Gable, Christopher Michael

British ballet dancer and actor (b. March 13, 1940, Hackney, London, Eng.--d. Oct. 23, 1998, near Halifax, Yorkshire, Eng.), was a popular star of the Royal Ballet, and his strong dramatic ability paved the way for him to make a smooth transition to theatre and motion pictures. When he was a young boy, Gable, having seen dance numbers in films, asked for lessons. His mother consented, if he also studied

Agr�nion

Chief town of the nom�s (department) of Aetolia and Acarnania, west-central Greece. It lies 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Lake Trikhon�s, about midway between the Ionian Sea and the Gulf of Patras. Formerly called Vrakh�ri (an abbreviation of Evrekori, �Town of the Jews�), it has reverted to the name of an ancient Aetolian centre on the Achelous River that was just northwest of the

Kamanja

Also called� kemanche�, or� kamanche� stringed instrument of the fiddle family prominent in Arab and Persian art music. It is a spike fiddle; i.e., its small, round or cylindrical body appears skewered by the neck, which forms a �foot� that the instrument rests on when played. Measuring about 30 inches (76 cm) from neck to foot, it has a membrane belly and, commonly, two to four strings tuned in fourths or fifths. The musician,

Mesopotamia, History Of, The classical and medieval views of Mesopotamia; its rediscovery in modern times

Before the first excavations in Mesopotamia, about 1840, nearly 2,000 years had passed during which knowledge of the ancient Middle East was derived from three sources only: the Bible, Greek and Roman authors, and the excerpts from the writings of Berosus, a Babylonian who wrote in Greek. In 1800 very little more was known than in AD 800, although these sources had served to stir the imagination

Black Sand

Accumulation of fragments of durable heavy minerals (those with a density greater than that of quartz), usually of a dark colour. These accumulations are found in streambeds or on beaches where stream and wave energy was sufficient to carry away low-density material but not the heavy minerals. Thus, heavy minerals resistant to weathering and abrasion concentrate

Antietam, Battle Of

Also called �Battle of Sharpsburg� (September 17, 1862), a decisive engagement in the American Civil War (1861 - 65) that halted the Confederate advance on Maryland for the purpose of gaining military supplies. The advance was also regarded as one of the greatest Confederate threats to Washington, D.C. The battle took its name from Antietam Creek, which flows south from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to the Potomac River near

General Foods Corporation

The company was incorporated in 1922, having developed from the earlier Postum Cereal Co. Ltd., founded by C.W. Post (1854 - 1914) in 1895 in Battle Creek, Mich. After a number of experiments, Post marketed his first product - the cereal beverage called Postum - in 1895. Other profitable products followed, notably Grape Nuts (1897), Post Toasties

Quicklime

Calcium oxide, an alkaline inorganic compound of calcium (q.v.).

Biblical Literature, Texts and manuscripts

In referring to manuscript text types by their place of origin, one posits the idea that the major centers of Christendom established more or less standard texts: Alexandria; Caesarea and Antioch (Eastern); Italy and Gallia plus Africa (Western); Constantinople, the home for the Byzantine text type or the Textus Receptus. While such a geographical scheme has become

Abraham Lincoln Battalion

A force of volunteers from the United States who served on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War from January 1937 until November 1938. All seven International Brigades (q.v.) - each composed of three or more battalions - were formed by the Comintern (Communist International), beginning in late 1936, and all were disbanded by late 1938 as the war neared an end. Like the European battalions,

Tsinghai

Chinese (Wade-Giles) �Ch'ing-hai, �(Pinyin) �Qinghai, � sheng (province) of northwestern China. Located in the Tibetan Highlands, it has an average elevation of 13,000 feet (4,000 metres). It is bounded on the north and east by Kansu, on the southeast by Szechwan, on the south and west by the Tibet Autonomous Region, and on the west and north by the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang. Tsinghai has an area of about 284,600 square miles (737,000 square kilometres).

Visible Trade

Countries lacking various raw materials will import needed substances such

Steen, Jan (havickszoon)

Dutch painter, ranked immediately after Rembrandt and Hals as a painter of everyday scenes. Steen is unique among leading 17th-century Dutch painters for his humour; he has often been compared to the French comic playwright Moli�re, his contemporary, and indeed both men treated life as a vast comedy of manners. Some of the artist's biblical and

Japan, The emergence of new forces.

After the Onin War, the power of independent local leaders increased markedly, and in many instances deputies of great shugo houses usurped the domains of their superiors, retainers overthrew their overlords, and branch families seized power from main families. Because of this tendency for �inferiors to overcome superiors� (gekokujo), the previous shugo almost completely

Ear Disease, Cyst of the ear

A cyst is a sac filled with liquid or semisolid material. A cyst of the ear is most often caused by a gland that lubricates the skin behind the earlobe, less often at the entrance of the ear canal. If the duct of this gland becomes stopped, the lubricating fatty material accumulates as a soft, rounded nodule in the skin. Infection of the cyst causes a tender abscess to form

Motion Picture, History Of The, Germany

Germany's catastrophic defeat in World War II and the subsequent partitioning of the country virtually destroyed its film industry, which had already been corrupted by the Nazis. Rebuilt during the 1950s, the West German industry became the fifth largest producer in the world, but the majority of its output consisted of low-quality Heimatfilme (�homeland films�) for the

Aetolia And Acarnania

Most of Acarnania

Karaosmanoglu, Yakup Kadri

Educated at a French school in Cairo and then in Izmir, he moved to Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1908. He attracted attention as a writer by his outstanding prose poems, and he became connected with the Fecr-i

Qadariyah

In Islam, adherents of the doctrine of free will (from qadar, �power�). The name was also applied to the Mu'tazilah, the Muslim theological school that believed that man, through his free will, can choose between good and evil. But as the Mu'tazilah also stressed the absolute unity of God (tawhid), they resented the designation because of a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad,

Banda Sea

Bahasa Indonesia �Laut Banda� portion of the western South Pacific, bounded by the southern islands of the Moluccas of Indonesia (Alor, Timor, Wetar, Babar, Tanimbar, and Kai on the south and Ceram, Buru, and Sula on the north). It occupies a total of 180,000 square miles (470,000 square km) and opens to the Flores (west), Savu (southwest), Timor (south), Arafura (southeast), and Ceram and Molucca (north) seas. The sea's North Banda Basin,

Euler, Ulf Von

Euler was the son of 1929 Nobel laureate Hans von Euler-Chelpin. After his graduation

Pacific Ocean

The wind and pressure systems of the Pacific conform closely with the so-called planetary system - i.e., the patterns of air pressure and the consequent wind patterns that develop in the atmosphere of the Earth as a result of its rotation (Coriolis force) and the inclination of its axis (ecliptic) toward the Sun. They are, in essence, a three-celled latitudinal arrangement

Cambridge

City, Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., situated on the north bank of the Charles River, partly opposite Boston. Originally settled as New Towne in 1630 by the Massachusetts Bay Company, it was organized as a town in 1636 when it became the site of Harvard College (now an undergraduate school of Harvard University). The town was renamed for Cambridge, England, in 1638 and became

Siberian Anticyclone

The Siberian anticyclone is one

Arabia, Yemen

Arabia's highest mountains occur in Yemen: An-Nabi Shu'ayb, northwest of San'a', reaches 12,008 feet. The Tihamah in Yemen, broader and more habitable than the Tihamah farther north in Saudi Arabia, supports some towns. Monsoon rains make the mountains and high plateaus of Yemen the most fruitful region in Arabia. The easy slope from the highlands to the southwestern corner of the

Dowie, John Alexander

Dowie moved with his family to Australia as a boy but returned to Edinburgh to study theology. He entered the Congregational ministry in 1870 as a pastor in Alma, Australia, and spent the next several years campaigning against the use of

Yampa River

River, in the western United States, rising in the White River National Forest of northwestern Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains. Draining an area of approximately 9,500 square miles (24,600 square km) in south-central Wyoming and northwestern Colorado, the river flows north past Steamboat Springs, then turns west to flow through Yampa Canyon (about 1,600 feet [490 metres] deep) in Dinosaur

France, History Of, The abolition of feudalism

Of course the violence of peasant insurgency worried the deputies of the National Assembly; to some it seemed as if the countryside were being engulfed by anarchy that threatened all property. But the majority was unwilling to turn against the rebellious peasants. Instead of denouncing their violence, they tried to appease peasant opinion. Liberal nobles and

Haber-bosch Process

Also called �Haber ammonia process, �or �synthetic ammonia process, � method of directly synthesizing ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen, developed by the German physical chemist Fritz Haber. He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1918 for this method, which made the manufacture of ammonia economically feasible. The method was translated into a large-scale process using a catalyst and high-pressure methods by Carl Bosch, an industrial