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  • Baikal-Amur Magistral (railway, Russia)
    ...of oil and gas pipelines was built between the new fields and the Urals, and new industries were also established, such as aluminum refining and cellulose pulp making. The construction of the BAM (Baikal-Amur Magistral) railroad between Ust-Kut, on the Lena River, and Komsomolsk-na-Amure, on the Amur, a distance of 2,000 miles (3,200 km), was completed in 1980....
  • Baikal-Amur Mainline (railway, Russia)
    ...of oil and gas pipelines was built between the new fields and the Urals, and new industries were also established, such as aluminum refining and cellulose pulp making. The construction of the BAM (Baikal-Amur Magistral) railroad between Ust-Kut, on the Lena River, and Komsomolsk-na-Amure, on the Amur, a distance of 2,000 miles (3,200 km), was completed in 1980....
  • Baikalides (geological region, Asia)
    The Altaids constitute a large and complex tectonic collage that accreted around the Angaran platform from late in the Proterozoic to early in the Mesozoic Era. Its oldest part, the Baikalides, formed between about 850 and 570 million years ago along the southern periphery of the Angaran platform. A number of island arcs and microcontinents were accreted onto Angara along a suture containing......
  • Baikalsky Nature Reserve (research area, Russia)
    natural area set aside for research in the natural sciences, on the southern shore of Lake Baikal, southeastern Russia. The reserve was established in 1969 and has an area of 640 square miles (1,657 square km). It includes part of the Khamar-Daban mountain range. The park’s vegetation includes poplar forests in the lowlands; taiga of spruce, fir, and larch on the mountai...
  • Baikiaea (tree genus)
    ...is predominant on the alluvial flats of the low-lying river valleys and is highly susceptible to fire. Grass, when present, is typically short and sparse. Forestland with species of the genus Baikiaea, found extensively on sandy interfluves between drainage channels, is economically the most important vegetation type in Zambia, for it is the source of the valuable Rhodesian teak......
  • Baikiaea plurijuga (plant)
    ...of the genus Baikiaea, found extensively on sandy interfluves between drainage channels, is economically the most important vegetation type in Zambia, for it is the source of the valuable Rhodesian teak (Baikiaea plurijuga). Destruction of the Baikiaea forest results in a regression from forest to grassland, a slow process involving intermediate stages of scrub......
  • Baikie, William Balfour (British explorer)
    explorer and philologist whose travels into Nigeria helped open up the country to British trade....
  • Baikonur (space centre, Kazakstan)
    former Soviet and current Russian space centre in south-central Kazakhstan. Baikonur was a Soviet code name for the centre, but American analysts often called it Tyuratam, after the railroad station at Tyuratam (Leninsk), the nearest large city. Baikonur lies on the north bank of the Syr Darya, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Qyzylorda. The Soviet Union’s secretiveness about its exact...
  • bail (law)
    procedure by which a judge or magistrate sets at liberty one who has been arrested or imprisoned, upon receipt of security to ensure the released prisoner’s later appearance in court for further proceedings. Release from custody is ordinarily effected by posting a sum of money, or a bond, although originally bail included the delivery of other forms of property, such as title to real estat...
  • bail (cricket)
    ...a game in which country boys bowled at a tree stump or at the hurdle gate into a sheep pen. This gate consisted of two uprights and a crossbar resting on the slotted tops; the crossbar was called a bail and the entire gate a wicket. The fact that the bail could be dislodged when the wicket was struck made this preferable to the stump, which name was later applied to the hurdle uprights. Early.....
  • bail bond (law)
    procedure by which a judge or magistrate sets at liberty one who has been arrested or imprisoned, upon receipt of security to ensure the released prisoner’s later appearance in court for further proceedings. Release from custody is ordinarily effected by posting a sum of money, or a bond, although originally bail included the delivery of other forms of property, such as title to real estat...
  • Baila (people)
    a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting an area west of Lusaka, the national capital of Zambia. The Ila-Tonga cluster consists of about 12 dialect groups, including the Lozi, Koba, Lenje, Tonga, Totela, Ila, and others....
  • Bailarín, El (Spanish dancer and choreographer)
    ("ANTONIO"; "EL BAILARÍN"), Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer who was known for his artistry, showmanship, and technique and who brought the male back to prominence in Spanish dance (b. Nov. 4, 1921--d. Feb. 5, 1996)....
  • Baildon, John (English calligrapher)
    ...in England, A Booke Containing Divers Sortes of Hands (1570; this title also translates Cresci’s), is the work of a French Huguenot immigrant writing master, Jean de Beauchesne, and John Baildon (or Basildon), about whom nothing further is known. Divers Sortes of Hands has characteristics of both writing manuals and copybooks: it includes instructions on how to ...
  • baile (dance)
    After the mid-19th century, flamenco song was usually accompanied by guitar music and a palo seco (Spanish: “dry stick,” a stick that was beat on the floor to keep time) and a dancer performing a series of choreographed dance steps and improvised styles. Baile, or dance, has been the dominant element of......
  • Baile An Chaistil (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    town, Moyle district (established 1973), formerly in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is situated along Ballycastle Bay, opposite Rathlin Island, where Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, is said to have hidden in a cave. Ballycastle is at the mouth of Glenshesk and close to Knocklayd (1,695 feet [517 metres]). The town is a market centre, fishing harbour, and resort. Nearby are ...
  • Baile Átha An Rí (Ireland)
    market town, County Galway, Ireland. It was founded in the 13th century during the Anglo-Norman colonization. Much of the medieval town wall (1211) survives, together with the keep of the castle (1235) and part of the Dominican priory (founded 1241), which was specifically exempted from Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries. Pop. (2002) 2,154....
  • Baile Átha Cliath (county, Ireland)
    geographic county in the province of Leinster, east-central Ireland. It is bounded by Counties Kildare (west), Meath (west and north), and Wicklow (south) and by the Irish Sea (east). The geographic county’s central and northern parts are low-lying, whereas low mountains occupy ...
  • Baile Átha Cliath (Ireland)
    city and capital of Ireland. Located in the province of Leinster in the east-central part of the country at the head of Dublin Bay on the Irish Sea, the city is the country’s chief port, centre of financial and commercial power, and seat of culture. It is also a city of contrasts, maintaining an uneasy relationship between reminders o...
  • Baile Átha Luain (town and district, Ireland)
    town, County Westmeath, Ireland. It lies on the River Shannon just south of Lough (lake) Ree. Located at a major east-west crossing of the Shannon, it has always been an important garrison town. In the 12th century the area, previously fortified by the kings of Uí Maine and Connaught (Connacht), was seized by the Anglo-Normans. Their motte (palisade) castle was built in 1...
  • Baile Átha Troim (Ireland)
    market town and seat of County Meath, Ireland, on the River Boyne. It was important from ancient times and was the seat of a bishopric. St. Patrick is said to have founded a monastery there in 432; there are remnants of a 13th-century Augustinian abbey, two gates from the town walls, and extensive remains of Trim Castle, w...
  • Baile Locha Riach (Ireland)
    market town, County Galway, Ireland. It lies along the northern shore of Lough (lake) Rea, 116 miles (185 km) west of Dublin. It has a Roman Catholic cathedral (1900–05) and the remains of a medieval castle and friary and of the town fortifications. Near Loughrea are a dolmen (a prehistoric stone-slab monument), souterrains (underground passages and chambers), and two rui...
  • Baile Meánach, An (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    town and seat of Ballymena district, Northern Ireland. It lies in the River Main valley 24 miles (40 km) northwest of the city of Belfast. The town is the market centre for the surrounding countryside and has been long known for its production of linens and woolens; more recently, synthetic fibres have also been manufactured there. Pop. (2001) 28,704....
  • Baile Monaidh (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    town, seat, and district (established 1973), formerly within County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The town of Ballymoney, located on the eastern side of the valley on a tributary of the River Bann, was the birthplace of James McKinley, grandfather of the U.S. president William McKinley. The town preserves a marketplace of 1775 and an old parish church (1637). Ballymoney town is now ...
  • Baile na Mainistreach (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    town and district (established 1973), formerly in County Antrim, eastern Northern Ireland. The town of Newtownabbey was formed in 1958 by the amalgamation of seven villages, and it is a residential continuation of the city of Belfast on the shores of Belfast Lough (inlet of the sea). Newtownabbey is surrounded by modern industrial estates, manufacturing tires, telephones, textil...
  • Baile na Mainistreach (district, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom)
    Newtownabbey district borders the districts of Larne and Carrickfergus to the east, Ballymena to the north, Antrim to the west, and Belfast to the south. The southern slopes of the Antrim Mountains extend into the northern and eastern parts of the district, but most of Newtownabbey consists of flat to undulating lowland. The district’s light agricultural activity is centred around the......
  • bailee
    in Anglo-American property law, delivery of specific goods by one person, called the bailor, to another person, called the bailee, for some temporary purpose such as storage, transportation, deposit for sale, pawn or pledge, repair or loan for use, with or without compensation. Formerly the bailee’s responsibility for goods varied with the benefit he derived from the bailment. In present-d...
  • Bailen (Spain)
    ...of the prerequisite senior magistracies. He signalized his arrival by a bold and successful coup de main upon the great arsenal of Carthago Nova (Cartagena) in 209. Though after an engagement at Baecula (Bailen; 208) he was unable to prevent Hasdrubal Barca from marching away to Italy, Scipio profited by his opponent’s departure to push back the remaining hostile forces the more rapidly....
  • bailey (military architecture)
    ...built in France in the 10th century often included a high mound encircled by a ditch and surmounted by the leader’s particular stronghold, as in the castles at Blois and Saumur. Later, one or more baileys or wards (grounds between encircling walls) were enclosed at the foot of the mound. During the 11th century this type of private fortress, known as the “motte [mound] and bailey...
  • Bailey, Alice A. (American theosophist)
    Blavatsky’s successor, Annie Besant, predicted the coming of a messiah, or world saviour, who she believed was the Indian teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti. In the 1940s Alice A. Bailey, founder of the Arcane School (an organization that disseminated spiritual teachings), suggested that a new messiah, the Master Maitreya, would appear in the last quarter of the 20th century. Bailey also establishe...
  • Bailey, Ann (American scout)
    American scout, a colourful figure in fact and legend during the decades surrounding the American Revolutionary War....
  • Bailey, Anna Warner (American patriot)
    American patriot, the subject of heroic tales of the Revolutionary War and early America....
  • Bailey bridge (architecture)
    British engineer who invented the Bailey bridge, which was of great military value in World War II....
  • Bailey, Buster (American musician)
    ...to determine when their playing turned from embellished rags to improvisatory jazz. Musicians confirmed the tenuousness and variety of these early developments in statements such as that of reedman Buster Bailey (speaking of the years before 1920): “I … was embellishing around the melody. At that time [1917–18] I wouldn’t have known what they meant by improvisation. ...
  • Bailey, David (British photographer)
    British photographer known for his advertising, celebrity, and fashion photographs....
  • Bailey, Derek (British musician)
    British guitarist (b. Jan. 29, 1930, Sheffield, Eng.—d. Dec. 25, 2005, London, Eng.), was the guru of free improvisation, a technique of creating arhythmic music without preset forms or melodies. Although he was first a pop and jazz musician who liked to accompany singers, he was influenced by Anton Webern and John Cage and developed an original, highly influential atonal style that combine...
  • Bailey, Donovan (Canadian athlete)
    At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga., Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey won the 100-m dash in 9.84 sec to earn the appellation "the world’s fastest man." Then he ran the last leg of the 4 ×100-m relay and helped the Canadian team win a gold medal in that event. These were impressive accomplishments for a man who had emerged as a factor in international track only in 1994 and did...
  • Bailey, Florence Augusta Merriam (American ornithologist)
    American ornithologist and author of popular field guides....
  • Bailey, Frederick Augustus Washington (United States official and diplomat)
    African American who was one of the most eminent human-rights leaders of the 19th century. His oratorical and literary brilliance thrust him into the forefront of the U.S. abolition movement, and he became the first black citizen to hold high rank in the U.S. government....
  • Bailey, Gamaliel (American journalist)
    journalist and a leader of the abolition movement prior to the American Civil War....
  • Bailey, Grace (American playwright and actress)
    highly successful American playwright and actress of the first half of the 20th century....
  • Bailey, Hackaliah (American menagerie owner)
    The second elephant on American shores, Old Bet, was even more popular and is credited with having established the circus tradition of the animal menagerie. Old Bet was owned by Hackaliah Bailey of Somers, New York. Between 1809 and 1816 Bailey toured with the elephant, walking with the animal from town to town under the cover of night in order to prevent anyone from having a free look at the......
  • Bailey, Hannah Clark Johnston (American social reformer)
    U.S. reformer who was a leading advocate of the peace movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
  • Bailey, James A. (American circus impresario)
    U.S. impresario credited with the great success of the Barnum & Bailey Circus....
  • Bailey, James Anthony (American circus impresario)
    U.S. impresario credited with the great success of the Barnum & Bailey Circus....
  • Bailey, Jeremiah (American inventor)
    ...but modern machines include harvesters, combines, and binders, which also perform other harvesting operations. A patent for a reaper was issued in England to Joseph Boyce in 1800. In the 1830s Jeremiah Bailey of the United States patented a mower-reaper, and Obed Hussey and Cyrus McCormick developed reapers with guards and reciprocating (back-and-forth-moving) cutting blades. Hussey was......
  • Bailey, Jerry (American jockey)
    When the 2003 Thoroughbred racing Eclipse Awards were handed out on Jan. 26, 2004, Jerry Bailey was proclaimed the outstanding jockey in North America for an unprecedented seventh time (1995–97 and 2000–03); in 1997 he had been the first jockey to win three consecutive Eclipse Awards. Bailey had recorded more victories in the prestigious Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Champi...
  • Bailey, Liberty Hyde (American botanist)
    botanist whose systematic study of cultivated plants transformed U.S. horticulture from a craft to an applied science and had a direct influence on the development of genetics, plant pathology, and agriculture....
  • Bailey, Mildred (American singer)
    American singer known for her light soprano voice, clear articulation, and jazz phrasing. As a singer Bailey was especially influenced by Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith, and she was one of the first nonblack performers to become a skilled jazz singer....
  • Bailey, Nathan (British lexicographer)
    ...earlier lexicographers. As a result, it served the reasonable needs of ordinary users of the language. Kersey later produced some bigger works, but all these were superseded in the 1720s when Nathan Bailey, a schoolmaster in Stepney, issued several innovative works. In 1721 he produced An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, which for the rest of the century was more......
  • Bailey, Pearl (American entertainer)
    American entertainer notable for her sultry singing and mischievous humour....
  • Bailey, Pearl Mae (American entertainer)
    American entertainer notable for her sultry singing and mischievous humour....
  • Bailey, Samuel (British economist and philosopher)
    English economist and philosopher remembered for his argument that value is a relationship and implies a particular state of mind....
  • Bailey, Sir Donald Coleman (British engineer)
    British engineer who invented the Bailey bridge, which was of great military value in World War II....
  • Bailey, William Shreve (American publisher)
    ...the first ship to reach Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The only antislavery newspaper (The Free South), published in Kentucky during the 1850s, was edited in Newport by William Shreve Bailey, who, after a pro-slavery mob threw his presses and type into the street (October 28, 1859), moved to Cincinnati. The city experienced its greatest growth in the 1880s and ...
  • Bailianjiao (Chinese cult)
    ...organization also emerged on China’s frontiers. Native-place ties were frequently expressed in worship of a deity, so that a temple or territorial cult would become a vehicle for collective action. White Lotus sectarianism appealed to other Chinese, most notably to women and to the poor, who found solace in worship of the Eternal Mother, who was to gather all her children at the millenni...
  • Bailie, John Alexander Hope (South African-American aerospace engineer)
    South African-born aerospace engineer who earned a global reputation as a designer of missile bodies. After training as an engineer in England, he immigrated in 1956 to the U.S., where he worked for Lockheed Aircraft Corp. (now a division of Lockheed Martin). There he did pioneering design work on Polaris, the world’s first ballistic missile capable of being launched by a submarine while su...
  • Bailie, Kim (South African-American aerospace engineer)
    South African-born aerospace engineer who earned a global reputation as a designer of missile bodies. After training as an engineer in England, he immigrated in 1956 to the U.S., where he worked for Lockheed Aircraft Corp. (now a division of Lockheed Martin). There he did pioneering design work on Polaris, the world’s first ballistic missile capable of being launched by a submarine while su...
  • bailiff (court official)
    a minor court official with police authority to protect the court while in session and with power to serve and execute legal process. In earlier times it was a title of more dignity and power....
  • Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington, The (English ballad)
    ...girl is told by the “stranger” of her lover’s defection or death: her ensuing grief convinces him of her sincere love: he proves his identity and takes the joyful girl to wife. “The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington” is a classic of the type. Later tradition occasionally foists happy endings upon romantic tragedies: in the American “Douglas Tragedy...
  • Baillet, Adrien (French priest)
    ...who began the process of turning Descartes into a saint by cutting, adding to, and selectively publishing his letters. This cosmetic work culminated in 1691 in the massive biography by Father Adrien Baillet, who was at work on a 17-volume Lives of the Saints. Even during Descartes’s lifetime there were questions about whether he was a Catholic apologist, primaril...
  • bailli (court official)
    a minor court official with police authority to protect the court while in session and with power to serve and execute legal process. In earlier times it was a title of more dignity and power....
  • Baillie, Charles (English rebel)
    Ridolfi’s plot was exposed in April 1571 when his messenger, Charles Baillie, was arrested at Dover, Kent. Baillie’s confession and the letters that he was carrying incriminated many conspirators, including Leslie, who was imprisoned for two years, and Norfolk, who was executed for treason (June 2, 1572). Only Elizabeth’s forbearance saved Mary Stuart, then in captivity in Eng...
  • Baillie, Joanna (British author)
    poet and prolific dramatist whose plays, mainly in verse, were highly praised at a period when serious drama was in decline. Her Plays on the Passions, 3 vol. (1798–1812), brought her fame but have long been forgotten. She is remembered, rather, as the friend of her countryman Sir Walter Scott and for a handful of lyrics in Fugitive Verses (1790), her first published work, tha...
  • Baillie, Lady Grizel (Scottish poet)
    Scottish poet remembered for her simple and sorrowful songs....
  • Baillie, Matthew (Scottish pathologist)
    Scottish pathologist whose Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body (1793) was the first publication in English on pathology as a separate subject and the first systematic study of pathology ever made....
  • Baillie of Jerviswood (Scottish rebel)
    Scottish Presbyterian executed for allegedly conspiring to assassinate King Charles II of Great Britain. The evidence against him was inconclusive, and Scottish nationalist sentiment has regarded him as a martyr for the cause of religious liberty....
  • Baillie, Robert (Scottish minister)
    Presbyterian minister and theological scholar who led the movement in Scotland to reject (1637) the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer. He was a member of the Glasgow Assembly (1638), at which the Church of Scotland broke away from English episcopacy. Baillie became professor of divinity at Glasgow (1642) and in 1661 was made principal of the university. His Letters and Jou...
  • Baillie, Robert (Scottish rebel)
    Scottish Presbyterian executed for allegedly conspiring to assassinate King Charles II of Great Britain. The evidence against him was inconclusive, and Scottish nationalist sentiment has regarded him as a martyr for the cause of religious liberty....
  • Baillon, André (Belgian author)
    Belgian novelist whose ironic and clear-eyed works signaled a change in the direction of Belgian literature....
  • Baillou, Guillaume de (French physician)
    physician, founder of modern epidemiology, who revived Hippocratic medical practice in Renaissance Europe. Dean of the University of Paris medical faculty (1580), he compiled a clear account of epidemics between 1570 and 1579, the first comprehensive work of its kind since Hippocrates. He was probably the first to describe whooping cough (1578) and to define the term rheumatism in its modern sense...
  • Bailly, Jean-Sylvain (French astronomer)
    French astronomer noted for his computation of an orbit for Halley’s Comet (1759) and for his studies of the four satellites of Jupiter then known. He was also a statesman who took part in the revolutionary events of his age....
  • bailment (law)
    in Anglo-American property law, delivery of specific goods by one person, called the bailor, to another person, called the bailee, for some temporary purpose such as storage, transportation, deposit for sale, pawn or pledge, repair or loan for use, with or without compensation. Formerly the bailee’s responsibility for goods varied with the benefit he d...
  • Baily, Edward Hodges (British sculptor)
    ...few British artists of the period with an international reputation. The last generation of Neoclassicists included the sculptors Sir Richard Westmacott, John Bacon the Younger, Sir Francis Chantrey, Edward Hodges Baily, John Gibson, and William Behnes....
  • Baily, Francis (British astronomer)
    astronomer who detected the phenomenon called “Baily’s beads” during an annular eclipse of the Sun on May 15, 1836. His vivid description aroused new interest in the study of eclipses....
  • Baily’s beads (astronomy)
    arc of bright spots seen during a total eclipse of the Sun. They are named for Francis Baily, an English astronomer, who first called attention to them. Just before the Moon’s disk completely covers the Sun, the narrow crescent of sunlight may be broken in several places by irregularities (mountains and valleys) on the edge of the Moon’s disk; the resulting array of spots roughly res...
  • Baima (temple, China)
    ...Luoyang did not become the Han capital until the 1st century ce, at the beginning of the Dong (Eastern) Han period, though its economic importance had been recognized earlier. In 68 ce the Baima (“White Horse Temple”), one of the earliest Buddhist foundations in China, was built about 9 miles (14 km) east of the present-day east town....
  • “Baimao nü” (play by Ho Ching-chih)
    ...plays, such as Lung-hsü kou (1951; Dragon Beard Ditch), which earned him the prestigious title of People’s Artist. Another very popular play, Pai-mao nü (1953; White-Haired Girl) by Ho Ching-chih, was taken from a contemporary folk legend....
  • baimiao (Chinese painting)
    in Chinese painting, brush technique that produces a finely controlled, supple ink outline drawing without any colour or wash (diluted ink or paint applied in broad sweeps) embellishment. It is commonly used for figure painting, in which precise description is important....
  • Bain, Alexander (Scottish philosopher)
    Scottish philosopher who advanced the study of psychology with his work on mental processes and who strove to improve education in Scotland....
  • Bain, Alexander (Scottish inventor)
    Facsimile transmission over wires traces its origins to Alexander Bain, a Scottish mechanic. In 1843, less than seven years after the invention of the telegraph by Samuel F.B. Morse, Bain received a British patent for “improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces and in electric printing and signal telegraphs.” Bain’s fax transmitte...
  • Bainbridge (Georgia, United States)
    city, seat (1823) of Decatur county, far southwestern Georgia, U.S. It lies along the Flint River, near the Florida border, about 40 miles (65 km) northwest of Tallahassee, Florida. The city was founded in 1823 near Fort Hughes, an earthwork defended by the troops of Andrew Jackson during the First Seminole War (1817...
  • Bainbridge, Beryl (British author)
    English novelist known for her psychologically astute portrayals of lower-middle-class English life....
  • Bainbridge, Beryl Margaret (British author)
    English novelist known for her psychologically astute portrayals of lower-middle-class English life....
  • Bainbridge, John (English astronomer)
    astronomer noted for his observations of comets....
  • Bainbridge, Kenneth (American scientist)
    U.S. physicist and director of the Trinity test, the first test explosion of the atomic bomb, which took place in the remote Jornado del Muerto desert in central New Mexico on July 16, 1945; he later served as chairman of the physics department at Harvard University and opposed nuclear weapons testing (b. July 27, 1904--d. July 14, 1996)....
  • Bainbridge, William (United States naval officer)
    American naval officer who captured the British frigate Java in the War of 1812....
  • Baines, Thomas (British artist)
    English-born artist, explorer, naturalist, and author who spent most of his life in southern Africa....
  • Bainimarama, Frank (prime minister of Fiji)
    Fijian military leader who led a 2006 coup that resulted in him becoming acting president (2006–07) and later acting prime minister (2007– ) of Fiji....
  • Bainimarama, Voreqe (prime minister of Fiji)
    Fijian military leader who led a 2006 coup that resulted in him becoming acting president (2006–07) and later acting prime minister (2007– ) of Fiji....
  • Baining (people)
    The mountains south of the Tolai’s coastal area are inhabited by the Baining, who consist of several groups of seminomads. Virtually their only works of art were masks and other objects carried in dances; these, however, being constructed of light materials (bamboo covered with bark cloth), were often of great size. The most remarkable came from the Chachet (northwestern Baining), who......
  • Bainis righe (Celtic religion)
    ...central institution of sacral kingship. A good example is the pervasive and persistent concept of the hierogamy (sacred marriage) of the king with the goddess of sovereignty: the sexual union, or banais ríghi (“wedding of kingship”), that constituted the core of the royal inauguration seems to have been purged from the ritual at an early date through ecclesiastical.....
  • Bainsizza Plateau (plateau, Europe)
    ...Cadorna’s 10th Battle of the Isonzo in May–June 1917 won very little ground; but his 11th, from August 17 to September 12, during which General Luigi Capello’s 2nd Army captured much of the Bainsizza Plateau (Banjška Planota), north of Gorizia, strained Austrian resistance very severely. To avert an Austrian collapse, Ludendorff decided that the Austrians must take t...
  • Bainter, Fay (American actress)
    Other Nominees...
  • Bainville, Jacques (French historian)
    French political writer and historian, a leading exponent of conservative ideals between World Wars I and II....
  • Baiovarii (people)
    ...Germanic attacks. The lands were eventually settled by Germanic tribes from the east and north who mixed with the remaining Celts and Romans. The tribe that gave the territory its name was the Baiovarii (Bavarians), which settled in the south between ad 488 and 520. In the 7th and 8th centuries, Bavaria was Christianized by Irish and Scottish monks. In 788 Charlemagne incorporated...
  • Bairāt (India)
    ...and post-Harappān culture (3rd–2nd millennium bc) are traceable at Kalibangan, Ahar, and Gilund. Pottery fragments at Kalibangan are carbon-dated to 2700 bc. The discovery near Bairāt of two rock inscriptions (c. 250 bc) of the emperor Aśoka seems to show that his rule extended westward to this part of the state. Later rulers...
  • Baird, Bil (American puppeteer)
    Bil Baird began building and using puppets as a child. After graduating from the State University of Iowa in 1926, he studied stage design at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and then worked for five years under the noted American puppeteer Tony Sarg. He traveled on the road giving puppet performances and in the mid-1930s began producing his own independent puppet shows. He married......
  • Baird, Bil and Cora (American puppeteers)
    puppeteers who led the 20th-century revival of puppet theatre in the United States....
  • Baird, Cora (American puppeteer)
    ...for five years under the noted American puppeteer Tony Sarg. He traveled on the road giving puppet performances and in the mid-1930s began producing his own independent puppet shows. He married Cora Eisenberg, who had acted under the name of Cora Burlar, in 1937. In the following years, they made their own puppets, built scenery, wrote scripts, and composed the music for their puppet......
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