Wednesday, June 30, 2004

Sorrento

Latin �Surrentum, � town and archiepiscopal see, Napoli provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy. It lies on a peninsula separating the Bay of Naples, which it faces, from the Gulf of Salerno, south-southeast of Naples. The backbone of the peninsula is formed by the Lattari Mountains, which culminate in Mount Sant'Angelo (4,734 feet [1,443 m]). Probably of Greek origin, the town was the ancient Surrentum,

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Easington

Easington district covers a plateau

Monday, June 28, 2004

Dosho

Dosho served as a temple priest at Gango Temple, one of the great temples at Nara, until he left for China about 653. There he studied for eight years under the Buddhist monk Hs�an-tsang (Pinyin: Xuanzang), the founder of the Wei-shih (Ideation Only, or Consciousness Only) school, which

Sunday, June 27, 2004

Benchley, Robert (charles)

A graduate of Harvard University (1912), Benchley joined the staff of the old Life magazine in 1920 as drama critic. His monologue �The Treasurer's Report,� delivered as a skit in an amateur revue in 1922, was the basis for one of the first all-talking short subjects. He subsequently wrote and acted in motion-picture

Saturday, June 26, 2004

Novara, Battle Of

(March 23, 1849), battle of the first Italian War of Independence in which 70,000 Austrian troops under Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky thoroughly defeated 100,000 poorly trained Italian troops (not all of whom were actually employed in the battle) under Charles Albert, king of Sardinia-Piedmont. It was fought at Novara, 28 miles (45 km) west of Milan, 11 days after Charles Albert had denounced the armistice

Friday, June 25, 2004

Radical

In politics, one who desires extreme change of part or all of the social order. The word was first used in a political sense in England, and its introduction is generally ascribed to Charles James Fox, who in 1797 declared for a �radical reform� consisting of a drastic expansion of the franchise to the point of universal manhood suffrage. The term radical thereafter began

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Radical

In politics, one who desires extreme change of part or all of the social order. The word was first used in a political sense in England, and its introduction is generally ascribed to Charles James Fox, who in 1797 declared for a �radical reform� consisting of a drastic expansion of the franchise to the point of universal manhood suffrage. The term radical thereafter began

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Antony, Mark

Mark Antony was the son and grandson of men of the same name. His father was called Creticus because of his military operations in Crete, and his grandfather, one of the leading orators of his day, was vividly portrayed as a speaker in Cicero's De oratore. After a somewhat dissipated youth, the future triumvir served with distinction in 57 - 54 as a cavalry commander under Aulus

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Gum

Abbreviation �of Gosudarstvenny Universalny Magazin� (Russian: �State Department Store�), the largest department store in Russia. Situated on a traditional market site on the northeast side of Red Square in Moscow, the building originally known as the Upper Trading Arcade was designed by A.N. Pomerantsev and built in 1889 - 93 in a pseudo-Russian style over a hidden metal skeleton. In its original form it housed more than 1,000 shops. Reconstructed

Monday, June 21, 2004

Binche

Town, Hainaut province, Belgium. It lies 9 miles (15 km) southeast of Mons. Situated on a hill, Binche remains encircled by fortifications built in the 12th century and flanked by 27 towers. Its town hall was constructed in the second half of the 14th century and restored in the 16th century by Jacques de Broeucq. A portion of the town's fortifications were pulled down in 1545 to build a palace

Sunday, June 20, 2004

Stagecoach

Any public coach regularly travelling a fixed route between two or more stations (stages). Used in London at least by 1640, and about 20 years later in Paris, stagecoaches reached their greatest importance in England and the United States in the 19th century, where the new macadam roads made travel quicker and more comfortable. In the United States, coaches were the only means

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Lebombo Mountains

Also called �Lubombo Mountains, � long, narrow mountain range in South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique, southeastern Africa, about 500 miles (800 km) long and consisting of volcanic rocks. The mountains' name is derived from a Zulu word, Ubombo, that means �big nose.� The mountains extend from south of the Mkuze River (KwaZulu/Natal province) north into Kruger National Park (Northern province). The Lebombo Mountains

Friday, June 18, 2004

Arrest

Placing of a person in custody or under restraint, usually for the purpose of compelling obedience to the law. If the arrest occurs in the course of criminal procedure, the purpose of the restraint is to hold the person for answer to a criminal charge or to prevent him from committing an offense. In civil proceedings, the purpose is to hold the person to a demand made against

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Mclean, John

After two terms in the U.S.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

Alaska, University Of

State university system consisting of three campuses (regional university centres) in Fairbanks (main campus), Anchorage, and Juneau (known as the University of Alaska Southeast). All campuses are coeducational and offer bachelor's and master's degree programs in business and education; the Fairbanks and Anchorage campuses include schools of engineering and arts

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Honolulu

Capital and principal port of Hawaii, U.S., seat of Honolulu county. A modern city, it extends about 10 miles (16 km) along the southeastern shore of Oahu Island and 4 miles (6 km) inland across a plain into the Koolau Mountain foothills. It is the crossroads of trans-Pacific shipping and air routes, the focus of interisland services, and the commercial and industrial centre of the

Monday, June 14, 2004

Hadhramaut

Also spelled �Hadramout, �Arabic �Hadramawt, � region in east-central Yemen, on the Gulf of Aden. The region comprises a hilly area near the coast and an inland valley occupied by a seasonal watercourse, the Wadi Hadramawt, that runs parallel to the coast before turning southeastward to reach the sea. In its lower reaches this watercourse achieves a year-round flow and is called Wadi Masilah. At higher elevations in

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Switzerland, World War II

After World War II broke out, Switzerland mobilized 450,000 soldiers and 200,000 auxiliaries (out of a total population of 4,000,000). Thanks to the experience of the preceding war, the government compensated soldiers for lost wages. Another difference from World War I was the unity of the nation across barriers of language and class. The most difficult phase was summer 1940, after France had unexpectedly

Saturday, June 12, 2004

Than Tun, Thakin

Than Tun was educated at Rangoon (Yangon) Teachers' Training School and taught at a high school in Rangoon. Influenced at an early age by Marxist writings, he joined in 1936 the nationalist Dobama Asi-ayone (We-Burmans Association). Than Tun helped form the

Friday, June 11, 2004

Ilerda, Campaign Of

(49 BC), the campaign leading to the victory of Julius Caesar over Pompey's forces in Spain. In the spring of 49 BC, Caesar sent six legions from Gaul into Spain under Gaius Fabius and joined them at Ilerda (L�rida) on the Sicoris (Segre) River. Five Pompeian legions, together with many Spanish auxiliaries, commanded by Lucius Afranius and Marcus Petreius, were concentrated against

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Teesdale

District, administrative county of Durham, northeastern England, in the southwestern part of the county. The district lies on both sides of the River Tees. The area north of the river belongs to the historic county of Durham, and the area to the south lies in the historic county of Yorkshire. Teesdale is mostly an upland area within the northern Pennines. Its bleak basalt

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Alkmaar

The English missionaries Willibrord and Adalbert preached Christianity in the district in the 8th century. A fishing village in the 10th century, Alkmaar (meaning �all marsh,� or �all sea�) was chartered in 1254 and was the capital of Kennemerland,

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Amoghasiddhi

(Sanskrit: �Unfailing Success�), in Mahayana and Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism, one of the five �self-born� Buddhas. See Dhyani-Buddha.

Monday, June 07, 2004

Ahtisaari, Martti

Ahtisaari graduated from the University of Oulu in 1959 and in the early 1960s worked in Pakistan on an educational project for the Swedish Agency for International Development. He returned to Finland and joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1965; eight years later he was

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Buber, Martin

Buber's manifold activities were inspired by his philosophy of encounter - of man's meeting with other beings. An early mystical period culminated in Daniel (1913), five dialogues on orientation and realization, man's two basic stances toward the world. Orientation takes the world as a static state of affairs governed by comprehensible laws. It is a receptive, analytical,

Saturday, June 05, 2004

China, The court's relations with the bureaucracy

Kao-tsung set the style for all subsequent Nan Sung emperors. The first two emperors in the Pei Sung, both strong militarists, had towered above the relatively modest bureaucracy they had created; most of their successors had found little difficulty in maintaining a balance in the bureaucracy. The circumstances under which the Nan Sung came into being, however, were

Friday, June 04, 2004

Sz�chenyi, Istv�n, Count

Born into an old, aristocratic Hungarian family, Sz�chenyi fought against Napoleon I and thereafter traveled extensively in Europe.

Thursday, June 03, 2004

Sz�chenyi, Istv�n, Count

Founded in 1868, the TUC held annual conferences of independent unions for the exposition of trade

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Ear Disease, Hematoma

Injury to the outer ear can cause bleeding between the cartilage and the skin, producing a smooth, rounded, nontender purplish swelling called hematoma. The accumulation of clotted blood is removed by a surgeon because, if it is left, it will become transformed into scar tissue and cause a permanent, irregular thickening of the outer ear commonly called cauliflower

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Padua, University Of

Italian �Universit� Degli Studi Di Padova, � autonomous coeducational state institution of higher learning in Padua, Italy. The university was founded in 1222 by a secession of about a thousand students from the University of Bologna, reinforced by additional migrations from Bologna in 1306 and 1322. Like Bologna, it was a student-controlled university, with students electing the professors and fixing their salaries.