A-Z Browse

any of the four North American plant species of the genus Triosteum, all coarse perennials belonging to the family Caprifoliaceae. Several other species of the genus are East Asian. The common names feverwort, wild ipecac, and horse gentian resulted from former medicinal uses of the plant. Other names for certain of the plants are tinker’s weed and wild coffee....

...novelist Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan. She too wrote songs, and she published Twelve Original Hibernian Melodies in 1805. But it was her romantic novel The Wild Irish Girl (1806) that made her a household name. This partly epistolary novel, set in Ireland, concerns the romance between Horatio, a young Englishman, and Glorvina, whose father...

British actor (b. Sept. 30, 1952, Royton, Lancashire, Eng.—d. March 1, 2006, Tebworth, Bedfordshire, Eng.), achieved international fame as a teenager for his spirited portrayal of the Artful Dodger in the film musical Oliver! (1968), which earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. He later starred in the American television series H.R. Pufnstuf (1969), a psyche...

master English criminal of early 18th-century London, leader of thieves and highwaymen, extortionist, and fence for stolen goods....

(Vitex agnus-castus), aromatic shrub growing to 5 metres (about 16 feet) tall, bearing spikes of rose-lavender flowers. It belongs in the verbena family (Verbenaceae), order Lamiales....

Wild lupine (L. perennis) and Nuttal’s lupine (L. nuttallii), both with blue flower spikes, are found in dry open woods and fields of eastern North America. Spreading lupine (L. diffusa) and hairy lupine (L. villosus) are distributed throughout the southern United States. L. polyphyllus, from the Pacific Northwest, is becoming abundant in the northeastern....

abundant “wild duck” of the Northern Hemisphere that is the ancestor of most domestic ducks. Breeding throughout Europe, most of Asia, and northern North America, mallards winter as far south as North Africa, India, and southern Mexico. During the 20th century, mallards expanded their range eastward through southern Canada....

...learning had comparatively little effect until the next period. Stories of Finn, whose traditions went back to an early period, only really developed when the fili were no longer in control. The “wild-man-of-the-woods” cycle associated with Suibne Geilt had its origins in Strathclyde, where Irish and Brythonic literature must have been in contact at an early date; this mixture of....

(Irvingia gabonensis), tropical African tree, of the family Irvingiaceae, notable for its edible yellow fruit, which somewhat resembles the mango. The seed is rich in a fat used locally to make both bread and a type of butter. The wood is very hard and is used locally in building construction....

...genera Origanum and Majorana of the Lamiaceae family are called marjoram. Pot marjoram, Majorana onites, is also cultivated for its aromatic leaves and is used to flavour food. Wild marjoram, Origanum vulgare, is a perennial herb native to Europe and Asia and is commonly found in dry copses and on hedgebanks in England and has been naturalized in the United States. ...

...(M. pulegium) is a low plant with small, oval, scented leaves and bluish lilac flowers. All four species, native to Eurasia and naturalized in North America, are common in moist meadows. Wild mint (M. arvensis), native in North America and Eurasia, reaches about 1 m (over 3 feet) high. See also mint....

any of several tufted annual grasses of the genus Avena (family Poaceae), native to Eurasia. Wild oats are sometimes cut for hay, and young plants provide forage for grazing animals....

...It is now considered a noxious weed in many parts of the United States and Canada, where it forms dense colonies and crowds out native wetland vegetation that provides food and habitat for wildlife. Swamp loosestrife, water willow, or wild oleander (Decodon verticillatus) is a perennial herb native to swamps and ponds of eastern North America....

...and went on to receive nominations for his performances in Viva Zapata! (1952) and Julius Caesar (1953). Also from this period is The Wild One (1953), a low-budget drama in which he played the leader of an outlaw motorcycle gang. The film became one of Brando’s most famous and served to enhance his iconoclastic im...

The novel The Wild Palms (1939) was again technically adventurous, with two distinct yet thematically counterpointed narratives alternating, chapter by chapter, throughout. But Faulkner was beginning to return to the Yoknapatawpha County material he had first imagined in the 1920s and subsequently exploited in short-story form. The Unvanquished (1938) was relatively conventional,......

The wild pansy, also known as johnny-jump-up, heartsease, and love-in-idleness, has been widely naturalized in North America. The flowers of this form are usually purple and yellow and less than 2 cm (0.8 inch) across....

The wild passion-flower, passion vine, or maypop (P. incarnata) climbs about 3 to 9 m (10 to 30 feet) high and has pink and white flowers about 4 to 7.5 cm (1.5 to 3 inches) across and a yellow, berrylike, edible fruit about 5 cm long. The yellow passion-flower (P. lutea) is a smaller plant with greenish yellow flowers and purple fruits....

any of the wild members of the pig species Sus scrofa, family Suidae. The term boar is also used to designate the male of the domestic pig, guinea pig, and various other mammals. The term wild boar, or wild pig, is sometimes used to refer to any wild member of the Sus genus....

(Arethusa bulbosa), one of two plant species of the orchid genus Arethusa, family Orchidaceae. Dragon’s-mouth is found only in North American bogs; the other species exists only in marshy areas of Japan....

(Cucurbita foetidissima), perennial prostrate vine of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to southwestern North America. A calabazilla has triangular, long-stalked, finely toothed leaves, yellow flowers about 6.3 to 10.2 cm (2.5 to 4 inches) wide, and inedible, orange-shaped, predominantly green fruits with yellow stripes and markings. Although an unattractive plant with a fetid odour,...

(species Raphanus raphanistrum), widespread annual weed of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), native to Eurasia and naturalized in North America. It is believed by some authorities to be the ancestor of the domestic radish (R. sativus). Wild radish has a stout taproot, a rosette of unequally divided leaves and very bristly flowering stalks 60 cm (2 feet) tall. The...

...seals, sea otters, penguins, and sea horses. In 2000 the aquarium opened Amazon Rising: Seasons of the River, an exhibit recreating a year in the life of the Amazon River basin. Three years later, a Wild Reef exhibit was inaugurated, with 26 interconnected habitats that allowed patrons to explore a Philippine coral reef....

(species Zizania aquatica or Zizania palustris), coarse annual grass of the family Poaceae whose grain, now often considered a delicacy, has long been an important food of North American Indians. Despite its name, the plant is not related to rice (Oryza sativa). Wild rice grows in shallow water in marshes and along the shores of streams and lakes in north-central Nort...

...doorknobs and tableware in imitation of silver. It is from the last decades of its production that some of the company’s most successful art glasses date: a peachblow glass (q.v.), called Wild Rose, which is an opaque, coloured glass with a glossy finish shading from white to deep rose; the amberina glass (q.v.), with pale amber and ruby tones; and the Pomona, which has a.....

any of a group of about 50 species of perennial forage grasses in the family Poaceae that are native to temperate and cool parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Giant wild rye (Elymus cinereus), Virginia wild rye (E. virginicus), and Canada wild rye (E. canadensis) are the most widespread North American species....

Wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) has an aromatic root that is used as a substitute for sarsaparilla. Ginseng root, from Panax ginseng, has long been used by the Chinese in the treatment of various diseases; its American relative, Panax quinquefolium (see photograph), is used in the United States as a stimulant.......

...relative of spikenard, are used as a substitute for sarsaparilla flavouring. Smilacina racemosa, one of the false Solomon’s seals in the family Liliaceae (order Liliales), is sometimes called wild spikenard....

...fever swept over the international film scene: concurrently with the succession of his new films, which included two masterpieces, The Seventh Seal (1957), a medieval morality play, and Wild Strawberries (1957), a meditation on old age, all of his early work was shown, and Bergman was universally recognized as one of the most important figures in cinema. Indeed, a far wider......

The grandeur of his mature reflective poetry in The Wild Swans at Coole (1917), Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), The Tower (1928), and The Winding Stair (1929) derived in large measure from the way in which (caught up by the violent discords of......

...crab (M. spectabilis), Siberian crab (M. baccata), Toringo crab (M. sieboldii), and Japanese crab (M. floribunda). Among the notable American species are the garland, or wild sweet crab (M. coronaria); Oregon crab (M. fusca); prairie, or Iowa crab (M. ioensis); and southern crab (M. angustifolia)....

...40 to 50 species of the genus Lamium are known as dead nettles; they are low weedy plants that are sometimes cultivated. There are about 350 species in the genus Thymus, all Eurasian. Wild thyme (T. serpyllum), with scented leaves, is a creeping plant that is native in Europe but naturalized in eastern North America. Its foliage and flower heads resemble those of garden......

...isolated him from the life of his people; moreover, his uncritical love of English traditions led to such unwise actions as the founding of a royal paramilitary force under his direct command, the Wild Tiger Corps, outside the regular armed forces. Resentment of this corps, coupled with youthful impatience with Siam’s slow political development, led to an abortive plot against him led by...

...The tobacco smoked, sniffed, and chewed is from Nicotiana tabacum, a species of tobacco not known in the wild. Its closest relatives are found in western South America. Another species, N. rustica, was the tobacco first taken to Europe by the Spanish in 1558; this tobacco continued to be used long after the milder Virginia tobacco (N. tabacum) was generally accepted.......

either of two species of birds in the family Meleagrididae (order Galliformes). The best known is the common turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), a native game bird of North America but widely domesticated for the table. The other species is Agriocharis (or Meleagris) ocellata, the ocellated turkey. For unrelated but similar birds, see bustard (Australian turkey);......

...code. Mutation is the random process whereby genes change from one allelic form to another. Scientists who study mutation use the most common genotype found in natural populations, called the wild type, as the standard against which to compare a mutant allele. Mutation can occur in two directions; mutation from wild type to mutant is called a forward mutation, and mutation from mutant to......

The wild water buffalo is sometimes referred to as a different species (B. arnee). It can interbreed with domestic water buffalo. This wild form is a huge animal, nearly 3 metres (10 feet) long and 2 metres tall and weighing up to 1,200 kg (2,600 pounds); females are about two-thirds this size. The hooves are large and splayed, and two flexible joints (fetlock and......

competitive canoe or kayak racing down swift-flowing, turbulent streams called wild water (often “white water” in the United States). The sport developed from the riding of rapids in small boats and rafts, a necessary skill for explorers, hunters, and fishermen. Later it became an increasingly popular form of recreation in part...

theatrical extravaganza begun in 1883 by William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Cody, an Indian scout and Western hero, first turned to acting and then to producing and promoting his own Wild West show. In 1887 his show was performed at Madison Square Garden, New York City, with a cast of 100 Indians; Annie Oakley, the sharpshooter; other trick ...

Wild yaks are sometimes referred to as a separate species (Bos mutus) to differentiate them from domestic yaks, although they are freely interbred with various kinds of cattle. Wild yaks are larger, the bulls standing up to 2 metres tall at the shoulder and weighing over 800 kg (1,800 pounds); cows weigh less than half as much. In China, where they are known as......

Wild yaks are sometimes referred to as a separate species (Bos mutus) to differentiate them from domestic yaks, although they are freely interbred with various kinds of cattle. Wild yaks are larger, the bulls standing up to 2 metres tall at the shoulder and weighing over 800 kg (1,800 pounds); cows weigh less than half as much. In China, where they are known as.........

bobtailed North American cat (family Felidae), found from southern Canada to southern Mexico. The bobcat is a close relative of the somewhat larger Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis)....

...founded the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation on Long Island, N.Y. His FF-1, which entered service with the U.S. Navy in 1933, was a two-seat biplane with retractable landing gear. With the F4F Wildcat, introduced in 1940, Grumman switched to monoplane construction. The F4F featured a folding wing for compact stowage and was the United States’ principal carrier-based fighter plane...

...the Philadelphia Toboggan Company turned the local Coney Island park near Cincinnati, Ohio, into its test bed with the introduction of the Wild Cat and the completely enclosed Twister. Indeed, the Wildcat at Rocky Springs (Lancaster, Pa.), built in 1928 by Philadelphia Toboggan, is considered the steepest wooden coaster ever made, with a reputed drop of 90 feet 3 inches (27.5 metres) at 60......

(species Felis silvestris), a small wild member of the cat family (Felidae) native to Eurasia. The name wildcat is also used as a general term for feral domestic cats and for any of the smaller wild species of the cat family....

unsound bank chartered under state law during the period of uncontrolled state banking (1816–63) in the United States. Such banks distributed nearly worthless currency backed by questionable security (e.g., mortgages, bonds) and were located in inaccessible areas to discourage note redemption. Note circulation by state banks ended after the passage of the National Bank Act...

mountain man, trapper, and scout of the American West....

...(intended to improve work conditions). Other strikes can stem from sympathy with other striking unions or from jurisdictional disputes between two unions. Illegal strikes include sit-down strikes, wildcat strikes, and partial strikes (such as slowdowns or sick-ins). Strikes may also be called for purely political reasons (as in the general strike)....

American actor and filmmaker who attained stardom with his sensitive portrayal of composer Frédéric Chopin in the motion picture A Song to Remember (1945), for which he received an Academy Award nomination....

American actor and filmmaker who attained stardom with his sensitive portrayal of composer Frédéric Chopin in the motion picture A Song to Remember (1945), for which he received an Academy Award nomination....

...choice for birth control since the second half of the 19th century. The use of vaginal barriers (diaphragms and caps, which are commonly used with spermicides) was recorded by the German physician F.A. Wilde in 1823. The medical forerunner of the intrauterine device was the stem pessary, first described and illustrated in 1868. By 1909, Richard Richter, a practitioner from near Breslau......

Welsh professional boxer, world flyweight (112 pounds) champion from 1916 to 1923....

Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose reputation rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art...

Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose reputation rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art...

...when Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Prosper Ménière made ear physiology and disease a matter of systematic investigation. The scientific basis of the specialty was first formulated by William R. Wilde of Dublin, who in 1853 published Practical Observations on Aural Surgery, and the Nature and Treatment of Diseases of the Ear. Further advances were made with the development......

either of two African antelopes of the genus Connochaetes, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla)....

French-born art historian, art dealer, and thoroughbred race horse owner (b. Sept. 11, 1917, Verrières-le-Buisson, France—d. Oct. 23, 2001, Paris, France), was the head of Wildenstein & Co., a secretive and tightly controlled billion-dollar art dynasty that was founded in the 1870s by his grandfather and later moved to New York City by his father. The family company, which Dan...

Norwegian poet whose sunny songs of simple sensual pleasure are unusual in the sombre history of Norwegian verse....

Austrian-born American motion-picture scenarist, director, and producer known for films that humorously treat subjects of controversy and offer biting indictments of hypocrisy in American life....

American politician, the first popularly elected African American governor in the United States. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Virginia Union University (1951) and a law degree from Howard University (1959). Wilder pursued a legal and political career in Richmond, Virginia, and served as a director of the Richmond chapter of the National Urban League. In 1969 he became t...

American comic actor best known for his portrayals of high-strung neurotic characters....

American author of children’s fiction based on her own youth in the American Midwest....

American politician, the first popularly elected African American governor in the United States. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Virginia Union University (1951) and a law degree from Howard University (1959). Wilder pursued a legal and political career in Richmond, Virginia, and served as a director of the Richmond chapter of the National Urban League. In 1969 he became t...

In 1909 Ricketts and his assistant, Russel M. Wilder, went to Mexico City to study epidemic typhus. They found that it was transmitted by the body louse (Pediculus humanus) and located the disease-causing organism both in the blood of the victim and in the bodies of the lice. Before he succumbed to typhus later that year, Ricketts showed that the disease could be transmitted to monkeys,......

Austrian-born American motion-picture scenarist, director, and producer known for films that humorously treat subjects of controversy and offer biting indictments of hypocrisy in American life....

American writer, whose innovative novels and plays reflect his views of the universal truths in human nature. He is probably best known for his plays....

American writer, whose innovative novels and plays reflect his views of the universal truths in human nature. He is probably best known for his plays....

(May 5–7, 1864), in the American Civil War, first stage of a carefully planned Union campaign to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Crossing the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia, early in May, General Ulysses S. Grant advanced with a Union army of 115,000 men. On May 5 he met a Confederate army of 62,000 troops under ...

Frisch’s early novels Stiller (1954; I’m Not Stiller), Homo Faber (1957), and Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964; A Wilderness of Mirrors) portray aspects of modern intellectual life and examine the theme of identity. His autobiographical works include two noteworthy diaries, Tagebuch 1946–1949 (1950; Sketchbook 1946–1949) an...

...to Aqaba, destined to be of almost immediate strategic value. The cover study was nevertheless of authentic scholarly significance; written by Lawrence and Woolley together, it was published as The Wilderness of Zin in 1915....

...near the point where Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee meet between Middlesboro, Kentucky, and the town of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. The pass was discovered in 1750 by Thomas Walker, and the Wilderness Road blazed by Daniel Boone runs through it. Named for the duke of Cumberland, son of George II, it became the main artery of trans-Allegheny migration that opened the Northwest Territory......

For regular and intensive walkers there are available services offered by such associations as the Ramblers’ Association in Great Britain and the Wilderness Society in the United States. These organizations encourage hiking and preserve footpaths, bridle paths, and rights of way in parkland and recognized open spaces in areas of natural beauty against the encroachment of builders, local......

Buchanan’s school was imitated by others, notably by the British educator Samuel Wilderspin, who wrote some of the earliest and most widely disseminated monographs on infant education....

As a dramatist Kotzebue was prolific (he wrote more than 200 plays) and facile, but dramatically adroit. He is at his best in such comedies as Der Wildfang (1798; “The Trapping of Game”) and Die deutschen Kleinstädter (1803; “The German Small-towner”), which contain admirable pictures of provincial German life. He also wrote some novels as well as.....

While a student at St. Petersburg University, Ivanovsky was asked in 1887 to investigate “wildfire,” a disease that was infecting tobacco plantations of the Ukraine and Bessarabia. In 1890 he was commissioned to study a different disease that was destroying tobacco plants in the Crimea. He determined that the infection was mosaic disease, which was believed at the time to be caused.....

uncontrolled fire occurring in vegetation more than 6 feet (1.8 m) in height. These fires often reach the proportions of a major conflagration and are sometimes begun by combustion and heat from surface and ground fires. A big forest fire may crown, that is, spread rapidly through the topmost branches of the trees before involving undergrowth or the forest floor. As a result, violent blowups are ...

any flowering plant that has not been genetically manipulated. Generally the term applies to plants growing without intentional human aid, particularly those flowering in spring and summer in woodlands, prairies, and mountains. Wildflowers are the source of all cultivated garden varieties of flowers. Although most wildflowers are native to the region in which they occur, some are the descendants o...

...Anatidae comprises about 147 species of medium to large birds, usually associated with freshwater or marine habitats. This family is known collectively as waterfowl (in the United States) or wildfowl (in Europe). The three species of screamers are quite different from waterfowl in general appearance. They are moderately long-legged birds about the size of a turkey, with chickenlike beaks......

centre of the world’s largest collection of waterfowl. It was established in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott on 418 acres (169 hectares) along the River Severn near Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, Eng. Nearly a quarter of the land is fenced off for captive birds and breeding stock; the rest of the refuge is traditional wintering ground for many species of ducks and geese. In additio...

centre of the world’s largest collection of waterfowl. It was established in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott on 418 acres (169 hectares) along the River Severn near Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, Eng. Nearly a quarter of the land is fenced off for captive birds and breeding stock; the rest of the refuge is traditional wintering ground for many species of ducks and geese. In additio...

Austrian dramatist and poet known for his mystical dramas charged with the symbolic messages typical of German Expressionism....

...was fact, apart from impressing the reader that the world is a very strange place, put him completely at odds with the following generation of short-story writers as, for example, Frank Moorhouse, Michael Wilding, and Peter Carey. These writers, provocative and scandalous in the manner of the 1970s, broke free from all restraints and explored the many possibilities of fantasy—sexual,......

...Brookes, the first in a long line of Australian champions and the first left-hander to reach the top. He won at Wimbledon in 1907 and again on his next visit, in 1914. He and his doubles partner, Tony Wilding of New Zealand, wrested the Davis Cup from Great Britain in 1907 and held it until 1911, arousing enduring public interest in Australia and New Zealand....

uncontrolled fire in a forest, grassland, brushland, or land sown to crops....

...perceived, either by creating a mood (sombre or festive, depending on the colour and ornamentation used) or by strengthening a choreographic image or concept. In Richard Alston’s Wildlife (1984) the geometrically shaped kites suspended from the flies actually inspired some of the dancers’ sharply angled movements as well as making them visually more strik...

...perceived, either by creating a mood (sombre or festive, depending on the colour and ornamentation used) or by strengthening a choreographic image or concept. In Richard Alston’s Wildlife (1984) the geometrically shaped kites suspended from the flies actually inspired some of the dancers’ sharply angled movements as well as making them visually more strik...

About 1900, as the bison neared extinction, concerted action by cattlemen and conservationists led by William T. Hornaday resulted in the protection of the remaining animals in government preserves. The present managed herds now total as many as 200,000 individuals and ensure the survival of the species. The woodland bison survives in only very small numbers, however, and is considered an......

...few societies have established special research institutions. In the United States the Penrose Research Laboratory, of the Philadelphia Zoo is particularly concerned with comparative pathology. The New York Zoological Society maintains an Institute for Research in Animal Behavior and, in Trinidad, the William Beebe Tropical Research Station. In Great Britain the Zoological Society of London......

...few societies have established special research institutions. In the United States the Penrose Research Laboratory, of the Philadelphia Zoo is particularly concerned with comparative pathology. The New York Zoological Society maintains an Institute for Research in Animal Behavior and, in Trinidad, the William Beebe Tropical Research Station. In Great Britain the Zoological Society of London.......

English agitator and Leveler associate who outlasted vicissitudes under three British kings and two protectors....

city, seat (1889) of Florence county, northeastern South Carolina, U.S. Established in the 1850s as a rail junction and transfer point for the Wilmington and Manchester, the Northwestern, and the Cheraw and Darlington railroads, it was called Wilds for a judge in the town but later renamed (c. 1859) for the daughter of William Wallace Harlee, head of the Wilmington and Mancheste...

...di Resia, west-southwest), the Inn River valley (north), the Zillertal Alps and Brenner Pass (east), and the Adige River valley (south). Many of the peaks are snow- and glacier-covered, including Wildspitze (12,382 feet [3,774 m]), the highest point both in the range and in the Austrian Tirol. The Ötztaler Ache, a tributary of the Inn River, divides the main part of the range to the......

...Sweden, long prized as a national wildlife refuge, became the subject of an investigation in 1967. Lake Trummen, also in Sweden, was treated by dredging its upper sediments. In Switzerland, Lake Wiler (Wilersee) was treated by the removal of water just above the sediments during stagnation periods....

...Sweden, long prized as a national wildlife refuge, became the subject of an investigation in 1967. Lake Trummen, also in Sweden, was treated by dredging its upper sediments. In Switzerland, Lake Wiler (Wilersee) was treated by the removal of water just above the sediments during stagnation periods....

British mathematician who proved Fermat’s last theorem; in recognition he was awarded a special silver plaque—he was beyond the traditional age limit of 40 years for receiving the gold Fields Medal—by the International Mathematical Union in 1998....

Original Story: Frances Marion for The ChampAdaptation: Edwin Burke for Bad GirlCinematography: Lee Garmes for Shanghai ExpressArt Direction: Gordon Wiles for TransatlanticHonorary Award: Walt Disney...

one of the greatest English saints, a monk and bishop who was outstanding in bringing about close relations between the Anglo-Saxon Church and the papacy. He devoted his life to establishing the observances of the Roman Church over those of the Celtic Church and fought a stormy series of controversies on discipline and precedent....

one of the greatest English saints, a monk and bishop who was outstanding in bringing about close relations between the Anglo-Saxon Church and the papacy. He devoted his life to establishing the observances of the Roman Church over those of the Celtic Church and fought a stormy series of controversies on discipline and precedent....

British theologian, noted hymnist, and founder of the Wilfridians, a religious society living in common without vows....

technique of underwater tunneling used principally for underwater crossings. The method was pioneered by the American engineer W.J. Wilgus in the Detroit River in 1903 for the Michigan Central Railroad. Wilgus dredged a trench in the riverbed, floated segments of steel tube into position, and sank them; the segments were locked together by divers and pumped out and could then be covered with......

grand duke of Luxembourg (1905–12), eldest son of grand duke Adolf of Nassau. Falling severely ill soon after his accession, he eventually on March 19, 1908, had his consort Maria Anna of Braganza named regent, or governor (Statthalterin). Also, having no sons and wishing to secure the succession of his daughters Marie-Adélaide and Charlotte, he had the Luxembourg Parliament a...