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behaviourism: a highly influential academic school of psychology that dominated psychological theory between the two world wars. Classical behaviourism concerned itself exclusively with measurable and observable data and excluded ideas, emotions, ...
Behbehan: town, southwestern Iran, in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains near the Marun River. The largely mountainous county extends to Mt. Dinar and has tribal populations. The town prospers through ...
beheading: a mode of executing capital punishment. The ancient Greeks and Romans regarded it as a most honourable form of death. Before execution the criminal was tied to a stake and ...
Behemoth: in the Old Testament, a powerful, grass-eating animal whose "bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron" (Job 40:18). Among various Jewish legends, one relates that the ...
Beheshti, Mohammad Hosayn: Iranian cleric who played a key role in establishing Iran as an Islamic republic in 1979. As a Shi'ite religious scholar of some note, he was addressed with the honorific ...
Behn, Aphra: English dramatist, novelist, and poet who was the first Englishwoman known to earn her living by writing.
Behn, Sosthenes: telephone executive, president and founder, with his brother Hernand, of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (itt), one of the largest communications companies in the world.
Behrens, Peter: architect noted for his influential role in the development of modern architecture in Germany. In addition, he was a pioneer in the field of industrial design.
Behring, Emil von: German bacteriologist who was one of the founders of immunology. In 1901 he received the first Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on serum therapy, particularly for ...
Behrman, S N: U.S. short-story writer and playwright best known for popular Broadway plays that commented on contemporary moral issues. Behrman wrote about the wealthy, intellectual sector of society, endowing his characters with ...
Behzad: major Persian painter whose style as a miniaturist and work as a teacher were vital influences on Persian Islamic painting.
Bei Dao: Chinese poet and writer of fiction who was commonly considered the most influential poet in China during the 1980s; he went into exile in 1989.
Beiderbecke, Bix: American jazz cornetist who was an outstanding improviser and composer of the 1920s and whose style is characterized by lyricism and purity of tone. He was the first major white ...
Beijing: city, province-level shi (municipality), and capital of the People's Republic of China. Few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and ...
Beilby, Sir George Thomas: British industrial chemist who developed the process of manufacturing potassium cyanide by passing ammonia over a heated mixture of charcoal and potassium carbonate. This process helped meet the increased demand ...
Beilstein, Friedrich Konrad: chemist who compiled the Handbuch der organischen Chemie, 2 vol. (1880-83; "Handbook of Organic Chemistry"), an indispensable tool for the organic chemist.
Beinum, Eduard van: Dutch conductor, pianist, and violist who led orchestras in Europe and the United States.
Beira: port city, central Mozambique. Beira is situated on the Mozambique Channel (Indian Ocean) at the mouths of the Pungoe and Buzi rivers. It was founded in 1891 as the headquarters ...
Beira: former principality and historical province, north-central Portugal, extending from the banks of the Douro River in the north to the upper course of the Tagus in the southeast and from ...
Beirut: capital, chief port, and largest city of Lebanon. It is located on the Mediterranean coast at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains.
Beirut, American University of: private, nondenominational, coeducational international and intercultural university in Beirut, Lebanon, chartered in 1863 by the state of New York, U.S., as the Syrian Protestant College. Classes started in 1866. Although ...
beisa: African antelope, a race of the species Oryx gazella. See oryx.
Beissel, Conrad: hymn writer and founder of the Ephrata religious community (1732).
Beit Bridge: town, southern Zimbabwe. It lies near the bridge named for Alfred Beit, British South African financier, across the Limpopo River. The bridge is situated on the border with Northern province, ...
Beja: distrito ("district"), southern Portugal. It is the largest district in Portugal and produces olives, olive oil, wheat, rye, cork, dairy products, and leather goods. There is mining ...
Beja: nomadic people grouped into tribes and occupying mountain country between the Red Sea and the Nile and 'Atbarah rivers from the latitude of Aswan southeastward to the Eritrean Plateau-that is, ...
Beja: city, capital, and concelho (township), Beja distrito ("district"), southern Portugal, southeast of Lisbon. According to legend, Beja was founded by Ulysses, and it was ...
Bejaia: town, Mediterranean port, northeastern Algeria. The town lies at the mouth of the Wadi Soummam. Sheltered by Mount Gouraya (2,165 feet [660 m]) and Cape Carbon, it receives an annual ...
Bejart Family: 17th-century French theatrical family closely associated with the playwright Moliere. Its members include the brothers and sisters Joseph, Madeleine, Genevieve, Armande, and Louis.
Bejart, Maurice: French-born dancer, choreographer, and opera director known for combining classic ballet and modern dance with jazz, acrobatics, and musique concrete (composition by tape recordings).
bejel: form of endemic (nonvenereal) syphilis occurring among Bedouin tribes and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Bekabad: city, Tashkent oblast (province), eastern Uzbekistan. It lies along both banks of the Syr River at the extreme southern tip of the oblast. The town arose originally in connection with ...
Beke, Charles Tilstone: English biblical scholar, geographer, and businessman who played an important role in the final phase of the discovery of the sources of the Nile River.
Bekes: megye (county), southeastern Hungary, occupying 2,175 square miles (5,632 square km) of agricultural flatland on the Great Hungarian Plain. It has hot summers, severe winters, light rainfall, and a sparse ...
Bekescsaba: town, seat of Bekes megye (county), southeastern Hungary. A central point for road and rail communications, it is also connected by canal with the Koros River and serves as an ...
Bekesy, Georg von: American physicist and physiologist who received the 1961 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the physical means by which sound is analyzed and communicated in the ...
Bekhterev, Vladimir: Russian neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who studied the formations of the brain and investigated conditioned reflexes.
Bekker, August Immanuel: German philologist and classical scholar who prepared a great array of critical editions of many classical Greek writers.
Bektashi: any member of an order of Muslim mystics founded, according to their own traditions, by Hajji Bektash Wali of Khorasan, Iran. It acquired definitive form in the 16th century in ...
Bel and the Dragon: Greek apocryphal addition to the biblical Book of Daniel. It is a deuterocanonical work in that it is accepted in the Roman canon but not by Jews or Protestants. It ...
bel canto: (Italian: "beautiful singing"), style of operatic singing that originated in Italian singing of polyphonic (multipart) music and Italian courtly solo singing during the late 16th century and that was developed ...
bel fruit: (species Aegle marmelos), fruit of the bel tree of the family Rutaceae, found wild or cultivated throughout India. The trees bear strong spines; alternate, compound leaves, each with three leaflets; ...
Bela III: king of Hungary (1173-96) under whom Hungary became the leading power of south-central Europe.
Bela IV: king of Hungary (1235-70) during whose reign the Mongol invasions left three-quarters of Hungary in ruins. He was the son of Andrew II.
Belafonte, Harry: American singer, who was a key figure in the 1950s popularity of folk music, and an actor and film producer as well.
Belain, Pierre, sieur d'esnambuc: French trader who in 1635 established the first colony for the Compagnie des Iles d'Amerique on the Caribbean island of Martinique, the first permanent French colony in the West Indies.
Belalcazar, Sebastian de: Spanish conqueror of Nicaragua, Ecuador, and southwestern Colombia. He captured Quito and founded the cities of Guayaquil in Ecuador and Popayan in Colombia.
Belarus: country of eastern Europe. Until it became independent in 1991, it was the smallest of the three Slavic republics that formed part of the Soviet Union. It covers an area ...
Belarusian language: East Slavic language that is historically the native language of most Belarusians. Many 20th-century governments of Belarus had policies favouring the Russian language, and, as a result, Russian is more ...
Belarusian Ridge: upland region in Belarus. From northeastern Poland the ridge runs southeast into western Belarus and then swings northeast. Its total length is 320 miles (520 km). The ridge, covered by ...
Belasco, David: American theatrical producer and playwright whose important innovations in the techniques and standards of staging and design were in contrast to the quality of the plays he produced.
Belaunde Terry, Fernando: statesman, architect, and president of Peru (1963-68, 1980-85), known for his efforts at democratic reform and his pro-American stance.
Belawan: the most important port in northeastern Sumatra, Indonesia, located on Belawan Island at the estuary of the Deli and Belawan rivers in Sumatera Utara provinsi ("province"). The port was originally ...
Belaya River: river in Bashkortostan republic, west-central Russia. The Belaya is the largest tributary of the Kama River, which is itself an important tributary of the Volga. The Belaya rises in the ...
Belchatow: city, Lodzkie wojewodztwo (province), south-central Poland, forming part of the industrial triangle of Belchatow, Szczercow, and Kamiensk. Belchatow is 30 miles (50 km) south-southwest of Lodz, the ...
Belcher Islands: archipelago in southeastern Hudson Bay, north of the mouth of James Bay, Baffin region, Nunavut territory, Canada. The islands, low-lying and striated, cover a total area of about 5,000 square ...
Belcher, Jonathan: colonial governor and merchant who was an early patron of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).
Belcher, Sir Edward: naval officer who performed many coastal surveys for the British Admiralty.
Belcredi, Richard, Count: statesman of the Austrian Empire who worked for a federal constitution under the Habsburg monarchy, taking the Swiss constitution as his model. His "Ministry of Counts" (July 27, 1865-Feb. 3, ...
Belem: freguesia (parish) within the western limits of the city of Lisbon, Portugal. A former royal residence, Belem (Bethlehem) is known for its Manueline (early 16th-century) architecture, notably ...
Belem: city and port, capital of Para estado (state), northern Brazil, on the Baia do Guajara (Guajara Bay), part of the vast Amazon River delta, near the mouth ...
belemnoid: member of an extinct group of cephalopods, animals related to the modern squid and octopus but possessing a large internal shell, that first appeared about 345 million years ago, during ...
Belen: city, Valencia county, central New Mexico, U.S. Reserved for genizaros, or people of mixed ethnicity, the original village, located in fertile bottomlands along the Rio Grande, was ...
Belenus: (Celtic: possibly, Bright One), one of the most ancient and most widely worshipped of the pagan Celtic deities; he was associated with pastoralism. A great fire festival, called Beltane (or ...
Belep, Iles: coral island group in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, southwestern Pacific Ocean. Comprising Ile Pott and Ile Art (the largest, 10 miles [16 km] by 3 miles) and ...
Belfast: city, seat (1827) of Waldo county, southern Maine, U.S., on the Passagassawakeag River where it empties into Penobscot Bay on the Atlantic coast opposite Castine, 34 miles (55 km) south-southwest ...
Belfast: city, district, and capital of Northern Ireland, on the River Lagan, at its entrance to Belfast Lough (inlet of the sea). It became a city by royal charter in 1888. ...
Belfast Lough: inlet of the North Channel that connects the Irish Sea with the Atlantic, 12 mi (20 km) long and 3 to 5 mi (4.8 to 8 km) wide, indenting the ...
Belfort: town, capital of the Territoire de Belfort, Franche-Comte region, eastern France, on the Savoureuse River, southwest of Mulhouse. Inhabited in Gallo-Roman times, Belfort was first recorded in ...
belfry: bell tower, either attached to a structure or freestanding. More specifically, it is the section of such a tower where bells hang, and even more particularly the timberwork that supports ...
Belgae: any of the inhabitants of Gaul north of the Sequana and Matrona (Seine and Marne) rivers. The term was apparently first applied by Julius Caesar. Evidence suggests that the Romans ...
Belgaum: city, northwestern Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, southern India. It is located in the Western Ghats at an elevation of 2,500 feet (760 m) above sea level. The city dates from ...
Belgian Congo: former colony (coextensive with the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) in Africa, ruled by Belgium from 1908 until 1960. It was established by the Belgian parliament to replace the ...
Belgian horse: breed of heavy draft horse descended from the Flemish "great horse," the medieval battle horse native to the Low Countries. An old breed, Belgians were considerably improved after 1880. In ...
Belgian literature: the body of written works produced by Belgians and written in standard Netherlandic (called Dutch when it is spoken in The Netherlands and Flemish in Belgium), in standard French, or ...
Belgian sheepdog: working dog developed in the village of Groenendaal, Belgium, in 1885. A long-haired black dog, the Belgian sheepdog has a relatively pointed muzzle and erect, triangular ears. It is valued ...