Uberl�ndia

City, western Minas Gerais estado (�state�), Brazil. It lies along the Bom Jardim River, which is a tributary of the Araguari River (also known as the Velhas River), at 2,802 feet (854 m) above sea level. It was given city status in 1892. Uberl�ndia is a trade centre for a primarily agricultural and pastoral hinterland whose chief crops include cotton, corn (maize), rice, and feij�o (beans). The city

Argentina, Soils

Soil types in Argentina range from the light-coloured saline formations of the high puna in the Northwest to the dark, humus-rich type found in the Pampas. Golden-brown loess soils of the Gran Chaco are sometimes lighter where salinity is excessive but turn darker toward the east in the Mesopotamian border zone. These give way to soils ranging from rust to deep red

Gia Long

Nguyen Anh - the nephew of Hue Vuong, the legitimate heir to the throne, who died in prison during a civil war in 1766 - became a great general. He was aided in winning his kingdom by French mercenaries and other Western soldiers of fortune, whose assistance

Mercer, David

Mercer left school at the age of 14 and became a medical laboratory technician. He eventually joined the Royal Navy and, after his discharge in 1948, studied painting at King's College, Newcastle

Czestochowa

City, capital (since 1975) of Czestochowa wojew�dztwo (province), south-central Poland. The city originally consisted of two settlements, Old Czestochowa, founded in the 13th century, and Jasna G�ra (Polish: �Shining Mountain�), founded in the 14th; the two were merged in 1826. Roman Catholic pilgrimages are made to the Jasna G�ra monastery (1382), which contains valuable frescoes and the famous

Czestochowa

In the United Kingdom, television network consisting of a consortium of private companies in competition with the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is regulated by the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which was originally the Independent Television Authority. The ITV network was authorized by act of Parliament in 1954, when the BBC's monopoly over radio

Tordesillas, Treaty Of

In 1493, after reports of Columbus' discoveries had reached them, the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella enlisted papal support for their claims to the New World in order to inhibit the

Arabia, History Of, Regional centres

Once Mu'awiyah and the Umayyads had seized overlordship of the far-flung Islamic empire, which they ruled from Damascus, the Holy Cities remained only the spiritual capitals of Islam. The Umayyad caliphs appointed governors over the three crucial areas of the Hejaz, Yemen, and Oman; but in Iraq occasional powerful governors managed to control the Persian Gulf provinces,

West Haven

City, coextensive with the town (township) of West Haven, New Haven county, southwestern Connecticut, U.S. It lies on New Haven Harbor and across the West River from New Haven. Early settlement began in the 1640s, when the area was called West Farms. Additional land was divided among veterans of King Philip's War (1675 - 76). The parish of West Haven, organized about 1720, became part of the town

Aguascalientes

State, central Mexico. One of the country's smallest states (2,112 square miles [5,471 square km]), it occupies part of the central plateau between 3,300 and 10,000 feet (1,000 and 3,000 metres) above sea level, extending from two spurs of the Sierra Madre eastward and southward to rolling fertile plains. It is well watered and has a mild climate with light rainfall. The name, from the Spanish for �hot waters,� stems

Petah Tiqwa

City, west-central Israel, on the Plain of Sharon, east-northeast of Tel Aviv-Yafo and part of that city's metropolitan area. Situated in the valley of Achor near the Yarqon River, the city takes its name (meaning �Door of Hope�) from the biblical allusion in Hosea 2:15: � . . . and make the valley of Achor a door of hope.� Petah Tiqwa was the first village (founded 1878) in the modern Jewish settlement

Tafilalt

Also spelled �Tafilet, or Tafilalet, � largest Saharan oasis of Morocco, in the southeastern part of the country. The oasis comprises the fortified villages of Erfoud, Arab Sebbah du Ziz, Rissani, Seffalat, Aoufous, and Jorf, together with palm groves stretching 30 miles (50 km) along the Wadi Ziz. Its old capital was the Berber stronghold of Sijilmassa, founded in AD 757 on the Saharan caravan route from the Niger River

Austin

The state's

Euler-chelpin, Hans Von

After graduating from the University of Berlin (1895), Euler-Chelpin worked with Walther Nernst and in 1897 became assistant to Svante Arrhenius at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Earth, Wind And Fire

American pop, soul, and jazz-fusion band that became one of the best-selling and most influential black groups of the 1970s. The principal members were Maurice White (b. December 19, 1941, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), Philip Bailey (b. May 8, 1951, Denver, Colorado), Verdine White (b. July 25, 1951, Chicago), Fred White (b. January 13, 1956, Chicago), Al McKay (b. February 2, 1948, New Orleans, Louisiana), Johnny Graham (b. August 3, 1951, Kentucky), Ralph

Eisenach

City, Thuringia Land (state), central Germany. It lies on the northwestern slopes of the Th�ringer Wald, at the confluence of the H�rsel and Nesse rivers, west of the city of Erfurt. Founded by the landgraves of Thuringia c. 1150, Eisenach fell to the Saxon house of Wettin in 1264 and was chartered in 1283. It was intermittently the seat of a separate Saxon duchy between 1596 and 1741, when it fell to

Guayaquil

In full� Santiago De Guayaquil, � largest city and chief port of Ecuador. It is situated on the west bank of the Guayas River, 45 miles (72 km) upstream from the Gulf of Guayaquil of the Pacific Ocean. The original settlement was founded in the 1530s at the mouth of the Babahoyo River, just east of the present site, by Sebasti�n de Belalc�zar, a lieutenant of the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, but Indians

Downpatrick

Irish �D�n P�draig� town and seat, Down district (established 1973), formerly in County Down, Northern Ireland. Downpatrick is located where the River Quoil� broadens into its estuary in Strangford Lough (inlet of the sea). The town takes its name from d�n (fortress) and from its association with St. Patrick. It is the Dun-da-leth-glas (Fortress of the Two Broken Fetters) of Irish chroniclers. Formerly

Ejido

In Mexico, village lands communally held in the traditional Indian system of land tenure that combines communal ownership with individual use. The ejido consists of cultivated land, pastureland, other uncultivated lands, and the fundo legal (townsite). In most cases the cultivated land is divided into separate family holdings, which cannot be sold although they

Literature, Norwegian.

The year 2001 was a successful one for established authors in Norway. The 2001 Nordic Council Literature Prize was awarded to Jan Kj�rstad for Oppdageren (1999). Lars Saabye Christensen won acclaim for his gigantic novel Halvbroren, which chronicled three generations in Oslo; it was awarded the Brage Prize and Bokhandlerprisen and was nominated for the 2002 Nordic Council Literature

Blood Pressure

Force originating in the pumping action of the heart, exerted by the blood against the walls of the blood vessels; the stretching of the vessels in response to this force and their subsequent contraction are important in maintaining blood flow through the vascular system. In human beings, blood pressure is usually measured indirectly over the brachial or femoral

Gull

Adult gulls are mainly gray or white, with variable head markings. In breeding season the

Hyderabad

Former princely state of south-central India, founded by Nizam-ul-Mulk (Mir Qamar-ud-Din), who was intermittently viceroy of the Deccan under the Mughal emperors from 1713 to 1721 and who resumed the post again under the title Asaf Jah in 1724, at which time he became virtually independent. He founded the dynasty of the Nizams of Hyderabad. The British and the French participated in the wars of succession

Tholos

Plural �Tholoi, �Latin �Tholus, �plural �Tholi, � in ancient Greek architecture, a circular building with a conical or vaulted roof and with or without a peristyle, or surrounding colonnade. In the Mycenaean period, tholoi were large ceremonial tombs, sometimes built into the sides of hills; they were beehive-shaped and covered by a corbeled arch. In classical Greece, the tholos at Delphi had a peristyle (see photograph

Photometry

The earliest observations of the apparent brightness of the stars were made by Greek astronomers. The system used by Hipparchus about

Farinelli

He studied in Naples under Nicola Porpora, one of the leading 18th-century opera composers and the outstanding voice teacher of the century. At 16 he

Abbeville

City, seat of Abbeville county, northwestern South Carolina, U.S. French Huguenots in 1764 settled the site, which was named for Abbeville, France, by John de la Howe. The city is regarded by some as the �Cradle and the Grave of the Confederacy�; it was there that a secessionist meeting was held (November 22, 1860, on what is now Secession Hill) and there that the Confederate president, Jefferson