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  • Balassa, Bálint (Hungarian poet)
    the outstanding Hungarian lyric poet of his time, remaining unrivaled in his native literature until the end of the 18th century....
  • Balassi, Bálint (Hungarian poet)
    the outstanding Hungarian lyric poet of his time, remaining unrivaled in his native literature until the end of the 18th century....
  • Balassoni, Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio (American musician)
    one of the most heralded of jazz drummers, known for his taste and restraint in displaying his considerable technical skills....
  • Balat (ancient city, Turkey)
    ancient Greek city of western Anatolia, some 20 miles (30 km) south of the present city of Söke, Turkey. It lies near the mouth of the Büyükmenderes (Menderes) River....
  • balata (gum)
    hard rubberlike material made by drying the milky juice produced principally by the bully tree (species Manilkara bidentata) of Guyana and the West Indies. The tree is tapped by cutting zigzag gashes in the bark and collecting the latex in cups, to be coagulated in trays. Like gutta-percha, balata is inelastic, tough, leathery, and water-resistant, and it softens when hea...
  • Balāṭah, Tall al- (archaeological site, West Bank)
    ...and early Christian literature commonly equated Nāblus with ancient Shechem, and Nāblus has been called Shekhem in Hebrew to the present. Ruins of the Canaanite city lie at Tall al-Balāṭah, to the east of the present city of Nāblus; these show evidence of settlement from the Middle Bronze II period (c. 1900–c. 1750 bce)....
  • Balaton, Lake (lake, Hungary)
    largest lake of central Europe, located in central Hungary about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Budapest. It has an area of 231 square miles (598 square km) and extends for 48 miles (77 km) along the southern foothills of the Bakony Mountains of Hungary. At it widest point, Lake Balaton measures about 9 miles (14 km) across. Its maximum depth is 37 feet (11 m). The Zala River provides the largest i...
  • Balatonfelvideki National Park (national park, Hungary)
    ...castle there was the seat of Hungarian queens in the 10th century. At Zirc, high in the Cuha valley, is a 12th-century abbey, and in Nagyvázsony are the ruins of the legendary Kinizsi Castle. Balatonfelvideki National Park is located on the Tihany Peninsula. Area 1,781 square miles (4,613 square km). Pop. (2004 est.) 368,000....
  • Balatonfüred (Hungary)
    ...a result of the development of the tourist industry in the second half of the 20th century. A number of watering places sprang up, notable among which were Siófok, on the southern shore, and Balatonfüred, on the northern shore. The town of Balatonfüred was also traditionally known for its medicinal springs. The oldest and best-known settlement is Tihany, noted for its museu...
  • Balawat (archaeological site, Iraq)
    ...of his provinces. His artists created many statues and stelae. Among the best known is the Black Obelisk, which includes a picture of Jehu of Israel paying tribute. The bronze doors from the town of Imgur-Enlil (Balawat) in Assyria portray the course of his campaigns and other undertakings in rows of pictures, often very lifelike. Hundreds of delicately carved ivories were carried away from......
  • Balawī, Zuhayr ibn Qays al- (Arab general)
    ...at the hands of a Berber leader, albeit one professing Islam. Two large armies had to be sent from Egypt, however, before organized Berber resistance could be suppressed. The first, commanded by Zuhayr ibn Qays al-Balawī, reoccupied Kairouan, then pursued Kusaylah westward to Mams, where he was defeated and killed. The dates of these operations are uncertain, but they must have......
  • Balázs, Béla (Hungarian writer)
    Hungarian writer, Symbolist poet, and influential film theoretician....
  • Balbala (Djibouti)
    ...Issa enmity; signs of the serious problems facing the young nation were also to be found in the urban demography of its capital. On the outskirts of the city an expansive squatter community known as Balbala, which originally developed just beyond the barbed-wire boundary erected by the French colonial administration to prevent migration to the capital, tripled in size within a decade after......
  • Balban, Ghiyāth-al-Dīn (sultan of Delhi)
    The political situation had changed by 1246, when Ghiyāth al-Dīn Balban, a junior member of the Forty, had gained enough power to attain a controlling position within the administration of the newest sultan, Nāṣir al-Dīn Maḥmūd (reigned 1246–66). Balban, acting first as nāʾib......
  • Balbás, Jerónimo de (Spanish artist)
    The style was introduced by Jerónimo de Balbás of Seville in Mexico, where it had its greatest flowering. Balbás designed a retable for the high altar of the Seville Sagrario in 1706. He went to Mexico in 1717 and designed a high altar known as the Retablo de los Reyes in a similar manner for the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City. In this project he completely omitted......
  • Balbinus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor for three months in 238....
  • Balbinus, Decimus Caelius Calvinus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor for three months in 238....
  • Balbo, Cesare, Count (prime minister of Sardinia-Piedmont)
    Piedmontese political writer, a liberal but cautious constitutionalist who was influential during the Italian Risorgimento and served as the first prime minister of Sardinia-Piedmont under the constitution of March 5, 1848....
  • Balbo, Italo (Italian aviator)
    Italian airman and fascist leader who played a decisive role in developing Benito Mussolini’s air force....
  • Balboa (Panama)
    Pacific Ocean terminal port in central Panama, at the southern end of the Panama Canal. It lies between the canal docks and Ancón Hill, which separates it from Panama City. Founded in 1914 and named for Vasco Núñez de Balboa, European discoverer of the Pacific, it has extensive harbour installations, drydocks, marine and...
  • Balboa Heights (Panama)
    town, on a hill overlooking Balboa city. It is the administrative headquarters for the Panama Canal Company, and the Transisthmian Railway. Murals in the administration building depict the canal’s construction. The Canal Zone Library and Museum (founded 1914) in Balboa Heights exhibits relics and miniatures of important ships in Panama’s history. Pop. (latest est.)...
  • Balboa Park (park, San Diego, California, United States)
    The 1,200-acre (485-hectare) Balboa Park, near downtown, contains the world-renowned San Diego Zoo; a variety of arts and cultural organizations, such as the Globe Theatres and the Japanese Friendship Garden; and more than a dozen museums, including those devoted to natural history, fine art, photography, aerospace, folk art, anthropology, and local history. Mission Bay Park, just north of......
  • Balboa, Vasco Núñez de (Spanish explorer)
    Spanish conquistador and explorer, who was head of the first stable settlement on the South American continent (1511) and who was the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean (on Sept. 25 [or 27], 1513, from “a peak in Darién”)....
  • Balbuena, Bernardo de (Puerto Rican bishop and poet)
    poet and first bishop of Puerto Rico, whose poetic descriptions of the New World earned him an important position among the greatest poets of colonial America....
  • Balbulus, Notker (monk of Saint Gall)
    From the later 9th century on, the liturgy gave rise to two new literary forms: the sequence and the liturgical drama. Notker Balbulus, monk of St. Gall, was not the first to compose sequences, but his Liber hymnorum (“Book of Hymns”), begun about 860, is an integrated collection of texts that spans the whole of the church year in an ordered cycle. Performed between the......
  • Balbus, Lucius Cornelius (Roman consul)
    wealthy naturalized Roman, important in Roman politics in the last years of the republic....
  • Balcarce, Juan Ramón (president of Argentina)
    By 1832 the opposition to federalism had disappeared throughout the country, and Rosas turned over the reins of the government of Buenos Aires to his legal successor, General Juan Ramón Balcarce. However, Balcarce’s assumption of the office fanned sparks of dissidence among those who had pledged to uphold the principles of federalism. Balcarce was overthrown, and his successor took.....
  • Balcerowicz Plan (Polish history)
    ...was the first government led by a noncommunist since World War II. The tasks it faced were immense. In 1990 the government adopted a “shock therapy” program of economic reform, named the Balcerowicz Plan after its author, Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz. It was meant to arrest Poland’s financial and structural crisis and rapidly convert the communist economic model into...
  • Balch, Emily Greene (American political scientist)
    American sociologist, political scientist, economist, and pacifist, a leader of the women’s movement for peace during and after World War I. She received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1946 jointly with John Raleigh Mott. She was also noted for her sympathetic and thorough study of Slavic immigrants in the United States....
  • Balchin, Nigel (British author)
    English novelist who achieved great popularity with novels of men at work....
  • Balchin, Nigel Marlin (British author)
    English novelist who achieved great popularity with novels of men at work....
  • BALCO (American company)
    In 2003 it was alleged that a number of players, including Bonds, had obtained an illegal steroidal cream from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO). Bonds testified before a grand jury that he had never knowingly taken steroids, but accusations of steroid use dogged his pursuit of Aaron’s career home run record, and in 2007 he was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice......
  • Balcon du Sud (Algeria)
    ...is a commercial centre for pastoral peoples of the interior, who trade in wool, livestock, and cereals. It also supports a local carpet industry. Immediately northwest is the village and fort of Boghar (Balcon du Sud), a strategic command post. Pop. (1998) 61,687....
  • “Balcon, Le” (play by Genet)
    His subsequent plays, Le Balcon (1956; The Balcony), Les Nègres (1958; The Blacks), and Les Paravents (1961; The Screens), are large-scale, stylized dramas in the Expressionist manner, designed to shock and implicate an audience by revealing its hypocrisy and complicity. This “Theatre of Hatred” attempts to wrest the maximum dramatic.....
  • Balcon, Sir Michael (British producer)
    motion-picture producer, a leader in the British cinema industry....
  • balcony (architecture)
    external extension of an upper floor of a building, enclosed up to a height of about three feet (one metre) by a solid or pierced screen, by balusters (see also balustrade), or by railings. In the medieval and Renaissance periods, balconies were supported by corbels made out of successive courses of stonework, or by large wooden or stone brackets. Since the 19th century,...
  • Balcony Falls (waterfall, United States)
    ...Roads through an estuary 5 miles (8 km) wide at Newport News after a course of 340 miles (550 km). As the James River flows through one of the gorges in the Blue Ridge Mountains, it drops in the Balcony Falls and again in a 3-mile (5-km) series of rapids (a total drop of 84 feet [26 metres]) above Richmond, where the river has been impounded by the Boshers Dam. The Appomattox and......
  • Balcony, The (play by Genet)
    His subsequent plays, Le Balcon (1956; The Balcony), Les Nègres (1958; The Blacks), and Les Paravents (1961; The Screens), are large-scale, stylized dramas in the Expressionist manner, designed to shock and implicate an audience by revealing its hypocrisy and complicity. This “Theatre of Hatred” attempts to wrest the maximum dramatic.....
  • Balczó, András (Hungarian athlete)
    Hungarian modern pentathlete who dominated the sport in the 1960s and is considered among the greatest of the storied line of Hungarian competitors in the modern pentathlon....
  • bald crow (bird)
    either of the two species of western African birds, genus Picathartes, constituting the subfamily Picathartinae, of uncertain family relationships in the order Passeriformes. Both species, with virtually no feathering on the head, have drab, grayish plumage and are thin-necked, hump-backed, and heavy-billed—quite vulture-like in appearance. In the white-necked rockfowl (Picatharte...
  • bald cypress (genus)
    ...of this family are traditionally divided between two families, Cupressaceae for the cypresses (Cupressus) and similar genera and Taxodiaceae for the much more varied genera allied to the bald cypress (Taxodium) and redwood (Sequoia), present evidence shows that all belong to a single family containing 30 genera and 133 species; scales of seed cone intimately fused to......
  • bald cypress (species)
    either of two species of ornamental and timber conifers constituting the genus Taxodium (family Cupressaceae), native to swampy areas of southern North America. The name bald cypress, or swamp cypress, is used most frequently as the common name for T. distichum, economically the most important species....
  • bald eagle (bird)
    the only eagle solely native to North America, and the national bird of the United States....
  • Bald Eagle Protection Act (United States [1940])
    ...(an annoyance eventually overcome by fitting the traps with devices to discourage perching), Alaskan bounty hunters killed more than 100,000 eagles in the period 1917–52. The U.S. government’s Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940 made it illegal to kill bald eagles (Alaska was exempt), but the birds’ numbers continued to decline, primarily because of the effects of the pestici...
  • Bald Eagle, the (American horse trainer)
    American horse trainer of over 2,500 winners, including Kentucky Derby winners Ferdinand (1986) and Sunday Silence (1989), both of which made him the oldest trainer of a Derby champion; he won top-trainer Eclipse Awards three times (1971, 1982, and 1989) and in 1974 was elected to the Racing Hall of Fame (b. April 13, 1913, Chula Vista, Calif.—d. April 20, 1999, Pasadena, Calif.)....
  • Bald Hill (Queensland, Australia)
    coastal town, east-central Queensland, eastern Australia. It lies 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Rockhampton and 435 miles (700 km) north of the state capital, Brisbane. Surveyed in 1872, the town was at first known as Bald Hill. European settlement of the area began in 1865, and the town’s present name is presumably of Aboriginal origin. The Yeppoon district is given to agriculture, lumberi...
  • Bald Soprano, The (play by Ionesco)
    Romanian-born French dramatist whose one-act “antiplay” La Cantatrice chauve (1949; The Bald Soprano) inspired a revolution in dramatic techniques and helped inaugurate the Theatre of the Absurd. He was elected to the French Academy in 1970....
  • bald uakari (monkey)
    ...are bright red, and the coats range from reddish brown to red-orange. They live in flooded forests along the upper Amazon River and its tributaries in eastern Peru and western Brazil. The white, or bald, uakari (C. calvus calvus) is a different colour form of the same species. It has whitish fur and lives only in the Mamiraua Reserve along the upper Amazon in Brazil.......
  • Baldaccini, César (French sculptor)
    French sculptor who was at the forefront of the New Realism movement with his radical compressions (compacted automobiles, discarded metal, or rubbish), expansions (polyurethane foam sculptures), and fantastic representations of animals and insects....
  • baldachin (architecture)
    in architecture, the canopy over an altar or tomb, supported on columns, especially when freestanding and disconnected from any enclosing wall. The term originates from the Spanish baldaquin, an elaborately brocaded material imported from Baghdad that was hung as a canopy over an altar or doorway. Later it came to stand for a freestanding canopy over an altar....
  • baldachin (cloth)
    in architecture, the canopy over an altar or tomb, supported on columns, especially when freestanding and disconnected from any enclosing wall. The term originates from the Spanish baldaquin, an elaborately brocaded material imported from Baghdad that was hung as a canopy over an altar or doorway. Later it came to stand for a freestanding canopy over an altar....
  • baldachino (architecture)
    in architecture, the canopy over an altar or tomb, supported on columns, especially when freestanding and disconnected from any enclosing wall. The term originates from the Spanish baldaquin, an elaborately brocaded material imported from Baghdad that was hung as a canopy over an altar or doorway. Later it came to stand for a freestanding canopy over an altar....
  • Baldad (biblical figure)
    in the Old Testament, one of the three principal comforters of Job. Bildad is introduced (Job 2:11) as a Shuhite, probably a member of a nomadic tribe dwelling in southeastern Palestine....
  • Baldamus, Eduard (German ornithologist)
    ...the host species may have many different egg colours. Early naturalists noted that there was often a marked resemblance between the egg of a cuckoo and those of the host, and a German ornithologist, Eduard Baldamus, in 1892 showed that the frequency and degree of similarity were too great to be coincidental. Subsequent studies by a number of workers, especially by the English naturalist, Edgar....
  • baldaquin (cloth)
    in architecture, the canopy over an altar or tomb, supported on columns, especially when freestanding and disconnected from any enclosing wall. The term originates from the Spanish baldaquin, an elaborately brocaded material imported from Baghdad that was hung as a canopy over an altar or doorway. Later it came to stand for a freestanding canopy over an altar....
  • baldaquin (architecture)
    in architecture, the canopy over an altar or tomb, supported on columns, especially when freestanding and disconnected from any enclosing wall. The term originates from the Spanish baldaquin, an elaborately brocaded material imported from Baghdad that was hung as a canopy over an altar or doorway. Later it came to stand for a freestanding canopy over an altar....
  • Balder (Norse mythology)
    in Norse mythology, the son of the chief god Odin and his wife Frigg. Beautiful and just, he was the favourite of the gods. Most legends about him concern his death. Icelandic stories tell how the gods amused themselves by throwing objects at him, knowing that he was immune from harm. The blind god Höd, deceived by the evil L...
  • Balder (poetry by Dobell)
    The long dramatic poem The Roman (1850), which Dobell published under the name Sydney Yendys, celebrated the cause of Italian liberation. Another long poem, Balder (1853), is concerned with the inner life of a poet who kills his wife after she has gone mad. It was devastatingly burlesqued in Firmilian: . . . a Spasmodic Tragedy (1854) by William Edmondstoune Aytoun, who,......
  • “Balders død” (work by Ewald)
    ...lyksaligheder (1775; “The Joys of Rungsted”), a lyric poem in the elevated new style of the ode; Balders død (1775; The Death of Balder), a lyric drama on a subject from Saxo and Old Norse mythology; and the first chapters of his memoirs, Levnet og meninger (written c. 1774–78:......
  • Baldessari, John (American artist)
    American artist whose work in altered and adjusted photographic imagery and video were central to the development of conceptual art in the United States....
  • Baldini, Stefano (Italian athlete)
    ...Britain and Ethiopia’s Hicham El Guerrouj were double gold medalists, and hurdler Liu Xiang won China’s first gold medal in men’s athletics. The concluding event, the men’s marathon, was won by Stefano Baldini of Italy after the leader, Brazil’s Vanderlei Lima, was assaulted by a deranged spectator about 4 miles (6.4 km) from the finish line. Lima, who recover...
  • Baldinucci, Filippo (Italian art historian)
    Florentine art historian, the first to make full use of documents and to realize the importance of drawings in the study of painting....
  • Baldío, El (work by Roa Bastos)
    Stories collected in El baldío (1966; “The Untilled”) treat tenderly and understandingly the problems of Paraguayan exiles. In some of the stories there is a clear indictment of civil war atrocities. The story collections Los pies sobre el agua (1967; “The Feet on the Water”) and Madera quemada (1967; “Bur...
  • Baldishol Tapestry (tapestry)
    ...at Oseborg in Norway. One of the major works of Romanesque weaving is a more complete tapestry dating from around the end of the 12th or early 13th century that was made for the Norwegian church of Baldishol in the district of Hedemark. Originally a set of wool hangings on the 12 months of the year, only the panels of April and May have survived. The pronounced stylization of the images relates...
  • baldness (dermatology)
    the lack or loss of hair. Two primary types of baldness can be distinguished: permanent hair loss arising from the destruction of hair follicles, and temporary hair loss arising from transitory damage to the follicles. The first category is dominated by male pattern baldness, which occurs to some degree in as much as 40 percent of some male populations. The hair loss in male pattern baldness progr...
  • Baldomir, Alfredo (president of Uruguay)
    ...out a coup in March 1933 that abolished the National Council and concentrated power in the hands of the president. Terra’s dictatorship, followed by the presidency of his brother-in-law General Alfredo Baldomir during the period 1938–42, formulated a conservative response to the Great Depression. The state interfered with labour unions, postponed social legislation, preserved as m...
  • Baldorioty de Castro, Román (Puerto Rican leader)
    During the 1880s Román Baldorioty de Castro led a movement for political autonomy under Spanish rule, which gained momentum at the expense of calls for directly integrating Puerto Rico into the Spanish government. In 1887 the liberal movement was denounced as disloyal and was violently suppressed; however, such treatment only solidified popular support for the movement, and in 1897 the......
  • Baldovinetti, Alessio (Italian painter)
    painter whose work, though seldom innovative, exemplified the careful modeling of form and the accurate depiction of light characteristic of the most progressive style of Florentine painting during the last half of the 15th century. At the same time, he contributed importantly to the fledgling art of landscape painting....
  • Baldovinetti, Alesso (Italian painter)
    painter whose work, though seldom innovative, exemplified the careful modeling of form and the accurate depiction of light characteristic of the most progressive style of Florentine painting during the last half of the 15th century. At the same time, he contributed importantly to the fledgling art of landscape painting....
  • baldpate (duck)
    popular North American game duck, also known as the American wigeon. See wigeon....
  • Baldr (Norse mythology)
    in Norse mythology, the son of the chief god Odin and his wife Frigg. Beautiful and just, he was the favourite of the gods. Most legends about him concern his death. Icelandic stories tell how the gods amused themselves by throwing objects at him, knowing that he was immune from harm. The blind god Höd, deceived by the evil L...
  • Baldrs draumar (Norse poem)
    ...things would weep for him. All did, except a giantess, who appears to be none other than Loki in disguise. There is another version of this story, to which allusion is made in a west Norse poem (Baldrs draumar). According to this Loki does not seem to be directly responsible for Balder’s death but Höd alone. Balder’s name occurs rarely in place-names, and it does not...
  • Baldry, John William (Canadian musician)
    British-born Canadian blues musician (b. Jan. 12, 1941, Haddon, Derbyshire, Eng.—d. July 21, 2005, Vancouver, B.C.), was one of the founding fathers of the 1960s British blues scene and a mentor to many later stars, including members of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Rod Stewart. In the late 1950s Baldry was one of the first British singers to perform folk and blues music, and in the...
  • Baldry, Long John (Canadian musician)
    British-born Canadian blues musician (b. Jan. 12, 1941, Haddon, Derbyshire, Eng.—d. July 21, 2005, Vancouver, B.C.), was one of the founding fathers of the 1960s British blues scene and a mentor to many later stars, including members of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Rod Stewart. In the late 1950s Baldry was one of the first British singers to perform folk and blues music, and in the...
  • Baldung-Grien, Hans (German artist)
    painter and graphic artist, one of the most outstanding figures in northern Renaissance art. He served as an assistant to Albrecht Dürer, whose influence is apparent in his early works, although the demonic energy of his later style is closer to that of Matthias Grünewald....
  • Baldus (poem by Folengo)
    Though he wrote much poetry in various forms, Folengo’s masterpiece is Baldus, a poem in macaronic hexameters, published under the pseudonym Merlin Cocai. Four versions of Baldus are known, published in 1517, 1521, 1539–40, and 1552 (modern edition, Le maccheronee, 1927–28). Written with a rich vein of satire, humour, and fantasy, Folengo’s poem nar...
  • Baldwin, Casey (Canadian engineer)
    ...of a practical aerodrome driven by its own motive power and carrying a man.” In addition to the Bells (who funded the organization), the members of the AEA included F.W. (“Casey”) Baldwin and J.A.D. McCurdy, a pair of engineers from the University of Toronto; Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a motorcycle builder from Hammondsport, N.Y., who served as the AEA propulsion expert; and......
  • Baldwin, F. W. (Canadian engineer)
    ...of a practical aerodrome driven by its own motive power and carrying a man.” In addition to the Bells (who funded the organization), the members of the AEA included F.W. (“Casey”) Baldwin and J.A.D. McCurdy, a pair of engineers from the University of Toronto; Glenn Hammond Curtiss, a motorcycle builder from Hammondsport, N.Y., who served as the AEA propulsion expert; and......
  • Baldwin, Faith (American author)
    American author, one of the most successful writers of light fiction in the 20th century, whose works targeted an audience of middle-class women....
  • Baldwin, Frank Stephen (American inventor)
    inventor best-known for his development of the Monroe calculator....
  • Baldwin, Henry (United States jurist)
    associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1830–44)....
  • Baldwin I (king of Jerusalem)
    king of the Crusader state of Jerusalem (1100–18) who expanded the kingdom and secured its territory, formulating an administrative apparatus that was to serve for 200 years as the basis for Frankish rule in Syria and Palestine....
  • Baldwin I (count of Flanders)
    the first ruler of Flanders. A daring warrior under Charles II the Bald of France, he fell in love with the king’s daughter Judith, the youthful widow of two English kings, married her (862), and fled with his bride to Lorraine. Charles, though at first angry, was at last conciliated, and made his son-in-law margrave (Marchio Flandriae) of Flanders (864...
  • Baldwin I (count of Flanders)
    His right to Imperial Flanders, however, was disputed by his elder brother, Baldwin VI, who had succeeded to the countship of Flanders. War broke out between the two brothers, and Baldwin was killed in battle in 1070. Robert then claimed the tutelage of Baldwin’s children and obtained the support of the German emperor Henry IV, while Richilde, Baldwin’s widow, appealed to Philip I of...
  • Baldwin I (Byzantine emperor)
    count of Flanders (as Baldwin IX) and of Hainaut (as Baldwin VI), a leader of the Fourth Crusade, who became the first Latin emperor of Constantinople (now Istanbul)....
  • Baldwin II (king of Jerusalem)
    count of Edessa (1100–18), king of Jerusalem (1118–31), and Crusade leader whose support of the religious-military orders founded during his reign enabled him to expand his kingdom and to withstand Muslim attacks....
  • Baldwin II (count of Flanders)
    second ruler of Flanders, who, from his stronghold at Bruges, maintained, as his father Baldwin I before him, a vigorous defense of his lands against the incursions of the Norsemen. On his mother’s side a descendant of Charlemagne, he strengthened the dynastic importance of his family by marrying Aelfthryth, daughter of Alfred the Great, of Wessex, Eng....
  • Baldwin II Porphyrogenitus (Byzantine emperor)
    the last Latin emperor of Constantinople, who lost his throne in 1261 when Michael VIII Palaeologus restored Greek rule to the capital....
  • Baldwin III (count of Flanders)
    In 958 Arnulf placed the government in the hands of his son Baldwin (Baldwin III), and the young man, though his reign was a very short one, did a great deal for the commercial and industrial progress of the country, establishing the first weavers and fullers at Ghent and instituting yearly fairs at Ypres, Bruges, and other places. On Baldwin III’s death in 962 the old count, Arnulf I, resu...
  • Baldwin III (king of Jerusalem)
    king of the Crusader state of Jerusalem (1143–63), military leader whose reputation among his contemporaries earned him the title of “ideal king.”...
  • Baldwin Iron-Arm (count of Flanders)
    the first ruler of Flanders. A daring warrior under Charles II the Bald of France, he fell in love with the king’s daughter Judith, the youthful widow of two English kings, married her (862), and fled with his bride to Lorraine. Charles, though at first angry, was at last conciliated, and made his son-in-law margrave (Marchio Flandriae) of Flanders (864...
  • Baldwin IV (king of Jerusalem)
    king of Jerusalem (1174–85), called the “leper king” for the disease that afflicted him for most of his short life. His reign saw the growth of factionalism among the Latin nobility that weakened the kingdom during the years when its greatest adversary, the Muslim leader Saladin, extended his influence from Egypt to Syria....
  • Baldwin IV (count of Flanders)
    count of Flanders (988–1035) who greatly expanded the Flemish dominions. He fought successfully both against the Capetian king of France, Robert II, and the Holy Roman emperor Henry II. Henry found himself obliged to grant to Baldwin IV in fief Valenciennes, the burgraveship of Ghent, the land of Waes, and Zeeland. The count of Flanders thus became a fe...
  • Baldwin IX (Byzantine emperor)
    count of Flanders (as Baldwin IX) and of Hainaut (as Baldwin VI), a leader of the Fourth Crusade, who became the first Latin emperor of Constantinople (now Istanbul)....
  • Baldwin, James (American author)
    American essayist, novelist, and playwright whose eloquence and passion on the subject of race in America made him an important voice, particularly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the United States and, later, through much of western Europe....
  • Baldwin, James Arthur (American author)
    American essayist, novelist, and playwright whose eloquence and passion on the subject of race in America made him an important voice, particularly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the United States and, later, through much of western Europe....
  • Baldwin, James Mark (American philosopher and psychologist)
    philosopher and theoretical psychologist who exerted influence on American psychology during its formative period in the 1890s. Concerned with the relation of Darwinian evolution to psychology, he favoured the study of individual differences, stressed the importance of theory for psychology, and was critical of narrow experimentalism....
  • Baldwin, John (British musician)
    ...Plant (b. Aug. 20, 1948West Bromwich, West Midlands), John Paul Jones (original name John Baldwin; b. Jan. 3, 1946Sidcup, Kent), and John......
  • Baldwin, Matthias William (American manufacturer)
    manufacturer whose significant improvements of the steam locomotive included a steam-tight metal joint that permitted his engines to use steam at double the pressure of others....
  • Baldwin of Bewdley, Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale (prime minister of United Kingdom)
    British Conservative politician, three times prime minister between 1923 and 1937; he headed the government during the General Strike of 1926, the Ethiopian crisis of 1935, and the abdication crisis of 1936....
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