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Bechtel, Friedrich ... Bedier, Joseph
Bechtel, Friedrich
classical scholar who contributed substantially to Greek dialectology and Homeric criticism.
Bechtel, Stephen D
American construction engineer and business executive, president (1936-60) of W.A. Bechtel Company and its successor, Bechtel Corp., one of the world's largest construction and engineering firms. Projects to which his firm and its affiliated companies have substantially contributed include the ...
Beck, Jozef
Polish army officer and foreign minister from 1932 to 1939, one of Jozef Pilsudski's most trusted confidants, who attempted to maintain friendly relations with both the Soviet Union and Germany while preserving alliances of Poland with France and with Romania.
Beck, Ludwig
German general who, as chief of the army general staff (1935-38), opposed Adolf Hitler's expansionist policies and who was a central figure in the unsuccessful July Plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944.
Beck, Max Wladimir, Baron von
premier (1906-08) of Austria whose administration introduced universal male suffrage to the Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
Becke, Friedrich Johann Karl
mineralogist who in 1903 presented to the International Geological Congress a paper on the composition and texture of the crystalline schists. Published in amplified form in 1913, his paper contained the first comprehensive theory of metamorphic rocks and proved to ...
Beckenbauer, Franz
German football (soccer) player who is the only man to have both captained and managed World Cup-winning teams (1974 and 1990, respectively). Nicknamed "der Kaiser," Beckenbauer dominated German football in the 1960s and '70s and is arguably the country's greatest ...
Becker, Boris
German tennis player who, on July 7, 1985, became the youngest champion in the history of the men's singles at Wimbledon. At the same time, he became the only unseeded player and the only German ever to win the title, ...
Becker, Carl
American historian known for his work on early American intellectual history and on the 18th-century Enlightenment.
Becker, Gary S.
American economist, awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1992. He applied the methods of economics to aspects of human behaviour previously considered more or less the exclusive domain of sociology, criminology, anthropology, and demography.
Becker, George Ferdinand
geologist who advanced the study of mining geology from physical, chemical, and mathematical approaches.
Becker, Wilhelm Adolf
German classical archaeologist, remembered for his works on the everyday life of the ancient Romans and Greeks.
Becket, Frederick Mark
metallurgist who developed a process of using silicon instead of carbon as a reducing agent in metal production, thus making low-carbon ferroalloys and certain steels practical.
Becket, Saint Thomas
chancellor of England (1155-62) and archbishop of Canterbury (1162-70) during the reign of King Henry II. His career was marked by a long quarrel with Henry that ended with Becket's murder in Canterbury cathedral.
Beckett, Margaret
British politician who served as foreign secretary of the United Kingdom (from 2006), the first woman to hold the post.
Beckett, Samuel
author, critic, and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He wrote in both French and English and is perhaps best known for his plays, especially En attendant Godot (1952; Waiting for Godot).
Beckett, Sister Wendy
South African-born British nun who appeared on a series of popular television shows and wrote a number of books as an art critic. Nicknamed the "Art Nun," she offered eloquent and down-to-earth commentary that made art accessible to everyone.
Beckford, William
eccentric English dilettante, author of the Gothic novel Vathek (1786). Such writers as George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Stephane Mallarme acknowledged his genius. He also is renowned for having built Fonthill Abbey, the most sensational building of the English Gothic ...
Beckford, William
gentleman merchant, member of Parliament, and lord mayor of London (1762-63, 1769-70) who was particularly noted as a pioneer of the radical movement.
Beckley
city, seat (1850) of Raleigh county, southern West Virginia, U.S., approximately 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Charleston. The first settlement was established by General Alfred Beckley in 1838, but the city's growth dates from 1890, with the start of ...
Beckmann, Max
German Expressionist painter and printmaker whose works are notable for the boldness and power of their symbolic commentary on the tragic events of the 20th century.
Becknell, William
trader of the American West who established the Santa Fe Trail.
Beckwourth, Jim
American mountain man who lived for an extended period among the Indians.
Becque, Henry-Francois
dramatist and critic whose loosely structured plays, based on character and motivation rather than on closely knit plots, provided a healthy challenge to the "well-made plays" that held the stage in his day. Although Becque disliked literary theory and refused ...
Becquer, Gustavo Adolfo
poet and author of the late Romantic period who is considered one of the first modern Spanish poets.
Becquerel, Henri
French physicist who discovered radioactivity through his investigations of uranium and other substances. In 1903 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie.
bed
piece of furniture upon which a person may recline or sleep, for many centuries considered the most important piece of furniture in the house and a prized status symbol. In ancient civilizations (and, indeed, in Europe until the later Middle ...
Bedard, Myriam
Canadian biathlete who was the first North American to medal in the Olympic biathlon, earning a bronze medal at the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France. She later won two gold medals in the biathlon at the 1994 Winter Olympics ...
Bedaux, Charles Eugene
French-born American efficiency engineer who developed the Bedaux plan for measuring and compensating industrial labour.
bedbug
any member of the approximately 75 species of nocturnal insects of the family Cimicidae (order Heteroptera) that feed by sucking the blood of humans and other warm-blooded animals. The reddish brown adult is broad and flat and 4 to 5 ...
Bedde
traditional emirate, Yobe state, northern Nigeria. Although Bade (Bedde, Bede) peoples settled in the vicinity of Tagali village near Gashua as early as the 14th century, they shortly thereafter came under the jurisdiction of a galadima ("governor") of the Bornu ...
Beddoes, Thomas Lovell
poet best known for his haunting dramatic poem Death's Jest-Book; or, The Fool's Tragedy.
Bede the Venerable, Saint
Anglo-Saxon theologian, historian, and chronologist, best known today for his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People"), a source vital to the history of the conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. During his ...
Bedford
town (township), Middlesex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies near the Concord River, just northwest of Boston. Settled in 1642, it developed around an Algonquian Indian trading post called the Shawsheen House. It was incorporated in 1729 and named for ...
Bedford
borough (district), administrative county of Bedfordshire, south-central England. The borough lies almost entirely within the historic county of Bedfordshire, except for a small area northwest of Pertenhall that belongs to the historic county of Huntingdonshire. The borough of Bedford includes ...
Bedford
county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., bordered to the south by Maryland and to the east by Town Hill and Rays Hill. It is a mountainous region lying mostly in the Appalachian Ridge and Valley physiographic province. Other topographic features include Wills, ...
Bedford
city, seat of Lawrence county, southern Indiana, U.S., 25 miles (40 km) south of Bloomington. Founded in 1825 as the county seat and named by Joseph Rawlins for his home county of Bedford, Tennessee, it developed with the discovery of ...
Bedford
town (township), Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S., north of White Plains, near the Connecticut state line. Bedford Village, the original settlement, was founded in 1680 by 22 farmers from Stamford, Connecticut, on a tract known as the hop ground ...
Bedford
town, Bedford borough, administrative and historic county of Bedfordshire, England, in the fertile valley of the River Ouse. A Roman fording station and a Saxon town (cemetery of Kempston), it was recaptured by the Anglo-Saxon sovereign Edward the Elder (ruled ...
Bedford
borough (town), seat (1771) of Bedford county, southern Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Raystown Branch Juniata River, in the Allegheny Mountains, 38 miles (61 km) south of Altoona. A settlement made on the site about 1750 by ...
Bedford, Francis Russell, 2nd earl of
Protestant supporter of Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Bedford, Francis Russell, 4th earl of
only son of William, Lord Russell of Thornhaugh, who became earl of Bedford by the death of his cousin Edward, the 3rd earl, in May 1627.
Bedford, Francis Russell, 5th duke of
eldest son of Francis Russell (d. 1767), marquess of Tavistock, the eldest son of the 4th duke; he succeeded his grandfather as duke of Bedford in 1771.
Bedford, Jasper Tudor, duke of, Earl Of Pembroke
leader of the Lancastrians in Wales, uncle and guardian of Henry, earl of Richmond, afterward Henry VII of England.
Bedford, John Plantagenet, duke of
general and statesman who commanded England's army during a critical period in the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) with France. Despite his military and administrative talent, England's position in France had irreversibly deteriorated by the time he died.
Bedford, John Robert Russell, 13th duke of
elder son of the 12th duke (Hastings William Sackville Russell), succeeding to the title in 1953.
Bedford, John Russell, 1st earl of
founder of the wealth and greatness of the house of Russell, who was a favourite of England's Henry VIII and was created earl of Bedford during the reign of Edward VI.
Bedford, John Russell, 4th duke of
leader of the "Bedford Whigs," a major parliamentary force in the third quarter of the 18th century in England.
Bedford, William Russell, 1st duke and 5th earl of
eldest son of the 4th earl, who fought first on the side of Parliament and then on that of Charles I during the Civil War.
Bedfordshire
administrative, geographic, and historic county of the southeastern Midlands of England. The county town (seat) is Bedford. The administrative county is divided into three districts: Mid Bedfordshire, South Bedfordshire, and the borough of Bedford. These districts cover largely rural areas ...
Bedier, Joseph
scholar whose work on the Tristan and Isolde and the Roland epics made invaluable contributions to the study of medieval French literature.
© 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica Australia Ltd
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