Sokol

(Czech: “Hawk,” or “Falcon”), gymnastic society, originating in Prague in 1862 to develop strength, litheness, alertness, and courage. Originally patterned after the German turnverein, the Sokol traditionally emphasized mass calisthenics as a means of promoting communal spirit and physical fitness. Banned during the Nazi occupation, the Sokol movement was revived in 1945 but

Tereshkova, Valentina

Although she had no pilot training, Tereshkova was an accomplished amateur parachutist

Medicine, History Of, Hellenistic and Roman medicine

In the following century the work of Aristotle, regarded as the first great biologist, was of inestimable value to medicine. A pupil of Plato at Athens and tutor to Alexander the Great, Aristotle studied the entire world of living things. He laid what can be identified as the foundations of comparative anatomy and embryology, and his views influenced scientific thinking

Dalhousie, James Andrew Broun Ramsay, Marquess And 10th Earl Of

Dalhousie also took advantage of every opportunity to acquire territory by peaceful means. The East India Company, which was no longer an independent corporation but largely under the control of the British government, was rapidly becoming the predominant power in India. It had concluded alliances with Indian rulers, promising to support them and their heirs

Girard, Stephen

Girard shipped out to sea at the age of 14 and by 1774 was captain of a ship involved in U.S. coastal trade with the West Indies. Stymied by British blockades

Liliaceae

The lily family of the flowering plant order Liliales, with about 280 genera and some 4,000 species of herbs and shrubs, native primarily to temperate and subtropical regions. Members of the family usually have six-segmented flowers and three-chambered capsular fruits; occasionally the fruits are berries. The leaves usually have parallel veins and are clustered at the

U2

Argentina, Military government, 1966–73

Adalbert Krieger Vasena, minister of economy and labour, attempted to stabilize the economy by again devaluing the currency and then undertaking programs in electric power, steel, roads, and housing. In May 1969 disturbances and riots in the cities of Corrientes, Rosario, and particularly Córdoba rose out of student and labour conflicts; these incidents, later known

Latin-american Literature, Recent trends

The literature of the last half of the 20th century has been characterized by an increased preoccupation with man as the victim of alienating forces—solitude, identity crises, anguish, and evil—and by a marked determination to create new forms and techniques. Above all, it has put forth a new language more responsive to the demands imposed by increasingly complex spiritual,

Quantitative Chemical Analysis

Branch of chemistry that deals with the determination of the amount or percentage of one or more constituents of a sample. A variety of methods is employed for quantitative analyses, which for convenience may be broadly classified as chemical or physical, depending upon which properties are utilized. Chemical methods depend upon such reactions as precipitation,

Hippogriff

A legendary animal that has the foreparts of a winged griffin and the body and hindquarters of a horse. The creature was invented by Ludovico Ariosto in his Orlando furioso and was based on a proverbial phrase about crossing a griffin with a horse that was used to signify an impossibility or incongruity.

Hall, Charles Martin

While a student at Oberlin (Ohio) College Hall became interested in producing aluminum inexpensively. He continued to use the college laboratory after his graduation in 1885, discovering his method