Irish rebel commander during a major Roman Catholic revolt (1641-52) against English rule in Ireland. His victory at Benburb, Ulster, on June 5, 1646, was one of the few significant rebel triumphs of the war.
American illustrator, writer, and businesswoman remembered largely for her creation and highly successful marketing of Kewpie characters and Kewpie dolls.
Australian cricketer, one of the finest leg-spin bowlers of the 20th century, taking 774 wickets in his career of first-class cricket (1927-46), including 144 wickets in 27 Test (international) matches.
husband and wife from 1867 to 1890, whose relationship with the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell led to a divorce scandal that terminated Parnell's career, divided Irish public opinion, and very likely delayed the granting of Home Rule by ...
officer of the British Empire, member of a British order of knighthood, although this rank does not confer knighthood. See British Empire, The Most Excellent Order of the.
borough (district), administrative and historic county of Leicestershire, England. Both Oadby and Wigston, formerly villages lying outside the city of Leicester, have in recent years been engulfed by the outward spread of the city's suburbs. They lie to the southeast ...
island, Honolulu county, Hawaii, U.S. It is separated from the islands of Kauai (northwest) and Molokai (southeast) by the Kauai and Kaiwi channels, respectively. Oahu, which is of volcanic origin, is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands, occupying an ...
any of about 450 species of ornamental and timber trees and shrubs constituting the genus Quercus in the beech family (Fagaceae), distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and at high altitudes in the tropics.
district municipality, southwestern British Columbia, Canada, on southeastern Vancouver Island. It is an eastern residential suburb of Victoria, the provincial capital, and is a popular retirement community, with one of the highest percentages of persons over 65 in Canada. Inc. ...
town, Island county, northwestern Washington, U.S., on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. It was settled in 1849 by seafaring men, and its first industry was shipbuilding. Dutch immigrants arrived in 1890 and began developing the rich farmland; their presence on ...
(Evernia prunastri), species of fruticose (branched, bushy) lichen valued in perfumery for its heavy, oriental fragrance and as a fixative base. It grows in mountainous areas throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. The pale greenish gray thallus, 3 to 8 ...
village, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It is a suburb of Chicago, located about 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown. The area was originally inhabited by Potawatomi, Sauk, and Fox Indians. First settled in the 1830s by English settlers ...
city, Anderson and Roane counties, eastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies in a valley between the Cumberland and Great Smoky mountains, about 20 miles (30 km) west of Knoxville, and is a part of that city's metropolitan area. A tract of ...
town, seat (1872) of Garrett county, extreme western Maryland, U.S., in the Allegheny Mountains near the West Virginia border. Laid out in 1849, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad decided to build a rail line through the area, it became ...
city, seat (1873) of Alameda county, west-central California, U.S. It lies on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay opposite San Francisco. The city site is located on a flat coastal plain that rises toward hills to the east that ...
one of the English Classic horse races (along with the Derby, Saint Leger, Two Thousand Guineas, and One Thousand Guineas), an event for three-year-old fillies, established in 1779, and run over a 1.5-mile (about 2,400-metre) course at Epsom Downs, Surrey, ...
town, regional municipality of Halton, southeastern Ontario, Canada, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Toronto. Oakville is situated on Lake Ontario at the mouth of Oakville Creek. It was founded in 1830 by Colonel William K. Chisholm, who established shipbuilding ...
town and port, Otago local government region, southeastern South Island, New Zealand. Its name comes from a Maori term meaning "place of sheltered fire." It was established as a grazing run in 1853. Situated on a small bay, the town ...
in Mesopotamian mythology, an amphibious being who taught mankind wisdom. Oannes, as described by the Babylonian priest Berosus, had the form of a fish but with the head of a man under his fish's head and under his fish's tail ...
(species Regalecus glesne), large, long, sinuous fish of the family Regalecidae (order Lampridiformes), found throughout the tropics and subtropics in rather deep water. A ribbon-shaped fish, very thin from side to side, the oarfish may grow to a length of ...
fertile tract of land that occurs in a desert wherever a perennial supply of fresh water is available. Oases vary in size, ranging from about 1 hectare (2.5 acres) around small springs to vast areas of naturally watered or irrigated ...
industrial reformer known in the north of England as the "Factory King," who from 1831 conducted a campaign for shorter working hours that was in part responsible for the Ten Hours Act of 1847.
any of the perennial plants of two genera of grasses, Arrhenatherum and Danthonia (family Poaceae). Approximately six species of tall grasses, native to temperate Europe and Asia, constitute the genus Arrhenatherum. Tall oat grass (A. elatius), which has been introduced ...
American novelist, short-story writer, and essayist noted for her vast literary output in a variety of styles and genres. Particularly effective are her depictions of violence and evil in modern society.
renegade Anglican priest who fabricated the Popish Plot of 1678. Oates's allegations that Roman Catholics were plotting to seize power caused a reign of terror in London and strengthened the anti-Catholic Whig Party.
sacred or solemn voluntary promise usually involving the penalty of divine retribution for intentional falsity and often used in legal procedures. It is not certain that the oath was always considered a religious act; such ancient peoples as the Germanic ...
edible starchy grain of the oat plant (species Avena sativa), a cereal widely cultivated in the temperate regions of the world. The flowering and fruiting structure, or inflorescence, of the plant is made up of numerous branches bearing florets that ...
city, capital of Oaxaca estado (state), southern Mexico, lying in the fertile Oaxaca Valley, 5,085 feet (1,550 metres) above sea level. The city site, which has been inhabited for thousands of years, was important to numerous pre-Columbian ...
estado ("state"), southern Mexico, bounded south by the Pacific Ocean, west by Guerrero, north by Puebla, northeast by Veracruz, and east by Chiapas. The state's territory, with an area of 36,275 square miles (93,952 square km), includes most of the ...
river of central Russia. One of the greatest rivers of Asia, the Ob flows north and west across western Siberia in a twisting diagonal from its sources in the Altai Mountains to its outlet through the Gulf of Ob into ...
large inlet of the Kara Sea indenting northwestern Siberia, between the peninsulas of Yamal and Gyda, in north-central Russia. The gulf forms the outlet for the Ob River, the delta of which is choked by a huge sandbar. The gulf ...
division of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, comprising the Mansi (Vogul) and Khanty (Ostyak) languages; they are most closely related to Hungarian, with which they make up the Ugric branch of Finno-Ugric. The Ob-Ugric languages are spoken ...
the fourth of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, in the Jewish canon treated as one book, The Twelve. Obadiah, with only one chapter consisting of 21 verses, is the shortest of all Old ...
one of the three Zen sects in Japan, founded in 1654 by the Chinese priest Yin-yuan (Japanese Ingen); it continues to preserve elements of the Chinese tradition in its architecture, religious ceremonies, and teachings. Although the methods of achieving sudden ...
American politician who became the third African American, and the first African American male Democrat, to be elected to the U.S. Senate after the end of Reconstruction (1877). Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., was originally a goatherd in Kenya; he ...
Nigerian general, politician, and diplomat, who was the first military leader in Africa to hand over power to civilian rule. He served as ruler of Nigeria from 1976 to 1979 and as president from 1999.
(Italian: "obligatory"), in music, essential but subordinate instrumental part. For example, in an 18th-century aria with trumpet obbligato, the trumpet part, although serving as accompaniment to the voice, may be as brilliant in its writing as that of the voice ...
genus of invertebrate marine animals of the class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria). The genus, widely distributed in all the oceans, is represented by many species. The animal begins life as a polyp-a stalklike form attached to the ocean bottom or some ...
tapered monolithic pillar, originally erected in pairs at the entrances of ancient Egyptian temples. The Egyptian obelisk was carved from a single piece of stone, usually red granite from the quarries at Aswan. It was designed to be wider at ...
city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), western Germany. It is situated on the Rhine-Herne Canal, within the densely developed Ruhr industrial belt, and it adjoins Essen (east), Mulheim (south), and Duisberg (southwest).
