Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Darling Range ... Dashkova, Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova, Knyaginya

Darling Range: scarp or fault at the edge of the Great Plateau in Western Australia, paralleling the southwest coast east of Perth for 200 miles (320 km) from the Moore River (north) to Bridgetown (south). Average heights range from 800 to 1,000 ...
Darling River: river, longest member of the Murray-Darling river system in Australia; it rises in several headstreams in the Great Dividing Range (Eastern Highlands), near the New South Wales-Queensland border, not far from the east coast, and flows generally southwest across New ...
Darling, Flora Adams: American writer, historian, and organizer, an influential though controversial figure in the founding and early years of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and other patriotic societies.
Darling, Grace: British heroine who became famous for her participation in the rescue of shipwreck survivors.
Darling, Jay Norwood: American political cartoonist who in his long career commented on a wide range of issues and twice received a Pulitzer Prize.
Darlington: city, seat of Darlington county, northeastern South Carolina, U.S. Settled in the 1780s, the city and the county (formed 1785) were both named for Darlington, England. Its basic agricultural economy (tobacco, cotton, livestock, soybeans, and timber) is supplemented by manufacturing ...
Darlington: town and unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Durham, northeastern England, bounded on the south by the River Tees. The main population centre, old Darlington town, lies on the River Skerne near its confluence with the Tees. The town ...
Darlington: county, northeastern South Carolina, U.S. It lies for the most part on the rolling hills of the Coastal Plain, bounded to the northeast by the Great Pee Dee River and on parts of the southwestern border by the Lynches River.
Darlington, Cyril Dean: British biologist whose research on chromosomes influenced the basic concepts of the hereditary mechanisms underlying the evolution of sexually reproducing species.
Darmesteter, Arsene: language scholar who advanced knowledge of the history of French, particularly through his elucidation of Old French.
Darmesteter, James: French scholar noted for ancient Iranian language studies, especially his English and French translations of the Avesta, the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism.
Darmstadt: city, Hessen Land (state), south-central Germany. It is situated on a gently sloping plain between the Odenwald (a forested plateau) and the Rhine River, south of Frankfurt am Main and southeast of Mainz. First mentioned in the ...
Darnah: town of northeastern Libya, on the Mediterranean coast, east of Banghazi. It lies on the eastern ridges of the Jabal al-Akhdar in the delta of the small Wadi (seasonal river) Darnah. The town was founded in the 15th century on ...
darnel: noxious weed of the ryegrass (q.v.) genus Lolium.
Darnel's case: celebrated case in the history of the liberty of English subjects. It contributed to the enactment of the Petition of Right. In March 1627, Sir Thomas Darnel-together with four other knights, Sir John Corbet, Sir Walter Earl, Sir Edmund Hampden, ...
Darnley, Henry Stewart, Lord: cousin and second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, father of King James I of Great Britain (James VI of Scotland), and direct ancestor of all subsequent British sovereigns.
Darqawa: brotherhood of Sufis (Muslim mystics) founded at the end of the 18th century by Mawlay al-'Arbi ad-Darqawi (c. 1737-1823) in Morocco. An offshoot of the Shadhili Sufis, the order brought together individuals of varied social class. Its doctrine is orthodox, ...
Darquier de Pellepoix, Louis: French politician who was notorious as an anti-Semite and collaborator with Nazi Germany.
Darracq, Alexandre: French automobile manufacturer, one of the first to plan mass production of motor vehicles.
Darragh, Lydia Barrington: American Revolutionary War heroine who is said to have saved General George Washington's army from a British attack.
Darriwilian Stage: division of geologic time of the Ordovician period in Australia and, to some extent, New Zealand (the Ordovician period lasted from 505 million to 438 million years ago). The Darriwilian is younger than the Yapeenian Stage but older than the ...
Darrow, Clarence: lawyer whose work as defense counsel in many dramatic criminal trials earned him a place in American legal history. He was also well-known as a public speaker, debater, and miscellaneous writer.
darshan: ("auspicious viewing"), in Hindu worship, the beholding of an auspicious deity, person, or object. The experience results in a blessing of the viewer. The rathayatras (car festivals), in which images of gods are taken in procession through the streets, enable ...
Dart, Raymond A.: Australian-born South African physical anthropologist and paleontologist whose discoveries of fossil hominins (members of the human lineage) led to significant insights into human evolution.
Dart, Thurston: English musicologist, harpsichordist, and conductor.
darter: any of about 100 species of small, slender freshwater fishes constituting the subfamily Etheostominae of the family Percidae (order Perciformes; sometimes given family standing as the Etheostomidae). All the darters are native to eastern North America. They live near the ...
Dartford: town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Kent, England. It lies along the south bank of the River Thames, just east of and adjoining the metropolitan area of Greater London. In ancient times it was a marketing centre. ...
Dartmoor: breed of pony about 12 hands (48 inches, or 122 cm) tall, hardy, and semiwild in its native Dartmoor, Devon, Eng. It is one of nine horse breeds native to the British Isles, and it is exported.
Dartmoor: wild upland area in the west of the county of Devon, southwestern England. It extends for about 23 miles (37 km) north-south and 20 miles (32 km) east-west. The moorland is bleak and desolate, and heather is the chief vegetation. ...
Dartmouth: city, Halifax county, south-central Nova Scotia, Canada. It lies on the eastern side of Halifax Harbour, opposite Halifax. The origin of the town's name is uncertain; it was named either for the town in England or for the 2nd Earl ...
Dartmouth: town (township), Bristol county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along Buzzards Bay, adjacent to New Bedford. The site, part of a land purchase made by William Bradford and Captain Myles Standish from the Wampanoag Indian chief Massasoit, was settled by ...
Dartmouth: town ("parish"), South Hams district, administrative and historic county of Devon, England. It lies along the English Channel and the west bank of the River Dart estuary. A yachting centre, it has boatbuilding, light engineering, and pottery industries. The castle ...
Dartmouth College: private, coeducational liberal arts college in Hanover, N.H., U.S., one of the Ivy League schools.
Dartmouth College case: U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court held that the charter of Dartmouth College granted in 1769 by King George III of England was a contract and, as such, could not be impaired by the New Hampshire legislature. The ...
Dartmouth, George Legge, 1st Baron: British admiral and commander in chief who is best known for his service during the reigns of Charles II and James II.
Dartmouth, William Legge, 2nd earl of, Viscount Lewisham, Baron Dartmouth of Dartmouth: British statesman who played a significant role in the events leading to the American Revolution.
darts: indoor target game played by throwing feathered darts at a circular board with numbered spaces. The game became popular in English inns and taverns in the 19th century and increasingly so in the 20th.
Daru, Pierre-Antoine, Comte: French military administrator and organizer during the Napoleonic period.
Darwin: capital and chief port of Northern Territory, Australia. It is situated on a low peninsula northeast of the entrance to its harbour, Port Darwin, a deep inlet of Clarence Strait of the Timor Sea. The harbour was found in 1839 ...
Darwin Rise: submarine topographic rise underlying a vast area of the western and central Pacific, corresponding in location to a large topographic rise that existed during the Mesozoic Era (65,000,000 to 225,000,000 years ago), and named in honour of Charles Darwin. The ...
Darwin's frog: (Rhinoderma darwinii), a small Argentinian and Chilean frog that is one of the few species in the family Rhinodermatidae. Charles Darwin discovered the frog on his world voyage.
Darwin, Charles: English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies. An affable country gentleman, Darwin at first shocked religious Victorian society by suggesting that animals and humans shared a common ancestry. However, his nonreligious ...
Darwin, Erasmus: prominent English physician, grandfather of the naturalist Charles Darwin and the biologist Francis Galton.
Darwin, Sir George: English astronomer who championed the theory that the Moon was once part of the Earth, until it was pulled free to form a satellite.
Darwinism: theory of the evolutionary mechanism propounded by Charles Darwin as an explanation of organic change. It denotes Darwin's specific view of how the process of evolution works.
Darya-e Nur: largest and finest diamond in the crown jewels of Iran. A pale-pink, tablet-shaped stone weighing about 185 carats, it is from Golconda, Andhra Pradesh, India. Inscribed on a rear facet is the name of Fath 'Ali Shah and the date ...
Das, Chitta Ranjan: politician and leader of the Swaraj (Independence) Party in Bengal under British rule.
dasa: member of an aboriginal people in India encountered and embattled by the invading Aryans (c. 1500 BC). They were described by the Aryans as a dark-skinned, harsh-spoken people who worshiped the phallus. This allusion has persuaded many scholars that worship ...
Dasam Granth: collection of writings attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last spiritual leader of the Sikhs, a religious group in India. Dasam Granth is a short title for Dasven Padsah ka Granth (Punjabi: "The Book of the Tenth Emperor ...
Dasgupta, S N: Hindu philosopher noted for his authoritative History of Indian Philosophy (5 vol., 1922-55). His philosophical system, developed from his studies of Eastern and Western thought, synthesized aspects of Vedantic literature, Indian Jainism (particularly its mysticism), British and U.S. Neorealism, and ...
Dashkova, Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova, Knyaginya: associate of Empress Catherine II the Great and a prominent patroness of the literary arts in 18th-century Russia.