Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Dempsey, Jack ... Denpasar

Dempsey, Jack: American world heavyweight boxing champion, regarded by many as the apotheosis of the professional fighter. He held the title from July 4, 1919, when he knocked out Jess Willard in three rounds in Toledo, Ohio, until September 23, 1926, when ...
Dempsey, Miles Christopher: British army officer who commanded the Second Army, the main British force in the Allied drive across western Europe (1944-45) during World War II.
Dempsey, Nonpareil Jack: Irish-born American bare-knuckle fighter who was the world middleweight champion from 1884 to 1891.
Dempsey, Sister Mary Joseph: American nurse and hospital administrator, remembered for her exceptional medical and administrative abilities and for her contributions to nursing education.
Dempster, Arthur Jeffrey: American physicist who built the first mass spectrometer, a device used to separate and measure the quantities of different charged particles, such as atomic nuclei or molecular fragments.
demurrer: in law, a process whereby a party hypothetically admits as true certain facts alleged by the opposition but asserts that they are not sufficient grounds for relief, or redress. A ruling on a demurrer can result in the quick disposition ...
Demuth, Charles: painter who helped channel modern European movements into American art and who was also a leading exponent of Precisionism.
Demy, Jacques: French director best known for his romantic musical-comedy films.
Denakil Plain: arid lowland of northern Ethiopia and southeastern Eritrea, bordering Djibouti. It lies at the northern extreme of the Great Rift Valley and the Awash River. Live volcanoes (often called the Denakil Alps) separate it from the Red Sea. Any water ...
Denali National Park and Preserve: park and preserve in central Alaska, U.S., established in 1980 from the former Mount McKinley National Park (1917) and Denali National Monument (1978). Denali ("The Great One") is the ancient Athapascan Indian name for Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in ...
denaturation: in biology, process modifying the molecular structure of a protein. Denaturation involves the breaking of many of the weak linkages, or bonds (e.g., hydrogen bonds), within a protein molecule that are responsible for the highly ordered structure of the protein ...
Denbigh: market town, historic and present county of Denbighshire (Sir Ddinbych), Wales. After the English king Edward I conquered Wales, Henry de Lacy, 3rd earl of Lincoln, founded a borough there in 1283 and built a castle, which withstood attack in ...
Denbighshire: county of northern Wales extending inland from the Irish Sea coast. The present county of Denbighshire includes the Vale of Clwyd along the River Clwyd and an inland area between the Clwydian Range in the east and the Clocaenog Forest ...
Dench, Dame Judi: British actress known for her numerous and varied stage roles, her work in television, and her supporting parts in a variety of films.
Denck, Hans: German theologian and Reformer who opposed Lutheranism in favour of Anabaptism, the Reformation movement that stressed the baptism of individuals upon reaching adulthood.
Dendrobium: genus of as many as 1,500 species of orchids that grow on other plants and are native to tropical and subtropical Asia, many Pacific islands, and Australia. Some species have small, pale flowers; others have large, showy ones. The flowers ...
dendrochronology: the scientific discipline concerned with dating and interpreting past events, particularly paleoclimates and climatic trends, based on the analysis of tree rings. Samples are obtained by means of an increment borer, a simple metal tube of small diameter that can ...
Dendrocolaptidae: songbird family, order Passeriformes, consisting of a number of brownish birds of the forest or brushland and found from Mexico through South America. Representative members are the scythebill and the woodcreeper (qq.v.).
Deneb: one of the brightest stars, with an apparent magnitude of 1.26. This star is, at about 1,400 light-years' distance, one of the most remote (thus one of the brightest intrinsically) of the 20 apparently brightest stars. It lies in the ...
Deneuve, Catherine: French actress noted for her archetypal Gallic beauty as well as for her roles in films by some of the world's greatest directors.
Deng Xiaoping: Chinese communist leader, who was the most powerful figure in the People's Republic of China from the late 1970s until his death in 1997. He abandoned many orthodox communist doctrines and attempted to incorporate elements of the free-enterprise system into ...
Deng Yaping: Chinese table tennis player, who won six world championships and four Olympic championships between 1989 and 1997. She is regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
Deng Yingchao: Chinese politician, a revolutionary hard-liner who became a high-ranking official of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the death of her husband, Premier Zhou Enlai, in 1976.
dengue: acute, infectious, mosquito-borne hemorrhagic fever that temporarily is completely incapacitating but is rarely fatal. Besides fever, the disease is characterized by an extreme pain in and stiffness of the joints (hence the name "breakbone fever"). Dengue is caused by a ...
Denham, Dixon: English soldier who became one of the early explorers of western Africa.
Denham, Sir James Steuart, 4th Baronet: Scottish economist who was the leading expositor of mercantilist views.
Denham, Sir John: poet who established as a new English genre the leisurely meditative poem describing a particular landscape.
Denikin, Anton Ivanovich: general who led the anti-Bolshevik ("White") forces on the southern front during the Russian Civil War (1918-20).
Deniliquin: chief town of the fertile southern Riverina region, south-central New South Wales, Australia, on the Edward River (a branch of the Murray), 22 miles (35 km) from the Victoria border. Established in 1845 by Benjamin Boyd as a personal holding, ...
denim: durable twill-woven fabric with coloured (usually blue) warp and white filling threads; it is also woven in coloured stripes. The name is said to have originated in the French serge de Nimes. Denim is yarn-dyed and mill-finished and is usually ...
Denis, Maurice: French painter, one of the leading artists and theoreticians of the Symbolist movement.
Denis, Saint: allegedly first bishop of Paris, a martyr and a patron saint of France.
Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts: dance school and company founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn. Considered a fountainhead of American modern dance, the Denishawn organization systematically promoted nonballetic dance movement and fostered such leading modern dancers as Martha Graham, ...
Denison: city, Grayson county, north-central Texas, U.S., situated near the Oklahoma border, 73 miles (117 km) north of Dallas. The city of Sherman lies to the south and Lake Texoma, impounded on the Red River by Denison Dam, to the northwest. ...
Denison University: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Granville, Ohio, U.S. It offers an undergraduate curriculum in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and fine arts. Many students participate in off-campus study programs such as engineering in cooperation with Case Western Reserve ...
denitrifying bacteria: microorganisms whose action results in the conversion of nitrates in soil to free atmospheric nitrogen, thus depleting soil fertility and reducing agricultural productivity. Thiobacillus denitrificans, Micrococcus denitrificans, and some species of Serratia, Pseudomonas, and Achromobacter are implicated as denitrifiers. Pseudomonas ...
Denizli: city, southwestern Turkey. It lies near a tributary of the Menderes River. Set among the gardens at the foot of Mount Gokbel (7,572 feet [2,308 m]), Denizli inherited the economic position of ancient Laodicea ad Lycum, 4 miles (6 km) ...
Denkyera: major 17th-century kingdom of the southern Akan peoples, situated in the forested hinterland of modern Ghana's southwestern coast. According to tradition, its kings migrated from the area of the northern Akan or Brong. By the end of the 17th century ...
Denmark: country occupying the peninsula of Jutland, which extends northward from the centre of continental western Europe, and an archipelago of more than 400 islands to the east of the peninsula. Of the country's total land area of 16,639 square miles ...
Denmark Strait: channel partially within the Arctic Circle, lying between Greenland (west) and Iceland (east). About 180 miles (290 km) wide at its narrowest point, the strait extends southward for 300 miles (483 km) from the Greenland Sea to the open waters ...
Denmark's Aquarium: largest aquarium in Denmark, located in Charlottenlund, outside of Copenhagen. It is noted for its collection of unusual fishes. Included among the more than 3,000 specimens of nearly 200 species of marine and freshwater fishes are lungfish, blind cave fish, ...
Denner, Johann Christoph: German maker of musical instruments and inventor of the clarinet.
Dennett, Mary Coffin Ware: American reformer, best remembered for her activism in support of the ready and free availability of birth control and sex education.
Dennie, Joseph: essayist and editor who was a major literary figure in the United States in the early 19th century.
Dennis: town (township), Barnstable county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It extends across Cape Cod and includes the villages of Dennis, Dennis Port (Dennisport), East Dennis, South Dennis, and West Dennis. Settled in 1639, it was a part of Yarmouth until 1793, when ...
Dennis, Eugene: American Communist Party leader and labour organizer. He was general secretary of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) from 1945 to 1957 and national chairman during 1959-61.
Dennis, John: English critic and dramatist whose insistence upon the importance of passion in poetry led to a long quarrel with Alexander Pope.
Dennis, Nigel: English writer and critic who used absurd plots and witty repartee to satirize psychiatry, religion, and social behaviour, most notably in his novel Cards of Identity (1955).
Dennison, Aaron Lufkin: watch manufacturer who was among the first to adapt the concept of interchangeable parts to the production of pocket watches. He is generally credited with being the father of American watchmaking.
Denon, Dominique Vivant, Baron: French artist, archaeologist, and museum official who played an important role in the development of the Louvre collection.
Denpasar: city, capital of Bali provinsi (province), south-central Bali, Indonesia, 40 miles (70 km) south of Singaraja. The largest city on the island of Bali, it is also the capital of the Badung kabupaten (regency). ...