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  • Offrande à la patrie (pamphlet by Marat)
    In the first weeks of 1789—the year that saw the beginning of the French Revolution—Marat published his pamphlet Offrande à la patrie (“Offering to Our Country”), in which he indicated that he still believed that the monarchy was capable of solving France’s problems. In a supplement published a few months later, though, he rema...
  • offroad racing (motor sports)
    form of motor racing conducted over rough, unmarked, often desert terrain. An outgrowth of the post-World War II popularity of motorcycle trail racing, offroad racing involves contestants racing from checkpoint to checkpoint along improvised routes....
  • offset (part of plant)
    in botany, tiny secondary bulb that forms in the angle between a leaf and stem or in place of flowers on certain plants. Bulbils, called offsets when full-sized, fall or are removed and planted to produce new plants. They are especially common among such plants as onions and lilies....
  • offset lithography (printing technique)
    in commercial printing, widely used printing technique in which the inked image on a printing plate is printed on a rubber cylinder and then transferred (i.e., offset) to paper or other material. The rubber cylinder gives great flexibility, permitting printing on wood, cloth, metal, leather, and rough paper. An American printer, Ira W...
  • offset printing (printing technique)
    in commercial printing, widely used printing technique in which the inked image on a printing plate is printed on a rubber cylinder and then transferred (i.e., offset) to paper or other material. The rubber cylinder gives great flexibility, permitting printing on wood, cloth, metal, leather, and rough paper. An American printer, Ira W...
  • offset spiral bevel gear (mechanical part)
    ...and universal joints. As body lines were progressively lowered, the floor level came closer to the drive shaft, necessitating floor humps or tunnels to provide clearance. The adoption of hypoid or offset spiral bevel gears in the rear axle provided an increase in this clearance by lowering the drive pinion below the centre of the axle shafts....
  • offshoot (part of plant)
    in botany, tiny secondary bulb that forms in the angle between a leaf and stem or in place of flowers on certain plants. Bulbils, called offsets when full-sized, fall or are removed and planted to produce new plants. They are especially common among such plants as onions and lilies....
  • offshore bar (geology)
    submerged or partly exposed ridge of sand or coarse sediment that is built by waves offshore from a beach. The swirling turbulence of waves breaking off a beach excavates a trough in the sandy bottom. Some of this sand is carried forward onto the beach and the rest is deposited on the offshore flank of the trough. Sand suspended in the backwash and in rip currents adds to the bar, as does some san...
  • offshore drilling (industry)
    ...for all of the world’s recoverable oil and natural gas. The value of these resources represents the vast majority of all of the Atlantic’s nonrenewable resources. In the United States, revenues from offshore leases have been one of the largest sources of federal income, and receipts from offshore production have been important for the economies of the United Kingdom and Norway sin...
  • offshore permafrost
    ...unique occurrence of permafrost—one that has no analogue on land—lies under the Arctic Ocean, on the northern continental shelves of North America and Eurasia. This is known as subsea or offshore permafrost....
  • offshoring (economics)
    the practice of outsourcing operations overseas, usually by companies from industrialized countries to less-developed countries, with the intention of reducing the cost of doing business. Chief among the specific reasons for locating operations outside a corporation’s home country are lower labour costs, more lenient environmental regulations, less stri...
  • offside (sports)
    There were few major alterations to football’s laws through the 20th century. Indeed, until the changes of the 1990s, the most significant amendment to the rules came in 1925, when the offside rule was rewritten. Previously, an attacking player (i.e., one in the opponent’s half of the playing field) was offside if, when the ball was “played” to him, fewer than three opp...
  • Oficiales Unidos, Grupo de (political organization, Argentina)
    Perón returned to Argentina in 1941, used his acquired knowledge to achieve the rank of colonel, and joined the United Officers Group (Grupo de Oficiales Unidos; GOU), a secret military lodge that engineered the 1943 coup that overthrew the ineffective civilian government of Argentina. The military regimes of the following three years came increasingly under the influence of......
  • “Oficio de tinieblas” (work by Castellanos)
    ...and original as that of her contemporary Octavio Paz, although she is best known for her prose works. Her most famous novel, Oficio de tinieblas (1962; The Book of Lamentations), re-creates an Indian rebellion that occurred in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the 19th century, but Castellanos sets it in the 1930s, when her own......
  • Oficio, El (prehistoric culture)
    ...custom of burying people below the floors of their houses replaced the collective practices of the Copper Age societies. Social stratification is very marked at settlement sites like El Argar and El Oficio (Almería), where the richest women were adorned with silver diadems while their male consorts were equipped with bronze swords, axes, and polished pottery. At Fuente-Álamo......
  • O’Flaherty, Katherine (American author)
    American novelist and short-story writer known as an interpreter of New Orleans culture. There was a revival of interest in Chopin in the late 20th century because her concerns about the freedom of women foreshadowed later feminist literary themes....
  • O’Flaherty, Liam (Irish writer)
    Irish novelist and short-story writer whose works combine brutal naturalism, psychological analysis, poetry, and biting satire with an abiding respect for the courage and persistence of the Irish people. He was considered to be a leading figure of the Irish Renaissance....
  • Ogadai (Mongol khan)
    son and successor of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan (d. 1227), who greatly expanded the Mongol Empire....
  • Ogaden (region, Ethiopia)
    arid region of eastern Ethiopia. It occupies the barren plain between the Somalia-Ethiopia border and the Ethiopian Eastern Highlands (on which Harer and Dire Dawa are situated). The major river of the region is the Shebeli, fed by ephemeral streams. At the southwestern edge of the Ogaden are the headwaters of the Genale (Jubba) River....
  • Ōgaki (Japan)
    city, Gifu ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Ibi River. The site was settled in prehistoric times, but the present city developed around the castle built in 1535. Since the end of the Meiji period (1868–1912), Ōgaki has become a textile and chemical centre aided by abundant groundwater. Machinery is also produced, and rice is grown in the environs. In ...
  • Ogallala Aquifer (aquifer, North America)
    ...construction after World War II of numerous dams in the Missouri River basin, which provided flood control, hydroelectric power, and irrigation. In addition, an immense source of groundwater, the Ogallala Aquifer, was tapped for irrigation water for an area extending from Nebraska to the Texas Panhandle. Additionally, the region has become a favoured place for cattle feedlots, where range-fed.....
  • ogam (alphabetic script)
    alphabetic script dating from the 4th century ad, used for writing the Irish and Pictish languages on stone monuments; according to Irish tradition, it was also used for writing on pieces of wood, but there is no material evidence for this. In its simplest form, ogham consists of four sets of strokes, or notches, each set containing five letters ...
  • Ogarkov, Nikolay (Russian military officer)
    ...to succeed as party leader after having previously failed. Party privilege again grew under Chernenko. The military did not have things all their own way. The able, dynamic chief of staff, Marshal Nikolay Ogarkov, was moved sideways and replaced by Marshal Sergey Akhromeyev, another formidable soldier. Ogarkov was blamed for his aggressive promotion of the SS-20 missile program and for the......
  • Ogaryov, Nikolay (Russian revolutionary)
    ...also bred in him an ardent commitment to the cause of the Decembrists, a revolutionary group that staged an unsuccessful uprising against the emperor Nicholas I in 1825. Herzen and his friend Nikolay Ogaryov, who, like Herzen, was influenced by the heroic libertarianism of the German playwright Friedrich Schiller, took a solemn oath to devote their lives to continuing the Decembrists’......
  • Ogasawara-guntō (island, Pacific Ocean)
    some 30 volcanic islands and islets in the central Pacific Ocean, about 500 miles (800 km) southeast of Japan. They can be divided into three main groups: Chichijima (Beechey) Group: Ani and Chichi islands; Mukojima (Parry) Group: Muko Island; and Hahajima (Baily) Group: Haha Island. The highest point (1,500 feet [450 metres]) is on Haha Island. A part of Tokyo metropolis (...
  • Ogata Akinobu (Japanese actor)
    Japanese actor who was internationally acclaimed for his powerful performances in such films as Vengeance Is Mine (1979), in which he portrayed a ruthless killer, and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), about famed Japanese novelist Mishima Yukio. Ogata appeared in more than 50 films, beginning with One Long Road (1960), as well as in some 25 Japanese television series. H...
  • Ogata Ichinojō (Japanese artist)
    Japanese artist of the Tokugawa period (1603–1868), regarded, along with Sōtatsu, as one of the masters of the Sōtatsu-Kōetsu school of decorative painting. He is particularly famous for his screen paintings, lacquerwork, and textile designs....
  • Ogata, Ken (Japanese actor)
    Japanese actor who was internationally acclaimed for his powerful performances in such films as Vengeance Is Mine (1979), in which he portrayed a ruthless killer, and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), about famed Japanese novelist Mishima Yukio. Ogata appeared in more than 50 films, beginning with One Long Road (1960), as well as in some 25 Japanese television series. H...
  • Ogata Kenzan (Japanese artist)
    Japanese potter and painter, brother to the artist Ogata Kōrin. He signed himself Kenzan, Shisui, Tōin, Shōkosai, Shuseidō, or Shinshō....
  • Ogata Koretomi (Japanese artist)
    Japanese artist of the Tokugawa period (1603–1868), regarded, along with Sōtatsu, as one of the masters of the Sōtatsu-Kōetsu school of decorative painting. He is particularly famous for his screen paintings, lacquerwork, and textile designs....
  • Ogata Kōrin (Japanese artist)
    Japanese artist of the Tokugawa period (1603–1868), regarded, along with Sōtatsu, as one of the masters of the Sōtatsu-Kōetsu school of decorative painting. He is particularly famous for his screen paintings, lacquerwork, and textile designs....
  • Ōgata Renkyū (Japanese holidays)
    series of four holidays closely spaced together and observed at the end of April and beginning of May in Japan. The four holidays are Shōwa Day (April 29), Constitution Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4), and Children’s Day (May 5)....
  • Ogata Shinsei (Japanese artist)
    Japanese potter and painter, brother to the artist Ogata Kōrin. He signed himself Kenzan, Shisui, Tōin, Shōkosai, Shuseidō, or Shinshō....
  • Ogata-ryū ryakuin-fu (work by Sakai Hōitsu)
    ...influenced by the decorative style of Ogata Kōrin, which he succeeded in reviving. He published Kōrin hyakuzu (“One Hundred Paintings of Kōrin”) and Ogata-ryū ryakuin-fu (“Album of Simplified Seals in the Ogata Style”) in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Kōrin’s death. These works were instrumental in m...
  • “Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale” (work by Fagunwa)
    Fagunwa’s first novel, Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale (1938; The Forest of a Thousand Daemons), was the first full-length novel published in the Yoruba language. His second novel, Igbo Olodumare (“The Forest of God”), was published in 1949. He also wrote Ireke Onibudo (1949; “The Sugarcane of the Guardian”), Irinkerindo Ninu Igbo......
  • Ogbomosho (Nigeria)
    town, Oyo state, southwestern Nigeria. It lies on the Plateau of Yorubaland (elevation 1,200 feet [366 m]) in an area of savanna and farmland and at the intersection of roads from Oyo, Ilorin, Oshogbo, and Ikoyi. Founded in the mid-17th century, it remained a minor outpost of the Yoruba Oyo empire until the beginning of the Muslim Fulani conquests of Oyo in the early 19th century. By surviving th...
  • Ogburn, William Fielding (American sociologist)
    American sociologist known for his application of statistical methods to the problems of the social sciences and for his introduction of the idea of “cultural lag” in the process of social change....
  • ogchu (flower)
    ...orchid, tsi-tog (a light pink flower that grows at high altitudes), shang-dril (a bell-shaped flower, either white, yellow, or maroon, that also grows at high altitudes), and ogchu (a red flower that grows in sandy regions)....
  • Ogcocephalidae (fish)
    any of about 60 species of fishes of the family Ogcocephalidae (order Lophiiformes), found in warm and temperate seas. Batfishes have broad, flat heads and slim bodies and are covered with hard lumps and spines. Some species have an elongated, upturned snout. Batfishes grow at most about 36 cm (14 inches) long. They are poor swimmers and usually walk on the bottom on thickened, limblike pectoral ...
  • Ogden (Utah, United States)
    city, seat (1852) of Weber county, northern Utah, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Weber and Ogden rivers, just west of the Wasatch Range and east of the Great Salt Lake. The community began as a settlement developed around Fort Buenaventura, a log stockade with an irrigated garden built in 1845 by Miles M. Goodyear and purchased by the...
  • Ogden, Anna Cora (American writer)
    American playwright and actress, best known as the author of the satirical play Fashion....
  • Ogden, C. K. (British writer)
    British writer and linguist who originated Basic English, a simplified system of the English language intended as a uniform, standardized means of international communication....
  • Ogden, Charles Kay (British writer)
    British writer and linguist who originated Basic English, a simplified system of the English language intended as a uniform, standardized means of international communication....
  • Ogden College (college, Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States)
    ...its precursor, the Southern Normal School. In 1911 the school moved to a location atop a hill overlooking Bowling Green; it became a four-year teachers college in 1922. Western Kentucky merged with Ogden College in 1928. Bowling Green College of Commerce was added in 1963. Three years later Western Kentucky was elevated to university standing....
  • Ogden, Peter Skene (Canadian fur trader and explorer)
    Canadian fur trader and a major explorer of the American West—the Great Basin, Oregon and northern California, and the Snake River country. He was the first to traverse the intermountain West from north to south....
  • Ogden, Schubert Miles (American philosopher)
    ...that a closely similar notion arising in the mid-20th century finds its main inspiration and support in the United States, viz., in the work of process philosophers, such as Charles Hartshorne and Schubert Ogden, who have developed some of the leading ideas of A.N. Whitehead, an eminent metaphysician. In their view, God is himself in process of fulfillment in some kind of identification with......
  • Ogden, Sybil (American Revolutionary War heroine)
    American Revolutionary War heroine, remembered for her valiant role in defense against British attack....
  • Ogden v. Saunders (law case)
    ...Marshall’s opinion in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), he defended the regulatory power of Congress over interstate and foreign commerce; over one of Marshall’s few dissents, he upheld, in Ogden v. Saunders (1827), state power to alleviate economic distress. Late in his life Johnson angered many in his state by his circuit court decision in Holmes v. ...
  • Ogden, William (mayor of Chicago)
    ...fertile land rather than in the rocky, hilly East. In 1847, with further patented improvements, he opened a factory in the then small, swampy, lakeside town of Chicago in partnership with the mayor, William Ogden, who capitalized the venture with $50,000 of his own money. The first year, 800 machines were sold. More were sold the next year, and McCormick was able to buy out Ogden....
  • Ogden, William Butler (mayor of Chicago)
    ...fertile land rather than in the rocky, hilly East. In 1847, with further patented improvements, he opened a factory in the then small, swampy, lakeside town of Chicago in partnership with the mayor, William Ogden, who capitalized the venture with $50,000 of his own money. The first year, 800 machines were sold. More were sold the next year, and McCormick was able to buy out Ogden....
  • Ogdensburg (New York, United States)
    city and port, St. Lawrence county, northern New York, U.S. It lies on the St. Lawrence River, at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River and is linked to Ontario, Canada, by the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge (1960). The site was settled in 1749 when Abbé François Picquet established Fort-La Prés...
  • Ogdensburg Declaration (United States-Canadian history)
    ...the fall of France in the spring of 1940 totally changed the circumstances. Canada’s overseas allies had fallen or were in danger of doing so, and the country immediately concluded an agreement at Ogdensburg, New York, with the United States for the defense of North America. Moreover, Canada now stood in the forefront of the war. After Britain, it was (prior to the U.S. entry into the wa...
  • ogdoad (Egyptian religion)
    ...the fall of France in the spring of 1940 totally changed the circumstances. Canada’s overseas allies had fallen or were in danger of doing so, and the country immediately concluded an agreement at Ogdensburg, New York, with the United States for the defense of North America. Moreover, Canada now stood in the forefront of the war. After Britain, it was (prior to the U.S. entry into the wa...
  • Ogdoad of Hermopolis (Egyptian religion)
    Other numerical ordering schemas included the Ogdoad (group of eight gods) of Hermopolis, which embodied the inchoate world before creation and consisted of four pairs of male and female deities with abstract names such as Darkness, Absence, and Endlessness. Here too the number was significant in itself, because at least six different pairs of names are known although eight deities are listed......
  • Ogdoades (work by Bellay)
    ...colleague; he was also the friend of many writers and scholars, some of whom were Protestants. Du Bellay himself wrote in the style of the Roman historian Livy. His most important work was the Ogdoades, a history of the rivalry between Francis I and Charles V. Only fragments remain: the first part, covering the years 1515–21, is written in Latin; the rest is in French and is......
  • ogee clock
    clock design that originated in the United States in the 1830s, distinguished by a case the front outer edges of which are curved into an S-shape (ogee). This shape is formed by the union of a convex and a concave line. A mass-produced variant of the shelf clock, the ogee clock stands about 30 inches (75 cm) high and is usually weight-driven. The movements were usually made of b...
  • ogee molding (architecture)
    ...forming in profile one continuous double curve, often used as a crowning member, in which case it is sometimes known as a cymatium. When used as a base the convex portion is uppermost. (2) The cyma reversa, or ogee—a projecting molding that is essentially a reversed cyma recta with ovolo above cavetto—is used for a crown or a base. (3) A bird’s beak, or thumb, molding is......
  • ogeechee lime tree (tree species)
    ...or in association with bald cypress and other swamp trees. The water tupelo typically reaches heights of 80–100 feet (24–30 m), and its trunk is conspicuously enlarged at the base. The ogeechee lime (N. ogeche) is a rarer North American tupelo that produces edible fruits and a fine honey. All the North American tupelos produce small greenish white flowers and small bluish.....
  • Oggi Illustrato (Italian magazine)
    ...throughout Europe; while West Germany produced Stern (founded 1948), a glossy blend of light and serious material, and Italy, where magazines are read more than newspapers, produced Oggi Illustrato (founded 1945), thriving on not-too-sensational disclosures, and the elegant Epoca (founded 1950). Magazines similar to Life appeared in a number of other countries,......
  • ogham alphabet (alphabetic script)
    alphabetic script dating from the 4th century ad, used for writing the Irish and Pictish languages on stone monuments; according to Irish tradition, it was also used for writing on pieces of wood, but there is no material evidence for this. In its simplest form, ogham consists of four sets of strokes, or notches, each set containing five letters ...
  • ogham writing (alphabetic script)
    alphabetic script dating from the 4th century ad, used for writing the Irish and Pictish languages on stone monuments; according to Irish tradition, it was also used for writing on pieces of wood, but there is no material evidence for this. In its simplest form, ogham consists of four sets of strokes, or notches, each set containing five letters ...
  • Oghuz (people)
    confederation of Turkic peoples whose homeland, until at least the 11th century ad, was the steppes of central Asia and Mongolia. The Orhon inscriptions, describing an early Turkic people, probably refer to the Oğuz. The Seljuqs, who comprised one branch of the Oğuz, controlled an empire stretching from the Amu Darya to the Persian Gulf and from the I...
  • Ogier de Danemarche (Danish legendary figure)
    an important character in the French medieval epic poems called chansons de geste. His story is told in a cycle of these poems known as Geste de Doon de Mayence, which deals with the wars of the feudal barons against the emperor Charlemagne. The character of Ogier has a historical prototype in Autcharius, a follower of Carloman, Charlemagne’s younger brother, whose...
  • Ogier the Dane (Danish legendary figure)
    an important character in the French medieval epic poems called chansons de geste. His story is told in a cycle of these poems known as Geste de Doon de Mayence, which deals with the wars of the feudal barons against the emperor Charlemagne. The character of Ogier has a historical prototype in Autcharius, a follower of Carloman, Charlemagne’s younger brother, whose...
  • Ogilby, John (British printer)
    British printer who was a pioneer in the making of road atlases; as a poet and translator he is chiefly remembered for being ridiculed by Dryden in MacFlecknoe and by Pope in the Dunciad....
  • Ogilvie, Albert George (Australian politician)
    The Great Depression of the 1930s had its impact on Tasmania, but the Labor premier (1934–39) Albert George Ogilvie outshone other Australian politicians in responding to the economic problems. One of his skills was obtaining federal grants to diminish Tasmania’s comparative poverty. Informed, wholehearted, and realistic in criticizing the Axis powers, Ogilvie might have challenged L...
  • Ogilvy & Mather (British company)
    ...Ogilvy’s successful ad campaigns for early clients soon garnered for the agency such major American ad accounts as General Foods and American Express. In 1966, with Ogilvy at the helm, the firm of Ogilvy & Mather became one of the first advertising firms to go public. The company expanded throughout the 1970s and ’80s, and in 1989 it was bought by WPP Group PLC. Ogilvy was ...
  • Ogilvy, David (British advertising executive)
    British advertising executive known for his emphasis on creative copy and campaign themes, founder of the agency of Ogilvy & Mather....
  • Ogilvy, David Mackenzie (British advertising executive)
    British advertising executive known for his emphasis on creative copy and campaign themes, founder of the agency of Ogilvy & Mather....
  • ōgiri shosagoto (Japanese arts)
    ...generally presents them in that order, separated by one or two dance plays featuring ghosts, courtesans, and other exotic creatures. It ends with a lively dance finale (ōgiri shosagoto) with a large cast....
  • ogival (construction)
    ...several successful wooden bridges with spans up to 30 metres (100 feet). Longer bridges, however, were still made of stone. Another Italian designer, Bartolommeo Ammannati, adapted the medieval ogival arch by concealing the angle at the crown and by starting the curves of the arches vertically in their springings from the piers. This elliptical shape of arch, in which the rise-to-span ratio......
  • Oglala Sioux (people)
    Indian name Mahpiua Luta a principal chief of the Oglala Teton Dakota (Sioux), who successfully resisted (1865–67) the U.S. government’s development of the Bozeman Trail to newly discovered goldfields in Montana Territory....
  • Oglasa (island, Italy)
    member of the Arcipelago Toscano, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, between the Italian mainland and Corsica, south of the island of Elba. Part of Livorno province, the islet is mountainous, rising to 2,116 ft (645 m), with an area of 6 sq mi (16 sq km). It is a hunting preserve owned by the state and contains the ruins of a 13th-century monastery that was abandoned in 1553 after having been destroyed by pir...
  • Ogle of Bothal, Baron (English commander)
    Royalist commander during the English Civil Wars and a noted patron of poets, dramatists, and other writers....
  • Oglesby, Richard James (United States senator and governor of Illinois)
    governor of Illinois (1865–69, 1873, 1885–89) and U.S. senator (1873–79)....
  • Oglethorpe, James Edward (British military officer)
    English army officer, philanthropist, and founder of the British colony of Georgia in America....
  • Oglethorpe University (university, Atlanta, Georgia, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. The university comprises nine divisions offering undergraduate study in the humanities, business, sciences, and education. It also offers master’s degree programs in education and business administration. The campus is distinguished by its English Gothic architecture. Total ...
  • Oglio River (river, Italy)
    ...feet (186 m). The lake is 15.5 miles (25 km) long with a maximum width of 3 miles (5 km), a maximum depth of 820 feet (250 m), and a surface area of 24 square miles (62 square km). It is fed by the Oglio River, a tributary of the Po River, which enters the northern end near Lovere from the deep, wide Val (valley) Camonica and leaves the southern end at Sarnico. Monte Isola, in the centre of the...
  • Ogma (Irish deity)
    Ogmios’ Irish equivalent was Ogma, whose Herculean, warlike aspect was also stressed. In Irish tradition he was portrayed as a swarthy man whose battle ardour was so great that he had to be controlled by chains held by other warriors until the right moment. Ogham script, an Irish writing system dating from the 4th century ad, seems to have been named for him, a fitting associa...
  • Ogmios (Celtic deity)
    Celtic god of Gaul identified with the Roman Hercules. He was portrayed as an old man with swarthy skin and armed with a bow and club. He was also a god of eloquence, and in that aspect he was represented as drawing along a company of men whose ears were chained to his tongue....
  • Ogmore Castle (castle, Wales, United Kingdom)
    ...the south. Discoveries of Bronze Age and Iron Age artifacts have been made near the village of Merthyr Mawr, and the remains of many Norman castles give further evidence of the area’s long history. Ogmore Castle, situated in the Ogmore river valley between Bridgend town and Ogmore-by-the-Sea, is one of these; it was founded in 1116 by William de Londres, and its stone keep is one of the....
  • Ognissanti, Church of (church, Florence, Italy)
    A triptych Daddi completed in 1328 for the Church of Ognissanti (now in the Uffizi, Florence) is typical of his best work. Numerous panel paintings by the artist are to be found in museums in Europe and North America....
  • Ognissanti Madonna (work by Giotto)
    ...Francis of Assisi (Louvre, Paris) and the altarpieces in Bologna and Florence (Santa Croce), are generally regarded as school pieces bearing his trademark, whereas the Ognissanti Madonna, unsigned and virtually undocumented, is so superlative in quality that it is accepted as entirely by his hand....
  • OGO (satellites)
    any of a series of six unmanned scientific satellites launched by the United States from 1964 to 1969. Equipped with a complex of magnetometers, these orbiting satellites were designed to study the Earth’s magnetosphere (i.e., zone of strong magnetic forces around the planet) and its effect on high-energy particles emitted by the Sun. These studies included investigations of auroral ...
  • Ogo Highlands (mountains, Somalia)
    region of broken mountain terrain, northern Somalia, eastern Africa. It lies parallel to the Gulf of Aden south of the “burnt” Guban coastal plain, and extends from the Ethiopian border in the west to Cape Gwardafuy (Caseyr) in the east. Rising abruptly from the Guban, the highlands slope gradually to the Hawd plateau in the south and the Nugaaleed (Nogal) Valley in the southeast. N...
  • OGO-1 (satellites)
    any of a series of six unmanned scientific satellites launched by the United States from 1964 to 1969. Equipped with a complex of magnetometers, these orbiting satellites were designed to study the Earth’s magnetosphere (i.e., zone of strong magnetic forces around the planet) and its effect on high-energy particles emitted by the Sun. These studies included investigations of auroral ...
  • Ögödei (Mongol khan)
    son and successor of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan (d. 1227), who greatly expanded the Mongol Empire....
  • Ogoja (Nigeria)
    town, Cross River state, southeastern Nigeria, on the road from Abakaliki. A major trade centre (yams, cassava, corn [maize], rice, palm oil and kernels, kola nuts), it is mainly inhabited by the Ekoi peoples. Ogoja is the headquarters of a local government council and the site of a teacher-training college, a secondary school, and several hospitals and clinics. Pop. (latest est...
  • Ōgon Shūkan (Japanese holidays)
    series of four holidays closely spaced together and observed at the end of April and beginning of May in Japan. The four holidays are Shōwa Day (April 29), Constitution Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4), and Children’s Day (May 5)....
  • Ogontz Place (Ohio, United States)
    city, seat (1838) of Erie county, northern Ohio, U.S. It lies along Sandusky Bay (Lake Erie’s largest natural harbour [there bridged to Port Clinton]), about 60 miles (100 km) west of Cleveland. In the 18th century the French and British established trading posts in the area, and Fort Sandusky, which was built by the British in 1745, was burned in May 1763 during Pontiac...
  • Ogooué River (river, Africa)
    stream of west-central Africa, flowing in Gabon for almost its entire course and draining an area of almost 86,000 square miles (222,700 square km). It rises in Congo (Brazzaville) on the eastern slopes of the Massif du Chaillu and flows northwest through Gabon past Franceville and Lastoursville; it then turns west and southwest past Booué, Ndjolé, and Lambaréné, collec...
  • O’Gorman, Juan (Mexican architect and muralist)
    Mexican architect and muralist, known for his mosaic designs that adorned the facades of buildings....
  • Ōgosho period (Japanese history)
    in Japanese history, the era from 1804 to 1829, which witnessed an urban cultural scene unmatched since the Genroku period (1688–1704). The austere reforms and sumptuary laws passed under Matsudaira Sadanobu in the late 18th century were soon followed by a period of extravagant luxury led by the 11th Tokugawa shogun Ienari and his administration, known for its financial l...
  • Ogot, Grace (Kenyan author)
    Kenyan author of widely anthologized short stories and novels....
  • Ogowe (people)
    The art of the Ogowe tribes, particularly the Mpongwe, is closely tied to death rituals. Their masks, painted white to symbolize death, represent dead female ancestors, though they are worn by male relatives of the deceased....
  • Ogowe River (river, Africa)
    stream of west-central Africa, flowing in Gabon for almost its entire course and draining an area of almost 86,000 square miles (222,700 square km). It rises in Congo (Brazzaville) on the eastern slopes of the Massif du Chaillu and flows northwest through Gabon past Franceville and Lastoursville; it then turns west and southwest past Booué, Ndjolé, and Lambaréné, collec...
  • OGPU (Soviet government)
    early security and political police of the Soviet Union and a forerunner of the KGB....
  • O’Grady, Standish James (Irish author)
    historical novelist and literary historian whose popular English versions of the Irish heroic sagas earned him the title of “father of the Irish literary revival.”...
  • ogre (mythological character)
    a hideous giant represented in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings. The word gained popularity from its use in the late 17th century by Charles Perrault, the author of Contes de ma mère l’oye (Tales of Mother Goose). Since then, ogres have appeared in many works, including “Tom Thumb”; “Hansel an...
  • ogre-faced spider (arachnid)
    any member of the family Dinopidae (or Deinopidae; order Araneida). One pair of eyes is unusually large, producing an ogrelike appearance. The spiders occur throughout the tropics. One genus, Dinopis, the net-casting spider, carries a web that is thrown over prey. ...
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