Italy, Tourism

Italy's tourist industry has flourished under both national and international patronage. The most popular locations, apart from the great cultural centres of Rome, Florence, Venice, and Naples, are the coastal resorts and islands or the Alpine hills and lakes of the north; the Ligurian and Amalfi rivieras; the northern Adriatic coast; the small islands in the Tyrrhenian

Childress, Alice

Childress grew up in Harlem, New York City, where she studied drama with the American Negro Theatre in the 1940s. There she wrote, directed, and starred in her first play, Florence (produced 1949), about a black woman

Adwa

Also spelled  Adowa , Italian  Adua  town, northern Ethiopia. Adwa lies on the east-west highway between Aksum and Adi Grat at its junction with the road north to Asmara (Asmera), in Eritrea. Adwa is a market centre (grains, honey, hides, coffee) for the Tigray people. The town is located 10 miles (16 km) west of an area of fantastic volcanic formations. On March 1, 1896, Emperor Menilek II defeated an Italian force there. Nearby

Jhelum

Town, Punjab province, northeastern Pakistan. The town lies just west of the Jhelum River (there bridged by both road and rail) and is connected by rail and the Grand Trunk Road with Peshawar and Lahore. The old town, across the river, may have been Bucephala, founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. Although once a salt-trade centre, Jhelum is now a major timber market.

Akershus

Fylke (county), southeastern Norway. Covering 1,898 square miles (4,917 square km), it extends north from Oslo Fjord to the southern end of Lake Mjøsa and east to the Swedish frontier. The Vorma River flows through Akershus from Mjøsa into the Glomma (Glåma) River and on to Lake Øyeren. The national capital, Oslo, is the county seat, though it is a separate fylke and bykommune (urban commune)

An-k'ang

Pinyin  Ankang,  formerly  Hsing-an,   city in southeastern Shensi sheng (province), China. Situated in the narrow valley of the Han River between the Tsinling and Ta-pa mountain ranges, it has been an important trade centre since antiquity, being situated at the junction of the east-west route via the Han River valley and the route to the north over the mountains to Sian (Ch'ang-an). A rail line, completed in 1978, links

Iberville, Pierre Le Moyne D'

The son of prominent Montreal fur trader Charles Le Moyne, Iberville spent his young manhood in raids against English trading posts on

Number System

Any of various sets of symbols and the rules for using them to express quantities as the basis for counting, comparing amounts, performing calculations, determining order, making measurements, representing value, setting limits, abstracting quantities, coding information, and transmitting data. The most elementary representation of numbers is the tally or unitary

Hsi K'ang

Of influential parentage, Hsi received a traditional education,

World War I, The Schlieffen Plan

Years before 1914, successive chiefs of the German general staff had been foreseeing Germany's having to fight a war on two fronts at the same time, against Russia in the east and France in the west, whose combined strength was numerically superior to the Central Powers'. The elder Helmuth von Moltke, chief of the German general staff from 1858 to 1888, decided that Germany should stay

Peru, Drainage

Distinctive drainage patterns dissect the Costa, Sierra, and Montaña. Of the more than 50 rivers that flow west from the Andes across the Costa, most are short (usually less than 200 miles long) and precipitous, with highly seasonal rates of flow. Most have a period of peak flow (usually during the December to March rainy season) followed by a long dry period; only the largest of

Arrupe, Pedro

Arrupe studied medicine at the University of Madrid, but, after witnessing the poverty in that city, he left school to join the Jesuits in 1927. When the Spanish government dissolved the Jesuit order in Spain in 1932, Arrupe continued his religious studies elsewhere in Europe and in the United States,

Habsburg, House Of, Power and weakness

The Habsburgs reached the zenith of their power before the end of the 16th century: the duchy of Milan, annexed by Charles V in 1535, was assigned by him to his son, the future Philip II of Spain, in 1540; Philip II conquered Portugal in 1580; and the Spanish dominions in America were ever expanding. There were, however, three faults in the power structure—two of them historical accidents, the

Asura

Iranian  ahura  in Hindu mythology, a class of titans or demons, the enemies of the gods and of men. In the Vedic age the asuras and the devas were both considered classes of gods, but gradually the two groups came to oppose each other, a development that was reversed in Iran. (There asura, or ahura, came to mean the supreme god and the devas, or daevas, became demons.) In Hindu mythology, the asura

Industrial Medicine

Historically, industrial medicine was limited to the treatment of injuries and diseases occurring to production workers while at work. Over the years this has changed, and everyone at

Puebla

In full  Puebla De Zaragoza,   city, capital of Puebla state, central Mexico. Founded as Puebla de los Angeles in 1532, the city lies on a broad plain 7,093 ft (2,162 m) above sea level in the Sierra Madre Oriental foothills. Since viceregal days, Puebla, because of its strategic position on the route between Mexico City, 80 mi (130 km) northwest, and the Gulf of Mexico port of Veracruz, 140 mi (225 km) east, has been considered a military key

Hades

In the Greek Old Testament, translation of the Hebrew Sheol, the dwelling place of the dead. See hell.

Argentina, The Pampas

The principal Pampas vegetation is monte forest in the Dry Pampa and grassland in the Humid Pampa. The boundary between the Dry and Humid Pampas lies approximately along longitude 64° W. Knee-high grasses are found in the most humid areas, whereas to the north, west, and south, where precipitation decreases, tougher grasses give way to the monte of the Dry Pampa. Planted

Ursuline

Member of  Order of Saint Ursula (O.S.U.)  a Roman Catholic religious order of women founded at Brescia, Italy, in 1535, by St. Angela Merici, as the first institute for women dedicated exclusively to the education of girls. Angela and her 28 companions placed themselves under the protection of St. Ursula, a legendary 4th-century martyr whose cult was popular in medieval Europe. The original Ursulines remained in their

Italy

The first major power in the peninsula was the Etruscans. From Etruria, Etruscan

Fuselage

Central portion of the body of an airplane, designed to accommodate the crew, passengers, and cargo. It varies greatly in design and size according to the function of the aircraft. In a jet fighter the fuselage consists of a cockpit large enough only for the controls and pilot, but in a jet airliner it includes a much larger cockpit as well as a cabin that has separate decks

Froebel, Friedrich (wilhelm August)

Froebel was the fifth child in a clergyman's family. His mother died when he was only nine months old, and he was neglected as a

Robert Ii

The son of Hugh Capet, founder of the Capetian dynasty, and Adelaide of Aquitaine, Robert was educated at the episcopal school of Reims under Gerbert of Aurillac, later Pope Sylvester II. Soon after his own coronation (July 987), Hugh prudently arranged the election and coronation (December 987) of

Afonso I

Alfonso VI, emperor of Leon, had granted the county of Portugal to Afonso's father, Henry of Burgundy, who successfully defended it against the Muslims (1095–1112). Henry married Alfonso VI's illegitimate daughter, Teresa, who

Berkhamsted

Town (“parish”), Dacorum borough, administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, England, 28 miles (45 km) northwest of London on an old coaching route along the Bulbourne Valley of the Chiltern Hills, which now contains modern road, rail, and canal routes. A moated Norman castle has been thoroughly excavated and is preserved. Diversified light industry includes paper

Fuse

In electrical engineering, a safety device that protects electrical circuits from the effects of excessive currents. A fuse commonly consists of a current-conducting strip or wire of easily fusible metal that melts, and thus interrupts the circuit of which it is a part, whenever that circuit is made to carry a current larger than that for which it is intended. The

Calcisol

One of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Calcisols are characterized by a layer of translocated (migrated) calcium carbonate—whether soft and powdery or hard and cemented—at some depth in the soil profile. They are usually well-drained soils with fine to medium texture, and they are relatively fertile because