Severocesk�

Also called �Severn� Cechy�, English �Northern Bohemia� kraj (region), northwestern Czech Republic. It is the smallest of the country's regions. Severocesk� is bounded on the north by Germany and Poland, on the east by V�chodocesk� kraj, on the south by Stredocesk� kraj, and on the west by Z�padocesk� kraj. The north of the region is dominated by the Ore (Kru

Culebra Island

Spanish �Isla De Culebra, � island, Puerto Rico, 20 miles (30 km) east of Puerto Rico island and 15 miles west of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. The island fronts north on the Atlantic Ocean and south and west on Vieques Sound, which connects the Atlantic with the Caribbean Sea. About 7 miles (11 km) long and 2 miles (3 km) wide, Culebra Island is 10 square miles (26 square km) in area. Its hilly, almost barren mass of limestone and igneous

Aleut

The Aleuts hunted seals, sea otters, whales,

Ford, Betty

After Gerald Ford narrowly lost the election of 1976 to Jimmy Carter, the Fords retired to Rancho Mirage, California, where Betty's dependence on prescription drugs continued. In early 1978, under pressure from her family, she agreed to enter a treatment centre in Long Beach, California. After her successful stay she founded the Betty Ford Center to treat others with similar addictions; the centre became very popular and attracted patients from all walks of life. Although much about her life was traditional, Betty Ford compiled a remarkably independent record as first lady, and she became enormously popular for her honesty and candour.

Pacific Railway Acts

The first Pacific Railway Act (July 1, 1862) authorized the building of the railroad and granted rights of way to the Union Pacific to build westward from Omaha, Neb., and to the Central Pacific to build eastward from Sacramento, Calif.

Douglas, Keith Castellain

Douglas' education at Oxford University was cut short by the outbreak of war. By 1941 he was serving as a tank commander in North Africa, where some of his most powerful poems were

Tracy, Spencer

As a youth Tracy was bored by schoolwork and joined the navy at age 17. Despite his distaste for academics, he eventually became a premed

Hay, John (milton)

Hay studied law in Springfield, Ill., where he met the future president Abraham Lincoln. He served as President Lincoln's private

Kirkcaldy (of Grange), Sir William

Kirkcaldy was one of the Protestant conspirators who murdered the powerful cardinal David Beaton at St. Andrews Castle in May 1546. From 1550 to 1556 he served in France as a secret agent for England. He returned to Scotland in 1557 and two years later joined the Protestant lords

California, Industry

The aircraft plants and shipyards were supplemented after World War II by branch plants of many Eastern and Midwestern industries. Federal research-and-development funds allocated to California organizations also contributed to the postwar economy. By the 1970s and '80s, California's industries had diversified to include computer sciences, biotechnology, and health

Costello, Frank

Arriving in New York City at the age of four with his immigrant Calabrian parents, Costello grew up in East Harlem and became head of the 104th Street Gang, a group of young Italian hoodlums. In 1915 he went to prison for a year for

Philadelphia Orchestra

From Stokowski's tenure, the orchestra was renowned for its interpretation of the symphonic

Tyson, Mike

A member of various street gangs at an early age, Tyson was sent to reform school in upstate New York in 1978. At the reform school, social worker and boxing aficionado Bobby Stewart recognized his boxing potential and directed him to renowned trainer Cus D'Amato,

Quintana, Manuel Jos�

After studying law at the University of Salamanca, he went to Madrid to begin his

Ocean Current

The direction and form of oceanic currents is governed by a number of natural forces, including principally horizontal pressure gradient forces; forces generated by variable density of seawater, which is

Chang And Eng

Chang and Eng, joined at the waist by a tubular band of tissue about 3.25 inches (8 cm) long

Priapus

In Greek religion, a god of animal and vegetable fertility whose cult was originally located in the Hellespontine regions, centring especially on Lampsacus. He was represented in a caricature of the human form, grotesquely misshapen, with an enormous phallus. The ass was sacrificed in his honour, probably because the ass symbolized lecherousness and was associated

Mellon, Andrew W.

After completing his studies at Western University (now the University of Pittsburgh), Mellon entered

Gir Forest National Park

The Gir Forests Reserve, created in 1913 to protect the largest

Amado, Jorge

Fred P. Ellison, Brazil's New Novel: Four Northeastern Masters (1954; reprinted 1979); Bobby J. Chamberlain, Jorge Amado (1990).

India, House Of

Also called �House Of Guinea, House Of Guinea And Mina, or House Of Mina, �Portuguese �Casa Da India, Casa Da Guin�, Casa De Guin� E Mina, or Casa Da Mina, � 15th-century Portuguese establishment that managed the trade in products from overseas colonies. It was called House of Guinea because it began by processing products from Guinea. Originally housed in a warehouse at Lagos in southern Portugal, it was reestablished in Lisbon with the death of Prince Henry the Navigator (1460). As trade from S�o Jorge da Mina (now Elmina, Ghana)

Aesthetics

Many attempts have been made to develop a specifically Marxist aesthetics, one that would incorporate the Marxian theory of history and class consciousness and the critique of bourgeois ideology, so as to generate principles of analysis and evaluation and show the place of art in the theory and practice of revolution. William Morris in En-gland and Georgy V. Plekhanov

Valera Y Alcal� Galiano, Juan

His novels are characterized by deep psychological analysis of the characters, especially women. He was opposed to naturalistic

Technical Assistance

Form of aid given to less-developed countries by international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and its agencies, individual governments, foundations, and philanthropic institutions. Its object is to provide those countries with the expertise needed to promote development. Most technical-assistance programs began after World War II, when much of

Yad

Plural �Yadayim, � in Judaism, a ritual object, usually made of silver but sometimes of wood or other materials, that consists of a shaft affixed to a miniature representation of a hand with its index finger pointing. The yad is used optionally in liturgical services to indicate the place that is being read on a Torah (biblical) scroll, thus eliminating the necessity of touching the sacred

Theodosius I

In 379 and 380 Theodosius resided chiefly in Thessalonica. He sought first to rebuild the army, the discipline of which was considerably impaired, and to consolidate Rome's position on the Balkan peninsula. Military unpreparedness could not be overcome by conscription alone, which applied only to certain classes. Theodosius therefore directed that large numbers of

Tudor, Antony

He began his dance studies at 19 years of age with Marie Rambert and for her company choreographed his first ballet, Cross-Gartered (1931), based on an incident in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. In 1938 he founded his own company,

Henbane

(Hyoscyamus niger), any plant of the family Solanaceae (q.v.), indigenous to Great Britain and found growing wild in waste places and on rubbish heaps. It also occurs in central and southern Europe and in western Asia extending to India and Siberia, and has long been naturalized in the United States. There are two forms of the plant, an annual and a biennial. The annual grows

Aeschylus, Texts

The Greek text is available in Denys Page (ed.), Aeschyli septem quae supersunt tragoedias (1972, reprinted 1975), in the Oxford Classical Text series. Herbert Weir Smyth (trans.), Aeschylus, 2 vol. (1922 - 26, reprinted 1973 - 83), in the Loeb Classical Library series, presents the original text with an English translation.

Switzerland, Tourism

International tourist receipts amount to a considerable sum in Switzerland, but expenditures by Swiss abroad are also significant. Whatever surplus occurs is used to cover any deficit in the Swiss balance of payments. During the Middle Ages healing spas such as Baden, Bad Pf�fers, Leukerbad, and Rheinfelden flourished, while mountain-pass hospices such as those