Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Adalbert, Saint ... Adams, Diana

Adalbert, Saint: first bishop of Prague to be of Czech origin. [5 Related Articles]
Adam and Eve: in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, the original human couple, parents of the human race. [17 Related Articles]
Adam and Eve, Feast of: (from the article "Christmas tree") ...Eve was a "paradise tree," a fir tree hung with apples, that represented the Garden of Eden. The Germans set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung ...
Adam and Eve, Life of: pseudepigraphal work (a noncanonical writing that in style and content resembles authentic biblical works), one of many Jewish and Christian stories that embellish the account of Adam and Eve as given in the biblical Genesis. Biography was an extremely popular ... [1 Related Articles]
Adam Brothers: three French brothers who sculpted many monuments for the French and Prussian royal residences. They were exponents of a style that employed the textures of shells, corals, and perforated rocks. Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700-59) created sculptures for King Louis XV of ...
Adam De La Halle: poet, musician, and innovator of the earliest French secular theatre. [2 Related Articles]
Adam Of Bremen: German historian whose work on the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen provides valuable information on German politics under the Salian emperors and is also one of the great books of medieval geography. [2 Related Articles]
Adam Qadmon: (from the article "Luria, Isaac ben Solomon") ...the redemption of both the cosmos and history. This event occurs in the stage of tiqqun, in which the divine realm itself is reconstructed, the divine sparks returned to their source, and Adam Qadmon, the symbolic "primordial man," who is ...
Adam's apple: (from the article "larynx") ...collapse of the structure. The plates are fastened together by membranes and muscle fibres. The front set of plates, called thyroid cartilage, has a central ridge and elevation commonly known as the Adam's apple. The plates tend to be replaced ...
Adam's Bridge: chain of shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of India. The bridge is 30 miles (48 km) long and separates the Gulf of Mannar (southwest) from the Palk Strait (northeast). ... [1 Related Articles]
Adam's needle: (from the article "yucca") The Joshua tree (Y. brevifolia) has a stem more than 10 m (33 feet) high. Spanish bayonet (Y. aloifolia), Spanish dagger (Y. gloriosa), and Adam's needle, or bear grass (Y. filamentosa), are commonly cultivated as ornamentals for their unusual appearance ...
Adam's Peak: mountain in southwestern Sri Lanka (Ceylon), 7,360 feet (2,243 m) high and 11 miles (18 km) northeast of Ratnapura; it is located in the Sri Lanka hill country. Its conical summit terminates in an oblong platform about 74 by 24 ... [1 Related Articles]
Adam, Adolphe: French composer whose music for the ballet Giselle (1841) is noted for its easy grace and cogency. It has retained its popularity with dancers and audiences to the present day. [1 Related Articles]
Adam, Francois-Gaspard-Balthasar: (from the article "Adam Brothers") ...Louis XV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia. Nicolas-Sebastien Adam (1705-78) sculptured for Stanislas I Leszczynski, father-in-law of Louis and former king of Poland. Francois-Gaspard-Balthasar Adam (1710-61) was responsible for works at Frederick's royal palace of Sans Souci ...
Adam, Henri-Georges: (from the article "tapestry") ...designed by the modern French painter Henri Matisse, for example, has only two pieces, and "Mont-Saint-Michel," woven from a cartoon by the contemporary engraver and sculptor Henri-Georges Adam, is a triptych (three panels). Until the 19th century, tapestries were often ...
Adam, James: (from the article "Adam, Robert") ...was losing its appeal, and the public was ready for a new architectural style. Adam lost no time in making his reputation, and by the mid-1760s he had, with the help of his younger brother James, who joined him in ...
Adam, Karl: (from the article "rowing") ...of the sliding seat (1857 in the United States; 1871 in England), leg drive was added. Later style changes introduced by Steve Fairbairn in 1881 emphasized leg drive and arm pull. The German coach Karl Adam in the 1950s produced ...
Adam, Ken: (from the article "1975: Other Winners") ...Pierson for Dog Day AfternoonAdapted Screenplay: Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman for One Flew over the Cuckoo's NestCinematography: John Alcott for Barry LyndonArt Direction: Ken Adam and Roy Walker for Barry LyndonOriginal Score: John Williams for JawsScoring-Original Song Score and ...
Adam, Lambert-Sigisbert: (from the article "Adam Brothers") three French brothers who sculpted many monuments for the French and Prussian royal residences. They were exponents of a style that employed the textures of shells, corals, and perforated rocks. Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700-59) created sculptures for King Louis XV of ...
Adam, Nicolas-Sebastien: (from the article "Adam Brothers") ...a style that employed the textures of shells, corals, and perforated rocks. Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700-59) created sculptures for King Louis XV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia. Nicolas-Sebastien Adam (1705-78) sculptured for Stanislas I Leszczynski, father-in-law of Louis ...
Adam, Paul: French author whose early works exemplify the naturalist and Symbolist schools and who later won a considerable reputation for his historical and sociological novels.
Adam, Robert: Scottish architect and designer who, with his brother James (1730-94), transformed Palladian Neoclassicism in England into the airy, light, elegant style that bears their name. His major architectural works include public buildings (especially in London), and his designs were used ... [9 Related Articles]
Adam, William: (from the article "Adam, Robert") Robert was the second son of William Adam, the foremost Scottish architect of his time. William, who as master mason to the Board of Ordnance in North Britain supervised the design of military buildings, also designed numerous country houses in ...
Adama, Modibbo: (from the article "Adamawa") traditional emirate centred in what is now Adamawa state, eastern Nigeria. The emirate was founded by Modibbo Adama, who was one of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio's commanders and who began a Fulani jihad (holy war) in 1809 against the non-Muslim ...
adamantine lustre: (from the article "mineral") ...aggregates (examples are fibrous gypsum [CaSO₄ · 2H₂O], known as satin spar, and chrysotile asbestos [Mg₃Si₂O₅(OH)₄]); and adamantine, having the brilliant lustre of diamond, exhibited by minerals with a high refractive index comparable to diamond and which as such refract ...
Adamawa: state, northeastern Nigeria. It was administratively created in 1991 from the northeastern half of former Gongola state. Adamawa is bordered on the north and northwest by Borno and Bauchi states, on the west and southwest by Taraba state, and on ...
Adamawa: traditional emirate centred in what is now Adamawa state, eastern Nigeria. The emirate was founded by Modibbo Adama, who was one of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio's commanders and who began a Fulani jihad (holy war) in 1809 against the non-Muslim ... [1 Related Articles]
Adamawa languages: (from the article "Adamawa-Ubangi languages") ...As a preliminary hypothesis, therefore, these two groups-Gur and Adamawa-Ubangi-are being linked together as North Volta-Congo. The Adamawa-Ubangi languages are further subdivided into Adamawa and Ubangi subgroups.
Adamawa Plateau: volcanic upland in west-central Africa. Though chiefly in north-central Cameroon, part of the plateau, known as the Gotel Mountains, is in southeastern Nigeria. The plateau is the source of the Benue River. Its highest elevations are more than 8,700 feet ... [2 Related Articles]
Adamawa-Ubangi languages: branch of the Niger-Congo language family consisting of 120 languages spoken by approximately 12 million people in an area that stretches from northeastern Nigeria across northern Cameroon, southern Chad, the Central African Republic, and northern Congo (Kinshasa) into southwestern Sudan. ... [1 Related Articles]
Adamec, Ladislav: Czech politician failed to prevent the end of communist rule in his country even as he tried to initiate modest reforms as federal prime minister (1988-89). Adamec joined the Communist Party in 1946 and the party's central committee in ...
Adamic, Louis: novelist and journalist who wrote about the experience of American minorities, especially immigrants, in the early 1900s.
Adamkus, Valdas: president of Lithuania (1998-2003 and 2004- ). [6 Related Articles]
Adamnan, Law of: (from the article "Adamnan, Saint") ...in ameliorating the condition of women, particularly by exempting them from military service; he also made regulations protecting children and clerics, and these reforms became known as the Law of Adamnan.
Adamnan, Saint: abbot and scholar, particularly noted as the biographer of St. Columba. [2 Related Articles]
Adamnan, The Vision of: in the Gaelic literature of Ireland, one of the earliest and most outstanding medieval Irish visions. This graceful prose work dates from the 10th century and is preserved in the later The Book of the Dun Cow (c. 1100). Patterned ... [3 Related Articles]
Adamopoulos, Panayotis: (from the article "Greece") ...the investigation. In the first of several trial-fixing cases, a former judge was sentenced in August to 25 years' imprisonment for corruption. The director of the Hellenic Competition Commission, Panayotis Adamopoulos, was arrested in September on charges of attempting to ...
Adamov, Arthur: avant-garde writer, a founder and major playwright of the Theatre of the Absurd. [1 Related Articles]
Adams: county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., mostly consisting of a piedmont region bordered by Maryland to the south and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and north. The principal waterways are Lakes Meade and Heritage and Long Pine Run Reservoir, as ...
Adams: town (township), Berkshire county, northwestern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies at the foot of Mount Greylock (3,491 feet [1,064 metres]), on the Hoosic River, 15 miles (24 km) north of Pittsfield. The town of North Adams is 5 miles north. Founded ...
Adams family: Massachusetts family with deep roots in American history whose members made major contributions to the nation's political and intellectual life for more than 150 years. [1 Related Articles]
Adams, Abigail: American first lady (1797-1801), the wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and mother of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States. She was a prolific letter writer whose correspondence gives an intimate and vivid ... [4 Related Articles]
Adams, Ansel: the most important landscape photographer of the 20th century. He is also perhaps the most widely known and beloved photographer in the history of the United States; the popularity of his work has only increased since his death. Adams's most ... [5 Related Articles]
Adams, Basil Albert: (from the article "ion-exchange reaction") A big improvement in ion-exchange technology came in 1935, when the first ion-exchange resins were discovered by the English chemists Basil Albert Adams and Eric Leighton Holmes. The resins were chemical relatives of the plastic Bakelite and were made by ...
Adams, Brooks: historian who questioned the success of democracy in the U.S. and who related the march of civilization to the westward movement of trade centres. [1 Related Articles]
Adams, Charles Follen: U.S. regional humorous poet, best known for his Pennsylvania German dialect poems.
Adams, Charles Francis: U.S. diplomat who played an important role in keeping Britain neutral during the U.S. Civil War (1861-65) and in promoting the arbitration of the important "Alabama" claims. [3 Related Articles]
Adams, Charles Francis, III: American lawyer and businessman, government official, yachtsman, and philanthropist who made Harvard University one of the most abundantly endowed academic institutions. [1 Related Articles]
Adams, Charles Francis, Jr.: (from the article "Adams family") ...who served as secretary of the navy during the presidential administration of Herbert Hoover-subsequent generations of the Adams family refrained from participation in public life. Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (1835-1915), was a historian, civic leader, and railroad expert who for ...
Adams, Charles Kendall: teacher and historian who introduced the European seminar method to U.S. universities.
Adams, Diana: U.S. ballerina (b. March 29, 1926, Staunton, Va.--d. Jan. 10, 1993, San Andreas, Calif.), captivated audiences with her radiant beauty and spellbinding dramatic interpretations while performing with Ballet Theatre (now American Ballet Theatre; 1944-50) and the New York City Ballet ...