Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Leonard, Benny ... lepidolite

Leonard, Benny: American world lightweight (135-lb [61.2-kg]) boxing champion from May 28, 1917, when he knocked out Freddy Welsh in nine rounds in New York City, until Jan. 15, 1925, when he retired. He is regarded as one of the cleverest defensive ...
Leonard, Buck: American baseball player who was considered one of the best first basemen in the Negro leagues. He was among the first Negro leaguers to receive election into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Leonard, Elmore: American author of popular crime novels known for his use of local colour and his uncanny ear for realistic dialogue.
Leonard, Sugar Ray: American boxer, known for his agility and finesse, who won 36 of 39 professional matches and several national titles. As an amateur, he took an Olympic gold medal in the light-welterweight class at the 1976 Games in Montreal.
Leonardi, Piero: Italian geologist and prehistorian, known for his research on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Triassic invertebrates (from 190,000,000 to 225,000,000 years ago) and the Permian vertebrates (from 225,000,000 to 280,000,000 years ago).
Leonardian Stage: post-Wolfcampian time of deposition of the Lower Permian Series of rock strata in the United States, especially well-developed in the Southwest (the Permian Period began about 280,000,000 years ago and lasted about 55,000,000 years). The Leonardian is defined on the ...
Leonardo da Vinci: Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495-98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503-06) are among the ...
Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology: in Milan, museum devoted to the evolution of science since the 15th century, including transport, metallurgy, physics, and navigation. It is housed in the old Olivetan convent of San Vittore, which dates from the early 16th century. The building has ...
Leonardo Pisano: medieval Italian mathematician who wrote Liber abaci (1202; "Book of the Abacus"), the first European work on Indian and Arabian mathematics.
Leoncavallo, Ruggero: Neapolitan opera composer whose fame rests on the opera Pagliacci, which, with Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana (1890), represented a reaction against Richard Wagner and against Romantic Italian opera; both works substituted for the quasi-historical plot a sensational story from everyday ...
Leone, Sergio: motion-picture director known primarily for his popularization of the Italian "spaghetti western."
Leoni, Leone: Florentine sculptor, goldsmith, and medalist who had significant influence on Spanish sculpture.
Leoni, Pompeo: Italian late Renaissance sculptor and medalist who, like his father, Leone, was known for his expressive sculpture portraits.
Leonidas: Spartan king whose stand against the invading Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae in central Greece is one of the enduring tales of Greek heroism, invoked throughout Western history as the epitome of bravery exhibited against overwhelming odds.
Leonidas Of Tarentum: Greek poet more important for his influence on the later Greek epigram than for his own poems.
Leonidov, Leonid Mironovich: Russian actor, director, and teacher who represented in his work and teaching the precepts of Konstantin Stanislavsky.
Leonin: leading liturgical composer of his generation, associated with the Notre Dame, or Parisian, school of composition.
leonine verse: Latin or French verse in which the last word in the line rhymes with the word just before the caesura (as in "gloria factorum temere conceditus horum"). Such rhymes were already referred to as rime leonine in the anonymous 12th-century ...
Leonov, Aleksey Arkhipovich: Soviet cosmonaut, the first man to climb out of a spacecraft in space.
Leonov, Leonid Maksimovich: Russian novelist and playwright who was admired for the intricate structure of his best narratives and for his ability to convey the complex moral and spiritual dilemmas faced by his characters. His multilayered, psychological approach was strongly influenced by-and often ...
Leonowens, Anna Harriette: nee Crawford British writer and governess employed by King Mongkut (Rama IV) of Siam for the instruction of his children, including his son and successor, Prince Chulalongkorn.
Leontief, Wassily: Russian-born American economist who has been called the father of input-output analysis in econometrics and who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1973.
Leontini: ancient Greek town of southeastern Sicily, 22 miles northwest of Syracuse. Originally held by the Sicels (Siculi), its command of the fertile plain on the north made it an attractive site to the Chalcidians from Naxos, who colonized it in ...
Leontius Of Byzantium: Byzantine monk and theologian who provided a breakthrough of terminology in the 6th-century Christological controversy over the mode of union of Christ's human nature with his divinity. He did so through his introduction of Aristotelian logical categories and Neoplatonic psychology ...
Leontyev, Konstantin Nikolayevich: Russian essayist who questioned the benefits derived by Russia from following contemporary industrial and egalitarian developments in Europe.
leopard: (Panthera pardus), large cat closely related to the lion, tiger, and jaguar. The name leopard was originally given to the cat now called cheetah-the so-called hunting leopard-which was once thought to ...
leopard cat: (Felis bengalensis), forest-dwelling cat, family Felidae, found in India and Southeast Asia and noted for its leopard-like colouring. The coat of the leopard cat is usually yellowish or reddish brown above, white below, and heavily marked with dark spots and ...
leopard frog: (Rana pipiens), North American frog (family Ranidae) often used in laboratories and, for teaching purposes, in schools. It is a common frog found in the United States and Canada, and it frequents a variety of habitats, including marshes, meadows, and ...
leopard lizard: any member of the species Gambelia (or Crotaphytus) wislizeni in the lizard family Iguanidae. These large, spotted lizards are inhabitants of arid and semi-arid areas in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
leopard moth: (Zeuzera pyrina), widely distributed insect of the family Cossidae (order Lepidoptera), known particularly for its destructive larva.
leopard seal: (Hydrurga leptonyx), generally solitary, earless seal (family Phocidae) that inhabits Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions. The only seal that feeds on penguins, young seals, and other warm-blooded prey, the leopard seal is a slender animal with a relatively long head and ...
leopard shark: (Triakis semifasciata), small shark of the family Triakidae found in shallow water along the Pacific coast of the United States. A slim, narrow-headed shark with small, three-cusped teeth, it grows about 90 to 150 centimetres (3 to 5 feet) long. ...
leopard's bane: any plant of the genus Doronicum of the family Asteraceae, consisting of about 20 to 30 species of perennial herbs native to Eurasia. They have large flower heads with yellow disk flowers and one row of yellow ray flowers.
Leopardi, Giacomo: Italian poet, scholar, and philosopher whose outstanding scholarly and philosophical works and superb lyric poetry place him among the great writers of the 19th century.
Leopold I: prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian field marshal and reformer, inventor of the iron ramrod and responsible for the introduction of the modern bayonet; he founded the old Prussian military system that, generally unchanged until 1806, enabled Frederick II the Great to ...
Leopold I: Holy Roman emperor during whose lengthy reign (1658-1705) Austria emerged from a series of struggles with the Turks and the French to become a great European power, in which monarchical absolutism and administrative centralism gained ascendancy.
Leopold I: first king of the Belgians (1831-65), who helped strengthen the nation's new parliamentary system and, as a leading figure in European diplomacy, scrupulously maintained Belgian neutrality.
Leopold II: Holy Roman emperor from 1790 to 1792, one of the most capable of the 18th-century reformist rulers known as the "enlightened despots."
Leopold II: king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909; he led the first European efforts to develop the Congo River basin, making possible the formation of the Congo Free State in 1885, annexed in 1908 as the Belgian Congo (now Congo ...
Leopold II: last reigning grand duke of Tuscany (ruled 1824-59).
Leopold II, Lake: (Africa): see Mai-Ndombe, Lake.
Leopold III: king of the Belgians whose actions as commander in chief of the Belgian Army during the German conquest of Belgium (1940) in World War II aroused opposition to his rule, eventually leading to his abdication in 1951.
Leopold, Carl Gustaf af: Swedish court poet in the service of the enlightened monarch Gustav III.
Leopold, Jan Hendrik: poet whose unique expression and masterly technique set him apart from other heirs to the Dutch literary renaissance of the 1880s. His poetry is often wistful and melancholy in mood, conveying a desolating solitude of spirit that was probably accentuated ...
Leopold, Nathan F, Jr.; and Loeb, Richard A.: two celebrated Chicago murderers of 1924, who confessed to the kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Robert ("Bobbie") Franks for an "intellectual" thrill. Pleading guilty, they were defended in a bench trial by famed lawyer Clarence Darrow, who secured them life ...
Leotychides: Spartan king of the Eurypontid family and a successful military commander during the Greco-Persian wars.
Leovigild: the last Arian ruler in Visigothic Spain, who did much to restore the extent and power of the Visigothic kingdom.
Lepanto, Battle of: (Oct. 7, 1571), naval engagement between allied Christian forces and the Ottoman Turks during an Ottoman campaign to acquire the Venetian island of Cyprus. Seeking to drive Venice from the eastern Mediterranean, the forces of Sultan Selim II invaded Cyprus ...
Lepcha: people of eastern Nepal, western Bhutan, Sikkim state, and the Darjeeling district of West Bengal in India. They number about 46,000 (11,000 in India; 25,000 in Sikkim; and 10,000 in Bhutan). They are thought to be the earliest inhabitants of ...
Lepidodendron: one of the most commonly encountered genera of extinct treelike club mosses, order Lepidodendrales, class (or subdivision) Lycopsida. Some of its species, prominent during the Late Carboniferous Period (ending 286 million years ago), exceeded 30 metres (100 feet) and 1 ...
lepidolite: the most common lithium mineral, basic potassium and lithium aluminosilicate; a member of the common mica group. It is economically important as a major source of lithium. Because it is one of the few minerals containing appreciable amounts of rubidium, ...