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Berkeley, Busby ... Berners-Lee, Sir Tim

Berkeley, Busby: American motion-picture director and choreographer who was noted for the elaborate dancing girl extravaganzas he created on film. Using innovative camera techniques, he revolutionized the genre of the musical in ...
Berkeley, George: Anglo-Irish Anglican bishop, philosopher, and scientist, best known for his Empiricist philosophy, which holds that everything save the spiritual exists only insofar as it is perceived by the senses.
Berkeley, Sir Lennox: British composer whose works are noted for their classical elements.
Berkeley, Sir William: British colonial governor of Virginia during Bacon's Rebellion, an armed uprising (1676) against his moderate Indian policy.
berkelium: synthetic chemical element of the actinide series in Group IIIb of the periodic table, atomic number 97. Not occurring in nature, berkelium (as the isotope berkelium-243) was discovered in December ...
Berkhamsted: town ("parish"), Dacorum borough, administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England, 28 miles (45 km) northwest of London on an old coaching route along the Bulbourne Valley of the Chiltern ...
Berkner, Lloyd Viel: U.S. physicist and engineer who first measured the extent, including height and density, of the ionosphere (ionized layers of the Earth's atmosphere), leading to a complete understanding of radio wave ...
Berks: county, southeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., bounded to the north by Blue Mountain. It consists mostly of mountainous terrain in the Appalachian Ridge and Valley physiographic province-except for the southern corner, which ...
Berkshire: breed of domestic pig originating in England, where in the early 19th century the name "Berkshire" became synonymous with improved pig strains of differing origin and type. Hogs imported from ...
Berkshire: county, extreme western Massachusetts, U.S., bordered to the north by Vermont, to the west by New York, and to the south by Connecticut. It is traversed north-south by the Appalachian ...
Berkshire: geographic and ceremonial county of southern England. The geographic county occupies the valleys of the middle Thames and its tributary, the Kennet, immediately to the west of London. It is ...
Berkshire Hills: segment of the Appalachian Mountains, U.S., mainly in Berkshire county, western Massachusetts. Many summits rise to more than 2,000 feet (600 metres), including Mount Greylock (3,491 feet [1,064 metres]), the ...
Berlage, Hendrik Petrus: Dutch architect whose work, characterized by a use of materials based on their fundamental properties and an avoidance of decoration, exerted considerable influence on modern architecture in The Netherlands.
Berle, Milton: American comedian who, as a popular entertainer in the early days of television in the United States, came to be known as "Mr. Television."
Berlichingen, Gotz von: imperial knight (Reichsritter), romanticized in legend as a German Robin Hood and remembered as hero of J.W. von Goethe's play Gotz von Berlichingen. His iron hand was a substitute for ...
Berlin: capital and chief urban centre of Germany. The city lies at the heart of the North German Plain, athwart an east-west commercial and geographic axis that helped make it the ...
Berlin: town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S., on the Mattabesset River, just southeast of New Britain. It includes the villages of East Berlin and Kensington. The first white settler was ...
Berlin: city, Coos county, northern New Hampshire, U.S., at the falls of the Androscoggin River and on the northern rim of the White Mountains. Chartered in 1771 as Maynesborough, it was ...
Berlin blockade and airlift: international crisis that arose from an attempt by the Soviet Union, in 1948-49, to force the Western Allied powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) to abandon their ...
Berlin Painter: Athenian vase painter who, with Kleophrades, is considered the outstanding vase painter of the Late Archaic period. He is best known as the decorator of an amphora now in Berlin.
Berlin Wall: barrier that surrounded West Berlin and prevented access to it from East Berlin and adjacent areas of East Germany during the period from 1961 to 1989. In the years between ...
Berlin ware: faience and porcelain pottery made in Berlin after 1678, when the first faience manufactory there was founded by Pieter van der Lee. Others were opened in 1699 by Cornelius Funcke ...
Berlin West Africa Conference: a series of negotiations (Nov. 15, 1884-Feb. 26, 1885) at Berlin, in which the major European nations met to decide all questions connected with the Congo River basin in Central ...
Berlin woolwork: 19th-century amateur embroidery developed in Germany and based upon hand-painted charts from which cross-stitch patterns could be worked in a very soft embroidery wool, spun at Gotha and dyed in ...
Berlin Zoo: zoological park in Berlin, known for its extensive collection. It was opened in 1955 by the municipal government of East Berlin in response to public demand. What remained of the ...
Berlin Zoological Garden and Aquarium: , zoo and aquarium in Berlin, containing one of the world's largest and most comprehensive animal collections. It is generally considered the oldest zoo in Germany, having been founded in ...
Berlin, Congress of: (June 13-July 13, 1878), diplomatic meeting of the major European powers at which the Treaty of Berlin replaced the Treaty of San Stefano, which had been signed by Russia and ...
Berlin, Free University of: autonomous, state-financed German university. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948, after Berlin was divided, by a group of professors and students who broke away from East Berlin's Friedrich ...
Berlin, Irving: American composer who played a leading role in the evolution of the popular song from the early ragtime and jazz eras through the golden age of musicals. His easy mastery ...
Berlin, Isaiah ben Judah Loeb: Jewish scholar noted for his textual commentaries on the Talmud and other writings.
Berlin, Sir Isaiah: British philosopher and historian of ideas who was noted for his writings on political philosophy and the concept of liberty. He is regarded as one of the founders of the ...
Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum: oldest botanical garden in Germany. Founded in the 17th century as a royal garden for flowers, medicinal plants, vegetables, and hops (for the royal brewery), it eventually became badly neglected. ...
Berliner Ensemble: theatrical company founded in 1949 by the German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht in East Berlin. The Berliner Ensemble originated as a branch of the Deutsches Theater, where Brecht had ...
Berliner, Emil: German-born American inventor who made important contributions to telephone technology and developed the phonograph record disc.
Berlinghieri, Bonaventura: Italian painter from Lucca, Italy, known for his poignant and detailed scenes from the life of St. Francis on the predella (base of the altarpiece) of the Church of San ...
Berlingske Tidende: (Danish: "Berling's Times"), morning daily newspaper published in Copenhagen, generally regarded as Denmark's leading paper.
Berlinguer, Enrico: secretary-general of the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano) from March 1972 until his death. He was a leading spokesman for "national communism," seeking independence from Moscow and favouring the ...
Berlioz, Hector: French composer, critic, and conductor of the Romantic period, known largely for his Symphonie fantastique (1830), the choral symphony Romeo et Juliette (1839), and ...
Berlusconi, Silvio: media tycoon and prime minister of Italy in 1994 and from 2001.
berm: terrace of a beach that has formed in the backshore, above the water level at high tide. Berms are commonly found on beaches that have fairly coarse sand and are ...
Bermejo Pass: mountain pass at 12,917 feet (3,937 m) in the central Andes Mountains, between Argentina and Chile, directly south of Mount Aconcagua. It is the site of the Cristo Redentor (Christ ...
Bermejo River: western tributary of the Paraguay River, south-central South America. It rises near Tarija, Bolivia and, after a rapid plunge to the Chaco lowlands at the border with Argentina, receives the ...
Bermejo, Bartolome: painter, a cultivator of the Flemish style, who was considered the finest painter in Spain before El Greco. His style became the model for many painters of his era.
Bermondsey: area in the London borough of Southwark. It is located east of Newington, southeast of London Bridge, and west of Rotherhithe. The name Bermondsey, probably meaning "dry ground in a ...
Bermuda: self-governing British colony in the western North Atlantic Ocean. It is an archipelago of 7 main islands and about 170 additional (named) islets and rocks, situated about 650 miles (1,050 ...
Bermuda grass: (Cynodon dactylon), perennial grass of the family Poaceae that is native to the Mediterranean region.
Bermuda high: recurring centre of high atmospheric pressure that develops over the North Atlantic Ocean.
Bermuda Race: one of the world's major ocean races for sailing yachts. Originating in 1906, it has been held biennially since 1924 (except during World War II); since 1936 it has covered ...
Bermuda Triangle: section of the North Atlantic Ocean off North America in which more than 50 ships and 20 airplanes are said to have mysteriously disappeared. The area, whose boundaries are not ...
Bern: Kanton ("canton"), west-central Switzerland. It is the second most populous and second largest of the Swiss cantons; about 100 square miles (260 square km) are occupied by glaciers. Bordering Jura ...
Bern: city, capital of Switzerland and of Bern canton, in the west-central part of the nation. It lies along a narrow loop of the Aare River. The existence of the ancient ...
Bernadette of Lourdes, Saint: miller's daughter whose visions led to the founding of the shrine of Lourdes.
Bernadotte, Folke, Greve: (Count) Swedish soldier, humanitarian, and diplomat who was assassinated while serving the United Nations as mediator between the Arabs and the Israelis.
Bernadotte, House of: royal dynasty of Sweden, from 1818. The name derives from a family of old lineage of Bearn, France, whose earliest known member (17th century) owned an estate in Pau known ...
Bernal, John Desmond: physicist and X-ray crystallographer known for his studies of the atomic structures of solid compounds, during which he made major contributions to X-ray crystallography. He was professor of physics (1938-63) ...
Bernanos, Georges: novelist and polemical writer whose masterpiece, The Diary of a Country Priest, established him as one of the most original and independent Roman Catholic writers of his time.
Bernard De Chartres: Humanist and philosopher, head of the celebrated school of Chartres, in France, whose attempt to reconcile the thought of Plato with that of Aristotle made him the principal representative of ...
Bernard de Clairvaux, Saint: Cistercian monk and mystic, the founder and abbot of the abbey of Clairvaux and one of the most influential churchmen of his time.
Bernard De Cluny: also called Bernard De Morlaix monk, poet, and Neoplatonic moralist whose writings condemned humanity's search for earthly happiness and criticized the immorality of the times. He is also noted for ...
Bernard de Menthon, Saint: vicar general of Aosta diocese (now in Italy) who reestablished and was patron of hospices at the summits of two Alpine passes, renamed after him the Great and Little St. ...
Bernard De Ventadour: Provencal troubadour whose poetry is considered the finest in the Provencal language.
Bernard, Claude: French physiologist known chiefly for his discoveries concerning the role of the pancreas in digestion, the glycogenic function of the liver, and the regulation of the blood supply by the ...
Bernard, Emile: French painter who is sometimes credited with founding Cloisonnism (see Pont-Aven school; Synthetism). He was noted for his friendships with such artists as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Odilon Redon, ...
Bernard, Jean-Jacques: French playwright and chief representative of what became known as l'ecole du silence (the "school of silence") or, as some critics called it, the "art of the ...
Bernard, Jessie: nee Jessie Shirley Ravitch American sociologist who provided insights into women, sex, marriage, and the interaction of the family and community.
Bernard, Samuel, Comte De Coubert: French financier who became a symbol of Protestant banking. He had the same name as his father, a well-known painter.
Bernard, Tristan: French playwright, novelist, journalist, and lawyer who wrote for the theatre de boulevard, a genre meant to entertain middle-class Parisian audiences on Sunday afternoons.
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques-Henri: French writer who is best remembered for Paul et Virginie, a short novel about innocent love.
Bernardine of Siena, Saint: Franciscan theologian and preacher of great eloquence who, with Saints John of Capistrano and James of the March, led the growth of the Observants, a strict branch of the Franciscan ...
Bernays, Edward L.: pioneer American publicist who is generally considered to have been the first to develop the idea of the professional public relations counselor-i.e., one who draws on the social sciences in ...
Bernays, Paul Isaak: Swiss mathematician whose work in proof theory and axiomatic set theory helped create the new discipline of mathematical logic.
Bernbach, William: American advertising executive and copywriter, a pioneer of the subtle, low-pressure advertising that became a hallmark of the agency he helped found, Doyle Dane Bernbach, Inc. The firm quickly became ...
Bernburg: city, Saxony-Anhalt Land (state), central Germany, on the Saale River at the mouth of the Wipper River, south of Magdeburg. First mentioned in 961, it was important in the Middle ...
Berne Convention: international copyright agreement adopted by an international conference in Bern (Berne) in 1886 and subsequently modified several times (Berlin, 1908; Rome, 1928; Brussels, 1948; Stockholm, 1967; and Paris, 1971). Signatories ...
Berners, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron: English writer and statesman, best known for his simple, fresh, and energetic translation (vol. 1, 1523; vol. 2, 1525) from the French of Jean Froissart's Chroniques.
Berners-Lee, Sir Tim: British computer scientist, generally credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web. In 2004 he was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the ...