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Barnes, Pancho ... Barre
Barnes, Pancho
aviator and movie stunt pilot, one of the first American women to establish a reputation and a business in the field of aviation.
Barnes, Robert
English Lutheran who was martyred after being used by King Henry VIII to gain support for his antipapal campaign in England.
Barnes, Thomas
British journalist who as editor of The Times for many years established its reputation and founded a tradition of independent journalism.
Barnes, William
English dialect poet whose work gave a simple and sincere picture of the life and labour of rural southwestern England. A gifted philologist, his linguistic theories as well as his poetry influenced two major writers, Thomas Hardy and Gerard Manley ...
Barnet
outer borough of London, on the northwestern perimeter of the metropolis. The borough lies mostly within the historic county of Middlesex, but many of the borough's northern districts (including New Barnet and East Barnet) historically belong to Hertfordshire. It was ...
Barnet, Battle of
(April 14, 1471), in the English Wars of the Roses, a momentous victory for the Yorkist king Edward IV over his Lancastrian opponents, the adherents of Henry VI. It was fought around Hadley Green, now in East Barnet, just north ...
Barnet, Charlie
American band leader and saxophonist of the swing jazz era.
Barnet, Miguel
novelist, poet, ethnographer, and expert on Afro-Cuban culture.
Barnett, Samuel A
Anglican priest and social reformer who founded building programs and cultural centres (notably Toynbee Hall, 1884, which Barnett served as its first warden) in London's impoverished East End. In his teaching and writings he advanced a doctrine of Christian Socialism. ...
Barney, Nora Stanton Blatch
American civil engineer, architect, and suffragist whose professional and political activities built on her family's tradition of women leaders.
Barnsley
town and metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of South Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England. Situated on the River Dearne, a tributary of the Don, Barnsley is an old market town and had early wire-drawing and linen industries, but its major ...
Barnstable
county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It is bounded by Cape Cod Bay to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Nantucket Sound to the south, Vineyard Sound to the southwest, and Buzzards Bay to the west. The county comprises the ...
Barnstable
city, Barnstable county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It is situated between Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket Sound, on the "biceps" of Cape Cod. It was settled in 1638 by farmers who were attracted to the site by salt hay found in ...
Barnstaple
town ("parish"), North Devon district, administrative and historic county of Devon, England. It lies on the north bank of the Taw estuary, about 10 miles (16 km) from the Bristol Channel. The Taw is spanned by a 15th-century stone bridge ...
Barnum, P.T.
American showman who employed sensational forms of presentation and publicity to popularize such amusements as the public museum, the musical concert, and the three-ring circus. In partnership with James A. Bailey, he made the American circus a popular and gigantic ...
Barnwell
county, southern South Carolina, U.S. It consists of a low-lying region on the Coastal Plain bordered to the northeast by the South Fork Edisto River and to the southwest by the Savannah River border with Georgia. The county is also ...
barnyard grass
(Echinochloa crus-galli), coarse annual grass of the family Poaceae (Gramineae) and one of about 20 species comprising the genus Echinochloa. The common name also applies to a similar species, E. muricata, not considered a separate species by some authorities.
Baro
town and river port, Niger State, west central Nigeria, on the Niger River, 400 miles (650 km) from the sea. Originally a small village of the Nupe people, it was selected by the British as Nigeria's link between rail and ...
Barocci, Federico
leading painter of the central Italian school in the last decades of the 16th century and an important precursor of the Baroque style.
Baroja, Pio
Basque writer who is considered to be the foremost Spanish novelist of his generation.
barometer
device used to measure atmospheric pressure. Because atmospheric pressure changes with distance above or below sea level, a barometer can also be used to measure altitude. There are two main types of barometers: mercury and aneroid.
barometric light
luminous glow appearing in the vacuum above the mercury in a barometer tube when the tube is shaken, first noticed in 1675 by a French astronomer, Jean Picard. The electrical discharge takes place with a variety of rarefied gases trapped ...
baron
title of nobility, ranking below a viscount (or below a count in countries without viscounts). In the feudal system of Europe, a baron was a "man" who pledged his loyalty and service to his superior in return for land that ...
Baron, Michel
actor, from 1670 until his retirement in 1691 the undisputed master of the French stage.
Baron, Salo Wittmayer
Austrian-born American historian who spent much of his life compiling the multivolume magnum opus A Social and Religious History of the Jews (1937), originally published in three volumes but later revised and expanded into 18 volumes.
Barone, Enrico
Italian mathematical economist who expanded on the concepts of general equilibrium previously formulated by French economist Leon Walras.
baronet
British hereditary dignity, first created by King James I of England in May 1611. The baronetage is not part of the peerage, nor is it an order of knighthood. A baronet ranks below barons but above all knights except, in ...
Baronius, Caesar
ecclesiastical historian and apologist for the Roman Catholic Church.
Barons' War
(1264-67), in English history, the civil war caused by baronial opposition to the costly and inept policies of Henry III. The barons in 1258 had attempted to achieve reform by forcing Henry to abide by the Provisions of Oxford (see ...
baroque pearl
pearl that is irregularly or oddly shaped. Pearl formation does not always occur in soft-tissue areas, where the expanding pearl sac grows regularly because it encounters no appreciable resistance. Pearl cysts are sometimes lodged in muscular tissue, for example, where, ...
Baroque period
era in the history of the Western arts roughly coinciding with the 17th century. Its earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century, while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, ...
Barossa Valley
important wine-producing region of South Australia, located 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Adelaide in the Mount Lofty Ranges. The valley, drained by the North Para River, is about 19 miles (30 km) long and 5 miles (8 km) wide. ...
barotrauma
any of several disorders arising from changes in pressure upon the body. Man is adapted to live at an atmospheric pressure of 760 millimetres (the pressure at sea level). When he ventures under water or into the upper atmospheres of ...
Barquisimeto
city, capital of Lara estado ("state"), northwestern Venezuela. Situated on a wide terrace of the Turbio River at 1,856 feet (566 m) above sea level, Barquisimeto is swept by the drying trade winds but has a warm climate (mean average ...
Barra
Atlantic island of the Outer Hebrides group, Western Isles council area, historic county of Inverness-shire, Scotland, about 5 miles (8 km) southwest of the neighbouring island of South Uist. Formed of gneiss, it is about 10 miles (16 km) long ...
Barra do Pirai
city, western Rio de Janeiro estado ("state"), eastern Brazil. It lies at the confluence of the Pirai and Paraiba do Sul rivers, 20 miles (32 km) east of Volta Redonda. Its varied industries include textile mills and ...
Barra Mansa
city, western Rio de Janeiro estado ("state"), eastern Brazil. It lies along the Paraiba do Sul River, at an elevation of 1,234 feet (376 metres) above sea level, just southwest of Volta Redonda. The largest of the ...
Barracco Museum of Antique Sculpture
in Rome, museum devoted to ancient sculpture and comprising the collection formed by Giovanni Barracco (1829-1914). The collection was given to Rome in 1902. There are fine examples of Egyptian, Assyrian, and Phoenician art, including a bust from Roman Egypt ...
Barrackpore
town, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India. It lies just east of the Hooghly River and is part of the Calcutta urban agglomeration, lying 15 miles (24 km) north of Calcutta. The name Barrackpore probably is derived from there having ...
Barrackpore Mutiny
(Nov. 2, 1824), incident during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26), generally regarded as a dress rehearsal for the Indian Mutiny of 1857 because of its similar combination of Indian grievances against the British, caste feeling, and the ineptitude of its ...
barracuda
any of about 20 species of predacious fishes of the family Sphyraenidae (order Perciformes). Barracudas are found in all warm and tropical regions; some also range into more temperate areas. Swift and powerful, they are slender in form, with small ...
barracudina
any of about 50 species of marine fishes of the family Paralepididae, found almost worldwide in deep waters. Barracudinas are long-bodied, slender fishes with large eyes, pointed snouts, and large mouths provided with both small and larger, fanglike teeth. Barracudinas ...
Barragan, Luis
Mexican engineer and architect, whose serene and evocative houses, gardens, plazas, and fountains won him the Pritzker Prize in 1980.
Barrancabermeja
city, Santander departamento, north-central Colombia, on the Magdalena River. In 1536 a Spanish conquistador, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quezada, discovered the wooden-stockaded Indian settlement of La Tora. The Spaniards eventually renamed it Barrancas-Bermejas (Reddish Cliffs) after the nearby ...
Barranco
city and distrito ("district"), in the southern portion of the Lima-Callao metropolitan area, Peru. It lies along the Pacific coast at an elevation of 213 feet (65 m) above sea level. Founded as a village beach resort in 1874, it ...
Barrande, Joachim
geologist and paleontologist whose studies of the fossil strata of Bohemia revealed the abundance and rich variety of life in the Early Paleozoic era (the Paleozoic lasted from 540 million to 245 million years ago).
Barranquilla
capital of Atlantico departamento, northwestern Colombia. It is situated in the Caribbean lowlands, 15 miles (24 km) upstream from the mouth of the Magdalena River, and is Colombia's largest port along the Caribbean Sea. Founded in 1629, ...
Barras, Paul-Francois-Jean-Nicolas, vicomte de
one of the most powerful members of the Directory during the French Revolution.
Barrault, Jean-Louis
French actor, director, and producer whose work with both avant-garde and classic plays helped revive French theatre after World War II.
barre
in ballet, the horizontal handrail, usually wooden, that is fixed to the walls of a ballet studio approximately 3.5 feet (1 m) from the floor. It is used by dancers as an aid to confidence and as a point of ...
Barre
city, Washington county, central Vermont, U.S. It lies just southeast of Montpelier, the state capital. The area, settled about 1788, was organized as a town (township) in 1793 under the name of Wildersburgh but was soon renamed for Barre, Massachusetts. ...
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