Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Shop

0-9

Hammurabi, Code of ... hanging

Hammurabi, Code of: the most complete and perfect extant collection of Babylonian laws, developed during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) of the 1st dynasty of Babylon. It consists of his legal decisions ...
Hampden: county, southwestern Massachusetts, U.S., bordered by Connecticut to the south. The county's terrain is characterized by mountains in the west and by ridges and valleys in the east, bisected north-south ...
Hampden, John: English Parliamentary leader famous for his opposition to King Charles I over ship money, an episode in the controversies that ultimately led to the English Civil Wars.
Hampden, Walter: original name Walter Hampden Dougherty U.S. actor, theatre manager, and repertory producer.
Hampshire: county, west-central Massachusetts, U.S. It consists of a mountainous, forested region adjoining Quabbin Reservoir on the northeast and bisected north-south by the Connecticut River. Other watercourses include The Oxbow (lake), ...
Hampshire: administrative, geographic, and historic county of south central England, bounded west by Dorset and Wiltshire, north by Berkshire, east by Surrey and West Sussex, and south by the English Channel. ...
Hampshire: breed of pig developed in the United States from the Wessex Saddleback and other varieties first imported from England around 1825; in the late 20th century it was one of ...
Hampshire: breed of medium-wool, dark-faced, hornless sheep originating in Hampshire, England. It is large and blocky and, as a superior mutton breed, is noted for its early maturity. It is one ...
Hampton: county, southern South Carolina, U.S. It consists of a low-lying, largely flat region on the Coastal Plain. The Salkehatchie River and its extension, the Combahee, form the county's eastern border, ...
Hampton: independent city, southeastern Virginia, U.S. It lies on the Chesapeake Bay and the north shore of Hampton Roads (natural roadstead), opposite Norfolk, to which it is linked by the Hampton ...
Hampton Court: Tudor palace in the Greater London borough of Richmond upon Thames. It overlooks the north bank of the River Thames. In the 1520s the palace was given by Thomas Cardinal ...
Hampton Court Conference: meeting held at Hampton Court Palace, near London, in January 1604, in response to the Millenary Petition (q.v.), in which the Puritans set forth their demands for reform of the ...
Hampton Roads: great natural roadstead, southeastern Virginia, U.S., formed by the deepwater estuary of the James River, protected by the Virginia Peninsula. The Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers also enter the roadstead, which ...
Hampton Roads Conference: (Feb. 3, 1865), informal, unsuccessful peace talks at Hampton Roads, Va., U.S., between the Union and the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. At the urging of his wartime adviser, ...
Hampton University: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Hampton, Virginia, U.S. It is a historically African-American university. The Undergraduate College consists of schools of business, liberal arts and education, engineering and ...
Hampton, Lionel: American jazz musician and bandleader, known for the rhythmic vitality of his playing and his showmanship as a performer. Best known for his work on the vibraphone, Hampton was also ...
Hampton, Wade: Confederate war hero during the American Civil War who restored Southern white rule to South Carolina following Radical Reconstruction.
Hamra', al-Hammadah al-: desolate rocky plateau of the Sahara, northwestern Libya. Located mostly in Tripolitania, it occupies an area measuring about 275 mi (440 km) by 190 mi. Its bare rock outcrops reach ...
hamster: any of 18 Eurasian species of rodents possessing internal cheek pouches. The golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) of Syria is commonly kept as a pet. Hamsters are stout-bodied, ...
Hamsun, Knut: Norwegian novelist, dramatist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920. A leader of the Neoromantic revolt at the turn of the century, he rescued the novel ...
Hamzah ibn 'Ali: one of the founders of the Druze religion. Almost nothing is known of his life before he entered Egypt in 1017. He became a spokesman for the religious convictions of ...
han: in Japanese history, fief controlled by a daimyo, or territorial lord, during the Tokugawa period (1603-1868).
Han Dynasty: (206 BC-AD 220), the second great Chinese Imperial dynasty, considered the prototype for all later Chinese dynasties. So thoroughly did the Han dynasty establish what was thereafter considered Chinese culture ...
Han Fei: the greatest of China's Legalist philosophers. His essays on autocratic government so impressed King Zheng of Qin that the future emperor adopted their principles after seizing power in 221 BC. ...
Han Gan: Chinese painter of the Tang dynasty, who, though recorded as having done wall paintings on Buddhist and Daoist themes, is best remembered for his paintings of horses. Han emphasized the ...
Han Hsiang: in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals of Taoism. He desired to make flowers bloom in an instant and to produce fine-tasting wine without using grain. ...
Han River: river in eastern Kwangtung Province (sheng), China. The Han River rises in the Wu-i Shan (mountains) in southwest Fukien Province to the north of Ch'ang-t'ing. Its upper course is known ...
Han River: river, northern South Korea, rising in the western slopes of the T'aebaek-sanmaek (mountains) and flowing generally westward across the peninsula through the provinces of Kangwon, Kyonggi, and North Ch'ungch'ong and ...
Han River: one of the most important tributaries of the Yangtze River of China. It has a total length of about 952 mi (1,532 km). The Han Shui rises in the Shen-ch'iung ...
Han T'o-chou: minister to the Chinese emperor Ning Tsung (reigned 1194-1224) of the Sung dynasty (960-1279). Han tried to recover territory in northern China that had been taken from the Sung several ...
Han Yongun: Korean Buddhist poet and religious and political leader.
Han Yu: master of Chinese prose, outstanding poet, and the first proponent of what later came to be known as Neo-Confucianism, which had wide influence in China and Japan.
Han-chung: city in southern Shensi Province (sheng), China. It is a county-level municipality (shih) and the administrative centre of Han-chung Prefecture (ti-ch'u). Han-chung is situated in a long, narrow, and ...
Han-k'ou: large urban area and river port in Wu-han Municipality (shih), Hupeh Province (sheng), central China. Located on the left bank of the Han Shui (river) at its confluence with the ...
Han-t'eng-ko-li Peak: peak in the Tien Shan (mountains) of Central Asia, on the boundary between Kazakstan and the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. Situated in a heavily glaciated mountain knot, the ...
Han-tan: city in southern Hopeh Province (sheng), China. Han-tan is situated on the higher ground on the west of the North China Plain, on the great north-south route from Peking to ...
Han-yang: urban area and industrial city in Hupeh Province (sheng), central China. Located on the right bank of the Han Shui (river) at its confluence with the Yangtze, opposite Han-k'ou, ...
Hana: village, Maui county, on the east-central coast of Maui island, Hawaii, U.S. Located on the shore of Hana Bay, the village was for many years an isolated enclave of ancient ...
Hana Valley: agricultural region of southern Severomoravsky kraj (region) and northeastern Jihomoravsky kraj, eastern Czech Republic. A plain formed by the confluence of the Blata, Romze, Becva, Mostenka, Valova, and Hana rivers ...
Hanabilah: in Islam, the most fundamentalist of the four Sunni schools of religious law. Based on the teachings of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855), the Hanbali legal school (madhhab) emphasized virtually complete ...
Hanabusa Itcho: Japanese painter who broke away from the orthodox style of the Kano school to experiment with humorous subjects from everyday life. Because of his subject matter, his work is sometimes ...
Hanafiyah: in Islam, one of the four Sunni schools of religious law, incorporating the legal opinions of the ancient Iraqi schools of al-Kufah and Basra. Hanafi legal thought (madhhab) developed from ...
hanafuda: (Japanese: "flower cards"), deck of 48 cards divided into 12 suits of four cards. Each suit is named for a month of the year and pictures a flower identified with ...
Hanalei: village, Kauai county, on the north-central coast of Kauai island, Hawaii, U.S. Near the head of Hanalei ("Crescent") Bay, the village is in the scenic and fertile Hanalei Valley, which ...
hanamichi: (Japanese: "flower passage"), in Kabuki theatre, runway that passes from the rear of the theatre to stage right at the level of the spectators' heads. Some plays also make use ...
Hanau: city, Hessen Land (state), central Germany. It is a port on the right bank of the canalized Main River at the mouth of the Kinzig, east of ...
Hancock: city, Houghton county, northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S., across Portage Lake from Houghton. Laid out in 1859, it was named for John Hancock, the American Revolutionary War leader. With ...
Hancock: county, southeastern Maine, U.S. It is located in a mountain-and-valley region bounded to the west by the Penobscot River and to the south by several bays of the Atlantic Ocean ...
Hancock, Herbie: American keyboard player, songwriter, and bandleader, a prolific recording artist who achieved success as an incisive, harmonically provocative jazz pianist, then went on to gain wide popularity as a leader ...
Hancock, John: American Revolutionary leader and first signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
Hancock, Joy Bright: U.S. military officer, one of the first women to hold a regular commission in the U.S. Navy.
Hancock, Langley George: Australian mining industrialist who unearthed some of the largest iron-ore reserves in the world, making him one of the nation's richest citizens and financing his campaign to form a right-wing ...
Hancock, Thomas: English inventor and manufacturer who founded the British rubber industry. His chief invention, the "masticator," worked rubber scraps into a shredded mass of rubber that could be formed into blocks ...
Hancock, Winfield Scott: Union general during the American Civil War (1861-65), whose policies during Reconstruction military service in Louisiana and Texas so endeared him to the Democratic Party that he became the party's ...
hand: ancient unit of length, now standardized at 4 inches (10.16 cm) and used today primarily for measuring the height of horses from the ground to the withers (top of the ...
hand: grasping organ at the end of the forelimb of certain vertebrates, exhibiting great mobility and flexibility in the digits and in the whole organ. It is made up of the ...
hand tool: any of the implements used by craftsmen in manual operations, such as chopping, chiseling, sawing, filing, or forging. Complementary tools, often needed as auxiliaries to shaping tools, include such implements ...
Hand, Learned: American jurist whose tough and sometimes profound mind, philosophical skepticism, and faith in the United States were employed throughout a record tenure as a federal judge (52 years, from April ...
Handa: city, Aichi ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan. Handa lies on the Chita Peninsula, facing Chita Bay of the Pacific Ocean. It served as an important commercial port during the Tokugawa period ...
handball: any of a family of games played in walled courts or against a single wall, with a small rubber ball that is struck with hand or fist against the wall. ...
handbell: small bell-usually of brass or bronze but sometimes of copper, clay, porcelain, glass, or other hard material-with an attached stem, loop, or leather strap for a handle. The earliest handbells ...
handcuffs: device for shackling the hands, used by police on prisoners under arrest. Until modern times, handcuffs were of two kinds: (1) the figure 8, which confined the hands close together ...
handedness: a tendency to use one hand rather than the other to perform most activities; it is the usual practice to classify persons as right-handed, left-handed, or ambidextrous. See laterality.
Handel, George Frideric: German-born English composer of the late Baroque era, noted particularly for his operas, oratorios, and instrumental compositions. He wrote the most famous of all oratorios, the Messiah ...
handgun: any firearm small enough to be held in one hand when fired. It usually fires a single projectile or bullet, and additional ammunition may be available in a revolving mechanism ...
handicap: in sports and games, method of offsetting the varying abilities or characteristics of competitors in order to equalize their chances of winning. Handicapping takes many, often complicated, forms. In horse ...
Handke, Peter: avant-garde Austrian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist, one of the most original German-language writers in the second half of the 20th century.
Handl, Jacob: also called Jacobus Gallus German-Austrian composer known for his sacred music.
Handlin, Oscar: American historian and educator noted for his examinations of immigration and other social topics in American history.
hands, imposition of: ritual act in which a priest or other religious functionary places one or both hands palms down on the top of another person's head, usually while saying a prayer or ...
Handsome Lake cult: longest-established prophet movement in North America. Its founder was Ganioda'yo (q.v.), a Seneca chief whose name meant "Handsome Lake"; his heavenly revelations received in trance in 1799 rapidly transformed both ...
Handy, W.C.: black American composer who changed the course of popular music by integrating the blues idiom into the then-fashionable ragtime. Among his best-known works is the classic "St. Louis Blues."
hang gliding: sport of flying in lightweight unpowered aircraft which can be carried by the pilot. Takeoff is usually achieved by launching into the air from a cliff or hill. Hang gliders ...
Hang-chou: city in northern Chekiang sheng (province), China. It is the provincial capital. The city stands on the north bank of the Ch'ien-t'ang River estuary at the head of Hang-chou Bay. ...
Hangayn Mountains: range in central Mongolia. It extends northwest-southeast for about 500 miles (805 km), parallels the Mongolian Altai Mountains (south), and rises to a height of 12,812 feet (3,905 m) in ...
hanging: execution by strangling or breaking the neck by a suspended noose. The traditional method, still in use on the continent of Europe, involves suspending the victim from a gallows or ...