weedy perennial herb of the genus Taraxacum of the family Asteraceae, native to Eurasia but widespread throughout much of temperate North America. The most familiar species is T. officinale.
mountain ranges, part of the Eastern Highlands, east of Melbourne in southern Victoria, Australia. Several peaks exceed 1,600 ft (500 m), the highest of which is Mt. Dandenong (2,077 ft). With nearly twice as much rainfall as the nearby coastal ...
breed of terrier developed in the border country of England and Scotland. First noted as a distinct breed about 1700, it was later named after a character created by Sir Walter Scott in his novel Guy Mannering (1815). Unlike other ...
Indian Sanskrit writer of prose romances and expounder on poetics. Scholars attribute to him with certainty only two works: the Dasakumaracarita, translated in 1927 as The Adventures of the Ten Princes, and the Kavyadarsa ("Mirror of Poetry").
an ancient Italian family distinguished in the history of Venice. It rose quickly to prominence when expansion from the lagoons to the mainland began. By the 11th century it was rich, and by the 12th (when the branches of San ...
doge of the Republic of Venice from 1192 to 1205, noted for his promotion of the Fourth Crusade, which led to the overthrow of the Greek Byzantine Empire and the aggrandizement of Venice.
Italian chemist and statesman, an innovator in both science and politics. He helped further democratic ideas in Italy, while his writings, especially on agriculture, won him a reputation throughout Europe.
a tax levied in Anglo-Saxon England to buy off Danish invaders in the reign of Ethelred II (978-1016); it also designates the recurrent gelds, or taxes, collected by the Anglo-Norman kings. The word is not recorded before the Norman Conquest, ...
the northern, central, and eastern region of Anglo-Saxon England colonized by invading Danish armies in the late 9th century. In the 11th and 12th centuries, it was recognized that all of eastern England between the Rivers Tees and Thames formed ...
the ancient frontier rampart of the Danes against the Germans, extending 10.5 miles (17 kilometres) from just south of the town of Schleswig to the marshes of the river Trene near the village of Hollingstedt. The rampart was begun about ...
British informer who falsely accused British Roman Catholics of conspiracy during the panic created by the fictitious Popish Plot of 1678, based on Titus Oates's allegations that Catholics were plotting to murder King Charles II and take over the government.
forested range of hills averaging 1,500-2,000 feet (450-600 m) and dividing Thailand from Cambodia. This east-west-trending range extends from the Mekong River westward for approximately 200 miles (320 km), merging with the highland area near San Kamphaeng, Thailand. Essentially the ...
town, east-central Belize, at the mouth of the 20-mile- (32-kilometre-) long North Stann Creek, on the Caribbean coast. Founded in 1823 by black refugees from Honduras, it developed as a port and trading centre for bananas, timber, coconuts, and fish. ...
the earliest known Russian travel writer, whose account of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land is the earliest surviving record in Russian of such a trip. Abbot of a Russian monastery, he visited Palestine probably during 1106-07. His narrative begins ...
ruler of the principalities of Galicia and Volhynia (now in Poland and the Ukraine, respectively), who became one of the most powerful princes in east-central Europe.
a book of the Old Testament found in the Ketuvim (Writings), the third section of the Jewish canon, but placed among the Prophets in the Christian canon. The first half of the book (chapters 1-6) contains stories in the third ...
Soviet poet and short-story writer who was convicted with fellow writer Andrey D. Sinyavsky of anti-Soviet slander in a sensational 1966 trial that marked the beginning of literary repression under Leonid I. Brezhnev, general secretary of the Communist Party.
British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell, which was a great improvement over the voltaic cell used in the early days of battery development.
Russian naturalist and historical philosopher, author of Rossiya i Evropa (1869; "Russia and Europe"), who was the first to propound the philosophy of history as a series of distinct civilizations. According to him, Russia and the Slavs should remain indifferent ...
the first ruler of Montenegro of the Petrovic-Njegos dynasty, which lasted from 1697 to 1918, when Montenegro was absorbed into the new Yugoslav state.
any of several slender tropical fishes of the genera Danio and Brachydanio in the carp family, Cyprinidae. Danios are hardy and swim actively about in schools. They are generally some 4-5 cm (1.5-2 inches) long. Several are often kept in ...
the official language of Denmark, spoken there by more than 5 million people. Danish belongs to the East Scandinavian branch of North Germanic languages. It began to separate from the other Scandinavian languages, to which it is closely related, about ...
French-Canadian plant ecologist who was a pioneer in the study of the dynamics of forests and who attempted to extend ecological concepts to the modern human environment.
Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy).
Polish poet and diplomat who was among the first representatives in Poland of Renaissance humanism. Dantiscus wrote, in Latin, incidental verse, love poetry, and panegyrics (formal speeches of praise).
French Revolutionary leader and orator, often credited as the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic (September 21, 1792). He later became the first president of the Committee of Public Safety, ...
in Celtic religion, the earth-mother goddess or female principle, who was honoured under various names from eastern Europe to Ireland. The mythology that surrounded her was contradictory and confused; mother goddesses of earlier peoples were ultimately identified with her, as ...
river of Europe, the second longest river after the Volga. It rises in the Black Forest mountains of western Germany and flows for some 1,770 miles (2,850 km) to its mouth on the Black Sea. Along its course, it passes ...
town (township), Essex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies just northeast of Boston. Founded in the 1630s by Governor John Endecott, it was part of Salem and originally known as Salem Village (site of the witchcraft hysteria of 1692). Set ...
city, seat (1827) of Vermilion county, eastern Illinois, U.S. It lies on the junction of forks of the Vermilion River (there bridged) near the Indiana border, about 35 miles (55 km) east of Champaign. Early inhabitants of the area included ...
city, administratively independent of, but located in, Pittsylvania county, south-central Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Dan River, just north of the North Carolina border, 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Greensboro, North Carolina.
city, seat of Boyle county, central Kentucky, U.S., in the Bluegrass region, 36 miles (58 km) southwest of Lexington. Located along the Old Wilderness Road, it was settled in about 1775 and named for Walker Daniel, who purchased the deed ...
the most important member of a German family of musicians of Italian ancestry. Although Danzi was a prolific composer of operas, church music, lieder, symphonies, and concerti, it is for his chamber music, particularly for woodwind ensemble, that he is ...
classic of Chinese philosophical literature. The name was first used during the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220); it had previously been called Laozi in the belief that it was written by Laozi, identified by the historian Sima Qian as a ...
genus of extinct pelecypods (clams) useful as a guide, or index, fossil in Triassic rocks. The shell is characterized by a wide dorsal region and by fine, radiating, riblike lineations. The shell is circular in outline and may show fine ...
