A-Z Browse

  • Barbus barbus (fish species)
    The barbel (B. barbus) of central and western European rivers is a slender, rather elongate fish with a thick-lipped, crescent-shaped mouth and four barbels, which it uses to search out fish, mollusks, and other food along the river bottom. The barbel is greenish and usually attains a length and weight of about 75 cm (30 inches) and 3 kg (6.5 pounds). It is a good sport fish....
  • Barbus conchonius (fish)
    Rosy barb (B. conchonius), to 5–6 cm (2–2.5 inches) in aquariums, larger in nature; colour silvery rose with dark spot near tail; breeding male deep rose with black-edged dorsal fin....
  • Barbus everetti (fish)
    Clown barb (B. everetti), large, to 13 cm (5 inches); pinkish with red fins and several large, dark spots on each side....
  • Barbus tetrazona (fish)
    Sumatra, or tiger, barb (B. tetrazona), about 5 cm long; silvery orange with four vertical black stripes on each side....
  • Barbus ticto (fish)
    Two-spot barb (B. ticto), 5–16 cm (2–6 inches) long; silvery with black spot near head and tail; dorsal fin of male reddish with black spots; no barbels....
  • Barbus titteya (fish)
    Cherry barb (B. titteya), to 3 centimetres long; male silver to cherry-red, female silver to pinkish; both sexes with a broad gold and black band on each side....
  • Barbusse, Henri (French author)
    novelist, author of Le Feu (1916; Under Fire, 1917), a firsthand witness of the life of French soldiers in World War I. Barbusse belongs to an important lineage of French war writers who span the period 1910 to 1939, mingling war memories with moral and political meditations....
  • Barc (Cuman prince)
    ...expeditionary forces; but, by the beginning of the 13th century, they had become more aggressive and launched their own raids into southeastern Transylvania. Soon afterward the Cuman prince Barc and 15,000 of his people were baptized (1227). The first bishopric of Cumania was established in 1228, and King Béla IV of Hungary assumed the title “king of Cumania.” In 1239......
  • BARC (amphibious vehicle)
    ...vehicles and tanks, landing ramps, and heavy-cargo-handling equipment. More revolutionary additions to the technology of amphibious logistics were the American landing vehicle hydrofoil and the BARC, both amphibians with pneumatic-tired wheels for overland movement and, in the latter case, capacity for 100 tons of cargo. Hydrofoil craft, which skimmed at high speeds above the water on......
  • Barc de Boutteville, Le (art gallery, Paris, France)
    ...with drama; it inspired its own periodical, La Revue Blanche, and Le Théâtre de l’Oeuvre (both founded in Paris in 1891); there were exhibitions twice a year at a Paris gallery, Le Barc de Boutteville, from 1891 to 1897....
  • Barca (Libya)
    town, northeastern Libya, on Al-Marj plain at the western edge of the Akhḍar Mountains, near the Mediterranean coast. Site of the 6th-century-bc Greek colony of Barce, it was taken by the Arabs in about ad 642. The present town grew around a Turkish fort built in 1842 and now restored. The Italians developed the town (1913–41) as an administrative and mark...
  • Barca, Hamilcar (Carthaginian general)
    general who assumed command of the Carthaginian forces in Sicily during the last years of the First Punic War with Rome (264–241 bc). Until the rise to power of his son Hannibal, Hamilcar was the finest commander and statesman that Carthage had produced....
  • Barca, Pedro Calderón de la (Spanish author)
    dramatist and poet who succeeded Lope de Vega as the greatest Spanish playwright of the Golden Age. Among his best-known secular dramas are El médico de su honra (1635; The Surgeon of His Honour), La vida es sueño (1635; Life Is a Dream), El alcalde de Zalamea (c. 1640; The Mayor of Zalamea), and La hija del aire (1653; “...
  • Barcaccia (fountain by Bernini)
    ...in the Church of Gesù Nuovo, and the Virgin in the National Museum of San Martino (reworked by Cosimo Fanzago). He also carved the Medina Fountain in San Martino, and the Barcaccia (1627–29), a fountain in the form of a leaking boat in the Piazza di Spagna, Rome, is believed to be his work, though some have attributed it to Gian Lorenzo. Gian Lorenzo was taught......
  • barcarole (music)
    (from Italian barcarola, “boatman” or “gondolier”), originally a Venetian gondolier’s song typified by gently rocking rhythms in 68 or 128 time. In the 18th and 19th centuries the barcarole inspired a considerable number of vocal and instrumental compositions, ranging from opera arias to...
  • barcarolle (music)
    (from Italian barcarola, “boatman” or “gondolier”), originally a Venetian gondolier’s song typified by gently rocking rhythms in 68 or 128 time. In the 18th and 19th centuries the barcarole inspired a considerable number of vocal and instrumental compositions, ranging from opera arias to...
  • “Barcas” (work by Vicente)
    ...in Castilian, even using multiple languages in his plays, which were typically presented in a Lisbon court overseen by a Castilian queen. The Barcas (1517–19; Eng. trans. The Boat Plays)—a group of autos, or religious plays (see auto sacramental)—revealed his....
  • Barcas, Hamilcar (Carthaginian general)
    general who assumed command of the Carthaginian forces in Sicily during the last years of the First Punic War with Rome (264–241 bc). Until the rise to power of his son Hannibal, Hamilcar was the finest commander and statesman that Carthage had produced....
  • Barce (Libya)
    town, northeastern Libya, on Al-Marj plain at the western edge of the Akhḍar Mountains, near the Mediterranean coast. Site of the 6th-century-bc Greek colony of Barce, it was taken by the Arabs in about ad 642. The present town grew around a Turkish fort built in 1842 and now restored. The Italians developed the town (1913–41) as an administrative and mark...
  • Barcelo, Gertrudis (Mexican businesswoman)
    Mexican-born businesswoman who built her fortune through casinos and trade ventures in the early American Southwest....
  • Barcelo, Maria Gertrudis (Mexican businesswoman)
    Mexican-born businesswoman who built her fortune through casinos and trade ventures in the early American Southwest....
  • Barcelona (province, Spain)
    provincia (province) in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Catalonia, northeastern Spain. It was formed in 1833. The province follows the axis of the Llobregat River basin, from which its regions are symmetrically arranged. No province has a more diverse landscape;...
  • Barcelona (historical county, Spain)
    ...pillagers, in this case the Muslims, and who profited from urban growth to establish a dynastic authority of their own. This authority was fractured in the early 12th century, when the houses of Barcelona and Toulouse secured portions by marriage; a cadet dynasty of Barcelona continued to rule the county until 1245....
  • Barcelona (Venezuela)
    city, capital of Anzoátegui estado (state), northeastern Venezuela. Established in 1671 from a merger of two settlements, the town was named for the capital of the Spanish home province of its Catalan founders. On the west bank of the Neverí River, 3 miles (5 km) inland from the Caribbean Sea and about 200 miles (320 km) east of Caracas, it lies in the Barce...
  • Barcelona (Spain)
    city, seaport, and capital of Barcelona provincia (province) and of Catalonia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), northeastern Spain, located 90 miles (150 km) south of the French border. It is Spain’s major Mediterranean port and commercial ...
  • Barcelona, Archaeological Museum of (museum, Barcelona, Spain)
    institution in Barcelona, Spain, notable for its collection of prehistoric objects and for its collection of ancient Greek and Roman art and examples illustrating Iberian archaeology. Exhibits include a scale model of a part of the excavation at Ampurias (Emporiae) and displays of Greek vases, glass, and sculpture. There is a fine statue of Asclepius of the 4th century ...
  • Barcelona chair
    one of the most recognized chairs of the 20th century. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe for the German Pavilion, which he also designed, at the International Exposition in Barcelona in 1929....
  • Barcelona, countess of (Spanish noble)
    Spanish royal (b. Dec. 23, 1910, Madrid, Spain—d. Jan. 2, 2000, Lanzarote, Canary Islands), was the mother of King Juan Carlos I and the wife of Don Juan de Borbón, who was compelled by strongman Gen. Francisco Franco to renounce his claim to the Spanish throne in favour of his son. Doña María, much admired for her charm and diplomacy, was credited with working behind t...
  • Barcelona nut
    ...is a variety of the European filbert; Lambert’s filbert is a variety of the giant filbert. Nuts produced by the Turkish filbert (C. colurna) are sold commercially as Constantinople nuts. Barcelona nuts come from the Spanish, or Barcelona, filbert, usually considered a variety of the giant filbert. Turkey, Italy, and Spain are the leading commercial producers of filberts....
  • Barcelona Olympic Games (1992)
    The 1992 Games were perhaps the most successful modern Olympics. More than 9,300 athletes representing 169 countries participated. For the first time in three decades, there was no boycott. The dramatic political changes that had swept across eastern Europe had a tremendous effect on the Olympics. Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Croatia competed as independent countries. With the fall of the......
  • Barcelona Pavilion (pavilion, Barcelona, Spain)
    Perhaps Mies’s most famous executed project of the interwar period in Europe was the German Pavilion (also known as the Barcelona Pavilion), which was commissioned by the German government for the 1929 International Exposition at Barcelona. It exhibited a sequence of marvelous spaces on a 175- by 56-foot (53.6- by 17-metre) travertine platform, partly under a thin roof, and partly outdoors,...
  • Barcelona, treaties of (European history)
    ...also agreed in the Treaty of Étaples (1492) to pay heavy compensation to King Henry VII of England for the abandonment of English interests in Brittany. Furthermore, in 1493, by the Treaty of Barcelona, he ceded Roussillon and Cerdagne back to Aragon....
  • Barcelona, Universidad de (university, Barcelona, Spain)
    The University of Barcelona was founded in 1450. It is one of seven public and private universities in the city. Others include the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1968) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (1971). Most courses in the municipality’s schools are taught in Spanish and Catalan....
  • Barcelona, University of (university, Barcelona, Spain)
    The University of Barcelona was founded in 1450. It is one of seven public and private universities in the city. Others include the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1968) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (1971). Most courses in the municipality’s schools are taught in Spanish and Catalan....
  • barchan (sand dune)
    crescent-shaped sand dune produced by the action of wind predominately from one direction. One of the commonest types of dunes, it occurs in sandy deserts all over the world....
  • Barchuk (Uighur ruler)
    When the time of the Mongol conquests came, the Uighurs lived up to their best cultural traditions. Realizing that resistance would be vain and would lead only to the destruction of his country, Barchuk, the ruler of the Uighurs of Kucha, of his own free will submitted to the Mongols. Uighur officials and scribes were the first “civil servants” of the Mongol empire and exerted a......
  • Barcinona (Spain)
    city, seaport, and capital of Barcelona provincia (province) and of Catalonia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), northeastern Spain, located 90 miles (150 km) south of the French border. It is Spain’s major Mediterranean port and commercial ...
  • Barclay, Alexander (English poet)
    poet who won contemporary fame chiefly for his adaptation of a popular German satire, Das Narrenschiff, by Sebastian Brant, which he called The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde (first printed 1509)....
  • Barclay, Arthur (president of Liberia)
    ...they were still unable to control all the coastal area they claimed. Efforts to end the frontier disputes resulted in treaties with Great Britain in 1885 and with France in 1892. In 1904 President Arthur Barclay, who was born in Barbados, initiated a policy of direct cooperation with the tribes. Having obtained a loan from London in 1907, he made real efforts at reform. The foreign debt,......
  • Barclay de Tolly, Mikhail Bogdanovich, Prince (Russian military officer)
    Russian field marshal who was prominent in the Napoleonic Wars....
  • Barclay, John (Scottish writer)
    Scottish satirist and Latin poet whose Argenis (1621), a long poem of romantic adventure, had great influence on the development of the romance in the 17th century....
  • Barclay, Robert (Scottish Quaker leader)
    Quaker leader whose Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1678) became a standard statement of Quaker doctrines. His friendship with James II, then duke of York, helped obtain the patent to settle the province of East Jersey, in the New World....
  • Barclaya (plant genus)
    The genus Barclaya (four species) is sometimes considered a separate family, Barclayaceae. It is distinguished from Nymphaeaceae by an extended perianth tube (combined sepals and petals) arising from the top of the ovary and by stamens that are joined basally. Barclaya is native to tropical Asia and Indonesia....
  • Barclays PLC (British bank)
    British banking and trust firm registered July 20, 1896, under the name Barclay & Co. Ltd. and assuming the name Barclays Bank Ltd. in 1917. It was converted into a public limited company in 1981. The largest commercial banking concern in the United Kingdom, Barclays Bank operates about 5,000 offices in England and Wales and overseas and has several subsidiaries in Britain and other countri...
  • Barco Vargas, Virgilio (president of Colombia)
    Colombian politician (b. Sept. 17, 1921, Cúcuta, Colom.--d. May 20, 1997, Bogotá, Colom.), served as president of Colombia from 1986 to 1990 after having won the election by the largest margin in the country’s history. During his term his ambitious plans for social reform were interrupted when he was forced to combat the powerful Medellín-based drug cartel, which was wa...
  • Barcoo River (river, Australia)
    intermittent stream, east central Australia, in the Channel Country (wide floodplains, grooved by rivers). Rising as the Barcoo on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, Queensland, it flows northwest to Blackall. Joined by the Alice River, it continues southwest past Isisford and receives its principal tributary, the Thomson, from which point it is known as Cooper Creek. It ...
  • bard (poet-singer)
    a poet, especially one who writes impassioned, lyrical, or epic verse. Bards were originally Celtic composers of eulogy and satire; the word came to mean more generally a tribal poet-singer gifted in composing and reciting verses on heroes and their deeds. As early as the 1st century ad, the Latin author Lucan referred to bards as the national poets or minstrels of...
  • Bard College (college, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, U.S. It is affiliated with the Episcopal church. A liberal arts college, it includes divisions of social studies, languages and literature, arts, and natural sciences and mathematics, as well as the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. In addition to undergraduate studies, the college offers master’...
  • Bard of Avon (English author)
    English poet, dramatist, and actor, often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time....
  • Bard, Philip (American physiologist)
    Cannon and a colleague, Philip Bard, proposed an alternative arousal theory, subsequently known as the Cannon-Bard theory. According to this approach, the experience of an event, such as the automobile accident mentioned earlier, leads to the simultaneous determination of emotion and changes to the body. The brain, upon receiving information from the senses, interprets an event as emotional......
  • Bard, The (work by Gray)
    ...in English, while developing ambitious ideas about cultural continuity and renewal. Gray’s fascination with the potency of primitive art (as evidenced in another great ode, The Bard, 1757) is part of a larger movement of taste, of which the contemporary enthusiasm for James Macpherson’s alleged translations of Ossian (1760–63) is a further indic...
  • Bardāī, Chand (Indian poet)
    ...actually a range of languages, from Maithili in the east to Rajasthani in the west. The first major work in Hindi is the 12th-century epic poem Pṛthvīrāj Rāsau, by Chand Bardaī of Lahore, which recounts the feats of Pṛthvīrāj, the last Hindu king of Delhi before the Islāmic invasions. The work evolved from the bardic traditio...
  • Bardaisan (Syrian scholar)
    a leading representative of Syrian Gnosticism. Bardesanes was a pioneer of the Christian faith in Syria who embarked on missionary work after his conversion in 179....
  • Bardanes (Byzantine emperor)
    Byzantine emperor whose brief reign (711–713) was marked by his quarrels with the papacy and his ineffectiveness in defending the empire from Bulgar and Arab invaders....
  • Bardas (Byzantine aristocrat)
    After a quarrel with his mother, Michael connived at the murder of Theoctistus by his maternal uncle Bardas (November 855) and in March 856, with the help of Bardas, took over direct control of the government. When Theodora attempted to resume power, she and her daughters were relegated to a convent....
  • Bardawīl Lake (lake, Egypt)
    ...155 miles (250 km) long, lies in the northeastern section of the governorate and empties into the Mediterranean Sea near Al-ʿArīsh. Along the northern coast lies the large and brackish Bardawīl Lake (266 square miles [690 square km]); this lake is bounded on the north by a long, narrow sandbar pierced by two canals that link the lake with the sea. A large aquifer of......
  • bardd teulu (Welsh literary office)
    ...At the top of the order was the pencerdd (“chief of song or craft”), the ruler’s chief poet, whose duty was to sing the praise of God, the ruler, and his family. Next came the bardd teulu, who was the poet of the ruler’s war band although he seems to have been poet to the ruler’s family as well. There were other, less exalted grades, with less ex...
  • Barddas (Welsh periodical)
    ...prolific being Gwyn Thomas. Interest in the use of the strict metres of cynghanedd was revived, as represented by the publication of the popular periodical Barddas (“Bardism”), whose editor, Alan Llwyd, was an outstanding poet. The work of most poets, old and young, reflected a varying involvement in contemporary Welsh political......
  • Barddhaman (India)
    city, central West Bengal state, northeastern India. The city is a major communications centre lying astride the Banka River just north of the Dāmodar River. Rice and oilseed milling and hosiery, cutlery, and tool manufacturing are the chief industries. Of historic interest are the Rājbarī (the maharaja’s palace and gardens), several ancient Muslim tombs, and 108 ...
  • Bardeen, John (American physicist)
    American physicist who was cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in both 1956 and 1972. He shared the 1956 prize with William B. Shockley and Walter H. Brattain for their joint invention of the transistor. With Leon N. Cooper and John R. Schrieffer he was awarded the 1972 prize for development of the t...
  • Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory (physics)
    in physics, a comprehensive theory developed in 1957 by the American physicists John Bardeen, Leon N. Cooper, and John R. Schrieffer (their surname initials providing the designation BCS) to explain the behaviour of superconducting materials. Superconductors abruptly lose all resistance to the flow of an electric current when they are coole...
  • Bardem, Javier (Spanish actor)
    charismatic and versatile Spanish actor who first came to prominence in the 1990s....
  • Bardem, Javier Ángel Encinas (Spanish actor)
    charismatic and versatile Spanish actor who first came to prominence in the 1990s....
  • Bardesanes (Syrian scholar)
    a leading representative of Syrian Gnosticism. Bardesanes was a pioneer of the Christian faith in Syria who embarked on missionary work after his conversion in 179....
  • Bardhaman (India)
    city, central West Bengal state, northeastern India. The city is a major communications centre lying astride the Banka River just north of the Dāmodar River. Rice and oilseed milling and hosiery, cutlery, and tool manufacturing are the chief industries. Of historic interest are the Rājbarī (the maharaja’s palace and gardens), several ancient Muslim tombs, and 108 ...
  • Bardhan, Shanti (Indian dancer)
    Shanti Bardhan, a junior colleague of Uday Shankar, produced some of the most imaginative dance-dramas of the modern period. After founding the Little Ballet Troupe in Andheri, Bombay, in 1952 he produced Ramayana, in which the actors moved and danced like puppets. His posthumous production Panchatantra (The Winning of Friends) is......
  • Bardi chapel (chapel, Florence, Italy)
    ...The Giugni Chapel frescoes are lost, as are all the Tosinghi-Spinelli ones, except for an Assumption over the entrance, not universally accepted as by Giotto. The Bardi and Peruzzi chapels contained cycles of St. Francis, St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, but the frescoes were whitewashed and were not recovered until the mid-19th century, when......
  • Bardi family (Italian family)
    an aristocratic Florentine family that successfully developed its financial and banking company to become one of the most influential European business powers between 1250 and 1345....
  • Bardi, Giovanni, conte di Vernio (Italian musician, writer, and scientist)
    musician, writer, and scientist, influential in the evolution of opera. About 1573 he founded the Florentine Camerata, a group that sought to revive ancient Greek music and drama. Among the members were the theorist Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo) and the composer Giulio Caccini. Bardi collaborated with these and othe...
  • Bardi–Busini, Palazzo (palace, Florence, Italy)
    ...and palaces with which biographers and scholars have credited him, the most significant of which (all in Florence) are the Pitti Palace, a rejected plan for the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, and the Palazzo Bardi-Busini. Each of these palaces contains novel features that are tempting to attribute to Brunelleschi’s inventiveness, but definitive proof of his influence or authorship has not been...
  • Bardia (fortress, Africa)
    Falling back across the frontier into Cyrenaica, the remnant of the Italian forces from Sīdī Barrānī shut itself up in the fortress of Bardia (Bardīyah), which O’Connor’s tanks speedily isolated. On Jan. 3, 1941, the British assault on Bardia began, and three days later the whole garrison of Bardia surrendered—45,000 men. The next fortress to...
  • Bardiya (king of Persia)
    (6th century bc), king of Persia in 522–521 bc....
  • Bardīya (fortress, Africa)
    Falling back across the frontier into Cyrenaica, the remnant of the Italian forces from Sīdī Barrānī shut itself up in the fortress of Bardia (Bardīyah), which O’Connor’s tanks speedily isolated. On Jan. 3, 1941, the British assault on Bardia began, and three days later the whole garrison of Bardia surrendered—45,000 men. The next fortress to...
  • “Bardo Thödrol” (Tibetan Buddhist text)
    ...three days following death. In Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese lamaseries, a lama sometimes recites the famous Bardo Thödrol (commonly referred to in English as “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”)....
  • Bardo, Treaty of (France-Tunisia [1881])
    (1881), agreement that established France’s protectorate over Tunisia. A French expeditionary force of 36,000 men was sent to Tunisia in 1881 at the urging of the French foreign minister, Jules Ferry, ostensibly to subdue attacks of the Tunisian Kroumer tribe on the Algerian frontier. The French met little resistance from the bey, Muḥammad as-Sadiq, and on May 12, 1881, a treaty was ...
  • Bárdossy, László (prime minister of Hungary)
    Hungarian politician who played a key role in bringing his country into World War II as an ally of Germany....
  • Bardot, Brigitte (French actress)
    French motion-picture actress who became an international sex symbol in the 1950s and ’60s....
  • Bardsey Island (island, Wales, United Kingdom)
    small island, with an area of 0.7 square mile (1.8 square km), off the tip of the Lleyn Peninsula, Gwynedd county, historic county of Caernavonshire (Sir Gaernarfon), Wales. It is separated from the mainland by a channel 2 miles (3 km) wide that has a strong tidal race. On this naturally protected site was the first religious house in Wales, founded by the Celtic St. Cadfan in the early 6th centur...
  • Bardstown (Kentucky, United States)
    city, seat (1784) of Nelson county, in the outer Bluegrass region of central Kentucky, U.S., 39 miles (63 km) southeast of Louisville. Founded as Salem in 1778, it was later renamed to honour William Bard, one of the original landowners. During the American Civil War, it was occupied (September 20–October 3, 1862) by General ...
  • bare license (property law)
    in property law, permission to enter or use the property of another. There are three categories of license: bare licenses, contractual licenses, and licenses coupled with an interest. A bare license occurs when a person enters or uses the property of another with the express or implied permission of the owner or under circumstances that would provide a good defense against an action for......
  • bare-eared squirrel monkey (monkey)
    ...Central American squirrel monkeys (S. oerstedii) have black crowns and reddish backs. The common and Central American species both have hair on the ears, unlike the bare-eared squirrel monkey (S. ustus) of central Brazil....
  • bare-knuckle boxing
    Boxing history picks up again with a formal bout recorded in Britain in 1681, and by 1698 regular pugilistic contests were being held in the Royal Theatre of London. The fighters performed for whatever purses were agreed upon plus stakes (side bets), and admirers of the combatants wagered on the outcomes. These matches were fought without gloves and, for the most part, without rules. There were......
  • bare-necked umbrellabird (bird)
    ...umbrellabird (Cephalopterus penduliger), found west of the Andes in Ecuador and Colombia, the wattle may be 28 cm (11 inches) long and is entirely shingled with short, black feathers. The bare-necked umbrellabird (C. glabricollis) of Panama and Costa Rica has a short, round wattle, which is bright red and unfeathered. The latter two species are considered by some authorities to......
  • bare-throated tiger heron (bird)
    ...with cryptic, often barred, plumage. The lined, or banded, tiger heron (Tigrisoma lineatum), 75 cm (30 in.) long, of central and northern South America is a well-known example. Another is the Mexican, or bare-throated, tiger heron (T. mexicanum) of Mexico and Central America....
  • bareback bronc-riding
    rodeo event in which a cowboy attempts to ride a bucking horse (bronco) for a specified time (usually eight seconds). The horse is equipped only with a surcingle—a rope belt about its midsection—which the rider may grip with one hand only. The rider must have his spurs in contact high on the horse’s shoulders to begin the event, and he is disqualified if he...
  • bareback riding
    The 19th century saw other great riders who were champions of bareback riding—the art of performing acrobatic and gymnastic feats on the bare backs of loping horses. James Robinson, a mid-19th-century American, was one such rider. He was billed as “the One Great and Only Hero and Bareback Horseman and Gold Champion-Belted Emperor of All Equestrians.”...
  • bareboat charter (transport)
    There are four principal methods of chartering a tramp ship—voyage charter, time charter, bareboat charter, and “lump-sum” contract. The voyage charter is the most common. Under this method a ship is chartered for a one-way voyage between specific ports with a specified cargo at a negotiated rate of freight. On time charter, the charterer hires the ship for a stated period of....
  • Barebone, Praise-God (English preacher)
    English sectarian preacher from whom the Cromwellian Barebones Parliament derived its nickname....
  • Barebones Parliament (English history)
    (July 4–Dec. 12, 1653), a hand-picked legislative group of “godly” men convened by Oliver Cromwell following the Puritan victory in the English Civil Wars. Its name was derived from one of its obscure members, Praise-God Barbon....
  • Barebones, Praise-God (English preacher)
    English sectarian preacher from whom the Cromwellian Barebones Parliament derived its nickname....
  • Barebones, PraiseGod (English preacher)
    English sectarian preacher from whom the Cromwellian Barebones Parliament derived its nickname....
  • Barefoot Contessa, The (film by Mankiewicz [1954])
    Other Nominees...
  • Barefoot in the Park (play by Simon)
    Nichols made his Broadway directorial debut with the highly praised Barefoot in the Park (1963) and went on to direct a series of commercially and critically successful Broadway plays, many written by Neil Simon. He won Tony awards for Barefoot in the Park, Luv (1964), The Odd Couple (1965), Plaza Suite (1968), The Prisoner of 2nd Avenue (1971), and Tom......
  • Barefooted Trinitarian (religion)
    ...is said to have numbered 5,000 members in 1240, but, by the end of the Middle Ages, a decline had set in, and various reforms were attempted during the 16th century. In 1597 a reform called the Barefooted (Discalced) Trinitarians was initiated in Spain by Juan Bautista of the Immaculate Conception; this became a distinct order and is the only surviving branch of the Trinitarians....
  • Bareilly (India)
    city, central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, on the Rāmganga River. Founded in 1537, the city was built largely by the Mughal governor Makrand Rāy. It later became the capital of the Rohillas, a migrant clan that gained control of the surrounding territory. In 1774 the ruler of Oudh conquered the area with British aid, and Bareilly was ceded to the British in 1801. It was a ce...
  • bareknuckle boxing
    Boxing history picks up again with a formal bout recorded in Britain in 1681, and by 1698 regular pugilistic contests were being held in the Royal Theatre of London. The fighters performed for whatever purses were agreed upon plus stakes (side bets), and admirers of the combatants wagered on the outcomes. These matches were fought without gloves and, for the most part, without rules. There were......
  • Barelwi school (Islamic college, Pakistan)
    ...it is perhaps the most liberal of the four but nevertheless is still demanding in its instructions to the faithful. Two popular reform movements founded in northern India—the Deoband and Barelwi schools—are likewise widespread in Pakistan. Differences between the two movements over a variety of theological issues are significant to the point that violence often has erupted......
  • Baren (Chinese author and critic)
    Chinese prose writer and critic who was the first Chinese literary theorist to promote the Marxist point of view....
  • Barenboim, Daniel (Israeli musician)
    Israeli pianist and conductor....
  • Barends, Barend (South African chief)
    ...labour by illegally capturing San women and children (many of the men were killed) as well as Africans from across the eastern frontier. Griqua raiding states led by Andries Waterboer, Adam Kok, and Barend Barends captured more Africans from among people such as the Hurutshe, Rolong, and Kwena. Other people, such as those known as the Mantatees, were forced to become farmworkers, mainly in the....

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