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  • Ganlu coup (Chinese history)
    ...the previous emperor’s will. The emperor Wenzong (reigned 827–840) sought to destroy the dominance of the eunuchs; his abortive schemes only demoralized the bureaucracy, particularly after the Sweet Dew (Ganlu) coup of 835, which misfired and led to the deaths of several ministers and a number of other officials. But the apogee of the eunuchs’ power was brief, ending with t...
  • gannet (bird)
    any of three oceanic bird species within the family Sulidae (order Pelecaniformes). Closely related to the boobies and variously classified with them in the genus Sula or separated as Morus (or Moris), the gannets are the best known of the Sulidae. They are found in the northern Atlantic, where they are the largest seabirds, and also in temperate waters aro...
  • Gannett Co., Inc. (American company)
    one of the largest newspaper publishers in the United States, with interests in newspaper Web sites and television broadcasting as well. The company also publishes a number of newspapers and periodicals in the United Kingdom and Europe. It is headquartered in McLean, Va....
  • Gannett, Deborah (United States soldier)
    American Revolutionary soldier and one of the earliest female lecturers in the country....
  • Gannett, Frank Ernest (American publisher)
    American publisher who established a major chain of daily newspapers in small and medium-sized U.S. cities. During his career Gannett bought many newspapers and often merged them, creating one paper from two or more....
  • Gannett Peak (mountain, Wyoming, United States)
    mountain in the Wind River Range and the highest point (13,804 feet [4,207 metres]) in Wyoming, U.S. Located 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Lander on the crest of the Continental Divide, it rises from ice fields within the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Its northern face is draped by the Gannett Glacier and its eastern by t...
  • ganoid scale (zoology)
    ...scales of either the ganoid or the cosmoid type. Cosmoid scales have a hard, enamel-like outer layer, an inner layer of cosmine (a form of dentine), and then a layer of vascular bone (isopedine). In ganoid scales the hard outer layer is different chemically and is called ganoin. Under this is a cosmine-like layer and then a vascular bony layer. The thin, translucent bony scales of modern fishes...
  • Gans, Eduard (German jurist)
    a major German jurist and, for a time, a potent force in the revival of studies of Jewish culture....
  • Gans, Joe (American athlete)
    American professional boxer, known as the Old Master, who was perhaps the greatest fighter in the history of the lightweight division. Because he was black, he was compelled by boxing promoters to permit less-talented white fighters to last the scheduled number of rounds with him and occasionally to defeat him. He was also forced to fight at unnaturally low weights, and, perhaps as a result, he wa...
  • Ganso (Buddhist priest)
    Buddhist priest, founder of the Pure Land (Jōdo) Buddhist sect of Japan. He was seminal in establishing Pure Land pietism as one of the central forms of Buddhism in Japan. Introduced as a student monk to Pure Land doctrines brought from China by Tendai priests, he stressed nembutsu (Japanese: recitation of the name of Amida Buddha) as the one practic...
  • Gansu (province, China)
    sheng (province) of China. Administratively a part of the Northwest region, it reaches into the geographic centre of the country. It is bordered by Mongolia to the north, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the northeast, the Hui Autonomous Region of Ningsia and the province of Shensi to the east, the Chinese provinces of Tsinghai and Szechwan to the south, and the Uighur Autonomous Reg...
  • Gansu Corridor (region, China)
    Some modernization has taken place since 1949, including increased irrigation and mechanization and the introduction of chemical fertilizers. The fertile Kansu Corridor produces most of the province’s food crops, which include wheat, barley, millet, corn (maize), and tubers. The province is also a modest producer of sugar beets, rapeseed, soybeans, and a variety of fruits. Attempts have bee...
  • Gante, Pedro de (Franciscan monk)
    Franciscan monk who founded the first school in New Spain (Mexico) and laid the foundations for future Indian education in the Spanish colonies....
  • Ganter Bridge (bridge, Switzerland)
    ...piers. The trapezoidal box girder, only 11 metres (36 feet) wide at the top, haunches at the supports and carries an 26-metre- (85-foot-) wide turnpike. More impressive yet is the high, curving Ganter Bridge (1980), crossing a deep valley in the canton of Valais. The Ganter is both a cable-stayed and a prestressed cantilever girder bridge, with the highest column rising 148 metres (492......
  • gantry crane (machinery)
    ...depicted in Figure 4. If the construction of overhead rails is impracticable, the ends of the bridge can be attached to upright towers that move on rails at the ground level; such cranes are called gantry, or goliath, cranes. ...
  • Ganvié (Benin)
    Closer to the coast of West Africa, some peoples build houses raised on stilts; the most notable are those built in the lakeside village of Ganvié in Benin. The buildings are constructed of mangrove poles, a material also used by coastal Swahili-speaking people in Kenya. In some coastal regions, such as that occupied by the Duala in Cameroon, houses are of bamboo, though they are......
  • Ganxian (China)
    city, southern Jiangxi sheng (province), southeastern China. It is located on the Gan River and is a natural route centre at the confluence of the various river systems that branch off from the north-south route to Nanchang, the provincial capital....
  • Ganymeda (Greek goddess)
    (from Greek hēbē, “young maturity,” or “bloom of youth”), daughter of Zeus, the chief god, and his wife Hera....
  • Ganymede (Greek mythology)
    in Greek legend, the son of Tros (or Laomedon), king of Troy. Because of his unusual beauty, he was carried off either by the gods or by Zeus, disguised as an eagle, or, according to a Cretan account, by Minos, to serve as cupbearer. In compensation, Zeus gave Ganymede’s father a stud of immortal horses (or a golden vine). The earliest forms of the myth have no erotic con...
  • Ganymede (satellite of Jupiter)
    largest of Jupiter’s satellites and of all the satellites in the solar system. One of the Galilean moons, it was discovered by the Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610. It was probably also discovered independently that same year by the German astronomer Simon Marius, who named it after Ganymede of ...
  • Ganymedes (Egyptian military officer)
    Upon landing in Alexandria in 48, Caesar captured the members of the Ptolemaic royal family, but Arsinoe managed to escape with the aid of Ganymedes, her mentor, and joined the Egyptian army headed by Achillas. Following a feud between Ganymedes and the Egyptian commander, Arsinoe ordered Achillas executed. Ganymedes pressed Caesar’s forces hard and negotiated an exchange of Arsinoe for Pto...
  • Ganymēdēs (Greek mythology)
    in Greek legend, the son of Tros (or Laomedon), king of Troy. Because of his unusual beauty, he was carried off either by the gods or by Zeus, disguised as an eagle, or, according to a Cretan account, by Minos, to serve as cupbearer. In compensation, Zeus gave Ganymede’s father a stud of immortal horses (or a golden vine). The earliest forms of the myth have no erotic con...
  • Ganymedes (Greek mythology)
    in Greek legend, the son of Tros (or Laomedon), king of Troy. Because of his unusual beauty, he was carried off either by the gods or by Zeus, disguised as an eagle, or, according to a Cretan account, by Minos, to serve as cupbearer. In compensation, Zeus gave Ganymede’s father a stud of immortal horses (or a golden vine). The earliest forms of the myth have no erotic con...
  • Ganz, Rudolph (American musician)
    pianist, conductor, and composer, who introduced works by contemporary composers such as Bartók, Ravel, and Vincent d’Indy, and who revived little-played older works in the keyboard repertory....
  • Ganzhou (China)
    city, southern Jiangxi sheng (province), southeastern China. It is located on the Gan River and is a natural route centre at the confluence of the various river systems that branch off from the north-south route to Nanchang, the provincial capital....
  • Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (autonomous area, China)
    The autonomous prefectures are the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with its headquarters at Ma’erkang (Barkam); the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with its capital at Kangding; and the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, with its capital at Xichang. As a rule, the autonomous prefectures represent little more than a symbolic cultural indulgence of local minorities. The actual contro...
  • Gao (Mali)
    town, eastern Mali, western Africa. It is situated on the Niger River at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, about 200 miles (320 km) east-southeast of Timbuktu. The population consists chiefly of Songhai people....
  • Gao Chongde (Chinese political leader)
    one of the early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and one of the most important figures in the communist government established after 1949. His purge in 1954–55 was the biggest scandal in the Chinese communist movement from the mid-1930s to the 1960s....
  • Gao E (Chinese writer)
    ...in manuscript form in Beijing during Cao Zhan’s lifetime. In 1791, almost 30 years after his death, the novel was published in a complete version of 120 chapters prepared by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E. Uncertainty remains about the final 40 chapters of the book; they may have been forged by Gao, substantially written by Cao Zhan and simply discovered and put into final form by Cheng and Gao...
  • Gao empire (historical empire, Africa)
    great trading state of West Africa (fl. 15th–16th century), centred on the middle reaches of the Niger River in what is now central Mali and eventually extending west to the Atlantic coast and east into Niger and Nigeria....
  • Gao Gang (Chinese political leader)
    one of the early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and one of the most important figures in the communist government established after 1949. His purge in 1954–55 was the biggest scandal in the Chinese communist movement from the mid-1930s to the 1960s....
  • Gao Ming (Chinese author)
    Chinese poet and playwright whose sole surviving opera, Pipaji (The Lute), became the model for drama of the Ming dynasty....
  • Gao Qipei (Chinese painter)
    technically innovative Chinese landscape painter who used his hands—palms, fingers, nails—in place of the traditional Chinese brush. Gao was precocious and gifted and served in an official capacity during the Qing period. His larger paintings for the Manchu court were somewhat more orthodox, but he painted smaller works with great speed and facility, revealing in them his rather cons...
  • Gao Xingjian (Chinese author and critic)
    Chinese émigré novelist, playwright, and critic who in 2000 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature “for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity.” He was also renowned as a stage director and as an artist....
  • Gao Zecheng (Chinese author)
    Chinese poet and playwright whose sole surviving opera, Pipaji (The Lute), became the model for drama of the Ming dynasty....
  • Gaodi (emperor of Ming dynasty)
    reign name (nianhao) of the Chinese emperor (reigned 1368–98) who founded the Ming dynasty that ruled China for nearly 300 years. During his reign, the Hongwu emperor instituted military, administrative, and educational reforms that centred power in the emperor....
  • Gaohou (empress of Han dynasty)
    the first woman ruler of China, wife of Gaozu, the first emperor (reigned 206–195 bc) of the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220)....
  • gaohu (musical instrument)
    ...is played both as a solo instrument and in an orchestral setting. A higher-pitched version with a smaller resonator surface and shorter post is the gaohu, or nanhu. A larger, lower-pitched version of the erhu is called ......
  • Gaohuangdi (emperor of Han dynasty)
    temple name (miaohao) of the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220), under which the Chinese imperial system assumed most of the characteristics that it was to retain until it was overthrown in 1911/12. He reigned from 206 to 195 bc. His wife, the empress Gaoho...
  • Gaohuangdi (Manchurian chieftain)
    chieftain of the Jianzhou Juchen, a Manchurian tribe, and one of the founders of the Manchu, or Qing, dynasty. His first attack on China (1618) presaged his son Dorgon’s conquest of the Chinese empire....
  • gaon (medieval Jewish scholar)
    the title accorded to the Jewish spiritual leaders and scholars who headed Talmudic academies that flourished, with lengthy interruptions, from the 7th to the 13th century in Babylonia and Palestine. The chief concern of the geonim was to interpret and develop Talmudic Law and to safeguard Jewish legal traditions by adjudicating points of legal controversy. Their replies ...
  • Gaon of Vilna (Lithuanian-Jewish scholar)
    the gaon (“excellency”) of Vilna, and the outstanding authority in Jewish religious and cultural life in 18th-century Lithuania. ...
  • Gaona, Tito (Mexican acrobat)
    Mexican acrobats became known for their skill at the flying trapeze. Trapeze artist Tito Gaona first performed in 1964 at age 15 and—even blindfolded—flawlessly performed the triple somersault from bar to catcher. In 1982 Miguel Vasquez became the first person to do a quadruple somersault from bar to catcher in a public performance....
  • gaonera
    ...coming first, the others following in turn). It is the time in the fight when one sees the varied flashy passes with the big colourful cape. Among these passes are the gaonera, in which the cape is held behind the matador’s body, and the chicuelina, in which the bullfighter spins in against the bull’s ...
  • Gaoual (Guinea)
    town, northwestern Guinea, West Africa, on the Fouta Djallon plateau. It lies at the point where the Koumba and Nomo rivers join to form the Tominé and is at the intersection of trade routes from Boké, Labé, Télimélé, and Koundara. It is the chief market town for cattle, peanuts (groundnuts), rice, millet, and cotton produced in the area...
  • Gaoyao (China)
    city, western Guangdong sheng (province), China. It lies on the north bank of the Xi River, 50 miles (80 km) west of the provincial capital of Guangzhou (Canton), just above the famous Lingyang Gorge, commanding the river route to Guangzhou....
  • Gaoyi (work by Sima Guang)
    ...as rites, music, astronomy, geography, and economy. In spite of Sima’s moral perspective, his chronicle showed evidence of rigorous critical standards. He even compiled a separate work, the Gaoyi (“Scrutiny”), which dealt with the discrepancies in his numerous sources and gave his reasons for preferring certain authorities....
  • Gaozong (emperor of Tang dynasty)
    temple name (miaohao) of the third emperor of the Tang dynasty and husband of the empress Wuhou. During his 34-year reign (649–683) he expanded the Tang empire into Korea....
  • Gaozong (emperor of Qing dynasty)
    reign name (nianhao) of the fourth emperor of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty (1644–1911/12), whose six-decade reign (1735–96) was one of the longest in Chinese history. He conducted a series of military campaigns that eliminated the Turk and Mongol threats to northeastern China (1755–60), enlarged his empire by creating the...
  • Gaozong (emperor of Southern Song dynasty)
    temple name (miaohao) of the first emperor of the Nan (Southern) Song dynasty (1127–1279). He fled to South China when the nomadic Juchen tribesmen overran North China and captured Gaozong’s father, the abdicated Bei (Northern) Song emperor Huizong (reigned 1100–1125/26), and Gaoz...
  • Gaozu (emperor of Later Jin dynasty)
    ...Cunxu), who established the Hou (Later) Tang dynasty in 923. Although Zhuangzong and his successors ruled relatively well for 13 years, the Hou Tang was finally terminated when one of its generals, Gaozu (personal name Shi Jingtang), overthrew his master with the aid of the Khitan, a seminomadic people of Inner Asia, and Gaozu established the Hou (Later) Jin dynasty. When Gaozu’s son att...
  • Gaozu (emperor of Han dynasty)
    temple name (miaohao) of the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220), under which the Chinese imperial system assumed most of the characteristics that it was to retain until it was overthrown in 1911/12. He reigned from 206 to 195 bc. His wife, the empress Gaoho...
  • Gaozu (emperor of Wei dynasty)
    posthumous name (shi) of the seventh emperor of the Bei (Northern) Wei dynasty (386–534/535), which dominated much of North China during part of the chaotic 360-year period between the end of the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220) and the founding of Sui rule (581...
  • Gaozu (emperor of Tang dynasty)
    temple name (miaohao) of the founder and first emperor (618–626) of the Tang dynasty (618–907)....
  • Gaozu (emperor of Southern Liang dynasty)
    posthumous name (shi) of the founder and first emperor (502–549) of the Nan (Southern) Liang dynasty (502–557), which briefly held sway over South China. A great patron of Buddhism, he helped establish that religion in the south of China....
  • Gaozu (emperor of Sui dynasty)
    posthumous name (shi) of the emperor (reigned 581–604) who reunified and reorganized China after 300 years of instability, founding the Sui dynasty (581–618). He conquered southern China, which long had been divided into numerous small kingdoms, and he broke the power of the Turks in the northern part of the country....
  • Gaozu (emperor of Later Han dynasty)
    ...to the Khitan in 946, they reinvaded North China and carried him into captivity, thus ending the 10-year Hou Jin dynasty. The following year a former Hou Jin general who also bore the name of Gaozu (personal name Liu Zhiyuan) founded the Hou (Later) Han dynasty and pushed the Khitan back into Inner Asia. But this regime lasted only four years before still another general usurped the......
  • Gap (France)
    town, capital of the Hautes-Alpes département, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur région, southeastern France, south-southeast of Grenoble. Situated at an elevation of 2,406 feet (733 metres) in a valley on the right bank of the Luye, a tributary of the Durance, it is a thriving tourist centre surrounded by mounta...
  • gap filler (military technology)
    In addition to large conventional radars, small distributed radars (called gap fillers) are used to detect low-flying aircraft penetrating gaps in large radar coverage. Over-the-horizon radars and AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) are even more promising. The latter consist of large radar and computation, display, and control systems, housed in large aircraft. First introduced for......
  • gap junction (physiology)
    ...from the axon per impulse received, increasing the number of receptors in the dendrite, or changing the sensitivity of the receptors. Bridging the synapse directly by the formation of membrane-bound gap junctions, which connect adjacent cells, enables an impulse to pass unimpeded to a connecting cell. The increase in speed of transmission provided by a gap junction, however, is offset by a loss...
  • gap, submarine (geology)
    steep-sided furrow that cuts transversely across a ridge or rise; such a passageway has a steeper slope than either of the two abyssal plains it connects. Grooves known as interplain channels exist in many submarine gaps; the sediments in these channels are continuously graded. The graded sediments, in conjunction with the gradient and the furrowed topography of the gaps, suggest that tur...
  • Gapapaiwa language
    ...five). In the New Guinea area several Austronesian languages have radically restructured number systems that probably result from intensive contact with neighbouring Papuan languages. An example is Gapapaiwa of Milne Bay, with sago ‘one,’ rua ‘two,’ rua ma sago ‘three’ (literally, ‘two and one’), rua ma rua ...
  • gaper clam (mollusk)
    (Tresus nuttallii and Tresus capax), either of two species of bivalve mollusks of the family Mactridae. These clams live in sand and mud flats along the coast of western North America from Alaska to Baja California. The shells of both species reach about 200 millimetres (8 inches) in length. They are roughly oblong in shape and creamy white in colour. Gaper clams have long, f...
  • Gapon, Georgy Apollonovich (Russian Orthodox priest)
    ...wave of strikes, partly planned by one of the legal organizations of workers—the Assembly of Russian Workingmen—broke out in St. Petersburg. The leader of the assembly, the priest Georgy Gapon, hoping to present the workers’ request for reforms directly to Emperor Nicholas II, arranged a mass demonstration. Having told the authorities of his plan, he led the workers—...
  • Gaprindashvili, Nona (Soviet chess player)
    women’s world chess champion from 1962 to 1978. A strong attacking player, Gaprindashvili won the title from Elizaveta Bykova of the Soviet Union in 1962 by a crushing score of 9–2. From the 1960s to the late 1970s, she was considered the strongest female chess player since Vera Menchik-Stevenson (1906–44). Gaprindashvili was a great hero ...
  • gar (fish)
    any of several large North or Middle American fishes of the genus Lepisosteus, in the family Lepisosteidae. Gars, which are related to the bowfin in the superorder Holostei, are confined chiefly to fresh water, though some of the eight or so species descend to brackish or even salt water. They frequently bask like logs at the surface in sluggish waters and commonly breathe atmospheric air....
  • GAR (American veteran organization)
    patriotic organization of American Civil War veterans who served in the Union forces, one of its purposes being the “defense of the late soldiery of the United States, morally, socially, and politically.” Founded in Springfield, Ill., early in 1866, it reached its peak in membership (more than 400,000) in 1890; for a time it was a powerful political influence, aligning nearly always ...
  • “går an, Det” (work by Almqvist)
    ...a historical novel whose heroine, the mysterious, hermaphroditic Tintomara, is Almqvist’s most fascinating character and a central symbol in his creative writings. Det går an (1838; Sara Videbeck, 1919) is a brilliant, realistic story pleading for the emancipation of love and marriage. The work foreshadows Strindberg’s method of raising problems for debate. He...
  • gar pike (fish)
    any of several large North or Middle American fishes of the genus Lepisosteus, in the family Lepisosteidae. Gars, which are related to the bowfin in the superorder Holostei, are confined chiefly to fresh water, though some of the eight or so species descend to brackish or even salt water. They frequently bask like logs at the surface in sluggish waters and commonly breathe atmospheric air....
  • garabā (dance)
    dance form popular at festival times in Gujarāt, India. It is a simple, joyful dance, based on a circular pattern and characterized by a sweeping action from side to side accompanied by hand clapping....
  • Garabil Plateau (plateau, Turkmenistan)
    ...and 300 miles (500 km) from north to south. It is bordered on the north by the Sarykamysh Basin, on the northeast and east by the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River) valley, and on the southeast by the Garabil uplands and Badkhyz steppe region. In the south and southwest the desert runs along the foot of the Kopet-Dag Mountains, and in the west and northwest it borders the course of the ancient......
  • Garabit Viaduct (bridge, France)
    ...of 1867. In 1877 he bridged the Douro River at Oporto, Port., with a 525-foot (160-metre) steel arch, which he followed with an even greater arch of the same type, the 540-foot (162-metre) span Garabit viaduct over the Truyère River in southern France, for many years the highest bridge in the world, 400 feet (120 m) over the stream. He was one of the first engineers to employ......
  • Garabogazköl Aylagy (gulf, Turkmenistan)
    inlet of the eastern Caspian Sea in northwestern Turkmenistan. With an area of 4,600–5,000 square miles (12,000–13,000 square km), it averages only 33 feet (10 m) in depth and has a very high evaporation rate. The water is thus extremely saline, and 7,000–11,000 cubic feet (200–300 cubic m) of water a second are drawn in from the Caspian through the narrow strait betwee...
  • Garagum (desert, Turkmenistan)
    great sandy region in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent of the area of Turkmenistan. Another, smaller desert in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea is called the Aral Karakum....
  • Garai River (river, Bangladesh)
    distributary of the upper Padma River (Ganges [Ganga] River), flowing through southwestern Bangladesh. It leaves the Padma just north of Kushtia and flows 190 miles (306 km) southeast before turning south across the swampy Sundarbans region to empty into the Bay of Bengal. In its upper...
  • Garajonay National Park (park, Spain)
    national park located at the centre of La Gomera island, Santa Cruz de Tenerife provincia (province), in the Canary Islands comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), Spain. The park, created in 1980, occupies about 15 square miles (40 square km) and encompasses the peak...
  • Garamantes (people)
    The Greek historian Herodotus mentioned Fezzan as part of the territory of the Garamantes. The Romans conquered the Garamantes in 19 bc and annexed their country, which the Romans called Phazania, to the Roman Empire. In 666 the Arabs conquered Phazania and subjected it to Islām. Thereafter it was ruled by a succession of Arab and native dynasties until subdued by the Turks an...
  • Garamba National Park (park, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
    large natural area in northeastern Congo (Kinshasa), bordering on The Sudan. The park, created in 1938, has an area of 1,900 square miles (4,920 square km) and is a continuation of the Sudanese savanna fed by the Garamba and Dungu rivers; it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980. The park, which lies at an elevation between 2,3...
  • Garamea (ancient region, Iraq)
    ...Aramaye in Aramaic, and it was governed directly by the Parthian ruler. In the south was Characene, while to the northeast of Ctesiphon, which had supplanted Seleucia as the Parthian capital, was Garamea, with its capital at modern Kirkūk. Adiabene had Arbela as its capital, and farther north was a province called Beth Nuhadra in Aramaic, which seems to have been governed by a general......
  • Garamond (typeface)
    ...types Morison commissioned for Monotype and demonstrated by their intelligent use that mechanical composition could be used to produce books at once handsome and functional. Among these types were Garamond, based upon a 17th-century French letter (see above); Bembo, after an Aldine roman; Centaur, an adaption of Rogers’ foundry face; and Baskerville and Bell, based upon English models. I...
  • Garamond, Claude (French publisher)
    French type designer and publisher....
  • Garamont, Claude (French publisher)
    French type designer and publisher....
  • Garand, John C. (American engineer)
    Canadian-born U.S. firearms engineer, inventor of the M1 semiautomatic rifle, with which U.S. infantrymen fought in World War II and the Korean War....
  • Garand, John Cantius (American engineer)
    Canadian-born U.S. firearms engineer, inventor of the M1 semiautomatic rifle, with which U.S. infantrymen fought in World War II and the Korean War....
  • Garand rifle (weapon)
    semiautomatic, gas-operated .30-calibre rifle adopted by the U.S. Army in 1936. It was developed by John C. Garand, a civilian engineer employed at the Springfield Armory, Springfield, Mass. The Garand was the first semiautomatic military rifle used as a standard combat shoulder weapon. It was the basic U.S. infantry weapon in both World War II and the Korean War. More than 5,00...
  • Garang de Mabior, John (Sudanese leader)
    Sudanese rebel leader and politician (b. June 23, 1945, Wangkulei, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan [now in The Sudan]—d. July 30/31, 2005, southern Sudan), was appointed to the post of first vice president of The Sudan after having founded and led the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in 22 years of war against the Sudanese government and then negotiating an end to that war. Garang graduated from ...
  • Garanhuns (Brazil)
    city, eastern Pernambuco estado (state), northeastern Brazil. The city lies in the Serra Garanhuns, at 2,841 feet (866 m) above sea level. It was elevated to city status in 1874. Garanhuns is a trade and manufacturing centre serving the food-producing region of the state’s southeastern area. It is also a popular resort, known for its cool climate and mineral waters...
  • Garašanin, Ilija (prime minister of Serbia)
    statesman and administrator of Serbia who was twice prime minister (1852, 1861–67)....
  • Garavito, Luis (Colombian serial killer)
    Colombian serial killer who was convicted of murdering 189 boys in the 1990s. Many of Garavito’s victims lived in poor neighbourhoods apart from their families, who could not afford to support them, leading observers to speculate that their disappearances were ignored or overlooked....
  • Garavito, Luis Alfredo (Colombian serial killer)
    Colombian serial killer who was convicted of murdering 189 boys in the 1990s. Many of Garavito’s victims lived in poor neighbourhoods apart from their families, who could not afford to support them, leading observers to speculate that their disappearances were ignored or overlooked....
  • Garavito, Pedro (Spanish mystic)
    Franciscan mystic who founded an austere form of Franciscan life known as the Alcantarines or Discalced (i.e., barefooted) Friars Minor. He is the patron saint of Brazil....
  • Garay, Juan de (Spanish explorer)
    coastal city, southeastern Buenos Aires provincia (province), east-central Argentina. Juan de Garay, the second founder of Buenos Aires, first explored the coastal area of Mar del Plata in 1581. In 1746 Father Thomas Falkner and Father José Cardiel founded the Indian work mission Nuestra Señora del Pilar (“Our Lady of Pilar”)......
  • garbā (dance)
    dance form popular at festival times in Gujarāt, India. It is a simple, joyful dance, based on a circular pattern and characterized by a sweeping action from side to side accompanied by hand clapping....
  • Garba, Joseph Nanven (Nigerian military officer and diplomat)
    Nigerian military officer and diplomat (b. July 17, 1943, Langtang, Nigeria—d. June 1, 2002, Abuja, Nigeria), participated in the 1975 bloodless coup that deposed Gen. Yakubu Gowon as head of state, then served as external affairs commissioner (foreign minister) until 1978 and as Nigeria’s ambassador to the UN (1984–89). Garba studied public administration at Harvard Universit...
  • garbage
    ...management. All nonhazardous solid waste from a community that requires collection and transport to a processing or disposal site is called refuse or municipal solid waste. Refuse includes garbage and rubbish. Garbage is mostly decomposable food waste; rubbish is mostly dry material such as glass, paper, cloth, or wood. Garbage is highly putrescible or decomposable, whereas rubbish is......
  • garbage disposal system
    technique for the collection and disposal of the solid wastes of a community. The development and operation of these systems is often called solid-waste management....
  • garbage grease (lubricant)
    ...parts used to make white grease. Brown grease contains beef and mutton fats as well as hog fats. Fleshing grease is the fatty material trimmed from hides and pelts. Bone grease, hide grease, and garbage grease are named according to their origin. In some factories, food offal is used along with animal carcasses, butcher-shop scraps, and garbage from restaurants for recovery of fats....
  • garbanzo (plant)
    (species Cicer arietinum), annual plant of the pea family (Fabaceae), widely grown for its nutritious seeds. The bushy, 60-centimetre (2-foot) plants bear pinnate leaves and small white or reddish flowers. The yellow-brown peas are borne one or two to a pod. Chick-peas are an important food plant in India, Africa, and Central and South America. Hummus, or hummous...
  • Garbett, Cyril Forster (British archbishop)
    archbishop of York and ecclesiastical writer who promoted a social conscience among the membership of the Church of England by his reports on the human misery in the areas he administered as bishop, particularly London’s Southwark district (1919–32)....
  • garbha-dhātu (Buddhist mandala)
    ...images was the ryōkai mandara (“mandala of the two worlds”), which consisted of two parts—the kongō-kai (“diamond world”) and the taizō-kai (“womb world”)—that organized the Buddhist divinities and their relationships in a prescribed gridlike configuration. The deities or spiritual entities portray...
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