Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Beaufort Series ... Bechet, Sidney

Beaufort Series: Permo-Triassic rock strata of the Karoo System that overlie strata of the Ecca Series and underlie rocks of the Stormberg Series. The Beaufort is especially well developed and has been extensively studied in South Africa. It is primarily composed of ...
Beaufort, Francois de Vendome, duc de: French prince, one of the leaders of the Fronde (1648-53) and later admiral in the Mediterranean.
Beaufort, Henry: cardinal and bishop of Winchester and a dominant figure in English politics throughout the first 43 years of the 15th century. From about 1435 until 1443 he controlled the government of the weak King Henry VI.
Beaufort, Margaret: mother of King Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509) of England and founder of St. John's and Christ's colleges, Cambridge.
Beaufre, Andre: French military strategist, an exponent of an independent French nuclear force.
Beaugency: town, Loiret departement, Centre region, north-central France. It lies on the right bank of the Loire River. The lords of Beaugency were powerful from the 11th to the 13th century. The first Council of ...
Beauharnais, Alexandre, Viscount de: first husband of Josephine (later empress of the French) and grandfather of Napoleon III; he was a prominent figure during the Revolution.
Beauharnais, Eugene de: soldier, prince of the French First Empire, and viceroy of Italy for Napoleon I, who was his stepfather (from 1796) and adoptive father (from 1806).
Beauharnois: city, Monteregie region, southern Quebec province, Canada, on the southern shore of Lac Saint-Louis-a widening of the St. Lawrence River-at the mouth of the Saint-Louis River. Founded in 1819, it was named for the Marquis de Beauharnois, governor of New ...
Beaujolais: region of east-central France, just east of the Massif Central and west of the Saone River. Most of the region is located within Rhone departement. The local relief is broken and culminates in Mount Saint-Rigaud, 3,310 feet (1,009 m); well-wooded, ...
Beaujolais: one of the most widely drunk red wines in the world, produced in the Beaujolais region of southern Burgundy, France. The wine is made from the Gamay grape; it is medium red in colour, with a relatively light body and ...
Beaujolais: ancient province of France, of which Beaujeu and Villefranche were successively the capital and which corresponded in area to much of the modern departement of Rhone, with a small portion of Loire. Crossed by the mountains of Beaujolais (Monts du ...
Beaujoyeulx, Balthazar de: composer and choreographer who influenced the development of theatrical dance and opera.
Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron de: French author of two outstanding comedies of intrigue that still retain their freshness, Le Barbier de Seville (1775; The Barber of Seville, 1776) and Le Mariage de Figaro (1784; The Marriage of Figaro, 1785).
Beaumont: city, seat (1838) of Jefferson county, southeastern Texas, U.S., at the head of navigation on the Neches River (an arm of the Sabine-Neches Waterway), 85 miles (137 km) east-northeast of Houston. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the "Golden ...
Beaumont, Elie de: geologist who prepared the great geological map of France in collaboration with the French geologist Ours Pierre Dufrenoy.
Beaumont, Francis: English Jacobean poet and playwright who collaborated with John Fletcher on comedies and tragedies between about 1606 and 1613.
Beaumont, Sir John, 1st Baronet: English poet who cultivated literary "order" and precision, together with natural simplicity of style. He wrote a drama for James I, The Theatre of Apollo (1625); a poem about the Battle of Bosworth Field (fought in 1485) and other poems ...
Beaumont, William: U.S. army surgeon, the first person to observe and study human digestion as it occurs in the stomach.
Beaune: town, Cote-d'Or departement, Bourgogne region, east-central France, on the Bouzaise River, southwest of Dijon. Settled since prehistoric times, it prospered under the Romans as a centre for cattle and viticulture and is still the ...
Beauport: city, Quebec region, southeastern Quebec province, Canada. A northeastern suburb of Quebec city, it is situated on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River. In 1634 Robert Giffard established there one of the first European settlements in Canada. The ...
Beauregard, P.G.T.: Confederate general in the American Civil War.
beauty bush: (Kolkwitzia amabilis), ornamental flowering shrub of the family Caprifoliaceae, native to central China; it is the only member of its genus. Its paired, bell-like flowers, one above the other, range in colour from white to pink and are massed at ...
beauty leaf: (Calophyllum inophyllum), ornamental plant, of the family Clusiaceae, native to tropical Asia and cultivated as an ornamental for its handsome leathery, glossy foliage and fragrant white flowers. Beauty leaf often is grown near the ocean for its resistance to salt ...
Beauvais: town, capital of Oise departement, Picardie region, northern France, at the juncture of the Therain and Avelon rivers, north of Paris. Capital of the Bellovaci tribe, it was first called Caesaromagus after its capture ...
Beauvais tapestry: any product of the tapestry factory established in 1664 in Beauvais, Fr., by two Flemish weavers, Louis Hinart and Philippe Behagle. Although it was under the patronage of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister to Louis XIV, and was subsidized by ...
Beauvoir, Simone de: French writer and feminist, a member of the intellectual fellowship of philosopher-writers who have given a literary transcription to the themes of Existentialism. She is known primarily for her treatise Le Deuxieme Sexe, 2 vol. (1949; The Second Sex), a ...
Beaux, Cecilia: American painter, considered one of the finest portrait painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Beaux-Arts, Ecole des: school of fine arts founded (as the Academie Royale d'Architecture) in Paris in 1671 by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of Louis XIV; it merged with the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (founded in 1648) in 1793. The school offered ...
Beaver: a small, Athabascan-speaking Indian tribe living in the mountainous riverine areas of northern Alberta. In the early 18th century they were driven westward into this area by the expanding Cree, who, armed with guns, were exploiting the European fur trade. ...
Beaver: county, western Pennsylvania, U.S., bordered to the west by Ohio and West Virginia. It consists of a hilly region on the Allegheny Plateau drained by the Ohio and Beaver rivers. Other waterways include Ambridge Reservoir, Brush Creek, and Raccoon Creek, ...
beaver: either of two species of amphibious rodents native to North America, Europe, and Asia. Beavers are the largest North American and Eurasian rodents, with bodies up to 80 cm (31 inches) long and generally weighing 16-30 kg (35-66 pounds, with ...
Beaver Island: largest of an island group in northeastern Lake Michigan, U.S., 35 mi (56 km) west of the resort city of Charlevoix, Mich. It extends about 14 mi in length and is 3 to 6 mi wide. It is administered as ...
Beaver, Bruce: Australian poet, novelist, and journalist noted for his experimental forms and courageous self-examination, both of which made him one of the major forces in Australian poetry during the 1960s and '70s.
Beaverbrook, Sir Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron, 1st Baronet: financier in Canada, politician and newspaper proprietor in Great Britain, one of three persons (the others were Winston Churchill and John Simon) to sit in the British cabinet during both World Wars I and II. An idiosyncratic and successful journalist, ...
Beavers, Louise: African American film and television actress known for her character roles.
Beaverton: city, Washington county, northwestern Oregon, U.S., in the Tualatin Valley, immediately west of Portland. The area was originally home to the Atfalati (mispronounced Tualatin) band of Kalapuya (Calapooya) Indians, most of whom had died from settler-borne diseases by the time ...
Beawar: town, Rajasthan state, northwestern India. A major rail and road junction, Beawar is an agricultural and woollen market centre. Industries include cotton ginning, handloom weaving, hosiery manufacture, and wood carving. Formerly also called Nayanagar, the town was founded in 1835 ...
Bebel, August: German Socialist, cofounder of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany and its most influential and popular leader for more than 40 years. He is one of the leading figures in the history of western European socialism.
Bebey, Francis: Cameroonian-born writer, guitarist, and composer, one of the best-known singer-songwriters of Africa. He is sometimes called the father of world music.
bebop: the first kind of modern jazz, which split jazz into two opposing camps in the last half of the 1940s. The word is an onomatopoeic rendering of a staccato two-tone phrase distinctive in this type of music. When it emerged, ...
becard: any of many tropical American birds belonging to the family Cotingidae (order Passeriformes) that usually builds its large ball nest on an exposed branch near a colony of stinging wasps. The 15 species of becards (comprising the genera Platypsaris and ...
Beccafumi, Domenico: Italian painter and sculptor, a leader in the post-Renaissance style known as Mannerism.
Beccaria, Cesare: Italian criminologist and economist whose Dei delitti e delle pene (Eng. trans. J.A. Farrer, Crimes and Punishment, 1880) was a celebrated volume on the reform of criminal justice.
Beccles: town ("parish"), Waveney district, administrative and historic county of Suffolk, England, on the River Waveney. The land was given to St. Edmund's Church at Bury about 956, and Beccles was established as a fishing village, responsible for supplying the Benedictine ...
Bechar: town, western Algeria. It lies in the northern reaches of the Sahara, 36 miles (58 km) south of the Moroccan border. The town is named for nearby Mount Bechar, rising to 1,600 feet (488 metres). Bechar's former European quarter contains ...
Beche, Sir Henry Thomas De La: geologist who founded the Geological Survey of Great Britain, which made the first methodical geologic survey of an entire country ever undertaken.
beche-de-mer: boiled, dried, and smoked flesh of sea cucumbers (phylum Echinodermata) used to make soups. Most beche-de-mer comes from the southwestern Pacific, where the animals (any of a dozen species of the genera Holothuria, Stichopus, and Thelonota) are obtained on coral ...
Becher, Johann Joachim: chemist, physician, and adventurer whose theories of combustion influenced Georg Stahl's phlogiston theory. Becher believed substances to be composed of three earths, the vitrifiable, the mercurial, and the combustible. He supposed that when a substance burned, a combustible earth was ...
Becher, Johannes Robert: poet and critic, editor, and government official who was among the most important advocates of revolutionary social reform in Germany during the 1920s and who later served as minister of culture for the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
Bechet, Sidney: jazz musician known as a master of the soprano saxophone.