Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • Okounkov, Andrei (Russian mathematician)
    Russian mathematician awarded a Fields Medal in 2006 “for his contributions bridging probability, representation theory and algebraic geometry.”...
  • Okpame (king of Benin)
    African king, the greatest warrior-king of Benin (in modern Nigeria). Ozolua was able to extend the boundaries of Benin from the Niger River in the east virtually to Lagos in the west. Tradition calls him the first ruler in West Africa to have had contact with the Portuguese explorers who were then exploring the western coast of sub-Saharan Africa....
  • OKR
    During fixations the eyes are stabilized against movements of the head and body by two reflexes, the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and the optokinetic reflex (OKR). In VOR the semicircular canals of the inner ear measure rotation of the head and provide a signal for the oculomotor nuclei of the brainstem, which innervate the eye muscles. The muscles counterrotate the eyes in such a way that a......
  • okra (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...
  • Okrent, Dan (American author and inventor)
    Rotisserie baseball was invented in 1980 by author Dan Okrent and a group of baseball-minded friends who regularly met at the Manhattan restaurant Le Rotisserie Francais. They formed the core of the first rotisserie league. Unlike APBA, which is based upon a prior season’s performance, rotisserie baseball and its later Internet-based fantasy variants are played during the course of the regu...
  • Okri, Ben (Nigerian writer)
    Nigerian novelist, short-story writer, and poet who used magic realism to convey the social and political chaos in the country of his birth....
  • Okrika (Nigeria)
    town and port, Rivers state, southern Nigeria. It lies on the north bank of the Bonny River and on Okrika Island, 35 miles (56 km) upstream from the Bight of Benin. The town can be reached by vessels of a draft of 29 feet (9 metres) or less. Formerly a small fishing village of the Ijo (Ijaw) people in the mangrove swamps o...
  • Okruashvili, Irakli (Georgian government official)
    ...on the president’s opposition while corrupt practices were allowed to persist among administration associates. Highly critical of the fraud and corruption he had noted among defense officials was Irakli Okruashvili, an opponent of the administration and its onetime defense minister. During his tenure Okruashvili had made public his observation of graft so widespread among armed forces......
  • Oktoberfest (German festival)
    annual festival in Munich, Germany, held over a two-week period and ending on the first Sunday in October. The festival originated on October 12, 1810, in celebration of the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria, who later became King Louis I, to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festival concluded five days later with a hor...
  • Oktobermanifest (Austrian history)
    ...the only hope of the moribund Habsburg empire and proposed the creation of an autonomous Croatian state within the imperial framework. On Oct. 16, 1918, he presented a manifesto of Emperor Charles (Oktobermanifest) proclaiming the federalization of Austria, but his effort was wrecked by Hungarian opposition. A short time after this last attempt at reconstruction, Hussarek resigned his ministry....
  • oktōēchos (music)
    (music), group of eight melody types associated with early Byzantine liturgical chant. See ēchos....
  • Oktogon (chapel, Aachen, Germany)
    private chapel associated with a residence, especially of an emperor. Many of the early Christian emperors built private churches in their palaces—often more than one—as described in literary sources of the Byzantine period. Such structures in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Tur.) inspired the impressive 12th-century Palatine Chapel (Cappella Palatina) of the Sicilia...
  • Oktyabrsky (Russia)
    city, Bashkiriya, western Russia, on the right bank of the Ik River. Founded as a settlement in 1937, when extraction of oil began nearby in the Volga-Ural oil and natural-gas region, it was incorporated in 1946. A decline in petroleum production since the 1950s has resulted in a switch in the local economy to the manufacture of consumer goods, including low-voltage electrical equipment, clothing...
  • Oktyabrsky Manifest (Russia [1905])
    (Oct. 30 [Oct. 17, Old Style], 1905), in Russian history, document issued by the emperor Nicholas II that in effect marked the end of unlimited autocracy in Russia and ushered in an era of constitutional monarchy. Threatened by the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Nicholas faced the choice of establishing a military dictatorship or granting a constitu...
  • Oktyabryata (Communist organization)
    member of a Communist organization for children aged nine and under, closely associated with the Komsomol for youth aged 14 to 28....
  • Oktyabryonok (Communist organization)
    member of a Communist organization for children aged nine and under, closely associated with the Komsomol for youth aged 14 to 28....
  • Oku Mumeo (Japanese politician)
    Japanese feminist politician who served three terms in the Diet (parliament) after having been a leader in the fight for women’s suffrage; she also founded the Housewives Association, Japan’s first consumer organization (b. Oct. 24, 1895--d. July 7, 1997)....
  • “Oku no hosomichi” (work by Bashō)
    ...are prized not only for the haiku that record various sights along the way but also for the equally beautiful prose passages that furnish the backgrounds. Oku no hosomichi (1694; The Narrow Road to the Deep North), describing his visit to northern Japan, is one of the loveliest works of Japanese literature....
  • Ōkubo Toshimichi (Japanese statesman)
    Japanese politician and one of the samurai leaders who in 1868 overthrew the Tokugawa family, which had ruled Japan for 264 years, and restored the government of the emperor. After the Meiji Restoration he spent much of his career helping to establish Japan as a progressive nation....
  • Okudzhava, Bulat Shalvovich (Russian poet)
    Russian poet, writer, and folksinger who was able to conceal enough of his political message within his works, which often dealt with love and longing, that he was never officially branded a dissident; he had a cult following, and in 1994 he won the Russian Booker Prize (b. May 9, 1924--d. June 12, 1997)....
  • Ōkuma Kotomichi (Japanese author)
    ...especially those of the Genroku masters. Authentic new voices, however, were heard in traditional poetic forms. Later neo-Man’yōshū poets such as Ryōkan, Ōkuma Kotomichi, and Tachibana Akemi proved that the tanka was not limited to descriptions of the sights of nature or disappointed love but could express joy over fish for dinner or w...
  • Ōkuma Shigenobu (prime minister of Japan)
    politician who twice served as prime minister of Japan (1898; 1914–16). He organized the Rikken Kaishintō (“Progressive Party”) and founded Waseda University....
  • Okumura Masanobu (Japanese artist)
    painter and publisher of illustrated books who introduced innovations in woodblock printing and print-design technique in Japan....
  • Okumura Shinmyō (Japanese artist)
    painter and publisher of illustrated books who introduced innovations in woodblock printing and print-design technique in Japan....
  • Okumura Toshio (Japanese actor)
    Japanese actor whose portrayal of Zatoichi, a blind master swordsman, in a series of motion pictures and on television brought him fame and influenced similar films in Hong Kong and Taiwan....
  • Okuni (Kabuki dancer)
    Japanese dancer who is credited as being the founder of the Kabuki art form....
  • Ōkuninushi (Japanese deity)
    in the mythology of the Izumo branch of Shintō in Japan, the central hero, a son-in-law of the storm god, Susanoo....
  • Ōkuninushi no Mikoto (Japanese deity)
    in the mythology of the Izumo branch of Shintō in Japan, the central hero, a son-in-law of the storm god, Susanoo....
  • Ōkura Kihachirō (Japanese industrialist)
    founder of one of the largest zaibatsu, or gigantic industrial-financial combines that dominated the Japanese economy throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
  • Okussi (East Timor)
    The Ambeno area has valuable sandalwood forests, coconut groves, and rice plantations. Its chief town, Pante Makasar, is a port and has an airport. The hilly offshore island of Atauro, which also has an airport, has a population occupied mainly in fishing. The currency is the U.S. dollar....
  • Okvik culture (Eskimo culture)
    ...the statuettes and terminal ornaments are largely concerned with hunting or the magical practices of shamanism. The earliest and finest statuettes of which there is knowledge are assigned to the Okvik culture, which some scholars date to the pre-Christian era, but which others assign to its early centuries. Okvik art is concerned primarily with the representation of the human figure,......
  • Okvik Madonna (Okvik statuette)
    ...and flat, their heads large, pear-shaped, and carefully worked, as are hands when included. The faces are carved and are sometimes incised with lines, probably denoting tattooing. The so-called Okvik Madonna (University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks) is perhaps the most expressive of these statuettes....
  • OKW (German military)
    ...Führer and supreme commander of the armed forces, Adolf Hitler, as well as the rigidity of the Nazi state. All military operations in the western theatre were placed under the direction of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW; Armed Forces High Command); this body reported to Hitler separately from its rival, the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH; Army High Command), which ran the war on the.....
  • okwa (Nigerian society)
    ...patrilineally, and lineage members usually live together. Age sets cutting across kinship ties are formed in each village. Of village associations that function as agents of social control, the okwa, the most powerful, has certain authority over women and authority to issue orders in such matters as public works. Members of the okwa also select the village chief. ...
  • Ōkyo (Japanese painter)
    A lineage that formed under the genius of Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–95) might be summarily described as lyrical realism. Yet his penchant for nature studies, whether of flora and fauna or human anatomy, and his subtle incorporation of perspective and shading techniques learned from Western examples perhaps better qualify him to be noted as the first of the great eclectic painters. In......
  • “Ol’ Blue Eyes” (American singer and actor)
    American singer and motion-picture actor who, through a long career and a very public personal life, became one of the most sought-after performers in the entertainment industry; he is often hailed as the greatest American singer of 20th-century popular music....
  • Ol Doinyo Lengai (volcano, Tanzania)
    active volcano, northern Tanzania, East Africa, located at the southern end of Lake Natron. It rises to an elevation of 9,442 ft (2,878 m) and is one of the many volcanoes situated along the East African rift system. Ol Doinyo Lengai (“Mountain of God”) contains basalts rich in sodium and potassium, and is so alkaline that its lavas resemble washing soda. Eruptions have been recorde...
  • Olabimtan, Afolabi (Nigerian author)
    ...Olowolaiyemo (“Mr. People-Rally-Only-Around-the-Well-To-Do”), which deals with the hardships of urban life in Yorubaland. The trend of contemporary realism continued with Afolabi Olabimtan’s novels. His first, Kekere Ekun (1967; “[Lad Nicknamed] Leopard Cub”), depicts the intrigues of a typically polygamous Yoruba home and the role of...
  • Oladepo, Jinadu (Nigerian artist)
    ...which comments on Nigerian life, was as popular with farmers and market women as it was with intellectuals. Yemi Bisiri made lost-wax brass figures for the Ogboni cult, but in a contemporary style. Jinadu Oladepo created brass figures and bracelets and pendants that were worn by the Oshogbo artists as a kind of insignia. Senabu Oloyede and Kikelomo Oladepo both worked in cloth dyeing......
  • Oladepo, Kikelomo (Nigerian artist)
    ...for the Ogboni cult, but in a contemporary style. Jinadu Oladepo created brass figures and bracelets and pendants that were worn by the Oshogbo artists as a kind of insignia. Senabu Oloyede and Kikelomo Oladepo both worked in cloth dyeing (traditionally reserved for women) and used the traditional indigo dye, producing works contemporary in style....
  • Olaf (king of Sweden)
    king of Sweden (c. 980–1022) whose apparent efforts to impose Christianity were frustrated by the leading non-Christian Swedish chieftains....
  • Olaf Alexander Edward Christian Frederik (king of Norway)
    king of Norway (1957–91), succeeding his father, King Haakon VII....
  • Olaf Cuaran (king of Denmark)
    king of the Danish kingdoms of Northumbria and of Dublin....
  • Olaf Guthfrithson (king of Northumbria and Dublin)
    king of Northumbria and of Dublin. Olaf was the son of Guthfrith (or Godfrey), king of Dublin. He is often confused with Olaf Sihtricson. ...
  • Olaf I Tryggvason (king of Norway)
    Viking king of Norway (995–c. 1000), much celebrated in Scandinavian literature, who made the first effective effort to Christianize Norway....
  • Olaf II Haraldsson (king of Norway)
    the first effective king of all Norway and the country’s patron saint, who achieved a 12-year respite from Danish domination and extensively increased the acceptance of Christianity. His religious code of 1024 is considered to represent Norway’s first national legislation....
  • Olaf III (king of Denmark and Norway)
    king of Denmark (as Olaf III, 1376–87) and of Norway (1380–87). He was the son of Haakon VI and of Margaret (Margrete), daughter of Valdemar IV, king of Denmark....
  • Olaf III Haraldsson (king of Norway)
    king of Norway (1066–93) who guided the nation through one of its most prosperous periods, maintaining an extended peace rare in medieval Norwegian history. He also strengthened the organization of the Norwegian church....
  • Olaf IV Haakonsson (king of Denmark and Norway)
    king of Denmark (as Olaf III, 1376–87) and of Norway (1380–87). He was the son of Haakon VI and of Margaret (Margrete), daughter of Valdemar IV, king of Denmark....
  • Olaf IV Magnusson (king of Norway)
    king of Norway (1103–15), illegitimate son of King Magnus III Barefoot....
  • Olaf Magnusson (king of Norway)
    king of Norway (1103–15), illegitimate son of King Magnus III Barefoot....
  • Olaf, Saint (king of Norway)
    the first effective king of all Norway and the country’s patron saint, who achieved a 12-year respite from Danish domination and extensively increased the acceptance of Christianity. His religious code of 1024 is considered to represent Norway’s first national legislation....
  • Olaf Sihtricson (king of Denmark)
    king of the Danish kingdoms of Northumbria and of Dublin....
  • Olaf the Quiet (king of Norway)
    king of Norway (1066–93) who guided the nation through one of its most prosperous periods, maintaining an extended peace rare in medieval Norwegian history. He also strengthened the organization of the Norwegian church....
  • Olaf the Red (king of Denmark)
    king of the Danish kingdoms of Northumbria and of Dublin....
  • Olaf the Tax King (king of Sweden)
    king of Sweden (c. 980–1022) whose apparent efforts to impose Christianity were frustrated by the leading non-Christian Swedish chieftains....
  • Olaf V (king of Denmark and Norway)
    ...him to rescue his father in 1371. He conceded special trading privileges to the Hanseatic merchants in a final peace treaty (1376), which helped secure the right to the Danish throne for his son Olaf V (1370–87) by placating Danish magnates fearful of Hanseatic intervention. Olaf also succeeded to the Norwegian throne on Haakon’s death (1380), but he died in 1387 at the age of 17,...
  • Olaf V (king of Norway)
    king of Norway (1957–91), succeeding his father, King Haakon VII....
  • Ólafs saga helga (Icelandic saga)
    ...(reigned 995–1000) and Olaf Haraldsson (Olaf the Saint; reigned 1015–30), received special attention from Icelandic antiquarians and authors. Only fragments of a 12th-century Ólafs saga helga (“St. Olaf’s Saga”) survive; a 13th-century biography of the same king by Styrmir Kárason is also largely lost. (Snorri Sturluson wrote a brilliant s...
  • Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar (Icelandic saga)
    ...Olaf Tryggvason, of which an Icelandic version still survives. A brother in the same monastery, Gunnlaugr Leifsson, expanded this biography, and his work was incorporated into later versions of Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar. Closely related to the lives of the kings of Norway are Fœreyinga saga, describing the resistance of Faeroese leaders to Norwegian interference during...
  • Ólafsson, Eggert (Icelandic poet)
    Icelandic poet and antiquarian, an outstanding figure in the history of Iceland’s fight to preserve and revivify its language, culture, and economy....
  • Olafsson, Peter (Swedish writer)
    On the death of her husband in 1344, Bridget retired to a life of penance and prayer near the Cistercian monastery of Alvastra on Lake Vetter. To the prior, Peter Olafsson, she dictated the revelations that came to her, and he translated them into Latin. One was a command to found a new religious order, which she was not able to fulfill until near the end of her life, receiving papal permission......
  • Olah, George A. (Hungarian-American chemist)
    Hungarian-American chemist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work conducted in the early 1960s that isolated the positively charged, electron-deficient fragments of hydrocarbons known as carbocations (or carbonium ions)....
  • Olah, George Andrew (Hungarian-American chemist)
    Hungarian-American chemist who won the 1994 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work conducted in the early 1960s that isolated the positively charged, electron-deficient fragments of hydrocarbons known as carbocations (or carbonium ions)....
  • Olai, Georgius (Swedish writer)
    poet and scholar, often called “the father of Swedish poetry.”...
  • Olajuwon, Akeem Abdul (American athlete)
    In June 1994 Nigerian-American basketball player Hakeem ("The Dream") Olajuwon made his longtime dream come true by leading the Houston Rockets to victory in the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship series over the New York Knicks. As his first championship title, it capped a milestone year in which he was named Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year (for the second time)...
  • Olajuwon, Hakeem (American athlete)
    In June 1994 Nigerian-American basketball player Hakeem ("The Dream") Olajuwon made his longtime dream come true by leading the Houston Rockets to victory in the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship series over the New York Knicks. As his first championship title, it capped a milestone year in which he was named Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year (for the second time)...
  • ʿolam ha-ba (Judaism)
    in Jewish theology, either “the world after death” or the new creation or restoration of the world that is to follow the messianic millennium. Because this latter interpretation stemmed from the teachings and exhortations of the prophets, it was especially prevalent during the period of the Second Temple of Jerusalem (516 bc–ad 70). Whatever the int...
  • ʿolam ha-ze (Judaism)
    (Hebrew: “this world”), in Jewish theology, present life on earth, as opposed to ʿolam ha-ba (“the world to come”). Though ʿolam ha-ze is full of misery and injustice, one’s view of life is transformed by realizing—as the Mishna (code of Jewish law) explains—that “this life” is but an antechamber where one ...
  • Olancho Forestry Project (Honduran government program)
    ...colonial period, the port was revitalized during the 1970s. Shrimp fishing is the main activity, and the city has a meatpacking plant. In the late 1970s port facilities were upgraded to serve the Olancho Forestry Project, a plan to exploit and export timber resources of the interior, and a new road was constructed from San Esteban in Olancho department to the port to serve the forestry......
  • Öland (island, Sweden)
    island and landskap (province) in the Baltic Sea, län (county) of Kalmar, Sweden. It is connected to Kalmar on the Swedish mainland by a road bridge across Kalmar Sound. It is the largest Swedish island after Gotland. Administratively, Öland, together with the surrounding islets, forms the smallest of Sweden’s traditional provinces. Its periphe...
  • Olathe (Kansas, United States)
    city, seat (1858) of Johnson county, northeastern Kansas, U.S. Olathe, which lies 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Kansas City, was founded in 1857 on the Santa Fe Trail. Its name derives from the Shawnee Indian word for “beautiful.” The town was raided by the guerrilla leader William C. Quantrill in 1862. Chief...
  • Olatunde, Ashiru (Nigerian artist)
    ...of humour. Jimoh Buraimoh was known for his mosaic compositions made with local beads, potsherds, or stones. Samuel Ojo worked in appliqué with cutout and embroidered fantasy-like figures. Ashiru Olatunde’s aluminum panels are found on Nigerian banks, churches, and bars and in private collections in Europe and America. His quiet folk art, which comments on Nigerian life, was as po...
  • Olatunji, Babatunde (Nigerian drummer)
    Nigerian-born drummer (b. April 7, 1927, Ajido, Nigeria—d. April 6, 2003, Salinas, Calif.), brought the sound of African drumming to an American audience and influenced a number of jazz and rock musicians. While studying in New York City, Olatunji formed an African drum and dance group. His seminal album, Drums of Passion (1959), was credited with sparking a vogue for Afro-jazz fusio...
  • Olav Håkonsson (king of Denmark and Norway)
    king of Denmark (as Olaf III, 1376–87) and of Norway (1380–87). He was the son of Haakon VI and of Margaret (Margrete), daughter of Valdemar IV, king of Denmark....
  • Olav Kyrre (king of Norway)
    king of Norway (1066–93) who guided the nation through one of its most prosperous periods, maintaining an extended peace rare in medieval Norwegian history. He also strengthened the organization of the Norwegian church....
  • Olavide y Jáuregui, Pablo Antonio José de (Spanish minister)
    The Peruvian Pablo Antonio José de Olavide y Jáuregui was the quintessential Enlightenment reformer. Among other things, he worked at establishing immigrant colonies to expand the agricultural sector and reinforce the notion that manual labour was not dishonourable, and he was one of those who aimed at teaching trades and persuading the aristocracy to use trained workers on their......
  • Olayan, Suliman Saleh (Saudi Arabian businessman)
    Saudi businessman (b. Nov. 5, 1918, Unayzah, [Saudi] Arabia—d. July 4, 2002, New York, N.Y.), founded the Olayan Group, one of the largest and most successful corporations in Saudi Arabia, with offices and interests around the world. After attending an American school in Bahrain, he went to work for various oil companies before founding General Contracting Co. in the late 1940s. One of its ...
  • Olbers, Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus (German astronomer)
    German astronomer and physician who discovered the asteroids (minor planets) Pallas and Vesta as well as five comets....
  • Olbers’ paradox (astronomy)
    in cosmology, paradox relating to the problem of why the sky is dark at night. If the universe is endless and uniformly populated with luminous stars, then every line of sight must eventually terminate at the surface of a star. Hence, contrary to observation, this argument implies that the night sky should everywhere be bright, with no dark spaces between the stars. This paradox was discussed in ...
  • Olbers, Wilhelm (German astronomer)
    German astronomer and physician who discovered the asteroids (minor planets) Pallas and Vesta as well as five comets....
  • Olbia (Italy)
    town, northeastern Sardinia, Italy, on the Gulf of Olbia, an inlet of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Originating as the Greek colony of Olbia, it later passed to the Romans and was the scene in 259 bc of a Roman victory over the Carthaginian general Hanno. Largely rebuilt in 1198 by Pisan colonists, who called it Terranova Pausania (a name it retained until...
  • Olbrich, Joseph Maria (German architect)
    German architect who was a cofounder of the Wiener Sezession, the Austrian manifestation of the Art Nouveau movement. Olbrich was a student of Otto Wagner, one of the founders of the modern architecture movement in Europe....
  • Olbricht, Friedrich (German general)
    The leaders of the plot included retired colonel general Ludwig Beck (formerly chief of the general staff), Major General Henning von Tresckow, Colonel General Friedrich Olbricht, and several other top officers. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, one of Germany’s most prestigious commanders, agreed with the conspirators that Hitler should be removed from power, but he looked on assassination with....
  • Ol’chon Island (island, Russia)
    island in Lake Baikal, administered as part of Irkutsk oblast (province), east-central Russia. It is separated from the lake’s western shore by the straits of Olkhon and the Maloye More (Little Sea). Its area is 280 square miles (730 square km), and its highest point, Mount Zhima, rises to 4,186 feet (1,276 m). The island is composed largely of granites and gneisses. The northern par...
  • Olcott, Henry Steel (American theosophist)
    American author, attorney, philosopher, and cofounder of the Theosophical Society, a religious sect incorporating aspects of Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Christian esotericism....
  • old age
    in human beings, the final stage of the normal life span. Definitions of old age are not consistent from the standpoints of biology, demography (conditions of mortality and morbidity), employment and retirement, and sociology. For statistical and public administrative purposes, however, old age is frequently defined as 60 or 65 years of age or older....
  • Old Age Pensions Act (New Zealand [1898])
    ...the prosperity of the country. But other remedies were considered, and some of them were applied. In the 1880s there was serious discussion of insurance against sickness, poverty, and old age; the Old Age Pensions Act of 1898 was the first measure of social security. Tariff protection to foster industrial employment was halfheartedly applied in the late 1880s. Revelations of oppression in......
  • Old Age Pensions Act (United Kingdom [1908])
    ...welfare state. The new Liberal government embarked upon a program of social legislation that involved free school meals (1905), a school medical service (1907), and the Children’s Act (1908). The Old Age Pensions Act (1908) granted pensions under prescribed conditions to people over age 70, and in 1908 the miners were given a statutory working day of eight hours. In 1909 trade boards wer...
  • Old Age Security Act (Canadian legislation)
    ...Allowance Act has been a unique feature of the Canadian social security system since its inception in 1945. The Canada Pension Plan provides retirement, disability, and survivors’ benefits. The Old Age Security Act provides a monthly pension to all persons at least 65 years of age, while the guaranteed-income supplement provides additional income for pensioners. Financial aid is availabl...
  • Old Akkadian cuneiform (script)
    The earliest type of Semitic cuneiform in Mesopotamia is called the Old Akkadian, seen for example in the inscriptions of the ruler Sargon of Akkad (died c. 2279 bc). Sumer, the southernmost part of the country, continued to be a loose agglomeration of independent city-states until it was united by Gudea of Lagash (died c. 2124 bc) in a last brief manifest...
  • Old Anatolian Turkish language
    Modern Turkish is the descendant of Ottoman Turkish and its predecessor, so-called Old Anatolian Turkish, which was introduced into Anatolia by the Seljuq Turks in the late 11th century ad. Old Turkish gradually absorbed a great many Arabic and Persian words and even grammatical forms and was written in Arabic script. After the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923, the Arabic scr...
  • Old and New (film by Eisenstein)
    Also uneven, but better balanced, was Old and New (originally titled The General Line), filmed in 1929 to illustrate the collectivization of the rural countryside. Eisenstein made of it a lyric poem, as calm and as expansive as Potemkin had been violent and compact....
  • Old and The Young, The (novel by Pirandello)
    Meanwhile, he had been writing other novels, notably I vecchi e i giovani (1913; The Old and The Young) and Uno, nessuno e centomila (1925–26; One, None, and a Hundred Thousand). Both are more typical than Il fu Mattia Pascal. The first, a historical novel reflecting the Sicily of the end of the 19th century and the general bitterness at the loss of the......
  • Old Arbat (street, Moscow, Russia)
    ...offices of Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance; disbanded in 1991) and now serves as the headquarters for the Moscow city government. Yet just next to this bustling thoroughfare is Arbat Prospekt (also called Old Arbat), one of the most picturesque streets of Moscow and now closed to vehicular traffic....
  • Old Arbitrator, The (American baseball umpire)
    American professional baseball umpire of the National League who is considered by many the greatest umpire of all time. Klem is credited with the introduction of hand and arm signals to indicate calls of pitched balls and strikes and foul and fair batted balls. He was also famous for his practice of drawing a line in the dirt with his shoe a...
  • Old Armenian language (language)
    Grabar, as the language of the first translation was known, became the standard for all subsequent literature, and its use produced what has come to be considered the golden age of Armenian literature. It concealed the noticeable dialectal variations of the spoken language and was used for literary, historical, theological, scientific, and even practical everyday texts. The first Armenian......
  • Old Assyrian cuneiform (linguistics)
    Though the Old Assyrian tablets are concerned exclusively with commercial matters, the seal impressions that they bear contain a new and elaborate system of religious symbolism (iconography) that later reached its maturity under the Hittites. Here a whole pantheon of deities, some recognizably Mesopotamian, others native Anatolian, are distinguished by......
  • Old Athenian language (Greek language)
    3. Old Athenian was spoken in Athens itself until 1833, when Athens became the capital of the modern state, and on Aegina until early in the 20th century; a few elderly speakers still remain in Megara and in the Kími district of central Euboea. Its salient feature is the replacement of the Byzantine /ü/ sound (from ancient /ü/, /oi/) by /u/ rather than normal /i/; it changes.....
  • Old Attic (language)
    ...systems of Ancient Greek differ noticeably from one period to another and from one dialect to another. The system that has been chosen to serve as an example here is that which may be attributed to Old Attic of about 500 bc....
Skip this Advertisement

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

The Britannica Store
A-Z Browse

Image preview