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Bayamo ... Beals, Jessie Tarbox
Bayamo
city, capital of Granma provincia, eastern Cuba. Lying on the Bayamo River, it was founded as San Salvador de Bayamo in 1513. In colonial times it was one of Cuba's ...
Bayamon
town, northeastern Puerto Rico, part of the metropolitan area of San Juan, 10 miles (16 km) northeast. Puerto Rico's first settlement, Caparra, was founded in the area in 1508 by ...
Bayan
powerful Mongol minister in the last years of the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty of China. His anti-Chinese policies heightened discontent among the Chinese, especially the educated, and resulted in widespread rebellion.
Bayar, Celal
third president of the Turkish Republic (1950-60), who initiated etatism, or a state-directed economy, in Turkey in the 1930s and who after 1946, as the leader of the Democrat Party, ...
Bayard, Pierre Terrail, seigneur de
French soldier known as le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche ("the knight without fear and without reproach").
Bayard, Thomas Francis
American statesman, diplomat, and lawyer.
Baybars I
most eminent of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt and Syria, which he ruled from 1260 to 1277. He is noted both for his military campaigns against Mongols and crusaders and ...
bayberry
any of several aromatic shrubs and small trees of the genus Myrica in the bayberry family (Myricaceae), but especially M. pennsylvanica, also called candleberry, whose grayish waxy berries, upon boiling, ...
Bayda', Al-
town, in south-central Yemen. It is situated on a high plateau and, until the unification of the two Yemen states in 1990, was part of North Yemen (San'a'), though it ...
Bayer AG
German chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in 1863 by Friedrich Bayer (1825-80), who was a chemical salesman, and Johann Friedrich Weskott (1821-76), who owned a dye company. Company headquarters, originally ...
Bayer, Friedrich
German businessman who founded the chemical firm that became the world-famous Bayer AG (q.v.).
Bayer, Herbert
German-American graphic artist, painter, and architect, influential in spreading European principles of advertising in the United States.
Bayer, Johann
German astronomer whose book Uranometria (1603) promulgated a system of identifying all stars visible to the naked eye.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
German automaker noted for quality sports sedans and motorcycles. Headquarters are in Munich.
Bayes's theorem
in probability theory, a means for revising predictions in light of relevant evidence, also known as conditional probability or inverse probability. The theorem was discovered among the papers of the ...
Bayes, Nora
American singer in vogue in the early 1900s in musical revues, notably the Ziegfeld Follies.
Bayes, Thomas
English Nonconformist theologian and mathematician who was the first to use probability inductively and who established a mathematical basis for probability inference (a means of calculating, from the frequency with ...
Bayeu, Francisco
painter, the brother-in-law of Francisco de Goya and court painter to King Charles III of Spain. Considered by his contemporaries to be the finest Spanish painter of the period, he ...
Bayeux
town, Calvados departement, Basse-Normandie region, northwestern France, on the Aure River, northwest of Caen. As Bajocasses, it was a capital of the Gauls, then, as Augustodurum and, later, Civitas Baiocassium, ...
Bayeux Tapestry
medieval embroidery depicting the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, remarkable as a work of art and important as a source for 11th-century history.
Bayezid I
Ottoman sultan in 1389-1402 who founded the first centralized Ottoman state based on traditional Turkish and Muslim institutions and who stressed the need to extend Ottoman dominion in Anatolia.
Bayezid II
Ottoman sultan (1481-1512) who consolidated Ottoman rule in the Balkans, Anatolia, and the eastern Mediterranean and successfully opposed the Safavid dynasty of Persia.
Bayinnaung
king of the Toungoo dynasty (reigned 1551-81) in Myanmar (Burma). He unified his country and conquered the Shan States and Siam (now Thailand), making Myanmar the most powerful kingdom in ...
Bayle, Pierre
philosopher whose Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697; "Historical and Critical Dictionary") was roundly condemned by the French Reformed Church of Rotterdam and by the French Roman Catholic church because of ...
Baylebridge, William
poet and short-story writer considered one of the leading writers of Australia in his day.
Baylis, Lilian Mary
theatrical manager and founder of the Old Vic as a centre of Shakespearean productions.
Bayliss, Sir William Maddock
British physiologist, co-discoverer (with the British physiologist Ernest Starling) of hormones; he conducted pioneer research in major areas of physiology, biochemistry, and physical chemistry.
Baylor University
private, coeducational institution of higher learning located in Waco, Texas, U.S. Baylor, affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is the world's largest Baptist university and the oldest college ...
Baylor, Elgin
U.S. professional basketball player (6 ft 5 in) who is regarded as one of the game's greatest forwards. His graceful style enabled him to score and rebound with seeming ease.
Baynes, Thomas Spencer
man of letters who was editor of the ninth edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica up to and including the 11th volume and who thereafter continued the work in partnership with William ...
bayonet
short, sharp-edged, sometimes pointed weapon, designed for attachment to the muzzle of a firearm and developed, according to tradition, in Bayonne, Fr., early in the 17th century. The Marechal de ...
Bayonne
town, Pyrenees-Atlantiques departement, Aquitaine region, southwestern France, at the confluence of the Nive with the Adour River, 5 miles (8 km) from its mouth. ...
Bayonne
city, Hudson county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S., on a 3-mile (5-km) peninsula between Newark and Upper New York bays, adjacent to Jersey City, New Jersey, and within the Port Authority ...
Bayreuth
city, Bavaria Land (state), east-central Germany. It lies on the Roter (Red) Main River between the Fichtelgebirge (mountainous plateau) and the Franconian Jura Mountains, northeast of Nurnberg.
Bayswater
neighbourhood in the Paddington district of Westminster, London. It lies west of Edgware Road and north of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.
Baytown
city, Harris county, southeastern Texas, U.S., at the mouth of the San Jacinto River on Galveston Bay, 22 miles (35 km) east of Houston. The area was settled in 1822; ...
Baza
city, Granada province, in the autonomous community (region) of Andalusia, southern Spain, at the foot of the Sierra de Baza, northeast of Granada city. The city contains the ruins of ...
bazaar
originally, a public market district of a Persian town. From Persia the term spread to Arabia (the Arabic word suq is synonymous), Turkey, and North Africa. In ...
Bazaine, Achille
marshal of France who, after distinguished service during the Second Empire, was sentenced to death for his surrender of Metz and 140,000 men to the Germans on Oct. 27, 1870, ...
Bazalgette, Sir Joseph William
British civil engineer who designed the main drainage system for London.
Bazargan, Mehdi
Iranian educator and politician who in 1979 became the first prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Unable to stem the tide of violent extremism under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, ...
Bazaruto Island
island, Mozambique. It is situated in the Mozambique Channel of the Indian Ocean, about 15 miles (24 km) offshore from the town of Inhassoro and 130 miles (209 km) southeast ...
Bazille, Jean-Frederic
painter, who, as friend, benefactor, and colleague of the Impressionists, played an important role during the movement's formative years.
Bazin, Henri-Emile
engineer and member of the French Corps des Ponts et Chaussees ("Corps of Bridges and Highways") whose contributions to hydraulics and fluid mechanics include the classic study of water flow ...
Bazin, Herve
French author whose witty and satirical novels often focus on the problems within families and marriages.
Bazin, Rene
French novelist of provincial life, strongly traditionalist in outlook. His works express in simple but elegant style his love of nature, of simple virtues, and of work, especially on the ...
Baziotes, William
American painter who was one of the leading members of the New York Abstract Expressionist group from the late 1940s, when it became the most influential movement in international art.
bazooka
shoulder-type rocket launcher adopted by the U.S. Army in World War II. The weapon consisted of a smooth-bore steel tube, originally about 5 feet (1.5 m) long, open at both ...
Bazzaz, 'Abd al-Rahman al-
Iraqi politician who was prime minister of Iraq from 1965 to 1966.
BCG vaccine
vaccine against tuberculosis, prepared from a weakened strain of tuberculosis bacteria named BCG-bacille Calmette-Guerin, for the French scientists who developed the product. The vaccine is of particular importance for those ...
BCS theory
in physics, a comprehensive theory developed in 1957 by the American physicists John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper, and John R. Schrieffer (their surname initials providing the designation BCS) to explain ...
BD
abbreviation of Bonner Durchmusterung (q.v.), an astronomical catalog.
be
any of the hereditary occupational groups in early Japan (c. 5th-mid-7th century), established to provide specific economic services and a continuous inflow of revenue for the uji, or lineage groups. ...
beach
sediments that accumulate along the sea or lake shores, the configuration and contours of which depend on the action of coastal processes, the kinds of sediment involved, and the rate ...
Beach Boys, the
American rock group whose dulcet melodies and distinctive vocal mesh defined the 1960s youthful idyll of sun-drenched southern California. The original members were Brian Wilson (b. June 20, 1942, Inglewood, ...
beach grass
any of the sand-binding plants in the genus Ammophila (family Poaceae). These coarse, perennial grasses are about one metre (about three feet) tall and grow on sandy coasts of temperate ...
beach pea
(Lathyrus maritimus, sometimes L. japonicus), sprawling perennial plant in the pea family (Fabaceae). It occurs on gravelly and sandy coastal areas throughout the North Temperate Zone. The stem is 30-60 ...
Beach, Alfred Ely
American publisher and inventor whose Scientific American helped stimulate 19th-century technological innovations and became one of the world's most prestigious science magazines. Beach himself invented a tunneling ...
Beach, Amy Marcy
American pianist and composer known for her Piano Concerto (1900) and her Gaelic Symphony (1894), the first symphony by an American woman composer.
Beach, Sylvia
bookshop operator who became important in the literary life of Paris, particularly in the 1920s, when her shop was a gathering place for expatriate writers and a centre where French ...
Beachy Head
prominent headland on the English Channel coast in the administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, in the borough of Eastbourne. Its chalk cliffs, more than 500 ...
Beacon
city, Dutchess county, southeastern New York, U.S. It lies at the foot of Mount Beacon, on the east bank of the Hudson River (there bridged to Newburgh), 58 miles (93 ...
Beaconsfield
town in northern Tasmania, Australia. It lies on the west bank of the Tamar River, 29 miles (46 km) northwest of Launceston. The site of the present town, originally known ...
Beaconsfield
town in South Bucks district, administrative and historic county of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills.
bead
small, usually round object made of glass, wood, metal, nut, shell, bone, seed, or the like, pierced for stringing. Among primitive peoples, beads were worn as much for magical as ...
bead lightning
form of lightning of longer duration than more typical lightning that appears as a string of luminous segments instead of a continuous channel. It occurs infrequently but has been observed ...
Beadle, George Wells
American geneticist who helped found biochemical genetics when he showed that genes affect heredity by determining enzyme structure. He shared the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Edward ...
beadwork
use of beads in fabric decoration; beads may be individually stitched, applied in threaded lengths, or actually woven into the material, the weft threaded with beads before being woven in. ...
Beagle
British naval vessel aboard which Charles Darwin served as naturalist on a voyage to South America and around the world (1831-36). The specimens and observations accumulated on this voyage gave ...
beagle
small hound-dog breed popular as both a pet and a hunter. It looks like a small foxhound and has large brown eyes, hanging ears, and a short coat, usually a ...
Beagle Channel
strait in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the southern tip of South America. The channel, trending east-west, is about 150 mi (240 km) long and 3 to 8 mi ...
beak
stiff, projecting oral structure of certain animals. Beaks are present in a few invertebrates (e.g., cephalopods and some insects), some fishes and mammals, and all birds and turtles. Many dinosaurs ...
beak style
distinctive use of birdlike forms in human figures carved in wood in the lower Sepik and Ramu regions of Papua New Guinea. The head of the figure is generally placed ...
beaked whale
any of 21 species of medium-sized toothed whales with extended snouts, including the bottlenose whales. Little is known about this family of cetaceans; one species was first described in 1995, ...
Beaker folk
Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age people living about 6,000 years ago in the temperate zones of Europe; they received their name from their distinctive bell-shaped beakers, decorated in horizontal zones by ...
Beals, Jessie Tarbox
American photographer who was one of the first women in the United States to have a career as a photojournalist.