Belgian administrator, legal scholar, and historian noted as the author of a monumental universal history and a series of comprehensive works on civil law.
mountains forming the Quebec portion of the Canadian Shield, particularly the area partially bounded by the Ottawa, St. Lawrence, and Saguenay rivers. It is one of the oldest mountain regions in the world and consists of Precambrian rocks (those more ...
submarine glacial trough in the eastern continental shelf of North America, the most impressive such feature on Earth. It extends from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River eastward through the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the edge of the ...
principal glacial cover of North America during the Pleistocene Epoch (1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago). At its maximum extent it spread as far south as latitude 37° N and covered an area of more than 13,000,000 square km (5,000,000 square ...
English Lawrence antipope in 498 and from 501 to about 505/507, whose disputed papal election gave his name to the Laurentian schism, a split in the Roman Catholic church.
Italian admiral in the service of Aragon and Sicily who won important naval victories over the French Angevins (house of Anjou) in the war between France and Aragon over the possession of Sicily in the 1280s.
northernmost of a chain of glacier-fed lakes in the Andes Mountains, central Peru, about 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Lima. It lies at an elevation of 12,615 feet (3,845 m). The Maranon River, the main stream of the Amazon ...
the first French-Canadian prime minister of the Dominion of Canada (1896-1911), noted especially for his attempts to define the role of French Canada in the federal state and to define Canada's relations to Great Britain. He was knighted in 1897.
industrial town of the nomos (department) of Attica, on the Aegean Sea, famous in antiquity for its silver mines. Its port, sheltered by Makronisos island, imports coal, loads ore, and handles coastal and insular shipping.
capital of Vaud canton, western Switzerland, on the northern shore of Lake Geneva (Lac Leman); built on the southern slopes of the Jorat heights, its altitude ranges from 1,240 ft (378 m) at Ouchy, its lake port, to 2,122 ft ...
(June-July 1932), conference that was held to liquidate the payment of reparations by Germany to the former Allied and Associated powers of World War I. Attended by representatives of the creditor powers (Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy) and of ...
(1923), final treaty concluding World War I. It was signed by representatives of Turkey (successor to the Ottoman Empire) on one side and by Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) on ...
island off the southeastern coast of Borneo, Kalimantan Selatan provinsi ("province"), Indonesia. Laut Island lies in the Makassar Strait, 105 miles (169 km) east of Banjarmasin city. It is 60 miles (100 km) long north to south and 20 miles ...
town, Bern canton, south-central Switzerland, in the Bernese Oberland, on the Lutschine River, south of Interlaken. The river valley is bounded by impressive cliffs of 1,000-1,500 feet (300-450 m) and is noted for its Alpine streams and waterfalls, from which ...
American chemist who, with English physicist Sir Peter Mansfield, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2003 for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a computerized scanning technology that produces images of internal body structures, especially those ...
city on the northwest coast of Viti Levu (island), Fiji, in the South Pacific. Situated on the dry side of the island, Lautoka (originally called Namoli) serves an important sugarcane-growing district and is Fiji's leading sugar export port. Large mills ...
French military officer who was imprisoned by King Louis XIV to prevent him from marrying the Duchesse de Montpensier (known as La Grande Mademoiselle), the wealthiest heiress in Europe.
magma (molten rock) emerging as a liquid onto the Earth's surface. The term lava is also used for the solidified rock formed by the cooling of a molten lava flow. The temperatures of molten lava range from about 700 to ...
region of recent lava flows and related volcanic formations, including deep chasms, cinder cones that rise to 300 ft (90 m) from the lava, and chimneys, in northern California, U.S., south of the city of Tule Lake.The main battle sites ...
cave or cavity formed as a result of surface solidification of a lava flow during the last stages of its activity. A frozen crust may form over still mobile and actively flowing liquid rock as a result of surface cooling. ...
city, seat of Laval region, southern Quebec province, Canada. It occupies the whole of Ile Jesus (Jesus Island), just north of Ile de Montreal from which it is separated to the south by the Riviere des Prairies and from the ...
town, capital of Mayenne departement, Pays de la Loire region, northwestern France, east of Rennes. The old quarters of the town, which have fine 16th- and 18th-century houses and two chateaus, are located on the west bank slopes of the ...
a French-language university located on the outskirts of the city of Quebec. Laval's predecessor institution, the Seminary of Quebec, considered the first Canadian institution of higher learning, was founded by Francois de Montmorency Laval, first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec, ...
French politician and statesman who led the Vichy government in policies of collaboration with Germany during World War II, for which he was ultimately executed as a traitor to France.
ornament hung from a chain worn around the neck. The lavaliere, which came into fashion in the 17th century, was usually a small, jewelled gold locket, though it could also be an enamelled locket or pendant.
departamento, southeastern Uruguay. It was named for Juan Antonio Lavalleja, a hero of Uruguay's struggle for independence. The department contains some of the most rugged areas of Uruguay, including the hills of the Grande Range (Cuchilla Grande). ...
French philosopher recognized as a forerunner of the psychometaphysic movement, which teaches that self-actualization and ultimate freedom develop from seeking one's "inward" being and relating it to the Absolute. Much of his thought drew upon the writings of Nicolas Malebranche ...
any plant of the genus Lavandula, comprising about 20 species of the mint family Labiatae, native to countries bordering on the Mediterranean. English lavender (L. officinalis, L. spica, or L. vera) is cultivated widely for its essential oil and for ...
any member of the genus Porphyra, a group of marine red algae. The thallus, a sheet of cells embedded in a thin gelatinous mass, varies in colour from deep brown or red to pink; sexual reproductive structures are at the ...
outstanding Australian tennis player, the second male player in the history of the game (after Don Budge in 1938) to win the four major singles championships-Australia, France, Great Britain (Wimbledon), and the United States-in one year (1962) and the first ...
French physician, pathologist, and parasitologist who discovered the parasite that causes human malaria. For this and later work on protozoal diseases he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1907.
cardinal and archbishop of Algiers and Carthage (now Tunis, Tunisia) whose dream to convert Africa to Christianity prompted him to found the Society of Missionaries of Africa, or White Fathers.
Italy, an ancient town of Latium, 19 miles (30 kilometres) south of Rome, regarded as the religious centre of the early Latin peoples. Roman tradition maintained that it had been founded by Aeneas and his followers from Troy and named ...
prominent French chemist and leading figure in the 18th-century chemical revolution who developed an experimentally based theory of the chemical reactivity of oxygen and coauthored the modern system for naming chemical substances. Having also served as a leading financier and ...
Israeli politician who held a number of government posts and was accused in 1954 of involvement in a plot to discredit Egypt by secretly attacking U.S. facilities in that country. Although he was cleared of all charges, the "Lavon Affair," ...
Russian Socialist philosopher whose sociological thought provided a theoretical foundation for the activities of various Russian revolutionary organizations during the second half of the 19th century.
the discipline and profession concerned with the customs, practices, and rules of conduct of a community that are recognized as binding by the community. Enforcement of the body of rules is through a controlling authority.
a more or less systematic and comprehensive written statement of laws. Law codes were compiled by the most ancient peoples. The oldest extant evidence for a code is tablets from the ancient archives of the city of Ebla (now at ...
during the Middle Ages, the body of customary rules and principles relating to merchants and mercantile transactions and adopted by traders themselves for the purpose of regulating their dealings. Initially, it was administered for the most part in special quasi-judicial ...
in statistics, the theorem that, as the number of identically distributed, randomly generated variables increases, their sample mean (average) approaches their theoretical mean.
in common law, published record of a judicial decision that is cited by lawyers and judges for their use as precedent in subsequent cases. The report of a decision ordinarily contains the title of the case, a statement of the ...
prime minister of Great Britain from Oct. 23, 1922, to May 20, 1923, the first holder of that office to come from a British overseas possession. He was the leader of the Conservative Party during the periods 1911-21 and 1922-23.
