Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Marne River ... Marschner, Heinrich August

Marne River: river, northern France, 326 miles (525 km) long, rising 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Langres on the Langres Plateau. Flowing north-northwest in a wide valley past Chaumont and Saint-Dizier, it then turns west before veering northwest to skirt Vitryle-Francois ...
Marne, First Battle of the: (September 6-12, 1914), an offensive during World War I by the French army and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) against the advancing Germans who had invaded Belgium and northeastern France and were within 30 miles (48 km) of Paris.
Marne, Second Battle of the: (July 15-18, 1918), last large German offensive of World War I.
Marne-la-Vallee: new town (French ville nouvelle), occupying parts of the departements of Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne and located approximately 6 miles (10 km) east of Paris in north-central France. Marne-la-Vallee is one of several new towns developed outside Paris since 1965 ...
Marnix, Philips van, Heer Van Sint Aldegonde: Dutch theologian and poet whose translation of the Psalms is considered the high point of religious literature in 16th-century Holland. In exile (1568-72) and a prisoner of the Roman Catholics (1573-74), Marnix was in the thick of the political and ...
Maroboduus: king of the Marcomanni who organized the first confederation of German tribes.
Marondera: town, northeastern Zimbabwe. It originated in 1890 as a rest house on the road from Harare (formerly Salisbury) to Mutare (formerly Umtali) and was named for Marondera, chief of the ruling Barozwi people. Destroyed in the Shona resistance of 1896, ...
Maroni River: river forming the boundary between French Guiana and Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana), in South America. It rises on the northern slopes of the Tumuc-Humac Mountains, near the Brazilian border, and descends generally northward through dense tropical rain forests, to enter ...
Maronite Church: one of the largest Eastern-rite communities of the Roman Catholic church, prominent especially in modern Lebanon; it is the only Eastern-rite church that has no non-Catholic or Orthodox counterpart. The Maronites trace their origins to St. Maron, or Maro (Arabic ...
Maroochydore: resort town, southeastern Queensland, Australia. It lies at the mouth of the Maroochy River and at the foot of Buderim Mountain; the southern part of Maroochydore merges with the township of Mooloolaba. The Maroochy River was sighted by Andrew Petrie ...
Marot, Clement: one of the greatest poets of the French Renaissance, whose use of the forms and imagery of Latin poetry had marked influence on the style of his successors. His father, Jean, was a poet and held a post at the ...
Marot, Daniel: French-born Dutch architect, decorative designer, and engraver whose opulent and elaborate designs contributed to European styles of decoration in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. His many engravings provide an excellent record of the fashions of the times, including ...
Marot, Helen: American writer, librarian, and labour organizer, best remembered for her efforts to address child labour and improve the working conditions of women.
Marot, Jean: French architect and engraver who was one of a large family of Parisian craftsmen and artists.
Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome: uncommon hereditary metabolic disease characterized by dwarfism, hearing loss, and progressive skeletal deformity. Onset of the disease is usually in early childhood, with some coarsening of facial features evident by the first birthday. Eye changes, consisting of corneal opacification and ...
Maroua: town, northern Cameroon, west-central Africa. It is situated in the foothills of the Mandara Mountains, along the Mayo ("river") Kaliao. An important marketing centre, it lies at the intersection of roads from Mokolo (northwest), Bogo (northeast), and Garoua (southwest). The ...
Marprelate Controversy: brief but well-known pamphlet war (1588-89) carried on by English Puritans using secret presses; they attacked the episcopacy as "profane, proud, paltry, popish, pestilent, pernicious, presumptious prelates." The tracts, of which seven survive, never had the support of Puritan leaders ...
Marpurg, Friedrich Wilhelm: German composer and writer remembered for his theoretical and critical writings on music.
Marquand, J P: U.S. novelist who recorded the shifting patterns of middle and upper class U.S. society in the mid-20th century.
Marques, Rene: playwright, short-story writer, critic, and Puerto Rican nationalist whose work shows deep social and artistic commitment.
Marquesas Islands: pair of volcanic clusters in French Polynesia in the central South Pacific, 740 mi (1,200 km) northeast of Tahiti. The southeastern group includes Hiva Oa (q.v.), largest and most populated and the burial place of the French artist Paul Gauguin; ...
marquess: a European title of nobility, ranking in modern times immediately below a duke and above a count, or earl. Etymologically the word marquess or margrave denoted a count or earl holding a march, or mark, that is, a frontier district; ...
Marquess of Queensberry rules: code of rules that most directly influenced modern boxing. Written by John Graham Chambers, a member of the British Amateur Athletic Club, the rules were first published in 1867 under the sponsorship of John Sholto Douglas, ninth marquess of Queensberry, ...
marquetry: thin sheets of wood, metal, or organic material, such as shell or mother-of-pearl, cut into intricate patterns according to a preconceived design and affixed to the flat surfaces of furniture. The process became popular in France in the late 16th ...
Marquette: city, seat (1851) of Marquette county, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S., on Lake Superior, overlooked by Sugar Loaf Mountain (north), 66 mi (106 km) north-northwest of Escanaba. Founded in 1849 as Worcester and renamed for Jacques Marquette, it became an ...
Marquette University: private coeducational institution of higher learning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church. Although the funding for a Jesuit school in Milwaukee had been secured by 1848, Marquette College was not ...
Marquette, Jacques: French Jesuit missionary explorer who, with Louis Jolliet, travelled down the Mississippi River and reported the first accurate data on its course.
Marquis, Don: U.S. newspaperman, poet, and playwright, creator of the literary characters Archy, the cockroach, and Mehitabel, the cat, wry, down-and-out philosophers of the 1920s.
Marr, Nikolay Yakovlevich: Russian linguist, archaeologist, and ethnographer specializing in the languages of the Caucasus.
Marrah Mountains: mountain range, a rugged volcanic chain extending for 100 miles (160 km) west-southwest of Al-Fashir, in west-central Sudan. The highest point of the Nile-Lake Chad watershed, the mountains reach heights of more than 10,000 feet (3,000 m). Some intermittent tributaries ...
Marrakech: chief city of central Morocco. The first of Morocco's four imperial cities, it lies in the centre of the fertile, irrigated Haouz Plain, south of the Wadi Tennsift. The ancient section of the city, known as the
Marrano: in Spanish history, a Jew who converted to the Christian faith to escape persecution but who continued to practice Judaism secretly. It was a term of abuse and also applies to any descendants of Marranos. The origin of the word ...
marriage: a legally and socially sanctioned union, usually between a man and a woman, that is regulated by laws, rules, customs, beliefs, and attitudes that prescribe the rights and duties of the partners and accords status to their offspring (if any). ...
marriage law: the body of legal specifications and requirements and other laws that regulate the initiation, continuation, and validity of marriages. Marriage is a legally sanctioned union usually between one man and one woman. At the beginning of the 21st century, marriage ...
Married Women's Property Acts: in U.S. law, series of statutes that gradually, beginning in 1839, expanded the rights of married women to act as independent agents in legal contexts.
Marriner, Neville: British violinist, teacher, and conductor who in 1959 organized the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, a London chamber ensemble that won popular and critical acclaim.
Marriott, J Willard: American businessman who founded one of the largest hotel and restaurant organizations in the United States.
Marrucini: ancient tribe that occupied a small area around Teate (modern Chieti) on the east coast of Italy. The Marrucini, though Samnite kinsmen, were probably not members of the Samnite league; they did, however, come into conflict with the Romans during ...
Marryat, Frederick: naval officer and the first important English novelist after Tobias Smollett to make full and amusing use of his varied experience at sea.
Mars: fourth planet in the solar system in order of distance from the Sun and seventh in size and mass. It is a conspicuous, sometimes quite bright, reddish object in the night sky. Mars is designated by the symbol &mars;.
Mars: ancient Roman deity, in importance second only to Jupiter. Little is known of his original character, and that character (chiefly from the cult at Rome) is variously interpreted. It is clear that by historical times he had developed into a ...
Mars Global Surveyor: robotic U.S. spacecraft launched to the planet Mars to carry out long-term study from orbit of the entire surface, the atmosphere, and aspects of the interior. High-resolution images returned from the spacecraft indicated that liquid water may have existed on ...
Mars Pathfinder: robotic U.S. spacecraft launched to Mars to demonstrate a new way to land a spacecraft on the planet's surface and the operation of an independent robotic rover. Developed by NASA as part of a low-cost approach to planetary exploration, Pathfinder ...
Mars, canals of: apparent systems of long, straight linear markings on the surface of Mars that are now known to be illusions caused by the chance alignment of craters and other natural surface features seen in telescopes near the limit of resolution. They ...
Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte, Battles of: (Aug. 16-18, 1870), two major engagements of the Franco-German War in which the 130,000-man French Army of the Rhine, under Marshal Achille-Francois Bazaine, failed to break through the two German armies under General Helmuth von Moltke and were bottled up ...
Marsa al-Burayqah: Mediterranean port on the Gulf of Sidra, northeastern Libya. The site, which was located by a small fishing village destroyed during World War II, contained nothing but land mines when it was chosen as the terminal for Libya's first oil ...
Marsa Matruh: town and capital of Matruh muhafazah (governorate), on the Mediterranean coast, Western Desert, in northwestern Egypt. The town serves as a market and distribution centre for the surrounding agricultural region. Olives, barley, and fruits are grown, and there are vineyards ...
Marsala: town, Trapani province, western Sicily, Italy. It is situated on the Boeo Cape, also called Lilibeo, south of Trapani. It originated as Lilybaeum, which was founded by the Carthaginians in 397-396 BC after the destruction of the offshore island of ...
Marsalis family: American family, considered the "first family of jazz," who (particularly brothers Wynton and Branford) had a major impact on jazz in the late 20th century. The family includes Ellis (b. November 13, 1934, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.), and his ...
Marsaxlokk: village, southeastern Malta. It lies along Marsaxlokk Bay, southeast of Valletta. It was the first landing place and anchorage of the Turkish fleet in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. A fortress (now housing the marine sciences laboratory of ...
Marschner, Heinrich August: composer who helped establish the style of German Romantic opera.