Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Marche ... Margaret of Anjou

Marche: region in central Italy fronting on the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provinces of Ancona, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, and Pesaro e Urbino; it has a total area of 3,742 square miles (9,692 square km). A region of mountains and hills, ...
Marchen: folktale characterized by elements of magic or the supernatural, such as the endowment of a mortal character with magical powers or special knowledge; variations expose the hero to supernatural beings or objects. The German term Marchen, used universally by folklorists, ...
Marchena Island: one of the smaller (area 45 sq mi [117 sq km]) of the Galapagos Islands, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 600 mi (965 km) west of Ecuador. Called Bindloe in the 17th century by English pirates in honour of a ...
Marchesi de Castrone, Mathilde: operatic soprano whose teaching transmitted the 18th-century bel canto style of singing to the 20th century.
Marcian: Eastern Roman emperor from 450 to 457, the last ruler of the dynasty begun by the emperor Theodosius I (died 395). His relatively peaceful reign, which was later viewed as a golden age in the Eastern Roman Empire, provided a ...
Marciano, Rocky: world heavyweight boxing champion from Sept. 23, 1952, when he knocked out champion Jersey Joe Walcott in 13 rounds in Philadelphia, to April 27, 1956, when he retired from the ring. Marciano was undefeated in 49 professional fights, scoring 43 ...
Marcionite: any member of a Gnostic sect that flourished in the 2nd century AD. The name derives from Marcion of Asia Minor who, sometime after his arrival in Rome, fell under the influence of Cerdo, a Gnostic Christian, whose stormy relations ...
Marcks, Gerhard: German sculptor, printmaker, and designer who helped to revive the art of sculpture in Germany during the first quarter of the 20th century.
Marco Polo Bridge Incident: (July 7, 1937), conflict between Chinese and Japanese troops near the Marco Polo Bridge outside of Pei-p'ing (now Beijing), which developed into the warfare between the two countries that was the prelude to the Pacific side of World War II.
Marcomanni: ; they were members of the Suebi group (see Suebi). To escape Roman aggression in 9 BC they migrated east to Bohemia, where under their king Maroboduus they built a powerful confederation of tribes. The kingdom broke up after a ...
Marconi, Guglielmo: Italian physicist and inventor of a successful wireless telegraph (1896). In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics, which he shared with German physicist Ferdinand Braun. He later worked on the development of shortwave wireless communication, which constitutes the ...
Marcos, Ferdinand E.: Philippine lawyer and politician who, as head of state from 1966 to 1986, established an authoritarian regime in the Philippines that came under criticism for corruption and for its suppression of democratic processes.
Marcus Aurelius: Roman emperor (AD 161-180), best known for his Meditations on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius has symbolized for many generations in the West the Golden Age of the Roman Empire.
Marcus, Rudolph A.: Canadian-born American chemist, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on the theory of electron-transfer reactions in chemical systems. The Marcus theory shed light on diverse and fundamental phenomena such as photosynthesis, cell metabolism, and simple ...
Marcus, Siegfried: inventor who built four of the world's earliest gasoline-powered automobiles.
Marcus, Stanley: American retail-store executive whose publicity campaigns gave the Neiman Marcus stores a reputation for luxury and fashion.
Marcuse, Herbert: German-born American political philosopher and prominent member of the Frankfurt School of critical social analysis, whose Marxist and Freudian theories of 20th-century Western society were influential in the leftist student movements of the 1960s, especially after the 1968 student rebellions ...
Marcy, Mount: peak in the Adirondack Mountains and the highest point in New York, U.S., reaching an elevation of 5,344 feet (1,629 metres) above sea level. It lies in west-central Essex county in the northeastern part of the state, about 12 miles ...
Marcy, William L: U.S. politician, governor, and Cabinet member, remembered primarily for his remark: "To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy."
Mardaite: member of a Christian people of northern Syria, employed as soldiers by Byzantine emperors. The Mardaites inhabited the Amanus (Gavur) Mountains, in the modern Turkish province of Hatay, the 7th-century borderland between Byzantine and Muslim territory. In the period 660-680, ...
Mardalsfossen: waterfall at the head of Eikesdalsvatnet (lake), east-southeast of Andalsnes, Nor. It consists of two cataracts in Mardola district of More og Romsdal fylke (county), western Norway. The falls rank among the highest in the world, with their total drop ...
Mardersteig, Giovanni: printer and typographer who, as head of Officina Bodoni, created books exemplifying the highest standards in the art of printing.
Mardi Gras: (French: Fat Tuesday), festive day celebrated in France on the Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday; q.v.) before Ash Wednesday, which marks the close of the pre-Lenten season. In the United States the festival is most elaborately celebrated in New Orleans. See carnival.
Mardin: city, capital of Mardin il (province), southeastern Turkey. It lies on the southern slopes of a broad highland that rises to an elevation of 3,450 feet (1,052 metres) and overlooks extensive limestone plateaus. The locality receives more ...
Mardn: town and district in Peshawar division, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The town, the district headquarters, lies just north of the Kalpani River; it is connected by road and rail with Dargai (Malakand Pass), Nowshera, and Peshawar, 30 miles (50 km) ...
Mardonius: Achaemenid general, a nephew of King Darius I and married to Darius' daughter Artazostra. In 492 BC he was sent to succeed the satrap (governor) Artaphernes in Ionia, with a special commission to attack Athens and Eretria. Contrary to the ...
Marduk: in Mesopotamian religion, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia; as such he was eventually called simply Bel, or Lord. Originally he seems to have been a god of thunderstorms. A poem, known ...
mare: any flat, dark plain of lower elevation on the Moon. The term, which in Latin means "sea," was erroneously applied to such features by telescopic observers of the 17th century. In actuality, maria are huge basins containing lava flows marked ...
mare's-tail: the aquatic plant Hippuris vulgaris or either of two other species of its genus, which constitute the water milfoil family (Hippuridaceae). Mare's-tail grows from submerged, stout rootstocks along the margins of lakes and ponds in temperate regions throughout the world. ...
Mare, Ile: southernmost of the Loyalty Islands, a raised coralline limestone and volcanic group in the southwestern Pacific Ocean that is part of the French overseas territory of New Caledonia. Rising to 300 ft (100 m), Mare is the highest in the ...
Marechal, Leopoldo: Argentine writer and critic who was best known for his philosophical novels.
Marechal, Pierre-Sylvain: French poet, playwright, and publicist whose plan for a secular calendar, presented in his Almanach des honnetes gens (1788; "Dictionary of Notables"), was subsequently the basis for the French republican calendar adopted in 1793.
Marechera, Dambudzo: Zimbabwean novelist who won critical acclaim for his collection of stories entitled The House of Hunger (1978), a powerful account of life in his country under white rule.
Mareeba: town, northeastern Queensland, Australia, on the Barron River, 40 mi (65 km) west of the port of Cairns on the Coral Sea. It was the earliest European settlement on the Atherton Plateau; at its founding it was called Granite Creek ...
Marees, Hans von: painter of the so-called Idealist school in Germany.
Maremma: geographic region, largely within Tuscany (Toscana) regione, central Italy, extending along the Tyrrhenian coast from south of Livorno to Rome and inland to the Apennine foothills.
Marengo, Battle of: (June 14, 1800), narrow victory for Napoleon Bonaparte in the War of the Second Coalition, fought on the Marengo Plain about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Alessandria, in northern Italy, between Napoleon's approximately 28,000 troops and some 31,000 Austrian ...
marennes: popular edible variety of oyster (q.v.).
Marenzio, Luca: composer whose madrigals are considered to be among the finest examples of Italian madrigals of the late 16th century.
Maret, Hugues-Bernard, Duc De Bassano: French diplomat and statesman of the Napoleonic period.
Marett, Robert R: English social anthropologist who, like Sir James George Frazer and Andrew Lang, came to anthropology with a strong background in classical literature and philosophy. Marett is best-known for his studies of the evolution of moral philosophy and religious beliefs and ...
Marey, Etienne-Jules: French physiologist who invented the sphygmograph, an instrument for recording graphically the features of the pulse and variations in blood pressure. His basic instrument, with modifications, is still used today.
Marfan's syndrome: rare hereditary disorder of connective-tissue development in humans that affects several body systems, most notably the skeleton, heart, and eye. Affected individuals are tall, their limbs are long and thin, their fingers are long and may be described as spider-like, ...
marga: (Sanskrit: "path"), in Hinduism, the path, or way, of reaching salvation. In Hindu tradition three means are enumerated: jnana-marga, the way of knowledge, involving the study of philosophic texts and contemplation; karma-marga, the way of action, the proper performance of ...
Margai, Sir Milton: first prime minister of Sierra Leone, a conservative, pro-British politician who came to power with the backing of a coalition of traditional chiefs and elite modernists from the Protectorate-the part of Sierra Leone that became a British colony at the ...
Margam: locality, Neath Port Talbot county borough, historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), Wales. Situated inland of the sandy Margam Burrows at the base of the peaks Mynydd Margam and Moel Ton-mawr, the community of Margam developed around a Cistercian abbey founded ...
Margaret: queen of Scotland from 1286 to 1290, the last of the line of Scottish rulers descended from King Malcolm III Canmore (ruled 1058-93).
Margaret I: regent of Denmark (from 1375), of Norway (from 1380), and of Sweden (from 1389), who, by diplomacy and war, pursued dynastic policies that led to the Kalmar Union (1397), which united Denmark, Norway, and Sweden until 1523 and Denmark and ...
Margaret Maultasch: countess of Tirol, whose efforts to keep Tirol in the possession of her family failed after two unsuccessful marriages, forcing her to cede her lands to the Austrian Habsburgs. (She was called Maultasch, "mouth pocket," because of her deformed jaw.)
Margaret Of Angouleme: queen consort of Henry II of Navarre, who, as patron of Humanists and Reformers, and as an author in her own right, was one of the most outstanding figures of the French Renaissance.
Margaret of Anjou: queen consort of England's King Henry VI and a leader of the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses (1455-85) between the houses of York and Lancaster. Strong-willed and ambitious, she made a relentless, but ultimately unsuccessful, effort to obtain ...