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Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
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  • Laurentide Ice Sheet (geological formation)
    principal glacial cover of North America during the Pleistocene Epoch (1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago). At its maximum extent it spread as far south as latitude 37° N and covered an area of more than 13,000,000 square km (5,000,000 square miles). In some areas its thickness reached 2,400–3,000 m (8,000–10,000 feet) or more. The Laurentide Ice Sheet probably originated on the L...
  • Laurentide Scarp (geological feature, Canada)
    ...the Torngat, Kaumajet, and Kiglapait mountains, lie south of Hudson Strait. Along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, the shield rim is a 2,000-foot (600-metre) escarpment, the Laurentide Scarp. The rim is almost imperceptible in southern Ontario, but in northern Ontario it rises again to almost 1,500 feet (450 metres) above the northern shore of Lake Superior. From......
  • Laurentides, Les (mountains, Canada)
    mountains forming the Quebec portion of the Canadian Shield, particularly the area partially bounded by the Ottawa, St. Lawrence, and Saguenay rivers. It is one of the oldest mountain regions in the world and consists of Precambrian rocks (those more than 540 million years old). The range was gradually scoured and worn down and now forms a rocky peneplain (a vast erosional plain) with relatively u...
  • Laurentius (antipope)
    antipope in 498 and from 501 to about 505/507, whose disputed papal election gave his name to the Laurentian schism, a split in the Roman Catholic church....
  • Laurentius of Canterbury, Saint (archbishop of Canterbury)
    second archbishop of Canterbury, missionary who played a large part in establishing the Anglo-Saxon church....
  • Lauria, Ruggiero di (Italian admiral)
    Italian admiral in the service of Aragon and Sicily who won important naval victories over the French Angevins (house of Anjou) in the war between France and Aragon over the possession of Sicily in the 1280s....
  • lauric acid (chemical compound)
    ...caper, meaning “goat.” Some hard cheeses (e.g., Swiss cheese) contain natural propanoic acid. The higher even-numbered saturated acids, from C12 to C18 (lauric, myristic, palmitic, and stearic), are present in the fats and oils of many animals and plants, with palmitic and stearic acids being the most prevalent. Lauric acid (C12) is the......
  • Lauricocha (archaeological site, Peru)
    ...“first wave” of immigrants into the New World. Since there has been much less research in the highlands than on the coast, little is known of the highland Late Preceramic. The caves at Lauricocha at about 13,000 feet in the central Andes, which had been occupied by deer and camelid hunters since nearly 8000 bc, were still used, at least as summer camps, by hunters wh...
  • Lauricocha, Lake (lake, Peru)
    northernmost of a chain of glacier-fed lakes in the Andes Mountains, central Peru, about 100 miles (160 km) north-northeast of Lima. It lies at an elevation of 12,615 feet (3,845 m). The Marañón River, the main stream of the Amazon River, issues from the lake; hence, it was once regarded as the source of the Amazon. The lake lies in one of Peru’s most sparsely populated areas....
  • Laurie, Annie (American journalist)
    American reporter whose sensationalist exposés and journalistic derring-do reflected the spirit of the age of yellow journalism....
  • Laurie, Hugh (British actor)
    When in 2007 it became apparent that the number of British actors filling major roles—mostly as Americans—in pilots for television series in the U.S. had grown tremendously, credit was given to Hugh Laurie for paving their way. As the brilliant but rude and arrogant Dr. Gregory House in the TV drama House, Laurie—whose American accent was so convincing that people often...
  • Laurie Island (island, South Atlantic Ocean)
    island group lying between the Scotia Sea to the north and the Weddell Sea to the south in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is composed of two large islands (Coronation and Laurie) and a number of smaller islands and rocky islets and forms part of the British Antarctic Territory. The islands (total area about 240 square miles [620 square km]) are barren and uninhabited, but Signy Island is used as......
  • Laurie, James Hugh Calum (British actor)
    When in 2007 it became apparent that the number of British actors filling major roles—mostly as Americans—in pilots for television series in the U.S. had grown tremendously, credit was given to Hugh Laurie for paving their way. As the brilliant but rude and arrogant Dr. Gregory House in the TV drama House, Laurie—whose American accent was so convincing that people often...
  • Laurier, Sir Wilfrid (prime minister of Canada)
    the first French-Canadian prime minister of the Dominion of Canada (1896–1911), noted especially for his attempts to define the role of French Canada in the federal state and to define Canada’s relations to Great Britain. He was knighted in 1897....
  • “Lauriers sont coupés, Les” (novel by Dujardin)
    ...Closely related to the soliloquy and dramatic monologue, the interior monologue was first used extensively by Édouard Dujardin in Les Lauriers sont coupés (1887; We’ll to the Woods No More) and later became a characteristic device of 20th-century psychological novels....
  • Laurin, Camille (Canadian politician)
    Canadian psychiatrist-turned-politician who was the guiding force behind Quebec’s Bill 101, which required that French be the official language of the province; all business was thereafter to be conducted in French, and immigrants had to attend French schools (b. May 6, 1922, Charlemagne, Que.—d. March 11, 1999, Montreal, Que.)....
  • Laurin, Lucien (American horse trainer)
    Canadian-born American horse trainer (b. Jan. 11, 1912, Joliette, Que.—d. June 26, 2000, Key Largo, Fla.), was one of horse racing’s foremost trainers. During a career that spanned nearly five decades, Laurin trained a total of 36 stakes winners, including Secretariat, who in 1973 became the first horse to capture the U.S. Triple Crown since Citation in 1948. Laurin was a successful ...
  • Laurisilva (forest, Madeira Islands, Portugal)
    ...varieties. Only Madeira has much woodland, most of it the result of reforestation (e.g., of poplar, pine, and eucalyptus). Two-thirds of Madeira is a conservation area; its Laurel Forest (Laurisilva) was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999....
  • Laurium (Greece)
    industrial town of the nomós (department) of Attica, on the Aegean Sea, famous in antiquity for its silver mines. Its port, sheltered by Makrónisos island, imports coal, loads ore, and handles coastal and insular shipping....
  • Lauriya Nandangarh (India)
    ...and concise artistry, represents the style at its best. His smooth, muscled contours, wiry sinews, rippling, flamboyant mane, and alert stance reveal the work of a superior artist. An example at Lauriya Nandangarh is interesting because the pillar and the lion are both complete and in their original place, giving a clear idea of the column as it appeared to its contemporaries....
  • Laurocerasus officinalis (plant)
    (Prunus laurocerasus, also Laurocerasus officinalis), evergreen shrub, of the rose family (Rosaceae), native to Europe but cultivated, particularly as a hedge plant, in other temperate regions. The Carolina cherry laurel (P. caroliniana) is a closely related species. P. laurocerasus grows about 5.4 metres (18 feet) tall and has glossy, rather oval or lance-shaped leave...
  • Laurolavinium (Italy)
    an ancient town of Latium (modern Pratica di Mare, Italy), 19 miles (30 kilometres) south of Rome, regarded as the religious centre of the early Latin peoples. Roman tradition maintained that it had been founded by Aeneas and his followers from Troy and named after his wife, Lavinia. Here he is supposed to have built a temple establishing the worship of the household gods, the P...
  • Laurus (Lauraceae family)
    any of several evergreen shrubs and small trees of the genus Laurus within the family Lauraceae; the name is chiefly applied to L. nobilis (also called bay, sweet bay, bay laurel, and bay tree), native to the Mediterranean region but now widely cultivated in other regions of the world. The plant is the source of bay leaf, a cooking herb. In anci...
  • Laurus, Metropolitan (Czech religious leader)
    Czech religious leader who was instrumental in reconciling the 80-year dispute between the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and its parent church in Russia; the separation occurred in 1927 when Moscow Patriarch Sergey proclaimed allegiance to the Communist Party. Laurus joined a monastery at about age 10, and he arrived in 1946 in Jordanville with other monks after fleeing advancing Sovie...
  • Laurus nobilis (Laurus genus)
    any of several small trees with aromatic leaves, especially the sweet bay, or bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), source of the bay leaf used in cooking. The California laurel (q.v.; Umbellularia californica) is an ornamental tree also called the bay tree. The bay rum tree, or simply bay (Pimenta racemosa), has leaves and twig...
  • Laurussia (geological area)
    ...on one side of the globe. The orogenies (mountain-building events) taking place during the Devonian Period had formed the “Old Red Sandstone” continent. The principal landmass of Laurussia was made up of present-day North America, western Europe through the Urals, and Balto-Scandinavia. Much of Laurussia lay near the paleoequator, whereas the cratons of Siberia, Kazakhstania,......
  • laurustinus (plant)
    ...similar but taller; the sheepberry, or nannyberry (V. lentago), with finely toothed, oval leaves; and the arrowwood (V. dentatum), with roundish to oval, coarsely toothed leaves. Laurustinus (V. tinus), a 3-metre-tall evergreen with oblong leaves, is native to the Mediterranean area. Sweet viburnum (V. odoratissimum), from India and Japan, bears dark-green,......
  • Laus Vitae (work by D’Annunzio)
    ...found in each movement, and most Futuristic “new theories”—the identification of art with action, heroism, and speed; the free use of words—were implied in D’Annunzio’s Laus Vitae (1903; “In Praise of Life”)....
  • Lausanne (Switzerland)
    capital of Vaud canton, western Switzerland, on the northern shore of Lake Geneva (Lac Léman); built on the southern slopes of the Jorat heights, its altitude ranges from 1,240 ft (378 m) at Ouchy, its lake port, to 2,122 ft at Le Signal, its highest point. Two short streams, the Flon and the Louve, which formerly flowed through the centre of the city, have been filled i...
  • Lausanne Cathedral (cathedral, Lausanne, Switzerland)
    ...work of this atelier is extremely distinguished, with an elegance and purity of style and a knowledge of classical art that transcend most of its contemporaries. The rose window (1231–35) of Lausanne Cathedral in Switzerland was made by a wandering artist from Picardy, Peter of Arras, and is related in style and iconography to the Laon workshop....
  • Lausanne Conference (1932)
    (June–July 1932), conference that was held to liquidate the payment of reparations by Germany to the former Allied and Associated powers of World War I. Attended by representatives of the creditor powers (Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy) and of Germany, the conference resulted in agreement on July 9, 1932, that the conditions of world economic...
  • Lausanne Protocol (European history)
    ...1930, 5 percent redeemable bonds to the value of three billion Reichsmarks. The creditor governments canceled war debts as between themselves but made a “gentleman’s agreement” that the Lausanne Protocol would not be ratified until they had reached a satisfactory agreement with respect to their own war debts to the United States. Although the agreement was never ratified, t...
  • Lausanne, Treaty of (Italy-Turkey [1912])
    ...coast, but the war remained at a stalemate until a successful Italian offensive in North Africa from July to October 1912. Turkey, now menaced by the Balkan states, sought peace. By the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne (also called Treaty of Ouchy; Oct. 18, 1912), Turkey conceded its rights over Tripoli and Cyrenaica to Italy. Although Italy agreed to evacuate the Dodecanese, its forces continue...
  • Lausanne, Treaty of (Allies-Turkey [1923])
    (1923), final treaty concluding World War I. It was signed by representatives of Turkey (successor to the Ottoman Empire) on one side and by Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) on the other. The treaty was signed at Lausanne, Switz., on July 24, 1923, after a seven-month conference....
  • LAUSD (school district, Los Angeles, California, United States)
    Southern California has scores of independent school districts. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest public school district in the country, is run by an independent elected board working under state—rather than city—jurisdiction. Turmoil erupted in the 1970s over court-ordered busing to eliminate racial segregation. This litigation never gained full......
  • Lausen, John Rhea (American musician)
    (JOHN RHEA LAUSEN), U.S. jazz trumpeter (b. May 3, 1911--d. Feb. 18, 1995)....
  • Lausiac History (work by Palladius)
    Galatian monk, bishop, and chronicler whose Lausiac History, an account of early Egyptian and Middle Eastern Christian monasticism, provides the most valuable single source for the origins of Christian asceticism....
  • Lausitz (region, Germany)
    central European territory of the Sorbs (Lusatians, or Wends), called Sorben (or Wenden) by the Germans. Historic Lusatia was centred on the Neisse and upper Spree rivers, in what is now eastern Germany, between the present-day cities of Cottbus (north) and Dresden (south)....
  • Lausitzer Gebirge (mountains, Czech Republic)
    mountain group, situated in extreme northern Bohemia, Czech Republic; it is part of the Sudeten mountains (Czech: Sudety). The group extends from the Ještěd ridge in the east (3,320 feet [1,012 m]) to the gorge of the Elbe (Labe) River at Děčín in the west and also into Poland and Germany. Sandstone is the group’s most common constituent rock, but there ar...
  • Lausonium (Switzerland)
    The ancient Celtic Lausonium, or Lausonna, was originally on the shore of the lake southwest of the present city. During the invasion of the Alemanni (c. 379), the inhabitants took refuge in the hills above, building a settlement on the site of the present Cité district. In 590 Bishop Marius of Aventicum (now Avenches) established his diocese there. The settlement eventually......
  • Lausonna (Switzerland)
    The ancient Celtic Lausonium, or Lausonna, was originally on the shore of the lake southwest of the present city. During the invasion of the Alemanni (c. 379), the inhabitants took refuge in the hills above, building a settlement on the site of the present Cité district. In 590 Bishop Marius of Aventicum (now Avenches) established his diocese there. The settlement eventually......
  • Laut Flores (sea, Pacific Ocean)
    portion of the western South Pacific Ocean, bounded on the north by the island of Celebes (Sulawesi) and on the south by the Lesser Sunda Islands of Flores and Sumbawa. Occupying a total surface area of 93,000 square miles (240,000 square km), it opens northwest through Makassar Strait to the Celebes Sea, west to the Java Sea, and east to the Banda Sea. Teluk (gulf of) Bone cuts...
  • Laut Island (island, Indonesia)
    island off the southeastern coast of Borneo, Kalimantan Selatan provinsi (“province”), Indonesia. Laut Island lies in the Makassar Strait, 105 miles (169 km) east of Banjarmasin city. It is 60 miles (100 km) long north to south and 20 miles (30 km) wide east to west, and it covers an area of about 796 square miles (2,062 square km). The island is low-lying and flat except in t...
  • Lautaro (Mapuche leader)
    Mapuche Indian who led the native uprising against the Spanish conquerors in south-central Chile from 1553 to 1557....
  • Lautenwerck (musical instrument)
    ...were occasionally strung with gut rather than with metal wire in order to imitate the sound of a lute. Such gut-strung harpsichords, one of which was owned by J.S. Bach, were called in German Lautenwerck. The 18th-century tangent piano dispensed with pivoted hammers and instead had loose slips of wood or metal supported vertically in a rack above the backs of the keys; as a bar......
  • lauter tun (vessel)
    The decoction brewer transfers the mash to a separation vessel called the lauter tun, where a shallow filter bed is formed, allowing a more rapid runoff time of about 2.5 hours. Large modern breweries use either lauter tuns or special mash filters to speed up the runoff and conduct 10 or 12 mashes a day. As much as 97 percent of the soluble material is obtained, and 75 percent of this is......
  • Lauterbourg, Philip James de (artist)
    early Romantic painter, illustrator, printmaker, and scenographer, especially known for his paintings of landscapes and battles and for his innovative scenery designs and special effects for the theatre....
  • Lauterbur, Paul (American chemist)
    American chemist who, with English physicist Sir Peter Mansfield, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2003 for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a computerized scanning technology that produces images of internal body structures, especially those comprising soft tissues....
  • Lauterbur, Paul Christian (American chemist)
    American chemist who, with English physicist Sir Peter Mansfield, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2003 for the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a computerized scanning technology that produces images of internal body structures, especially those comprising soft tissues....
  • Lautgesetz und Analogie (work by Hermann)
    In 1931 Hermann published Lautgesetz und Analogie (“Sound Law and Analogy”), which discussed, in part, children’s acquisition of language. He made a useful contribution to German historical linguistics in Herkunft unserer Fragefürwörter (1943; “Origin of Our Interrogative Pronouns”). He also did a significant follow-up study on sound c...
  • Lautoka (Fiji)
    city on the northwest coast of the island of Viti Levu, Fiji, South Pacific Ocean. Situated on the dry side of the island, Lautoka (originally called Namoli) serves an important sugarcane-growing district and is Fiji’s leading sugar export port. The Lautoka Sugar Mill is supplied with cane by a private railroad and by trucks that collect cane from the small farms in the v...
  • Lautréamont, comte de (French author)
    poet, a strange and enigmatic figure in French literature, who is recognized as a major influence on the Surrealists....
  • Lauzun, Antonin-Nompar de Caumont, comte et duc de (French military officer)
    French military officer who was imprisoned by King Louis XIV to prevent him from marrying the Duchesse de Montpensier (known as La Grande Mademoiselle), the wealthiest heiress in Europe....
  • Lauzun, Duc de (French military commander)
    military commander with the French forces in the American Revolution, and one of the peers of France who supported the French Revolution, only to be sacrificed to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror....
  • Lauzun, Hôtel de (building, Paris, France)
    ...rent space to householders. The church of Saint-Louis-en-l’Île was begun the same year, 1664, but one of the finest houses, by Louis Le Vau, had been completed as early as 1640. Another, the Hôtel de Lauzun, a few yards upstream on the Quai d’Anjou, was completed in 1657. The Marie Bridge to the Right Bank, which was completed as part of the contract, is the original...
  • Lava (Hindu mythology)
    ...proved it by voluntarily undergoing an ordeal by fire. Rāma, however, banished her to the forest in deference to public opinion. There she gave birth to their two children, Kuśa and Lava. After they reached maturity and were acknowledged by Rāma to be his sons, she called upon her mother, Earth, to swallow her up....
  • Lava (Jaina leader)
    ...meetinghouse (sthanak) rather than at a temple, differs from the Shvetambara sect in its rejection of image worship and temple ritual. The subsect was founded in the 17th century by Lava of Surat, a member of an earlier non-image-worshipping sect called the Lumpaka, or Lonka Gaccha. Both groups based their belief on the argument that the Jain canon makes no mention of idol......
  • lava (volcanic ejecta)
    magma (molten rock) emerging as a liquid onto the Earth’s surface. The term lava is also used for the solidified rock formed by the cooling of a molten lava flow. The temperatures of molten lava range from about 700 to 1,200 °C (1,300 to 2,200 °F). The material can be very fluid, flowing almost like syrup, or it can be extreme...
  • Lava Beds National Monument (geological feature, California, United States)
    region of recent lava flows and related volcanic formations, including deep chasms, cinder cones that rise to 300 ft (90 m) from the lava, and chimneys, in northern California, U.S., south of the city of Tule Lake.The main battle sites of the Modoc Indian War (1872–73) are located within the monument, which occupies 72 sq mi (186 sq km)....
  • lava cave (geology)
    cave or cavity formed as a result of surface solidification of a lava flow during the last stages of its activity. A frozen crust may form over still mobile and actively flowing liquid rock as a result of surface cooling. A dwindling supply of lava may then cause the molten material to drain out from under this crust and leave long cylindrical tunnels. Volcanic gases from bubbles in the lava colle...
  • lava dome (geology)
    any steep-sided mound that is formed when lava reaching the Earth’s surface is so viscous that it cannot flow away readily and accumulates around the vent. Sometimes domes are produced by repeated outpourings of short flows from a summit vent, and, occasionally, extremely viscous lava is pushed up from the vent like a short protrusion of toothpaste from a slightly squeezed tube. More commo...
  • lava flow (geology)
    The root zone of volcanoes is found some 70 to 200 km (40 to 120 miles) below the surface of the Earth. There, in the Earth’s upper mantle, temperatures are high enough to melt rock and form magma. At these depths, magma is generally less dense than the solid rocks surrounding and overlying it, and so it rises toward the surface by the buoyant force of gravity. In some cases, as in the unde...
  • lava fountain (geology)
    ...a fissure that split the long axis of the summit caldera, an oval, cliff-bounded basin approximately 3 to 5 km (1.9 to 3.1 miles) from rim to rim that had been formed by prehistoric subsidence. Lava fountains along the fissure formed a curtain of fire that illuminated the clouds and volcanic fumes into a red glow backlighting the black profile of the volcano’s huge but gently sloping......
  • lava plateau (geology)
    A third type of plateau can form where extensive lava flows (called flood basalts or traps) and volcanic ash bury preexisting terrain, as exemplified by the Columbia Plateau in the northwestern United States. The volcanism involved in such situations is commonly associated with hot spots. The lavas and ash are generally carried long......
  • lava tube (geology)
    These are the longest and most complicated of volcanic caves. They are the channels of rivers of lava that at some earlier time flowed downslope from a volcanic vent or fissure. Lava tubes develop best in highly fluid lava, notably a basaltic type known as pahoehoe. They rarely form in rough, clinkery aa flows or in the more massive block lavas. In pahoehoe flows volatile components remain in......
  • lava tube cave (geology)
    cave or cavity formed as a result of surface solidification of a lava flow during the last stages of its activity. A frozen crust may form over still mobile and actively flowing liquid rock as a result of surface cooling. A dwindling supply of lava may then cause the molten material to drain out from under this crust and leave long cylindrical tunnels. Volcanic gases from bubbles in the lava colle...
  • lavage (therapeutics)
    ...considerable periods, and spontaneous improvement has been known to occur; it is sometimes fatal, but rarely so, if treated. Treatment involves removal of the material by a rinsing out of the lungs (lavage). One lung at a time is rinsed with a saltwater solution introduced through the windpipe. The fluids drawn back out of the lungs have been found to have a high content of fat. Sometimes the.....
  • Lavagh More (mountain, Ireland)
    ...major inlets being Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle, between which is the Inishowen Peninsula. The chief rivers are the Finn and Erne. The main mountain ranges are the Blue Stack, whose highest peak is Lavagh More (2,218 feet [676 metres]), and Derryveagh, which reaches 2,467 feet (752 metres) at Errigal. Evidence of extensive glaciation exists. The climate is temperate, with warm summers and mild,...
  • “Lava’iḥ” (work by Jāmī)
    ...ranging from Qurʾānic commentaries to treatises on Ṣūfism (Islāmic mysticism) and music. Perhaps the most famous is his mystical treatise Lava’iḥ (Flashes of Light), a clear and precise exposition of the Ṣūfī doctrines of waḥdat al-wujūd (the existential unity of Being), together with a comm...
  • Laval (France)
    town, capital of Mayenne département, Pays de la Loire région, northwestern France, east of Rennes. The old quarters of the town, which have fine 16th- and 18th-century houses and two châteaus, are located on the west bank slopes of the Mayenne River and are surrounded by the modern town on both sides of the riv...
  • Laval (Quebec, Canada)
    city, seat of Laval region, southern Quebec province, Canada. It occupies the whole of Île Jésus (Jesus Island), just north of Île de Montréal from which it is separated to the south by the Rivière des Prairies and from the mainland to the north by the Rivière des Mille Îles; both rivers are extensions of the Ot...
  • Laval, Carl Gustaf Patrik de (Swedish scientist and engineer)
    Swedish scientist, engineer, and inventor who pioneered in the development of high-speed turbines....
  • Laval, François de Montmorency (French bishop)
    the first Roman Catholic bishop in Canada, who laid the foundations of church organization in France’s North American possessions....
  • Laval, Pierre (French politician and statesman)
    French politician and statesman who led the Vichy government in policies of collaboration with Germany during World War II, for which he was ultimately executed as a traitor to France....
  • Laval University (university, Quebec, Quebec, Canada)
    a French-language university located on the outskirts of the city of Quebec. Laval’s predecessor institution, the Seminary of Quebec, considered the first Canadian institution of higher learning, was founded by François de Montmorency Laval, first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec, in 1663. Queen Victoria granted the seminary a university charter in 1852, and it was recognized by a pap...
  • Laval-Mussolini agreements (European history)
    ...and King Alexander of Yugoslavia were shot dead in Marseille by an agent of Croatian terrorists. The new French foreign minister, the rightist Pierre Laval, was especially friendly to Rome. The Laval–Mussolini agreements of Jan. 7, 1935, declared France’s disinterest in the fate of Abyssinia in implicit exchange for Italian support of Austria. Mussolini took this to mean that he h...
  • Lavalas Family (political party, Haiti)
    In 1997 Aristide formed a new political party, the Lavalas Family, and in 2000 he was again elected president. Although the opposition boycotted the election and charges of electoral fraud led to international calls for new or runoff elections, the results were declared official, and Aristide was inaugurated in February 2001....
  • Lavalette Gay, Marie-Françoise-Sophie Nichault de (French author)
    French writer and grande dame who wrote romantic novels and plays about upper-class French society during the early 19th century....
  • lavaliere (ornament)
    ornament hung from a chain worn around the neck. The lavaliere, which came into fashion in the 17th century, was usually a small, jewelled gold locket, though it could also be an enamelled locket or pendant....
  • Lavalle, Juan (president of Argentina)
    In 1820 Col. Manuel Dorrego, governor of Buenos Aires, appointed Rosas head of the provincial militia. After Dorrego was overthrown in 1828, Rosas opposed the new governor, Juan Lavalle. Rosas reconvened the former legislature, which elected him governor on Dec. 5, 1829. As head of the Federalist Party, Rosas was opposed by Lavalle’s unitarios......
  • Lavallée, Calixa (Canadian composer)
    The music, written by Calixa Lavallée (1842–91), a concert pianist and native of Verchères, Que., was commissioned in 1880 on the occasion of a visit to Quebec by Lord Lorne (later Duke of Argyll), then governor-general of Canada, and his wife, Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Louise. The original French lyrics were written by Sir Adolphe Basile Routhier (1839–...
  • Lavalleja, Juan Antonio (Uruguayan political leader)
    ...was resisted within the Banda Oriental and by Uruguayan exiles as well. Argentines felt increasingly threatened by the Brazilian presence, and their government was compelled to support Juan Antonio Lavalleja, one of Artigas’s exiled officers, and his “33 orientales” when they crossed the river to free their homeland in 1825. The......
  • Lavalléville (work by Paiement)
    ...theatre in French. André Paiement, one of the founders of the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario in the early 1970s, achieved popular success with his musical comedy Lavalléville (1975). Continuing the theatrical tradition into the 1980s and 1990s, both Jean Marc Dalpé (Le Chien [1987; “The Dog”]) and......
  • Lavandula (plant)
    any plant of the genus Lavandula, comprising about 30 species of the mint family Lamiaceae, native to countries bordering on the Mediterranean. English lavender (L. angustifolia, also called L. officinalis, L. spica, or L. vera) is cultivated widely for its essential oil and for its narrow fragrant leaves and...
  • Lavandula angustifolia (plant)
    Best known for its sharp fragrance is rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), a Mediterranean species. Also Mediterranean is lavender (Lavandula officinalis), with fragrant blue to lavender flowers in leafless spikes (see lavender)....
  • Lavandula lanata (plant)
    ...vera) is cultivated widely for its essential oil and for its narrow fragrant leaves and spikes of purple flowers that are dried and used in sachets. French lavender (L. stoechas) and L. lanata, native to Spain, are also widely cultivated. The ancient Romans used lavender in their baths, and the dried flowers have long been used to scent chests and closets....
  • Lavandula officinalis (plant)
    Best known for its sharp fragrance is rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), a Mediterranean species. Also Mediterranean is lavender (Lavandula officinalis), with fragrant blue to lavender flowers in leafless spikes (see lavender)....
  • Lavandula spica (plant)
    Best known for its sharp fragrance is rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), a Mediterranean species. Also Mediterranean is lavender (Lavandula officinalis), with fragrant blue to lavender flowers in leafless spikes (see lavender)....
  • Lavandula stoechas (plant)
    ...L. spica, or L. vera) is cultivated widely for its essential oil and for its narrow fragrant leaves and spikes of purple flowers that are dried and used in sachets. French lavender (L. stoechas) and L. lanata, native to Spain, are also widely cultivated. The ancient Romans used lavender in their baths, and the dried flowers have long been used to......
  • Lavandula vera (plant)
    Best known for its sharp fragrance is rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), a Mediterranean species. Also Mediterranean is lavender (Lavandula officinalis), with fragrant blue to lavender flowers in leafless spikes (see lavender)....
  • “L’Avanti!” (Italian newspaper)
    ...Lotta di Classe (“The Class Struggle”). So successful was this paper that in 1912 he was appointed editor of the official Socialist newspaper, Avanti! (“Forward!”), whose circulation he soon doubled; and as its antimilitarist, antinationalist, and anti-imperialist editor, he thunderously opposed Italy’s intervention i...
  • Lavater, Johann Kaspar (Swiss writer)
    Swiss writer, Protestant pastor, and founder of physiognomics, an antirational, religious, and literary movement....
  • Lavatera arborea (plant)
    (Lavatera arborea), biennial, herbaceous plant, of the hibiscus, or mallow, family (Malvaceae), native to Europe. It grows 1.2–3 metres (4–10 feet) tall and bears downy, lobed leaves 10–25 cm (4–10 inches) long. Purplish-red flowers about 5 cm (2 inches) wide are borne in profuse, leafy clusters. The cultivated variety L. arborea variegata has white-mottle...
  • lavatoe (dance)
    16th-century leaping and turning dance for couples, originating in Italy and popular at French and German court balls until about 1750. Performed with a notoriously intimate embrace, it became respectable, but never completely dignified, after Queen Elizabeth I of England danced it with the earl of Leicester....
  • lavatory
    ...in the 1860s. Permanent plumbing fixtures appeared in buildings with water supply and drainage, replacing portable basins, buckets, and chamber pots. Joseph Bramah invented the metal valve-type water closet as early as 1778, and other early lavatories, sinks, and bathtubs were of metal also; lead, copper, and zinc were all tried. The metal fixtures proved difficult to clean, however, and in......
  • Laveaux, Étienne (French colonial governor)
    ...a republican. He has been criticized for the duplicity of his dealings with his onetime allies and for a slaughter of Spaniards at a mass. His switch was decisive; the governor of Saint-Domingue, Étienne Laveaux, made Toussaint lieutenant governor, the British suffered severe reverses, and the Spaniards were expelled....
  • Lavelle, Louis (French philosopher)
    French philosopher recognized as a forerunner of the psychometaphysic movement, which teaches that self-actualization and ultimate freedom develop from seeking one’s “inward” being and relating it to the Absolute. Much of his thought drew upon the writings of Nicolas Malebranche and St. Augustine....
  • lavender (plant)
    any plant of the genus Lavandula, comprising about 30 species of the mint family Lamiaceae, native to countries bordering on the Mediterranean. English lavender (L. angustifolia, also called L. officinalis, L. spica, or L. vera) is cultivated widely for its essential oil and for its narrow fragrant leaves and...
  • Lavender Hill Mob, The (film by Crichton [1951])
    ...Schnee for The Bad and the BeautifulMotion Picture Story: Frederic M. Frank, Theodore St. John, Frank Cavett for The Greatest Show on EarthStory and Screenplay: T.E.B. Clarke for The Lavender Hill MobCinematography, Black-and-White: Robert Surtees for The Bad and the BeautifulCinematography, Color: Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout for The Quiet ManArt......
  • lavender oil (toiletry)
    Lavender oil is obtained by distillation of the flowers and is used chiefly in fine perfumes and cosmetics. It is a colourless or yellow liquid, the fragrant constituents of which are linalyl acetate, linalool, pinene, limonene, geraniol, and cineole. Lavender water, a solution of the essential oil in alcohol with other added scents, is used in a variety of toilet preparations....

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