Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Richepin, Jean ... Ridgewood

Richepin, Jean: French poet, dramatist, and novelist who examined the lower levels of society in sharp, bold language. As Emile Zola revolutionized the novel with his naturalism, Richepin did the same for French poetry during that period.
Richer, Jean: French astronomer whose observations of the planet Mars from Cayenne, French Guyana, in 1671-73 contributed to both astronomy and geodesy. The French government sent Richer to Cayenne to measure the parallax of Mars at its perigee. Comparison of his observations ...
Richet, Charles: French physiologist who won the 1913 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of and coining of the term anaphylaxis, the life-threatening allergic reaction he observed in a sensitized animal upon second exposure to an antigen. This research ...
Richier, Germaine: French sculptor of provocative, biomorphic figures.
Richland: city, Benton county, south-central Washington, U.S., at the juncture of the Yakima and Columbia rivers. With Kennewick and Pasco, it forms a tri-city area. Named in 1905 for Nelson Rich, a local landowner and state legislator, it remained a farming ...
Richland: county, central South Carolina, U.S. It is bordered to the east by the Wateree River and to the west by the Broad River, which, after its confluence with the Saluda, becomes the Congaree River. The northern portion of the county ...
Richler, Mordecai: prominent Canadian novelist whose incisive and penetrating works explore fundamental human dilemmas and values.
Richmond: city, seat (1873) of Wayne county, east-central Indiana, U.S. It is located on the East Fork of Whitewater River, 67 miles (108 km) east of Indianapolis at the Ohio border. Settled in 1806 by migrating North Carolina Quakers, it was ...
Richmond: town ("parish"), Richmondshire district, administrative county of North Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England, situated on the left bank of the River Swale where its dale (upland valley) opens into the plain. Richmond grew up in the shelter of a ...
Richmond: town, part of Richmond-Windsor urban area, east-central New South Wales, Australia, on the Hawkesbury River. It is situated on a hill, was named in 1789 after the Duke of Richmond by Governor Arthur Phillip, and was chosen in 1810 for ...
Richmond: county (area 58 sq mi [48 sq km]), southeastern New York, U.S., coextensive with Staten Island borough, which comprises Staten Island (q.v.) and part or all of several smaller islands in New York Harbor. The borough is linked to Brooklyn ...
Richmond: city, capital of Virginia, U.S., seat (1752) of Henrico county, situated in the east-central part of the state at the head of navigation of the James River. Politically independent of the county, it is the centre of a metropolitan area ...
Richmond: port city, Contra Costa county, western California, U.S. It lies on the northeastern shore of San Francisco Bay and is connected to Marin county by the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (1956), 16 miles (26 km) northeast of San Francisco. The site ...
Richmond: town, southeastern Tasmania, Australia, situated on Coal River at the head of Pitt Water lagoon. In 1815 Tasmania's first flour mill was built in the area, and by 1823 a bridge (Australia's oldest existing bridge) was built across the river ...
Richmond: city, seat (1798) of Madison county, east-central Kentucky, U.S., in the outer Bluegrass region, near the Cumberland foothills. The city, on the old Wilderness Road, 25 miles (39 km) southeast of Lexington, was settled in 1785 by Colonel John Miller, ...
Richmond and Lennox, Frances Teresa Stuart, duchess of: a favourite mistress of Charles II of Great Britain.
Richmond River: principal river of the North Coast district, New South Wales, Australia, rising on Mt. Lindesay, in the McPherson Range, and flowing southeast through Casino and Coraki, at which point it is joined by the Wilson River. The river then turns ...
Richmond upon Thames: outer borough of London. It is drained by a 12-mile (19-km) section of the River Thames, which bisects the borough and also forms its northern and southern boundaries. Richmond upon Thames was established in 1965 by amalgamation of the boroughs ...
Richmond, Charles Lennox, 1st duke of, 1st Duke Of Lennox, Earl Of March, Earl Of Darnley, Baron Of Settrington, Lord Of Torboultoun: son of Charles II of England by his mistress Louise de Keroualle, duchess of Portsmouth. He was aide-de-camp to William III from 1693 to 1702 and lord of the bedchamber to George I from 1714 to 1723.
Richmond, Charles Lennox, 3rd duke of, 3rd duke of Lennox, duc d'Aubigny, earl of March, earl of Darnley, baron of Settrington, lord of Torboultoun: one of the most progressive British politicians of the 18th century, being chiefly known for his advanced views on parliamentary reform.
Richmond, University of: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Richmond, Virginia, U.S. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia. The university includes the School of Arts and Sciences, the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business, the Jepson School of ...
Richmondian Stage: division of Ordovician time in North America; the Richmondian is the last stage of the Upper Ordovician Cincinnatian Series of rocks (the Ordovician Period began about 500,000,000 years ago and lasted about 70,000,000 years). In the northeastern regions of the ...
Richmondshire: district, administrative county of North Yorkshire, historic county of Yorkshire, England, centred on the valleys of Swaledale and Wensleydale in the northwestern corner of the county. The upper dales are sparsely populated sheep-rearing country, but, as they open eastward, livestock ...
Richter scale: widely used quantitative measure of the magnitude of an earthquake, devised in 1935 by American seismologist Charles F. Richter. See table.
Richter, Burton: American physicist who was jointly awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for Physics with Samuel C.C. Ting for the discovery of a new subatomic particle, the J/psi particle.
Richter, Charles F.: American physicist and seismologist who developed the Richter scale for measuring earthquake magnitude.
Richter, Conrad Michael: American short-story writer and novelist known for his lyrical fiction about early America.
Richter, Curt Paul: American biologist who helped pioneer the discovery and study of biorhythms and who showed that humans' biological processes can be strongly influenced by learned behaviour.
Richter, Hans: Hungarian conductor, one of the greatest conductors of his era who was particularly esteemed for his performances of the works of Wagner and Brahms.
Richter, Sviatoslav: Soviet pianist whose technical virtuosity combined with subtle introspection, made him one of the preeminent pianists of the 20th century. Though his repertoire was enormous, he was especially praised for his interpretations of J.S. Bach, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Sergey ...
richterite: amphibole mineral, a sodium silicate of calcium and magnesium or manganese. It occurs in thermally metamorphosed limestones and skarns or as a hydrothermal product in alkaline igneous rocks. Richterite is related to tremolite by the substitution of sodium for calcium ...
Richthofen, Ferdinand Paul Wilhelm, Freiherr von: German geographer and geologist who produced a major work on China and contributed to the development of geographical methodology. He also helped establish the science of geomorphology, the branch of geology that deals with land and submarine relief features.
Richthofen, Manfred, Freiherr von: Germany's top aviator and leading ace in World War I.
Ricimer: general who acted as kingmaker in the Western Roman Empire from 456 to 472.
Rickard, Tex: American gambler and fight promoter who made boxing fashionable and highly profitable. His promotions featuring Jack Dempsey, world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926, attracted the first five "million-dollar gates" ($1,000,000 or more in ticket receipts).
rickardite: copper telluride mineral with the formula Cu₄Te₃, the purple-red masses of which resemble tarnished bornite. It was discovered at Vulcan, Colo., where it is accompanied by weissite, another copper telluride (Cu₅Te₃). For chemical formulas and detailed physical properties, see sulfide ...
Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon: pilot, industrialist, and the most celebrated U.S. air ace of World War I.
rickets: disease of infancy and childhood characterized by defective bone growth and caused by a lack of vitamin D in the body.
Ricketts, Howard T: American pathologist who discovered the causative organisms and mode of transmission of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and epidemic typhus (known in Mexico, where Ricketts worked for a time and died of typhus, as tabardillo).
rickettsia: any member of three genera (Rickettsia, Coxiella, Rochalimaea) of bacteria in the family Rickettsiaceae. The rickettsiae are rod-shaped or variably spherical, nonfilterable bacteria, and most species are gram-negative. They are natural parasites of certain arthropods (notably lice, fleas, mites, and ...
Rickey, Branch: American professional baseball executive who devised the farm system of training ballplayers (1919) and hired the first black players in organized baseball in the 20th century.
Rickover, Hyman G.: American naval officer and engineer who developed the world's first nuclear-powered engines and the first atomic-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, launched in 1954. He then went on to supervise plans for harnessing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
ricksha: (Japanese: "human-powered vehicle"), two-wheeled vehicle with a doorless, chairlike body and a collapsible hood, that holds one or two passengers and is drawn by a man between two shafts. It was used widely in the Orient but was largely superseded ...
Ricoeur, Paul: French philosopher and historian, who studied various linguistic and psychoanalytic theories of interpretation.
riddah: ("apostasy"), series of politico-religious uprisings in various parts of Arabia in about AD 632 during the caliphate of Abu Bakr (reigned 632-634).
riddle: deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous question requiring a thoughtful and often witty answer. The riddle is a form of guessing game that has been a part of the folklore of most cultures from ancient times. Western scholars generally recognize two main ...
Ride, Sally: American astronaut, the first American woman to travel into outer space. Only two other women preceded her: Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982), both from the former Soviet Union.
Rideau Canal: canal in southeastern Ontario, Canada, that links Ottawa on the Ottawa River with Kingston on Lake Ontario. For nearly 125 miles (200 km) it follows the Rideau River southwest from Ottawa to its summit at Rideau Lake (406 feet [124 ...
Rider University: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, U.S. It includes colleges of Business Administration, Liberal Arts, Education, Sciences, and Continuing Studies. It also includes a music school, Westminster Choir College, at nearby Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in ...
Ridge and Valley: physiographic province, part of the Appalacian Highlands in the eastern United States. It is bordered on the east by the Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces and on the west by the Appalachian Plateau. As its name implies, the province is ...
Ridgewood: village, Bergen county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies along the Saddle River, 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Paterson, New Jersey. Dutch farmers settled in the area in the late 1600s. The village's Old Paramus Reformed Church, built about ...