Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Wallis Islands ... Walvis Bay

Wallis Islands: group of 23 islands and islets forming the northeastern part of the French overseas territory of Wallis and Futuna, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Composed of the island of Uvea (also called Wallis Island) and its surrounding ring of coral ...
Wallis, Hal B: American motion-picture producer, associated with more than 400 feature-length films from the late 1920s to the mid-1970s.
Wallis, John: English mathematician who contributed substantially to the origins of the calculus and was the most influential English mathematician before Isaac Newton.
Wallis, Sir Barnes: British aeronautical designer and military engineer who invented the innovative "dambuster" bombs used in World War II.
Wallis, Wilson D: American anthropologist noted for his explorations of primitive science and religions.
Wallonia: region that comprises the southern half of Belgium. Wallonia was created in 1995 in the reorganization of Belgium's provincial administration along ethno-linguistic lines. It consists of the French-speaking provinces of Hainaut, Liege, Luxembourg, Namur, and Walloon Brabant. Wallonia's elected assembly ...
Walloon Brabant: province, south-central Belgium. It is bordered by the provinces of Flemish Brabant to the north, Liege to the southeast, Namur to the south, and Hainaut to the southwest. Walloon Brabant is French-speaking and was created in 1995 when Brabant province ...
wallpaper: ornamental and utilitarian covering for walls made from long sheets of paper that have been stenciled, painted, or printed with abstract or narrative designs. Wallpaper developed soon after the introduction of papermaking to Europe during the latter part of the ...
Wallraf-Richartz Museum: art collection now housed in a modern building in Cologne, Ger. The strength of the collection, which dates from 1824, lies chiefly in German painting, though it includes fine works from most other western European schools. The museum also has ...
Wallsend: town, North Tyneside metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, historic county of Northumberland, England. The Romans built Segedunum there to defend the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall, a defensive structure protecting England from raids from the north. Modern ...
walnut: any of about 20 species of deciduous trees constituting the genus Juglans of the family Juglandaceae, native to North and South America, southern Europe, Asia, and the West Indies. The trees have long leaves with 5 to 23 short-stalked leaflets; ...
Walnut Canyon National Monument: archaeological site and natural area in north-central Arizona, U.S., on Walnut Creek, 10 miles (16 km) east-southeast of Flagstaff. Established in 1915, it has an area of 6 square miles (15 square km).
Walnut Creek: city, Contra Costa county, northwestern California, U.S. It lies in the San Ramon Valley, east of both San Francisco and Oakland. Spanish explorers arrived in the region in the 1770s, and in the early 1800s the area became part of ...
Walpi: pueblo (village), Navajo county, northeastern Arizona, U.S., on the edge of a high mesa in the Hopi Indian Reservation. It comprises a group of angular stone houses of two to three stories crowded on a narrow tip of the steep-walled ...
Walpole, Horace, 4th Earl Of Orford: original name Horatio Walpole English writer, connoisseur, and collector who was famous in his day for his medieval horror tale The Castle of Otranto, which initiated the vogue for Gothic romances. He is remembered today as perhaps the most assiduous ...
Walpole, Robert, 1st earl of Orford: British statesman (in power 1721-42), generally regarded as the first British prime minister. He deliberately cultivated a frank, hearty manner, but his political subtlety has scarcely been equaled.
Walpole, Sir Hugh: British novelist, critic, and dramatist, a natural storyteller with a fine flow of words and romantic invention.
Walras, Leon: French-born economist whose work Elements d'economie politique pure (1874-77; Elements of Pure Economics) was one of the first comprehensive mathematical analyses of general economic equilibrium. Because Walras wrote in French, his work did not get much attention in Britain, the ...
Walrond, Eric: Caribbean writer who was associated with the Harlem Renaissance literary movement in New York City.
walrus: huge, seal-like mammal found in Arctic seas. There are two subspecies: the Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) and the Pacific walrus (O. rosmarus divergens). Male Pacific walrus are slightly larger, with longer tusks.
Walsall: metropolitan borough, metropolitan county of West Midlands, historic county of Staffordshire, England. It is situated on a ridge between the industrial districts of Wolverhampton and Birmingham and is centred on the historic town of Walsall.
Walsenburg: city, seat (1874) of Huerfano county, southern Colorado, U.S., on the Cucharas River, east of the Sangre de Cristo Range and south of Pueblo, at an elevation of 6,187 feet (1,886 metres). Formed in 1873 from a small Spanish village ...
Walsh, Bill: influential American gridiron football coach whose "West Coast offense" changed pro football during the 1980s. Among his most celebrated players were quarterback Joe Montana and receiver Jerry Rice, holder of nearly every professional pass-catching record.
Walsh, Courtney: Jamaican cricketer who in 2001 became the first bowler to attain more than 500 Test wickets.
Walsh, Raoul: U.S. motion-picture director popular in the 1930s and '40s for his tough, masculine films.
Walsh, Thomas J: U.S. Democratic senator (1913-33) who exposed (1923) the Teapot Dome scandal that shook the Republican administration of Pres. Warren G. Harding.
Walsingham, Sir Francis: English statesman and the principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I from 1573 to 1590. He was a skilled diplomat whose knowledge of languages and capacity to organize espionage activities made him invaluable in the execution of Elizabeth's foreign policy. In ...
Walsingham, Thomas: English Benedictine monk and chronicler of the abbey at St. Albans (Hertfordshire).
Waltari, Mika: Finnish author whose historical novels were international best-sellers.
Walter Of Coventry: English monk or friar, compiler of historical materials, best known for his collection Memoriale Fratris Walteri de Coventria. He probably belonged to a religious house in York diocese.
Walter, Bruno: German conductor known primarily for his interpretations of the Viennese school. Though out of step with 20th-century trends, he was such a fine musician that he became a major figure-filling the wide gulf between the extremes of his day, Arturo ...
Walter, John, I: English founder of The Times, London, and of a family that owned the newspaper for almost 125 years. Considered neither an outstanding nor an honest journalist, Walter nevertheless turned from scandal to more serious reportage and organized ...
Walter, John, II: English journalist, second son of John Walter I, founder of The Times, London, who developed (along with Thomas Barnes, editor in chief from 1817 to 1841) a great daily newspaper from a small partisan sheet. Building on ...
Walter, John, III: English proprietor of The Times, London, from the death of his father, John Walter II, in 1847.
Walter, Lucy: mistress of the British king Charles II and reputed mother of James Scott, duke of Monmouth (q.v.).
Walter, Thomas Ustick: architect important in American architecture for the quality and influence of his designs based upon ancient Greek models.
Walters, Barbara: American journalist known particularly for her highly effective technique in television interviews of world-renowned figures.
Waltham: city, Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., on the Charles River, just west of Boston. Settled in the 1630s, it was part of Watertown until separately incorporated in 1738. Abundant waterpower attracted early gristmills and paper mills. In 1813 the first ...
Waltham Forest: outer borough of London. It lies on the northeastern perimeter of the metropolis, adjoining the Green Belt, and is bounded on the north by Essex, on the east by Redbridge, and on the west by the River Lea and the ...
Waltharius: a Latin heroic poem of the 9th or 10th century dealing with Germanic hero legend. Its author was once thought to be the Swiss monk Ekkehard I the Elder (d. 973), but research since 1941 has determined that the author ...
Waltheof: earl of Northumbria and ancestor of the Scottish kings through the marriage of his daughter Matilda to King David I.
Walther Von Der Vogelweide: greatest German lyric poet of the Middle Ages, whose poetry emphasizes the virtues of a balanced life, in the social as in the personal sphere, and reflects his disapproval of those individuals, actions, and beliefs that disturbed this harmony. He ...
Walther, Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm: highly orthodox theologian whose conservative views played an important role in the early development of the Missouri Synod of American Lutheranism.
Walther, Johann Gottfried: German organist and composer who was one of the first musical lexicographers.
Walton, Ernest Thomas Sinton: Irish physicist, corecipient, with Sir John Douglas Cockcroft of England, of the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics for the development of the first nuclear particle accelerator, known as the Cockcroft-Walton generator.
Walton, Izaak: English biographer and author of The Compleat Angler (1653), a pastoral discourse on the joys and stratagems of fishing that has been one of the most frequently reprinted books in English literature.
Walton, Sam: American retail magnate who founded Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and developed it, by 1990, into the largest retail sales chain in the United States.
Walton, Sir William: English composer especially known for his orchestral music. His early work made him one of England's most important composers between the time of Vaughan Williams and that of Benjamin Britten.
Walton-le-Dale: town, industrial suburb of the town of Preston, South Ribble district, administrative and historic county of Lancashire, England. It overlooks the Rivers Darwen and Ribble. Waletune was of Anglo-Saxon origin, and the suffix le Dale was added ...
waltz: highly popular ballroom dance evolved from the landler in the 18th century. Characterized by a step, slide, and step in 34 time, the waltz, with its turning, embracing couples, at first shocked polite society. It became the ballroom dance par ...
Walvis Bay: town and anchorage in west-central Namibia (formerly South West Africa), lying along the Atlantic Ocean. It constituted an exclave of South Africa until 1992.