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beam ... Beaujoyeulx, Balthazar de

beam: in engineering, originally a solid piece of timber, as a beam of a house, a plow, a loom, or a balance. In building construction, a beam is a horizontal member ...
Beamon, Bob: American long jumper, who set a world record of 8.90 metres (29.2 feet) at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. The new record surpassed the existing mark by an ...
bean: seed or pod of certain leguminous plants of the family Fabaceae, originally of Vicia faba, an Old World species called broad bean, or fava bean. The mature seeds of the ...
Bean, Alan L: astronaut, participant in the Apollo 12 mission (Nov. 14-22, 1969), in which two long walks, totalling nearly eight hours, were made on the Moon's surface. Bean and Comdr. Charles Conrad, ...
Bean, Roy: justice of the peace and saloonkeeper who styled himself the "law west of the Pecos."
bear: any of nine species of large, short-tailed carnivores found in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is the smallest, often weighing less than ...
Bear Flag Revolt: (June-July 1846), short-lived independence rebellion precipitated by American settlers in California's Sacramento Valley against Mexican authorities. In 1846 approximately 500 Americans were living in California, compared with between 8,000 and ...
bear grass: one of two species of North American plants comprising the genus Xerophyllum of the lily family (Liliaceae). The western species, X. tenax, also is known as elk grass, squaw grass, ...
bear market: in securities and commodities trading, a declining market. A bear is an investor who expects prices to decline and, on this assumption, sells a borrowed security or commodity in the ...
bearbaiting: the setting of dogs on a bear or a bull chained to a stake by the neck or leg. Popular from the 12th to the 19th century, when they were ...
bearberry: (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), flowering, prostrate, evergreen shrubs, of the heath family (Ericaceae), occurring widely throughout North America in rocky and sandy woods and open areas. It has woody stems that are ...
beard lichen: any member of the genus Usnea, a yellow or greenish fruticose (bushy, branched) lichen with long stems and disk-shaped holdfasts, which resembles a tangled mass of threads. It occurs in ...
Beard, Charles A: American historian, best-known for his iconoclastic studies of the development of U.S. political institutions. His emphasis on the dynamics of socioeconomic conflict and change and his analysis of motivational factors ...
bearded seal: (Erignathus barbatus), nonmigratory seal of the family Phocidae, distinguished by the bushy, bristly whiskers for which it is named; it is also known as "squareflipper" after the rectangular shape of ...
Bearden, Romare: American painter, whose collages of photographs and painted paper on canvas depict aspects of American black culture in a style derived from Cubism. He is considered one of the most ...
beardfish: any of the five species of fishes in the genus Polymixia constituting the family Polymixiidae (order Beryciformes). Beardfishes are restricted primarily to deep-sea marine habitats in tropical and temperate regions ...
Beardmore Glacier: glacier in central Antarctica, descending about 7,200 ft (2,200 m) from the South Polar Plateau to Ross Ice Shelf, dividing the Transantarctic Mountains of Queen Maud and Queen Alexandra. One ...
Beardsley, Aubrey: the leading English illustrator of the 1890s and, after Oscar Wilde, the outstanding figure in the Aestheticism movement.
beardworm: any of a group of marine invertebrates constituting the phylum Pogonophora. Pogonophorans live a sedentary life in long, protective tubes on seafloors throughout the world. The common name beardworm refers ...
bearing: in machine construction, a connector (usually a support) that permits the connected members to rotate or to move in a straight line relative to one another. Often one of the ...
Bearn: historic and cultural region encompassing mountainous regions of the southwestern French departement of Pyrenees-Atlantiques and coextensive with the former province of Bearn.
Beartooth Range: segment of the northern Rocky Mountains in the United States, extending east-southeastward for 50 miles (80 km) from the Stillwater River, in southern Montana, to the Clarks Fork of the ...
Beas River: river in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab states, northwestern India. It is one of the five rivers that give the Punjab ("Five Rivers") its name. It rises at an elevation of ...
beast epic: popular genre in various literatures, consisting of a lengthy cycle of animal tales that provides a satiric commentary on human society. Although individual episodes may be drawn from fables, the ...
beast fable: a prose or verse fable or short story that usually has a moral. In beast fables animal characters are represented as acting with human feelings and motives. Among the best-known ...
beast tale: a prose or verse narrative similar to the beast fable in that it portrays animal characters acting as humans but unlike the fable in that it usually lacks a moral. ...
Beastie Boys, the: American hip-hop and rock group, the first white rap performers to gain a substantial following; as such, they were largely responsible for the growth of rap's mainstream audience. The principal ...
beat: in music, the basic rhythmic unit of a measure, or bar, not to be confused with rhythm as such; nor is the beat necessarily identical with the underlying pulse of ...
beat: in physics, the pulsation caused by the combination of two waves of slightly different frequencies. The principle of beats for sound waves can be demonstrated on a piano by striking ...
Beat movement: American social and literary movement originating in the 1950s and centred in the bohemian artist communities of San Francisco's North Beach, Los Angeles' Venice West, and New York City's Greenwich ...
Beata Ridge: submarine ridge of the southern Caribbean Sea floor. The Beata Ridge trends south-southwest from Beata Cape on the island of Hispaniola and divides this part of the sea into two ...
beatification: in the Roman Catholic church, second stage in the process of canonization (q.v.).
Beatitude: any of the blessings said by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as told in the biblical New Testament in Matthew 5:3-12 and in the Sermon on the Plain ...
Beatles, the: British musical quartet and a global cynosure for the hopes and dreams of a generation that came of age in the 1960s. The principal members were Paul McCartney (in full ...
Beaton, David: Scottish cardinal and statesman who promoted a close alliance between Scotland and France and who was an implacable opponent of the Scottish Reformation.
Beaton, James: last Roman Catholic archbishop of Glasgow.
Beaton, James: primate of Scotland from 1522 and chancellor from 1513 to 1526.
Beaton, Sir Cecil: photographer known primarily for his portraits of celebrated persons, who also worked as an illustrator, a diarist, and an Academy Award-winning costume and set designer.
Beatrice: city, seat of Gage county, in the Big Blue River valley, southeastern Nebraska, U.S. Established in 1857, it was named for the daughter of one of its founders, Judge John ...
Beatrice: the woman to whom the great Italian poet Dante dedicated most of his poetry and almost all of his life, from his first sight of her at the age of ...
Beatrijs: lyric narrative containing a noted medieval European Mary legend. The oldest extant Beatrijs manuscript dates from 1374, although it is thought to be taken from an earlier collection, Dialogue miraculorum ...
Beatrix: queen of The Netherlands from 1980.
Beattie, Ann: American writer of short stories and novels whose characters, having come of age in the 1960s, often have difficulties adjusting to the cultural values of later generations.
Beattie, James: Scottish poet and essayist, whose once-popular poem The Minstrel was one of the earliest works of the Romantic movement.
Beatty, Clyde: American trainer of wild animals, known for his "fighting act," designed to show his courage and mastery of the ferocious animals under his control. In one of the most daring ...
Beatty, David, 1st Earl Beatty, Viscount Borodale Of Wexford, Baron Beatty Of The North Sea And Of Brooksby: British admiral of the fleet, who commanded Britain's battle cruisers in the Battle of Jutland (1916).
Beatty, Sir Chester: naturalized British mining engineer and company director who played an important role in the development of copper deposits in central Africa.
Beatty, Warren: talented and handsome American leading man who has also produced, directed, and written screenplays. He is best known for his politically charged portrayals of somewhat outcast but charming heroes.
Beatus Rhenanus: German humanist, writer, and advocate of Christian reform whose editorial work helped to preserve a wealth of classical literature.
Beau Bassin-Rose Hill: town, the second largest settlement on the island of Mauritius, in the western Indian Ocean. It lies on the western slope of the island, just south of Port Louis, the ...
Beau de Rochas, Alphonse: French engineer who originated the principle of the four-stroke internal-combustion engine. His achievement lay partly in his emphasizing the previously unappreciated importance of compressing the fuel-air mixture before ignition.
Beaucaire: town, Gard departement, Languedoc-Roussillon region, southeastern France. It lies along the Rhone River, opposite Tarascon, to which it is linked by several bridges. Called ...
Beauce: region, northwestern France. It stretches southwest of Paris toward the Foret d'Orleans. One of the great traditional granaries of France, Beauce is a flat, fertile, treeless limestone plain that was ...
Beauchamp, Alphonse de: French historian whose many works were of popular interest; though they were based upon authentic documents, they were largely compilations and not wholly trustworthy.
Beauchamp, Pierre: French ballet dancer and teacher whose contributions to the development of ballet include the definition of the five basic positions of the feet.
Beauchemin, Neree: French-Canadian poet and physician who is regarded as the leading poet of Le Terroir (French: "The Soil") school of Quebec regionalist poetry.
Beaudesert: town, southeastern Queensland, eastern Australia, on the Logan River. A livestock station was established there in 1842 and named after Beaudesert, Staffordshire, Eng. In 1863 the state's first cotton plantation ...
Beaufort: colonial seaport town, seat of Carteret county, southeastern North Carolina, U.S. It lies opposite Morehead City on Beaufort Harbor (there bridged) and is linked to the Atlantic Ocean by Beaufort ...
Beaufort: city, seat of Beaufort county, southern South Carolina, U.S. It is situated on Port Royal, one of the Sea Islands, and on the Intracoastal Waterway. Its harbour was first visited ...
Beaufort: county, extreme southern South Carolina, U.S. It consists of a coastal region bordered to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean. The New and Coosawhatchie rivers define portions of its western ...
Beaufort Family: English family comprising the descendants of Edward III's son John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his liaison with Catherine Swynford; the name derived from a lordship that Gaunt had ...
Beaufort scale: scale devised in 1805 by Comdr. (later Admiral and Knight Commander of the Bath) Francis Beaufort of the British Navy for observing and classifying wind force at sea. Originally based ...
Beaufort Sea: outlying sea of the Arctic Ocean situated north of Canada and Alaska. It extends northeastward from Point Barrow, Alaska, toward Lands End on Prince Patrick Island, and westward from Banks ...
Beaufort Series: Permo-Triassic rock strata of the Karoo System that overlie strata of the Ecca Series and underlie rocks of the Stormberg Series. The Beaufort is especially well developed and has been ...
Beaufort, Francois de Vendome, duc de: French prince, one of the leaders of the Fronde (1648-53) and later admiral in the Mediterranean.
Beaufort, Henry: cardinal and bishop of Winchester and a dominant figure in English politics throughout the first 43 years of the 15th century. From about 1435 until 1443 he controlled the government ...
Beaufort, Margaret: mother of King Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509) of England and founder of St. John's and Christ's colleges, Cambridge.
Beaufre, Andre: French military strategist, an exponent of an independent French nuclear force.
Beaugency: town, Loiret departement, Centre region, north-central France. It lies on the right bank of the Loire River. The lords of Beaugency were powerful from ...
Beauharnais, Alexandre, Viscount de: first husband of Josephine (later empress of the French) and grandfather of Napoleon III; he was a prominent figure during the Revolution.
Beauharnais, Eugene de: soldier, prince of the French First Empire, and viceroy of Italy for Napoleon I, who was his stepfather (from 1796) and adoptive father (from 1806).
Beauharnois: city, Monteregie region, southern Quebec province, Canada, on the southern shore of Lac Saint-Louis-a widening of the St. Lawrence River-at the mouth of the Saint-Louis River. Founded in 1819, it ...
Beaujolais: ancient province of France, of which Beaujeu and Villefranche were successively the capital and which corresponded in area to much of the modern departement of Rhone, with a small portion ...
Beaujolais: one of the most widely drunk red wines in the world, produced in the Beaujolais region of southern Burgundy, France. The wine is made from the Gamay grape; it is ...
Beaujolais: region of east-central France, just east of the Massif Central and west of the Saone River. Most of the region is located within Rhone departement. The local relief is broken ...
Beaujoyeulx, Balthazar de: composer and choreographer who influenced the development of theatrical dance and opera.