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White Peking duck (bird)
...of England, The Netherlands, and the United States. The American Poultry Association lists 12 domesticated breeds, divided into three classes: meat producing, egg producing, and ornamental. The White Peking, originally from China, is the most widely used because it is meaty, fast growing, and prodigious in egg production. Duck feathers are also of some value, though they have been largely......
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white pelican (bird)
The best-known pelicans are the two species called white pelicans: Pelecanus erythrorhynchos of the New World, the North American white pelican, and P. onocrotalus of the Old World, the European white pelican. The smaller, 107–137-centimetre brown pelican (P. occidentalis) of the New World is a coastal species listed......
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white pepper (spice)
...about 10 minutes, which causes them to turn dark brown or black in an hour. Then they are spread out to dry in the sun for three or four days. The whole peppercorns, when ground, yield black pepper. White pepper is obtained by removing the outer part of the pericarp. The outer coating is softened either by keeping the berries in moist heaps for 2 or 3 days or by keeping them in sacks submerged....
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white perch (fish)
...at the base, live in the temperate waters of North America and Europe. A few of these fishes, such as the striped bass (Morone, or Roccus, saxatilis), enter rivers to spawn. The white perch (M. americana, or R. americanus), which also enters freshwater to breed, is, in some areas, permanently landlocked in certain streams and ponds....
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white phosphorus (chemistry)
Elemental phosphorus exists in many allotropic forms. White phosphorus is used in rodent poison and by the military for smoke generation. Red phosphorus, comparatively harmless, is used in matches. Ferrophosphorus, a combination of phosphorus with iron, is used as an ingredient in high-strength low-alloy steel. In addition, the many organic compounds of phosphorus have varied uses, including......
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White, Phyllis Dorothy (British novelist)
British mystery novelist best known for her fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard....
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white pigment (chemistry)
Pigments that contribute light-scattering properties to coatings are generally known as white, or hiding, pigments. They act by scattering all wavelengths of light, owing to their relatively high refractive index, so that they are perceived as white by the human eye. They are known as hiding pigments because the scattering of light reduces the probability that light will penetrate through a......
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White Pine (mineral deposits, Michigan, United States)
...in a manner that resembles particles in a sedimentary rock. Because stratiform deposits so closely resemble sedimentary rocks, controversy surrounds their origin. In certain cases, such as the White Pine copper deposits of Michigan, the historic Kupferschiefer deposits of Germany and Poland, and the important copper deposits of Zambia, research has demonstrated that the origin is similar......
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white pine (Pinus genus)
There is also variation in the number of bud flushes per year in temperate as well as tropical trees. Trees like the preformer eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) have a single flush per year followed by formation of a dormant terminal bud. Other species have several flushes per year, but each flush is followed by formation of a terminal bud....
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white pine (tree)
...important members of the genus include the brown pine, plum pine, or yellow pine (Podocarpus elatus) of southeastern Australia; the black pine, or matai (P. spicatus), the kahikatea, or white pine (P. dacrydioides), the miro (P. ferrugineus), and the totara (P. totara), all native to New Zealand; kusamaki, or broad-leaved podocarpus (P.......
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white pine weevil (insect)
The white pine weevil (Pissodes strobi) of North America kills the central growth shoot of white pine trees, forcing one of the side shoots to take over the upward growth of the tree. This results in bends in the tree trunk and reduces its value as lumber....
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white plague (pathology)
infectious disease that is caused by the tubercle bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In most forms of the disease, the bacillus spreads slowly and widely in the lungs, causing the formation of hard nodules (tubercles) or large, cheeselike masses that break down the respiratory tissues and form cavities in the lungs. Blood ...
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White Plains (New York, United States)
city, seat (1778) of Westchester county, New York, U.S. It lies along the Bronx and Hutchinson rivers. Known to the Wappinger Indians as Quarropas (“White Marshes”), probably for the area’s heavy fogs, the site was sold twice (in 1660 and in 1683) by them to different groups, causing long litigation over the title and de...
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White Plains, Battle of (United States history)
...refused this offer of peace, General Howe landed on Long Island and on August 27 defeated the army led by Washington, who retreated into Manhattan. Howe drew him north, defeated his army at Chatterton Hill near White Plains on October 28, and then stormed the garrison Washington had left behind on Manhattan, seizing prisoners and supplies. Lord Charles Cornwallis, having taken......
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White Plymouth Rock (breed of chicken)
...Barred Plymouth Rock, developed in 1865 by crossing the Dominique with the Black Cochin, has grayish-white plumage crossed with dark bars. It has good size and meat quality and is a good layer. The White Plymouth Rock, a variety of the Barred Plymouth Rock, has white plumage and is raised for its meat. Both varieties lay brown eggs. The Wyandotte, developed in 1870 from five or more strains and...
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White Point Gardens (gardens, Charleston, South Carolina, United States)
The Battery (White Point Gardens), conspicuous for monuments and military relics, stands at the city’s southern extremity, overlooking the rivers and the harbour. Fort Sumter National Monument, commemorating the first shot fired in the Civil War, is located about 3.5 miles (5.5 km) southeast of Charleston, in the bay. Nearby are Middleton Place, a former plantation with a formal garden......
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white pointer (fish)
(Carcharodon carcharias), species of large, aggressive shark of the family Isuridae (or Lamnidae) that is considered to be more dangerous to human beings than any other shark. It is also known as the white pointer, man-eater, and white death. The white shark is found in tropical and temperate regions of all oceans. It typically lives in the open sea, but it often enters inshore waters. The...
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white poplar (tree)
Two well-known poplar species of Eurasia are the white and the black poplar. The white poplar (P. alba)—also known as silver poplar for its leaves, which have white felted undersides, and as maple leaf poplar for the leaves’ lobed margins—is widely spreading in form, reaching 30 metres (100 feet) in height. Bolle’s poplar (P. alba variety bolleana) ...
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white porcelain (pottery)
After the comparative sterility of the Six Dynasties, this was a great period in the development of Chinese pottery. Although a white porcelain perfected early in the 7th century is called Hsing yao (Hsing “ware”) because of a reference to white porcelain of Hsing-chou in the 9th-century essay Ch’a Ching (“Tea Classic”) by Lu Yü, as yet no ki...
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white pulp (anatomy)
The spleen is encased in a thick connective-tissue capsule. Inside, the mass of splenic tissue is of two types, the red pulp and the white pulp, which do not separate into regions but intermingle and are distributed throughout the spleen. The white pulp is lymphoid tissue that usually surrounds splenic blood vessels. The red pulp is a network of channels (sinuses) filled with blood, and it is......
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White, Reggie (American athlete)
American football player (b. Dec. 19, 1961, Chattanooga, Tenn.—d. Dec. 26, 2004, Huntersville, N.C.), was considered one of the best defensive linemen in the history of the National Football League. During a 15-year career, which included stints with the Philadelphia Eagles (1985–92) and the Green Bay Packers (1993–98), a franchise he helped lead to a Super Bowl title in 1997,...
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White Revolution (Iranian history)
The shah reversed Mosaddeq’s nationalization. With U.S. assistance he then proceeded to carry out a national development program, called the White Revolution, that included construction of an expanded road, rail, and air network, a number of dam and irrigation projects, the eradication of diseases such as malaria, the encouragement and support of industrial growth, and land reform. He also....
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white rhinoceros (mammal)
The two African species of rhinoceros are the black or prehensile-lipped rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and the white or square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). The terms black and white are misleading, since both species are grayish to brownish, but the names are well established in common usage....
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white rice
B vitamins are also lost when brown rice is polished to yield white rice. People living on white rice and little else are at risk for developing the disease beriberi, which is caused by a deficiency of thiamin (vitamin B1). Beriberi was formerly common in poor Asian communities in which a large proportion of the diet consisted of polished rice. The disease has almost completely......
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white riesling (wine)
Alsace has a rich, highly intensive agriculture characterized by small farms. This is particularly true of the vineyards that dominate the foothills of the Vosges. Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Sylvaner, Auxerrois, and Pinot Blanc are among the notable white wines produced. Colmar is the principal centre of the wine-growing region, whose vineyards......
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White River (river, Russia)
river in Bashkortostan republic, west-central Russia. The Belaya is the largest tributary of the Kama River, which is itself an important tributary of the Volga. The Belaya rises in the southern Urals at the foot of Mount Iremel, and after flowing southwestward through a narrow mountain valley, the river turns sharply north and its valley becomes broad and terraced. After a course of 882 miles (1...
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White River (river, Indiana, United States)
river of central and southern Indiana, U.S. It rises in Randolph county in the east-central part of the state and flows generally westward past Muncie and Anderson for about 65 miles (105 km). Turning southwestward northeast of Indianapolis, it flows through the city and for another 175 miles (280 km) before entering the ...
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White River (river, Arkansas and Missouri, United States)
river rising in the Boston Mountains, in northwestern Arkansas, U.S., and flowing northeast into southern Missouri, where it bends southeast and reenters Arkansas, continuing in a southerly direction to join the Arkansas River near its confluence with the Mississippi River, above Arkansas City. The river’s descent in the upper course exceeds 25 feet (8 m) per mile. Throu...
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White River (river, Yukon Territory, Canada)
...May and loosens northward on Lake Laberge a few days later. The snow-fed tributaries from the Mackenzie Mountains to the east reach their flood peak in June, but glacier-fed streams such as the White, draining the north slopes of the St. Elias Mountains, do not have their greatest runoff until July. Once these peak runoff flows have passed, the Yukon River becomes a shallow, braided stream,......
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White River (river, Nebraska-South Dakota, United States)
river rising on the Pine Ridge Escarpment in northwestern Nebraska, U.S., and flowing in a northeasterly direction into South Dakota. Passing across the northern boundaries of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux Indian reservations, it then turns east and empties into the Missouri River near Chamberlain, S.D., after a course of 325 miles (523 km). Around the White River’s upper course, light ...
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White River Group (geology)
division of middle and upper Oligocene rocks in central Colorado, U.S. (The Oligocene Epoch lasted from 33.7 to 23.8 million years ago.) It overlies the White River Group. Named for the nearby town of Florissant (French: “flowering”), which was so named by an early settler for his hometown in Missouri, the formation consists of shales that contain a rich and......
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White River National Forest (park, Colorado, United States)
...of Garfield county, west-central Colorado, U.S., at the confluence of Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers. It lies in a canyon at an elevation of 5,758 feet (1,755 metres) and is surrounded by the White River National Forest, of which it is the headquarters. The curative value of the local hot springs and vapour caves was known to the Ute, Comanche, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians. In 1882 Isaac......
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White Rock (British Columbia, Canada)
city, southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It lies just southeast of Vancouver on the northern shore of Semiahmoo Bay, at the entrance to the Strait of Georgia. The city is named for a large white rock that, according to an Indian legend, was thrown across the water from Vancouver Island (to the west) by a sea god’s son. The rock wa...
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White Russia
country of eastern Europe. Until it became independent in 1991, it was the smallest of the three Slavic republics that formed part of the Soviet Union. On the northwest Belarus adjoins Latvia and Lithuania, while Russia lies to the northeast and east, Ukraine to the south, and Poland to the west. The capital is Minsk....
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White Russian language
East Slavic language that is historically the native language of most Belarusians. Many 20th-century governments of Belarus had policies favouring the Russian language, and, as a result, Russian is more widely used in education and public life than Belarusian. Belarusian forms a link between the Russian and Ukrainian languages, since its dialects shade gradually into Russian dia...
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white rust (plant disease)
White rust, caused by several fungi in the genus Albugo, differs from the true rusts in not requiring an alternate host. It attacks many herbaceous plants. Light yellow areas develop on leaves, with chalky-white, waxy, and then powdery pustules that finally darken on the underleaf surface and other aboveground parts. Leaves may wither and die early, stems and flower parts may be greatly......
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White Ruthenian language
East Slavic language that is historically the native language of most Belarusians. Many 20th-century governments of Belarus had policies favouring the Russian language, and, as a result, Russian is more widely used in education and public life than Belarusian. Belarusian forms a link between the Russian and Ukrainian languages, since its dialects shade gradually into Russian dia...
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“White Sail Gleams, A” (work by Katayev)
...His comic play Kvadratura kruga (1928; Squaring the Circle) portrays the effect of the housing shortage on two married couples who share a room. Beleyet parus odinoky (1936; Lonely White Sail, or A White Sail Gleams), another novel, treats the 1905 revolution from the viewpoint of two Odessa schoolboys; it was the basis of a classic Soviet film. Katayev...
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white salmon (fish)
...these animals are also referred to as pikeminnows. Squawfishes are long, large-mouthed, pikelike fishes. Voracious carnivores, they make lively sport fishes. The largest species, the Colorado River squawfish, or white salmon (P. lucius), may grow to about 1.5 metres (5 feet) with a reported weight of about 36 kilograms (79 pounds); because of changes in its habitat, this......
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White San Pedro fig (fig variety)
In addition to the caprifig, there are three other horticultural types of fig: Smyrna, White San Pedro, and Common. Smyrna-type figs develop only when fertile seeds are present, and these seeds account for the generally excellent quality and nutty flavour of the fruit. Figs of the White San Pedro type combine the characteristics of both the Smyrna and the Common type on one tree. First-crop......
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white sandalwood (tree)
any semiparasitic plant of the genus Santalum (family Santalaceae), especially the fragrant wood of the true, or white, sandalwood, Santalum album. The approximately 10 species of Santalum are distributed throughout southeastern Asia and the islands of the South Pacific....
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White Sands Missile Range (New Mexico, United States)
...missionaries named the mountains for Saint Andrew, the disciple of Jesus. Salinas Peak (9,040 feet [2,755 metres]) is the highest point in the range. The mountains are dry and barren and include the White Sands Missile Range, where the world’s first atomic bomb was exploded on July 16, 1945, at “Trinity Site.” The White Sands National Monument, encompassing a vast dune fiel...
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White Sands National Monument (national monument, New Mexico, United States)
an expanse of dazzling white gypsum sands in south-central New Mexico, U.S. The monument is situated in the Tularosa Basin, between Alamogordo (northeast) and Las Cruces (southwest). Established in 1933, it covers 225 square miles (583 square km)....
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white sanicle (plant)
(Eupatorium rugosum), poisonous North American herb bearing flat-topped clusters of small white flower heads. It grows up to 1.5 m (5 feet) tall with 18-centimetre (7-inch) leaves opposite each other....
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White Sea (sea, Arctic Ocean)
an almost landlocked extension of the Arctic Ocean indenting the shores of northwestern Russia. It is connected to the more northerly Barents Sea by a long, narrow strait known as the Gorlo (throat). The boundary between the two seas runs along a line joining Cape Kanin Nos and Cape Svyatoy Nos. The area of the White Sea is approximately 35,000 square miles (9...
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White Sea-Baltic Canal (canal, Russia)
system of rivers, lakes, and canals in northwestern Russia that connects the White Sea to Lake Onega, where it joins the Volga-Baltic Waterway....
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White Sea-Baltic Waterway (canal, Russia)
system of rivers, lakes, and canals in northwestern Russia that connects the White Sea to Lake Onega, where it joins the Volga-Baltic Waterway....
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White Shadows in the South Seas (film by Van Dyke [1928])
Writing: Hans Kraly for The PatriotCinematography: Clyde De Vinna for White Shadows in the South SeasArt Direction: Cedric Gibbons for The Bridge of San Luis Rey and other pictures...
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white shark (fish)
(Carcharodon carcharias), species of large, aggressive shark of the family Isuridae (or Lamnidae) that is considered to be more dangerous to human beings than any other shark. It is also known as the white pointer, man-eater, and white death. The white shark is found in tropical and temperate regions of all oceans. It typically lives in the open sea, but it often enters inshore waters. The...
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White, Shaun (American athlete)
American snowboarder who won a gold medal in the halfpipe event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy....
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White Sheik, The (film by Fellini)
...Variety Lights). This was the first in a series of works dealing with provincial life and was followed by Lo sceicco bianco (1951; The White Sheik) and I vitelloni (1953; Spivs or The Young and the Passionate), his first critically and commerciall...
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White Ship (British history)
...rightful imprisonment of Duke Robert and the succession of William the Aetheling (excluding William Clito, the candidate of Louis VI of France). However, on the night of Nov. 25, 1120, the “White Ship” carrying William to England foundered as it left the port of Barfleur, with all lives lost save one. The notoriety of the wreck is due to the large number of the royal household on....
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White, Sir Dick Goldsmith (British official)
British intelligence official (b. Dec. 20, 1906, Kent, England--d. Feb. 20, 1993, Sussex, England), was, at the time of his death, the only person to have headed both the British internal security service, MI-5 (1953-56), and the overseas secret intelligence service, MI-6 (1956-69). White was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and at the Universities of Michigan and California. During World War I...
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White Sisters
...far as possible in the same manner as the Africans, and their religious habit resembles the traditional clothing worn in North Africa: the white gandoura (a tunic) and burnoose (a hooded cape). The White Sisters, or Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, were founded by Lavigerie in 1869 to assist the White Fathers in their African missions....
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White Slip ware (pottery)
...Bronze Age is of three main kinds: (1) a handmade ware with a glossy brown surface called base-ring ware, vases and statuettes of humans and animals being the most common examples of this type, (2) white-slip ware, in which handmade vases of a leathery appearance are decorated with patterns in black on a white slip (slip is liquid clay covering the pottery body), and (3) local imitations, made....
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white snakeroot (plant)
(Eupatorium rugosum), poisonous North American herb bearing flat-topped clusters of small white flower heads. It grows up to 1.5 m (5 feet) tall with 18-centimetre (7-inch) leaves opposite each other....
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White Sox (American baseball team)
American professional baseball team based in Chicago that plays in the American League (AL). The White Sox won three World Series titles, two in the early 1900s (1906, 1917) and the third 88 years later, in 2005. They are often referred to as the “South Siders,” a reference to their location in relation to Ch...
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white spot disease (fish disease)
parasitic disease that affects a variety of freshwater fish species and that is caused by the ciliated protozoan Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. Ich is one of the most common diseases encountered in tropical-fish aquariums. Its signs include the presence of small white spots resembling a sprinkle of salt grains on the body and gills...
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White Springs (Florida, United States)
town, Hamilton county, northern Florida, U.S. It lies on the north bank of the Suwannee River at the site of some mineral springs, about 65 miles (105 km) west of Jacksonville. The Timucua peoples considered the springs sacred, and warring tribes went there to enjoy the waters and put aside their differences. Later, the ...
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white spruce (tree)
...In eastern and central North America the northward movement of the forest was relatively steady and gradual. An exception to this progression occurred about 9,000 years ago in western Canada when white spruce spread rapidly northward across 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) of newly deglaciated land in only 1,000 years. This rapid migration resulted from seed dispersal facilitated by strong......
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White, Stanford (American architect)
American architect and the most imaginative partner in the influential architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White....
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White Star Line (British shipping company)
The British White Star Line, which competed directly with Cunard, also had commissioned two giant liners. The Olympic of 1911, displacing 45,324 tons, was then the largest ship ever built. The Titanic of 1912 displaced 46,329 tons, so vast as to seem unsinkable. The Titanic operated at only 21 knots, compared with the Mauretania’s 27 knots, but its maiden......
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White Stockings (American baseball team)
American professional baseball team that plays its home games at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. Despite limited success—the team has not won a World Series championship since 1908—the Cubs have one of the most loyal fan bases and are among the most popular franchises in baseball. The Cubs play in the National League (NL) and h...
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White Stockings (American baseball team)
American professional baseball team based in Chicago that plays in the American League (AL). The White Sox won three World Series titles, two in the early 1900s (1906, 1917) and the third 88 years later, in 2005. They are often referred to as the “South Siders,” a reference to their location in relation to Ch...
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white stork (bird)
The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) breeds across Europe and Asia and winters south to South Africa. It is a stately bird about 100 cm tall, white with black flight feathers, a dark red bill, and reddish legs. Its population is decreasing, partly because of destruction of its habitat by man; one race, the Oriental white stork (C. c. boyciana), is considered endangered....
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white sturgeon (fish)
...the Sea of Azov, and the Caspian Sea. The lake sturgeon of North America (A. fulvescens) occurs in the Mississippi valley, the Great Lakes, and northward into Canada. The white, Oregon, or Sacramento sturgeon (A. transmontanus) inhabits the waters of the Pacific Coast of North America from California to Alaska....
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white sugar
White sugar production...
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White Sulphur Springs (West Virginia, United States)
resort city, Greenbrier county, southeastern West Virginia, U.S. It lies in the Allegheny Mountains at an elevation of 1,880 feet (573 metres), just east of Lewisburg. Settled about 1750, it developed as a health spa in the 1770s when a woman reputedly was cured of her rheumatism after bathing in the springs. The springs t...
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White Sulphur Springs Hotel (hotel, West Virginia, United States)
...of her rheumatism after bathing in the springs. The springs themselves are on the grounds of the elegant Greenbrier Hotel, which was built by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company in 1913. The White Sulphur Springs Hotel (1854), known as the “Old White,” preceded the Greenbrier and served as headquarters and hospital to both sides during the American Civil War. The President...
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white supremacy
beliefs and ideas asserting the natural superiority of the lighter-skinned, or “white,” human races over other racial groups. In contemporary usage, the term white supremacist has been used to describe some groups espousing ultranationalist, racist, or fascist doctrines. White supremacist groups often have relied on violence to achie...
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White, T. H. (British writer)
English novelist, social historian, and satirist who was best known for his brilliant adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th-century romance, Morte Darthur, into a quartet of novels called The Once and Future King....
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White Tārā (Buddhist goddess)
...and the two wives—a Chinese princess and a Nepali princess—of the first Buddhist king of Tibet, Srong-brtsan-sgam-po, were identified with the two major forms of Tārā. The White Tārā (Sanskrit: Sitatārā; Tibetan: Sgrol-dkar) was incarnated as the Chinese princess. She symbolizes purity and is often represented standing at the right hand of...
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White Teeth (novel by Smith)
...cultural identity and for her novels’ eccentric characters, savvy humour, and snappy dialogue. She became a sensation in the literary world with the publication of her first novel, White Teeth, in 2000....
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White, Terence de Vere (Irish author and editor)
Irish author and editor (b. April 29, 1912, Dublin, Ireland--d. June 17, 1994, London, England), was the influential literary editor of the Irish Times (1961-77) and the author of more than two dozen books. He was also a successful lawyer and a leading figure in the cultural life of Dublin for more than 30 years, with important positions on the boards of the National Gallery (from 1967), t...
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White, Terence Hanbury (British writer)
English novelist, social historian, and satirist who was best known for his brilliant adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory’s 15th-century romance, Morte Darthur, into a quartet of novels called The Once and Future King....
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White Terror (Hungarian history)
“White terrorists” wreaked indiscriminate vengeance on persons whom they associated with the revolutions. Huszár’s government itself had turned so sharply on the Social Democrats and the trade unions that the former withdrew their representatives from the government and boycotted the elections, in protest against the widespread killings, arrests, and internments. (Moder...
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White Terror (French history)
...and efforts toward economic equality were abandoned. Reaction set in; the National Convention began to debate a new constitution; and, meanwhile, in the west and in the southeast, a royalist “White Terror” broke out. Royalists even tried to seize power in Paris but were crushed by the young general Napoleon Bonaparte on 13 Vendémiaire, year IV (October 5, 1795). A few days....
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White, Thelma (American actress)
American actress (b. Dec. 4, 1910, Lincoln, Neb.—d. Jan. 11, 2005, Los Angeles, Calif.), appeared in more than 40 movies and was primarily a musical and comedy performer. She was best remembered for her role in the docudrama Reefer Madness (1936), which became a cult classic in the 1970s because of the unintentional hilarity of the way-over-the-top exaggeration of its propaganda agai...
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White, Theodore H. (American historian)
American journalist, historian, and novelist, best known for his astute, suspenseful accounts of the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections....
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White, Theodore Harold (American historian)
American journalist, historian, and novelist, best known for his astute, suspenseful accounts of the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections....
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White, Tim D. (American anthropologist)
Did scientists take a giant step toward finding the elusive link between humans and apes? Paleoanthropologist Tim D. White and his team of fossil hunters thought so in 1994 when they described what they interpreted to be the oldest, most apelike hominid fossils yet found. White named the 4.4 million-year-old bones Australopithecus ramidus, which classified the new primate among the australo...
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White Tower (tower, Kamenets, Belarus)
...the 12th century. Most of the other early buildings that remain, mostly as ruins, are the princely stone fortresses of the 12th to 16th century. One of the best-known of these is the 13th-century White Tower in Kamyanyets....
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White Tower (minaret, Ramla, Israel)
...(Lydda). He built marketplaces, fortifications, and, above all, the White Mosque (Al-Jāmiʿ al-Abyaḍ). Only ruins of these remain, but the minaret of the White Mosque, the so-called White Tower, 89 feet (27 m) tall, added by the Mamlūk sultan Baybars (reigned 1260–77), still stands. During the First Crusade (1096–99), the city was captured and fortified ...
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White Tower (tower, London, United Kingdom)
...of London that they should enjoy the same laws as under Edward the Confessor and that he would suffer no one to do them wrong. Just outside the city walls he established the Norman keep (the White Tower), which was the central stronghold of the fortress-castle known as the Tower of London. A roughly square (118 by 107 feet [36 by 33 metres]) structure, the White Tower is 90 feet (27......
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White Town (region, Calcutta, India)
In 1706 the population of Calcutta was about 10,000 to 12,000. It increased to nearly 120,000 by 1752 and to 180,000 by 1821. The White (British) Town was built on ground that had been raised and drained. There were so many palaces in the British sector of the city that it was named the “city of palaces.” Outside the British town were built the mansions of the newly rich, as well as....
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white tuna (fish)
(species Thunnus alalunga), large oceanic fish noted for its fine flesh. The bluefin tuna (T. thynnus) is also sometimes called albacore. See tuna....
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white uakari (monkey)
...are bright red, and the coats range from reddish brown to red-orange. They live in flooded forests along the upper Amazon River and its tributaries in eastern Peru and western Brazil. The white, or bald, uakari (C. calvus calvus) is a different colour form of the same species. It has whitish fur and lives only in the Mamiraua Reserve along the upper Amazon in Brazil.......
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White Ushak (carpet)
floor covering woven in western Turkey, carrying on an ivory ground a repeating pattern in which leaflike figures, erroneously described as birds, cluster around stylized flowers. The rugs first appear in Western paintings in the 16th century and were probably not woven after the 18th century. Although the rugs initially were thought to have been woven in Uşak, evidence has emerged that the...
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white velvet (plant)
...plants in baskets, especially the wandering Jews (T. albiflora and T. fluminensis); among other slight differences, the former is green-leaved and the latter has purplish underleaves. White velvet, or white-gossamer (T. sillamontana), has leaves and stems covered with a whitish fuzz. Flowering inch plant (T. blossfeldiana), with leaves green and smooth above,......
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White Volta River (river, Africa)
headstream of the Volta River in West Africa. It rises north of Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso, in a lowland between two massifs, and flows generally southward for about 400 miles (640 km) to empty into Lake Volta in Ghana, a large artificial reservoir created by the Volta River Project and extending just above the former confluence of the Black Volta (or Mouhoun) and White Volta rivers. Innumerable...
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White Volunteer Army (Russian history)
...two main groups of Russian opponents of Vladimir I. Lenin: (1) the non-Bolshevik left, who had been finally alienated from Lenin by his dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and (2) the rightist whites, whose main asset was the Volunteer Army in the Kuban steppes. This army, which had survived great hardships in the winter of 1917–18 and which came under the command of General Anton I....
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white wagtail (bird)
...to raise their young (seephotograph). The four major host species for cuckoos in Britain are meadow pipits (Anthus pratensis), reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus; see photograph), pied wagtails (Motacilla alba yarrellii), and dunnocks (Prunella modularis)....
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White, Walter (American civil-rights activist)
foremost spokesman for African Americans for almost a quarter of a century and executive secretary (1931–55) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He waged a long and ultimately successful campaign against the lynching of blacks by white mobs in the United States....
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White, Walter Francis (American civil-rights activist)
foremost spokesman for African Americans for almost a quarter of a century and executive secretary (1931–55) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He waged a long and ultimately successful campaign against the lynching of blacks by white mobs in the United States....
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white wax tree (plant)
...common privet (L. vulgare), native to northeastern Europe and Great Britain and naturalized in northeastern North America, is widely used as a hedge plant. It reaches about 4.5 m (15 feet). Glossy privet (L. lucidum), from eastern Asia, is a 9-metre tree in areas with mild winters. It has 25-centimetre (10-inch) flower clusters in summer. Japanese privet (L. japonicum),......
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white whale (whale)
a small, toothed whale found mainly in the coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas but also in rivers and deep offshore waters. It is an extremely vocal cetacean and thus has also been referred to as the “canary of the sea.” This whale can also proficiently mimic a variety of sounds. Easily caught in shallow water, the beluga has bee...
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White, Whizzer (United States jurist)
associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1962–93)....
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White, William (American clergyman)
first bishop consecrated in England for the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States and the first presiding bishop of that church....
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White, William Alanson (American psychologist)
Sullivan received his M.D. from the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery in 1917. At St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., he came under the influence of the psychiatrist William Alanson White, who extended the principles of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis to the severely ill, hospitalized psychotic, rather than restricting them to the more functional neurotics treated by m...
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White, William Allen (American journalist)
American journalist known as the “Sage of Emporia,” whose mixture of tolerance, optimism, liberal Republicanism, and provincialism made him the epitome of the thoughtful small-town American. His editorial writing made his own small-town newspaper, the Emporia Gazette, internationally known, and strongly affected at least one U.S. presidential election....
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