it had a strong Calvinist element. Revivalist preachers emphasized the need for sinners to fear punishment and to hope for the unearned gift of grace from God. George Whitefield (1714–1770) was one of the most popular, preaching to huge crowds throughout the colonies in 1739–40. Jonathan Edwards also helped inspire the Great Awakening and was its most important theologian. Among its results were missions to the Indians and the founding of colleges (including Princeton Univ.). Another revival known as the Second Great Awakening occurred in New England and Kentucky in the 1790s.
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Bay of the Indian Ocean, southern Australian coast. Its generally accepted boundaries are from Cape Pasley, Western Australia, to Cape Carnot, South Australia—a distance of 720 mi (1,160 km). The head of the bight abuts on the arid Nullarbor Plain and is bounded by cliffs 200–400 ft (60–120 m) high. Near Eucla on the bight's shores is the Nuytsland Reserve. Lying in the track of the winter western winds, the bight has a reputation for storms and rough seas.
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(born Jan. 24, 1712, Berlin—died Aug. 17, 1786, Potsdam, near Berlin) King of Prussia (1740–86). The son of Frederick William I, he suffered an unhappy early life, subject to his father's capricious bullying. After trying to escape in 1730, he submitted to his father but continued to pursue intellectual and artistic interests. On his father's death (1740), Frederick became king and asserted his leadership. He seized parts of Silesia during the War of the Austrian Succession, strengthening Prussia considerably. He invaded Saxony in 1756 and marched on into Bohemia. Frederick was almost defeated in the Seven Years' War (1756–63), until his admirer Peter III signed a Russo-Prussian peace treaty that lasted until 1780. The First Partition of Poland in 1772 led to enormous territorial gains for Prussia. Austro-Prussian rivalry led to the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79), a diplomatic victory for Frederick, but continued fear of Habsburg ambitions led him to form a league of German states against Joseph II. Under Frederick's leadership Prussia became one of the great states of Europe, with vastly expanded territories and impressive military strength. In addition to modernizing the army, Frederick also espoused the ideas of enlightened despotism and instituted numerous economic, civil, and social reforms.
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(born circa 585, Media or Persis—died circa 529, Asia) Conqueror who founded the Achaemenian Empire (see Achaemenian dynasty). The grandson of Cyrus I (fl. late 7th century BC), he came to power by overthrowing his maternal grandfather, the king of the Medes. The empire he developed was thenceforth centered on Persia and included Media, Ionia, Lydia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. Cyrus conquered by diplomacy as well as by force. The subject of a rich legend in Persia and Greece (recorded by Xenophon and others), he was called the father of his people. He appears in the Bible as the liberator of the Jews held captive in Babylon. He died battling nomads in Central Asia. His legacy is the founding not only of an empire but of a culture and civilization that continued to expand after his death and lasted for two centuries. He exerted a strong influence on the Greeks and Alexander the Great. Awarded heroic qualities in legend, he has long been revered by Persians almost as a religious figure. In 1971 Iran celebrated the 2,500th anniversary of his founding of the monarchy.
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(born Aug. 2, 1868, Athens, Greece—died Jan. 11, 1923, Palermo, Italy) King of Greece (1913–17, 1920–22). Son of King George I of the Hellenes (1845–1913), he was educated in Germany and was commander in chief of Greek forces in the Balkan Wars. He succeeded his father in 1913, but his neutralist, yet essentially pro-German, attitude during World War I caused the Allies and his Greek opponents to depose him in 1917. He was restored to the throne in 1920, but, after a catastrophic war in Anatolia, he abdicated in favor of his son, George II, in 1922.
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(born April 2, c. 742—died Jan. 28, 814, Aachen, Austrasia) King of the Franks (768–814) and emperor (800–14). The elder son of the Frankish king Pippin III (the Short), he ruled the Frankish kingdom jointly with his brother Carloman until the latter's death in 771. He then became sole king of the Franks and began a series of campaigns to conquer and Christianize neighbouring kingdoms. He defeated and became king of the Lombards in northern Italy (774). His expedition against the Muslims in Spain failed (778), but he successfully annexed Bavaria (788). Charlemagne fought against the Saxons for many years, finally defeating and Christianizing them in 804. He subdued the Avars of the Danube and gained control of many of the Slav states. With the exception of the British Isles, southern Italy, and part of Spain, he united in one vast state almost all the Christian lands of western Europe. His coronation as emperor at Rome on Christmas Day, 800, after restoring Leo III to the papacy, marks the revival of the empire in Latin Europe and was the forerunner of the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne established his capital at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), where he built a magnificent palace. He invited many scholars and poets to assist him in the promotion of the religious and cultural revival known as the Carolingian renaissance. He also codifed the laws and increased the use of writing in government and society. He was succeeded on his death by his son Louis the Pious, whom Charlemagne had crowned coemperor in 813. Seealso Carolingian dynasty.
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(born May 2, 1729, Stettin, Prussia—died Nov. 17, 1796, Tsarskoye Selo, near St. Petersburg, Russia) German-born empress of Russia (1762–96). The daughter of an obscure German prince, she was chosen at age 14 to be the wife of the future Peter III. The marriage was a complete failure. Because her neurotic husband was incapable of ruling, the ambitious Catherine saw the possibility of eliminating him and governing Russia herself. After Peter became emperor in 1762, she conspired with her lover, Grigory G., Count Orlov, to force Peter to abdicate (he was murdered soon after) and have herself proclaimed empress. In her 34-year reign she led Russia into full participation in European political and cultural life. With her ministers she reorganized the administration and law of the Russian Empire and extended Russian territory, adding the Crimea and much of Poland. Though she had once intended to emancipate the serfs, she instead strengthened the system she had once condemned as inhuman. She had great energy and wide interests, and her personal life was notable for her many lovers, including Grigory Potemkin.
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St. Basil, detail of a mosaic, 12th century; in the Palatine Chapel, Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
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(born 356 BC, Pella, Macedonia—died June 13, 323 BC, Babylon) King of Macedonia (336–323) and the greatest military leader of antiquity. The son of Philip II of Macedonia, he was taught by Aristotle. He soon showed military brilliance, helping win the Battle of Chaeronea at age 18. He succeeded his assassinated father in 336 and promptly took Thessaly and Thrace; he brutally razed Thebes except for its temples and the house of Pindar. Such destruction was to be his standard method, and other Greek states submitted meekly. In 334 he crossed to Persia and defeated a Persian army at the Granicus River. He is said to have cut the Gordian knot in Phrygia (333), by which act, according to legend, he was destined to rule all Asia. At the Battle of Issus in 333, he defeated another army, this one led by the Persian king Darius III, who managed to escape. He then took Syria and Phoenicia, cutting off the Persian fleet from its ports. In 332 he completed a seven-month siege of Tyre, considered his greatest military achievement, and then took Egypt. There he received the pharaohs' double crown, founded Alexandria, and visited the oracle of the god Amon, the basis of his claim to divinity. In control of the eastern Mediterranean coast, in 331 he defeated Darius in a decisive battle at Gaugamela, though Darius again escaped. He next took the province of Babylon. He burnt Xerxes' palace at Persepolis, Persia, in 330, and he envisioned an empire ruled jointly by Macedonians and Persians. He continued eastward, quashing real or imagined conspiracies among his men and taking control to the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, founding cities (most named Alexandria) to hold the territory. Conquering what is now Tajikistan, he married the princess Roxana and embraced Persian absolutism, adopting Persian dress and enforcing Persian court customs. By 326 he reached the Hyphasis in India, where his weary men mutinied; he turned back, marching and pillaging down the Indus, and reached Susa with much loss of life. He continued to promote his unpopular policy of racial fusion, a seeming attempt to form a Persian-Macedonian master race. When his favourite, Hephaestion (324), died, Alexander gave him a hero's funeral and demanded that divine honours be given at his own funeral. He fell ill at Babylon after long feasting and drinking and died at age 33. He was buried in Alexandria, Egypt. His empire, the greatest that had existed to that time, extended from Thrace to Egypt and from Greece to the Indus valley.
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Between any two points on a sphere which are not directly opposite each other, there is a unique great circle. The two points separate the great circle into two arcs. The length of the shorter arc is the great-circle distance between the points. A great circle endowed with such a distance is the Riemannian circle.
Between two points which are directly opposite each other, called antipodal points, there are infinitely many great circles, but all great circle arcs between antipodal points have the same length, i.e. half the circumference of the circle, or , where r is the radius of the sphere.
Because the Earth is approximately spherical (see Earth radius), the equations for great-circle distance are important for finding the shortest distance between points on the surface of the Earth, and so have important applications in navigation.
The geographical formula
Let be the geographical latitude and longitude of two points (a base "standpoint" and the destination "forepoint"), respectively, the longitude difference and the (spherical) angular difference/distance, or central angle, which can be constituted from the spherical law of cosines:
The distance d, i.e. the arc length, for a sphere of radius r and given in radians, is then:
This arccosine formula above can have large rounding errors for the common case where the distance is small, however, so it is not normally used. Instead, an equation known historically as the haversine formula was preferred, which is much more accurate for small distances: