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  • Marchand, Louis (French musician)
    ...perhaps, because of Bach’s friendship with the duke’s nephews, with whom the duke was on the worst of terms. About September a contest between Bach and the famous French organist Louis Marchand was arranged at Dresden. The exact circumstances are not known, but Marchand avoided the contest by leaving Dresden a few hours before it should have taken place. By implication, Bach......
  • Marchand, Margarethe (German singer)
    Danzi studied the cello with his Italian-born father, and by age 15 he was playing in the famous Mannheim orchestra. In 1790 he married the singer Margarethe Marchand, with whom he toured successfully as a conductor. At his wife’s death in 1800 he retired, but in 1807 he accepted the appointment of kapellmeister in Stuttgart, where he supported and influenced the work of the much younger Ca...
  • Marchand, Marie-Françoise (French actress)
    French tragic actress best known for her roles in the plays of Voltaire and Jean Racine....
  • Marchand, Nancy (American actress)
    American actress (b. June 19, 1928, Buffalo, N.Y.—d. June 18, 2000, Stratford, Conn.), was an award-winning actress whose work on television—most notably her roles as an aristocratic newspaper publisher on Lou Grant and as the domineering matriarch of a Mafia family on The Sopranos—earned her fame and critical praise. Marchand began her career on the stage, appea...
  • marchandise de l’eau (French guild)
    ...of the king, the provost of Paris (prévôt de Paris), first mentioned in 1050. In the 11th century the first guilds were formed, among them the butchers’ guild and the river-merchants’ guild, or marchandise de l’eau. In 1141 the crown sold the principal port (near the Hôtel de Ville) to the marchandise, whose ship-blazoned a...
  • “Marchands de Gloire, Les” (play by Pagnol and Nivoix)
    ...and had several plays produced in the provinces. He transferred to teach at a school in Paris in 1922, and there, three years later, his play Les Marchands de gloire (1925; The Merchants of Glory), written with Paul Nivoix, opened to high critical praise. Because of its unpopular subject matter, war profiteering, the play did not have wide appeal and closed after a......
  • Marchant, Guy (French printer)
    ...of the imminence of death and a summons to repentance. The Paris danse macabre was destroyed in 1699, but a reproduction or free rendering can be seen in the woodcuts of the Paris printer Guy Marchant (1485), and the explanatory verses have been preserved....
  • Marchantia (plant genus)
    genus of liverworts (creeping ribbonlike plants) in the order Marchantiales, commonly found on moist clay or silty soils, especially on recently burned land throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Marchantia polymorpha, a well-known species, often is discussed as a representative liverwort in biology textbooks. Dark green Marchantia gametophytes (sexual plants) are branched and ribbonli...
  • Marchantia polymorpha (plant)
    genus of liverworts (creeping ribbonlike plants) in the order Marchantiales, commonly found on moist clay or silty soils, especially on recently burned land throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Marchantia polymorpha, a well-known species, often is discussed as a representative liverwort in biology textbooks. Dark green Marchantia gametophytes (sexual plants) are branched and......
  • Marchantiales (plant order)
    ...longitudinal line; jacket with thickenings on cell walls; in South and Central America and New Zealand; a single genus, Monoclea, with 1 species.Order MarchantialesThallus often of complex anatomy, with air pores on the dorsal surface, air chambers with chlorophyllose cells forming a photosynthetic area, and cells ...
  • Marche (historical province, France)
    French province before the Revolution of 1789 corresponding roughly to the modern département of Creuse, with a small fragment of Indre and much of northern Haute-Vienne....
  • Marche (region, Italy)
    region in central Italy fronting on the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provinces of Ancona, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, and Pesaro e Urbino. A region of mountains and hills, its only pieces of level land are scattered along river valleys and on the Adriatic shore northwest of Ancona. Its mountain backbone is the Umbrian-Marchigian section of the Apennines, risin...
  • Marche, Antoine-Alfred (French naturalist)
    naturalist, explorer, and collector of ethnological artifacts in Africa and the Philippine Islands. Marche made four trips to Africa as a naturalist attached to various expeditions. In 1872, 1873, and 1875 he explored the Ogooué River (in Gabon), on the last occasion staying for two years, under the command of the French explorer Savorgnan de Brazza. After taking part in ...
  • Marché aux Puces (market, Saint-Ouen, France)
    ...by the Seine River, along the banks of which are vast docks. Saint-Ouen contains in its southeastern section, north of the Porte de Clignancourt Métro (subway) station, the picturesque Marché aux Puces (Paris flea market), which is much visited by tourists. The flea market also attracts Parisians in search of bargains in furniture, curios, and antiques. The suburb is a......
  • “Marche de l’empereur, La” (documentary film by Jacquet)
    French documentary filmmaker, who earned the Academy Award for best documentary feature for La Marche de l’empereur (2005; March of the Penguins)....
  • Marche, Jacques de Bourbon, Count de la (French noble)
    ...chamberlain. Alopo temporarily removed from power the condottiere Muzio Attendolo Sforza, an important figure in the previous regime. On July 14, 1415, Joan married Jacques de Bourbon, Count de la Marche, who, confident of his power, soon had Alopo executed (1415), usurped the queen’s power, and demanded the death of a Neapolitan baron who led the opposition to the increasing French infl...
  • Marche, Olivier de La (Burgundian author)
    Burgundian chronicler and poet who, as historian of the ducal court, was an eloquent spokesman of the chivalrous tradition....
  • Marche-Vedôme, La (Bourbon dynastic line)
    ...famous as constable of France. His later treason led to the confiscation of his lands by the French crown in the year of his death, 1527. Headship of the House of Bourbon then passed to the line of La Marche-Vendôme....
  • Marchegiano, Rocco Francis (American athlete)
    world heavyweight boxing champion from Sept. 23, 1952, when he knocked out champion Jersey Joe Walcott in 13 rounds in Philadelphia, to April 27, 1956, when he retired from the ring. Marciano was undefeated in 49 professional fights, scoring 43 knockouts. Among his victims were two former heavyweight champions other than Walcott: Joe Louis and Ezzard ...
  • Märchen (folk tale)
    folktale characterized by elements of magic or the supernatural, such as the endowment of a mortal character with magical powers or special knowledge; variations expose the hero to supernatural beings or objects. The German term Märchen, used universally by folklorists, also embraces tall tales and humorous anecdotes; although it is often translated as “fairy tale,” the...
  • Marchena Island (island, Pacific Ocean)
    one of the smaller (area 45 sq mi [117 sq km]) of the Galápagos Islands, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 600 mi (965 km) west of Ecuador. Called Bindloe in the 17th century by English pirates in honour of a member of the Jamaican council who condoned their activities, the island was renamed Torres in the late 18th century by the Spanish navigator Don Alonso de Torres, and finally by the Ecua...
  • Märchenalmanach auf das Jahr 1826 (work by Hauff)
    ...(1826), a historical novel of 16th-century Württemberg, was one of the first imitations of Sir Walter Scott. He is also known for a number of fairy tales that were published in his Märchenalmanach auf das Jahr 1826 and had lasting popularity. Similar volumes followed in 1827 and 1828. His novellas, which were collected posthumously in Novellen, 3 vol.......
  • marcher lordship (British history)
    ...the importance of the river crossing on the Wye and began construction of Chepstow Castle, one of many castles they eventually built in the county. The Normans ruled the area as one of the marcher lordships. These landed estates in eastern Wales and western England were independent of the English crown’s direct legal control, which gave rise to much lawlessness in the region. In 1536......
  • Marches, The (region, Italy)
    region in central Italy fronting on the Adriatic Sea and comprising the provinces of Ancona, Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, and Pesaro e Urbino. A region of mountains and hills, its only pieces of level land are scattered along river valleys and on the Adriatic shore northwest of Ancona. Its mountain backbone is the Umbrian-Marchigian section of the Apennines, risin...
  • marchese di Roccaverdina, Il (work by Capuana)
    ...the founder of verismo and most rigorous adherent to its impersonal method of narration, is known principally for his dramatic psychological study, Il marchese di Roccaverdina (1901; “The Marquis of Roccaverdina”)....
  • Marchesi de Castrone, Mathilde (German singer and teacher)
    operatic soprano whose teaching transmitted the 18th-century bel canto style of singing to the 20th century....
  • Marchessault, Jovette (Canadian author)
    ...up alternatives to the existing social structure and verbal discourse, and in Tryptique lesbien (1980; Lesbian Triptych), a mix of poetry, essays, and dramatic writing, Jovette Marchessault envisioned a society of women free from male domination....
  • marchet (European history)
    ...and could be reclaimed by process of law if he did. The strict contention of law deprived him of all right to hold property; and in many cases he was subject to certain degrading incidents, such as marchet (merchetum), a payment due to the lord upon the marriage of a daughter, which was regarded as a special mark of unfree condition. But there were certain limitations. First, all these.....
  • Marchettus of Padua (Italian music theorist)
    ...has been used less discriminately by a number of writers who refer to “Italian Ars Nova,” which is also known as Italian trecento music. The most important theorist of this school was Marchettus of Padua, whose treatise Pomerium (in the early 14th century) outlines certain rhythmic innovations in Italian notation of the time. The most important composers of 14th-century......
  • Marchi, Emilio De (Italian author)
    ...Capuana, this was Sicily. Matilde Serao, on the other hand, has given a detailed and colourful reportage of the Neapolitan scene, while Renato Fucini conveyed the atmosphere of traditional Tuscany. Emilio De Marchi, another writer in the realist mold, has Milan for his setting and in Demetrio Pianelli (1890) has painted a candid but essentially kindly portrait of the new Milanese.....
  • Marchiafava-Bignami disease (pathology)
    ...related to the consumption of alcohol include mild dementia, which may persist for up to six months after cessation of alcohol ingestion, and a relatively uncommon chronic brain disorder called Marchiafava-Bignami disease, which involves the degeneration of the corpus callosum, the tissue that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. Other brain damage occasionally reported in alcoholics......
  • marchioness (title)
    a European title of nobility, ranking in modern times immediately below a duke and above a count, or earl. Etymologically the word marquess or margrave denoted a count or earl holding a march, or mark, that is, a frontier district; but this original significance has long been lost....
  • Marchiori, Giovanni (Italian sculptor)
    ...Foggini took back from Rome the compromise style of Ferrarza, while Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi seems to have been instrumental in the brilliant revival there of small-scale bronze statuettes. Giovanni Marchiori worked in Venice with an attractive painterly style, in part based on the wood carvings of Andrea Brustolon; and Giovanni Maria Morlaiter ran the full gamut to a late 18th-century......
  • Marchmont, 1st earl of (Scottish politician)
    Scottish Protestant opponent of James II, who was involved in the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth and the invasion of William of Orange....
  • Marcia, Aqua (Roman aqueduct)
    ...that supplied Rome itself. Extending from a distant spring-fed area, a lake, or a river, a typical Roman aqueduct included a series of underground and aboveground channels. The longest was the Aqua Marcia, built in 144 bc. Its source was about 23 miles (37 km) from Rome. The aqueduct itself was 57 miles (92 km) long, however, because it had to meander along land contours in order ...
  • Marcian (Roman emperor)
    Eastern Roman emperor from 450 to 457, the last ruler of the dynasty begun by the emperor Theodosius I (died 395). His relatively peaceful reign, which was later viewed as a golden age in the Eastern Roman Empire, provided a marked contrast to the violence that was destroying the Western Empire....
  • Marciano, Rocky (American athlete)
    world heavyweight boxing champion from Sept. 23, 1952, when he knocked out champion Jersey Joe Walcott in 13 rounds in Philadelphia, to April 27, 1956, when he retired from the ring. Marciano was undefeated in 49 professional fights, scoring 43 knockouts. Among his victims were two former heavyweight champions other than Walcott: Joe Louis and Ezzard ...
  • Marcianus (Roman emperor)
    Eastern Roman emperor from 450 to 457, the last ruler of the dynasty begun by the emperor Theodosius I (died 395). His relatively peaceful reign, which was later viewed as a golden age in the Eastern Roman Empire, provided a marked contrast to the violence that was destroying the Western Empire....
  • Marcillac, Prince de (French writer)
    French classical author who had been one of the most active rebels of the Fronde before he became the leading exponent of the maxime, a French literary form of epigram that expresses a harsh or paradoxical truth with brevity....
  • Marcillat, Guglielmo de (French artist)
    ...Ghirlandaio created in the second half of the century windows for the Florentine church of Sta. Maria Novella. The late 15th and early 16th centuries are mainly associated in Italy with the name of Guglielmo de Marcillat (1467–1529), a Frenchman whose works display a thorough mastery of technique. His finest windows are at Arezzo Cathedral. The building of Milan Cathedral caused an......
  • Marcinkus, Paul (Vatican archbishop and banker)
    American archbishop (b. Jan. 15, 1922, Cicero, Ill.—d. Feb. 20, 2006, Sun City, Ariz.), was embroiled in a banking scandal during his tenure as president of the Vatican Bank (1971–89). The collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano amid the loss of more than $1 billion raised questions about Marcinkus’s management of the Vatican Bank, which was a major investor in Ambrosiano. Italian au...
  • Marcion of Pontus (heretic)
    Alternative understandings of Christian teaching continued to develop throughout early church history. Marcion, considered the arch-heretic of the 2nd century, rejected the Old Testament as the work of a god inferior to the God of Jesus and accepted from the nascent New Testament only those portions that he took to be uninfected by Judaism. Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, in Against......
  • Marcionites (Gnostic sect)
    any member of a Gnostic sect that flourished in the 2nd century ad. The name derives from Marcion of Asia Minor who, sometime after his arrival in Rome, fell under the influence of Cerdo, a Gnostic Christian, whose stormy relations with the Church of Rome were the consequence of his belief that the God of the Old Testament could be distinguished from the God of the New Testament...
  • Marcks, Gerhard (German artist)
    German sculptor, printmaker, and designer who helped to revive the art of sculpture in Germany during the first quarter of the 20th century....
  • Marco Polo Bridge Incident (Asian history)
    (July 7, 1937), conflict between Chinese and Japanese troops near the Marco Polo Bridge (Chinese: Lugouqiao) outside Beiping (now Beijing), which developed into the warfare between the two countries that was the prelude to the Pacific side of World War II....
  • Marco Polo sheep (sheep)
    ...in the highlands of eastern Central Asia. It may stand 1.3 m (4 feet) high at the shoulders and weigh more than 140 kg (300 pounds). Large horns, present in the rams, are especially massive in the Pamir argali, or Marco Polo sheep, in which they may be 1.8 m (6 feet) or more in length....
  • Marcomani (people)
    German tribe that settled in the Main River valley soon after 100 bc; they were members of the Suebi group (see Suebi). To escape Roman aggression in 9 bc they migrated east to Bohemia, where under their king Maroboduus they built a powerful confederation of tribes. The kingdom broke up after a war with the great German leader Arminius and in ...
  • Marcomanni (people)
    German tribe that settled in the Main River valley soon after 100 bc; they were members of the Suebi group (see Suebi). To escape Roman aggression in 9 bc they migrated east to Bohemia, where under their king Maroboduus they built a powerful confederation of tribes. The kingdom broke up after a war with the great German leader Arminius and in ...
  • Marconi, Guglielmo (Italian physicist)
    Italian physicist and inventor of a successful wireless telegraph (1896). In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics, which he shared with German physicist Ferdinand Braun. He later worked on the development of shortwave wireless communication, which constitutes the basis of nearly all modern long-distance radio....
  • Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (American company)
    ...in its exploitation. But Marconi’s cousin Jameson Davis, a practicing engineer, financed his patent and helped in the formation of the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, Ltd. (changed in 1900 to Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd.). During the first years, the company’s efforts were devoted chiefly to showing the full possibilities of radiotelegraphy. A further s...
  • Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd. (American company)
    ...in its exploitation. But Marconi’s cousin Jameson Davis, a practicing engineer, financed his patent and helped in the formation of the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, Ltd. (changed in 1900 to Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd.). During the first years, the company’s efforts were devoted chiefly to showing the full possibilities of radiotelegraphy. A further s...
  • Marcos, Ferdinand E. (ruler of Philippines)
    Philippine lawyer and politician who, as head of state from 1966 to 1986, established an authoritarian regime in the Philippines that came under criticism for corruption and for its suppression of democratic processes....
  • Marcos, Ferdinand Edralin (ruler of Philippines)
    Philippine lawyer and politician who, as head of state from 1966 to 1986, established an authoritarian regime in the Philippines that came under criticism for corruption and for its suppression of democratic processes....
  • Marcos, Fray (Spanish explorer)
    Franciscan friar who claimed to have sighted the legendary “Seven Golden Cities of Cibola” in what is now western New Mexico....
  • Marcos, Imelda Romuáldez (wife of Ferdinand Marcos)
    ...populist proposals. The Roman Catholic Church denied Estrada its support because he had admitted to having fathered four children by women other than his wife. However, he did have the support of Imelda Marcos, the widow of former president Ferdinand Marcos and then a member of Congress, and he enjoyed a devoted following among the country’s poor. Estrada managed to capture nearly 40 per...
  • Marcos, Subcomandante (Mexican leader)
    On Feb. 9, 1995, Mexico’s Pres. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León broke a cease-fire and ordered thousands of Mexican troops into the area of Chiapas state held by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), the group that had launched a rebellion on New Year’s Day 1994 to demand indigenous rights and greater democracy, liberty, and justice. The stated purpose of the crackdown...
  • Marcus Antonius (Roman triumvir)
    Roman general under Julius Caesar and later triumvir (43–30 bc), who, with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, was defeated by Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) in the last of the civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic....
  • Marcus Antonius Gordianus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from 238 to 244....
  • Marcus Antonius Gordianus Sempronianus Romanus Africanus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor for three weeks in March to April 238....
  • Marcus Aurelius (emperor of Rome)
    Roman emperor (ad 161–180), best known for his Meditations on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius has symbolized for many generations in the West the Golden Age of the Roman Empire....
  • Marcus Aurelius (work by Renan)
    ...it is present in L’Église chrétienne (1879; “The Christian Church”) in the portrait of the Roman emperor Hadrian; but in Marc-Aurèle (1882; Marcus Aurelius, 1904), the study of Marcus Aurelius, again a self-portrait, is dominated by the author’s preoccupation with death. Since 1876 Renan had been working on his memoirs...
  • Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caesar (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor, ruling jointly with his father, Septimius Severus, from 198 to 211 and then alone from 211 until his assassination in 217. His principal achievements were his colossal baths in Rome and his edict of 212, giving Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Caracalla, whose reign contributed to the decay of the empire, has often been regarded as one of the most bloodthirst...
  • Marcus Aurelius Carinus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from ad 283 to 285....
  • Marcus Aurelius Carus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor 282–283....
  • Marcus Aurelius Claudius Gothicus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor in 268–270, whose major achievement was the decisive defeat of the Gothic invaders (hence the name Gothicus) of the Balkans in 269....
  • Marcus Aurelius Claudius Quintillus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor in ad 270, who died or was killed a few weeks after being proclaimed emperor....
  • Marcus Aurelius, Column of (monument, Rome, Italy)
    The column of Marcus Aurelius, with reliefs showing his victory over Danubian tribes, was preserved from the assorted Christian looters of Rome because it was the property of a religious order. In the square around the column, the Piazza Colonna, are the Palazzo Chigi (1562), for many years the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and now the official residence of the prime minister, and the Palazzo......
  • Marcus Aurelius Numerius Numerianus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor 283–284....
  • Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from ad 222 to 235, whose weak rule collapsed in the civil strife that engulfed the empire for the next 50 years. His maternal grandmother, Julia Maesa, was a sister-in-law of the emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193–211)....
  • Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor, ruling jointly with his father, Septimius Severus, from 198 to 211 and then alone from 211 until his assassination in 217. His principal achievements were his colossal baths in Rome and his edict of 212, giving Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Caracalla, whose reign contributed to the decay of the empire, has often been regarded as one of the most bloodthirst...
  • Marcus Baker, Mount (mountain, Alaska, United States)
    ...eastward along the coast for about 300 miles (500 km) from Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet (Gulf of Alaska) to Cape Yakataga in southern Alaska. Many peaks exceed 11,000 feet (3,400 metres), with Mount Marcus Baker (13,176 feet [4,016 metres]) the highest. The southern slope of the mountains, which were named for an Eskimo tribe, lies within Chugach National Forest, and the eastern portion......
  • Marcus Claudius Tacitus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor in 275–276. ...
  • Marcus Cocceius Nerva (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from Sept. 18, 96, to January 98, the first of a succession of rulers traditionally known as the Five Good Emperors....
  • Marcus Eremita (Christian theologian)
    theological polemicist and author of works on Christian asceticism notable for their psychological insight and for their influence on later monastic history and literature. To some scholars, elements of his doctrine suggest aspects of 16th-century Reformation theology....
  • Marcus Flavius Valerius Constantius (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor and father of Constantine I the Great. As a member of a four-man ruling body (tetrarchy) created by the emperor Diocletian, Constantius held the title caesar from 293 to 305 and caesar augustus in 305–306....
  • Marcus, Harold Stanley (American businessman)
    American retail-store executive whose publicity campaigns gave the Neiman Marcus stores a reputation for luxury and fashion....
  • Marcus Island (island, Japan)
    coral atoll rising to 204 feet (62 m), in the central Pacific Ocean, 700 miles (1,125 km) southeast of Japan. Prior to World War II it was administered as part of the Tokyo fu (urban prefecture). Occupied by U.S. troops late in the war, it was returned to Japan in 1968. It now shares a common administration with the Bonin Islands and the Volcano Islands. Minami-tori Island, with an area of ...
  • Marcus, Jacob Rader (American historian)
    U.S. Jewish historian who published his findings in hundreds of books and articles and was both a teacher and a father figure to some 2,000 rabbinical students (b. March 5, 1896--d. Nov. 14, 1995)....
  • Marcus Julius Agrippa (king of Judaea)
    king of Judaea (ad 41–44), a clever diplomat who through his friendship with the Roman imperial family obtained the kingdom of his grandfather, Herod I the Great. He displayed great acumen in conciliating the Romans and Jews....
  • Marcus Julius Cottius (Ligurian king)
    king and then prefect of the Ligurian tribes living in the area now called the Cottian Alps, centred on Mount Cenis and the Montgenèvre Pass....
  • Marcus Julius Philippus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from 244 to 249....
  • Marcus Lucretius Fronto, House of (house, Pompeii, Italy)
    ...during the Samnite period made it necessary to build fewer houses in the Roman period. Those that were built were usually less imposing, with lower atria, but with more elaborate decoration. The House of Marcus Lucretius Fronto is a small but elegant house of the Roman Imperial period. The tablinum (master’s office) is decorated in especially fine Third Pompeian, or Egyptianizing, style,...
  • Marcus Opellius Macrinus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor in 217 and 218, the first man to rule the empire without having achieved senatorial status....
  • Marcus, Rudolph A. (Canadian chemist)
    Canadian-born American chemist, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on the theory of electron-transfer reactions in chemical systems. The Marcus theory shed light on diverse and fundamental phenomena such as photosynthesis, cell metabolism, and simple corrosion....
  • Marcus, Saint (pope)
    pope from Jan. 18 (?) to Oct. 7, 336. He is credited with having given the bishops of Ostia the right to consecrate new popes. He may have been the founder of the present Church of San Marco, Rome, and also of another that is situated over the catacomb of Balbina on the Via Ardeatina....
  • Marcus Salvius Otho (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from January to April 69....
  • Marcus, Siegfried (German inventor)
    inventor who built four of the world’s earliest gasoline-powered automobiles....
  • Marcus, Stanley (American businessman)
    American retail-store executive whose publicity campaigns gave the Neiman Marcus stores a reputation for luxury and fashion....
  • Marcus Ulpius Traianus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor (ad 98–117), the first to be born outside Italy. He sought to extend the boundaries of the empire to the east (notably in Dacia, Arabia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia), undertook a vast building program, and enlarged social welfare....
  • Marcuse, Herbert (American philosopher)
    German-born American political philosopher and prominent member of the Frankfurt School of critical social analysis, whose Marxist and Freudian theories of 20th-century Western society were influential in the leftist student movements of the 1960s, especially after the 1968 student rebellions in Paris and West Berlin and at New York City’s Columbia University....
  • Marcy, Geoffrey W. (American astronomer)
    One day in 1983, American astronomer Geoffrey Marcy announced to colleagues that he planned to search for planets in other solar systems. His fellow astronomers thought him foolish to spend time on what they considered a futile pursuit. No one was sure such planets existed, and even if they did, scientists had no instruments with which to see them. Marcy was undaunted, however, and by 2000 he and ...
  • Marcy, Mount (mountain, New York, United States)
    peak in the Adirondack Mountains and the highest point in New York, U.S., reaching an elevation of 5,344 feet (1,629 metres) above sea level. It lies in west-central Essex county in the northeastern part of the state, about 12 miles (19 km) south-southeast of Lake Placid village. The Hudson River’...
  • Marcy, William L. (American politician)
    U.S. politician, governor, and Cabinet member, remembered primarily for his remark: “To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy.”...
  • Marcy, William Learned (American politician)
    U.S. politician, governor, and Cabinet member, remembered primarily for his remark: “To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy.”...
  • Mardaïte (people)
    member of a Christian people of northern Syria, employed as soldiers by Byzantine emperors. The Mardaïtes inhabited the Amanus (Gāvur) Mountains, in the modern Turkish province of Hatay, the 7th-century borderland between Byzantine and Muslim territory. In the period 660–680, allied with the Byzantine emperor Constantine IV, the Mardaïtes pushed southward into Arab-occu...
  • Mardals Falls (waterfall, Norway)
    waterfalls at the head of Eikesdalsvatnet (lake), east-southeast of Åndalsnes, Nor. The falls consisted of two cataracts in Mardøla district of Møre og Romsdal fylke (county), western Norway. The falls ranked among the highest in the world, with their total drop of 1,696 feet (517 metres) and individual descents of 974 and 722 feet. During the period of maximum snow mel...
  • Mardalsfossen (waterfall, Norway)
    waterfalls at the head of Eikesdalsvatnet (lake), east-southeast of Åndalsnes, Nor. The falls consisted of two cataracts in Mardøla district of Møre og Romsdal fylke (county), western Norway. The falls ranked among the highest in the world, with their total drop of 1,696 feet (517 metres) and individual descents of 974 and 722 feet. During the period of maximum snow mel...
  • Mardān (Pakistan)
    town and district in Peshāwar division, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The town, the district headquarters, lies just north of the Kalpāni River; it is connected by road and rail with Dargai (Malākand Pass), Nowshera, and Peshāwar, 30 miles (50 km) south-southwest. A growing industrial centre, it has textile and vegetable oil mills, a cigarette factory, and one...
  • Mardan (Votyak hero)
    ...contexts. In general, culture heroes are not worshiped. The matter is otherwise when dealing with divinized historical figures, the cults of which are found among several of the Finno-Ugric peoples. Mardan of the Yelabuga Udmurt is viewed as the progenitor of 11 villages and the one who led the dwellers therein from the north to their present habitations. There is a sacrificial ceremony in his....
  • mardānah (housing arrangement)
    ...the rural poor, women have duties on the farm as well as in the house and do not customarily observe purdah. Houses of those who practice purdah have a men’s section (mardānah) at the front of the house, so that visitors do not disturb the women, who are secluded in the women’s section (zanānah...

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