A-Z Browse

  • Gallic Wars (Roman history)
    (58–50 bc), campaigns in which the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. Clad in the bloodred cloak he usually wore “as his distinguishing mark of battle,” Caesar led his troops to victories throughout the province, his major triumph being the defeat of the Gallic army led by the chieftain Vercingetorix, in 52 bc. Caesar ...
  • Gallic Wars, The (work by Caesar)
    The locus classicus for the Celtic gods of Gaul is the passage in Caesar’s Commentarii de bello Gallico (52–51 bc; The Gallic War) in which he names five of them together with their functions. Mercury was the most honoured of all the gods and many images of him were to be found. Mercury was regarded as the inventor of all the arts, the patron of travelers ...
  • Gallican Articles (declaration by French clergy)
    The best expression of theological Gallicanism was found in the Four Gallican Articles, approved by the assembly of the clergy of France in 1682. This declaration stated: (1) the pope has supreme spiritual but no secular power; (2) the pope is subject to ecumenical councils; (3) the pope must accept as inviolable immemorial customs of the French Church—e.g., the right of secular......
  • Gallican chant (vocal music)
    music of the ancient Latin Roman Catholic liturgy in the Gaul of the Franks from about the 5th to the 9th century. Scholars assume that a simple and uniform liturgy existed in western Europe until the end of the 5th century and that only in the 6th century did the Gallican church develop its own rite and chant with Oriental influences....
  • Gallican Confession (Reformed confession)
    statement of faith adopted in 1559 in Paris by the first National Synod of the Reformed Church of France. Based on a 35-article draft of a confession prepared by John Calvin, which he sent with representatives from Geneva to the French synod, the draft was revised by his pupil Antoine de la Roche Chandieu. The Gallican Confession consisted of 35 articles divided into four sectio...
  • Gallican Psalter (biblical literature)
    ...the liturgy at Rome. The second, produced in Palestine from the Hexaplaric Septuagint, tended to bring the Latin closer to the Hebrew. Its popularity in Gaul was such that it came to be known as the Gallican Psalter. This version was later adopted into the Vulgate. The third revision, actually a fresh translation, was made directly from the Hebrew, but it never enjoyed wide circulation. In the....
  • Gallicanism (ecclesiastical and political doctrines)
    a complex of French ecclesiastical and political doctrines and practices advocating restriction of papal power; it characterized the life of the Roman Catholic Church in France at certain periods....
  • Gallicantus Johannis Alcock episcopi Eliensis ad fratres suos curatos in sinodo apud Barnwell (work by Alcock)
    ...Yorkshire, and Jesus College, he worked to restore churches and colleges. His surviving published works include Mons perfectionis (1497;“The Hill of Perfection”) and Gallicantus Johannis Alcock episcopi Eliensis ad fratres suos curatos in sinodo apud Barnwell (1498;“Gallicantus [Song of the Cock] of John Alcock Bishop of Ely to His Brother Clergy in the......
  • Gallico, Paul (American journalist)
    ...Tribune. First sponsored by the Tribune in 1926, annual tournaments were held between Chicago and New York teams from 1927. The New York organizer was Paul Gallico of the New York Daily News. In later years the idea was taken up by other cities, and a national tournament was held. In some years before and after World......
  • Gallicrex cinerea (bird)
    (Gallicrex cinerea), marsh bird of the rail family, Rallidae (order Gruiformes). It occurs from India to Japan and throughout Southeast Asia to the Philippines. The male is blue-black with red legs, a strongly conical red bill, and a protruding red frontal shield. The female is mottled and barred yellowish brown. The water cock is troublesome in rice fields, where it likes to nest. It is h...
  • Gallicum Fretum (international waterway, Europe)
    a narrow water passage separating England (northwest) from France (southeast) and connecting the English Channel (southwest) with the North Sea (northeast). The strait is 18 to 25 mi (30 to 40 km) wide, and the depth ranges from 120 to 180 ft (35 to 55 m). Until the comparatively recent geologic past (c. 5000 bc), the strait was an exposed river valley, thus making England an ...
  • Gallieni, Joseph-Simon (French military officer)
    French army officer figure who successfully directed the pacification of the French Sudan and Madagascar and the integration of those African territories into the French colonial empire....
  • Gallienus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor jointly with his father, Valerian, from 253 until 260, then sole emperor to 268....
  • Gallienus, Publius Licinius Egnatius (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor jointly with his father, Valerian, from 253 until 260, then sole emperor to 268....
  • Galliffet, Gaston-Alexandre-Auguste, marquis de, Prince de Martigues (French military officer)
    French military leader who severely suppressed revolts in the Paris Commune in 1871....
  • galliform (order of birds)
    any of the gallinaceous (that is, fowl-like or chickenlike) birds. The order includes about 290 species, of which the best-known are the turkeys, chickens, quail, partridge, pheasant and peacock (Phasianidae); guinea fowl (Numididae); and ...
  • Galliformes (order of birds)
    any of the gallinaceous (that is, fowl-like or chickenlike) birds. The order includes about 290 species, of which the best-known are the turkeys, chickens, quail, partridge, pheasant and peacock (Phasianidae); guinea fowl (Numididae); and ...
  • Gallimard, Gaston (French publisher)
    French publisher whose firm was one of the most influential publishing houses of the 20th century....
  • Gallimimus (dinosaur)
    ...as evidence of high metabolic levels. For example, the ostrichlike dinosaurs, such as Struthiomimus, Ornithomimus, Gallimimus, and Dromiceiomimus, had long hind legs and must have been very fleet. The dromaeosaurs, such as Deinonychus, ......
  • gallina ciega (game)
    children’s game played as early as 2,000 years ago in Greece. The game is variously known in Europe: Italy, mosca cieca (“blind fly”); Germany, Blindekuh (“blind cow”); Sweden, blindbock (“blind buck”); Spain, ...
  • Gallinago gallinago (bird)
    The common snipe, Gallinago (sometimes Capella) gallinago, bears some resemblance to the related woodcock and is about 30 cm (12 inches) long, including the bill. It is a fair game bird, springing up with an unnerving squawk, flying a twisted course, and dropping suddenly to cover. This species, which inhabits temperate regions, includes Wilson’s snipe of North America,...
  • Gallinago media (bird)
    The common snipe, Gallinago (sometimes Capella) gallinago, bears some resemblance to the related woodcock and is about 30 cm (12 inches) long, including the bill. It is a fair game bird, springing up with an unnerving squawk, flying a twisted course, and dropping suddenly to cover. This species, which inhabits temperate regions, includes Wilson’s snipe of North America,...
  • Gallinas (people)
    people inhabiting northwestern Liberia and contiguous parts of Sierra Leone. Early Portuguese writers called them Gallinas (“chickens”), reputedly after a local wildfowl. Speaking a language of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo family, the Vai have close cultural ties to the Mande peoples....
  • gallinazos sin plumas, Los (work by Ribeyro)
    ...a rare mix of social criticism and fantasy, projecting a bleak view of Peruvian life. Ribeyro was the author of some eight volumes of short stories, the best-known of which is Los gallinazos sin plumas (1955; “Featherless Buzzards”). The title story of that collection, which is among the stories translated in Marginal Voices......
  • Gallinula chloropus (bird)
    bird species also called common gallinule. See gallinule....
  • Gallinula chloropus cachinnans (bird)
    ...blackish with a scarlet frontal shield, is called the moorhen or water hen where it occurs in Europe and Africa. Its North American race (G. chloropus cachinnans) is sometimes known as the Florida gallinule....
  • gallinule (bird)
    any of several species of marsh birds belonging to the rail family, Rallidae, in the order Gruiformes. Gallinules occur in temperate, tropical, and subtropical regions worldwide and are about the size of bantam hens but with a compressed body like the related rails and coots. They are about 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 inches) long, with long, thin toes that enable them to run over floating vegetation a...
  • Gallio, Junius (Roman official)
    Roman official who dismissed the charges brought by the Jews against the apostle Paul (Acts 18:12–17)....
  • Gallipoli (Turkey)
    seaport and town, European Turkey. It lies on a narrow peninsula where the Dardanelles opens into the Sea of Marmara, 126 miles (203 km) west-southwest of Istanbul. An important Byzantine fortress, it was the first Ottoman conquest (c. 1356) in Europe and was maintained as a naval base because of its strategic importance for the defense of Istanbul. It ...
  • Gallipoli, battle of (World War I [1915])
    Monash attended Scotch College and Melbourne University, obtaining degrees in the arts, civil engineering, and law. Active in the prewar militia, he commanded an infantry brigade at the Battle of Gallipoli during the Dardanelles Campaign in Turkey, and in 1916–17 he commanded a division on the Western Front. Monash was not a frontline general. Instead, his extensive and successful......
  • Gallipoli Campaign (European history)
    (February 1915–January 1916), in World War I, an Anglo-French operation against Turkey, intended to force the 38-mile- (61-km-) long Dardanelles channel and to occupy Constantinople. Plans for such a venture were considered by the British authorities between 1904 and 1911, but military and naval opinion was against it. When war between the Allies and Turkey began early in November 1914, the...
  • Gallipoli Peninsula (peninsula, Turkey)
    ...emperor John V Palaeologus to become a vassal. Adrianople was renamed Edirne, and it became Murad’s capital. In 1366 a crusade commanded by Amadeus VI of Savoy rescued the Byzantines and occupied Gallipoli on the Dardanelles, but the Turks recaptured the town the next year. In 1371 Murad crushed a coalition of southern Serbian princes at Chernomen in the Battle of the Maritsa River, took...
  • Gallipolis (Ohio, United States)
    city, seat (1803) of Gallia county, southern Ohio, U.S., on the Ohio River, near its junction with the Kanawha River, about 30 miles (50 km) north-northeast of Huntington, W.Va. The third oldest European settlement in Ohio, it was founded in 1790 by the Scioto Company for Royalists fleeing the French Revolution who had been deceived by agents of the company into purchasing land ...
  • Gallirallus (bird)
    ...the most interesting of which are flightless. The moa was a large bird, eventually exterminated by the Maori. The kiwi, another flightless species, is extant, though only in secluded bush areas. The weka and the notornis, or takahe (barely rescued from extinction), probably became flightless after arrival. The pukeko, a swamp hen relative of the weka, is even now in the process of losing the us...
  • Gallitzin, Demetrius Augustine (American missionary)
    one of the first Roman Catholic priests to serve as a missionary to European immigrants in the United States during the early 19th century. He was known as the “Apostle of the Alleghenies.”...
  • gallium (chemical element)
    chemical element, metal of main Group 13 (IIIa, or boron group) of the periodic table. It liquefies just above room temperature....
  • gallium arsenide (chemical compound)
    Besides the elemental semiconductors, such as silicon and germanium, some binary crystals are covalently bonded. Gallium has three electrons in the outer shell, while arsenic lacks three. Gallium arsenide (GaAs) could be formed as an insulator by transferring three electrons from gallium to arsenic; however, this does not occur. Instead, the bonding is more covalent, and gallium arsenide is a......
  • gallium arsenide chip (computing)
    ...increase, cryogenic cooling systems may become necessary. Because storage battery technologies have not kept pace with power consumption in portable devices, there has been renewed interest in gallium arsenide (GaAs) chips. GaAs chips can run at higher speeds and consume less power than silicon chips. (GaAs chips are also more resistant to radiation, a factor in military and space......
  • gallium arsenide epitaxy (crystallography)
    ...vapour by thermally heating the constituent source materials. For example, silicon can be placed in a crucible or cell for silicon epitaxy, or gallium and arsenic can be placed in separate cells for gallium arsenide epitaxy. In chemical vapour deposition the atoms for epitaxial growth are supplied from a precursor gas source (e.g., silane). Metal-organic chemical vapour deposition is similar,.....
  • gallium hydride (chemical compound)
    ...hydrides can be formed from boron (B), aluminum (Al), and gallium (Ga) of group 13 in the periodic table. Boron forms an extensive series of hydrides. The neutral hydrogen compounds of aluminum and gallium are elusive species, although AlH3 and Ga2H6 have been detected and characterized to some degree. Ionic hydrogen species of both boron......
  • gallium phosphide (chemical compound)
    ...and drop to a state of lower energy. Part of the released energy is emitted as a photon. The colour of light given off depends on the crystal material used. Green LED’s, for example, are made of gallium phosphide treated with nitrogen. LED’s do not produce enough light for illumination, but are used for indicators. Segmented LED’s provide the digital displays on many electr...
  • Gällivare (Sweden)
    ...of a hydrothermal solution that deposited the magnetite. Many experts draw the latter conclusion. Considerable controversy also surrounds the origin of the famous Swedish iron ores at Kiruna and Gällivare. These magnetite-apatite bodies encased in volcanic rocks have been variously interpreted as having formed as immiscible oxide magmas, as iron-rich sediments that were subsequently......
  • gallnut ink (art)
    Although all dyestuffs of low viscosity lend themselves to pen drawing, the various inks are most often employed. The manufacture of gallnut ink had been known from the medieval scriptoria (copying rooms set apart for scribes in monasteries). An extract of gallnuts mixed with iron vitriol and thickened with gum-arabic solution produces a writing fluid that comes from the pen black, with a......
  • Gallo de Socrates, El (work by Alas)
    ...El señor y lo demás son cuentos (1893; “God and the Rest Is Fairy Tales”), Cuentos morales (1896; The Moral Tales), and El gallo de Sócrates (1901; “The Rooster of Socrates”), all marked by his characteristic humour and sympathy for the poor, the lonely, and the downtrodden....
  • Gallo, Ernest (American winegrower)
    American winegrower who together with his brother Julio, founded (1933) E.&J. Gallo Winery in Modesto and built an empire by shaping American drinking tastes with inexpensive nonvintage wines. The brothers claimed to have started their own business after the death of their father, Joseph Gallo, Sr., who had founded the Gallo Wine Co. in 1909. The brothers maintained that they learned winem...
  • Gallo, Joseph (American crime boss)
    ...28, 1971, Colombo, speaking at an Italian-American rally in Columbus Circle, was shot by a young black man, who was himself immediately slain. Colombo was probably the target of the followers of Joseph Gallo, with whom Colombo had fought gang wars for a decade....
  • Gallo, Julio Robert (American wine maker)
    U.S. winegrower (b. March 21, 1910, Oakland, Calif.--d. May 2, 1993, near Tracy, Calif.), together with his older brother, Ernest, founded (1933) E.&J. Gallo Winery in Modesto, Calif., and built an empire by shaping American drinking tastes with inexpensive nonvintage wines. The brothers claimed to have started their own business after the death of their father, Joseph Gallo, Sr., who had ...
  • gallo pinto (food)
    Nicaraguan cuisine is a mixture of indigenous and Creole traditions. The country’s national dish is gallo pinto (fried rice mixed with black beans and other spices). Corn (maize) is the staple of Nicaraguan gastronomy and is used in many foods, such as nacatamal (cornmeal dough stuffed with meat and cooked in planta...
  • Gallo-Italian (Romance language)
    ...however, these variant dialects form a continuum of intelligibility, although geographically distant dialects may be radically different. The northern dialects include what are often called the Gallo-Italian dialects (Piedmontese, Lombard, Ligurian, Emilian-Romagnol), in which some linguists discern the influence of a Celtic (Gaulish) substratum (i.e., the traces of a language......
  • gallon (measurement)
    ...on the basis of precise definitions of selected existing units. The 1824 act sanctioned a single imperial gallon to replace the wine, ale, and corn (wheat) gallons then in general use. The new gallon was defined as equal in volume to 10 pounds avoirdupois of distilled water weighed at 62 °F with the barometer at 30 inches, or 277.274 cubic inches (later corrected to 277.421 cubic......
  • gallop (animal locomotion)
    accelerated canter in which the rider’s weight is brought sharply forward as the horse reaches speeds up to 30 miles (50 km) an hour....
  • Galloping Ghost, The (American athlete)
    American collegiate and professional gridiron football player and broadcaster. He was an outstanding halfback whose spectacular long runs made him one of the most famous players of the 20th century. He was an important influence in popularizing professional football....
  • galloping glacier
    ...months have been recorded. Even more interesting is the fact that these glaciers periodically repeat cycles of quiescence and activity, irrespective of climate. These unusual glaciers are called surging glaciers....
  • gallotannin (chemical compound)
    ...condensed. Hydrolyzable tannins (decomposable in water, with which they react to form other substances), yield various water-soluble products, such as gallic acid and protocatechuic acid and sugars. Gallotannin, or common tannic acid, is the best known of the hydrolyzable tannins. It is produced by extraction with water or organic solvents from Turkish or Chinese nutgall. Tara, the pod from......
  • Galloway (breed of cattle)
    Although the native home of the Galloway breed is the ancient region of Galloway in southwestern Scotland, it probably had a common origin with the Angus. The Galloway is distinguished by its coat of curly black hair. Though the breed has never attained the prominence of other beef breeds, it has been used extensively in producing blue-gray crossbred cattle, obtained by breeding white Shorthorn......
  • Galloway (region, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    traditional region, southwestern Scotland, comprising the historic counties of Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire, which form the central and western portions of Dumfries and Galloway council area. Galloway is bounded by the historic county of Ayrshire (council areas of South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire) on the north, the historic county of ...
  • Galloway, James (American soldier and pioneer)
    ...as a trading centre for farmers and stock raisers. Small manufactures (furniture, cordage, plastics, castings, and aircraft components) supplement its agricultural base. The log cabin (1799) of James Galloway, frontier scout and American Revolutionary War soldier, is preserved as a historic monument. Parts of Xenia were rebuilt after tornadoes in 1974 destroyed nearly half of the city.......
  • Galloway, Joseph (British loyalist)
    distinguished American colonial attorney and legislator who remained loyal to Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution (1775–83). His effort in 1774 to settle differences peacefully narrowly missed adoption by the Continental Congress. He was, perhaps, the greatest of the colonial loyalists....
  • Galloway, Mull of (cape, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    ...sea is about 130 miles (210 km) long and 150 miles (240 km) wide. Its total area is approximately 40,000 square miles (100,000 square km). Its greatest depth measures about 576 feet (175 m) at the Mull of Galloway, near the sea’s junction with the North Channel. In classical times the Irish Sea was known as Oceanus Hibernicus....
  • Galloway Plan (United States history)
    ...by pleading cases before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania before he was 20. Elected to the provincial assembly in 1756, he occupied the powerful post of speaker from 1766 to 1775. His “A plan of a proposed Union between Great Britain and the Colonies” in 1774 provided for a president general to be appointed by the king and a colonial legislature to have rights and duties......
  • gallstone (biochemistry)
    concretion composed of crystalline substances (usually cholesterol, bile pigments, and calcium salts) embedded in a small amount of protein material formed most often in the gallbladder. The most common type of gallstone consists principally of cholesterol; its occurrence has been linked to secretion by the liver of bile that is saturated with cholesterol and ...
  • Gallup (New Mexico, United States)
    city, seat (1901) of McKinley county, northwestern New Mexico, U.S., on the Puerco River, near the Arizona state line. Settled in 1880 as a Westward Overland Stagecoach stop, it became a construction headquarters for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and was named for David L. Gallup, railroad paymaster; when railroad workers went to collect their pay, they said they were ...
  • Gallup, George Horace (American pollster)
    American public-opinion statistician whose Gallup Poll became almost synonymous with public-opinion surveys. Gallup helped to advance the public’s trust in survey research in 1936 when he, Elmo Roper, and Archibald Crossley, acting independently but using similar sampling methods, accurately forec...
  • Gallup Poll (American survey corporation)
    ...the American public opinion statistician George Gallup began conducting nationwide surveys of opinions on political and social issues in the United States. One of the first questions asked by the American Institute of Public Opinion, later to be called the Gallup Poll, was “Are Federal expenditures for relief and recovery too great, too little, or about right?” To this, 60 percent...
  • Gallurese (Romance language)
    ...Other dialects of Sardinian include Campidanese (Campidanian), centred around Cagliari in the south, heavily influenced by Catalan and Italian; Sassarese (Sassarian) in the northwest; and Gallurese (Gallurian) in the northeast. It is sometimes said that the latter two dialects are not Sardinian but rather Corsican. Gallurese in particular is related to the dialect of Sartène in Corsica,....
  • Gallurian (Romance language)
    ...Other dialects of Sardinian include Campidanese (Campidanian), centred around Cagliari in the south, heavily influenced by Catalan and Italian; Sassarese (Sassarian) in the northwest; and Gallurese (Gallurian) in the northeast. It is sometimes said that the latter two dialects are not Sardinian but rather Corsican. Gallurese in particular is related to the dialect of Sartène in Corsica,....
  • Gallus (Gallus)
    any of four Asian birds of the genus Gallus, family Phasianidae (order Galliformes). (For Australian jungle fowl, see megapode.) Gallus species differ from other members of the pheasant family in having, in the male, a fleshy comb, lobed wattles hanging below the bill, and high-arched tail. The red jungle fowl (G. gallus) is the ancestor of the domes...
  • Gallus (work by Becker)
    ...and Leipzig, and from 1842 he was professor of classical archaeology at Leipzig. His early studies of Plautus’ comedies aroused his interest in Roman daily life and led to his publication of Gallus (1838), the story of a Roman youth. Derived from Suetonius’ Life of Augustus and embellished to include all aspects of Roman life and customs, the book became a classic in...
  • Gallus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from 251 to 253....
  • Gallus (ancient priests)
    priests, often temple attendants or wandering mendicants, of the ancient Asiatic deity, the Great Mother of the Gods, known as Cybele, or Agdistis, in Greek and Latin literature. The Galli were eunuchs attired in female garb, with long hair fragrant with ointment. Together with priestesses, they celebrated the Great Mother’s rites with wild music and dancing until their f...
  • Gallus, Aelius (Roman official)
    In the south, Augustus found suitable frontiers quickly. In 25 bc an expedition under Aelius Gallus opened the Red Sea to Roman use and simultaneously revealed the Arabian Desert as an unsurpassed and, indeed, unsurpassable boundary. The same year Gaius Petronius, the prefect of Egypt, tightened Rome’s grip as far as the First Cataract and established a broad military zone......
  • Gallus Caesar (Roman emperor)
    ruler of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, with the title of caesar, from 351 to 354....
  • Gallus, Cornelius (Roman soldier and poet)
    Roman soldier and poet, famous for four books of poems to his mistress “Lycoris” (the actress Volumnia, stage name Cytheris), which, in ancient opinion, made him the first of the four greatest Roman elegiac poets....
  • Gallus domesticus (bird)
    one of the most widely domesticated fowl, raised worldwide for its meat and eggs. See poultry....
  • Gallus, Gaius Aelius (Roman prefect of Egypt)
    ...Romans chose the name because of the area’s pleasant climate and reputed riches in agricultural products and in spices. The emperor Augustus (reigned 27 bc–ad 14) sent an expedition under Gaius Aelius Gallus to Arabia Felix, with disastrous results. Partly because of a native guide’s treachery, the troops traveled by a circuitous way through wate...
  • Gallus, Gaius Cornelius (Roman soldier and poet)
    Roman soldier and poet, famous for four books of poems to his mistress “Lycoris” (the actress Volumnia, stage name Cytheris), which, in ancient opinion, made him the first of the four greatest Roman elegiac poets....
  • Gallus gallus (bird)
    ...see megapode.) Gallus species differ from other members of the pheasant family in having, in the male, a fleshy comb, lobed wattles hanging below the bill, and high-arched tail. The red jungle fowl (G. gallus) is the ancestor of the domestic fowl. The cock has shining silky plumage, red on the head and back and green-black elsewhere—a pattern seen also in several......
  • Gallus, Jacobus (German-Austrian composer)
    German-Austrian composer known for his sacred music....
  • Gallus, Quintus Roscius (Roman actor)
    Roman comic actor of such celebrity that his name became an honorary epithet for any particularly successful actor....
  • Gallus sonnerati (bird)
    The gray jungle fowl (G. sonnerati), of southern India, may also have contributed to the ancestry of the domestic fowl, which in some breeds shows a similar grayish and white pattern. Other species inhabit parts of India and are found also in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Java, and some Indonesian islands....
  • Gallus-Carniolus, Jakob Petelin (German-Austrian composer)
    German-Austrian composer known for his sacred music....
  • Gallwyddel (people)
    The name Galloway is derived from the Gallgaidhel, or Gallwyddel (“Stranger Gaels”), the original Celtic people of this region, called Novantae by the Romans. The last “king” of Galloway died in 1234. During the 14th century the Balliols and Comyns were the chief families, succeeded about 1369 by the Douglases (until 1458) and in 1623 by the Stewarts. The 17th-century.....
  • Galois, Évariste (French mathematician)
    French mathematician famous for his contributions to the part of higher algebra now known as group theory. His theory provided a solution to the long-standing question of determining when an algebraic equation can be solved by radicals (a solution containing square roots, cube roots, and so on but no trigonometry functions or other nonalgebr...
  • Galois group (mathematics)
    ...analyze the “admissible” permutations of the roots of the equation. His key discovery, brilliant and highly imaginative, was that solvability by radicals is possible if and only if the group of automorphisms (functions that take elements of a set to other elements of the set while preserving algebraic operations) is solvable, which means essentially that the group can be broken......
  • Galois theory (mathematics)
    The last significant influence on van der Waerden’s structural image of algebra was by Artin, above all for the latter’s reformulation of Galois theory. Rather than speaking of the Galois group of a polynomial equation with coefficients in a particular field, Artin focused on the group of automorphisms of the coefficients’ splitting field (the smallest extension of the field s...
  • Galon Army (Myanmar nationalists)
    ...Saya San organized peasant discontent and proclaimed himself a pretender to the throne who, like Alaungpaya, would unite the people and expel the British invader. He organized his followers into the “Galon Army” (Galon, or Garuḍa, is a fabulous bird of Hindu mythology), and he was proclaimed “king” at Insein, near Rangoon (Yangon), on Oct. 28, 1930....
  • Galon U Saw (Myanmar political leader)
    Burmese political leader who conspired in the assassination of Aung San, the resistance leader who negotiated Burma’s independence from the British....
  • Galouzeau de Villepin, Dominique-Marie-François-René (prime minister of France)
    French diplomat, politician, and writer who served as interior minister (2004–05) and prime minister (2005–07) in the neo-Gaullist administration of Pres. Jacques Chirac....
  • GALP (chemical compound)
    Step [6], in which glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate is oxidized, is one of the most important reactions in glycolysis. It is during this step that the energy liberated during oxidation of the aldehyde group (−CHO) is conserved in the form of a high-energy phosphate compound; namely, as 1,3-diphosphoglycerate, an anhydride of a carboxylic acid and phosphoric acid. The hydrogen atoms or......
  • Galston, Arthur William (American plant physiologist and bioethicist)
    American plant physiologist and bioethicist who conducted research in the late 1950s into a powerful herbicide that later served as the basis for Agent Orange; Galston warned of the defoliant’s toxicity to humans and the environment and eventually became a fierce proponent of bioethics. In 1970, after eight years of use as a defoliant in the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was finally discontinue...
  • Galswintha (Merovingian queen)
    daughter of Athanagild, Visigothic king of Spain, and Goisuintha; sister of Brunhild, queen of Austrasia; and wife of Chilperic I, the Merovingian king of Neustria. Galswintha and Chilperic were married at Rouen in 567, but soon afterward she died under suspicious circumstances, apparently at the instigation of Chilperic’s mistress Fredegund, who then married him. Galswin...
  • Galswinthe (Merovingian queen)
    daughter of Athanagild, Visigothic king of Spain, and Goisuintha; sister of Brunhild, queen of Austrasia; and wife of Chilperic I, the Merovingian king of Neustria. Galswintha and Chilperic were married at Rouen in 567, but soon afterward she died under suspicious circumstances, apparently at the instigation of Chilperic’s mistress Fredegund, who then married him. Galswin...
  • Galsworthy, John (British writer)
    English novelist and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932....
  • Galt (Ontario, Canada)
    city, regional municipality of Waterloo, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies 55 miles (90 km) west-southwest of Toronto. Cambridge was created in 1973 from the consolidation of the city of Galt, the towns of Hespeler and Preston, and parts of the townships of Waterloo and North Dumfries. Galt was founded about 1817 and, along with Dumfries Township, became the home of large numbers of......
  • Galt, Edith Bolling (American first lady)
    American first lady (1915–21), the second wife of Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States. When he was disabled by illness during his second term, she fulfilled many of his administrative duties....
  • Galt, John (Scottish author and administrator)
    prolific Scottish novelist admired for his depiction of country life....
  • Galt, Sir Alexander Tilloch (Canadian statesman)
    Canadian statesman and influential early advocate of federation....
  • Galtee Mountains (mountains, Ireland)
    mountain range, extending across the border between southwestern County Tipperary and southeastern County Limerick, southern Ireland. The range has the east–west trend characteristic of the extreme south of the country. The highest peaks are formed of sandstone, the highest point being Galtymore (3,018 feet [920 m]). The mountains bear strong evidence of glaciation, notably in the form of c...
  • Galtieri, Leopoldo (president of Argentina)
    Argentine military ruler (b. July 15, 1926, Caseros, Arg.—d. Jan. 12, 2003, Buenos Aires, Arg.), initiated the disastrous (for Argentina) 1982 war with Great Britain over the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas during his brief period as the head of the military junta that ruled Argentina in 1976–83. Argentina’s ignominious defeat led to the almost immediate downfall of Galtieri a...
  • Galton board (mechanical device)
    ...biological evolution, since Darwin’s theory was about natural selection acting on natural diversity. A figure from Galton’s 1877 paper on breeding sweet peas shows a physical model, now known as the Galton board, that he employed to explain the normal distribution of inherited characteristics; in particular, he used his model to explain the tendency of progeny to have the same var...

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