Beach Boys, The

American rock group whose dulcet melodies and distinctive vocal mesh defined the 1960s youthful idyll of sun-drenched southern California. The original members were Brian Wilson (b. June 20, 1942, Inglewood, Calif., U.S.), Dennis Wilson (b. Dec. 4, 1944, Inglewood—d. Dec. 28, 1983, Marina del Rey, Calif.), Carl Wilson (b. Dec. 21, 1946, Los Angeles, Calif.—d. Feb. 6, 1998, Los Angeles), Michael Love (b. March 15, 1941, Los Angeles), and Alan Jardine (b. Sept.

Kunlun Mountains

The northern rim of the Kunlun Mountains, skirting the Tarim Basin, served for centuries as the southerly branch of the Silk Road that, until the 16th century, connected China with Central and West Asia. Wool and salt were the main products brought down from the heights of the Kunluns to the oases on the edge of the Takla Makan Desert. Small regional Buddhist monasteries

La Hire, Laurent De

He was the son of the painter Étienne de La Hire (c. 1583–1643) but was most influenced by the work of Georges Lallemont and Orazio Gentileschi. His picture of “Pope Nicolas V at the Tomb of Saint Francis” was done in 1630 for the Capuchins, for whom he executed several other

Los Islands

French  Îles De Los,   small archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, off Conakry, the capital of Guinea, West Africa. They provide protection for the port of Conakry and include Tamara (Factory), Kassa, Roume (Crawford), Blanche (White), and De Corail (Coral) and several smaller islets. Tamara, the largest (8 miles [13 km] long and 1–2 miles [1.6–3 km] wide), has the highest point of elevation (499 feet [152 m]). Only Tamara and Kassa have

Ibaraki

Prefecture (ken), central Honshu, Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean. It occupies 2,351 sq mi (6,090 sq km) of the northeastern Kanto Plain. Ibaraki is bordered (south) by the Tone-gawa (Tone River) and contains part of Suigo-Tsukuba Quasi-national Park. Main features of this section of the park include Kasumiga-ura (Lake Kasumi), the second largest Japanese lake after Lake Biwa; the canals and

Koriyama

City, Fukushima Prefecture (ken), Honshu, Japan, located at the junction of the Tohoku Line and the Ban-etsu Line (railways), north-northeast of Tokyo. It developed as an industrial and communications centre, producing textiles, chemicals, and machinery. Power is generated with coal from the nearby Joban coalfield and by hydroelectric plants on the Nippashi-gawa (Nippashi

Delos

Since 1873 the École

Yuma Desert

The Yuma Desert is a region of low sandy plains and dunes. The area is nearly barren,

Chibchan Languages

A group of South American Indian languages that were spoken before AD 1500 in the area now comprising Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, western Colombia, and Ecuador. A now extinct Chibchan language sometimes known as Muisca was the language of a powerful Indian empire with its centre near Bogotá. Important present-day Chibchan languages include Guaymí and Move in Panama,

Ptolemy Xii Auletes

Following the sudden, violent deaths of the last two fully legitimate members of the Ptolemaic family in Egypt, the people of Alexandria in 80 invited Ptolemy

Fagales

Beech order of dicotyledonous woody flowering plants, a division of the subclass Hamamelidae.

Zárate

City, northeastern Buenos Aires province, Argentina, on the Río Paraná de las Palmas, a channel of the lower Paraná delta emptying into the Río de la Plata northwest of Buenos Aires. Founded in 1825 as Rincón de Zárate, the settlement was given city status in 1909. From 1932 to 1946 it was known as General Uriburu. Although wheat, alfalfa, flax, and potatoes are cultivated and livestock are

Amorbach

City, Bavaria Land (state), southwestern Germany, in the Odenwald (wooded upland), southwest of Würzburg. It originated around a Benedictine monastery in the 8th century and came under the jurisdiction of the electors of Mainz in 1272. Amorbach became the residence of the princes of Leiningen in 1803 and passed to Bavaria in 1816. The modern city is a health resort and has woodworking

V-1 Missile

More than 8,000 V-1s were launched against London from June 13, 1944, to March 29, 1945, with about 2,400 hitting the target area. A smaller number were fired against Belgium. The rockets were launched from the Pas-de-Calais area on the northern coast of France and subsequently from other sites in German-occupied

Tokyo

The site of Tokyo has been inhabited since ancient times; the small fishing village of Edo existed there for

Vistula Lagoon

German  Frisches Haff , Polish  Zalew Wislany , Russian  Vislinsky Zaliv  shallow, marsh-fringed lagoon on the Baltic coast, bisected by the Polish-Russian border and considered part of the Gulf of Gdansk. Covering 330 square miles (855 square km), it is 56 miles (90 km) long, 6 to 15 miles (10 to 19 km) wide, and up to 17 feet (5 m) deep. The Nogat, the eastern distributary of the Vistula River delta, is the principal river entering the lagoon. The long, narrow Vistula Spit protects the

Salé

Arabic  Sla,   old walled city on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. It lies at the mouth of the Wadi Bou Regreg, opposite Rabat. Founded in the 10th century, it reached its zenith as a medieval merchant port and entrepôt. After 1627 Salé—with Rabat as its vassal—became the corsair republic of Bou Regreg and the base for the notorious Sallee Corsairs, the most dreaded of the Barbary pirates; because

Trickster Tale

In oral traditions worldwide, an anecdote of deceit, magic, and violence perpetrated by an animal-human with special or magical powers. Usually grouped in cycles, these tales feature a trickster-hero who within a single society may be regarded as both creator god and innocent fool, evil destroyer and childlike prankster. In psychological terms, the trickster may

1850, Compromise Of

Series of compromise measures passed by the U.S. Congress in an effort to settle several outstanding slavery issues and to avert the threat of dissolution of the Union. The crisis arose from the request of the territory of California (Dec. 3, 1849) to be admitted to the Union with a constitution prohibiting slavery. The problem was complicated by the unresolved question of

Allan, Sir Hugh

Allan emigrated to Canada in 1826 and in 1831 began work for a shipbuilding company in Montreal. By 1839 he was a senior partner, and by 1853 he and his brother

Lin Shu

Pinyin  Lin Shu   translator who first made available to Chinese readers more than 171 works of Western literature, even though he himself had no firsthand knowledge of any foreign language and had never traveled abroad. Working through oral interpreters, Lin Shu translated fiction from England, the United States, France, Russia, Switzerland,

Blueberry

Blueberries grow only in highly acidic and well-drained but moist soils. About 36,000 acres (14,500 hectares) of the high-bush blueberry