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Mahon ... Majorelle, Louis

Mahon: chief city of Minorca, Balearic Islands, Baleares province and autonomous community (region), Spain. It originated as the Mediterranean Portus Magonis, bearing the name of the Carthaginian general Mago. Under the ...
Mahone, William: American railroad magnate and general of the Confederacy who led Virginia's "Readjuster" reform movement from 1879 to 1882.
Mahoney, Mary: American nurse, the first African-American woman to complete the course of professional study in nursing.
Mahra Sultanate: former semi-independent state in the southern Arabian Peninsula, including the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, in what is now eastern Yemen. The mainland portion of the sultanate, on ...
mahseer: any of several species of edible game fishes of the genus Barbus, in the carp family, Cyprinidae, found in clear rivers and lakes of India and southeastern Asia. Mahseer have ...
mahzor: originally a Jewish prayer book arranged according to liturgical chronology and used throughout the entire year. Though cantors (hazzanim) still use such a book, mahzor has come to mean the ...
Mai-chi-shan: one of three major sites in northern China's Kansu sheng (province) where rock-cut Buddhist caves and sculpture are found. The more than 190 sculptures now visible are carved in nearly ...
Mai-Ndombe, Lake: lake in western Congo (Kinshasa), east of the Congo River and south-southeast of Lake Tumba. It covers approximately 890 square miles (2,300 square km) and is about 80 miles (130 ...
Maiasaura: duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs) found as fossils from the Late Cretaceous Period (99 million to 65 million years old) of North America and whose discovery led to the theory that these ...
Maidenhead: town, Windsor and Maidenhead unitary authority, historic county of Berkshire, England, on the River Thames. A stone bridge (1772-77) carries the London-Bath road across the river, and the Brunel railway ...
Maidstone: town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Kent, southeastern England, astride the River Medway, 38 miles (61 km) southeast of London. The largely rural borough surrounding the town ...
Maidu: group of California Indians speaking a language of Penutian stock and originally living in a territory extending eastward from the Sacramento River to the crest of the Sierra Nevada and ...
Maiduguri: capital and largest city of Borno state, northeastern Nigeria. It is located on the north bank of the seasonal Ngadda (Alo) River, the waters of which disappear in the firki ...
Maikala Range: mountain range in Madhya Pradesh state, central India, running in a north-south direction and forming the eastern base of the triangular Satpura Range. The Maikala Range consists of laterite-capped, flat-topped ...
Maiko National Park: reserve in eastern Congo (Kinshasa), about equidistant from Bukavu, in the great Western Rift Valley just south of Lake Kivu, at the Rwandan border, and Kisangani, about 320 miles (515 ...
mail: the postal matter consigned under public authority from one person or post office to another. See postal system.
mail-order business: method of merchandising in which the seller's offer is made through mass mailing of a circular or catalog or through an advertisement placed in a newspaper or magazine and in ...
Mailath, Janos, Grof: Hungarian writer and historian, who interpreted Magyar culture to the Germans and who wrote a sympathetic account of the Habsburg monarchy.
Mailer, Norman: American novelist and journalist, best known for using a form of journalism-called New Journalism-that combines the imaginative subjectivity of literature with the more objective qualities of journalism. Both Mailer's fiction ...
Maillart, Robert: Swiss bridge engineer whose radical use of reinforced concrete revolutionized masonry arch bridge design.
Maillol, Aristide: French sculptor, painter, and printmaker whose monumental statues of female nudes display a concern for mass and rigorous formal analysis.
Maiman, Theodore H.: American physicist who constructed the first laser, a device that produces monochromatic coherent light, or light in which the rays are all of the same wavelength and phase. The laser ...
Maimbourg, Louis: French Jesuit and historian who wrote critical works on Calvinism and Lutheranism and a defense of Gallican liberties-the belief that the Roman Catholic church in France should maintain some independence ...
Maimon, Salomon: Jewish philosopher whose acute Skepticism caused him to be acknowledged by the major German philosopher Immanuel Kant as his most perceptive critic. He combined an early and extensive familiarity with ...
Maimonides, Moses: Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician, the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism. His first major work, begun at age 23 and completed 10 years later, was a commentary on the ...
Main Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences: one of the world's largest botanical gardens. Founded in 1945, it occupies a 360-hectare (889-acre) site in Moscow, Russia. About 21,000 varieties of plants are cultivated, many of which are ...
Main Range: mountain range in West Malaysia, the most prominent mountain group on the Malay Peninsula. Composed of granite with some patches of altered stratified rocks, the range extends southward for 300 ...
Main River: river, an important right- (east-) bank tributary of the Rhine in Germany. It is formed, near Kulmbach, by the confluence of the Weisser (White) Main, which rises in the Fichtel ...
Main-Danube Canal: commercial waterway in Bavaria Land (state), southern Germany, completed in 1992. The canal, 106 miles (171 km) long, runs from Bamberg on the Main River (a tributary of the Rhine) ...
Maina: peninsula of the southern Peloponnese (Peloponnisos), in the nomos (department) of Laconia, Greece. The area has been set aside as a historical district by the government. The rugged, rather isolated ...
Mainassara, Ibrahim Bare: soldier, diplomat, and politician who orchestrated a coup in 1996 that overthrew Niger's first democratically elected government. He subsequently served as president (1996-99) until his assassination.
Maine: historic region encompassing the western French departements of Mayenne and Sarthe and coextensive with the former province of Maine. The two Gallo-Roman civitates of the Cenomani and of the Diablintes ...
Maine: constituent state of the United States of America. The largest of the six New England states in area, it lies at the northeastern tip of the country. Its 33,265 square ...
Maine de Biran, Marie-Francois-Pierre: French statesman, empiricist philosopher, and prolific writer who stressed the inner life of man, against the prevalent emphasis on external sense experience, as a prerequisite for understanding the human self. ...
Maine River: river, Maine-et-Loire departement, western France, 7 mi (12 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Mayenne, the Sarthe, and the Loire rivers. Within 6 mi (north) of Angers, the ...
Maine, destruction of the: (Feb. 15, 1898), an incident preceding the Spanish-American War in which a mysterious explosion sank the U.S. battleship Maine in the harbour of Havana. The destruction of the Maine was ...
Maine, Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du: illegitimate son of King Louis XIV of France who attempted without success to wrest control of the government from Philippe II, Duke d'Orleans, who was the regent (1715-23) for Louis ...
Maine, Sir Henry: British jurist and legal historian who pioneered the study of comparative law, notably primitive law and anthropological jurisprudence.
Maine, University of: state university system of Maine, U.S. It comprises seven coeducational institutions, including the University of Southern Maine. The University of Maine is a land-grant and sea-grant university based in Orono. ...
Mainichi shimbun: national daily newspaper, one of Japan's "big three" dailies, which publishes morning and evening editions in Tokyo, Osaka, and three other regional centres.
Mainit, Lake: lake on the border of Surigao del Norte and Agusan del Sur provinces, northeastern Mindanao, Philippines. It is the country's fourth largest lake and has an area of 58 sq ...
Mainland: central and largest of the Orkney Islands of Scotland, which lie off the northern tip of the Scottish mainland. The shores of this irregularly shaped island are deeply indented (from ...
Mainpuri: town, administrative headquarters of Mainpuri district, Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, east of Agra. Mainpuri and the surrounding territory were part of the kingdom of Kannauj (Kanauj) and became splintered ...
Maintenon, Francoise d'Aubigne, marquise de: second wife (from either 1683 or 1697) and untitled queen of King Louis XIV of France. She encouraged an atmosphere of dignity and piety at court and founded an educational ...
Mainz: city, capital of Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), west-central Germany. It is a port on the left bank of the Rhine River opposite Wiesbaden and the mouth of the ...
Maio Island: island of Cape Verde, in the Atlantic Ocean, between the islands of Boa Vista and Santiago, about 400 miles (640 km) off the West African coast. It has an area ...
Maipu, Battle of: (April 5, 1818), during the South American wars of independence, a victory won by South American rebels, commanded by Jose de San Martin, leader of the resistance to Spain in ...
Maiquetia: city, northern Distrito Federal, northern Venezuela, on the narrow strip of land between the coastal hills and the Caribbean Sea, just west of La Guaira. It is a leading port ...
Mairet, Jean: classical French dramatist, the forerunner and rival of Pierre Corneille. Mairet's characters, his verse, and his situations were freely borrowed by his contemporaries. Before Corneille, he brought to the stage ...
Maironis: poet considered to be the bard of the Lithuanian national renaissance.
Maisi, Cape: cape, Guantanamo provincia, eastern Cuba, jutting out from the Purial Mountains to form the easternmost extremity of the island. To the southeast, across the Windward Passage, lies Cheval Blanc Point, ...
Maison-Carree: Roman temple at Nimes, Fr., in remarkably good repair. According to an inscription, it was dedicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, adopted sons of Augustus, and dates from the beginning ...
Maistre, Casimir-Leon: soldier and explorer who took part in the first thorough European exploration of Madagascar and led expeditions into previously unexplored regions of Central Africa, thereby extending French influence there.
Maistre, Joseph de: French polemical author, moralist, and diplomat who, after being uprooted by the French Revolution in 1789, became a great exponent of the conservative tradition.
Maitani, Lorenzo: Italian architect and sculptor primarily responsible for the construction and decoration of the facade of Orvieto Cathedral.
Maithil Brahman: caste of Brahmans in Bihar, India (the area of the ancient kingdom of Mithila), well known for their orthodoxy and interest in learning. The names of these Brahmans are usually ...
Maitland: city, eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Hunter River valley. Founded as a settlement for convicts (1818-21), it was called in turn The Camp, Molly Morgan Plains, and Wallis ...
Maitland, Frederic William: English jurist and historian of English law whose special contribution was to bring historical and comparative methods to bear on the study of English institutions.
Maitland, John Maitland, 1st Lord: lord chancellor of Scotland from 1587 to 1595 and chief adviser to King James VI (later James I of Great Britain). His father was the poet and statesman Sir Richard ...
Maitland, Sir Richard, Lord Lethington: Scottish poet, lawyer, statesman, and compiler of one of the earliest and most important collections of Scottish poetry.
Maitland, William: Scottish statesman and staunch supporter of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. In the conflict between Scotland's Protestant nobility and the Roman Catholic Mary, Maitland often defied the queen when her ...
Maitraka Dynasty: Indian dynasty that ruled in Gujarat and Saurashtra (Kathiawar) from the 5th to the 8th century AD. Its founder, Bhatarka, was a general who, taking advantage of the decay of ...
Maitreya: in Buddhist tradition, the future Buddha, presently a bodhisattva residing in the Tusita heaven, who will descend to earth to preach anew the dharma ("law") when the teachings of Gautama ...
maitri: (Sanskrit), in Buddhism, the perfect virtue of sympathy. See brahmavihara.
Maizuru: city, Kyoto fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan, facing Wakasa Bay. The city-then called Tanabe-developed around a castle built during the Muromachi period (1338-1573). It has one of the best natural ...
Maj circle: group of young Czech writers of the mid-19th century whose aim was to create a new Czech literature that would reflect their liberalism and practical nationalism. They published in an ...
Majapahit empire: the last Indianized kingdom in Indonesia; based in eastern Java, it existed between the 13th and 16th centuries. The founder of the empire was Vijaya, a prince of Singhasari (q.v.), ...
Majardah, Wadi: main river of Tunisia. It rises in northeastern Algeria in the Medjerda Mountains and flows northeastward for 290 miles (460 km) to the Gulf of Tunis, draining an area of ...
Majdanek: Nazi German concentration and extermination camp on the southeastern outskirts of the city of Lublin, Poland. In October 1941 it received its first prisoners, mainly Soviet prisoners of war, virtually ...
Majdanpek: town, northeastern Serbia, Yugoslavia. It lies along the Pek River in the Homoljske Mountains. Majdanpek has been an important mining centre since Roman times, when gold was mined; by the ...
majolica: tin-glazed earthenware produced from the 15th century at such Italian centres as Faenza, Deruta, Urbino, Orvieto, Gubbio, Florence, and Savona. Tin-glazed earthenware-also made in other countries, where it is called ...
major histocompatibility complex: group of genes that code for proteins found on the surfaces of cells that help the immune system recognize foreign substances. MHC proteins are found in all higher vertebrates. In ...
major scale: in music, stepped arrangement of notes following the classical Greek Ionian mode (though mistaken nomenclature in the 16th century has since caused it to be referred to as the Lydian ...
Major, John: British politician and public official who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997.
Majorca: island, Baleares provincia and comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), Spain. Majorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which lie in the western Mediterranean Sea. It is 1,405 square miles (3,640 ...
Majorelle, Louis: French artist, cabinetmaker, furniture designer, and ironworker who was one of the leading exponents of the Art Nouveau style.