City, coextensive with the town (township) of Bridgeport, Fairfield county, southwestern Connecticut, U.S. The city, the most populous in the state, is a port on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Pequonnock River. Settled in 1639, it was first known as Newfield and later as Stratfield. In 1800 it was incorporated as a borough and named Bridgeport for the first drawbridge over the
Development of opposite electrical charges on different parts of a crystal that is subjected to temperature change. First observed (1824) in quartz, pyroelectricity is exhibited only in crystallized nonconducting substances having at least one axis of symmetry that is polar (that is, having no centre of symmetry, the different crystal faces occurring on opposite
In Indian history, formula devised by Lord Dalhousie, governor-general of India (1848–56), to deal with questions of succession to Hindu Indian states. It was a corollary to the doctrine of paramountcy, by which Great Britain, as the ruling power of the Indian subcontinent, claimed the superintendence of the subordinate Indian states and so also the regulation of their
French archbishop, theologian, and man of letters whose liberal views on politics and education and whose involvement in a controversy over the nature of mystical prayer caused concerted opposition from church and state. His pedagogical concepts and literary works, nevertheless, exerted a lasting influence on
Xenakis was born to a wealthy family of Greek ancestry, and he moved to Greece in 1932. He fought in the Greek resistance movement
Greek Hetaira (Female Companion), one of a class of professional independent courtesans of ancient Greece who, besides developing physical beauty, cultivated their minds and talents to a degree far beyond that allowed to the average Attic woman. Usually living fashionably alone, or sometimes two or three together, the hetaerae enjoyed an enviable and respected position of wealth
In the beginning of his reign John had to contend with the hostility of John of Gaunt, who claimed the crown by right of his wife Constance, daughter of Peter I the Cruel. The king of Castile finally bought off the claim of his English competitor by arranging
Philosopher and dialectician of the Greek Academy who revived the Pyrrhonian principle of “suspended judgment” (epoche) as a practical solution to the vexing and “insoluble” problem of knowledge. In his Pyrrhonian Discourses Aenesidemus formulated 10 tropes in defense of Skepticism, four suggesting arguments that arise from the nature
In American holiday custom, a hollowed-out-pumpkin lantern that is displayed on Halloween. The surface of the pumpkin is carved to resemble a face. Light from a candle inserted inside can be seen flickering through the jack-o'-lantern's cutout eyes, nose, and usually grotesquely grinning mouth. The custom originated in the British Isles, with a large turnip or other vegetable
Ordained in 1875, Davidson became resident chaplain two years later to the archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald C. Tait. He soon won the trust of Queen Victoria, whose influence
Any of several species of deep-sea, marine fishes constituting the family Trachipteridae (order Lampridiformes). The family contains three genera: Trachipteras, Desmodema, and Zu. These slender-bodied fishes occur in all the major oceans. The name ribbonfish comes from the long, stringlike dorsal fin that originates behind the head and waves like a ribbon as the fish
The desert is mostly within the Syrian (or North Arabian) Desert and occupies the eastern and southern parts of the country, comprising more than four-fifths of its territory.
