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  • Darío, Rubén (Nicaraguan writer)
    influential Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and diplomat. As a leader of the Spanish American literary movement known as Modernismo, which flourished at the end of the 19th century, he revivified and modernized poetry in Spanish on both sides of the Atlantic through his experiments with rhythm, metre, and imagery. Darío developed a highly original poetic style that founded a...
  • Darius (Achaemenian prince)
    minister of the Achaemenid king Xerxes I of Persia, whom he murdered in 465. According to one Greek source, Artabanus had previously killed Xerxes’ son Darius and feared that the father would avenge him; other sources relate that he killed Xerxes first and then, pretending that Darius had done so, induced Darius’ brother Artaxerxes I to avenge the “parricide.” Artabanus...
  • Darius, Apadana of (hall, Persepolis, Iran)
    ...In the main gatehouse, with its guardian bulls and bull-men, the square appears as an independent unit. Facing it at a higher level is the largest building of all, the great Apadana (hall) of Darius. It is 272 feet (83 metres) square and is said to have accommodated 10,000 people. The four corner towers presumably contained guardrooms and stairs. The sculptured stairway by which it was......
  • Darius I (king of Persia)
    king of Persia in 522–486 bc, one of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty, who was noted for his administrative genius and for his great building projects. Darius attempted several times to conquer Greece; his fleet was destroyed by a storm in 492, and the Athenians defeated his army at Marathon in 490....
  • Darius II Ochus (king of Persia)
    Achaemenid king (reigned 423–404 bc) of Persia....
  • Darius III (king of Persia)
    the last king (reigned 336–330 bc) of the Achaemenid dynasty....
  • Darius the Great (king of Persia)
    king of Persia in 522–486 bc, one of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty, who was noted for his administrative genius and for his great building projects. Darius attempted several times to conquer Greece; his fleet was destroyed by a storm in 492, and the Athenians defeated his army at Marathon in 490....
  • Darjeeling (district, India)
    ...and cultivated. Some of the finest tea plantations of India are situated there. From the Duārs, the Himalayan mountain ranges rise abruptly along the northern boundary of the state. Here the Dārjiling district is located near Sikkim. Mount Kānchenjunga, with adjacent high peaks in Sikkim, dominates the Dārjiling landscape, and Mount Everest can be seen in the distanc...
  • Darjeeling (India)
    city, extreme northern West Bengal state, northeastern India. Darjiling lies about 305 miles (490 km) north of Kolkata (Calcutta). The city is situated on a long, narrow mountain ridge of the Sikkim Himalayas that descends abruptly to the bed of the Great Rangit River. Darjiling lies at an elevation of about 7,000 feet (2,100 metres). On a clear day the city a...
  • Darjes, Joachim Georg (logician)
    ...of a logic, symbolic or otherwise. The prolific Wolff publicized Leibniz’ general views widely and spawned two minor symbolic formulations of logic; that of J.A. Segner in 1740 and that of Joachim Georg Darjes (1714–91) in 1747. Segner used the notation “B < A” to signify, intensionally in the manner of Leibniz, that the concept of B is included in the concept...
  • Dārjiling (district, India)
    ...and cultivated. Some of the finest tea plantations of India are situated there. From the Duārs, the Himalayan mountain ranges rise abruptly along the northern boundary of the state. Here the Dārjiling district is located near Sikkim. Mount Kānchenjunga, with adjacent high peaks in Sikkim, dominates the Dārjiling landscape, and Mount Everest can be seen in the distanc...
  • Dārjiling (India)
    city, extreme northern West Bengal state, northeastern India. Darjiling lies about 305 miles (490 km) north of Kolkata (Calcutta). The city is situated on a long, narrow mountain ridge of the Sikkim Himalayas that descends abruptly to the bed of the Great Rangit River. Darjiling lies at an elevation of about 7,000 feet (2,100 metres). On a clear day the city a...
  • dark adaptation (optics)
    ...In the retina of the eye, retinal is combined with a protein called opsin; the complex molecules formed as a result of this combination and known as rhodopsin (or visual purple) are involved in dark vision. The vitamin D group is required for growth (especially bone growth or calcification). The vitamin E group also is necessary for normal animal growth; without vitamin E, animals are not......
  • Dark Age (Greek history)
    During the 13th century bc the great palatial centres of the Aegean world came to a violent end. Both internal dissension and foreign invasion seem to have played a part in this development, and, if the exact course of events is still obscure, the end result is quite clear: Greece was severely depopulated and impoverished. The small, scattered settlements that took the place of the g...
  • Dark Ages (European history)
    the early medieval period of western European history. Specifically, the term refers to the time (476–800) when there was no Roman (or Holy Roman) emperor in the West; or, more generally, to the period between about 500 and 1000, which was marked by frequent warfare and a virtual disappearance of urban life. It is now rarely used by historians because of the value judgment it implies. Thou...
  • Dark Angel, The (film by Franklin [1935])
    ...Nichols for The InformerOriginal Story: Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur for The ScoundrelCinematography: Hal Mohr for A Midsummer Night’s DreamArt Direction: Richard Day for The Dark AngelScoring: RKO Radio Studio Music Department, Max Steiner, head of department, for The InformerSong: “Lullaby Of Broadway” from Gold Diggers of 1935;...
  • Dark Child, The (work by Laye)
    His autobiographical novel L’Enfant noir (1953; The Dark Child) recreates nostalgically his childhood days in Guinea in a flowing, poetic prose. The life he depicts in a traditional African town is an idyllic one in which human values are paramount and the inevitable alienation from the land that accompanies Western technology has not yet taken its toll....
  • dark elm bark beetle
    ...diseased to healthy trees by natural root grafts. Overland spread of the fungus normally occurs by the smaller European elm bark beetle (Scolytus multistriatus), less commonly by the American elm bark beetle (Hylurgopinus rufipes). Female beetles seek out dead or weakened elm wood to excavate an egg-laying gallery between the bark and the wood. If the fungus is present,......
  • dark energy (astronomy)
    ...that the expansion will slow down and eventually reverse, resulting in contraction? (The final collapse of such a contracting universe is sometimes termed the “big crunch.”) So-called dark energy, a kind of repulsive force that is now believed to be a major component of the universe, appears to be the decisive factor in predictions of the long-term fate of the cosmos. If this......
  • dark field microscopy (technique)
    The specimen is usually stained and observed while illuminated; useful for observation of the gross morphological features of bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa....
  • dark, firm, and dry meat
    Dark, firm, and dry (DFD) meat is the result of an ultimate pH that is higher than normal. Carcasses that produce DFD meat are usually referred to as dark cutters. DFD meat is often the result of animals experiencing extreme stress or exercise of the muscles before slaughter. Stress and exercise use up the animal’s glycogen reserves, and, therefore, postmortem lactic acid production through...
  • Dark Frontier, The (work by Ambler)
    ...son of music-hall entertainers. After studying engineering at London University, he worked as an advertising writer. It was while thus employed that he completed his first novel, The Dark Frontier (1936), which exhibits the gritty realism that came to characterize his work. This and his other early novels, set in continental Europe, were permeated with the emotional......
  • Dark Houses, The (work by Hall)
    The poems collected in Exiles and Marriages (1955) exhibit the influence of Hall’s academic training: their style and structure are rigorously formal. In The Dark Houses (1958) he shows a richer emotional range, presaging the intuitive, anecdotal works for which he has become best known—e.g., A Roof of Tiger Lilies (1964) and The Alligator...
  • dark kangaroo mouse (rodent)
    The dark kangaroo mouse (Microdipodops megacephalus) has buff or brownish upperparts tinted with black and has gray or whitish underparts with a black-tipped tail, whereas the upperparts and entire tail of the pale kangaroo mouse (M. pallidus) are creamy buff and the underparts are white. Kangaroo mice weigh 10 to 17 grams (0.4 to 0.6 ounce) and have a body length......
  • Dark Learning (Chinese philosophy)
    ...unmoving, unchanging, and undiversified. This important movement, which found its scriptural support both in Daoist and in drastically reinterpreted Confucian sources, was known as Xuanxue (“Dark Learning”); it came to reign supreme in cultural circles, especially at Jiankang during the period of division, and represented the more abstract, unworldly, and idealistic tendency in......
  • dark matter (astronomy)
    ...and about 8.7 kiloparsecs from the galactic centre. The galactic diameter is about 30 kiloparsecs, as indicated by luminous matter. There is evidence, however, for nonluminous matter—so-called dark matter (see cosmos: Dark matter)—extending out nearly twice this distance. The entire system is rotating such that, at the position of the Sun, the orbital speed is about 220 km ...
  • dark nebula (astronomy)
    interstellar dust and gas concentrated sufficiently to produce conspicuous obscuring of the stars beyond (see nebula)....
  • dark night of the soul (religion)
    ...be prepared, but the vision may not come; being prepared, as it were, establishes no claim on the divine. The experience described by St. John of the Cross, a 16th-century Spanish mystic, as “the dark night of the soul” points precisely to the experience of failure. The soul in this situation is convinced that God has abandoned it, cast it into darkness, perhaps forever. Mystics i...
  • Dark Night of the Soul, The (work by Saint John of the Cross)
    ...guided by his study of St. Thomas Aquinas. By virtue of his intense poems, “Cántico espiritual” (“The Spiritual Canticle”), “Noche obscura del alma” (“The Dark Night of the Soul”), and “Llama de amor viva” (“The Living Flame of Love”), he achieves preeminence in Spanish mystical literature, expressing the...
  • Dark Philosophers, The (novel by Thomas)
    Thomas was educated at Oxford and the University of Madrid and began writing seriously in the 1930s. His first novel, The Dark Philosophers (1946), built on the conversations of four unemployed Welsh miners, reminded critics of such disparate authors as Geoffrey Chaucer, the 16th-century French humorist François Rabelais, and the 20th-century American writer......
  • Dark Princess (novel by Du Bois)
    Two prolific and central figures of the renaissance produced significant, politically radical novels that envision black political identity in a global framework: Du Bois in Dark Princess (1928) and McKay in Banjo (1929). Both novels show the strong influence of Marxism and the anti-imperialist movements of the early 20th century, and both place their hopes in the......
  • dark rice rat (rodent)
    Several related genera are also sometimes referred to as rice rats, including arboreal rice rats (Oecomys), dark rice rats (Melanomys), small rice rats (Microryzomys), and pygmy rice rats (Oligoryzomys), among others. All belong to the subfamily Sigmodontinae of the......
  • dark ruby silver (mineral)
    a sulfosalt mineral, a silver antimony sulfide (Ag3SbS3), that is an important source of silver, sometimes called ruby silver because of its deep red colour (see also proustite). The best crystallized specimens, of hexagonal symmetry, are from St. Andreasberg in the Harz Mountains and from Freiberg, both in Germany; and Colquechaca, Bol. It is mined...
  • Dark Side of the Moon (album by Pink Floyd)
    ...were song-based but thematic in approach and that included long instrumental passages, the band did much to popularize the concept album. They hit the commercial jackpot with Dark Side of the Moon (1973). A bleak treatise on death and emotional breakdown underlined by Waters’s dark songwriting, it sent Pink Floyd soaring into the megastar bracket and remaine...
  • dark side of the Moon (astronomy)
    For millennia people wondered about the appearance of the Moon’s unseen side. The mystery began to be dispelled with the flight of the Soviet space probe Luna 3 in 1959, which returned the first photographs of the far side. In contrast to the near side, the surface displayed in the Luna 3 images consisted mostly of highlands, with only small areas of dark mare material. Later missions showe...
  • Dark, The (work by McGahern)
    ...(1963), tells of a terminally ill, unhappily married woman. Praised for its brilliant depiction of Irish life and for its sensitive portrayal of despair, the work won several awards. The Dark (1965) is a claustrophobic portrait of an adolescent trapped by predatory male relatives in a closed, repressed society. McGahern’s frank sexual portrayals in this novel earned the......
  • dark vision (optics)
    ...In the retina of the eye, retinal is combined with a protein called opsin; the complex molecules formed as a result of this combination and known as rhodopsin (or visual purple) are involved in dark vision. The vitamin D group is required for growth (especially bone growth or calcification). The vitamin E group also is necessary for normal animal growth; without vitamin E, animals are not......
  • dark-backed goldfinch (bird)
    ...The 13-cm (5-in.) American goldfinch (C. tristis), also called wild canary, is found across North America; the male is bright yellow, with black cap, wings, and tail. The 10-cm (4-in.) dark-backed goldfinch (C. psaltria) ranges from the western U.S. (where it is called lesser goldfinch) to Peru....
  • dark-handed gibbon (primate)
    The lars, a group of six or seven species, are the smallest and have the densest body hair. The dark-handed gibbon (H. agilis), which lives on Sumatra south of Lake Toba and on the Malay Peninsula between the Perak and Mudah rivers, may be either tan or black and has white facial markings. The white-handed gibbon (H. lar), of northern......
  • dark-winged fungus gnat (insect)
    any member of two families of insects in the fly order, Diptera, that are small and mosquito-like with maggots (larvae) that feed on fungi. In Sciaridae, the dark-winged fungus gnat family, the eyes of the adults almost touch, and the wings are usually dusky. The creamy-white or gray larvae of the genus Sciara may travel in large groups, migrating in snakelike lines 1 cm (0.4 inch) deep in ...
  • Darkhei Ziyyon (work by Bertinoro)
    ...the Jewish communities he visited on the way, from Italy to Palestine. The letters, written to Bertinoro’s father and brother during the period 1488–90, have been published under the titles Darkhei Ẓiyyon and HaMassa le-Ereẓ Yisrael and translated into several languages. He lived in Jerusalem almost continuously after 1488, acting as spiritual head of t...
  • darkling beetle
    any member of the approximately 12,000 species of the insect family Tenebrionidae (order Coleoptera), so named because of their nocturnal habits. These beetles tend to be short and dark; some, however, have bright markings. Although found on every continent, they are more common in warm, dry climates. Most members feed on dry, decomposing vegetation or animal tissue. Some bore in wood; others fee...
  • Darkness (work by Mukherjee)
    ...(1975) details the descent into madness of an Indian woman trapped in New York City by the fears and passivity resulting from her upbringing. In Mukherjee’s first book of short fiction, Darkness (1985), many of the stories, including the acclaimed “The World According to Hsü,” are not only indictments of Canadian racism and traditional Indian views of women bu...
  • Darkness at Noon (work by Koestler)
    Hungarian-born British novelist, journalist, and critic, best known for his novel Darkness at Noon (1940)....
  • Darkness Visible (work by Golding)
    ...Martin (1956). Two other novels, Free Fall (1959) and The Spire (1964), also demonstrate Golding’s belief that “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” Darkness Visible (1979) tells the story of a boy horribly burned in the London blitz during World War II. His later works include Rites of Passage (1980), which won the Booker McConnell...
  • Darkness Visible (work by Styron)
    ...works include the play In the Clap Shack (1972) and This Quiet Dust (1982), a collection of essays that treat the dominant themes of Styron’s fiction. Darkness Visible (1990) is a nonfiction account of Styron’s struggle against depression. A Tidewater Morning (1993) consists of autobiographical stories. ...
  • Darkot, Mount (mountain, Pakistan)
    ...definition of the Hindu Kush would include a fourth region known as Hindu Raj in Pakistan. This region is formed by a long, winding chain of mountains—with some lofty peaks, such as Mounts Darkot (22,447 feet [6,842 metres]) and Buni Zom (21,499 feet [6,553 metres])—which strikes southward from the Lupsuk Peak (18,861 feet [5,749 metres]) in the eastern region, then continues to.....
  • Darkover (series of novels by Bradley)
    American writer, known especially for her Darkover series of science fiction novels and for her reimaginings of Classical myths and legends from women characters’ perspectives....
  • Darlan, François (French admiral)
    French admiral and a leading figure in Marshal Philippe Pétain’s World War II Vichy government....
  • Darlan, Jean-Louis-Xavier-François (French admiral)
    French admiral and a leading figure in Marshal Philippe Pétain’s World War II Vichy government....
  • Darley Arabian (horse)
    ...earlier Racing Calendars and sales papers. After a few years of revision, it was updated annually. All Thoroughbreds are said to descend from three “Oriental” stallions (the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Barb, and the Byerly Turk, all brought to Great Britain, 1690–1730) and from 43 “royal” mares (those imported by Charles II). The preeminence of....
  • Darley, George (British author)
    poet and critic little esteemed by his contemporaries but praised by 20th-century writers for his intense evocation, in his unfinished lyrical epic Nepenthe (1835), of a symbolic dreamworld. Long regarded as unreadable, this epic came to be admired in the 20th century for its dream imagery, use of symbolism to reveal inner consciousness, and tumultuous metrical organization....
  • Darling (film by Schlesinger [1965])
    Other Nominees...
  • Darling, Ding (American political cartoonist)
    American political cartoonist who in his long career commented on a wide range of issues and twice received a Pulitzer Prize....
  • Darling Downs (region, Queensland, Australia)
    pastoral and agricultural region in southeastern Queensland, Australia. It extends westward from the Great Dividing Range and southward to the Dumaresq and Macintyre rivers, generally occupying the basin of the Condamine River. The Darling Downs is a tableland that covers an area of about 5,500 square miles (14,200 square km) and has an elevation of 1,500–2,000 feet (450–600 m). A c...
  • Darling, Erik (American musician)
    American folk musician who was a masterful guitarist and banjo player who recorded with several prominent groups during the American folk music revival of the 1950s and ’60s. Darling was a member of the Folksay Trio, whose 1951 recording of “Tom Dooley” heavily influenced the Kingston Trio’s later hit version of the song. He was also a member of the Tarriers, who scored...
  • Darling, Flora Adams (American author)
    American writer, historian, and organizer, an influential though controversial figure in the founding and early years of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and other patriotic societies....
  • Darling, Grace (British heroine)
    British heroine who became famous for her participation in the rescue of shipwreck survivors....
  • Darling Harbour (museum district, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia)
    ...Taronga Zoo, a 75-acre (30-hectare) park that opened in 1916 and houses some 2,000 animals, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, founded in 1816 and the country’s oldest scientific institution. Sydney’s Darling Harbour area, formerly a port facility, underwent redevelopment in the 1980s and ’90s and has become one of the city’s premier entertainment districts, with shops, ...
  • Darling, Jay Norwood (American political cartoonist)
    American political cartoonist who in his long career commented on a wide range of issues and twice received a Pulitzer Prize....
  • Darling Range (mountains, Western Australia, Australia)
    scarp or fault at the edge of the Great Plateau in Western Australia, paralleling the southwest coast east of Perth for 200 miles (320 km) from the Moore River (north) to Bridgetown (south). Average heights range from 800 to 1,000 feet (250 to 300 m), and the highest peaks are Mounts Cooke (1,910 feet), Solus (1,827 feet), and Dale (1,781 feet). The scarp is dissected by ravines cut by rivers flo...
  • Darling River (river, New South Wales, Australia)
    river, longest member of the Murray–Darling river system in Australia; it rises in several headstreams in the Great Dividing Range (Eastern Highlands), near the New South Wales–Queensland border, not far from the east coast, and flows generally southwest across New South Wales for 1,702 mi (2,739 km) to join the Murray at Wentworth (on the Victoria border), 150 mi ...
  • Darling River Weirs Act (Australia [1945])
    ...at Wilcannia, Bourke, and Brewarrina and grape and citrus farming further south in the Mallee region. Several engineering projects have given the drainage area great potential for development. The Darling River Weirs Act of 1945 authorized construction of a series of dams to impound water in reservoirs that provide town water and support irrigation. The Menindee Lakes Storage Scheme, completed....
  • Darling, William S. (American art director)
    ...Robert Lord for One Way PassageAdaptation: Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason for Little WomenCinematography: Charles Bryant Lang, Jr., for A Farewell to ArmsArt Direction: William S. Darling for Cavalcade...
  • Darlington (town and unitary authority, England, United Kingdom)
    town and unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Durham, northeastern England, bounded on the south by the River Tees. The main population centre, old Darlington town, lies on the River Skerne near its confluence with the Tees. The town is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and its parish church of St. Cuthbert dates from the 12th century. In the 19th century textile industries...
  • Darlington (county, South Carolina, United States)
    county, northeastern South Carolina, U.S. It lies for the most part on the rolling hills of the Coastal Plain, bounded to the northeast by the Great Pee Dee River and on parts of the southwestern border by the Lynches River....
  • Darlington (South Carolina, United States)
    city, seat of Darlington county, northeastern South Carolina, U.S. Settled in the 1780s, the city and the county (formed 1785) were both named for Darlington, England. Its basic agricultural economy (tobacco, cotton, livestock, soybeans, and timber) is supplemented by manufacturing (building materials, electronics, paper products, and steel). The city has a la...
  • Darlington, Cyril Dean (British biologist)
    British biologist whose research on chromosomes influenced the basic concepts of the hereditary mechanisms underlying the evolution of sexually reproducing species....
  • Darlington, Jenny (American explorer)
    ...1933, and six years later he again accompanied Byrd to the south polar regions. In 1947, after wartime service in the U.S. Navy, he led his own expedition to Antarctica. Edith Ronne and a scientist, Jenny Darlington, traveled with the Ronne Expedition, becoming the first women researchers to take part in a polar exploration. Ronne won many honours, among them three Congressional Gold Medals. Hi...
  • Darlington oak (plant)
    Water oak (Q. nigra), laurel oak (Q. laurifolia), shingle oak (Q. imbricaria), and live oak (see live oak) are other willow oaks planted as ornamentals in the southern U.S....
  • Darlington Raceway (race track, South Carolina, United States)
    ...livestock, soybeans, and timber) is supplemented by manufacturing (building materials, electronics, paper products, and steel). The city has a large automobile auction market and is the home of Darlington Raceway (opened 1950), noted for stock-car racing events including the TranSouth Financial 400 in March and the Mountain Dew Southern 500 in September, on Labor Day. A stock-car museum was......
  • Darlington War (American history)
    Baptists from Delaware came to the region in the 1730s and settled in the Welsh Tract settlement granted by King George II of England. Darlington county was established in 1785 and named for Darlington, England. In 1894 when the governor of South Carolina ordered the search, without warrants, of private homes for concealed liquor, the “Darlington War” between residents and the state....
  • Darlingtonia (plant genus)
    The other North American genus, Darlingtonia, includes only D. californica, the California pitcher plant. It ranges from Oregon to northern California and thrives in redwood and red fir forests to 2,000 metres (6,000 feet) above sea level, where temperatures remain below about 18 °C (65 °F). Its overarching spotted hood and a unique landing ramp that extends from the to...
  • Darlingtonia californica (genus Darlingtonia)
    the only species of the genus Darlingtonia of the pitcher-plant family (Sarraceniaceae) native to swamps in mountain areas of northern California and southern Oregon. The red-veined, yellowish green, hoodlike leaf has a purple-spotted appendage resembling a snake’s tongue. The entire plant has the appearance of a striking cobra. The stalkless leaf springs from the rootstalk and is 40...
  • Darman, Richard Gordon (American government official)
    American government official who served in the cabinets of four U.S. presidents (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush), but he was best remembered as the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Bush. Darman advised the president to reverse a key 1988 campaign pledge, and the decision by President Bush in 1990 to renege on his promise “Read my lips, n...
  • Darmesteter, Arsène (French scholar)
    language scholar who advanced knowledge of the history of French, particularly through his elucidation of Old French....
  • Darmesteter, James (French orientalist)
    French scholar noted for ancient Iranian language studies, especially his English and French translations of the Avesta, the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism....
  • Darmstadt (Germany)
    city, Hessen Land (state), south-central Germany. It is situated on a gently sloping plain between the Odenwald (a forested plateau) and the Rhine River, south of Frankfurt am Main and southeast of Mainz. First mentioned in the 11th century, Darms...
  • darmstadtium (chemical element)
    city, Hessen Land (state), south-central Germany. It is situated on a gently sloping plain between the Odenwald (a forested plateau) and the Rhine River, south of Frankfurt am Main and southeast of Mainz. First mentioned in the 11th century, Darms...
  • Darnah (Libya)
    town of northeastern Libya, on the Mediterranean coast, east of Banghāzī. It lies on the eastern ridges of the Jabal al-Akhḍar in the delta of the small Wadi (seasonal river) Darnah. The town was founded in the 15th century on the site of Darnis, an ancient Greek colony (rock tombs remain). A ruined fort overlooking the town was built by the Americans under ...
  • darnel (plant)
    noxious weed of the ryegrass genus Lolium....
  • Darnel’s case (English history)
    celebrated case in the history of the liberty of English subjects. It contributed to the enactment of the Petition of Right. In March 1627, Sir Thomas Darnel—together with four other knights, Sir John Corbet, Sir Walter Earl, Sir Edmund Hampden, and Sir John Hevingham—was arrested by the order of King Charles I for refusing to contribute to forced loans. The knight...
  • darner (insect)
    any of a group of aerial, predatory insects most commonly found near freshwater habitats throughout most of the world. Damselflies (suborder Zygoptera) are sometimes also called dragonflies in that both are odonates (order Odonata). The 2,500 dragonfly species (Anisoptera) are characterized by long bodies with two narrow pairs of intricately veined, membranous...
  • darning needle (insect)
    any of a group of aerial, predatory insects most commonly found near freshwater habitats throughout most of the world. Damselflies (suborder Zygoptera) are sometimes also called dragonflies in that both are odonates (order Odonata). The 2,500 dragonfly species (Anisoptera) are characterized by long bodies with two narrow pairs of intricately veined, membranous...
  • Darnis (Libya)
    town of northeastern Libya, on the Mediterranean coast, east of Banghāzī. It lies on the eastern ridges of the Jabal al-Akhḍar in the delta of the small Wadi (seasonal river) Darnah. The town was founded in the 15th century on the site of Darnis, an ancient Greek colony (rock tombs remain). A ruined fort overlooking the town was built by the Americans under ...
  • Darnley, Earl of (English noble [1672-1723])
    son of Charles II of England by his mistress Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of Portsmouth. He was aide-de-camp to William III from 1693 to 1702 and lord of the bedchamber to George I from 1714 to 1723....
  • Darnley, Earl of (British politician [1735-1806])
    one of the most progressive British politicians of the 18th century, being chiefly known for his advanced views on parliamentary reform....
  • Darnley, Henry Stewart, Lord (British lord)
    cousin and second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, father of King James I of Great Britain and Ireland (James VI of Scotland), and direct ancestor of all subsequent British sovereigns....
  • Darod (people)
    ...Mainly farmers and agropastoralists, the Sab include both original inhabitants and numerous Somali groups that have immigrated into this climatically favourable area. Other clan families are the Daarood of northeastern Somalia, the Ogaden, and the border region between Somalia and Kenya; the Hawiye, chiefly inhabiting the area on both sides of the middle Shabeelle and south-central Somalia;......
  • D’Aronco, Raimondo (Italian architect)
    ...on Sullivan’s decorative schemes and, for a time, those of Frank Lloyd Wright. Similarly, in Italy decorative exuberance and the formally picturesque were elements of Stile Floreale buildings by Raimondo D’Aronco, such as the main building for the Applied Art Exhibition held at Turin, Italy, in 1902. These qualities, along with dynamic spatial innovations, were manifested in the w...
  • DARPA (United States government)
    U.S. government agency created in 1958 to facilitate research in technology with potential military applications. Most of DARPA’s projects are classified secrets, but many of its military innovations have had great influence in the civilian world, particularly in the areas of electronics, telecommunications, and computer science. It is perhaps best known for ARPANET, an early network of tim...
  • Darqāwā (Ṣūfī order)
    brotherhood of Ṣūfīs (Muslim mystics) founded at the end of the 18th century by Mawlāy al-ʿArbī ad-Darqāwī (c. 1737–1823) in Morocco. An offshoot of the Shadhīlī Ṣūfīs, the order brought together individuals of varied social class. Its doctrine is orthodox, emphasizing devotion to, contemplati...
  • Darquier, Augustin (French astronomer)
    (catalog numbers NGC 6720 and M 57), bright nebula in the constellation Lyra, several thousand light-years from the Earth. It was discovered in 1779 by the French astronomer Augustin Darquier. Like other nebulae of its type, called planetary nebulae, it is a sphere of glowing gas thrown off by a central star. Seen from a great distance, such a sphere appears brighter at the edge than at the......
  • Darquier de Pellepoix, Louis (French politician)
    French politician who was notorious as an anti-Semite and collaborator with Nazi Germany....
  • Darra-i-Kur (cave, Afghanistan)
    Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) peoples probably roamed Afghanistan as early as 100,000 years ago. The earliest definite evidence of human occupation was found in the cave of Darra-i-Kur in Badakhshān, where a transitional Neanderthal skull fragment in association with Mousterian-type tools was discovered; the remains are of the Middle Paleolithic Period, dating to about 30,000 years ago.......
  • Darracq (French car)
    Other motorcars of this type included the Hispano-Suiza of Spain and France; the Bugatti, Delage, Delahaye, Hotchkiss, Talbot (Darracq), and Voisin of France; the Duesenberg, Cadillac, Packard, and Pierce-Arrow of the United States; the Horch,......
  • Darracq, Alexandre (French manufacturer)
    French automobile manufacturer, one of the first to plan mass production of motor vehicles....
  • Darracq, Pierre-Alexandre (French manufacturer)
    French automobile manufacturer, one of the first to plan mass production of motor vehicles....
  • Darragh, Lydia Barrington (American war heroine)
    American Revolutionary War heroine who is said to have saved General George Washington’s army from a British attack....
  • Darrein Presentment (medieval English law)
    ...before the King’s justices and himself be present with the writ. A similar writ of Mort d’Ancestor decided whether the ancestor of a plaintiff had in fact possessed the estate, whereas that of Darrein Presentment (i.e., last presentation) decided who in fact had last presented a parson to a particular benefice. All these writs gave rapid and clear verdicts subject to later ...
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