Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

DeKalb ... Delhi

DeKalb: city, DeKalb county, north-central Illinois, U.S. It lies on the south branch of the Kishwaukee River, about 60 miles (100 km) west of Chicago. Founded in 1837, it was called Buena Vista and then Huntley's Grove (for city founder Russell ...
Deken, Aagje: writer and collaborator with Betje Wolff (q.v.) on the first Dutch novel, De historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart, 2 vol. (1782; "The History of Miss Sara Burgerhart").
Dekker, Thomas: English dramatist and writer of prose pamphlets who is particularly known for his lively depictions of London life.
Del Monte Foods: American corporation engaged primarily in processing, canning, and distributing food. It is a major grower and distributor of bananas and pineapples, and it owns subsidiaries engaged in trucking, public warehousing, institutional food service and vending, building maintenance, and security services. ...
Del Rio: city, seat (1885) of Val Verde county, southwestern Texas, U.S. It lies along the Rio Grande, there bridged to Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, 145 miles (233 km) west of San Antonio. The original Spanish mission of San Felipe del Rio (c. ...
Delacour, Jean Theodore: French-American aviculturist known for discovering and rearing some of the world's rarest birds.
Delacroix, Eugene: the greatest French Romantic painter, whose use of colour was influential in the development of both Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. His inspiration came chiefly from historical or contemporary events or literature, and a visit to Morocco in 1832 provided him ...
delafossite: metallic, black copper and iron oxide (CuFeO₂) that is found as a secondary mineral associated with other oxide minerals of copper and iron in Sonora, Mex.; Pedroso, Spain; and Pfaffenreuth, Ger. It is abundant in Bisbee, Ariz., and also occurs ...
Delage, Yves: French zoologist known for his research and elucidation of invertebrate physiology and anatomy. He also discovered the equilibrium-stabilizing function of the semicircular canals in the inner ear (1886).
Delagoa Bay: bay on the southeast coast of Mozambique, East Africa, near the South African border. The name probably derives from Baia da Lagoa (Bay of the Lagoon). It is 19 mi (31 km) long and 16 mi wide, with Inhaca Island, ...
delaine: (French: "of wool"), any high-grade woolen or worsted fabric made of fine combing wool. Delaine was originally a high-quality women's wear dress material.
Delalande, Michel-Richard: leading composer of sacred music in France in the early 18th century, one of the few composers who asserted any influence while Jean-Baptiste Lully lived.
Delambre, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph: French astronomer who prepared tables that plot the location of Uranus.
Delamere, George Booth, 1st Baron: English politician who led an abortive Royalist revolt against the Commonwealth government in August 1659. His insurrection foreshadowed the Royalist upsurge that resulted in the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660.
Delamere, Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron: a leader of European colonists in British East Africa Protectorate (now Kenya). Controversial and outspoken, Delamere was the central figure of the white community in Kenya. He believed that civilization could be brought to Africa only by European settlement and ...
DeLancey, James: lieutenant governor and chief justice of the British colony of New York.
Deland, Margaret: American writer who frequently portrayed small-town life.
Delane, John Thaddeus: editor of The Times of London for 36 years.
Delaney, Shelagh: British playwright who, at age 19, won critical acclaim and popular success with the London production of her first play, A Taste of Honey (1958). Two years later, Delaney received the Drama Critics' Circle Award for the play's New York ...
Delano, Jane A.: American nurse and educator who made possible the enlistment of more than 20,000 U.S. nurses for overseas duty during World War I.
Delany, Martin R.: African American abolitionist, physician, and editor in the pre-Civil War period; his espousal of black nationalism and racial pride anticipated expressions of such views a century later.
Delany, Samuel R.: African-American science-fiction novelist and critic whose highly imaginative works address racial and social issues, heroic quests, and the nature of language.
Delaroche, Paul: painter whose painstakingly realistic historical subjects made him one of the most successful academic artists of mid-19th-century France. Delaroche's father was an art expert, his uncle was curator of the Cabinet des Estampes, and his brother was the painter Jules-Hippolyte ...
delator: ancient Roman prosecutor or informer. The role of the informer in matters of criminal law and fiscal claims was of singular importance to the maintenance of order in Roman society, which was without an adequate police force or public prosecutor. ...
Delaunay, Charles-Eugene: French mathematician and astronomer whose theory of lunar motion advanced the development of planetary-motion theories.
Delaunay, Robert: French painter who first introduced vibrant colour into Cubism and thereby originated the trend in Cubist painting known as Orphism (q.v.). He was one of the earliest completely nonrepresentational painters, and his work affected the development of abstract art based ...
Delaunay, Sonia: Russian painter, illustrator, and textile designer who was a pioneer of abstract art in the years before World War I.
Delaware: city, seat (1808) of Delaware county, central Ohio, U.S. It lies along the Olentangy River, 25 miles (40 km) north of Columbus. The Delaware Indians had a village in the vicinity before Moses Byxbe settled on the east bank of ...
Delaware: constituent state of the United States of America, the first of the original 13 states to ratify the federal Constitution. It occupies a small niche in the Boston-Washington, D.C., urban corridor along the Middle Atlantic seaboard. With 2,045 square miles ...
Delaware: a confederation of Algonquian-speaking North American Indians who occupied the Atlantic seaboard from Cape Henlopen, Delaware, to western Long Island. They were especially concentrated in the Delaware River valley, for which the confederation was named.
Delaware: county, south-central New York state, U.S., bordered by the Susquehanna River to the northwest and Pennsylvania to the southwest, the Delaware River constituting the boundary. The mountainous terrain is drained mainly by the west and east branches of the Delaware ...
Delaware: county, southeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., located southwest of Philadelphia and bounded to the east by Cobbs Creek and to the south by New Jersey and Delaware, the Delaware River constituting the border. Ridley Creek State Park is located on Ridley Creek ...
Delaware Aqueduct: circular tunnel, part of the system that supplies water to New York City from the Delaware River near its source and from other streams in the Catskill Mountains. Running deep in bedrock for its original length of 85 miles (137 ...
Delaware Bay: inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean, on the east coast of the United States, forming part of the New Jersey-Delaware state border. The bay extends southeastward for 52 miles (84 km) from the junction of the Delaware River with the ...
Delaware River: river of the Atlantic slope of the United States, meeting tidewater at Trenton, N.J., about 130 miles (210 km) above its mouth. Its total length (including the longest branch) is about 405 miles (650 km), and the river drains an ...
Delaware State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Dover, Del., U.S. It is a land-grant university consisting of a College of Arts and Sciences and schools of Management; Education and Professional Studies, including aviation, education, and nursing; and Agriculture, Natural Resources, ...
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company: American railroad built to carry coal from the anthracite fields of northeastern Pennsylvania. Originally known as Ligget's Gap Railroad, it was chartered in 1851 as the Lackawanna and Western. Eventually it ran from the Lackawanna Valley in Pennsylvania west to ...
Delaware, University of: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Newark, Del., U.S. It also offers courses at other sites, including Wilmington, Dover, Georgetown, and Lewes. The university consists of seven colleges offering a curriculum in the arts, sciences, agriculture, business, engineering, oceanography, ...
Delblanc, Sven: Swedish novelist who was notable for his use of the intrusive narrator and for the incorporation of grotesque, visionary, and mythical elements to give detailed descriptions of society in his work.
Delbruck, Berthold: German linguist who addressed himself to the problems of syntax (the patterning of words into meaningful phrases and sentences). He is credited with having founded the study of the comparative syntax of the Indo-European languages.
Delbruck, Max: German-born U.S. biologist, a pioneer in the study of molecular genetics. With Alfred Day Hershey and Salvador Luria, he was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on bacteriophages-viruses that infect bacteria.
Delbruck, Rudolph von: statesman and chief executor of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's free-trade policy for Prussia and then for imperial Germany. He entered government service in 1837 and in 1848 was transferred to the ministry of commerce. Realizing the influence of commerce on ...
Delcasse, Theophile: French foreign minister (1898-1905 and 1914-15) who was a principal architect of the new system of European alliances formed in the years preceding World War I.
Deledda, Grazia: novelist who was influenced by the verismo (q.v.; "realism") school in Italian literature. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.
Delehaye, Hippolyte: Belgian scholar who was the foremost exponent of biographical church history based on archaeological and documentary work.
Delemont: capital of Jura canton, northwestern Switzerland, situated in a wide valley at the confluence of the Sorne and Birse rivers. First mentioned in historical records in 727, Delemont was annexed by the prince-bishops of Basel in the 11th century for ...
Delescluze, Charles: French revolutionary figure who participated in the uprisings of 1830 and 1848 and who was an important leader in the Paris Commune (1871).
Deleuze, Gilles: French writer and antirationalist philosopher.
Delft: gemeente (commune), Zuid-Holland provincie, western Netherlands. It lies along the canalized Schie River between Rotterdam and The Hague. Founded in 1075 and chartered in 1246, it was severely damaged by fire in 1536 and ...
delftware: tin-glazed earthenware first made early in the 17th century at Delft, Holland. Dutch potters later brought the art of tin glazing to England along with the name delft, which now applies to wares manufactured in The Netherlands and England, as ...
Delhi: city and national capital territory, north-central India. Popularly known as Old Delhi, it is the country's second largest city, surpassed in population only by Greater Mumbai (Bombay). New Delhi, the capital of India, lies immediately to the south. Besides being ...