Camag�

Provincia, east-central Cuba, bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Ciego de �vila province, on the east by Las Tunas province, and on the south by the Caribbean Sea. It was established in 1879 as Puerto Pr�ncipe; the province of Ciego de �vila was separated from Camag�ey province in 1976. It is Cuba's largest province. Camag�ey's early importance as a cattle-raising

Van Fleet, Jo

U.S. actress who played bold, matronly women on stage and screen, notably in Elia Kazan films, beginning with her role as the mother of James Dean's character in East of Eden (1955), for which she won an Academy Award (b. Dec. 30, 1919--d. June 10, 1996).

Magnus V Erlingsson

The son of Erling the Crooked, Magnus became king in 1162 when his supporters, led by his father, defeated the forces of the incumbent king, Haakon II Sigurdsson.

Astrophysics

Branch of astronomy concerned primarily with the properties and structure of cosmic objects, including the universe as a whole. See astronomy.

Mid Devon

District, administrative and historic county of Devon, southwestern England, located between the bleak moorlands of Exmoor and Dartmoor. Mid Devon is a heavily dissected interior plateau 400 to 800 feet (120 to 245 metres) in elevation. It has variable soil types suited for grassland cultivation, except in the south-central area where the merging Exe, Culm, and Yeo river valleys

Music

Major pop artists Pink Floyd, the Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, and Billy Joel and Elton John (together) undertook tours in 1994, restoring the summer concert business to prosperity after several slow years. Pink Floyd toured in support of The Division Bell, the group's first studio album in seven years. Dramatic, sweeping, and laced with the sonorous guitar

Utilitarianism

In normative ethics, a tradition stemming from the late 18th- and 19th-century English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness - not just the happiness of the performer of the action but also that of everyone affected by it. Such a theory

China, The dynastic succession

The Ming dynasty, which encompassed the reigns of 16 emperors, proved to be one of the stablest and longest dynasties of Chinese history. Rulers of Korea, Mongolia, East Turkistan, Burma, Siam, and Nam Viet regularly acknowledged Ming overlordship, and at times tribute was received from as far away as Japan, Java and Sumatra, Ceylon and South India, the East African coast,

N'djamena

Formerly �Fort-lamy, � capital of Chad, on the southwestern border, adjacent to Cameroon. It lies on the east bank of the Chari (Shari) River at its confluence with the Logone River in an alluvial plain that is flooded during the rainy season (July - September). The city was founded in 1900 across the Chari River from Fort-Fureau (Kousseri), where French colonial troops defeated and killed the Sudanese

Sennacherib

Sennacherib's most enduring work was the rebuilding of Nineveh, his official residence as crown prince. On his accession he made it his capital, building a splendid new palace, Shanina-la-ishu (�Nonesuch�). Using prisoners of war for labour, he extended and beautified the city, laying out streets, restoring and extending public buildings, and erecting a great inner wall,

Steer Roping

Rodeo event in which a mounted cowboy pursues a full-grown steer; lassos it with his rope, catching the animal by the horns; fastens the rope to his saddle; and stops his horse suddenly, throwing the steer to the ground. The cowboy then quickly dismounts and ties three of the steer's feet, raising both hands to signal completion. The event is timed, and the contestant with

Robert Of Gloucester

Early Middle English chronicler known only through his connection with the work called �The Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester� - a vernacular history of England from its legendary founding by Brut (Brutus), great-grandson of Aeneas, to the year 1270. It was written, probably around 1300, in rhymed couplets. Two versions exist, and it is now believed that only one part, dealing with

Chadic Languages

Group of languages spoken in northern Nigeria, northern Ghana, Niger, and Cameroon and in parts of Togo, Benin, Chad, and the Central African Republic and generally classified as a branch of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Hamito-Semitic) language family. The group includes many languages that are spoken by small numbers of people and that have no written form; among these

Pacific Ocean, Relief

The Pacific basin may conveniently be divided into three major physiographic regions: the eastern, western, and central Pacific regions.

Asbest

City, Sverdlovsk oblast (province), west-central Russia. It lies in the eastern foothills of the middle Ural Mountains. Developed from the settlement of Kudelka, founded in 1720 around the first Russian discovery of asbestos - from which it takes its name - it became a city in 1933. Asbestos production from the Bazhenovo deposit has been carried on since the 1880s. A century later the

Ghent

One of Belgium's oldest cities and the historic capital of Flanders, Ghent was powerful, well-organized in its wealthy trade

Arachnid, Annotated classification

Chelicerate arthropods with adult body composed of 18 somites, divided into anterior prosoma (6 somites) and posterior opisthosoma

Olsen, Tillie

Olsen's early adult life was devoted to political activism and to rearing a family. Her first novel, begun at the age of 19, was set aside for 35 years. Though she never finished it, Olsen eventually published the reconstructed manuscript as Yonnondio:

Switzerland, Industry

Switzerland's transformation into an industrial state began during the second half of the 19th century. Today the major exports are machinery and equipment, chemicals and drugs, watches, and textiles and apparel. Lacking mineral and agricultural raw materials, Switzerland is forced to import raw materials, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods by rail, truck, and barge;

Myanmar (burma)

In late May Myanmar's military junta, the State

France, History Of, Absolutism of Louis

Thus, in religious matters (except where Jansenism was concerned), in his dealings with the nobility and the Parlement, in his attitude to the economy, and in his manner of governing the country, Louis revealed a desire to exercise a paternal control of affairs that might suggest a modern dictator rather than a 17th-century king. Though such a comparison has been made, it

Drop Cut

Method of faceting gemstones into a pear shape suitable for pendants, earrings, and other jewelry. A pendeloque is a pear-shaped modification of the round brilliant cut used for diamonds. A briolette is an elongated, pear-shaped stone covered with bands of triangular or rectangular facets, usually with a pointed end and without a girdle.

Interior Design, Space planning

Although many designers are engaged in residential interior design, there has been a marked shift away from that field since 1950, and more designers than ever work in the design of public, institutional, and commercial spaces. Space planning for business firms, governmental agencies, and institutions is a significant aspect of office design and is concerned primarily

Ahmad Ibn Tulun

As a child Ahmad was taken into slavery and placed in the private service of the 'Abbasid caliph (the titular leader of the Islamic community) at Baghdad. Later he studied theology in the city of Tarsus. He rose in the administrative structure of the 'Abbasid

Kweichow

Chinese (Wade-Giles) �Kuei-chou, �(Pinyin) �Guizhou, � sheng (province) of southwestern China. It is bounded on the north by Szechwan, on the east by Hunan, on the south by the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi, and on the west by Yunnan. Kweichow measures more than 350 miles (560 kilometres) from east to west and about 320 miles from north to south. It has an area of 68,000 square miles (176,100 square kilometres). The provincial capital is centrally located

Abbeville

K�mil Pasa, Mehmed

Trained as a military officer in Cairo, K�mil held a succession of government posts until he became grand vizier in 1885 - 91 and again in 1895. Sultan Abd�lhamid II dismissed him because he proposed a cabinet responsible to Parliament, and he then served as governor of Smyrna

Bahamas, The

A constitutional monarchy and member of the Commonwealth, The Bahamas comprises an archipelago of about 700 islands in the North Atlantic Ocean just southeast of the United States. Area: 13,939 sq km (5,382 sq mi). Pop. (1996 est.): 280,000. Cap.: Nassau. Monetary unit: Bahamian dollar, with (Oct. 11, 1996) a par value of B$1 to U.S. $1 (free rate of B$1.58 = � 1 sterling). Queen, Elizabeth II; governor-general in 1996, Orville Turnquest; prime minister,

Dog, Ailments

Fleas and ticks are sources of irritation and disease in every climate of the world (with the possible exception of the Arctic). Regular bathing and grooming helps to keep these and other external parasites under control. Treatment of the animal and its environment are essential to eliminate these pests. In some areas this is a yearlong process, whereas in other climates

Lipscomb, William Nunn, Jr.

Lipscomb graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1941 and earned his Ph.D. in 1946 from the California Institute of Technology. He worked as a physical chemist in the Office