Davies, Marion

Marion's father, Bernard J. Douras, was a lawyer who would serve as New York City magistrate from 1918 to 1930. Her three older sisters - Reine, Ethel, and Rose - also became actors, and, like Reine, Marion used

Ash'ari, Abu Al-hasan Al-

An indispensable work for those who wish to read al-Ash'ari is Richard J. McCarthy (ed.), The Theology of al-Ash'ari (1953), containing the texts of two of his theological treatises with their English translation. W. Montgomery Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology, 2nd ed. (1985), places al-Ash'ari in the chronological development of Muslim thought.

Elijah Ben Solomon

The best accounts available in English are found in Solomon Schechter, Studies in Judaism, First Series (1896, reissued 1945); and Louis Ginzberg, Students, Scholars, and Saints (1928, reprinted 1985).

France, History Of, Sale of national lands

The Assembly had not lost sight of the financial crisis that precipitated the collapse of absolutism in the first place. Creating an entirely new option for its solution, the Assembly voted to place church property - about 10 percent of the land in France - �at the disposition of the nation.� This property was designated as biens nationaux, or national lands. The government

France, History Of, Sale of national lands

The Assembly had not lost sight of the financial crisis that precipitated the collapse of absolutism in the first place. Creating an entirely new option for its solution, the Assembly voted to place church property - about 10 percent of the land in France - �at the disposition of the nation.� This property was designated as biens nationaux, or national lands. The government

Devonshire, William Cavendish, 4th Duke Of, Marquess Of Hartington, Earl Of Devonshire, Baron Cavendish Of Hardwick

Eldest son of William Cavendish, the 3rd Duke (1698 - 1755), he was elected to the House of Commons in 1741 and 1747, and in 1751 he moved to the House of Lords, as Lord Cavendish of Hardwick, in his father's barony. After becoming lord lieutenant and governor-general

Orlov, Grigory Grigoryevich, Graf (count)

Having entered the cadet corps in 1749, Orlov became an artillery officer and fought in the Battle of

Teacher Education

While arrangements of one kind or another for the education of the young have existed at all times and in all societies, it is only recently that schools have emerged as distinctive institutions for this purpose on a mass scale, and

Arran, James Stewart, Earl Of

Both Stewart and his rival, Esm�, duke of Lennox, were deprived of office when the Protestant lords seized power by the raid of Ruthven (1582); but a year later they in turn were overthrown and driven into exile by Stewart. His tyranny and insolence, however,

Alban, Saint

According to the historian Bede, he served in the Roman army and was converted to Christianity by a fugitive priest whom he sheltered and with whom he exchanged clothes, so that he was martyred in the priest's place (c. 304; other dates suggested by scholars are c. 254 or c. 209). His feast day is commemorated

Steiger, Niklaus Friedrich Von

From a Bernese patrician family, Steiger was dispatched to Halle in Germany and Utrecht, Neth., for his education, eventually returning to Bern in 1754. Thereafter, he held several minor

Nice

Founded by the Phocaeans

Spain, The French wars

In these circumstances it is not surprising that Spain now became the victim rather than the initiator of aggression. In three successive wars with France (1667 - 68, 1672 - 78, 1689 - 97), Spain lost Franche-Comt� (Treaty of Nijmegen, 1678) and some Belgian frontier towns to France but still managed to hold on to the greater part of the southern Netherlands and the Italian dominions. The reason was less

Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold

Lenz studied theology at K�nigsberg University but gave up his studies in 1771 to travel to Strasbourg as a tutor and companion

Libya, Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

Agriculture is limited by the environment and by shortages of labour. Only about 1 percent of the total land area is cultivated, mostly on the Al-Jifarah and Barce plains, and about one-tenth of that is irrigated. An additional 8 percent of the land is in pasture. Agricultural development by land reclamation and irrigation is a government priority. The largest projects

Bahrain, Flag Of

The southern coast of the Persian Gulf was characterized by extensive warfare and piracy for many centuries. In 1820 the British were finally successful in enforcing peace on the local Arab states. The General Treaty of Peace signed at that time provided that those territories on friendly terms with the United Kingdom should include a white border on the plain red

Juantorena, Alberto

A member of the Cuban national basketball team, Juantorena switched to track at age 20. Standing 1.88 metres (6 feet 2 inches) tall with a powerful 2.75-metre (9-foot) stride, Juantorena became known as �El

'abd Allah Ibn Az-zubayr

As a youth Ibn az-Zubayr went on many of the military campaigns that marked the initial expansion

Rimu

Also called �New Zealand Red Pine, or Imou Pine� (Dacrydium cupressinum), coniferous timber tree of the family Podocarpaceae, native to New Zealand. The rimu tree may attain a height of 45 metres (150 feet) or more. The wood is reddish brown to yellowish brown, with a distinctive figuring, or marking, of light and dark streaks. It is made into furniture and interior fittings and is used in general construction. The bark contains

Hughes Medical Institute

In full� Howard Hughes Medical Institute,� American philanthropic foundation, established in 1953 by the aviator and industrialist Howard Hughes. From its offices in Bethesda, Md., the organization subsidizes biomedical research at hospitals and universities throughout the United States, chiefly in genetics, immunology, cell biology, structural biology, and the neurosciences. It also provides educational

Biblical Literature, Haggai

The Book of Haggai, the 10th book of the Twelve (Minor) Prophets, is a brief work of only two chapters. Written about 520 BCE by the prophet Haggai, the book contains four oracles. The first oracle calls for Zerubbabel, the governor of Judaea, and Joshua, the high priest, to rebuild the Temple (chapter 1, verses 1 - 11). A drought and poor harvests, according to Haggai, had been caused because the

China, The Tsinling Mountains

The Tsinling Mountains in Shensi Province are the greatest chain of mountains east of the Plateau of Tibet. The mountain chain consists of a high and rugged barrier extending from Kansu to Honan; geographers use a line between the chain and the Huai River to divide China proper into two parts - North and South. The altitude of the mountains varies from 3,000 to 10,000 feet. The western

Wilhelmj, August (emil Daniel Ferdinand Viktor)

A prodigy, he gave his first concert at the age of eight in Wiesbaden. He studied with Ferdinand David at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1861 to 1863, and with Joachim Raff

Argentina, Foreign policies

Rosas's foreign policies left no room for anything other than total success or total failure, and international difficulties arose as extensions of domestic turmoil. In January 1833 Britain reasserted an earlier claim to the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), and a British warship took possession of the islands. More troublesome was the growing independence of neighbouring

X Ray

The particle nature of X rays is graphically demonstrated in the photoelectric effect and the Compton effect. In an attempt to explain blackbody radiation (radiation from a theoretically perfectly nonreflecting, or completely absorbing [i.e., �black�], body), Max Planck postulated that energy is radiated in small packets, or quanta, with an energy given by hn, in which n is

Hill And Range

When Austrian immigrant brothers Jean and Julian Aberbach formed their Hill and Range publishing company in 1945, the name they chose made it clear which songwriters they were after - the country-and-western writers who had been long overlooked by the established publishers affiliated with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Offering

Alushta

Also spelled �Alu

Austin, Mary

Mary Hunter graduated from Blackburn College in 1888 and soon afterward moved with her family to Bakersfield, California. She married Stafford W. Austin in 1891, and for several years they lived in various towns in California's Owens Valley. Mary Austin

Uyuni Salt Flat

Spanish �Salar De Uyuni, � arid, windswept salt flat in southwestern Bolivia. It lies on the Altiplano, at 11,995 feet (3,656 m) above sea level. The Uyuni Salt Flat is Bolivia's largest salt-encrusted waste area (approximately 4,085 square miles [10,582 square km]) and is separated from the Coipasa Salt Flat, a similar but smaller feature to the north, by a range of hills. On its shores are saltworks at Salinas de Garci Mendoza