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Chernobyl (Ukraine)
...the worst accident in the history of nuclear power generation. The Chernobyl power station was situated at the settlement of Pryp’yat, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of the city of Chernobyl (Ukrainian: Chornobyl) and 65 miles (104 km) north of Kiev, Ukraine. The station consisted of four reactors, each capable of producing 1,000 megawatts of electric power; it had come on-line in 1977...
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Chernobyl accident (nuclear disaster, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
accident in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union, the worst accident in the history of nuclear power generation. The Chernobyl power station was situated at the settlement of Pryp’yat, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of the city of Chernobyl (Ukrainian: Chornobyl) and 65 miles (104 km) north of Kiev, Ukraine. The station consisted ...
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Chernogora (mountains, Europe)
Compared with the Outer Western Carpathians, the Outer Eastern Carpathians, which are their continuation, are higher and show a more compact banded structure. The highest mountain group is the Chernogora on the Ukrainian side, with Goverla (Hoverla; 6,762 feet) as the highest peak. The Inner Eastern Carpathians attain their highest altitude in the Rodna (Rodnei) Massif in Romania; they are......
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Chernogorsk (Russia)
city, Khakassia republic, south-central Russia, situated just west of the port of Podkunino on the Yenisey River. The city is the centre of mining in the Minusinsk coal basin, which has been in operation since before 1917. Consumer-goods industries are also important. Chernogorsk became a city in 1936. A mining college is located there. Pop....
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Chernomen, Battle of (Balkans [1371])
(Sept. 26, 1371), Ottoman Turk victory over Serbian forces that allowed the Turks to extend their control over southern Serbia and Macedonia. After the Ottoman sultan Murad I (reigned 1360–89) advanced into Thrace, conquered Adrianople, and thereby gained control of the Maritsa River valley, which led into the central Balkans, the Christian states of th...
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Chernomyrdin, Viktor Stepanovich (prime minister of Russia)
Soviet industrial administrator who served as prime minister of Russia from 1992 to 1998....
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Chernosotentsy (Russian history)
reactionary, antirevolutionary, and anti-Semitic groups formed in Russia during and after the Russian Revolution of 1905. The most important of these groups were the League of the Russian People (Soyuz Russkogo Naroda), League of the Archangel Michael (Soyuz Mikhaila Arkhangela), and Council of United Nobility (Soviet Obedinennogo Dvoryanstva). The Black Hundreds were composed primarily of landown...
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Chernov, Viktor Mikhaylovich (Soviet politician)
a founder of the Russian Social Revolutionary Party in 1902, who spent much of his life in exile but was briefly a minister in provisional governments in Russia (May 5–Sept. 1, 1917)....
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Chernovitsy (Ukraine)
city, southwestern Ukraine, situated on the upper Prut River in the Carpathian foothills. First documentary reference to Chernivtsi dates from c. 1408, when it was a town in Moldavia and the chief centre of the area known as Bukovina. Chernivtsi later passed to the Turks and then in 1774 to Austria. After World War I, it was ceded to Romania, and in 194...
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Chernovtsy (oblast, Ukraine)
city, southwestern Ukraine, situated on the upper Prut River in the Carpathian foothills. First documentary reference to Chernivtsi dates from c. 1408, when it was a town in Moldavia and the chief centre of the area known as Bukovina. Chernivtsi later passed to the Turks and then in 1774 to Austria. After World War I, it was ceded to Romania, and in 194...
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Chernovtsy (Ukraine)
city, southwestern Ukraine, situated on the upper Prut River in the Carpathian foothills. First documentary reference to Chernivtsi dates from c. 1408, when it was a town in Moldavia and the chief centre of the area known as Bukovina. Chernivtsi later passed to the Turks and then in 1774 to Austria. After World War I, it was ceded to Romania, and in 194...
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Chernoye More (sea, Eurasia)
large inland sea situated at the southeastern extremity of Europe. It is bordered by Ukraine to the north, Russia to the northeast, Georgia to the east, Turkey to the south, and Bulgaria and Romania to the west....
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Chernozem (FAO soil group)
one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Chernozems (from the Russian words for “black earth”) are humus-rich grassland soils used extensively for growing cereals or for raising livestock. They are found in the middle latitudes of both hemispheres, in zones commonly termed pra...
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chernozem (soil group)
...the Novo-Aleksandr Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, adding departments of soil science and plant physiology. He organized soil surveys throughout most of Russia and introduced the term chernozem to describe the black soil, rich in carbonates and humus, that occurs in the temperate latitudes of Russia. Dokuchayev viewed soil as the result of interaction between climate, bedrock, and......
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Chërny Irtysh (river, Asia)
river rising from the glaciers on the southwestern slopes of the Altai Mountains in Sinkiang, China. It flows west across the Chinese border through Lake Zaysan, and then northwest across Kazakhstan to join the Ob River near Khanty-Mansiysk in Russian Siberia. The largest tributary of the Ob, the Irtysh is 2,640 miles (4,248 km) long and is navigable for most of its course. The Narym, Bukhtarma Om...
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Chernyakhovsky, Ivan Danilovich (Soviet general)
...Kharkov: Vatutin’s forces, having crossed the Donets at Izyum, took Lozovaya Junction on February 11, Golikov’s took Kharkov five days later. Farther to the north, a third Soviet army, under General Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky, had initiated a drive westward from Voronezh on February 2 and had retaken Kursk on February 8. Thus, the Germans had to retreat from all the territory ...
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Chernyayev, Mikhail Grigoryevich (Russian general)
Pan-Slavist and Russian general noted for expanding the Russian Empire into Central Asia and for his leadership of the Serbs against the Turks in 1876....
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Chernyshevsky, N. G. (Russian journalist)
radical journalist and politician who greatly influenced the young Russian intelligentsia through his classic work, What Is to Be Done? (1863)....
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Chernyshevsky, Nikolay Gavrilovich (Russian journalist)
radical journalist and politician who greatly influenced the young Russian intelligentsia through his classic work, What Is to Be Done? (1863)....
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Cherokee (people)
North American Indians of Iroquoian lineage who constituted one of the largest politically integrated tribes at the time of European colonization of the Americas. Their name is derived from a Creek word meaning “people of different speech”; many prefer to be known as Keetoowah or Tsalagi. They are believed to have numbered some 22,500 individuals in 1650, and they controlled approxim...
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Cherokee (Iowa, United States)
city, seat (1861) of Cherokee county, northwestern Iowa, U.S., on the Little Sioux River, about 50 miles (80 km) east-northeast of Sioux City. A colony from Milford, Massachusetts, settled a site north of the present city in 1856. Sioux attacked the settlement the following year (in what became known as the Spirit Lake Mas...
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Cherokee (county, South Carolina, United States)
county, northern South Carolina, U.S. It is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the south by the Pacolet River, and to the southeast by the Broad River, into which the Pacolet flows at the county’s southern tip. The county lies in a hilly, industrial piedmont region....
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Cherokee (song by Barnet)
...of the band at the Paramount Hotel in Manhattan, New York City, and thereafter formed a succession of large and small bands. He achieved his greatest fame with the recording of Cherokee (1939), his signature song....
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Cherokee language (North American Indian language)
North American Indian language, member of the Iroquoian family, spoken by the Cherokee people originally inhabiting Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Cherokee was one of the first American Indian languages to have a system of writing devised for it—a syllabary, so called because each of the graphic symbols represents a syllable....
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Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (law case)
...the exclusive right to purchase land from aboriginal nations. This ruling removed control of land transactions from the tribes, which had previously been able to sell to whomever they wished. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), the court further opined that the political autonomy of indigenous polities was inherently reliant on the federal government, defining them as domestic.....
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Cherokee Phoenix (American newspaper)
...time. A written constitution was adopted, and religious literature flourished, including translations from the Christian Scriptures. Native Americans’ first newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, began publication in February 1828....
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Cherokee syllabary (writing system)
...Creek in the Creek War, particularly in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. They adopted colonial methods of farming, weaving, and home building. Perhaps most remarkable of all was the syllabary of the Cherokee language, developed in 1821 by Sequoyah, a Cherokee who had served with the U.S. Army in the Creek War. The syllabary—a system of writing in which each symbol represents a......
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Cherokee War (Cherokee-Great Britain [1756])
The region was once the centre of lower Cherokee civilization, disputed between Native Americans and British in the 1756 Cherokee War and later conflicts and surrendered to the United States in a 1785 treaty. Lowland inhabitants fleeing malaria in their coastal home regions made it a popular resort area as early as the 18th century. The county was established in 1826 and named for Andrew......
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Cherone, Gary (American singer)
...Later members were Sammy Hagar (b. Oct. 13, 1947Monterey, Calif.), Gary Cherone (b. July 26, 1961Malden, Mass.), and Wolfgang Van......
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cheroot (cigar)
...ends, usually about 5 in. long with a straight shape but sometimes having a shoulder, or drawn-in portion, at the mouth end; originally it had a finished top that had to be cut off before smoking. A cheroot is a thin cigar, open at both ends, usually thicker and stubbier than a panatela, and sometimes slightly tapered. The name whiff, used in Britain, refers to a small cigar open at both ends,....
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Cherrapunji (India)
village, East Khāsi Hills district, Meghālaya state, northeastern India, located on the Shillong plateau about 35 mi (55 km) southwest of Shillong. It is noted for having the world’s second highest recorded average annual precipitation, 450 in. (11,430 mm) over a 74-year period, exceeded only by the 460 in. recorded at Mt. Waiale...
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Cherrie and the Slaye, The (poem by Montgomerie)
Montgomerie’s contemporary reputation was high, and during the 17th and 18th centuries his best known poem, “The Cherrie and the Slaye,” was reprinted many times. This poem, first printed in 1597 and later enlarged, is an allegory in the medieval manner, fresh in its descriptions but conventional in its May-morning setting. The poet’s dilemma—whether to struggle ...
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cherry (tree)
any of various trees belonging to species of Prunus and their edible fruits. Most cherry species are native to the Northern Hemisphere, where they are widely grown. Some 10 to 12 species are recognized in North America and a similar number in Europe. The greatest concentration of species, however, appears to be in eastern Asia....
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cherry (plant)
The ripened fruits of the coffee shrubs, known as coffee cherries (see photograph), are processed by disengaging the coffee seeds from their coverings and from the pulp and by drying the seeds from an original moisture content of 65–70 percent water by weight to 12–13 percent. Two different techniques are used: a wet process (used mainly for the mild Arabica coffees) and a dry......
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cherry barb (fish)
Cherry barb (B. titteya), to 3 centimetres long; male silver to cherry-red, female silver to pinkish; both sexes with a broad gold and black band on each side....
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cherry birch (tree)
North American ornamental and timber tree in the family Betulaceae. Usually about 18 m (60 feet) tall, the tree may reach 24 m or more in the southern Appalachians; on poor soil it may be stunted and shrublike....
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Cherry Blossom Festival
The traditional Cherry Blossom Festival, held early each spring, is the oldest of Washington’s celebrations that combine the efforts of federal, civic, and commercial personnel. In spite of their attraction for tourists, the festival parade and crowning of a queen tend to be less important for Washingtonians than is the explosion of blossoms around the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial...
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Cherry, Don (American musician)
U.S. jazz trumpeter (b. Nov. 18, 1936, Oklahoma City, Okla.--d. Oct. 19, 1995, Málaga, Spain), was a pioneer of free jazz as a member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet and later joined jazz with elements of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and European music, thereby becoming a pioneer of world music as well. Cherry, who grew up in Los Angeles, hailed from a musical family. He had already achi...
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cherry fruit fly (insect)
The apple maggot, the larva of Rhagoletis pomonella, burrows into apples, causing the fruit to become spongy and discoloured. This species and the closely related cherry fruit fly (R. cingulata) cause extensive losses in the northeastern United States....
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cherry laurel (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...
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Cherry Orchard, The (work by Chekhov)
...period saw a decline in the production of short stories and a greater emphasis on drama. His two last plays—Tri sestry (1901; Three Sisters) and Vishnyovy sad (1904; The Cherry Orchard)—were both written for the Moscow Art Theatre. But much as Chekhov owed to the theatre’s two founders, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and Konstanin Stanislavsky, he...
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cherry salmon (fish)
...salmon (O. tshawytscha), from the Yukon River to China and the Sacramento River; the pink or humpback salmon (O. gorbuscha), from the Arctic to Japan and the Klamath River; and the cherry salmon (O. masu), which is found off Japan. The Atlantic salmon is native to the rivers on both sides of the North Atlantic....
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Cherry Valley Raid (United States history)
(November 11, 1778), during the American Revolution, Iroquois Indian attack on a New York frontier settlement in direct retaliation for colonial assaults on two Indian villages. Earlier in the year the Americans had decided to increase military pressure against Britain’s Indian allies in the West who had been intensifying their depredations of frontier settlements. In the...
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cherry-bark oak (tree)
Cherry-bark oak, or swamp red oak, a valuable timber tree also used as an ornamental, is a variety of the southern red oak. It is a larger tree, up to 36 m, with more uniform, 5- to 11-lobed leaves, often 23 cm long. The gray-brown to black scaly bark resembles that of black cherry....
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cherrystone clam (mollusk)
Many species, including the quahog, geoduck, and soft-shell clam, are edible. The northern quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria), also known as the cherrystone clam, littleneck clam, or hard-shell clam, and the southern quahog (M. campechiensis) belong to the family of venus clams (Veneridae). M. mercenaria is about 7.5 to 12.5 cm (3 to 5 inches) long. The dingy white......
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Cherskogo Mountains (mountains, Russia)
range running northwest to southeast through the Sakha republic and Magadan oblast (province), Russia. The range, extending more than 900 miles (1,500 km), forms a part of the extensive Verkhoyansk mountain system and comprises a series of highly dissected parallel ranges with several peaks about 10,000 feet (3,000 metre...
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Chersky Mountains (mountains, Russia)
range running northwest to southeast through the Sakha republic and Magadan oblast (province), Russia. The range, extending more than 900 miles (1,500 km), forms a part of the extensive Verkhoyansk mountain system and comprises a series of highly dissected parallel ranges with several peaks about 10,000 feet (3,000 metre...
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Chersky Range (mountains, Russia)
range running northwest to southeast through the Sakha republic and Magadan oblast (province), Russia. The range, extending more than 900 miles (1,500 km), forms a part of the extensive Verkhoyansk mountain system and comprises a series of highly dissected parallel ranges with several peaks about 10,000 feet (3,000 metre...
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Cherso (island, Croatia)
island in the Kvarner group, northwest Croatia, in the Adriatic Sea, off the east coast of Istria. With an area of 156 square miles (404 square km), it reaches a maximum elevation of 2,150 feet (650 metres) at Gorice. In the south, a canal—first made in Roman times, revived in the 16th century—separates Cres from the island of Lošinj (Italian Lussino), about 29 square miles (7...
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Cherson (Ukraine)
city, southern Ukraine. It lies on the right (west) bank of the lower Dnieper River about 15 miles (25 km) from the latter’s mouth. Kherson, named after the ancient settlement of Chersonesus (west of what is now Sevastopol), was founded in 1778 as a fortress to protect the newly acquired Black Sea frontage of Russia, and it became the first Russian nava...
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Chersonese (any of several peninsulas in Europe and Asia)
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Chersonese, Tauric (ancient region, Ukraine)
ancient region comprising the Crimea and, often, the city of Chersonesus, located three miles west of modern Sevastopol, Ukraine. The city, founded on the Heracleotic Chersonese (or Chersonesos Micra [Small Chersonese]) by Ionian Greeks in the 6th century bc, probably as a trading factory, was refounded in the 5th century by Megarian Greeks from Heraclea Pontica an...
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Chersonese, Thracian (ancient region, Turkey)
ancient region comprising the modern Gallipoli Peninsula, located on the European side of the Hellespont (the Dardanelles, in modern Turkey). A major wheat-exporting region, it was on the main trade route between Europe and Asia; one of its cities, Sestos, was at the main crossing point of the Hellespont. Aeolians from Lesbos and Ionian Greeks from Miletus founded about 12 cities on the peninsula ...
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Chersonesus (ancient city, Ukraine)
...in the southwestern Crimean Peninsula on the southern shore of the long, narrow Akhtiarska Bay, which forms a magnificent natural harbour. West of the modern town stood the ancient Greek colony of Chersonesus, founded in 421 bc. Originally a republic, Chersonesus (Heracleotic Chersonese) became, in turn, part of the Kingdom of Pontus, of the Cimmerian Bosporus, of the Roman Empire...
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Chersonesus Aurea (peninsula, Southeast Asia)
in Southeast Asia, a long, narrow appendix of the mainland extending south for a distance of about 700 miles (1,127 km) through the Isthmus of Kra to Cape Balai, southernmost point of the Asian continent; its maximum width is 200 miles (322 km). It lies between the Andaman Sea of the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca (west), the Singapore Strait (south), and the Gulf of Thailand and the South...
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chert (mineral)
very fine-grained quartz, a silica mineral with minor impurities. Several varieties are included under the general term chert: jasper, chalcedony, agate, flint, porcelanite, and novaculite....
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Cherta Osedlosti (Russian history)
In imperial Russia, what came to be called the Pale of Settlement (Cherta Osedlosti) came into being as a result of the introduction of large numbers of Jews into the Russian sphere after the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795). Adjusting to a population often banned from Russia altogether was a problem that Russian leadership solved by allowing Jews to remain in their current areas......
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Chertoff, Michael (American official)
In 2005 the biggest challenge for Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, was not an external terrorist threat but a domestic natural disaster. In August, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, killing more than a thousand Amer...
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cherub (religion)
in Jewish, Christian, and Islāmic literature, a celestial winged being with human, animal, or birdlike characteristics who functions as a throne bearer of the deity. Derived from ancient Middle Eastern mythology and iconography, these celestial beings serve important liturgical and intercessory functions in the hierarchy of angels. The term most likely derives from the Akkadian kā...
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cherubim (religion)
in Jewish, Christian, and Islāmic literature, a celestial winged being with human, animal, or birdlike characteristics who functions as a throne bearer of the deity. Derived from ancient Middle Eastern mythology and iconography, these celestial beings serve important liturgical and intercessory functions in the hierarchy of angels. The term most likely derives from the Akkadian kā...
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Cherubim and Seraphim society (Nigerian religious society)
The Cherubim and Seraphim society is a distinct section of the Aladura founded by Moses Orimolade Tunolase, a Yoruba prophet, and Christiana Abiodun Akinsowon, an Anglican who had experienced visions and trances. In 1925–26 they formed the society, with doctrines of revelation and divine healing replacing traditional charms and medicine. They......
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Cherubini, Luigi (Italian composer)
Italian-born French composer during the period of transition from Classicism to Romanticism; he contributed to the development of French opera and was also a master of sacred music. His mature operas are characterized by the way they use some of the new techniques and subject matter of the Romantics but derive their dramatic force from a Classical dignity and restraint....
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Cherubini, Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore (Italian composer)
Italian-born French composer during the period of transition from Classicism to Romanticism; he contributed to the development of French opera and was also a master of sacred music. His mature operas are characterized by the way they use some of the new techniques and subject matter of the Romantics but derive their dramatic force from a Classical dignity and restraint....
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Cherubinischer Wandersmann, Der (work by Angelus Silesius)
religious poet remembered primarily as the author of Der Cherubinischer Wandersmann (1674; “The Cherubic Wanderer”), a major work of Roman Catholic mysticism....
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Chéruel, Adolphe (French historian)
French historian known for his pioneer work from original sources on the reign (1643–1715) of Louis XIV of France....
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Chéruel, Pierre-Adolphe (French historian)
French historian known for his pioneer work from original sources on the reign (1643–1715) of Louis XIV of France....
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Cheruiyot, Robert Kipkoech (Kenyan runner)
Kenyan runner who became the first man to win the Chicago Marathon and the Boston Marathon in the same year (2006)....
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Cherusci (ancient people)
...the time of Tacitus. The Chatti lived in what is now Hesse. The Frisii inhabited the coastlands between the Rhine and the Ems. The Chauci were at the mouth of the Weser, and south of them lived the Cherusci, the people of Arminius. The Suebi, who have given their name to Schwaben, were a group of peoples inhabiting Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia; the Semnones, living around the...
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Cherven (Bulgaria)
city of northern Bulgaria, on the Danube River near the mouth of the Rusenski Lom. Bulgaria’s principal river port and a transportation hub for road and rail, Ruse has regular shipping services on the Danube and an airport. Upstream is the Friendship Bridge, built in 1954, carrying road and rail traffic across the river to Giurgiu, in Romania. Ruse is a...
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Chervenkov, Vulko (Bulgarian statesman)
Dimitrov died in office in July 1949 and was succeeded by Vasil Kolarov, who died in early 1950, and Vulko Chervenkov. Known as Bulgaria’s “Little Stalin,” Chervenkov followed policies aimed at developing Bulgaria according to the Soviet model. These included rapid industrialization, the forced collectivization of agriculture, heavy reliance on the police and security apparatu...
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chervil (herb)
(Anthriscus cerefolium), annual herb of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). It is native to regions of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea and to western Asia. Chervil is cultivated in Europe for its lacy, decompound, aromatic leaves, which are used to flavour fish, salads, soups, eggs, meat dishes, and stuffings for poultry and fish. Herb mixtures such as the French fines her...
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chervonets (Soviet currency)
...sector of industry. The “commanding heights” of the economy, embracing heavy industry, transportation, and foreign trade, remained firmly in government hands. A new currency, called chervonets, based on gold, replaced the worthless ruble. Thus was inaugurated the New Economic Policy (NEP), which Lenin expected to last for an indeterminate period; during this time the countr...
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Cherwell (district, England, United Kingdom)
district, administrative and historic county of Oxfordshire, south-central England, occupying an area of 228 square miles (590 square km). The River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal extend north from Oxford city and bisect the district. Predominantly rural, Cherwell is a lowland area bordering the limestone Cotswold Hills on the west and the North Oxfordshire Heights on the north. ...
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Cherwell, Frederick Alexander Lindemann, Viscount (British physicist)
...parity with the Royal Air Force. In this he was supported by a small but devoted personal following, in particular the gifted, curmudgeonly Oxford physics professor Frederick A. Lindemann (later Lord Cherwell), who enabled him to build up at Chartwell a private intelligence centre the information of which was often superior to that of the government. When Baldwin became prime minister in......
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Chesapeake (United States ship)
...by Decatur-led forces (1804). During the War of 1812 Lawrence commanded the USS Hornet in the capture of HMS Peacock. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to captain of the frigate Chesapeake. On June 1, 1813, the Chesapeake accepted HMS Shannon’s challenge to a sea fight off Boston (see photograph). The Chesapeake was decisively defeated in...
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Chesapeake (Virginia, United States)
independent city, southeastern Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Elizabeth River on the Tidewater coastal plain, adjacent to Suffolk, Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach, and extends southward from Hampton Roads (natural roadstead) to the North Carolina...
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Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (waterway, United States)
American waterway 14 miles (22 km) long connecting the head of the Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware River estuary. The canal cuts across the narrow northern neck of the 180-mile- (290-kilometre-) long Delmarva Peninsula, thereby providing shortened northern and European routes from the Atlantic Ocean to Baltimore. Completed in 1829, the privately owned canal operated with locks until 1919, when t...
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Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (waterway, United States)
former waterway, extending 184.5 miles (297 km) along the east bank of the Potomac River between Washington, D.C., and Cumberland in western Maryland. Begun in 1828, the canal was intended to provide cheap transportation between the Atlantic seaports and the Midwest via the Potomac River. It immediately faced competition from the Erie Canal, however, and further construction was abandoned in 1850...
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Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company (American railway)
American railroad company established in 1868 with the consolidation of two smaller lines, the Virginia Central and the Covington and Ohio. It subsequently acquired a number of other lines, culminating in its merger with the Pere Marquette Railroad Company in 1947....
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Chesapeake Bay (bay, United States)
largest inlet in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the eastern United States. Created by the submergence of the lower courses of the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, it is 193 miles (311 km) long and 3 to 25 miles (5 to 40 km) wide. The southern part of the bay is bordered by Virginia and its northern part by Maryland. Its entrance from the Atlantic is flanked by Cape Charles...
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Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (bridge, Virginia, United States)
complex of trestles, man-made islands, tunnels, and bridges that runs across the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, providing a vehicular roadway between the Norfolk–Hampton Roads area (southwest) and Cape Charles at the tip of the Delmarva Peninsula (northeast). It was begun in 1958 and completed in 1964. The bridge-tunnel complex is 17.6 miles (28 km) long from shore to shore and consists mostly...
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Chesapeake Bay retriever (breed of dog)
breed of sporting dog, developed in the United States in the 19th century to retrieve downed fowl from icy coastal waters. Its water-repellent, short, thick coat tends to be wavy on the back, shoulders, and loins, and it occurs in colours described as brown, sedge, or dead grass. Its eyes are yellow or amber. It stands 21 to 26 inches (53 to 66 cm) and weighs 55 to 80 pounds (25...
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Cheselden, William (British surgeon and teacher)
British surgeon and teacher of anatomy and surgery who wrote Anatomy of the Human Body (1713) and Osteographia, or the Anatomy of the Bones (1733). The former was used as a text by anatomy students for nearly a century....
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Cheshire (county, England, United Kingdom)
administrative, geographic, and historic county of northwestern England, bordering Wales to the west, fronting the Dee and Mersey estuaries to the northwest, and flanked by the Pennine uplands, partly within the Peak District National Park, to the east. The administrative, geographic, and historic counties occupy somewhat different areas. Th...
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Cheshire (county, New Hampshire, United States)
county, extreme southwestern New Hampshire, U.S. It consists largely of a hill-and-valley region bounded to the south by Massachusetts and to the west by Vermont, the Connecticut River constituting the western border. Other waterways include the Ashuelot and Cold rivers, Spofford and Highland lakes, and Lake Monomonac. Monadnock Mountain (3,...
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Cheshme, Battle of (Turkish history)
(July 6–7, 1770), naval clash in which a Russian fleet defeated and destroyed the Ottoman fleet at the harbour of Çeşme on the Aegean Sea....
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Chesil Bank (beach, England, United Kingdom)
beach, county of Dorset, England, that stretches 18 miles (29 km) from Bridport to the Isle of Portland. One of the best-known natural features in Britain, it consists of shingle (pebbles), 98.5 percent of which is hard flint or chert rock. From Abbotsbury to Portland (12 miles [19 km]) the beach is separated from the mainland by a lagoon. The most remarkable feature of the beach is the lateral so...
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Chesil Beach (beach, England, United Kingdom)
beach, county of Dorset, England, that stretches 18 miles (29 km) from Bridport to the Isle of Portland. One of the best-known natural features in Britain, it consists of shingle (pebbles), 98.5 percent of which is hard flint or chert rock. From Abbotsbury to Portland (12 miles [19 km]) the beach is separated from the mainland by a lagoon. The most remarkable feature of the beach is the lateral so...
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Chesmenski, Count (Russian count)
military officer who played a prominent role in the coup d’état that placed Catherine II the Great on the Russian throne....
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Chesneus, Andreas (French historian)
historian and geographer, sometimes called the father of French history, who was the first to make critical collections of sources for national histories....
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Chesney, Francis Rawdon (British explorer)
British soldier, explorer, and Middle East traveler whose fame rests on his projects for the Suez Canal and for an overland route to India by the Euphrates River valley....
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Chesney, George (British author)
...and an accompanying expansion of magazine publication. This adjustment proved highly advantageous to shorter works of science fiction. It brought about a new subgenre, as seen, for example, in George Chesney’s short story The Battle of Dorking (1871). First published in Blackwood’s Magazine, The Battle of...
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Chesney, Kenny (American musician)
...and an accompanying expansion of magazine publication. This adjustment proved highly advantageous to shorter works of science fiction. It brought about a new subgenre, as seen, for example, in George Chesney’s short story The Battle of Dorking (1871). First published in Blackwood’s Magazine, The Battle of...
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Chesnokov, Pavel (Russian composer)
...the introduction of polyphonic music. The restoration of Russian chant gained momentum in the early years of the 20th century and is best exemplified in the works of Aleksandr Kastalsky and Pavel Chesnokov, who, although writing for multi-voiced choirs, utilized supposedly traditional melodies and the style Mily Balakirev had developed for harmonizing Russian folk music....
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Chesnoy, Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon, Madame du (French mystic)
French mystic and writer, a central figure in the theological debates of 17th-century France through her advocacy of quietism, an extreme passivity and indifference of the soul, even to eternal salvation, wherein she believed that one became an agent of God....
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Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller (American writer)
author of A Diary from Dixie, an insightful view of Southern life and leadership during the American Civil War....
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Chesnutt, Charles W. (American writer)
first important black American novelist....
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Chesnutt, Charles Waddell (American writer)
first important black American novelist....
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chess (game)
one of the oldest and most popular board games, played by two opponents on a checkered board with specially designed pieces of contrasting colours, commonly white and black. White moves first, after which the players alternate turns in accordance with fixed rules, each player attempting to force the opponent’s principal piece, the King, into checkmate—a position where it is unable to...
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chess (plant)
...(B. inermis), a perennial native to Eurasia and introduced into the northern United States as a forage plant and soil binder, are the economically important bromegrasses. The common weed chess (B. secalinus), sometimes known as cheat, is found along roadsides and in grain fields. Downy brome or cheatgrass (B. tectorum), ripgut grass (B. diandrus), and foxtail......
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