breed of dog developed in England to drive foxes from their dens. The two varieties of fox terrier, wirehaired and smooth-haired, are structurally similar but differ in coat texture and ...
Britain's first foreign secretary (1782, 1783, 1806), a famous champion of liberty, whose career, on the face of it, was nevertheless one of almost unrelieved failure. He conducted against King ...
English preacher and missionary and founder of the Society of Friends (or Quakers); his personal religious experience made him hostile to church conventions and established his reliance on what he ...
author and statesman who helped shape the Constitution Act of 1852, which established home rule for New Zealand. He also served four short terms as the nation's prime minister (1856, ...
Mexican businessman and politician, who became president of Mexico in 2000. His term in office marked the end of 71 years of uninterrupted rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
American motion-picture executive who built a multimillion-dollar empire controlling a large portion of the exhibition, distribution, and production of film facilities during the era of silent film.
ballroom dance popular in Europe and America since its introduction around 1914. Allegedly named for the comedian Harry Fox, whose 1913 Ziegfeld Follies act included a trotting step, the fox-trot ...
English Puritan preacher and author of The Book of Martyrs, a graphic and polemic account of those who suffered for the cause of Protestantism. Widely read, often the most valued ...
English ecclesiastical statesman, one of the chief ministers of King Henry VII (ruled 1485-1509) and founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (1515-16).
any of 20 to 30 species of herbaceous plants of the genus Digitalis (family Scrophulariaceae, q.v.), especially D. purpurea, the common, or purple, foxglove, which is cultivated commercially as the ...
either of two breeds of dogs, one English and one American, that are traditionally kept in packs for the centuries-old ride to hounds of fox-hunting sportsmen. The English foxhound is ...
chase of the fox by horsemen with a pack of hounds. In England, the home of the sport, foxhunting dates from at least the 15th century. In its inception, it ...
any of the weedy grasses in the genera Alopecurus and Setaria of the family Poaceae. There are about 25 species of Alopecurus, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone. Most species ...
U.S. professional baseball player, the second man in major league history to hit 500 home runs. (Babe Ruth was the first.) A right-handed hitter who played mostly at first base, ...
American comedian and television actor known for his raunchy stand-up routines. His style of comedy, often described as "blue" for its foul language and highly adult subject matter, influenced generations ...
French military leader, writer, and statesman who rose through the ranks of the imperial army during the Napoleonic Wars (1800-15) and then emerged as a leading spokesman of the liberal ...
intermediate area between the exterior and interior of a building, especially a theatre. Originally the term was applied only to that area in French theatres, comparable to the greenroom in ...
inlet on the north coast of Ireland between the Inishowen Peninsula (mainly County Donegal, Ireland) to the west and the district councils of Limavady and Londonderry (until 1973 in County ...
crater on the Moon that appears to be heavily eroded; it was named for a 15th-century Italian monk and mapmaker. About 80 km (50 miles) in diameter, Fra Mauro lies ...
Italian physician, poet, astronomer, and geologist, who proposed a scientific germ theory of disease more than 300 years before its empirical formulation by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch.
in mathematics, any of a class of complex geometric shapes that commonly have "fractional dimension," a concept first introduced by the mathematician Felix Hausdorff in 1918. Fractals are distinct from ...
in mineralogy, appearance of a surface broken in directions other than along cleavage planes. There are several kinds of fractures: conchoidal (curved concavities resembling shells-e.g., flint, quartz, glass); even (rough, ...
in pathology, a break in a bone caused by stress. Certain normal and pathological conditions may predispose bones to fracture. Children have relatively weak bones because of incomplete calcification, and ...
a severe injury in which both fracture and dislocation take place simultaneously. Frequently, a loose piece of bone remains jammed between the ends of the dislocated bones and may have ...
German-American biochemist who helped to reveal the complementary roles of the structural components of viruses (a "core" of ribonucleic acid [RNA] enveloped by a protein "coat").
decorative treatment of frames for mirrors and pictures. Before the 15th century in Europe, frames hardly existed separately from their architectural setting and, with the altarpieces or the predellas they ...
musical instrument in which the neck and soundbox are joined by a column, or forepillar, which braces against the tension of the strings. It is one of the principal forms ...
overall unifying story within which one or more tales are related. In the single story, the opening and closing constitutes a frame. In the cyclical frame story-that is, a story ...
structure in which weight is carried by a skeleton or framework, as opposed to being supported by walls. The essential factor in a framed building is the frame's strength. Timber-framed ...
town (township), Middlesex county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Sudbury River, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Boston. Settled in 1650, it was incorporated in 1700 and ...
originally a French coin but now the monetary unit of a number of countries, notably Switzerland, most French and former Belgian overseas territories, and some African states; at one time ...
city, in the highlands of northeastern Sao Paulo estado (state), southern Brazil. It lies at 3,314 feet (1,010 metres) above sea level. Known variously as Vila Franca ...
country of northwestern Europe. Historically and culturally among the most important nations in the Western world, France has also played a highly significant role in international affairs, with former colonies ...
writer and ironic, skeptical, and urbane critic who was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was elected to the French Academy in 1896 and was ...
national bank of France, created in 1800 to restore confidence in the French banking system after the financial upheavals of the revolutionary period. Headquarters are in Paris.
state-supported research institution and centre for adult education in Paris. Founded in 1530 by Francis I, it was originally the Collegium Trilinguae (College of Three Languages). It offers lectures by ...
daily newspaper published in Paris. Formerly titled Defense de la France ("Defense of France"), it was founded as an underground paper during the German ...
founder of the Oblate Congregation of Tor de' Specchi (Oblates of St. Frances of Rome), a community that, with the Olivetan Benedictines, works for the sick and the poor.
daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, whose tragic love affair with Paolo Malatesta is renowned in literature and art. Married to Gianciotto Malatesta (called "the Lame") for reasons ...
French virtuoso violinist known for his lyrical performance style and as a champion of contemporary violin music by such composers as Darius Milhaud, Leonard Bernstein, and Karol Szymanowski.
town, southeastern Gabon, on the east bank of the Ogooue River, just south of its confluence with the Mpassa. The French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza founded it in 1880, ...
marshal of France and one of the most effective French military leaders of World War I. He was responsible for driving Bulgaria out of the war, thereby opening the road ...
Italian Renaissance artist and the major Bolognese painter of the late 15th century. He was much influenced by such Ferrarese painters as Lorenzo Costa, Francesco del Cossa, and Ercole de' ...
dictator of Paraguay whose intensely personal rule and policy of self-sufficiency left the nation both isolated and without alternative political institutions.
Italian Renaissance painter, best known for his portraits and religious paintings, whose style included early Renaissance, High Renaissance, and Proto-Mannerist elements. His early style is filled with movement and attention ...
the medieval dialect of Old French that furnishes the basis for the literary and official form of the modern French language. Francien was spoken in the region of Ile-de-France, which ...
Holy Roman emperor from Sept. 13, 1745; he was duke of Lorraine (as Francis Stephen) from 1729 to 1735 and grand duke of Tuscany from 1737. Although nominally outranking his ...
duke of Brittany (from 1442), son of John V (or VI). He had his brother Gilles thrown into prison and put to death for allegedly spying for the English, with ...
king of France (1515-47), the first of five monarchs of the Angouleme branch of the House of Valois. A Renaissance patron of the arts and scholarship, a humanist, and a ...
duke of Brittany from 1458, who succeeded his uncle, Arthur III; he maintained a lifelong policy of Breton independence in the face of encroachments by the French crown. The problems ...
the last Holy Roman emperor (1792-1806) and, as Francis I, emperor of Austria (1804-35); he was also, as Francis, king of Hungary (1792-1830) and king of Bohemia (1792-1836). He supported ...
emperor of Austria (1848-1916) and king of Hungary (1867-1916), who divided his empire into the Dual Monarchy, in which Austria and Hungary coexisted as equal partners. In 1879 he formed ...
canonized July 16, 1228; feast day October 4; founder of the Franciscan orders of the Friars Minor (Ordo Fratrum Minorum), the woman's Order of St. Clare (or Poor Clares), and ...
Franciscan monk, one of the principal philosopher-theologians of 14th-century Scholasticism and a leading advocate of the subtle system of Realism proposed by the English Scholastic John Duns Scotus.
founder of the Minim Friars, a severely ascetic Roman Catholic order that does charitable work and refrains from eating meat, eggs, or dairy products. Francis was named patron of Italian ...
Roman Catholic bishop of Geneva and doctor of the church, who was active in the struggle against Calvinism and cofounded the order of Visitation Nuns. He wrote the devotional classic ...
