Skip this Advertisement

A-Z Browse

  • Day, Clarence Shepard (American author)
    American writer whose greatest popular success was his autobiographical Life with Father....
  • Day, Doris (American singer and actress)
    American singer and motion-picture actress whose performances in movie musicals of the 1950s and sex comedies of the early ’60s made her a leading Hollywood star....
  • Day, Dorothy (American journalist)
    American journalist and reformer, cofounder of the Catholic Worker and an important lay leader in its associated activist movement....
  • day fighter (aircraft)
    ...intercepting and defeating or routing invading fighters. A night fighter is one equipped with sophisticated radar and other instruments for navigating in unfamiliar or hostile territory at night. A day fighter is an airplane in which weight and space are saved by eliminating the special navigational equipment of the night fighter. The air supremacy, or air superiority, fighter must have......
  • Day for Night (film by Truffaut [1972])
    Other Nominees...
  • Day in the Country, A (film by Renoir)
    ...film La Vie est à nous (The People of France). The same year, he recaptured the flavour of his early works with a short film, Une Partie de campagne (released 1946; A Day in the Country), which he finished with great difficulty. A masterpiece of impressionist cinema, this film presents all the poetry and all the charm of the pictorial sense that is, far more.....
  • Day, John (English dramatist)
    Elizabethan dramatist whose verse allegory The Parliament of Bees shows unusual ingenuity and delicacy of imagination....
  • Day, Laraine (American actress)
    American actress who portrayed decent and steadfast women in Hollywood films of the 1940s, but her most memorable role was that of Mary Lamont, the beloved nurse in seven Dr. Kildare movies. Though Day’s early contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer often relegated her to roles in what she termed “B+” films, her loan to other studios allowed her to work with such prominent di...
  • Day, Leon (American baseball player)
    U.S. baseball player (b. Oct. 30, 1916, Alexandria, Va.--d. March 13, 1995, Baltimore, Md.), was a phenomenal right-handed pitcher whose fastball and change-up pitches secured his place as a strikeout artist; he held the strikeout record in the Negro National League, the Puerto Rican League, and the East-West All-Star game. Besides specializing in delivering no-windup speedballs, Day was a lightn...
  • day lily (plant)
    any plant of the genus Hemerocallis of the family Hemerocallidaceae, consisting of about 15 species of perennial herbs distributed from central Europe to eastern Asia. Members of the genus have long-stalked clusters of funnel- or bell-shaped flowers that range in colour from yellow to red and are each short-lived (hence “day” lily). Day lilies also have fleshy roots and narrow...
  • Day, Mary (American dance teacher and artistic director)
    American dance teacher and artistic director (b. Jan. 25, 1910, Washington, D.C.—d. July 11, 2006, Washington, D.C.), cofounded (with Lisa Gardiner) in 1944 the Washington School of Ballet, which attracted students from throughout the country and turned out such illustrious talents as Kevin McKenzie (artistic director of American Ballet Theatre), Amanda McKerrow (dancer with ABT and the fir...
  • day nursery (school)
    institution that provides supervision and care of infants and young children during the daytime, particularly so that their parents can hold jobs. Such institutions appeared in France about 1840, and the Société des Crèches was recognized by the French government in 1869. Day-care centres were established in most European cities and industrial centres during the second half of...
  • Day of Atonement (novel by Alvarez)
    institution that provides supervision and care of infants and young children during the daytime, particularly so that their parents can hold jobs. Such institutions appeared in France about 1840, and the Société des Crèches was recognized by the French government in 1869. Day-care centres were established in most European cities and industrial centres during the second half of...
  • Day of Doom: or a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment, The (work by Wigglesworth)
    ...prejudice against these forms. Bad but popular poetry appeared in the Bay Psalm Book of 1640 and in Michael Wigglesworth’s summary in doggerel verse of Calvinistic belief, The Day of Doom (1662). There was some poetry, at least, of a higher order. Anne Bradstreet of Massachusetts wrote some lyrics published in The Tenth Muse (1650), which movingly.....
  • Day of My Delight (work by Boyd)
    ...Generations of Men (1959) is a family history, just as Mary Durack’s Kings in Grass Castles (1959) is the story of her ancestors as well as a social history. Martin Boyd’s Day of My Delight (1965) defines his family in its historical and moral context, while Hal Porter’s The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony (1963) is a r...
  • Day of Reconciliation (South African holiday)
    public holiday observed in South Africa on December 16. The holiday originally commemorated the victory of the Voortrekkers (southern Africans of Dutch, German, or Huguenot descent who made the Great Trek) over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. Before the battle, the Voortrekkers had taken a vow that, if they succeeded in defea...
  • Day of the Covenant (South African holiday)
    public holiday observed in South Africa on December 16. The holiday originally commemorated the victory of the Voortrekkers (southern Africans of Dutch, German, or Huguenot descent who made the Great Trek) over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. Before the battle, the Voortrekkers had taken a vow that, if they succeeded in defea...
  • Day of the Dead (holiday)
    holiday in Mexico, also observed to a lesser extent in other areas of Latin America and in the United States, honouring dead loved ones and making peace with the eventuality of death by treating it familiarly, without fear and dread. The holiday is derived from the rituals of the pre-Hispanic peoples of Mexico. Led by the goddess Mictecacihuatl, known as “Lady of the Dead,” the celeb...
  • Day of the Fight, The (film by Kubrick)
    Having become interested in photography in high school, Kubrick became a staff photographer for Look magazine at age 17. His first film, The Day of the Fight (1951), is a short documentary about the boxing world. His first feature-length film, Fear and Desire (1953), dealt with World War II....
  • Day of the Guns (work by Spillane)
    ...Black Alley (1996). In addition to movies, the Mike Hammer character was also featured in two popular television series. Spillane initiated a new book series with Day of the Guns (1964), which centred on the international agent Tiger Mann. Among his other books are The Last Cop Out (1973) and the children’s book ......
  • Day of the Locust, The (work by West)
    ...to the Revelation to John, appears in numerous modern literary works (e.g., Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider [1939] and Nathanael West’s Day of the Locust [1939]) and films (e.g., Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal [1957] and Federico Fellini’s La dolce vita...
  • “Day of the Owl, The” (work by Sciascia)
    ...writing, Sciascia did not discover his favourite vehicle, the mystery novel, until the publication in 1961 of Il giorno della civetta (“The Day of the Owl,” first Eng. trans. Mafia Vendetta), a study of the Mafia. Other mystery novels followed, among them A ciascuno il suo (1966; A Man’s Blessing), Il contesto (1971; Equal Danger), ...
  • Day of the Race (Spanish holiday)
    One important holiday is both religious and civic. October 12 is the Day of the Virgin of El Pilar and also the day on which the “discovery” of America is celebrated (a counterpart to the celebration of Columbus Day in the United States); it has been called at different times the Day of the Race (Día de la Raza) and Hispanic Day (Día de la Hispanidad)....
  • Day of the Triffids, The (work by Wyndham)
    ...Secret People and Planet Plane (later retitled Stowaway to Mars) were published under the pseudonym John Beynon. In 1951 The Day of the Triffids, the first novel written under the pseudonym John Wyndham, was released. This book’s depiction of lethal mobile plants that menace the human race quickly est...
  • Day of the Virgin of El Pilar (Spanish holiday)
    One important holiday is both religious and civic. October 12 is the Day of the Virgin of El Pilar and also the day on which the “discovery” of America is celebrated (a counterpart to the celebration of Columbus Day in the United States); it has been called at different times the Day of the Race (Día de la Raza) and Hispanic Day (Día de la Hispanidad)....
  • Day of the Vow (South African holiday)
    public holiday observed in South Africa on December 16. The holiday originally commemorated the victory of the Voortrekkers (southern Africans of Dutch, German, or Huguenot descent who made the Great Trek) over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. Before the battle, the Voortrekkers had taken a vow that, if they succeeded in defea...
  • Day, Richard (American art director)
    ...Screenplay: Dudley 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......
  • Day, Sandra (United States jurist)
    associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. A moderate conservative, she was known for her dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions....
  • Day, Sir Robin (British journalist)
    British broadcast journalist (b. Oct. 24, 1923, London, Eng.—d. Aug. 7, 2000, London), gained the label “grand inquisitor” for his technique in political interviews, in which he asked pointed questions and probed relentlessly for nonevasive answers, in contrast to the then-traditional gentle, deferential manner of asking only expected questions. Especially on the two BBC progr...
  • Day, Stephen (American printer)
    founder of the first printing press in England’s North American colonies....
  • Day, Stockwell (Canadian politician)
    On March 28, 2000, Albertan politician Stockwell Day announced that he would enter the race to head the newly formed Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (CRCA). The group succeeded the Reform Party, founded by Preston Manning in 1987 and headed by him, and most observers presumed that Manning would assume the leadership of the new party. The younger and more charismatic Day captured the imaginat...
  • Day, The (work by Parini)
    Italian prose writer and poet remembered for a series of beautifully written Horatian odes and particularly for Il giorno, (4 books, 1763–1801; The Day), a satiric poem on the selfishness and superficiality of the Milanese aristocracy....
  • Day the Earth Stood Still, The (film by Wise [1951])
    ...the film was potentially unwieldy, but Wise’s shrewd use of intercutting effectively unified it. Wise’s other outstanding films of the 1950s include the science-fiction masterpiece The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), the war drama The Desert Rats (1953), the western Tribute to a Bad Man (1956), the biogra...
  • Day, Thomas (English author)
    They took more easily to Rousseau’s emphasis on virtuous conduct and instruction via “nature” than they did to his advocacy of the liberation of personality. Some writers, such as Thomas Day, with his long-lived Sandford and Merton, were avowedly Rousseauist. Others took from him what appealed to them. Sarah Kirby Trimmer, whose Fabulous Histories specialized in ...
  • Day, William R. (United States jurist)
    statesman and justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1903–22)....
  • Day, William Rufus (United States jurist)
    statesman and justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1903–22)....
  • Day with Mussolini, A (photograph by Man)
    Memorable groups of photographs were taken for the major picture magazines. Examples are Man’s A Day with Mussolini, first published in the Münchner Illustrierte Presse (1931) and then, with a brilliant new layout, in Picture Post; Smith’s Spanish Village (1951) and ...
  • day-care centre (school)
    institution that provides supervision and care of infants and young children during the daytime, particularly so that their parents can hold jobs. Such institutions appeared in France about 1840, and the Société des Crèches was recognized by the French government in 1869. Day-care centres were established in most European cities and industrial centres during the second half of...
  • Day-Lewis, C. (British poet)
    one of the leading British poets of the 1930s; he then turned from poetry of left-wing political statement to an individual lyricism expressed in more traditional forms....
  • Day-Lewis, Cecil (British poet)
    one of the leading British poets of the 1930s; he then turned from poetry of left-wing political statement to an individual lyricism expressed in more traditional forms....
  • Day-Lewis, Daniel (British actor)
    British actor known for his on- and offscreen intensity and exhaustive preparation for roles....
  • Day-Lewis, Daniel Michael Blake (British actor)
    British actor known for his on- and offscreen intensity and exhaustive preparation for roles....
  • daya (musical instrument)
    ...Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The higher-pitched of the two drums, which is played with the right hand, is also referred to individually as the tabla or as the daya (dahina or dayan, meaning “right”). It is a single-headed drum usually of wood and having.....
  • Dayabhaga (Hindu law)
    The larger incidence of suttee among the Brahmans of Bengal was indirectly due to the Dayabhaga system of law (c. 1100), which prevailed in Bengal and which gave inheritance to widows. In the 16th century, steps to prohibit suttee were taken by the Mughal rulers Humayun and his son Akbar. Suttee became a central issue under the British Raj, which first tolerated......
  • Dayak (people)
    the non-Muslim indigenous peoples of southern and western Borneo (modern Kalimantan). Most of them live along the banks of the larger rivers. Dayak is a generic term that has no precise ethnic or tribal significance and that is applied to any of the (non-Muslim) indigenous peoples of the interior of Borneo (as opposed to the largely Malay population of the coastal areas)....
  • dayal (bird)
    popular species of magpie-robin....
  • Dayal Das (Indian religious leader)
    religious reform movement within Sikhism. The Nirankari movement was founded by Dayal Das (died 1855), who belonged to a half-Sikh, half-Hindu community in Peshawar. He believed that God is formless, or nirankar (hence the name Nirankari). He also stressed the importance of meditation....
  • dayan (musical instrument)
    ...Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The higher-pitched of the two drums, which is played with the right hand, is also referred to individually as the tabla or as the daya (dahina or dayan, meaning “right”). It is a single-headed drum usually of wood and having.....
  • Dayan Khan (Mongol khan)
    eastern tribe of Mongols, prominent in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Chahar were part of the empire of Dayan Khan (1470–1543), the last great khan of a united Mongolia. After his death the khanate remained formally among the Chahar, although it was substantially weakened. The last noteworthy Chahar khan, Ligdan (1604–34), attempted strenuously to reassert his authority, but he......
  • Dayan, Moshe (Israeli statesman)
    soldier and statesman who led Israel to dramatic victories over its Arab neighbours and became a symbol of security to his countrymen....
  • Dayananda Anglo-Vedic School (Hindu organization)
    After studying law at the Government College, Lahore, Lajpat Rai practiced at Hissār and Lahore, where he helped to establish the nationalistic Dayananda Anglo-Vedic School and became a follower of Dayananda Sarasvati, the founder of the conservative Hindu society Arya Samaj (“Society of Aryans”). After joining the Congress Party and taking part in political agitation in the.....
  • Dayananda Sarasvati (Hindu leader)
    Hindu ascetic and social reformer who was the founder (1875) of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement advocating a return to the temporal and spiritual authority of the Vedas, the earliest scriptures of India....
  • Dayanhe (work by Ai Qing)
    ...he developed an appreciation for Western literature. Imprisoned for his radical political activities, he began to write poetry under his pen name. His first collection of verse, Dayanhe (1936), reflects his concern for the common people of China; the title poem recalls the foster nurse (called Dayanhe in the poem) who reared him. He went to Yan’an in 1941 and......
  • “Daybreak—2250 A.D.” (work by Norton)
    ...At Swords’ Point (1954). While working for the science-fiction publisher Gnome Press in the 1950s, she first tried her hand at science fiction, producing Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D. (1952); it was reprinted in paperback as Daybreak—2250 A.D. and sold more than a million copies....
  • daydream (psychology)
    ...of these engrams in complex circuits involving nerve cells. Such circuits in the cortex (outer layers) of the brain appear to subserve the neurophysiology of memory, thought, imagination, and fantasy. The emotions associated with these intellectual and perceptual functions seem to be mediated through cortex connections with the deeper parts of the brain (the limbic system or......
  • Daydream (album by Carey)
    ...album, Emotions, became her fifth consecutive chart-topping single. Later hit albums include Music Box (1993) and Daydream (1995), both of which sold some 10 million copies in the United States. All the recordings were accompanied by music videos that helped make Carey a fixture on MTV (Music......
  • Daydreamer, The (novel by McEwan)
    ...War; Black Dogs (1992) tells the story of a husband and wife who have lived apart since a honeymoon incident made clear their essential moral antipathy; The Daydreamer (1994) explores the imaginary world of a creative 10-year-old boy. The novel Amsterdam (1998), a social satire influenced by the early works of Evelyn......
  • Daye (China)
    city, southeastern Hubei sheng (province), east-central China. Daye, established as a city in 1994, is situated on the south bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) near Huangshi and about 55 miles (90 km) southeast of Wuhan, the provincial capital....
  • Daye, Stephen (American printer)
    founder of the first printing press in England’s North American colonies....
  • dayflower (plant)
    any member of the genus Commelina (family Commelinaceae), which includes about 100 species of weak-stemmed herbs of wide distribution, only a few of which are of horticultural interest. Commelina coelestis, C. diffusa, and C. erecta are often grown as ground covers because of their sprawling habit and their small blue flowers. Especially in moist shady places, they spread eas...
  • dayfly (insect)
    any member of a group of insects known for their extremely short life spans and emergence in large numbers in the summer months. Other common names for the winged stages are shadfly, sandfly, dayfly, fishfly, and drake. The aquatic immature stage, called a nymph or naiad, is widely distributed in freshwater, although a few species can tolerate the brackish water of marine estuaries....
  • dayglow (atmospheric science)
    ...of the Earth. Unlike the aurora, airglow does not exhibit structures such as arcs and is emitted from the entire sky at all latitudes at all times. The nocturnal phenomena is called nightglow. Dayglow and twilight glow are analogous terms....
  • Daylight Saving Time
    system for uniformly advancing clocks, so as to extend daylight hours during conventional waking time in the summer months. In countries in the Northern Hemisphere, clocks are usually set ahead one hour in late March or in April and are set back one hour in late September or in October....
  • daylily (plant)
    any plant of the genus Hemerocallis of the family Hemerocallidaceae, consisting of about 15 species of perennial herbs distributed from central Europe to eastern Asia. Members of the genus have long-stalked clusters of funnel- or bell-shaped flowers that range in colour from yellow to red and are each short-lived (hence “day” lily). Day lilies also have fleshy roots and narrow...
  • daymark (colour)
    The daymark requirement of a lighthouse is also important; lighthouse structures are painted to stand out against the prevailing background. Shore lighthouses are usually painted white for this purpose, but in the open sea or against a light background conspicuous bands of contrasting colours, usually red or black, are utilized....
  • Dayr, Ad- (tomb, Petra, Jordan)
    ...from the east by a narrow gorge known as the Sik (Siq, or Wadi as-Sīk). Among the first sites viewed from the Sik is the Khasneh (“Treasury”), which is actually a large tomb. Ad-Dayr (“the Monastery”) is one of Petra’s best-known rock-cut monuments; it is an unfinished tomb facade that during Byzantine times was used as a church. Many of the tombs of Pe...
  • Dayr al-Baḥrī (archaeological site, Egypt)
    Egyptian archaeological site in the necropolis of Thebes. It is made up of a bay in the cliffs on the west bank of the Nile River east of the Valley of the Kings. Its name (Arabic for “northern monastery”) refers to a monastery built there in the 7th century ce....
  • Dayr al-Jamājim, Battle of (Islamic history)
    ...having received in the meantime a steady stream of Syrian reinforcements from the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, confronted Ibn al-Ashʿath’s superior army of 200,000 at Dayr al-Jamājim, outside Kūfah. Negotiations were initiated by the caliph’s agents, who offered the rebels the dismissal of al-Ḥajjāj, equal pay with their Syrian....
  • Dayr al-Madīnah (ancient settlement, Egypt)
    ancient site on the west bank of the Nile River at Thebes in Upper Egypt. It is known primarily as the location of a settlement for craftsmen who laboured on the royal tombs, especially those in the nearby Valley of the Kings. The village, the best-preserved of its type, has provided scholars with helpful insights into the...
  • Dayr al-Zawr (Syria)
    town, eastern Syria. The town is situated on the right bank of the Euphrates River; its name, meaning “monastery of the grove” (zawr, “tamarisk”), is probably derived from the ancient city of Auzara, or Azuara, situated nearby. The Ottomans built the present town in 1867 to curb the nomads of the Euphrates area. Under the Ottomans it was the ca...
  • Dayr az-Zawr (Syria)
    town, eastern Syria. The town is situated on the right bank of the Euphrates River; its name, meaning “monastery of the grove” (zawr, “tamarisk”), is probably derived from the ancient city of Auzara, or Azuara, situated nearby. The Ottomans built the present town in 1867 to curb the nomads of the Euphrates area. Under the Ottomans it was the ca...
  • Dayr Ballūṭ (river, West Bank)
    ...of Sharon (north) and the coastal lowlands (south). The seasonal watercourses west of Rosh ha-ʿAyin, which form part of the drainage system, extend eastward into the West Bank. They include the Wadi Shillo (Dayr Ballūṭ) in the east, usually considered by geographers to mark the boundary between historic Judaea and Samaria, and the Wadi Ayyalon (Aijalon) in the southeast. In...
  • Dayr Mārī Antonios (monastery, Egypt)
    ...established themselves nearby. When Christian persecution ended after the Edict of Milan (313), he moved to a mountain in the Eastern Desert, between the Nile and the Red Sea, where the monastery Dayr Mārī Antonios still stands. Here he remained, receiving visitors and, on occasion, crossing the desert to Pispir. He ventured twice to Alexandria, the last time (c. 350) to......
  • Dayr Yāsīn (Palestine)
    ...ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ḥusaynī, in command of the Jerusalem front; and the massacre, by Irgunists and members of the Stern Gang, of civilian inhabitants of the Arab village of Dayr Yāsīn. On April 22 Haifa fell to the Zionists, and Jaffa, after severe mortar shelling, surrendered to them on May 13. Simultaneously with their military offensives, the Zionists.....
  • Days of Future Passed (album by the Moody Blues)
    ...(1964). After a change in band members, including the departure of Laine (who later joined Paul McCartney’s Wings) and the addition of Hayward and Lodge, the group released their landmark Days of Future Passed (released in Britain in late 1967 and in the United States in early 1968). One of the first successful concept albums, it marked a turning point in the development of......
  • Days of Heaven (film by Malick [1978])
    Original Screenplay: Nancy Dowd, Waldo Salt, Robert C. Jones for Coming HomeAdapted Screenplay: Oliver Stone for Midnight ExpressCinematography: Nestor Almendros for Days of HeavenArt Direction: Edwin O’Donovan and Paul Sylbert for Heaven Can WaitAdaptation Score: Joe Renzetti for The Buddy Holly StoryOriginal......
  • “Days of Hope” (work by Malraux)
    ...becoming its colonel. After flying numerous aerial missions at the front, he visited the United States in order to collect money for medical assistance to Spain. His novel L’Espoir (Man’s Hope), based on his experiences in Spain, was published in 1937. A motion-picture version of L’Espoir that Malraux produced and directed in Barcelona in 1938 was not s...
  • Days of Remembrance (American holidays)
    ...U.S. Congress passed legislation introduced by Senator John Danforth that declared April 28–29, 1979, the anniversary of the American liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945, to be Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust. Danforth deliberately sought a date with American significance so that observances could be held in the civic arena as well as in synagogues and......
  • Days of Wine and Roses (film by Edwards [1962])
    ...Maurice Jarre for Lawrence of ArabiaScoring of Music Adaptation or Treatment: Ray Heindorf for Meredith Willson’s The Music ManSong: “Days of Wine and Roses” from Days of Wine and Roses; music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer...
  • Days of Wine and Roses (song by Mancini and Mercer)
    ...of ArabiaMusic Score (Substantially Original): Maurice Jarre for Lawrence of ArabiaScoring of Music Adaptation or Treatment: Ray Heindorf for Meredith Willson’s The Music ManSong: “Days of Wine and Roses” from Days of Wine and Roses; music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer...
  • Days, The (work by Ṭāhā Ḥusayn)
    ...in Arabic, include novels, stories, criticism, and social and political essays. Outside Egypt he is best known through his autobiography, Al-Ayyām (3 vol., 1929–67; The Days), the first modern Arab literary work to be acclaimed in the West....
  • dayside auroral oval (meteorology)
    ...others cross over the polar caps. The regions where the field lines split are called polar cusps. The projection of the polar cusps on the atmosphere at about 72° magnetic latitude creates the dayside auroral ovals. Auroras can be seen in these regions in the dark hours of winter, but they are much weaker than on the nightside because the particles that produce them have much less energy...
  • Dayti, Repiblik
    country of the Caribbean Sea that includes the western third of the island of Hispaniola and such smaller islands as Gonâve, Tortue (Tortuga), Grande Caye, and Vache. It is roughly threefold larger than Puerto Rico. The capital is Port-au-Prince....
  • daytime serial (broadcasting)
    broadcast dramatic serial program, so called in the United States because most of its major sponsors for many years were manufacturers of soap and detergents. The soap opera is characterized by a permanent cast of actors, a continuing story, emphasis on dialogue instead of action, a slower-than-life pace, and a consistently sentimental or melodramatic treatment....
  • Dayton (Ohio, United States)
    city, seat (1803) of Montgomery county, southwestern Ohio, U.S., 54 miles (87 km) northeast of Cincinnati, on a low floodplain of the Great Miami River, at the confluence of the Stillwater and Mad rivers and of Wolf Creek. It is the heart of a metropolitan area that includes the cities of Kettering, Miamisburg, Xenia, Fairborn, Oakwood, and Vandalia....
  • Dayton (Tennessee, United States)
    city, seat (1899) of Rhea county, southeastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies on Richland Creek near the Tennessee River, 36 miles (58 km) northeast of Chattanooga. Originally called Smith’s Crossroads (c. 1820), it was renamed Dayton in the 1870s. The Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton was the scene of the famous Scopes Trial...
  • Dayton Accords (international agreement)
    An agreement negotiated in Dayton, Ohio, U.S., in November 1995 established Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state composed of two largely autonomous entities, the Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic) and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The latter is a decentralized federation of Croats and Bosniacs. Each entity has its own legislature and president. The central institutions of Bosnia......
  • Dayton Hudson Corporation (American corporation)
    ...sold in 1953). In 1982 Marshall Field & Company was acquired by BATUS Inc., an American subsidiary of London-based tobacco conglomerate B.A.T Industries PLC. The Dayton Hudson Corporation (later Target Corporation) purchased Marshall Field & Co. from BATUS in 1990. In 2004 Target sold the Marshall Field’s department store chain to the May Department Stores Company, another ...
  • Dayton, Jonathan (American politician)
    youngest member of the U.S. Constitutional Convention, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and developer of large tracts in what later became the state of Ohio. The city of Dayton, Ohio, is named for him....
  • Dayton, University of (university, Dayton, Ohio, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Dayton, Ohio, U.S. The university is affiliated with the Marianist order (Society of Mary) of the Roman Catholic church. It is composed of the College of Arts and Sciences and schools of business administration, education and allied professions, engineering, and law. The university offers a range of undergraduate and gradu...
  • Daytona 200-mile race (motorcycle race)
    ...began in 1903 with the formation of the Federation of American Motorcyclists in New York City. By 1924 this society evolved into the still-active American Motorcycle Association. Since 1937 the Daytona 200-mile (320-kilometre) race has been the leading U.S. race. It is held on the same road circuit used for the 24-hour Daytona auto race. Grand Prix racing (in the sense of being a major......
  • Daytona 500 (stock-car race)
    annual U.S. stock-car race that is the most prestigious event in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) season. The race has been held every February since 1959 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., and it consists of 200 laps around a 2.5 mile (4 km) tri-oval track....
  • Daytona Beach (Florida, United States)
    city, Volusia county, northeastern Florida, U.S., on the Atlantic Ocean and Halifax River (a tidewater lagoon, part of the Intracoastal Waterway), about 90 miles (145 km) south of Jacksonville. The area was originally inhabited by Timucua Indians. Creek peoples lived there when English settlers began est...
  • Daytona International Speedway (track, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States)
    ...his racer Bluebird V over the course at 276.82 miles (445.49 km) per hour. Motor vehicles are still permitted on the beach, although their access is limited. The city is also known for the Daytona International Speedway, site of the Daytona 500 in February and the Pepsi 400 in July, and it is the headquarters of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR)....
  • dayyo (Jewish hermeneutics)
    ...and the gezera shawa (comparison of similar expressions, or laws), in which an inference is made by analogy. The kol wa-ḥomer rule is limited by the principle of dayyo (“it is sufficient”) so that the interpreter will not go beyond the conclusion warranted by the premise. In the New Testament, Jesus applied this rule in the Sermon on the Mount......
  • Daza (African people)
    ...Yedina (Buduma) and Kuri inhabit the Lake Chad region and, in the Kanem area, are associated with the Kanembu and Tunjur, who are of Arabic origin. All of these groups are sedentary and coexist with Daza, Kreda, and Arab nomads. The Hadjeray (of the Guera Massif) and Abou Telfân are composed of refugee populations who, living on their mountainous terrain, have resisted various invasions....
  • Dazai Osamu (Japanese author)
    novelist who emerged at the end of World War II as the literary voice of his time. His dark, wry tone perfectly captured the confusion of postwar Japan, when traditional values were discredited and the younger generation nihilistically rejected all of the past....
  • Dazhanlan (market, Beijing, China)
    ...part of the 18th century it gradually became a market for curios, antiques, old books, paintings, works of ancient Chinese calligraphers, and paper. It is still a centre for traditional art shops. Dazhanlan, just west of Qianmen Dajie, was rebuilt in 1998, and many of the Qing period shops there were restored. Specialities sold there include silk, tea, herbal medicines, food, and clothing. The....
  • dazhuan (Chinese writing)
    in Chinese calligraphy, script evolved from the ancient scripts jiaguwen and guwen by the 12th century bc and developed during the Zhou dynasty (12th century–256/255 bc). It is the earliest form of script to be cultivated later into an important related art form, ...
  • Dazimon (Turkey)
    ...brother, the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim, who struck at the most important centres of Asia Minor on the route to Constantinople. Theophilus was defeated in a bloody battle at Dazimon (now Dazmana, Tur.) in July 838. Ancyra fell, and a month later al-Muʿtaṣim took Amorium, one of the empire’s chief fortresses and the home of Theophilus’ dynasty. Exploiting dissen...
Skip this Advertisement

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

The Britannica Store
A-Z Browse

Image preview