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D region ... Dagobert I

D region: lowest ionospheric region, at altitudes of about 70 to 90 km (40 to 55 miles). The D region differs from the other ionospheric regions (denoted E and F) in that ...
d'Alembert's principle: alternative form of Newton's second law of motion, stated by the 18th-century French polymath Jean le Rond d'Alembert. In effect, the principle reduces a problem in dynamics to a problem ...
d'Amboise, Jacques: American dancer and choreographer of the New York City Ballet (1949-84), admired for his energetic, virile interpretations of both character and classical roles.
D'Annunzio, Gabriele: Italian poet, novelist, dramatist, short-story writer, journalist, military hero, and political leader, the leading writer of Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
D'Aquino, Iva Toguri: Japanese-American broadcaster from Japan to U.S. troops during World War II, who, after the war, was convicted of treason and served six years in a U.S. prison. She was later ...
D'Arcy, William Knox: English businessman who was the principal founder of the Iranian oil industry.
D'Entrecasteaux Channel: inlet of the Tasman Sea, extending northeast for about 35 miles (55 km) between Bruny Island (east) and the southeast coast of mainland Tasmania, Australia, to merge with the Derwent ...
D'Entrecasteaux Islands: islands in Papua New Guinea, lying across Ward Hunt Strait from the eastern tip of New Guinea, in the Solomon Sea, southwestern Pacific Ocean.
d'Oriola, Christian: French foil fencer who between 1947 and 1956 won four world titles and six Olympic medals, cementing his stature as one of the great fencers in the history of the ...
D'Urban, Sir Benjamin: British general and colonial administrator chiefly remembered for his frontier policy as governor in the Cape Colony (now in South Africa).
D'Urfey, Thomas: English dramatist, satirist, and songwriter with a light satirical touch whose plays were very popular in their time; his comedies, with complicated plots carried forward by lively dialogue, to some ...
D-Day: (in World War II), first day of the Allied landing in Normandy, France. See Normandy Invasion.
D-lines: in spectroscopy, a pair of lines, characteristic of sodium, in the yellow region of the spectrum. Their separation is too small to be detected with a spectroscope of low resolving ...
D.B.E.: dame commander of the British Empire, member of the second highest class of a British order of knighthood. See British Empire, The Most Excellent Order of the.
D.C.B.: dame commander of the Bath, member of the second highest rank of knightly class in a British order of knighthood. See Bath, The Most Honourable Order of the.
D.C.M.G.: dame commander of St. Michael and St. George, member of the second highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Saint Michael and Saint George, The Most Distinguished Order ...
D.C.V.O.: dame commander of the Royal Victorian Order, member of the second highest rank of a British order of knighthood. See Royal Victorian Order.
D.S.O.: recipient of the Distinguished Service Order, a British military decoration. See Distinguished Service Order.
Da Lat: municipality, southern Vietnam, northeast of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). On a lake on the Lam Vien Plateau at 4,920 feet (1,500 m) above sea level, it sits among ...
Da Nang: city, central Vietnam. Lying at the southern end of a horseshoe-shaped bay, it is one of the largest cities in Vietnam and the chief port of the central lowlands. Although ...
Da Ponte, Lorenzo: Italian poet and librettist.
dab: any of the flatfishes of the genus Limanda, family Pleuronectidae, found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. Dabs are right-eyed flatfish-i.e., the eyes are usually on the right side ...
dabbling duck: any of about 38 species of Anas and about 5 species in other genera, constituting the tribe Anatini, subfamily Anatinae, family Anatidae (q.v.; order Anseriformes). They feed mainly on water ...
Dabola: town, central Guinea, western Africa, situated at the eastern edge of the Fouta Djallon plateau near the Bouka branch of the Tinkisso River. Dabola lies on the Conakry-Kankan railway near ...
Dabrowa Gornicza: city, Slaskie wojewodztwo (province), southern Poland, on the Czarna Przemsza River just northeast of Katowice. It flourished when coal mining began there in 1796. During the 19th ...
Dabrowska, Maria: Polish novelist and critic, a major 20th-century writer and moral authority.
Dabrowski, Jan Henryk: general, regarded as a Polish national hero for his part in Tadeusz Kosciuszko's rebellion against Russia (1794); he later organized and commanded the Polish legions in Napoleon's army.
Dacang Jing: the total body of Buddhist literature deemed canonical in China and Japan and comprising works of the most varied character numbering more than 2,000 in the standard Chinese edition and ...
dace: any of a number of small, slim, active freshwater fishes of the carp family, Cyprinidae. In England and Europe, the dace is Leuciscus leuciscus, a relative of the chub. Usually ...
Dach, Simon: Prussian poet who was best known as the leader of the 17th-century Konigsberg circle of middle-class poets, important in the early Baroque movement in literature, which reflects the stress and ...
Dachau: the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany, established on March 10, 1933, slightly more than five weeks after Adolf Hitler became chancellor. Built at the edge of the town of ...
Dachau: city, Bavaria Land (state), southern Germany. It lies on the Amper River, just northwest of Munich. First mentioned in 805, it remained a small market town until ...
Dache, Lilly: French-born milliner who established a flourishing hat business in the United States with made-to-order creations.
Dachlan, Kijai Hadji Ahmad: founder of Muhammadiyah, an Islamic reform movement with great impact on the practice of Islam in Indonesia and strong influence on many nationalist leaders.
dachshund: dog breed of hound and terrier ancestry developed in Germany to pursue badgers into their burrows. The dachshund is a long-bodied, characteristically lively dog with a deep chest, short legs, ...
Dachstein: mountain massif of the northern Alps, Austria, on the borders of the Bundeslander (federal provinces) Oberosterreich, Salzburg, and Steiermark, reaching its maximum elevation at Hoher Dachstein (9,826 ft [2,995 m]). ...
Dacia: in antiquity, the area of the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania, in present north-central and western Romania. The Dacian people had earlier occupied lands south of the Danube and north of ...
Dacier, Andre: classical scholar and translator who with his wife, Anne Dacier, was responsible for some of the famous Delphin series of editions of Latin classics.
Dacier, Anne: classical commentator, translator, and editor, famous throughout Europe for her translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, for her part in the French literary controversy between the "ancients and moderns," ...
dacite: volcanic rock that may be considered a quartz-bearing variety of andesite. Dacite is primarily associated with andesite and trachyte and forms lava flows, dikes, and sometimes massive intrusions in the ...
Dacke War: (1542-43), a Swedish peasant revolt against the autocratic Reformation policies of Gustav I Vasa (ruled 1523-60). Although unsuccessful, the revolt proved a challenge to the King's centralizing efforts and caused ...
Dacko, David: president of the Central African Republic from 1960 to 1965 and from 1979 to 1981.
Dacorum: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England. The borough, in the northwestern corner of the county, includes part of the range of chalk hills known as the Chilterns, ...
dacryocystitis: inflammation and infection of the lacrimal sac, usually stemming from obstruction of the flow of tears into the nose. Tears leave the eye through small openings called puncta in the ...
dactyl: metrical foot consisting of one long (classical verse) or stressed (English verse) syllable followed by two short, or unstressed, syllables. Probably the oldest and most common metre in classical verse ...
Dactylella: a genus of 15 species in the Fungi Imperfecti (form-class Deuteromycetes; q.v.). They capture and kill nematodes (roundworms) by penetrating their bodies. A penetration tube grows out of a hypha ...
Dactylorhiza: genus of orchids, family Orchidaceae, containing about 30 species of plants with palmately lobed root tubers. They grow in meadows and damp places throughout Eurasia and in parts of North ...
Dada: nihilistic movement in the arts that flourished primarily in Zurich, Switzerland; New York City; Berlin, Cologne, and Hannover, Germany; and Paris in the early 20th century.
Daddah, Moktar Ould: statesman who was independent Mauritania's first president (1961-78). He was noted for his progress in unifying his ethnically mixed, dispersed, and partly nomadic people under his authoritarian but enlightened rule.
Daddi, Bernardo: early Italian Renaissance painter who was a pupil of Giotto and was influenced by Lorenzetti. Daddi's efforts to fuse the plastic qualities of Giotto's art with some aspects of Sienese ...
daddy longlegs: any of about 7,000 species of arachnids that differ from spiders (order Araneida or Araneae) by the extreme length and thinness of the legs and by the shape of the ...
Dadie, Bernard Binlin: Ivoirian poet, dramatist, novelist, and administrator whose works have been inspired both by traditional themes from Africa's past and by a need to assert the modern African's desire for equality, ...
dado: in Classical architecture, the plain portion between the base and cornice of the pedestal of a column and, in later architecture, the paneled, painted, or otherwise decorated lower part of ...
Dadra and Nagar Haveli: union territory of India, located in the western part of the country between the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, some 15 miles (24 kilometres) from the Arabian Sea and 80 ...
Dadu: town, Sindh province, southern Pakistan. The town lies just west of the Indus River, about 100 miles (160 km) north-northwest of Hyderabad. A distribution centre, it is connected by road ...
Dadu: Hindu-Muslim saint who inspired the formation of a sect called Dadu Panth.
Daedala: ancient festival of Hera, consort of the supreme god Zeus. The Daedala was celebrated on Mount Cithaeron in Greece. In the festival, a wooden image dressed as a bride was ...
Daedalic sculpture: type of sculpture attributed to a legendary Greek artist, Daedalus, who is connected in legend both to Bronze Age Crete and to the earliest period of Archaic sculpture in post-Bronze ...
Daedalus: (Greek: "Skillfully Wrought"), mythical Greek architect and sculptor, who was said to have built, among other things, the paradigmatic Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. Daedalus fell out of favour ...
Daehlie, Bjorn: Norwegian cross-country skier who holds the Winter Olympic records for the most medals won and the most gold medals. His Olympic success, combined with his record in World Cup competition ...
Daendels, Herman Willem: soldier who fought with distinction in the army of the Batavian Republic (the Dutch Republic established by Revolutionary France) and later ably administered Dutch East Indian possessions.
daffodil: bulb-forming flowering plant of the genus Narcissus (q.v.), native to northern Europe and widely cultivated there and in North America. The daffodil grows to about 16 inches (41 cm) ...
Dafla: tribal people of eastern Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh (formerly North East Frontier Agency), a mountainous state in northeastern India. They speak a Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan family.
Dafydd Ap Edmwnd: poet who authoritatively classified and defined the 24 Welsh bardic metres (announced at the Carmarthen eisteddfod, or poets' assembly, in 1451). A master of bardic forms, he wrote elegant and ...
Dafydd Ap Gwilym: poet generally considered one of the greatest figures in Welsh literature. He introduced into a formalistic poetic tradition an authenticity, freshness, and naturalness hitherto unknown.
Dafydd Nanmor: Welsh poet, master of the cywydd form (characterized by rhyming couplets), whose poems express his belief in tradition and aristocracy. Many of his poems reflect his support of the political ...
Dagan: West Semitic god of crop fertility, worshiped extensively throughout the ancient Middle East. Dagan was the Hebrew and Ugaritic common noun for "grain," and the god Dagan was the legendary ...
Dagda: in Celtic religion, one of the leaders of a mythological Irish people, the Tuatha De Danann ("People of the Goddess Danu"). The Dagda was credited with many powers and possessed ...
Dagens Nyheter: morning daily newspaper published in Stockholm. It is one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Sweden. It was founded in 1864 by Rudolf Wall. Dagens ...
Dagerman, Stig: Swedish short-story writer, novelist, and playwright whose works, showing the influence of William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, and Dagerman's older compatriot, Eyvind Johnson, have been held to express a sense of ...
Dagestan: republic in southern European Russia. Dagestan lies on the eastern end of the northern flank of the Greater Caucasus range, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea. The capital ...
Dagestan rug: usually small floor covering woven in the republic of Dagestan in the eastern Caucasus (Russia). Dagestan rugs are finer than the Kazakh types, but less fine than rugs from the ...
Dagestanian languages: group of languages spoken in the northeastern part of the Caucasus and including the Avar-Andi-Dido, the Lak-Dargin (Lak-Dargwa), and the Lezgian groups. One of the distinctive characteristics of a majority ...
dagger: short stabbing knife, ostensibly the diminutive of the sword, though in ancient and medieval times the distinction between a long dagger and a short sword was often obscure. From approximately ...
Dagly, Gerhard: royal Kammerkunstler, or chamber artist, who, as one of the greatest craftsmen in European lacquer, was an important force behind the Baroque style.
Dagobert I: the last Frankish king of the Merovingian dynasty to rule a realm united in more than name only.