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  • Abdullah ibn Buhaina (American musician)
    American drummer and bandleader noted for his extraordinary drum solos, which helped define the offshoot of bebop known as “hard bop” and gave the drums a significant solo status. His style was characterized by thunderous press rolls, cross beats, and drum rolls that began as quiet tremblings and grew into frenzied explosions....
  • Abdullah ibn Hussein (king of Jordan)
    king of Jordan from 1999 and a member of the Hashimite dynasty, considered by pious Muslims to be direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (see Ahl al-Bayt)....
  • ʿAbdullah II (king of Jordan)
    king of Jordan from 1999 and a member of the Hashimite dynasty, considered by pious Muslims to be direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (see Ahl al-Bayt)....
  • Abdullah, Sheikh Muhammad (Indian political leader)
    a prominent figure in India’s struggle for independence, who fought for the rights of Kashmir and won for it a semiautonomous status within India....
  • ʿAbdullahi (Sudanese religious leader)
    political and religious leader who succeeded Muḥammad Aḥmad (al-Mahdī) as head of a religious movement and state within the Sudan....
  • Abdullahi dan Fodio (Islamic scholar and leader)
    ...reputation increased, as did the size and importance of the community that looked to him for religious and political leadership. Particularly closely associated with him were his younger brother, Abdullahi, who was one of his first pupils, and his son, Muhammad Bello, both distinguished teachers and writers. But his own scholarly clan was slow to come over to him. Significant support appears......
  • Abdülmecid I (Ottoman sultan)
    Ottoman sultan from 1839 to 1861 who issued two major social and political reform edicts known as the Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane (Noble Edict of the Rose Chamber) in 1839 and the Hatt-ı Hümayun (Imperial Edict) in 1856, heralding the new era of Tanzimat (“Reorganization”)....
  • Abdülmecid II (Ottoman prince and caliph)
    the last caliph and crown prince of the Ottoman dynasty of Turkey....
  • Abdurahman, Abdullah (South African politician)
    ...politically conscious Coloureds and Indians. Their first nationally based organization was the African Political (later People’s) Organization, founded in Cape Town in 1902. Under the presidency of Abdullah Abdurahman, this body lobbied for Coloured rights and had links at times with other black political groups. Indians in the Transvaal, led by Mohandas K. Gandhi, also resisted discrimi...
  • Abe Isoo (Japanese social leader)
    one of the founders of the Japanese socialist movement and titular head of the Social Mass Party (Shakai Taishūtō) from its inception in 1932 until 1940. He is also remembered for introducing the game of baseball to Japan....
  • Abe Kimifusa (Japanese author)
    Japanese novelist and playwright noted for his use of bizarre and allegorical situations to underline the isolation of the individual....
  • Abe Kōbō (Japanese author)
    Japanese novelist and playwright noted for his use of bizarre and allegorical situations to underline the isolation of the individual....
  • Abe Lincoln in Illinois (play by Sherwood)
    ...The heroes of The Petrified Forest (1935) and Idiot’s Delight (1936) begin as detached cynics but recognize their own bankruptcy and sacrifice themselves for their fellowmen. In Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1939) and There Shall Be No Night (1941), in which his pacifist heroes decide to fight, Sherwood’s thesis is that only by losing his life for others can...
  • Abe Masahiro (Japanese statesman)
    statesman who negotiated the opening of Japan to trade and communication with Western nations after the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his U.S. Navy fleet....
  • Abe Shinzo (prime minister of Japan)
    Japanese politician, who was prime minister of Japan from 2006 to 2007....
  • abecedarian verse (literature)
    a type of acrostic in which the first letter of each line of a poem or the first letter of the first word of each stanza taken in order forms the alphabet. Examples of these are some of the Psalms (in Hebrew), such as Psalms 25 and 34, where successive verses begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. The word...
  • Abecedarium Anglo-Latinum (dictionary by Huloet)
    More important still was Richard Huloet’s work of 1552, Abecedarium Anglo-Latinum, for it contained a greater number of English words than had before appeared in any similar dictionary. In 1556 appeared the first edition by John Withals of A Short Dictionary for Young Beginners, which gained greater circulation (to judge by the frequency of editions) than any other...
  • abecedarius (literature)
    a type of acrostic in which the first letter of each line of a poem or the first letter of the first word of each stanza taken in order forms the alphabet. Examples of these are some of the Psalms (in Hebrew), such as Psalms 25 and 34, where successive verses begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. The word...
  • Abéché (Chad)
    town, eastern Chad, between the wadis Chao and Sao. Historically it was the site of the capital of the Muslim sultanate of Ouaddaï, which dominated much of the area of Chad before French conquest was accomplished in 1912. The remains of the ancient capital include a palace, tombs of former sultans, and the ruins of a mosque, all surrounded by a thick wall. The town has m...
  • ABEDA (international finance)
    bank created by the Arab League summit conference in Algiers, in November 1973, to finance development projects in Africa. In 1975 ABEDA began operating by supplying African countries with technical assistance. All members of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) are eligible as recipients, except those countries belonging to the Arab League. ABEDA includes all members of the Arab League except ...
  • Abedi Ayew Pelé (Ghanian athlete)
    Ghanaian football (soccer) player who was the only man to have won the African Player of the Year award three consecutive times (1991–93). As an attacking midfielder with Olympique de Marseille in France, Abedi Pelé was one of the first African players to have an impact on club football in Europe....
  • Abedin, Zainul (Bangladeshi artist)
    Painting as an independent art form is a relatively recent phenomenon in Bangladesh. The main figure behind the art movement was Zainul Abedin, who first attracted attention with his sketches of the Bengal famine of 1943. After the partition of Pakistan from India in 1947, he was able to gather around him a school of artists who experimented with various forms, both orthodox and innovative....
  • Abeel, John (Seneca leader)
    Seneca Indian leader who aided white expansion into Indian territory in the eastern United States....
  • Abegg, Richard Wilhelm Heinrich (German chemist)
    physical chemist whose work contributed to the understanding of valence (the capacity of an atom to combine with another atom) in light of the newly discovered presence of electrons within the atom....
  • Abegweit (province, Canada)
    one of the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Curving from North Cape to East Point, the island is about 140 miles (225 kilometres) long, ranging from 2 to 40 miles (3 to 65 kilometres) in width. It lies between 46° and 47° N latitude, and 62° and 64° W longitude. On the south the Northumberland Strait separates the island by about nine miles from the mainland provinces of N...
  • Abeilardus, Petrus (French theologian and poet)
    French theologian and philosopher best known for his solution of the problem of universals and for his original use of dialectics. He is also known for his poetry and for his celebrated love affair with Héloïse....
  • Abejas phase (Mexican pre-history)
    ...farmers learned to produce hybrids to increase the size of the corn kernels. Avocados, chili peppers, amaranth, zapotes, tepary beans, and squashes were also primitive cultigens. During the Abejas phase (3400–2300 bc), use of cultivated plants increased at the expense of wild plants and, probably, at the expense of hunting. In addition, pumpkins and the common bean were......
  • Abel (biblical figure)
    in the Old Testament, second son of Adam and Eve, who was slain by his older brother, Cain (Genesis 4:1–16). According to Genesis, Abel, a shepherd, offered the Lord the firstborn of his flock. The Lord respected Abel’s sacrifice but did not respect that offered by Cain. In a jealous rage, Cain murdered Abel. Cain then became a fugitive because his brother’...
  • Abel, Carl Friedrich (German composer)
    symphonist of the pre-Classical school and one of the last virtuosos of the viola da gamba....
  • Abel, John Jacob (American physiological chemist)
    American pharmacologist and physiological chemist who made important contributions to a modern understanding of the ductless, or endocrine, glands. He isolated adrenaline in the form of a chemical derivative (1897) and crystallized insulin (1926). He also invented a primitive artificial kidney....
  • Abel, Niels Henrik (Norwegian mathematician)
    Norwegian mathematician, a pioneer in the development of several branches of modern mathematics....
  • Abel Prize (award)
    award granted annually for research in mathematics, in commemoration of the brilliant 19th-century Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. The Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund was established on Jan. 1, 2002, and it is administered by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. The main purpose of the fund is to award an international prize for ...
  • Abel, Rudolf Ivanovich (Soviet spy)
    Soviet intelligence officer, convicted in the United States in 1957 for conspiring to transmit military secrets to the Soviet Union. He was exchanged in 1962 for the American aviator Francis Gary Powers, who had been imprisoned as a spy in the Soviet Union since 1960....
  • Abel Sanchez (work by Unamuno)
    ...depictions of agonized characters who illustrate and give voice to his own philosophical ideas. His most famous novel is Abel Sánchez: una historia de pasión (1917; Abel Sanchez), a modern re-creation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, which centres on the painfully conflicting impulses of the character representing Cain. His other novels include......
  • “Abel Sánchez: una historia de pasión” (work by Unamuno)
    ...depictions of agonized characters who illustrate and give voice to his own philosophical ideas. His most famous novel is Abel Sánchez: una historia de pasión (1917; Abel Sanchez), a modern re-creation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, which centres on the painfully conflicting impulses of the character representing Cain. His other novels include......
  • Abel, Sidney Gerald (Canadian athlete)
    Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. Feb. 22, 1918, Melville, Sask.—d. Feb. 8, 2000, Farmington Hills, Mich.), was a longtime star with the Detroit Red Wings, helping the team to win three Stanley Cup titles (1943, 1950, 1952) and four consecutive regular-season titles (1949–52). Together with Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay, he was a member of the “Production Line,” De...
  • Abel, Sir Frederick Augustus (British chemist)
    English chemist and explosives specialist who, with the chemist Sir James Dewar, invented cordite (1889), later adopted as the standard explosive of the British army. Abel also made studies of dust explosions in coal mines, invented a device for testing the flash point of petroleum, and found a way to prevent guncotton from exploding spontaneously....
  • Abel Tasman National Park (park, New Zealand)
    wildlife preserve in northwestern South Island, New Zealand. Established in 1942, it was named for Abel Tasman, the Dutch navigator. With an area of 55,699 acres (22,541 hectares), it extends inland for about 6 miles (10 km) from the beaches of Tasman Bay on its western shores between Separation Point and Marahau Inlet, about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Nelson. The park includes the Tata Island...
  • Abel, Theodora Mead (American psychologist and educator)
    American clinical psychologist and educator who combined sociology and psychology in her work....
  • Abelam (people)
    The art of the Abelam tribe, which lived in the Prince Alexander Mountains, was tied to a vigorous ceremonial life. It thus presents a far more spectacular scene. Their pyramidal ceremonial houses, centres for cults of yam growing and initiation, were built on the grandest scale known in New Guinea. They featured vast painted gables and lintels, to which carvings of hornbills, parrots, and......
  • Abelard, Peter (French theologian and poet)
    French theologian and philosopher best known for his solution of the problem of universals and for his original use of dialectics. He is also known for his poetry and for his celebrated love affair with Héloïse....
  • Abélard, Pierre (French theologian and poet)
    French theologian and philosopher best known for his solution of the problem of universals and for his original use of dialectics. He is also known for his poetry and for his celebrated love affair with Héloïse....
  • Abele spelen (German medieval drama)
    The earliest recorded songs suggest a Germanic rather than a Romance tradition. Because the first extant plays—the 14th-century Abele spelen (“seemly plays”)—were entirely secular (and may have been the first of such in Europe), incorporating romantic themes from the earlier songs, there is reason to attribute the emergence of drama in The Netherlands as much to....
  • Abeles, Sir Emil Herbert Peter (Australian business executive)
    Hungarian-born Australian business executive who immigrated to Australia in 1949 and soon after cofounded Alltrans Pty Ltd., a small transport company with two trucks; by 1999 Alltrans had merged with or taken over several other firms, and the resulting multinational corporation, TNT Ltd., had transportation operations in at least 180 countries. Abeles was knighted in 1972, appointed to the board ...
  • Abelia floribunda (shrub)
    An outstanding evergreen shrub is Mexican abelia (Abelia floribunda) with bright-green, oval leaves and small clusters of fragrant, pinkish-purple, tubular flowers. It may reach 1.8 metres (6 feet) but usually is shorter. The glossy abelia (A. grandiflora), about the same height but with pinkish-white blooms, is evergreen in warm climates and deciduous farther north. It is a......
  • Abelia grandiflora (shrub)
    ...Mexican abelia (Abelia floribunda) with bright-green, oval leaves and small clusters of fragrant, pinkish-purple, tubular flowers. It may reach 1.8 metres (6 feet) but usually is shorter. The glossy abelia (A. grandiflora), about the same height but with pinkish-white blooms, is evergreen in warm climates and deciduous farther north. It is a hybrid between two Chinese species,......
  • Abelian group (mathematics)
    Examples of groups include the integers with * interpreted as addition and the positive rational numbers with * interpreted as multiplication. An important property shared by some groups but not all is commutativity: for every element a and b, a * b = b * a. The rotations of an object in the plane around a fixed po...
  • Abelian theorem (mathematics)
    ...then the world centre for mathematics, where he called on the foremost mathematicians and completed a major paper on the theory of integrals of algebraic functions. His central result, known as Abel’s theorem, is the basis for the later theory of Abelian integrals and Abelian functions, a generalization of elliptic function theory to functions of several variables. However, Abel’s...
  • Abell, A. S. (American journalist)
    newspaper editor and publisher, and founder, with two other investors, of the Philadelphia Public Ledger and the Baltimore Sun....
  • Abell, Arunah Shepardson (American journalist)
    newspaper editor and publisher, and founder, with two other investors, of the Philadelphia Public Ledger and the Baltimore Sun....
  • Abell, Kjeld (Danish dramatist)
    dramatist and social critic, best known outside Denmark for two plays, Melodien der blev væk (1935; English adaptation, The Melody That Got Lost, 1939) and Anna Sophie Hedvig (1939; Eng. trans., 1944), which defends the use of force by the oppressed against the oppressor....
  • Abelmoschus esculentus (plant)
    (Hibiscus, or Abelmoschus, esculentus), herbaceous, hairy, annual plant of the mallow family (Malvaceae). It is native to the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere and is widely cultivated or naturalized in the tropics and subtropics of the Western Hemisphere for its edible fruit. The leaves are heart-shaped and three- to five-lobed; the flowers are yellow with a crimson centre. The fru...
  • Abelmoschus moschatus (plant)
    (species Hibiscus moschatus, H. abelmoschus, or Abelmoschus moschatus), annual or biennial plant of the hibiscus, or mallow, family (Malvaceae), native to India. It grows 0.6–1.8 metres (2–6 feet) tall and bears large yellow flowers with red centres. The plant is cultivated for its seeds, which are used in perfumes. The plant also yields a fibre used locally for ...
  • abelmosk (plant)
    (species Hibiscus moschatus, H. abelmoschus, or Abelmoschus moschatus), annual or biennial plant of the hibiscus, or mallow, family (Malvaceae), native to India. It grows 0.6–1.8 metres (2–6 feet) tall and bears large yellow flowers with red centres. The plant is cultivated for its seeds, which are used in perfumes. The plant also yields a fibre used locally for ...
  • Abel’s theorem (mathematics)
    ...then the world centre for mathematics, where he called on the foremost mathematicians and completed a major paper on the theory of integrals of algebraic functions. His central result, known as Abel’s theorem, is the basis for the later theory of Abelian integrals and Abelian functions, a generalization of elliptic function theory to functions of several variables. However, Abel’s...
  • Abelson, Frank (British singer)
    British theatre and cabaret singer who was one of the most popular romantic crooners of the 1950s through the ’90s; darkly handsome and elegantly dressed, “Mr. Moonlight” (as he was known from his signature tune, “Give Me the Moonlight”) also appeared on television in Britain, the U.S., and across Europe and in motion pictures, notably in a musical number with Ma...
  • Abelson, Philip Hauge (American scientist)
    American physical chemist who proposed the gas diffusion process for separating uranium-235 from uranium-238 and in collaboration with the U.S. physicist Edwin Mattison McMillan discovered the element neptunium....
  • Abemama Atoll (atoll, Kiribati)
    coral atoll of the northern Gilbert Islands, part of Kiribati, in the west-central Pacific Ocean. Capt. Charles Bishop, who reached the atoll in 1799, named it Roger Simpson Island for one of his associates. Seat of the area’s ruling family in the 19th century, the atoll was the site of the formal British annexation of the Gilbert Island group in 1892. Occupied by Japanes...
  • Abenaki (people)
    Algonquian-speaking North American Indian tribe that united with other tribes in the 17th century to furnish mutual protection against the Iroquois Confederacy. The name refers to their location “toward the dawn.” In its earliest known form, the Abenaki Confederacy consisted of tribes or bands living east and northeast of prese...
  • Abenaki Confederacy (Native American history)
    ...with other tribes in the 17th century to furnish mutual protection against the Iroquois Confederacy. The name refers to their location “toward the dawn.” In its earliest known form, the Abenaki Confederacy consisted of tribes or bands living east and northeast of present-day New York state, including Abenaki, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot in present-day Maine, Malecite and Mi...
  • Abendmusiken (music)
    ...are their main sources. All are imbued with a devout simplicity that contrasts strongly with the elaborations of their Bachian successors. It is possible that some were written for the famous Abendmusiken, concerts of mixed vocal and instrumental music held in St. Mary’s in the late afternoons on five Sundays in the year. These performances, instituted by Buxtehude in 1673, became...
  • Abendstunde eines Linsiedlers, Die (work by Pestalozzi)
    As practical realization of his ideas was denied him, he turned to writing. Die Abendstunde eines Linsiedlers (1780; “The Evening Hour of a Hermit”) outlines his fundamental theory that education must be “according to nature” and that security in the home is the foundation of man’s happiness. His novel Lienhard und Gertrud (1781–87; Leonar...
  • Abengourou (Côte d’Ivoire)
    town, eastern Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), on the road from Abidjan (the national capital) to Ghana. The major trading centre for a productive forest region, it is also the residence of the Anyi (Agni) paramount chief, who is the present king of Indénié (an Anyi kingdom founded in the mid-18th century). The king’s official residence (built 1882...
  • Abenhjertige fortielser: Erindringsglimt (work by Kristensen)
    ...from his autobiography, En bogorms barndom (“A Bookworm’s Boyhood”), was published in 1953, and in 1966 the complete autobiography appeared as Åbenhjertige fortielser: Erindringsglimt (“Candid Concealments: Flashes of Memory”)....
  • Åbenrå (Denmark)
    city, seat of Sønderjylland amtskommune (county commune), southeastern Jutland, Denmark, at the head of Åbenrå Fjord. First mentioned in the 12th century when attacked by the Wends, it was granted a charter (1335) and grew from a fishing village into a thriving port in the 17th and 18th centuries. Medieval landmarks include the St. Nichol...
  • “abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, Der” (novel by Grimmelshausen)
    German novelist, whose Simplicissimus series is one of the masterworks of his country’s literature. Satiric and partially autobiographical, it is a matchless social picture of the often grotesque Thirty Years’ War (1618–48)....
  • Abenteuerroman (German literature)
    in German literature, a form of the picaresque novel. The Abenteuerroman is an entertaining story recounting the adventures of the hero, but it often incorporates a serious aspect. An example of the genre is the 17th-century Der Abentheurliche Simplicissimus (Adventurous Simplicissimus) by H.J.C. von Grimmelshausen. The Abenteuerroman...
  • Abeokuta (Nigeria)
    town, capital of Ogun state, southwestern Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, around a group of rocky outcroppings that rise above the surrounding wooded savanna. It lies on the main railway (1899) from Lagos, 48 miles (78 km) south, and on the older trunk road from Lagos to Ibadan; it also has road connections to Ilaro, Shagamu, Iseyin, and Kétou ...
  • Aberbach, Jean (Austrian entrepreneur)
    When Austrian immigrant brothers Jean and Julian Aberbach formed their Hill and Range publishing company in 1945, the name they chose made it clear which songwriters they were after—the country-and-western writers who had been long overlooked by the established publishers affiliated with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Offering a 75–25 percent......
  • Aberbach, Julian (Austrian entrepreneur)
    When Austrian immigrant brothers Jean and Julian Aberbach formed their Hill and Range publishing company in 1945, the name they chose made it clear which songwriters they were after—the country-and-western writers who had been long overlooked by the established publishers affiliated with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Offering a 75–25 percent......
  • Abercorn (Zimbabwe)
    town, northeastern Zimbabwe. It was originally called Abercorn, and its present name was derived from a Shona word meaning “to become friendly.” Located at the site of a sandstone reef that once yielded large quantities of gold, the town is overshadowed by giant mine dumps at the foot of Shamva Mountain, which is conspicuous because of the huge gash running almost ...
  • Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (American company)
    former retail sporting goods concern originally based in New York City, famed for its wide range of expensive and often exotic sporting equipment and attire from tennis shoes to elephant guns. For half a century and more the store’s apparel, guns, tackle, and other merchandise were the image of correctness and opulence, inspiring the humorist Ed Zern to lampoon a perfectly accoutred angler...
  • Abercrombie, James (British general)
    British general in the French and Indian Wars, commander of the British forces in the failed attack on the French at Ticonderoga....
  • Abercrombie, Lascelles (British author)
    poet and critic who was associated with Georgian poetry....
  • Abercrombie, Sir Leslie Patrick (British architect)
    British architect and town planner who redesigned London after it was devastated by enemy bombardment in World War II....
  • Abercrombie, Sir Patrick (British architect)
    British architect and town planner who redesigned London after it was devastated by enemy bombardment in World War II....
  • Abercromby, James (British general)
    British general in the French and Indian Wars, commander of the British forces in the failed attack on the French at Ticonderoga....
  • Abercromby, Sir Ralph (British general)
    soldier whose command restored discipline and prestige to the British army after the disastrous campaigns in the Low Countries between 1793 and 1799. He prepared the way for the successful campaign against Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt....
  • Aberdar (Wales, United Kingdom)
    town (“community”), Rhondda Cynon Taff county borough, historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), Wales, on the River Cynon. The community dates from the Middle Ages. Its Saint John’s Church was built about 1189. Aberdare’s main growth in the 19th century was based on iron ore (first ironworks 1799) and coal, particularly steam coal ...
  • Aberdare (Wales, United Kingdom)
    town (“community”), Rhondda Cynon Taff county borough, historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), Wales, on the River Cynon. The community dates from the Middle Ages. Its Saint John’s Church was built about 1189. Aberdare’s main growth in the 19th century was based on iron ore (first ironworks 1799) and coal, particularly steam coal ...
  • Aberdare National Park (park, Kenya)
    ...of leather goods, soap, wood and furniture, processed food, soft drinks, cord, rope, twine, clay and concrete products, agricultural implements, and fabrics. Nyeri serves as the gateway to Aberdare National Park. The town is linked by road and rail with Nanyuki, about 36 miles (58 km) to the northeast, and Nairobi, about 60 miles (96 km) to the southwest. There is an airfield nearby.......
  • Aberdare Range (mountain range, Kenya)
    mountain range, forming a section of the eastern rim of the Great Rift Valley in west-central Kenya, northeast of Naivasha and Gilgil and just south of the Equator. The range has an average elevation of 11,000 feet (3,350 metres) and culminates in Oldoinyo Lesatima (13,120 feet [3,999 metres]) and Ilkinangop (12,815 feet [3,906 metres]). The Aberdares slope gradually east and southeast, providing ...
  • Aberdaugleddau (Wales, United Kingdom)
    port, historic and present county of Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro), Wales, on the north shore of a deep natural harbour. The inlet, also named Milford Haven, for many centuries served as a landing and embarkation point on the route from southwestern Wales to Ireland, but the town was founded only in 1793. It has had a checkered maritime history, suffering a rapid decline of its wha...
  • Aberdeen (South Dakota, United States)
    city, seat (1880) of Brown county, northeastern South Dakota, U.S. It lies in the James River valley about 160 miles (260 km) northeast of Pierre. Established in 1881 as a junction of several railroads, it was named for Aberdeen in Scotland by Alexander Mitchell, president of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul R...
  • Aberdeen (Maryland, United States)
    city, Harford county, northeastern Maryland, U.S., near Chesapeake Bay, 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Baltimore. Settled about 1800, it was named for the city in Scotland. Aberdeen is the principal trading centre for the nearby 113-square-mile (293-square-km) Aberdeen Proving Ground (established 1917), a U.S. Army test site for guns, ammunit...
  • Aberdeen (council area, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    council area and historic county of eastern Scotland. It projects shoulderlike eastward into the North Sea and encompasses coastal lowlands in the north and east and part of the Grampian Mountains in the west. The council area and the historic county occupy somewhat different areas. The city of Aberdeen is part of the historic county of Aber...
  • Aberdeen (Washington, United States)
    city, Grays Harbor county, western Washington, U.S., on the Pacific estuaries of the Chehalis, Wishkah, and Hoquiam rivers (which together form Grays Harbor). With Hoquiam and Cosmopolis, Aberdeen forms a tri-city area. Captain Robert Gray navigated the inlet in the ship Columbia on May 7, 1792, and named it Bullfinch Harbour. In 1878...
  • Aberdeen (Scotland, United Kingdom)
    city and historic royal burgh (town) astride the Rivers Dee and Don on Scotland’s North Sea coast. Aberdeen is a busy seaport, a centre of Scotland’s fishing industry, and the commercial capital of northeastern Scotland. It also is the principal British centre of the North Sea oil industry and associated service and supply industries. Aberdeen city constitutes an i...
  • Aberdeen Angus (breed of cattle)
    breed of black, polled beef cattle, for many years known as Aberdeen Angus, originating in northeastern Scotland. Its ancestry is obscure, though the breed appears closely related to the curly-coated Galloway, sometimes called the oldest breed in Britain. The breed was improved and the present type of the cattle fixed early in the 19th century by a number of constructive breeder...
  • Aberdeen, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of, Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen, Viscount of Formartine, Lord Haddo, Methlick, Tarves, and Kellie (prime minister of United Kingdom)
    British foreign secretary and prime minister (1852–55) whose government involved Great Britain in the Crimean War against Russia (1853–56)....
  • Aberdeen Proving Ground (military test site, Aberdeen, Maryland, United States)
    ...Bay, 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Baltimore. Settled about 1800, it was named for the city in Scotland. Aberdeen is the principal trading centre for the nearby 113-square-mile (293-square-km) Aberdeen Proving Ground (established 1917), a U.S. Army test site for guns, ammunition, and military vehicles; one of the world’s largest collections of weapons is displayed there in the U.S. Army....
  • Aberdeen, University of (university, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    The University of Aberdeen was formed in 1860 by the union of two medieval colleges: King’s College, founded as a Roman Catholic institution in 1495, and the Protestant Marischal College, founded in 1593. Other educational institutions include the Robert Gordon University (founded as Robert Gordon Hospital, 1750), Aberdeen College, and the Scottish Agricultural College, and there are resear...
  • Aberdeenshire (council area, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    council area and historic county of eastern Scotland. It projects shoulderlike eastward into the North Sea and encompasses coastal lowlands in the north and east and part of the Grampian Mountains in the west. The council area and the historic county occupy somewhat different areas. The city of Aberdeen is part of the historic county of Aber...
  • Aberfan (Wales, United Kingdom)
    ...of the collection of the National Museum of Wales. The county borough includes several mining communities that developed during the 18th and 19th centuries along with the town of Merthyr Tydfil. Aberfan, in the south, was the site of a major disaster in 1966, when a rain-soaked slag heap avalanched upon the mining village, killing 144 people, 116 of them children. Extensive land reclamation......
  • Abergavenny (Wales, United Kingdom)
    town (“community”), historic and present county of Monmouthshire (Sir Fynwy), Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Gavenny and Usk. The strategic nature of this site, guarding a main valley corridor between the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons into South Wales, was recognized by the Romans, who built the fortress of Gobannium, and by the Normans, who built ...
  • Abergele (Wales, United Kingdom)
    ...the county borough’s population is concentrated along its coastal strip, where tourism is the main industry. Colwyn Bay is one of the most popular seaside resorts and the largest town. The town of Abergele, located east of Colwyn Bay, was one of the first places in North Wales where “sea bathing” became popular. It is now a thriving market centre with weekly cattle markets....
  • Aberhart, William (Canadian politician)
    the first Social Credit Party premier of Alberta, during and after the Great Depression....
  • Aberhonddu (Wales, United Kingdom)
    cathedral town, Powys county, historic county of Brecknockshire, Wales, on the River Usk at its confluence with the Honddu and Tarell. The town grew up around a Norman castle built in 1092. The Benedictine Priory of St. John was founded about the same time; the former priory church, dating from the 13th century, became in 1923 the cathedral ...
  • Abernathy, Ralph David (American religious leader and civil-rights activist)
    black American pastor and civil-rights leader who was Martin Luther King’s chief aide and closest associate during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s....
  • Abernon, Sir John D’ (English aristocrat)
    ...in some cases, brass sheets were imported and engraved by English artists. The manufacture of unornamented brass plates centred chiefly at Cologne. The oldest English brass in existence is that of Sir John D’Abernon (died 1277) at Stoke d’Abernon, Surrey. Traces can still be seen in many brasses of the colours that originally enlivened them....
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