Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Windsor ... winter

Windsor: city, seat of Essex county, southern Ontario, Canada. Windsor is situated on the left (south) bank of the Detroit River, opposite Detroit, Mich. Settled by French farmers shortly after 1701, when a fort was established at Detroit, the city was ...
Windsor and Maidenhead: royal borough and unitary authority, geographic county of Berkshire, southern England, located about 40 miles (64 km) west of central London. Most of the unitary authority lies in the historic county of Berkshire, but includes areas north of the Thames ...
Windsor Castle: English royal residence that stands on a ridge at the northeastern edge of the district of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. The castle occupies 13 acres (5 hectares) of ground above the north bank of the ...
Windsor chair: popular type of wooden chair constructed of turned (shaped on a lathe), slender spindles that are socketed into a solid, saddle-shaped wooden seat. Those spindles extending downward form the legs and those extending upward form the back and arm rests. ...
Windsor Locks: urban town (township), Hartford county, north-central Connecticut, U.S., on the Connecticut River. Originally settled as part of Windsor in 1663, it was known as Pine Meadow and Enfield Falls (for the rapids on its east side). Commercial development began after ...
Windsor, House of: the royal house of the United Kingdom, which succeeded the house of Hanover on the death of its last monarch, Queen Victoria, on Jan. 22, 1901. The dynasty has included Edward VII (reigned 1901-10), George V (1910-36), Edward VIII (1936), ...
Windsor, Wallis Warfield, duchess of: American socialite who became the wife of Prince Edward, duke of Windsor (Edward VIII), after the latter had abdicated the British throne in order to marry her.
windsurfing: sport that combines aspects of sailing and surfing on a one-person craft called a sailboard.
Windthorst, Ludwig: prominent German Roman Catholic political leader of the 19th century. He was one of the founders of the Centre Party, which aimed at the unification of German Catholics and the defense of Roman Catholic interests.
Windward Islands: a line of West Indian islands constituting the southern arc of the Lesser Antilles, at the eastern end of the Caribbean Sea, between latitudes 12° and 16° N and longitudes 60° and 62° W. They include, from north to south, ...
Windward Islands: island group in the Atlantic Ocean off the West African coast, comprising one of two island groups of Cape Verde (q.v.) and consisting of the following islands: Boa Vista, Sal, Santa Luzia, Santo Antao, Sao Nicolau, and Sao Vicente. The ...
Windward Passage: strait in the West Indies, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea. It is 50 miles (80 km) wide and separates Cuba (west) from Hispaniola (southeast). It has a threshold depth of 5,500 feet (1,700 m) and is on ...
wine: the fermented juice of the grape. Of the grape genus Vitis, one species, V. vinifera (often erroneously called the European grape), is used almost exclusively. Beverages produced from V. labrusca, the native American grape, and from other grape species are ...
Winfrey, Oprah: American television personality, actress, and entrepreneur whose syndicated daily talk show was among the most popular of the genre. She became one of the richest and most influential women in the United States.
wing: in aeronautics, an airfoil that helps lift a heavier-than-air craft. When positioned above the fuselage (high wings), wings provide an unrestricted view below and good lateral stability. Parasol wings, placed on struts high above the fuselage of seaplanes, help keep ...
wing: in zoology, one of the paired structures by means of which certain animals propel themselves in the air. Vertebrate wings are modifications of the forelimbs. In birds the fingers are reduced and the forearm is lengthened. The primary flight feathers ...
wing chair: a tall-backed, heavily upholstered easy chair with armrests and wings, or lugs, projecting between the back and arms to protect against drafts. They first appeared in the late 17th century-when the wings were sometimes known as "cheeks"-and they have maintained ...
wing nut: (genus Pterocarya), any of about six species of Asian trees of the walnut family (Juglandaceae). They often are 30 m (about 100 feet) tall and bear winged, edible, one-seeded nuts. One species, P. stenoptera, is planted as an ornamental. The ...
Wingate, Orde Charles: British soldier, an outstanding "irregular" commander and unconventional personage in the tradition of General Charles George Gordon and Colonel T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"). His "Chindits," or "Wingate's Raiders," a brigade of British, Gurkha, and Burmese guerrillas, harassed much stronger ...
Wingate, Sir Reginald, 1st Baronet: British general and imperial administrator, principal founder and governor-general (1899-1916) of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (from 1956 the independent Republic of The Sudan).
Winisk River: river, north-central Ontario, Canada, emptying into Hudson Bay. Arising from Wunnummin Lake, it flows eastward to Winisk Lake and then north and east for 295 miles (475 km) to its mouth on the bay, draining an area of 24,000 square ...
Winkfield, James: American jockey, the last African American to win the Kentucky Derby.
Winkler Prins Encyclopedie: the standard Dutch encyclopaedia, published by Elsevier in Amsterdam. The first edition (1870-82) was based on the German Brockhaus Enzyklopadie (q.v.). The 6th edition (1947-54) appeared in 18 volumes. A new, 25-volume, thoroughly revised edition was published in 1979-84 and ...
Winkler, Clemens Alexander: German chemist who discovered the element germanium.
Winkler, Hans Gunter: German equestrian champion who won seven Olympic medals and was the most decorated Olympic show jumper of all time.
Winneba: coastal town, southern Ghana. It lies along the Gulf of Guinea near the mouth of the Ayensu River. It was originally a roadstead port, dependent upon the forest products of the area around Swedru (15 miles [24 km] north-northwest). All ...
Winnebago: a Siouan-speaking Native American people who lived in what is now eastern Wisconsin when first encountered by the French explorer Jean Nicolet in 1634. Settled in permanent villages of dome-shaped wigwams, the Winnebago cultivated corn (maize), squash, beans, and tobacco. ...
Winnemucca: city, seat (1873) of Humboldt county, in northwestern Nevada, U.S., on the Humboldt River. Originally known as French Ford for the first settler, the Frenchman Joseph Ginacca, who operated a ferry across the Humboldt, Winnemucca served as a supply centre ...
Winnemucca, Sarah: Native American educator, lecturer, tribal leader, and writer best known for her book Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883). Her writings, valuable for their description of Northern Paiute life and for their insights into the impact of ...
Winnetka: village, Cook county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. It lies along Lake Michigan and is an affluent residential suburb of Chicago, located about 20 miles (30 km) north of downtown. German settler Michael Schmidt arrived in the area in 1826, and 10 ...
Winnetka Plan: widely imitated educational experiment in individualized ungraded learning, developed in 1919 under the leadership of Carleton Washburne in the elementary school system of Winnetka, Ill., U.S. The Winnetka Plan grew out of the reaction of many educators to the uniform ...
Winnipeg: city, capital (1870) of Manitoba, Canada. It lies at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Lake Winnipeg and 60 miles (95 km) north of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Winnipeg is the ...
Winnipeg Free Press: daily newspaper published in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Can., whose outspoken independence and championship of public service and minority causes have made it known as "Canada's Gadfly."
Winnipeg River: river in southeastern Manitoba and western Ontario, Canada. The river issues from the Lake of the Woods along the Canada-U.S. border and flows generally northwestward through several lakes for about 200 miles (320 km), draining an area of 48,880 square ...
Winnipeg, Lake: lake in south-central Manitoba, Canada, at the southwestern edge of the Canadian Shield, the rocky, glaciated region of eastern Canada. Fed by many rivers, including the Saskatchewan, Red, and Winnipeg, which drain a large part of the Great Plains, the ...
Winnipegosis, Lake: lake in western Manitoba, Canada, between Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan border, a remnant of glacial Lake Agassiz. Supplied by numerous small streams on the west, the 2,075-square-mile (5,374-square-kilometre) lake is drained southeastward into Lake Manitoba and thence into Lake ...
Winnipesaukee, Lake: lake in Belknap and Carroll counties, east-central New Hampshire, U.S. It lies at the foothills of the White Mountains east of Laconia. The state's largest lake, Winnipesaukee is of glacial origin and irregular in shape. It is 20 miles (32 ...
Winogradsky, Sergey Nikolayevich: Russian microbiologist whose discoveries concerning the physiology of the processes of nitrification and nitrogen fixation by soil bacteria helped to establish bacteriology as a major biological science.
Winona: city, seat of Winona county, southeastern Minnesota, U.S. It lies in the Hiawatha Valley on the Mississippi River (bridged to Wisconsin), backed by high bluffs, in a mixed-farming area, about 45 miles (70 km) east of Rochester. Franciscan missionary Louis ...
Winona State University: coeducational institution of higher learning, located in the Hiawatha Valley of the Mississippi River in Winona, southeastern Minnesota, U.S. It is the oldest school in the Minnesota State University system. Founded in 1858 as a normal (teacher-training) school, it was ...
Winooski: city, Chittenden county, northwestern Vermont, U.S. The city lies on a steep side hill rising from the Winooski River just northeast of Burlington. It was founded in 1787 by Ira Allen and Remember Baker, Vermont pioneers who were attracted by ...
Winooski River: river in north-central Vermont, U.S. It rises near Cabot in Washington county and flows southwest, then northwest across the state through the Green Mountains, past Montpelier and Waterbury, to drain into Lake Champlain near Winooski after a course of about ...
Winslow: city, Navajo county, east-central Arizona, U.S. It lies in the valley of the Little Colorado River. Founded in 1882 as a divisional terminal of what was then the Santa Fe Railway, it was named for Edward F. Winslow, a railroad ...
Winslow, Edward: English founder of the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts.
Winslow, Josiah: British-American military leader and governor of the Plymouth colony who established the colony's first public school.
Winsor, Justin: librarian who, as superintendent of the Boston Public Library (1868-77) and librarian of Harvard University (from 1877), came to be regarded as the leading figure of the library profession in the United States.
Winstanley, Gerrard: leader and theoretician of the group of English agrarian communists known as the Diggers, who in 1649-50 cultivated common land on St. George's Hill, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and at nearby Cobham until they were dispersed by force and legal harassment. They ...
Winsted: city and principal community in the town (township) of Winchester, Litchfield county, northwestern Connecticut, U.S., at the confluence of the Still and Mad rivers. The area was settled in 1750. Winsted, named from a combination of Winchester and Barkhampsted (which ...
Winstedt, Sir Richard Olof: director of education in British Malaya who shaped Malay education and produced an extensive body of writings on Malaya.
Winston-Salem: city, port of entry, and seat of Forsyth county, in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, U.S. With High Point and Greensboro it forms the Piedmont Triad metropolitan area.
winter: coldest season of the year, between autumn and spring; the name comes from an old Germanic word that means "time of water" and refers to the rain and snow of winter in middle and high latitudes. In the Northern Hemisphere, ...