Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Fort Stanwix, Treaties of ... Foster, Harold Rudolf

Fort Stanwix, Treaties of: (1768, 1784), cession by the Iroquois Confederacy of land in what are now western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New York, opening vast tracts of territory west of the Appalachian Mountains to white exploitation and settlement. Soon after the Proclamation ...
Fort Sumter National Monument: historic site preserving Fort Sumter, location of the first engagement of the American Civil War (April 12, 1861). The fort is situated on a man-made island at the entrance to the harbour of Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. Construction of the ...
Fort Union National Monument: site of three successive forts built (1851-63) by the U.S. Army near Watrous, N.M., about 60 miles (97 km) east-northeast of Santa Fe. The fort, at a junction of two branches of the Santa Fe Trail, was an important supply ...
Fort Valley: city, seat (1924) of Peach county, central Georgia, U.S., about 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Macon. Settled about 1820, the community developed after the railroad arrived in 1851 as a shipping and canning centre for an extensive peach-growing area. ...
Fort Valley State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Fort Valley, Georgia, U.S. It is a historically black university, part of the University System of Georgia, and a land-grant college; its enrollment remains predominantly African American. The university comprises colleges of agriculture, ...
Fort Walton Beach: city, Okaloosa county, northwestern Florida, U.S. It lies at the western end of Choctawhatchee Bay (an arm of the Gulf of Mexico), on Santa Rosa Sound (separated from the gulf by Santa Rosa Island), about 40 miles (65 km) east ...
Fort Wayne: city, seat (1824) of Allen county, northeastern Indiana, U.S., at the confluence of the St. Marys and St. Joseph rivers where they form the Maumee River, 121 miles (195 km) northeast of Indianapolis. The waters, spanned by 21 bridges, divide ...
Fort William: town, Ontario, Can., that merged with the town of Port Arthur in 1970 to form the city of Thunder Bay (q.v.).
Fort William: small burgh (town) in the Highland council area, historic county of Inverness-shire, western Scotland. It lies at the northeastern end of Loch Linnhe and at the foot of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain. The original fort was built in 1654 ...
Fort Worth: city, seat of Tarrant county, north-central Texas, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River and constitutes the western portion of the Dallas-Fort Worth urban area, known locally as the Metroplex. Dallas ...
Fort Worth Zoological Park: municipally owned zoo in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. Established in 1909, the 76-acre (31-hectare) zoo is managed by the Fort Worth Zoological Association and exhibits more than 5,000 specimens of some 500 species. The zoo's herpetarium has a large collection ...
Fort, Paul: French poet and innovator of literary experiments, usually associated with the Symbolist movement.
Fort-de-France: capital of the French overseas departement of Martinique, French West Indies. It lies on the island's west coast at the northern entrance to the large Fort-de-France Bay, at the mouth of the Madame River. The city occupies a narrow plain ...
Fort-Rupert: village and trading post in Nord-du-Quebec region, western Quebec province, Canada, on James Bay, at the mouth of the Rupert River. Founded in 1668 as the first Hudson's Bay Company post by the Medart Chouart, sieur de Groseilliers, it was ...
Fortaleza: port city and capital, Ceara estado (state), northeastern Brazil. The city lies at the mouth of the Pajeu River on a crescent-shaped indentation of the coastline. It originated as a small village adjoining a Portuguese fort (built ...
Fortas, Abe: lawyer and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1965-69). Nominated chief justice in 1968, he became the first nominee for that post since 1795 to fail to receive Senate approval. The following year he became the first Supreme ...
Fortes, Meyer: British social anthropologist known for his investigations of West African societies.
Fortescue, Sir John: jurist, notable for a legal treatise, De laudibus legum Angliae (c. 1470; "In Praise of the Laws of England"), written for the instruction of Edward, prince of Wales, son of the deposed king Henry VI of England. He also stated ...
Forth Bridge: railway bridge over the Firth of Forth, the estuary of the River Forth in Scotland. It was one of the first cantilever bridges and for several years was the world's longest span. Designed and built by Benjamin Baker in the ...
Forth River: river in northern Tasmania, Australia, rising in the lakes district near Mount Pelion West in the Central Plateau. Fed by its principal tributaries, the Dove and Wilmot, it flows 60 miles (95 km) north to Port Fenton, its estuarine mouth ...
Forth, Patrick Ruthven, Earl of, Earl Of Brentford, Lord Ruthven Of Ettrick: supreme commander of the Royalist forces of Charles I during the early phases of the English Civil Wars.
Forth, River: river and estuary in eastern Scotland, flowing from west to east from its headwaters on the eastern slopes of Ben Lomond to the Firth of Forth (the estuary), near Kincardine. The river has a short highland section and a longer ...
fortification: in military science, any work erected to strengthen a position against attack. Fortifications are usually of two types: permanent and field. Permanent fortifications include elaborate forts and troop shelters and are most often erected in times of peace or upon ...
Fortis, Alessandro: statesman, of strong republican views during the Risorgimento, the 19th-century unification of Italy. Later, under the monarchy, he held several governmental posts, including that of premier (1905-06).
Fortner, Wolfgang: progressive composer and influential music teacher in Germany.
Fortnum & Mason: in London, department store famous for the variety and high quality of its food products. It is located on Piccadilly (avenue) in the borough of Westminster. The store began as a grocery shop in 1707, and by the late 18th ...
Fortuna: in Roman religion, goddess of chance or lot who became identified with the Greek Tyche; the original Italian deity was probably regarded as the bearer of prosperity and increase. As such she resembles a fertility deity, hence her association with ...
Fortunatus, Venantius: poet and bishop of Poitiers, whose Latin poems and hymns combine echoes of classical Latin poets with a medieval tone, making him an important transitional figure between the ancient and medieval periods.
Fortune Theatre: Elizabethan public playhouse on the northern edge of London, built in 1600 by Philip Henslowe to compete with the newly constructed Globe Theatre. Named after the goddess of fortune, whose statue stood over the front doorway, the Fortune resembled the ...
Fortune, T. Thomas: the leading black American journalist of the late 19th century.
fortune-telling: the forecasting of future events or the delineation of character by methods not ordinarily considered to have a rational basis. Evidence indicates that forms of fortune-telling were practiced in ancient China, Egypt, Chaldea, and Babylonia as long ago as 4000 ...
Fortuny, Mariano: Spanish painter whose vigorous technique and anecdotal themes won him a considerable audience in the mid-19th century.
Fortuny, Mariano: painter, inventor, photographer, and fashion designer best known for his dress and textile designs.
Forty Martyrs of England and Wales: group of Roman Catholic martyrs executed by English authorities during the Reformation, most during the reign of Elizabeth I. An act of Parliament in 1571 made it high treason to question the queen's title as head of the Church of ...
forum: in Roman cities in antiquity, multipurpose, centrally located open area that was surrounded by public buildings and colonnades and that served as a public gathering place. It was an orderly spatial adaptation of the Greek agora, or marketplace, and acropolis. ...
Fosbury, Dick: American high jumper who revolutionized the sport by replacing the traditional approach to jumping with an innovative backward style that became known as the "Fosbury flop."
Foscari, Francesco: doge of Venice who led the city in a long and ruinous series of wars against Milan. His life story is the subject of the tragedy The Two Foscari by Lord Byron and of an opera by Giuseppe Verdi.
Foscolo, Ugo: poet and novelist whose works articulate the feelings of many Italians during the turbulent epoch of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the restoration of Austrian rule; they rank among the masterpieces of Italian literature.
Fosdick, Harry Emerson: liberal Protestant minister, teacher, and author, who was pastor of the interdenominational Riverside Church in New York City (1926-46), preacher on the National Vespers nationwide radio program (1926-46), and a central figure in the Protestant liberal-fundamentalist controversies during the 1920s. ...
Foss, Lukas: German-born U.S. composer, pianist, and conductor, widely recognized for his experiments with improvisation and aleatoric (chance) music.
fossa: (Cryptoprocta ferox), largest carnivore native to Madagascar, a catlike forest dweller of the civet family, Viverridae. The fossa grows to a length of about 1.5 metres (5 feet), including a tail about 66 centimetres (26 inches) long, and has short ...
Fossano: town, Cuneo province, Piemonte (Piedmont) region, northern Italy, northeast of Cuneo (city). Fossano is the site of a 14th-century four-sided castle, which belonged to the princes of Acaia; its hospital and the Trinity Church were designed by Francesco Gallo in ...
Fosse Way: major Roman road that traversed Britain from southwest to northeast. It ran from the mouth of the River Axe in Devon by Axminster and Ilchester (Lindinae) to Bath (Aquae Sulis) and Cirencester, thence straight for 60 miles (100 km) to ...
Fosse, Bob: American theatre and motion-picture choreographer and director of musical plays.
Fossett, Steve: American businessman and adventurer, who set a number of world records, most notably in aviation and sailing. In 2002 he became the first balloonist to circumnavigate the world alone, and in 2005 he completed the first nonstop, solo global flight ...
Fossey, Dian: American zoologist who became the world's leading authority on the mountain gorilla.
fossil: remnant, impression, or trace of an animal or plant of a past geologic age that has been preserved in the Earth's crust. The complex of data recorded in fossils worldwide, known as the fossil record, is the primary source of ...
fossil fuel: any of a class of materials of biological origin occurring within the Earth's crust that can be used as a source of energy.
Foster, Abigail Kelley: American feminist, abolitionist, and lecturer who is remembered as an impassioned speaker for radical reform.
Foster, Hannah Webster: American novelist whose single successful novel, though highly sentimental, broke with some of the conventions of its time and type.
Foster, Harold Rudolf: Canadian-born cartoonist and creator of "Prince Valiant," a comic strip notable for its fine drawing and authentic historical detail.