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  • Baird, John Logie (British inventor)
    Scottish engineer, the first man to televise pictures of objects in motion....
  • Baird, Spencer Fullerton (American naturalist)
    American naturalist, vertebrate zoologist, and in his time the leading authority on North American birds and mammals....
  • Baird, William Britton (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’s beaked whale (mammal)
    ...dorsal fin located toward the rear of the body. Ranging in length from 3.7 metres (12.1 feet) for the dwarf, or pygmy, beaked whale (Mesoplodon peruvianus) to nearly 13 metres for the giant bottlenose whale (Berardius bairdii), these mammals weigh between 1,000 and 14,000 kg (2,200 and 31,000 pounds). Colour is variable but usually consists of some combination of.....
  • Baird’s tapir (mammal)
    ...Peru, up to altitudes of nearly 4,600 metres (about 15,000 feet). Agricultural and pastoral expansion have resulted in some decline in the status of this species, but it is still fairly common. The Central American, or Baird’s, tapir (T. bairdii) is the largest of the American species. It is essentially middle American, with a range extending from Mexico into coastal Ecuador, and ...
  • Baire, René-Louis (French mathematician)
    French mathematician whose study of irrational numbers and the concept of continuity of functions that approximate them greatly influenced the French school of mathematics....
  • Bairnsdale (Victoria, Australia)
    town, southeastern Victoria, Australia, named for Bernisdale, Isle of Skye, Scot. It lies at the mouth of the Mitchell River on Lake King, a lagoon. Its development dates from the late 19th century, when the town served initially as a port for the east Gippsland goldfields; ship services have now been replaced by rail and road transport. It is situated at the intersection of the...
  • Bairnsfather, Bruce (British cartoonist)
    cartoonist best known for his grimly humorous depictions of British soldiers in the trenches of World War I....
  • Bairnsfather, Charles Bruce (British cartoonist)
    cartoonist best known for his grimly humorous depictions of British soldiers in the trenches of World War I....
  • Bairro Alto (district, Lisbon, Portugal)
    A number of neighbourhoods extend west of the Baixa toward the suburb of Belém. Each possesses its own distinctive character, reflecting the epoch in which it was built. The Bairro Alto (“Upper District”), for example, dates primarily from the 16th century. It is characterized by its maze of straight and narrow streets. Some of these streets, especially those leading down to.....
  • Bais (Philippines)
    chartered city and port, southeastern Negros island, Philippines. Fronting the Tanon Strait on the east, the port accommodates oceangoing vessels and is the shipping centre for sugar refined in Bais. The Sacred Heart Academy, a Roman Catholic liberal arts college, was founded in 1947. A pulp and paper mill is the other principal industry in Bais. Inc. city, 1968. Pop. (2000) 68,...
  • Baise (China)
    city, western Zhuang Autonomous Region of Guangxi, China. It lies along the You River, which flows southeast to Nanning (the capital of Guangxi), and is situated at its junction with its tributary, the Chengbi River. It is at the limit of navigation on the You River for small craft and is also at the centre of a highway network radiating to the north and west....
  • “Baiser au lépreux, Le” (work by Mauriac)
    ...and the drab and suffocating strictures of bourgeois life provide the framework for his explorations of the relations of characters deprived of love. Le Baiser au lépreux (1922; The Kiss to the Leper) established Mauriac as a major novelist. Mauriac showed increasing mastery in Le Désert de l’amour (1925; The Desert of Love) and in......
  • BaiShangdi Hui (Chinese religious organization)
    ...and in 1844 he accompanied the mystic on a preaching mission into their neighbouring southern province of Guangxi. Hong returned home after a few months, but Feng remained to organize the Baishangdi Hui, or God Worshippers’ Society, which combined Hong’s religious ideas with a program of social reform. In 1847 Hong rejoined Feng and was accepted as the leader of the society....
  • Baishui River (river, China)
    ...the range of navigation, and permits irrigation. Several hydroelectric generators are also in operation on the site. Farther downstream at Xiangfan the river receives its largest tributary, the Baishui River. In the 1950s, in order to prevent flooding, a large retention basin was built at the confluence with the Baishui to accumulate floodwaters and to regulate the flow of the Han itself;......
  • bait (fishing)
    The tuna is attracted and kept near the vessel by chumming, throwing live bait overboard. The bait is kept alive on board in special tanks in which seawater circulates constantly. Bait can be an expensive problem for tuna fishermen; to catch one ton of tuna, roughly 100 kilograms of live bait fish are needed. Sometimes the hooks are baited, sometimes artificial lures are used with hooks hidden......
  • bait casting (sport)
    Bait casting and spin casting differ essentially only in the type of reel used and the rod length. Spinning rods are generally 7–10 feet long, while the usual length of a bait casting rod is 5–6 feet. As with fly fishing, bait casting originally used live minnows but grew to use lures in imitation of fish (sometimes crippled fish), as well as......
  • bait fishing (sport)
    Bait fishing, commonly called still fishing in North America and bottom fishing in England, is certainly the oldest and most universally used method. In English freshwater fishing it is used to catch what are called coarse fish: bream, barbel, tench, dace, and grayling (i.e., all fish but game fish, those that provide the angler with sport by the way they fight capture). A bait is......
  • Baitarani (river, India)
    ...of the surrounding area. Handloom weaving is also important. The town contains an old raja’s palace and is the site of colleges affiliated with Utkal University. The chief river of the region, the Baitarani, venerated in popular epics and legends, provides water for irrigation. Most of the potentially arable land in the area is not under cultivation. Rice is the principal crop, with timb...
  • Baitou, Mount (mountain, China)
    ...reach elevations mostly between 1,500 and 3,000 feet (450 and 900 metres). In some parts the scenery is characterized by rugged peaks and precipitous cliffs. The highest peak is the volcanic cone of Mount Baitou (9,003 feet [2,744 metres]), which has a beautiful crater lake at its snow-covered summit. As one of the major forest areas of China, the region is the source of many valuable furs and....
  • Baitou, Mount (mountain, North Korea)
    ...most of the country. The Kaema Highlands in the northeast have an average elevation of 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) above sea level and form the topographic roof of the entire Korean peninsula. Mount Paektu (9,022 feet [2,750 metres]; see photograph), the highest mountain in North Korea and on the peninsula, rises at the northern edge of this plateau; it is an extinct volcano topped by a......
  • Baiul, Oksana (Ukrainian figure skater)
    Displaying a technical mastery and artistic flair far in advance of her age, Ukrainian figure skater Oksana Baiul won gold medals at both the 1993 world figure skating championships in Prague and the 1994 winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, to emerge in 1995 as one of the world’s most gifted athletes. The fact that she had competed at the international level for only two seasons, w...
  • Baius, Michael (Belgian theologian)
    theologian whose work powerfully influenced Cornelius Jansen, one of the fathers of Jansenism....
  • Baiuvarii (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...
  • Baiuwarii (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...
  • Baixa (district, Lisbon, Portugal)
    The square lies at the south end of Lisbon’s central district, the Cidade Baixa (“Lower City”). The Baixa was completely rebuilt after the earthquake in 1755 under the supervision of Joseph I’s prime minister, Sebastião de Carvalho, later the marquês de Pombal. The streets are laid out in a grid pattern broken by spacious squares. A series of parallel stre...
  • Baixo Alentejo (plain, Portugal)
    ...1,300 feet (180 to 400 metres) with poor soils except where outcrops of diorite have weathered into rich black soils, or limestone, with piedmont springs at their foot. North of Beja, in the Baixo Alentejo, ridges of quartz and marble oriented northwest-southeast account for a monotonously undulating relief between 300 and 600 feet (90 and 180 metres). This terminates in the east with the......
  • Baiyue (ancient people)
    The earliest known inhabitants of the Canton area were the Pai Yüeh, a Tai, or Shan, people. At the beginning of the Western Chou dynasty (c. 1111–771 bc), their chief built a walled town, known as Nan-wu Ch’eng, in the northern section of the present-day city. In 887 bc the town was taken by the mid-Yangtze kingdom of Ch’u and was kno...
  • Bāj (ceremonial prayer)
    ...with ritual purity. Songs (involving light symbolism) accompany the five fire ceremonies that are celebrated daily. There are also ceremonies in which both priests and laymen participate. The great Bāj, a ritual offering of consecrated bread, grain, and butter, begins with a long preface: “In the name of God, Lord Ormazd, may your power and glory increase.” The Satum, in......
  • Baj Baj (India)
    city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India, just southeast of the Hooghly River. Connected by road and rail with Alīpore and Calcutta, it is a jute- and cotton-milling centre and serves as the oil depot for Calcutta. A major boot and shoe factory is nearby in Batanagar. Remains of a fort captured by th...
  • Baja California (peninsula, Mexico)
    peninsula, northwestern Mexico, bounded to the north by the United States, to the east by the Gulf of California, and to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula is approximately 760 miles (1,220 km) long and 25 to 150 miles (40 to 240 km) wide, with a total area of 55,366 square miles (143,396 square km). Politically, it is divided into the Mexican states of Baja California...
  • Baja California (state, Mexico)
    estado (state), northwestern Mexico, bounded to the north by the United States (California and Arizona), to the east by the state of Sonora and the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), to the west by the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by the state of Baja California Sur...
  • Baja California Norte (state, Mexico)
    estado (state), northwestern Mexico, bounded to the north by the United States (California and Arizona), to the east by the state of Sonora and the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), to the west by the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by the state of Baja California Sur...
  • Baja California Sur (state, Mexico)
    estado (state), northwestern Mexico, occupying the southern half of the Baja California peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the state of Baja California, to the east by the Gulf of California (also called Sea of Cortez), and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. Its capita...
  • bajada (geology)
    broad slope of debris spread along the lower slopes of mountains by descending streams, usually found in arid or semiarid climates; the term was adopted because of its use in the U.S. Southwest. A bajada is often formed by the coalescing of several alluvial fans. Such coalescent fans are often mistaken for erosional landforms known as pediments. The repeated shifting of a debouching stream from on...
  • Bajada de Santa Fe (Argentina)
    city, capital of Entre Ríos provincia (province), northeastern Argentina. It lies on the Paraná River, opposite Santa Fe, with which it is connected by a subfluvial road tunnel. Founded as a parish in 1730 and formerly called Bajada de Santa Fe, the city had little importance until 1853, when it was made c...
  • Bājah (Tunisia)
    town in northern Tunisia, located in the hills on the northern edge of the Majardah (Medjerda) valley. Béja is built on the site of ancient Vacca (or Vaga)—a Punic town and Roman colony. It became an important agricultural market beginning in the 1st century bce and was conquered by the Vandals and rebuilt in part by Justin...
  • Bajan (language)
    ...from the United States and Great Britain—made up of international civil servants, businesspersons, and retirees. English is the official language, and a nonstandard English called Bajan is also spoken....
  • Bajau (people)
    Sabah’s Chinese population is predominantly Hakka-speaking, but there are also many speakers of Cantonese, Hokkien, Chaozhou (Chaoshan), and Hainanese. The Bajau are a diverse community split into two main groups: sedentary agriculturists of the north coast and seafaring people of the east coast. Their languages, which are related to those of the southern Philippines, are not all mutually.....
  • Bajazet (play by Racine)
    Racine followed the simplicity of Bérénice and its three main characters with a violent, relatively crowded production, Bajazet (1672). The play’s themes of unrequited love and the struggle for power under the unrelenting pressure of time are recognizably Racinian, but its locale, the court of the Ottoman sultan in Constantinople, is the only contemporary setting...
  • Bajer, Fredrik (Danish politician)
    Danish reformer and politician, cowinner (with Klas Pontus Arnoldson) of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1908....
  • Baji Rao I (Marāṭhā peshwa)
    ...peshwa (chief minister), the first truly prominent figure of this line is Balaji Vishvanath, who had aided Shahu in his rise to power. Vishvanath and his successor, Baji Rao I (peshwa between 1720 and 1740), managed to bureaucratize the Maratha state to a far greater extent than had been the case under the early Bhonsles.......
  • Bāji Rāo II (Marāṭhā peshwa)
    The second war (1803–05) was caused by the peshwa Bājī Rāo II’s defeat by the Holkars (one of the leading Marāṭhā clans) and his acceptance of British protection by the Treaty of Bassein in December 1802. The Sindhia and the Bhonsle families contested the agreement, but they were defeated, respectively, at Laswari and......
  • Bajina Bašta (Serbia)
    ...power and coal are the principal sources of energy in Serbia, which has no nuclear power stations. Facilities at the Ðerdap dam on the Danube generate significant electric power. The Bajina Bašta development on the Drina River ranks second as a hydroelectric generating source. Because the Drina forms part of Serbia’s border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, this creates a......
  • Bajío (region, Mexico)
    region on the Mexican Plateau, west-central Mexico. Bajío has been an important agricultural region since the 19th century and is known for its fertile soil, temperate climate, and adequate rainfall. Wheat, corn (maize), chickpeas, beans, and various fruits are the principal crops....
  • Bajkal, Ozero (lake, Russia)
    lake located in the southern part of eastern Siberia within the republic of Buryatia and Irkutsk oblast (province) of Russia. It is the oldest existing freshwater lake on Earth (20–25 million years old), as well as the deepest continental body of water, having a maximum depth of 5,315 feet (1,620 met...
  • Bajki i przypowieści (work by Krasicki)
    Krasicki was scholarly, skeptical, and critical but fundamentally optimistic and never cynical. The fables in Bajki i przypowieści (1779) and Bajki nowe (1803) are among his best work. Typical of these fables is the four-line “The Lamb and the Wolves,” which is the story of an encounter between three powerful predators and a weak little lamb. When......
  • Bajkonur (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...
  • bajo sexto (musical instrument)
    ...which was seen as more déclassé than mariachi music, featured the accordion as the melodic lead instrument backed rhythmically by the bajo sexto (a 12-string guitar) and an acoustic bass guitar. Its initial repertoire included waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, and rancheros. In modern......
  • Bajo tu clara sombra y otros poemas (work by Paz)
    ...Moon”), in 1933 at age 19. In 1937 the young poet visited Spain, where he identified strongly with the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. His reflection on that experience, Bajo tu clara sombra y otros poemas (“Beneath Your Clear Shadow and Other Poems”), was published in Spain in 1937 and revealed him as a writer of real promise. Before returning......
  • Bajocasses (France)
    town, Calvados département, Basse-Normandie région, northwestern France, on the Aure River, northwest of Caen. As Bajocasses, it was a capital of the Gauls, then, as Augustodurum and, later, Civitas Baiocassium, it was an important Roman city that became a bishopric in the 4th century. Captured in 880 by Rollo the Viking, it became a Norman stronghold. While Rouen was ...
  • Bajocian Stage (geology)
    second of the four divisions of the Middle Jurassic Series, representing all rocks formed worldwide during the Bajocian Age, which occurred between 171.6 million and 167.7 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. (Some researchers have proposed a longer time span for this stage that extends into more recent time.) The Bajocian Stage overlies the ...
  • Bajokwe (people)
    Bantu-speaking people who inhabit the southern part of Congo (Kinshasa) from the Kwango River to the Lualaba; northeastern Angola; and, since 1920, the northwestern corner of Zambia. They live in woodland savanna intersected with strips of rainforest along the rivers, swamps, and marshlands. They are a mixture of many aboriginal peoples and conquering groups of Lunda origin. The Chokwe language be...
  • Bajor, Gizi (Hungarian actress)
    Hungarian actress known not only for her magnetic charm and attractiveness but also for her craftsmanship and versatility....
  • bajra (plant)
    Pearl millet (P. glaucum), an annual species, which bears a cattaillike flower cluster, is cultivated in tropical areas for its edible grain. Napier grass, or elephant grass (P. purpureum), a tall African perennial, is cultivated for forage in Central American pastures....
  • bajraktar (Albanian chieftain)
    ...system. In the wake of its collapse, economic and social power passed from the feudal lords to private landowning beys and, in the northern highlands, to tribal chieftains called bajraktars, who presided over given territories with rigid patriarchal societies that were often torn by blood feuds. Peasants who were formerly serfs now worked on the estates of the......
  • Bajus, Michael (Belgian theologian)
    theologian whose work powerfully influenced Cornelius Jansen, one of the fathers of Jansenism....
  • baka (Japanese missile)
    A piloted missile was developed for kamikaze use that was given the nickname “Baka” by the Allies from the Japanese word for fool. The pilot had no means of getting out once the missile was fastened to the aircraft that would launch it. Dropped usually from an altitude of over 25,000 feet (7,500 m) and more than 50 miles (80 km) from its target, the missile would glide to about 3......
  • Bakaas, Tamás (Hungarian archbishop)
    archbishop who led a Crusade against the Ottoman Turks in 1514....
  • Bakác, Tamás (Hungarian archbishop)
    archbishop who led a Crusade against the Ottoman Turks in 1514....
  • Bakahonde (people)
    a Bantu-speaking people who inhabit the northwestern region of Zambia. Their wooded highlands average 4,000 feet (1,220 m) in elevation; to the southeast begin open plains noted for their abundant wild animals....
  • Bakan (Japan)
    largest city, Yamaguchi ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, occupying a strategic position on the Shimonoseki-kaikyō (Shimonoseki Strait) between Honshu and Kyushu. The city was formerly called Akamaga-seki and Bakan. Its modern development began in 1905 with the opening of railroad ferry service to Moji (now Kita-Kyūshū), Kyushu; later links include a railroad tunnel (19...
  • bakanae (plant pathology)
    ...normal represents merely a quantitative change, which is evidenced by a harmonious but exaggerated manifestation of the normal developmental processes. This is well illustrated in the so-called bakanae, or foolish seedling disease, of rice. The bakanae disease is caused by the fungus Gibberella fujikuroi. Diseased plants are often conspicuous in a field because of their......
  • Bakante bilder (work by Peretz)
    ...several short stories. In 1890 Jacob (Yankev) Dinezon, Peretz’s friend and a fellow writer, edited three of Peretz’s stories and published them in an important slim volume called Bakante bilder (“Familiar Scenes”). These introspective works are remarkable for their extensive use of internal monologue before this technique had been widely expl...
  • Bakary, Djibo (Niger political leader)
    ...(headed for 12 years by Governor Jean Toby) remained firmly in control of the political situation. The first local executive was established in 1957. Its head, the left-wing trade unionist Djibo Bakary, advocated a no vote in the referendum of 1958, but 72 percent of the votes cast were in favour of a continued link with France. Nevertheless, under Bakary’s successor, his cousin and......
  • Bakassi Peninsula (peninsula, Africa)
    Meanwhile, tensions from a long-standing border dispute with Nigeria over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula came to a head in late 1993 and early 1994 when Nigerian troops advanced into the region. New skirmishes occurred in early 1996, and, although a truce was signed, sporadic fighting continued for the next few years. After eight years of investigation and deliberation, the International Court......
  • Bakáts, Tamás (Hungarian archbishop)
    archbishop who led a Crusade against the Ottoman Turks in 1514....
  • bakeberry (plant)
    (species Rubus chamaemorus), creeping herbaceous plant, native to the Arctic and subarctic regions of the north temperate zone, and its edible, aggregate fruit resembling structurally the raspberry. The yellow or amber-coloured berry grows from a 2.5-centimetre (1-inch) white flower on a creeping rootlike stem, or rhizome. The stalks grow to a height of 7.6–25 cm (3–10...
  • baked Alaska (dessert)
    ...of a hot syrup, is used to cover puddings and ice creams. In the United States, a soft, moist meringue is used to top pies, especially lemon cream. Another famous American meringue dessert is the baked Alaska. A hard-frozen block of ice cream is placed on a layer of spongecake, and the whole is covered with uncooked meringue. The meringue is quickly browned in a hot oven and the dish served......
  • baked apple berry (plant)
    (species Rubus chamaemorus), creeping herbaceous plant, native to the Arctic and subarctic regions of the north temperate zone, and its edible, aggregate fruit resembling structurally the raspberry. The yellow or amber-coloured berry grows from a 2.5-centimetre (1-inch) white flower on a creeping rootlike stem, or rhizome. The stalks grow to a height of 7.6–25 cm (3–10...
  • baked custard
    mixture of eggs, milk, sugar, and flavourings which attains its consistency by the coagulation of the egg protein by heat. Baked custard contains whole eggs, which cause the dish to solidify to a gel. Flan, or crème caramel, is a custard baked in a dish coated with caramelized sugar that forms a sauce when the custard is unmolded. For crème brûlée, the......
  • Bakel (Senegal)
    From Bakel to Dagana, a distance of 385 miles, the river flows through an alluvial valley as much as 12 miles wide. Floods come in early September at Bakel, reaching Dagana by mid-October. During the flood season the water level rises 12 feet (3.5 metres), the flow is some 300 times greater than in the dry season, and the river occupies the entire valley....
  • Bakelite (chemical compound)
    synthetic resin formed from the chemical combination of phenols and formaldehydes. Bakelite is a hard, infusible, and chemically resistant plastic whose properties as a nonconductor of electricity have made it exceptionally useful in all sorts of electrical appliances. It is used in many industrial applications as an electrical insulator, in molding and casting operations, as an adhesive, and in p...
  • Bakema, Jacob B. (Dutch architect)
    Dutch architect who, in association with J.H. van den Broek, was particularly active in the reconstruction of Rotterdam after World War II....
  • Bakema, Jacob Berend (Dutch architect)
    Dutch architect who, in association with J.H. van den Broek, was particularly active in the reconstruction of Rotterdam after World War II....
  • Baker, A. W. (British entrepreneur)
    The economy no longer depended on sugar exports by the latter part of the 19th century, when Captain A.W. Baker, founder of the organization that later became the United Fruit Company, started a lucrative banana trade in Jamaica. Bananas soon became a principal export crop for small farmers as well as for large estates....
  • Baker, Alan (British mathematician)
    British mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1970 for his work in number theory....
  • Baker, Anita (American singer)
    American singer whose three-octave range and powerful, emotional delivery brought her international acclaim in the 1980s and ’90s. She was one of the most popular artists in urban contemporary music, a genre that her sophisticated, tradition-oriented soul and rhythm-and-blues singing helped to define....
  • Baker, Augusta Braxton (American librarian and storyteller)
    American librarian and storyteller who worked long and prolifically in the field of children’s literature. Her many accomplishments included the first extensive bibliography of children’s books portraying positive African-American role models....
  • Baker, Augustine (English monk)
    English Benedictine monk who was an important writer on ascetic and mystical theology....
  • Baker, Carlos (American literary critic)
    American teacher, novelist, and critic known for his definitive biographies of Ernest Hemingway and Percy Bysshe Shelley....
  • Baker, Carlos Heard (American literary critic)
    American teacher, novelist, and critic known for his definitive biographies of Ernest Hemingway and Percy Bysshe Shelley....
  • Baker, Chesney Henry (American musician and vocalist)
    American jazz trumpeter and vocalist noted for the plaintive, fragile tone of both his playing and singing. He was a cult figure whose well-publicized struggles with drug addiction curtailed a promising career....
  • Baker, Chet (American musician and vocalist)
    American jazz trumpeter and vocalist noted for the plaintive, fragile tone of both his playing and singing. He was a cult figure whose well-publicized struggles with drug addiction curtailed a promising career....
  • Baker City (Oregon, United States)
    city, seat (1868) of Baker county, northeastern Oregon, U.S. It is situated along the Powder River, in Baker Valley, between the Blue Mountains (west) and the Wallowa Mountains (east). Lying on the old Oregon Trail and settled during the Oregon gold rush (1861–62), it was laid out in 1865 and named for U.S. Senator Edward D. Baker; de...
  • Baker, Constance (American lawyer and jurist)
    American lawyer and jurist, an effective legal advocate in the civil rights movement and the first African American woman to become a federal judge....
  • Baker, Dame Janet (English opera singer)
    English operatic mezzo-soprano, known for her vocal expression, stage presence, and effective diction. As a recitalist she was noted for her interpretations of the works of Gustav Mahler, Sir Edward Elgar, and Johann Sebastian Bach....
  • Baker, Dame Janet Abbott (English opera singer)
    English operatic mezzo-soprano, known for her vocal expression, stage presence, and effective diction. As a recitalist she was noted for her interpretations of the works of Gustav Mahler, Sir Edward Elgar, and Johann Sebastian Bach....
  • Baker, Ella (American activist)
    American community organizer and political activist who brought her skills and principles to bear in the major civil rights organizations of the mid-20th century....
  • Baker, Etta Lucille Reid (American musician)
    American folk musician (b. March 31, 1913, Caldwell county, N.C.—d. Sept. 23, 2006, Fairfax, Va.), played banjo and guitar and influenced the folk music revival of the 1950s and ’60s with her blend of Piedmont blues and bluegrass. Baker, a textile worker from a musical family, became known to a wider audience for her contributions to the folk music compilation album Instrumental M...
  • Baker, Florence (British explorer)
    ...course, but an outbreak of tribal warfare required them to change their route. In February 1863 they reached Gondokoro in the southern Sudan, where they met the Nile explorers Samuel Baker and Florence von Sass (who later became Baker’s wife). Speke and Grant told them of another lake said to lie west of Lake Victoria. This information helped the Baker party to locate another Nile source...
  • Baker, Gene (American sports manager)
    By that time acceptance of black players was commonplace. However, inclusion of minorities in coaching and administrative positions was virtually nonexistent. In 1961 Gene Baker became the first African American to manage a minor league team, and in the mid-1960s there were only two African American coaches in the major leagues. In 1975 the Cleveland Indians made Frank Robinson the first black......
  • Baker, George (American religious leader)
    prominent African-American religious leader of the 1930s. The Depression-era movement he founded, the Peace Mission, was originally dismissed as a cult, but it still exists and is now generally hailed as an important precursor of the Civil Rights Movement....
  • Baker, George Fisher (American financier)
    American financier, bank president, and philanthropist who endowed the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard....
  • Baker, George Pierce (American drama teacher)
    American teacher of some of the most notable American dramatists, among them Eugene O’Neill, Philip Barry, Sidney Howard, and S.N. Behrman. Emphasizing creative individuality and practical construction (he guided students’ plays through workshop performances), Baker fostered an imaginative realism. The critic John Mason Brown and the novelists John Dos Passos and Thomas Wolfe also st...
  • Baker, Houston A., Jr. (American educator and critic)
    American educator and critic who proposed new standards, based on African American culture and values, for the interpretation and evaluation of literature....
  • Baker, Houston Alfred, Jr. (American educator and critic)
    American educator and critic who proposed new standards, based on African American culture and values, for the interpretation and evaluation of literature....
  • Baker, Howard (American politician)
    ...on those of Ronald Reagan, who was then governor of California. In 1969 he was named assistant U.S. attorney, though he left that position in 1972 to serve as the campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Howard Baker’s successful reelection bid. In 1973 Thompson made headlines as the minority (Republican) counsel at the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (the Watergate......
  • Baker Island (island and territory, United States)
    unincorporated territory of the United States in the South Pacific Ocean, about 1,650 miles (2,650 km) southwest of Honolulu. A coral atoll rising to 25 feet (8 metres), it measures 1 mile (1.6 km) long by 0.7 mile (1.1 km) wide and has a land area of about 0.6 square mile (1.5 square km). The reef-fringed island is visited by more than a dozen species of seabirds and shorebirds...
  • Baker, James Addison, III (American statesman)
    American government official, political manager, and lawyer who occupied important posts in the Republican presidential administrations of the 1980s and early ’90s, including that of U.S. secretary of state (1989–92)....
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