Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Heiden, Eric ... Helen

Heiden, Eric: American athlete who at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, U.S., became the first skater to win gold medals in all speed-skating events (500, 1,000, 1,500, 5,000, and 10,000 metres). His performance included a world record ...
Heidenheim: city, Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany, on the Brenz River in the eastern Swabian Alps. The site of a Roman settlement, it was chartered in 1356. It is overlooked by the ruined castle of Hellenstein (with a museum) standing on ...
Heidenstam, Verner von: poet and prose writer who led the literary reaction to the Naturalist movement in Sweden, calling for a renaissance of the literature of fantasy, beauty, and national themes. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1916.
Heifetz, Jascha: Russian-born American violinist noted for his conscientious musical interpretation, his smooth tone, and his technical proficiency. His name became associated with musical perfection.
Height, Dorothy: American civil and women's rights activist, a widely respected and influential leader of organizations focused primarily on improving the circumstances of and opportunities for African-American women.
Heijermans, Herman: Dutch author and playwright, both naturalistic and didactic, who in his work attacked all aspects of bourgeois hypocrisy.
Heikal, Muhammad Hassanein: leading Egyptian journalist who gained fame as the editor in chief of Al-Ahram, the semiofficial Egyptian newspaper. During his tenure (1957-74) Al-Ahram was called the New York Times of the Arab world, partly because of the editor's weekly analytical pieces, ...
Heike monogatari: medieval Japanese heroic epic, which is to Japanese literature what the Iliad is to Western literature, a prolific source of later dramas, ballads, and tales. It stems from unwritten traditional tales and variant texts composed between 1190 and 1221, which ...
Heilbronn: city, Baden-Wurttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies along the Neckar River and is surrounded by vineyards and the Swabian Forest. Built on the site of an old Roman settlement, it was first mentioned in 741, and ...
Heilbrun, Carolyn: American scholar and feminist literary critic who became known for the mystery stories she published under a pseudonym.
Heilungkiang: the northernmost sheng (province) of China's Northeast region. It is bounded on the north and east by Russia along the Amur River (Hei-lung Chiang) and the Ussuri (Wu-su-li) River, on the south by the Chinese province of Kirin, and on ...
Heim, Albert: Swiss geologist whose studies of the Swiss Alps greatly advanced knowledge of the dynamics of mountain building and of glacial effects on topography and geology.
Heimdall: in Norse mythology, the watchman of the gods. Called the shining god and whitest skinned of the gods, Heimdall dwelt at the entry to Asgard, where he guarded Bifrost, the rainbow bridge. He required less sleep than a bird, could ...
Heimlich maneuver: emergency procedure that is used to dislodge foreign bodies from the throats of choking victims. In the early 1970s, the American surgeon Henry J. Heimlich observed that food and other objects causing choking were not freed by the recommended technique ...
Heimskringla: (c. 1220; "Orb of the World"), collection of sagas of the early Norwegian kings, written by the Icelandic poet-chieftain Snorri Sturluson. It is distinguished by Snorri's classical objectivity, realistic psychology, and historically feasible (if not always accurate) depiction of cause ...
Heimwehr: (German: Home Defense Force), any of the local organizations formed in various parts of Austria to expel invading Yugoslavs or preserve order immediately after World War I. Composed of conservative-minded country dwellers, the Heimwehr came to represent much of the ...
Heine, Heinrich: German poet whose international literary reputation and influence were established by the Buch der Lieder (1827; The Book of Songs), frequently set to music, though the more sombre poems of his last years are also highly regarded.
Heinemann, Barbara: French-born U.S. spiritual leader of the Community of True Inspiration, also known as the Amana Colony.
Heinemann, William: English publisher whose firm published outstanding contemporary fiction and drama, introduced translations of important works of European literature to Great Britain, and produced inexpensive translations of classical Greek and Roman texts.
Heinesen, William: Faroese writer of Danish-language poetry and fiction in which he used his remote North Atlantic homeland as a microcosmic setting for universal social, psychological, and cosmic themes.
Heinicke, Samuel: German advocate for and teacher of oralism (one of many early communication methods devised for use by hearing-impaired individuals) in the education of the deaf.
Heinkel, Ernst Heinrich: German designer and builder of the first rocket-powered aircraft shortly before the outbreak of World War II.
Heinlein, Robert A: prolific American writer considered to be one of the most literary and sophisticated of science-fiction writers. He did much to develop the genre.
Heinrich Julius: duke of Brunswick, a representative of early Baroque culture who was important in the development of German drama. His work incorporated the theatrical effect of English Elizabethan drama and the English clown, or fool, into German theatre.
Heinrich Von Melk: early Middle High German poet, the first satirist in German literature.
Heinrich Von Morungen: German minnesinger, one of the few notable courtly poets from east-central Germany.
Heinrich Von Veldeke: Middle High German poet of noble birth whose Eneit, telling the story of Aeneas, was the first German court epic to attain an artistic mastery worthy of its elevated subject matter.
Heinse, Wilhelm: German novelist and art critic whose work combined grace with the stormy fervour that is characteristic of literature of the Sturm und Drang period and exerted a strong influence on the Romanticists.
Heinsius, Anthonie: statesman who as councillor pensionary of Holland (1689-1720) and the leading Dutch adviser of William III, prince of Orange, guided the Dutch Republic's campaigns against France in the War of the Grand Alliance (1687-97) and the War of the Spanish ...
Heinsius, Daniel: Dutch poet, famous in his day as a classical scholar.
Heinz Company: major U.S. manufacturer of processed foods, which are distributed throughout the world. The company's "57 Varieties" slogan was devised in 1896; today the company markets several hundred products. Its headquarters are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
heir: one who succeeds to the property of a person dying without a will or who is legally entitled to succeed by right of descent or relationship. In most jurisdictions, statutes of descent determine transfer of title to property if there ...
heirloom: an item of personal property that by immemorial usage is regarded as annexed by inheritance to a family estate. The owner of such an heirloom may dispose of it during his lifetime, but he cannot bequeath it by will away ...
Heisenberg, Werner: German physicist and philosopher who discovered a way to formulate quantum mechanics in terms of matrices (1925). For that discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for 1932. In 1927 he published his indeterminacy, or uncertainty, principle, upon ...
Heisman Trophy: cup awarded annually to the outstanding college gridiron football player in the United States as determined by a poll of sportswriters. The trophy was instituted in 1935 by the Downtown Athletic Club of New York City and the next year ...
Heisman, John: U.S. collegiate gridiron football coach for 36 years and one of the greatest innovators of the game. He was responsible for legalizing the forward pass in 1906, and he originated the centre snap and the "hike," or "hep," count signals ...
Heiss, Carol: American figure skater who from 1956 through 1960 dominated women's competition.
Hejaz: region of western Saudi Arabia, along the mountainous Red Sea coast of the Arabian Peninsula from Jordan on the north to Asir region on the south. The northern part of the province was occupied as early as the 6th century ...
Hejaz Railway: railroad between Damascus, Syria, and Medina (now in Saudi Arabia), one of the principal railroads of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
heka: in ancient Egyptian religion, the personification of one of the attributes of the sun god Re; the term is usually translated as "magic," or "magical power," though its exact meaning remains obscure. Heka was believed to accompany Re in his ...
Hekinan: city, southwestern Aichi ken (prefecture), central Honshu, Japan. It is located at the mouth of the Yahagi River, facing Chita Bay. The city was formed in 1948 by the merger of the towns of Ohama, Shinkawa, and ...
Hekla: active volcano, southern Iceland. It is the country's best-known volcano. Hekla stands 4,892 ft (1,491 m) above sea level 70 mi (110 km) east of Reykjavik, the capital, at the eastern end of the island's most extensive farming region. Known ...
Hektorovic, Petar: poet and collector of Dalmatian songs, an important figure in the Ragusan (Dubrovnik) Renaissance in South Slavic literature.
Hel: in Norse mythology, originally the name of the world of the dead; it later came to mean the goddess of death. Hel was one of the children of the trickster god Loki, and her kingdom was said to lie downward ...
HeLa cell: a cancerous cell belonging to a strain continuously cultured since its isolation in 1951 from a patient suffering from uterine cervical carcinoma. The designation HeLa is derived from the name of the patient. HeLa cells have been widely used in ...
Held, John, Jr.: cartoonist whose work epitomized the "jazz age" of the 1920s in the United States.
Heldenbuch, Das: collection of German metrical romances of the 13th century. The individual poems deal with heroic themes of the struggles and conquests of the Germanic tribes during the great migrations. The poems of the Heldenbuch belong to two cycles. One group ...
Heldenlieder: body of short, poignant poetic songs celebrating dramatic, and usually tragic, episodes in the lives of the Germanic heroes. Other themes concerned pagan religious ritual, battle songs, and laments for the dead. The heroic lay originated c. 375-500, during the ...
Helder, Den: gemeente (municipality) and port, Noord-Holland provincie, northwestern Netherlands, at the northern end of the North Holland Canal, opposite Texel Island on the Marsdiep, a channel linking the North Sea and Waddenzee. Offshore, in 1673, a Dutch fleet under Adm. Michiel ...
Helderbergian Stage: lowermost division of Lower Devonian rocks and Early Devonian time in North America (the Devonian Period began about 408 million years ago and lasted about 48 million years). It precedes the Deerparkian Stage and was named for exposures studied in ...
Helen: in Greek legend, the most beautiful woman of Greece and the indirect cause of the Trojan War. She was daughter of Zeus, either by Leda or by Nemesis, and sister of the Dioscuri. She was also the sister of Clytemnestra, ...