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Bidens ... Bilbays

Bidens: genus of weedy herbs in the family Asteraceae, consisting of about 230 species, variously known as bur-marigold, sticktights, beggar-ticks, and tickseed-sunflowers, distributed throughout the world. Some have divided leaves with ...
Bidlack Treaty: (Dec. 12, 1846), pact signed by New Granada (now Colombia and Panama) and the United States, which granted the U.S. a right-of-way across the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for ...
bidos: town and river port, west-central Para estado (state), northern Brazil. It was founded in 1697 as a fortified town. Obidos overlooks the left (north) bank of the ...
Bidpai, The Fables of: European title for the collection of Indian animal fables known in Sanskrit as Panca-tantra (q.v.).
Bidri ware: metal decorative objects ornamented with a type of Indian inlay work. The ware derives its name from the town of Bidar, in Karnataka, though it is not made exclusively in ...
Bidwell, John: California civic and political leader who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. president in 1892 as the candidate of the Prohibition Party.
Biedermeier style: in art, transitional period between Neoclassicism and Romanticism as it was interpreted by the bourgeoisie, particularly in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, and the Scandinavian countries. Following the Napoleonic sieges, the ...
Biel: town, Bern canton, northwestern Switzerland. It lies at the northeastern end of Lake Biel (Bieler See), northwest of Bern city. Of Celtic origin (Belenus) and inhabited in Roman times, the ...
Biel, Gabriel: German philosopher, economist, and one of the most distinguished Scholastic theologians of the late Middle Ages.
Biela's Comet: short-period comet discovered (1826) by and named for the Austrian astronomer Wilhelm, Baron von Biela (1782-1856). It was identified by Biela as a periodic comet that returned every 6.6 years.
Bielefeld: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), northwestern Germany. It lies on the northern edge of the hilly Teutoburg Forest. First mentioned as Bilifelde in the biography of Bishop ...
Biella: city, capital of Biella provincia, Piemonte (Piedmont) regione, northwestern Italy. It lies at the foot of the Alps, on the Cervo River, northeast of Turin. A Gallic and Roman centre, ...
Bielsko-Biala: city, Slaskie wojewodztwo (province), southern Poland. It lies in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.
Bien Hoa: city, southern Vietnam. Bien Hoa is located 19 miles (30 km) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), on the left bank of the Dong Nai River, northeast of ...
Biencourt, Charles de, Baron de Saint-Just: French colonizer who commanded the French colony of Port Royal.
Bienerth, Richard, Freiherr von: Austrian prime minister (1908-11).
Bienville, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de: French explorer, colonial governor of Louisiana, and founder of New Orleans.
Bierce, Ambrose: American newspaperman, wit, satirist, and author of sardonic short stories based on themes of death and horror. His life ended in an unsolved mystery.
bieri: wooden mortuary figure of the Fang tribe of Gabon, Africa, that traditionally guarded the skulls of deceased ancestors. These figures were somewhat naturalistic, representing the ancestor whose skull was kept ...
Bierstadt, Albert: American artist who painted landscapes and whose tremendous popularity was based on his panoramic scenes of the American West. Among the last generation of painters associated with the Hudson River ...
Bierut, Boleslaw: statesman and Communist Party official who came to be called the Stalin of Poland after playing a major role in his party's takeover of the Polish government after World War ...
biform: having or appearing in two dissimilar guises. The term is used of characters in classical mythology that appeared to mortals in other than their customary bodily form. Zeus, for example, ...
Big 12 Conference: American collegiate athletic organization, composed of the Universities of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, and Missouri, as well as Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas A & M, ...
big apple: 1930s square-dance version of the jitterbug that was named for the Columbia, S.C., club where it originated. Assembled in a large circle, dancers did a basic shuffling step or other ...
Big Belt Mountains: segment of the northern Rocky Mountains, paralleling the eastern bank of the Missouri River for about 80 miles (129 km) in west-central Montana, U.S. The range lies some 20 miles ...
Big Ben: tower clock famous for its accuracy and for its massive bell (weighing more than 13 tons). It is housed in St. Stephen's Tower, at the northern end of the Houses ...
Big Bend National Park: remote frontierlike region in southwestern Texas, U.S., 250 miles (400 km) southeast of El Paso, along the Rio Grande; the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila lie across the river. ...
Big Bertha: any of several 420-millimetre (16.5-inch) howitzers that were used by advancing German forces to batter the Belgian forts at Liege and Namur in August 1914, at the start of World ...
Big Black River, Battle of: (May 17, 1863), American Civil War victory of Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant, who were pursuing Confederate troops under General John C. Pemberton toward Vicksburg, Mississippi. After his ...
Big Boy: one of the largest and most powerful types of steam locomotives ever built. Designed primarily to handle heavy freight traffic in the United States during World War II, 25 Big ...
Big Cypress Swamp: large forest morass lying mainly in Collier county, southern Florida, U.S., and covering 2,400 square miles (6,200 square km). The region merges into the swampy Everglades to the east and ...
Big Dipper, The: constellation of the seven brightest stars of the larger constellation Ursa Major (q.v.).
Big Rock Candy Mountain: complex of carbonate hills, about 5,500 feet (1,675 metres) tall, on the edge of one segment of Fishlake National Forest, near Marysvale, south-central Utah, U.S. The striped dun- and rose-coloured ...
Big Sandy River: river formed by the confluence of Levisa and Tug forks at Louisa, Lawrence county, eastern Kentucky, U.S. The river, made navigable by a series of locks and dams, flows generally ...
Big Science: style of scientific research developed during and after World War II that defined the organization and character of much research in physics and astronomy and later in the biological sciences. ...
Big Sioux River: river rising in Grant county, north of Watertown, S.D., U.S. It flows south and southeast past Sioux Falls, where its 20-foot (6-metre) drop is utilized by a hydroelectric power station, ...
Big Spring: city, seat (1882) of Howard county, western Texas, U.S., at the foot of the Caprock Escarpment, 111 miles (179 km) west-southwest of Abilene. It was named for the "big spring" ...
Big Star: American band that during its brief existence in the early 1970s helped define power pop, a style in which bright melodies and tunefully boyish vocals are propelled by urgent rhythms. ...
Big Stick Policy: in American history, policy popularized and named by Theodore Roosevelt that asserted U.S. domination when such dominance was considered the moral imperative.
Big Stone Lake: source of the Minnesota River in the U.S., on the Minnesota-South Dakota border, 300 miles (480 km) west-northwest of Minneapolis. Once part of the southern outlet of the extinct glacial ...
Big Sur: scenic region in western California, U.S., that comprises a 100-mile- (160-km-) long ruggedly beautiful stretch of seacoast along the Pacific Ocean. It extends southward from Carmel, just south of Monterey ...
Big Ten Conference: one of the oldest college athletic conferences in the United States, formed in 1896 by the Universities of Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and Purdue and Northwestern universities. The ...
big tree: (as distinct from the redwood of coastal areas, genus Sequoia), coniferous evergreen of the deciduous cypress family (Taxodiaceae), found in scattered groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada ...
Big Wood River: watercourse, south-central Idaho, U.S., that rises in the south slopes of the Sawtooth Range in the Sawtooth National Forest and flows south past Sun Valley, Ketchum, and Hailey, then west ...
big-bang model: widely held theory of the evolution of the universe. Its essential feature is the emergence of the universe from a state of extremely high temperature and density-the so-called big bang ...
Big-Game Hunting Tradition: any of several ancient North American cultures based on hunting herd animals such as mammoth and bison; remains of these cultures have been found mainly in the North American Plains ...
Bigelow, Erastus Brigham: American industrialist, noted as the developer of the power carpet loom and as a founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Bigelow, John: American author, journalist, and diplomat who was the discoverer and first editor of Benjamin Franklin's long-lost Autobiography. As U.S. consul in Paris during the American Civil War, he also prevented ...
bigeye: any of about 18 species of marine fishes comprising the family Priacanthidae (order Perciformes). Some members of the family are also known as catalufas. Most bigeyes are bright red in ...
Biggs, E. Power: English-born American organist who brought to many listeners their first acquaintance with the distinctive, incisive colours of the Baroque organ and with the monumental Baroque organ repertory.
Bighorn Mountains: range of the northern Rocky Mountains in southern Montana, U.S., extending southeastward in an anticlinal arch across north-central Wyoming for 120 miles (193 km). Varying in width between 30 and ...
Bighorn River: largest tributary of the Yellowstone River, draining west-central Wyoming and a small area of south-central Montana, U.S. Topographically, it includes three subbasins, known in downstream order as the Wind River ...
bighorn sheep: stocky, climbing hoofed mammal of western North America known for its massive curling horns. Bighorns are brown with a white rump patch. Horns are present in both sexes, but they ...
Bignoniaceae: the trumpet creeper or catalpa family of the figwort order of flowering plants (Scrophulariales). It contains about 112 genera and more than 725 species of trees, shrubs, and, most commonly, ...
Bigot, Francois: French civil servant, lawyer, and the last intendant of New France (1748-60), whose corrupt administration aided the British conquest of Canada.
Bigsby, John Jeremiah: English physician and geologist whose extensive geologic studies of Canada and New York revealed much of the structure of the underlying rock strata and uncovered many new species of prehistoric ...
Bihac: town, northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, located on the banks of the Una River. First mentioned in 1260 as the site of an abbey, it was occupied by the Turks and ...
Bihar: state of India. Covering an area of 38,202 square miles (99,200 square km), it is bounded by Nepal to the north and by the Indian states of West Bengal to ...
Bihar Sharif: city, central Bihar state, northeastern India, east of the Paimar River, a tributary of the Ganges. It served as the capital of the Pala dynasty (10th century AD) and contains ...
Bihari languages: eastern Indo-Aryan languages spoken in the state of Bihar, India, and in the Tarai region of Nepal. There are three main languages: Maithili (Tirhutia) and Magadhi (Magahi) in the east ...
Bihor: judet (county), western Romania, bounded on the west by Hungary. It was formerly included in feudal Transylvania. The oak- and beech-covered Western Carpathians, including the Apuseni Mountains, ...
Bihor Massif: mountain massif, the highest part of the Apuseni Mountains, part of the Western Carpathians, western Romania. It is roughly 16 miles (25 km) long from northwest to southeast and 9 ...
Bijagos Islands: islands of Guinea-Bissau, 30 miles (48 km) off the Guinea coast of western Africa. They compose an archipelago of 15 main islands, among which are Caravela, Carache, Formosa, Uno, Orango, ...
Bijapur: city, northern Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, southern India. An important site of medieval Indian Islamic architecture, it was formerly called Vijayapura (meaning "city of victory") and was an important community ...
Bijar carpet: floor covering handwoven by Kurds in the vicinity of the village of Bijar in western Iran. The carpets are known for their weight, sturdiness, and remarkable stiffness and resistance to ...
Bijnor: city, northwestern Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies near the Ganges River, northeast of Delhi, with which it is linked by road and rail. A trade centre for agricultural ...
Bikaner: city, north-central Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It lies 240 miles (386 km) west of Delhi.
bike wagon: a lightweight, one-horse, open carriage, having four wheels, almost invariably with pneumatic or solid rubber tires of the same type used on bicycles, and axles with ball bearings. It was ...
Bikila, Abebe: Ethiopian marathon runner who won a gold medal and set an unofficial world record while running barefoot at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, then bested his own record at ...
Bikini: an atoll in the Ralik (western) chain of the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The atoll was used for peacetime atomic explosions conducted for experimental purposes by the ...
Biko, Stephen: founder of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement. His death while in police custody made him an international martyr for South African black nationalism.
Bila Tserkva: city, Kiev oblast (province), north-central Ukraine, on the Ros River. Founded in the 11th century, Bila Tserkva ("White Church") long remained a minor regional centre. In modern times industry has ...
Bilaspur: city, southern Himachal Pradesh state, northwestern India. The city lies on the edge of Govind Sagar, an artificial lake northwest of Simla, the state capital. Bilaspur was the capital of ...
Bilaspur: city, Chhattisgarh state, central India, lying just west of the Arpa River. Bilaspur was the capital of a Gond kingdom until captured by the Marathas in the 18th century. Just ...
Bilbao: port city, capital of Biscay (Vizcaya) provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of the Basque Country (Spanish: Pais Vasco; Basque: Euskadi), northern Spain. Bilbao lies along the mouth of ...
Bilbays: town, southwestern ash-Sharqiyah muhafazah (governorate) in the eastern Nile River delta, Lower Egypt. Bilbays lies northeast of Cairo, on the main road from Ismailia and Port Said and on the ...