Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Okeechobee, Lake ... Olbers' paradox

Okeechobee, Lake: lake in southeastern Florida, U.S., and the third largest freshwater lake wholly within the country (after Lake Michigan and Iliamna Lake, Alaska). The lake lies about 40 miles (65 km) northwest of West Palm Beach at the northern edge of ...
Okefenokee Swamp: swamp and wildlife refuge in southeastern Georgia and northern Florida, U.S. It is a shallow, saucer-shaped depression approximately 25 miles (40 km) wide and 40 miles (65 km) long and covers an area of more than 600 square miles (1,550 ...
Okehampton: town ("parish"), West Devon borough, administrative and historic county of Devon, England. It lies on the northern edge of the wild heathland known as Dartmoor. There was originally a Saxon settlement on the site, but this was abandoned after the ...
Okene: town, Kogi state, south-central Nigeria. It lies at the intersection of roads from Lokoja, Kabba, Ikare, Ajaokuta, and Anchi. Originally founded on a hill near the present site, it now lies in the valley of the Ubo River, which is ...
Okha: city, western Gujarat state, west-central India. It is a port at the western tip of the Kathiawar Peninsula, between the Gulf of Kutch and the Arabian Sea. The city contains an automobile-assembly plant, and a large chemical plant is located ...
Okhlopkov, Nikolay Pavlovich: Soviet experimental-theatrical director and producer. He was one of the first modern directors to introduce productions in the round on an arena stage in an effort to restore intimacy between the actors and the audience.
Okhotsk, Sea of: northwestern arm of the Pacific Ocean, bounded on the west and north by the east coast of Asia from Cape Lazarev to the mouth of the Penzhina River, on the east and southeast by the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril ...
Okhranka: (1881-1917), prerevolutionary Russian secret-police organization that was founded to combat political terrorism and left-wing revolutionary activity. The group's principal mode of operation was through infiltration of labour unions, political parties, and, in at least two cases, newspapers: police agents were ...
Okhwangsangje: deity of the Korean religion known as Poch'ongyo (q.v.).
Oki Islands: archipelago, Shimane ken (prefecture), Japan, lying in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Honshu. The largest island is Dogo; the three smaller isles (Chiburi, Nishino, Nakano) are collectively known as Dozen. The four islands have a combined coastline ...
Okigbo, Christopher: Nigerian poet who is one of the best and most widely anthologized African poets.
Okinawa: ken (prefecture), Japan, in the East China Sea. The prefecture is composed of the Ryukyu Islands (q.v.). Okinawa Island is the largest in the Ryukyu Islands archipelago, being about 70 miles (112 km) long and 7 miles (11 km) wide. ...
Okinawa: city, Okinawa ken (prefecture), Japan. It is situated in the central part of Okinawa Island and was designated as a new city in 1974. Originally occupying a region of agriculture and forestry, the city, after World War II, became the ...
Okita Saburo: Japanese economist and government official who was instrumental in developing the plan that doubled Japan's national income in less than 10 years during the 1960s.
Oklahoma: constituent state of the United States of America. In its land and its people, Oklahoma is a state of contrast and of the unexpected. The terrain varies from the rolling, timbered hills of the east, where the state borders Missouri ...
Oklahoma City: city, Canadian, Cleveland, and Oklahoma counties, capital of Oklahoma state, U.S., and seat (1907) of Oklahoma county. It lies along the North Canadian River near the centre of the state, about 100 miles (160 km) southwest of Tulsa. The city ...
Oklahoma City bombing: terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., on April 19, 1995, in which a massive homemade bomb concealed in a rental truck exploded, heavily damaging the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. A total of 168 people were killed, including 19 ...
Oklahoma City Zoological Park: zoo founded in 1904 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., which maintains one of the finest collections of antelopes and other horned ungulates in North America. The 110-acre (45-hectare) zoo has more than 2,000 specimens of some 500 species, among which ...
Oklahoma State University: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Stillwater, Oklahoma, U.S., a part of Oklahoma's State System of Higher Education. The university also operates branch campuses in Okmulgee and Oklahoma City and is part of Oklahoma State University-Tulsa (formerly University Center ...
Oklahoma, University of: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Norman, Oklahoma, U.S. It is part of Oklahoma's State System of Higher Education. The main campus comprises 14 colleges, including those of architecture, fine arts, business, education, engineering, law, and arts and sciences. ...
Okmulgee: city, seat (1907) of Okmulgee county, east-central Oklahoma, U.S. It lies near the Deep Fork of the North Canadian River, south of Tulsa. Its name (meaning "bubbling water") comes from a Creek Indian town in Alabama. It was the capital ...
okra: (Hibiscus, or Abelmoschus, esculentus), herbaceous, hairy, annual plant of the mallow family (Malvaceae). It is native to the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere and is widely cultivated or naturalized in the tropics and subtropics of the Western Hemisphere for its ...
Okri, Ben: Nigerian author who uses magic realism to convey the social and political chaos in his country.
Okrika: town and port, Rivers state, southern Nigeria. It lies on the north bank of the Bonny River and on Okrika Island, 35 miles (56 km) upstream from the Bight of Benin. The town can be reached by vessels of a ...
Oktoberfest: annual festival in Munich, Germany, held over a two-week period and ending on the first Sunday in October. The festival originated on October 17, 1810, as a horse race, part of the celebration of the marriage five days earlier of ...
oktoechos: (music), group of eight melody types associated with early Byzantine liturgical chant. See echos.
Oktyabrsky: city, Bashkiriya, western Russia, on the right bank of the Ik River. Founded as a settlement in 1937, when extraction of oil began nearby in the Volga-Ural oil and natural-gas region, it was incorporated in 1946. A decline in petroleum ...
Okubo Toshimichi: Japanese politician and one of the samurai leaders who in 1868 overthrew the Tokugawa family, which had ruled Japan for 264 years, and restored the government of the emperor. After the Meiji Restoration he spent much of his career helping ...
Okuma Shigenobu: politician who twice served as prime minister of Japan (1898; 1914-16). He organized the Rikken Kaishinto ("Progressive Party") and founded Waseda University.
Okumura Masanobu: painter and publisher of illustrated books who introduced innovations in woodblock printing and print-design technique in Japan.
Okuni: Japanese dancer who is credited as being the founder of the Kabuki art form.
Okuninushi: in the mythology of the Izumo branch of Shinto in Japan, the central hero, a son-in-law of the storm god, Susanoo.
Okura Kihachiro: founder of one of the largest zaibatsu, or gigantic industrial-financial combines that dominated the Japanese economy throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Ol Doinyo Lengai: active volcano, northern Tanzania, East Africa, located at the southern end of Lake Natron. It rises to an elevation of 9,442 ft (2,878 m) and is one of the many volcanoes situated along the East African rift system. Ol Doinyo ...
Olaf: king of Sweden (990-1022) whose efforts to impose Christianity were frustrated by the leading non-Christian Swedish chieftains.
Olaf Guthfrithson: king of Northumbria and of Dublin. Olaf was the son of Guthfrith (or Godfrey), king of Dublin. He is often confused with Olaf Sihtricson.
Olaf I Tryggvason: Viking king of Norway (995-c. 1000), much celebrated in Scandinavian literature, who made the first effective effort to Christianize Norway.
Olaf II Haraldsson: the first effective king of all Norway and the country's patron saint, who achieved a 12-year respite from Danish domination and extensively increased the acceptance of Christianity. His religious code of 1024 is considered to represent Norway's first national legislation.
Olaf III Haraldsson: king of Norway (1066-93) who guided the nation through one of its most prosperous periods, maintaining an extended peace rare in medieval Norwegian history. He also strengthened the organization of the Norwegian church.
Olaf IV Haakonsson: king of Denmark (as Olaf III, 1376-87) and of Norway (1380-87). He was the son of Haakon VI and of Margaret (Margrete), daughter of Valdemar IV, king of Denmark.
Olaf Magnusson: king of Norway (1103-15), illegitimate son of King Magnus III Barefoot.
Olaf Sihtricson: king of the Danish kingdoms of Northumbria and of Dublin.
Olaf V: king of Norway (1957-91), succeeding his father, King Haakon VII.
Olafsfjordhur: town, northern Iceland. It lies on Olafs Fjord, a small inlet indenting the western coastline of Eyja Fjord. Olafsfjordhur is situated 39 miles (63 km) north of Akureyri, the largest northern city of Iceland, and 160 miles (257 km) northeast ...
Olafsson, Eggert: Icelandic poet and antiquarian, an outstanding figure in the history of Iceland's fight to preserve and revivify its language, culture, and economy.
Olah, George A.: Hungarian-American chemist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work conducted in the early 1960s that isolated the positively charged, electron-deficient fragments of hydrocarbons known as carbocations (or carbonium ions).
olam ha-ba: in Jewish theology, either "the world after death" or the new creation or restoration of the world that is to follow the messianic millennium. Because this latter interpretation stemmed from the teachings and exhortations of the prophets, it was especially ...
olam ha-ze: (Hebrew: "this world"), in Jewish theology, present life on earth, as opposed to 'olam ha-ba ("the world to come"). Though 'olam ha-ze is full of misery and injustice, one's view of life is transformed by realizing-as the Mishna (code of ...
Oland: island and landskap (province) in the Baltic Sea, lan (county) of Kalmar, Sweden. It is connected to Kalmar on the Swedish mainland by a road bridge across Kalmar Sound. With an area of 519 square miles (1,344 square km), it ...
Olathe: city, seat (1858) of Johnson county, northeastern Kansas, U.S. Olathe, which lies 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Kansas City, was founded in 1857 on the Santa Fe Trail. Its name derives from the Shawnee Indian word for "beautiful." The ...
Olbers' paradox: in cosmology, paradox relating to the problem of why the sky is dark at night. If the universe is endless and uniformly populated with luminous stars, then every line of sight must eventually terminate at the surface of a star. ...