Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Baden ... Baghelkhand

Baden: former state on the east bank of the Rhine River in the southwestern corner of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state) of Germany. The former Baden state comprised the eastern half of the Rhine River valley ...
Baden-Baden: city, Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies along the middle Oos River in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). Baden-Baden is one of the world's great spas. Its Roman baths (parts of which survive) were built in the ...
Baden-Powell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron: British army officer who became a national hero for his 217-day defense of Mafeking (now Mafikeng) in the South African War of 1899-1902; he later became famous as founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides (also called Girl Scouts).
Baden-Wurttemberg: Land (state), southwestern Germany. It has an area of 13,804 square miles (35,751 square km) and is bordered by France on the west, Switzerland on the south, and by the Lander (states) of Bayern (Bavaria) on the east and Rheinland-Pfalz ...
Badeni, Kasimir Felix, Graf von: Polish-born statesman in the Austrian service, who, as prime minister (1895-97) of the Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, sponsored policies to appease Slav nationalism within the empire but was defeated by German nationalist reaction.
Badgastein: town, Bundesland (federal province) Salzburg, in the Gastein Valley of west central Austria, on the Gasteiner Ache (river). Its radioactive thermal springs have been visited since the 13th century, and royal and other eminent patrons brought it world renown in ...
badger: common name for any of several stout carnivores, most of them members of the weasel family (Mustelidae), that are found in various parts of the world and are known for their burrowing ability. The 10 species differ in size, habitat, ...
Badin: town, southern Sindh province, southeastern Pakistan. The town, founded in 1750, lies in swampy deltaic land east of the Indus River. Rice is the major crop in the region. Badin has a sugar mill and rice mills and is the ...
Badings, Henk: Dutch composer, best known for his music featuring electronic sounds and the compositional use of tape recorders.
badland: area cut and eroded by many deep, tortuous gullies with intervening saw-toothed divides. The gullies extend from main rivers back to tablelands about 150 m (500 feet) and higher. The gully bottoms increase in gradient from almost flat near the ...
Badlands National Park: rugged, eroded area of buttes, saw-toothed divides, and gullies in southwestern South Dakota, U.S. It was established as a national monument in 1939 and designated a national park in 1978. It lies in a semiarid high-plains region mostly between the ...
Badminton: village ("parish"), South Gloucestershire unitary authority, historic county of Gloucestershire, England. Badminton House, seat of the dukes of Beaufort, stands in a large park in the locality. The original manor of Badminton was acquired in 1608 from Nicholas Boteler (to ...
badminton: court or lawn game played with lightweight rackets and a shuttlecock. Historically, the shuttlecock was a small, cork hemisphere with 16 goose feathers attached and weighing about 0.17 ounce (5 grams). These types of shuttles may still be used in ...
Badoglio, Pietro: general and statesman during the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini (1922-43). In September 1943 he extricated Italy from World War II by arranging an armistice with the Allies.
Badr Khani Jaladat: Kurdish nationalist leader and editor who was one of the chief 20th-century spokesmen for Kurdish independence.
Badr, Battle of: (624), first military victory of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. It seriously damaged Meccan prestige, while strengthening the political position of Muslims in Medina and establishing Islam as a viable force in the Arabian Peninsula.
Badrinath: uninhabited village and shrine in northern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. Situated in the Himalayas along a headstream of the Ganges River, it lies at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,050 m). Badrinath Peak (23,420 feet) is 17 miles ...
Badulla: town, southeastern Sri Lanka (Ceylon), southeast of Kandy, on the Badulu Oya (river). It is surrounded by mountains and is the site of two large and wealthy temples. Badulla is also a marketplace for the agricultural products of the villages, ...
BAE Systems: major British manufacturer of aircraft, missiles, avionics, and other aerospace and defense products. It was formed in 1999 from the merger of British Aerospace PLC (BAe) with Marconi Electronic Systems, formerly part of General Electric Company PLC. BAe, in turn, ...
Baeck, Leo: Reform rabbi and theologian, the spiritual leader of German Jewry during the Nazi period, and the leading liberal Jewish religious thinker of his time. His magnum opus, The Essence of Judaism, appeared in 1905. His final work, This People Israel: ...
Baedeker, Karl: founder of a German publishing house known for its guidebooks.
Baekeland, Leo Hendrik: U.S. industrial chemist who helped found the modern plastics industry through his invention of Bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic (a plastic that does not soften when heated).
Baer, Karl Ernst, Ritter von, Edler Von Huthorn: Prussian-Estonian embryologist who discovered the mammalian ovum and the notochord and established the new science of comparative embryology alongside comparative anatomy. He was also a pioneer in geography, ethnology, and physical anthropology.
Baer, Max: American boxer who won the world heavyweight championship by knocking out Primo Carnera in 11 rounds in New York City on June 14, 1934. He lost the title to James J. Braddock on a 15-round decision at Long Island City, ...
Baerum: herredskommune (rural commune), in Akershus fylke (county), southeastern Norway. It is situated at the head of Oslo Fjord and adjoins the national capital of Oslo on the west. Although it is officially classified as ...
Baetic Cordillera: mountain system comprising the Andalusian mountains of southern Spain, of which the northern range runs about 360 miles (580 km) from Cape Trafalgar to Cape Nao. The central and southern ranges, the Baetic proper, extend a shorter distance from Estepona ...
baetylus: in Greek religion, a sacred stone or pillar. The word baetylus is of Semitic origin (-bethel). Numerous holy, or fetish, stones existed in antiquity, generally attached to the cult of some particular god and looked upon as his abiding place ...
Baeyer, Adolf von: German research chemist who synthesized indigo (1880) and formulated its structure (1883). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1905.
Baez, Buenaventura: politician who served five terms as president of the Dominican Republic and is noted principally for his attempts to have the United States annex his country.
Baez, Joan: American folksinger and political activist who interested young audiences in folk music during the 1960s. Despite the inevitable fading of the folk music revival, Baez continued to be a popular performer into the 21st century. By touring with younger performers ...
Bafata: town, east-central Guinea-Bissau. It lies along the Geba River, which is navigable to that point. Bafata is an important trading centre for the interior regions of Guinea-Bissau. There also is intensive agriculture around the town. The town produces peanuts (groundnuts) ...
Baffin: northernmost and easternmost region of Nunavut territory, Canada. In 1967 it was created as Baffin region, Northwest Territories, from most of what was formerly Franklin district, and it took on its present borders with the creation of Nunavut in April ...
Baffin Bay: arm of the North Atlantic Ocean with an area of 266,000 square miles (689,000 square km), extending southward from the Arctic for 900 miles (1,450 km) between the Greenland coast (east) and Baffin Island (west). The bay has a width ...
Baffin Island: island lying between Greenland and the Canadian mainland. It is the largest island in Canada. Baffin Island is separated from Greenland on the north and east by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait and from the Labrador-Ungava mainland on the south ...
Baffin Island Current: surface oceanic current, a southward-moving water outflow along the west side of Baffin Bay, Canada. The Baffin Island Current, flowing at a rate of about 11 miles (17 km) per day, is a combination of West Greenland Current inflow and ...
Baffin, William: navigator who searched for the Northwest Passage and gave his name to Baffin Island, now part of the Northwest Territories, Canada, and to the bay separating it from Greenland. His determination of longitude at sea by observing the occultation of ...
Bafing River: river in western Africa, rising in the Fouta Djallon massif of Guinea and flowing generally northeast for about 200 miles (320 km). After passing the town of Bafing Makana in Mali, its only important riparian settlement, it curves around to ...
Bafoussam: town, western Cameroon, north-northeast of Douala. A trading centre of the Bamileke peoples, it lies in a densely populated region where coffee, kola nuts, tobacco, tea, and cinchona (from which quinine is made) are grown and pigs and poultry are ...
Baga: people who inhabit the swampy coastal region between Cape Verga and the city of Conakry in Guinea. They speak a language of the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family. The women cultivate rice; the men fish and tend palm and ...
Bagamoyo: town, historic seaport of eastern Tanzania. It lies on the Zanzibar Channel, 45 miles (75 km) northwest of Dar es Salaam. The town was formerly a slave-trading depot at the terminus of Arab caravan routes from Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. ...
bagasse: fibre remaining after the extraction of the sugar-bearing juice from sugarcane. The word bagasse, from the French bagage via the Spanish bagazo, originally meant "rubbish," "refuse," or "trash." Applied first to the debris from the pressing of olives, palm nuts, ...
bagatelle: game, probably of English origin, that is similar to billiards and was probably a modification of it. Bagatelle is played with billiard cues and nine balls on an oblong board or table varying in size from 6 by 1.5 ft ...
Bage: city, south-central Rio Grande do Sul estado (state), Brazil, lying at 732 feet (223 metres) above sea level amid gently rolling hills covered with tall prairie grass. It was founded in 1811 and given city status in ...
Bagehot, Walter: economist, political analyst, and editor of The Economist who was one of the most influential journalists of the mid-Victorian period.
bagel: doughnut-shaped yeast-leavened roll that is characterized by a crisp, shiny crust and a dense interior. Long regarded as a Jewish specialty item, the bagel is commonly eaten as a breakfast food or snack, often with toppings such as cream cheese ...
Bagerhat: town, southwestern Bangladesh. It lies just south of the Bhairab River. Bagerhat was the capital of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali-the 15th-century pioneer of the Sundarbans-and contains the ruins of his mausoleum and large audience hall (Sat Gumbaz). The town is ...
Baggesen, Jens: leading Danish literary figure in the transitional period between Neoclassicism and Romanticism.
Baghdad: city, capital of Iraq and capital of Baghdad governorate, central Iraq. Its location, on the Tigris River about 330 miles (530 km) from the headwaters of the Persian Gulf, is in the heart of ancient Mesopotamia. Baghdad is Iraq's largest ...
Baghdad Railway: major rail line connecting Istanbul with the Persian Gulf region. Work on the first phase of the railway, which involved an extension of an existing line between Haidar Pasha and Ismid to Ankara, was begun in 1888 by the Ottoman ...
Baghdad school: stylistic movement of Islamic manuscript illustration, founded in the late 12th century (though the earliest surviving works cannot be dated before the 13th century). The school flourished in the period when the 'Abbasid caliphs had reasserted their authority in Baghdad. ...
Baghelkhand: historic region, eastern Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The area is divided into two natural regions by the Kaimur Range. To the west lie elevated plains; to the east is a rough, hilly tract intersected by a succession of parallel ...