Ford, Francis Xavier

Ford was ordained in 1917 and went to China the next year in the first group of Maryknoll missionaries sent to that country. He founded the Maryknoll Seminary for Chinese Boys in Yang-chiang in 1921 and in 1922 established the first overseas convent

Fain, Sammy

Fain was a self-taught pianist who played by ear. He began working as a staff

Heikal, Muhammad Hassanein

Educated at Cairo University, Heikal became a reporter for the Egyptian Gazette

Mascara

Also called  (after 1981) Mouaskar,   town, northwestern Algeria, situated about 40 miles (60 km) south of the Mediterranean coast. Spread across two hills separated by the Wadi Toudman, it lies on the southern slope of the Beni Chougran Range of the Atlas Mountains. Mascara (meaning “mother of soldiers”) was founded as a Turkish military garrison in 1701. In about 1790 the town was abandoned by the Spanish Muslims who had

Madison Square Garden

Indoor sports arena in New York City. The original Madison Square Garden (1874) was a converted railroad station at Madison Square; in 1891 a sports arena was built on the site, designed by Stanford White and dedicated chiefly to boxing. In 1925 a new Madison Square Garden was built at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street, with an arena suitable for basketball, hockey, and other sports; it was the

Tea Act

(1773), in British American colonial history, legislative maneuver by the British ministry of Lord North to make English tea marketable in America. A previous crisis had been averted in 1770 when all the Townshend Acts (q.v.) duties had been lifted except that on tea, which had been mainly supplied to the Colonies since then by Dutch smugglers. In an effort to help the financially

Dublin, Climate

With its coastal site on the western seaboard of the Irish Sea, Dublin enjoys a mild climate. The average temperature is lowest in January–February, 42° F (6° C), and highest in July–August, 59° F (15° C). Sunshine averages four hours a day. The mean annual rainfall is 30–40 inches (760–1,000 millimetres), although the rate is higher in the mountains. The period of maximum rainfall occurs in winter, and there

Arnoldson, Klas Pontus

Arnoldson became a railway clerk and rose to stationmaster (1871–81) but then left the railway to devote himself entirely to politics. In 1881 he was elected to the Riksdag, the Swedish

Raymond Vii

After helping to recover lands of which his

Italy, Economic and political crisis

Italy was faced with serious postwar economic problems. Wartime governments had printed money to pay for arms, and inflation became deep-rooted: by the end of 1920 the lira was worth only one-sixth of its 1913 value. Savings became worthless, and landowners found themselves receiving insignificant rents. Meanwhile the major arms and shipbuilding firms went bankrupt after

Masaka

Town, southern Uganda, situated about 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Kampala (the national capital), at an elevation of 4,300 feet (1,310 m). Roads connect it with Mbirizi, Lyantonde, and Mbarara. It is a market town and important commercial centre for the surrounding rich coffee-growing area. Its industries produce processed meat and fish, beverages, footwear, furniture, bakery products, glass,

Triassic Period, Marine deposits

Major linear depositional troughs developed around Panthalassa, the ancestor of the Pacific Ocean, during the Early and Middle Triassic. Great quantities of marine sediments collected in these troughs, as indicated by deposits—now mainly sandstones, shales, and graywackes—located in the western Pacific basinal belt (New Zealand and Japan) and the eastern basinal

Dead Sea Scrolls

Ancient, mostly Hebrew, manuscripts (of leather, papyrus, and copper) first found in 1947 on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is among the more important finds in the history of modern archaeology. Study of the scrolls has enabled scholars to push back the date of a stabilized Hebrew Bible to no later than AD 70, to help reconstruct the history

Metatron

Greatest of angels in Jewish myths and legends, variously identified as the Prince (or Angel) of the Presence, as Michael the archangel, or as Enoch after his ascent into heaven. He is likewise described as a celestial scribe recording the sins and merits of men, as a guardian of heavenly secrets, as God's mediator with men, as the “lesser Yahweh,” as the archetype of man, and

Cloisonnism

Painting method used in the style known as Synthetism (q.v.).

Amulet

Natural amulets

Jacoba Of Bavaria

Jacoba, the only daughter and heiress of William, count of Zeeland, Holland,

Culver City

City, Los Angeles county, California, U.S. Part of Rancho La Ballona, it was laid out in 1914 by Harry H. Culver and promoted as a site for motion-picture production, becoming the home of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Hal Roach studios. Television shows were produced at what were the Desilu and before that the RKO studios. Petroleum, aircraft, and electronic industries are the other

Constant, Benjamin

The son of a Swiss officer in the Dutch service, whose family was of French origin, he studied at Erlangen, Ger., briefly at the University of Oxford, and at Edinburgh. In 1787 he formed, in Paris, his first liaison, with Madame de

Selim, Mosque Of

Turkish  Selimiye Cami,   in Edirne, Tur., mosque, considered to be the masterwork of the great Ottoman architect Sinan, completed in 1575. The sanctuary is a large square space, covered by a dome supported by columns placed close to the walls, an innovation at the time. Four tall, slender minarets contrast with the mass of domes and half-domes.

Pa

Pinyin  Ba  ancient tribe and later an ancient Chinese feudal state that came into being in the 11th century BC, under the Western Chou. It was situated in the Chia-ling valley of what is now central Szechwan. Pa established relations with the mid-Yangtze kingdom of Ch'u in the 5th century BC. Shortly before 316 BC, the state was conquered by the Ch'in and incorporated into the Ch'in empire. In the middle

Porsangen

Fjord, indenting the coast of Finmark fylke (county), extreme northern Norway on the Arctic Ocean. An inlet of the Barents Sea, the fjord is approximately 80 mi (130 km) long and lies well north of the Arctic Circle. Adjacent to the mouth of the fjord is a largely uninhabited area, Sværholtklubben, which serves as home to thousands of seabirds. Many islands are found in Porsangen;

Ankle

In humans, hinge-type, freely moving synovial joint between the foot and leg. The ankle contains seven tarsal bones that articulate (connect) with each other, with the metatarsal bones of the foot, and with the bones of the lower leg. The articulation of one of the tarsal bones, the ankle bone (talus, or astragalus), with the fibula and tibia of the lower leg forms the actual

Insurance, Life insurance

Life insurance may be defined as a plan under which large groups of individuals can equalize the burden of loss from death by distributing funds to the beneficiaries of those who die. From the individual standpoint life insurance is a means by which an estate may be created immediately for one's heirs and dependents. It has achieved its greatest acceptance in Canada,

Mineral, Halides

Members of this class are distinguished by the large-sized anions of the halogens chlorine, bromine, iodine, and fluorine. The ions carry a charge of negative one and easily become distorted in the presence of strongly charged bodies. When associated with rather large, weakly polarizing cations of low charge, such as those of the alkali metals, both anions and cations

Ugarit

Ancient city lying in a large artificial mound called Ras Shamra (Ra's Shamrah), 6 miles (10 km) north of Al-Ladhiqiyah (Latakia) on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria. Its ruins, about half a mile from the shore, were first uncovered by the plow of a peasant at Al-Bayda Bay. Excavations were begun in 1929 by a French archaeological mission under the direction of Claude F.A.

Peru, Pre-Hispanic patterns

Diverse groups of indigenous Indians occupied Peru during the pre-Hispanic period. When the first migrants arrived in the Andean area, probably more than 13,000 years ago, they were at a hunting and gathering stage of cultural development. Over a long period of time, however, varied and more sophisticated ways of life were developed. Along the coast, groups became specialized

Keyboard Instrument, The short octave

Even after the present arrangement of five raised keys and seven natural keys per octave had become standard in the 15th century, two exceptions existed. The first of these—the “short octave”—concerned only the lowest octave at the bass end of the keyboard. In the short octave, not all keys actually sounded notes of the expected pitch; their respective strings were tuned