Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Balch, Emily Greene ... Balikesir

Balch, Emily Greene: American sociologist, political scientist, economist, and pacifist, a leader of the women's movement for peace during and after World War I. She received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1946 jointly with John Raleigh Mott. She was also noted for ...
Balchin, Nigel: English novelist who achieved great popularity with novels of men at work.
Balcon, Sir Michael: motion-picture producer, a leader in the British cinema industry.
balcony: external extension of an upper floor of a building, enclosed up to a height of about three feet (one metre) by a solid or pierced screen, by balusters (see also balustrade), or by railings. In the medieval and Renaissance periods, ...
Balczo, Andras: Hungarian modern pentathlete who dominated the sport in the 1960s and is considered among the greatest of the storied line of Hungarian competitors in the modern pentathlon.
bald cypress: either of two species of ornamental and timber conifers constituting the genus Taxodium (family Taxodiaceae), native to swampy areas of southern North America. The name bald cypress, or swamp cypress, is used most frequently as the common name for T. ...
bald eagle: the only eagle solely native to North America, and the national bird of the United States.
baldachin: in architecture, the canopy over an altar or tomb, supported on columns, especially when freestanding and disconnected from any enclosing wall. The term originates from the Spanish baldaquin, an elaborately brocaded material imported from Baghdad that was hung as a ...
Balder: in Norse mythology, the son of the chief god Odin and his wife Frigg. Beautiful and just, he was the favourite of the gods. Most legends about him concern his death. Icelandic stories tell how the gods amused themselves by ...
Baldinucci, Filippo: Florentine art historian, the first to make full use of documents and to realize the importance of drawings in the study of painting.
baldness: the lack or loss of hair. Two primary types of baldness can be distinguished: permanent hair loss arising from the destruction of hair follicles, and temporary hair loss arising from transitory damage to the follicles. The first category is dominated ...
Baldovinetti, Alesso: painter whose work, though seldom innovative, exemplified the careful modeling of form and the accurate depiction of light characteristic of the most progressive style of Florentine painting during the last half of the 15th century. At the same time, he ...
baldpate: popular North American game duck, also known as the American wigeon. See wigeon.
Baldung-Grien, Hans: painter and graphic artist, one of the most outstanding figures in northern Renaissance art. He served as an assistant to Albrecht Durer, whose influence is apparent in his early works, although the demonic energy of his later style is closer ...
Baldwin I: king of the Crusader state of Jerusalem (1100-18) who expanded the kingdom and secured its territory, formulating an administrative apparatus that was to serve for 200 years as the basis for Frankish rule in Syria and Palestine.
Baldwin I: count of Flanders (as Baldwin IX) and of Hainaut (as Baldwin VI), a leader of the Fourth Crusade, who became the first Latin emperor of Constantinople (now Istanbul).
Baldwin I: the first ruler of Flanders. A daring warrior under Charles II the Bald of France, he fell in love with the King's daughter Judith, the youthful widow of two English kings, married her (862), and fled with his bride to ...
Baldwin II: count of Edessa (1100-18), king of Jerusalem (1118-31), and Crusade leader whose support of the religious-military orders founded during his reign enabled him to expand his kingdom and to withstand Muslim attacks.
Baldwin II: second ruler of Flanders, who, from his stronghold at Bruges, maintained, as his father Baldwin I before him, a vigorous defense of his lands against the incursions of the Norsemen. On his mother's side a descendant of Charlemagne, he strengthened ...
Baldwin II Porphyrogenitus: the last Latin emperor of Constantinople, who lost his throne in 1261 when Michael VIII Palaeologus restored Greek rule to the capital.
Baldwin III: king of the Crusader state of Jerusalem (1143-63), military leader whose reputation among his contemporaries earned him the title of "ideal king."
Baldwin IV: count of Flanders (988-1035) who greatly expanded the Flemish dominions. He fought successfully both against the Capetian king of France, Robert II, and the Holy Roman emperor Henry II. Henry found himself obliged to grant to Baldwin IV in fief ...
Baldwin IV: king of Jerusalem (1174-85), called the "leper king" for the disease that afflicted him for most of his short life. His reign saw the growth of factionalism among the Latin nobility that weakened the kingdom during the years when its ...
Baldwin V: count of Flanders who became one of the most influential figures of 11th-century Europe. He was an active, enterprising man and greatly extended his power by wars and alliances. He obtained from the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV the territory ...
Baldwin V: nominal king of Jerusalem who reigned from March 1185 until his death a year and a half later. The son of William Longsword of Montferrat and Sybil, the sister of King Baldwin IV, Baldwin V came to the throne when ...
Baldwin, Faith: American author, one of the most successful writers of light fiction in the 20th century, whose works targeted an audience of middle-class women.
Baldwin, Frank Stephen: inventor best-known for his development of the Monroe calculator.
Baldwin, Henry: associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1830-44).
Baldwin, James: American essayist, novelist, and playwright whose eloquence and passion on the subject of race in America made him an important voice, particularly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the United States and, later, through much of western Europe.
Baldwin, James Mark: philosopher and theoretical psychologist who exerted influence on American psychology during its formative period in the 1890s. Concerned with the relation of Darwinian evolution to psychology, he favoured the study of individual differences, stressed the importance of theory for psychology, ...
Baldwin, Matthias William: manufacturer whose significant improvements of the steam locomotive included a steam-tight metal joint that permitted his engines to use steam at double the pressure of others.
Baldwin, Robert: statesman who was joint leader with Louis Hippolyte LaFontaine of the first and second Liberal administrations in Canada, which established the principle of responsible, or cabinet, government in Canada.
Baldwin, Roger Nash: American civil-rights activist, cofounder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Baldwin, Stanley, 1st Earl Baldwin Of Bewdley, Viscount Corvedale Of Corvedale: British Conservative politician, three times prime minister between 1923 and 1937; he headed the government during the General Strike of 1926, the Ethiopian crisis of 1935, and the abdication crisis of 1936.
Baldy Mountain: summit (11,403 feet [3,476 metres]) in the White Mountains, Apache county, eastern Arizona, U.S. Springs on the mountain's northern slope form the headwaters of the Little Colorado River. Also called Dzil Ligai (Apache: "Mountain of White Rock"), Baldy is located ...
Baldy Mountain: highest peak in Manitoba, Canada, in the southeastern part of Duck Mountain Provincial Park, 36 miles (58 km) northwest of Dauphin. At 2,730 feet (832 m) above sea level, it is also the highest peak in the 350-mile- (560-kilometre-) long ...
Bale, John: bishop, Protestant controversialist, and dramatist whose Kynge Johan is asserted to have been the first English history play. He is notable for his part in the religious strife of the 16th century and for his antiquarian studies, including the first ...
Balearic Islands: archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, and a comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Spain coextensive with the Spanish provincia of the same name and established by the statute of autonomy in 1983.
baleen whale: any cetacean possessing unique epidermal modifications of the mouth called baleen, which is used to filter food from water.
Balenciaga, Cristobal: Spanish dress designer who created elegant ball gowns and other classic designs.
baler: largest living snail, a species of conch (q.v.).
Bales, Peter: English calligrapher who devised one of the earliest forms of shorthand, published in his book Arte of Brachygraphie (1590).
Balewa, Sir Abubakar Tafawa: Nigerian politician, leader in the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC), and the first federal prime minister. A commoner by birth, an unusual origin for a political leader in the NPC, Balewa was both a defender of northern special interests and an ...
Balfe, Michael William: singer and composer, best known for the facile melody and simple vocal effects of his opera The Bohemian Girl.
Balfour Declaration: (Nov. 2, 1917), statement of British support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." It was made in a letter from Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary, to Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron ...
Balfour, Arthur James Balfour, 1st earl of, Viscount Traprain: British statesman who maintained a position of power in the British Conservative Party for 50 years; he was prime minister from 1902 to 1905, and as foreign secretary from 1916 to 1919 he is perhaps best remembered for his World ...
Balfour, Francis Maitland: British zoologist, younger brother of the statesman Arthur James Balfour, and a founder of modern embryology.
Balfour, Robert: philosopher accomplished in Latin and Greek who spent his career teaching these languages in France.
Balfour, Sir James: Scottish judge who, by frequently shifting his political allegiances, influenced the course of events in the early years of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland.
Bali: island and propinsi ("province") in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia, 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the island of Java. Most of Bali is mountainous (essentially an extension of the central mountain chain in Java), the highest point being Mount ...
Balikesir: city, northwestern Turkey, situated on rising ground above a fertile plain that drains to the Sea of Marmara. It lies about where the ancient Roman town of Hadrianutherae lay. In the early 14th century, Balikesir was an important town of ...