A-Z Browse

Previous Next

Oakland (California, United States)
city, seat (1873) of Alameda county, west-central California, U.S. It lies on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay opposite San Francisco. The city site is located on a flat coastal plain that rises toward hills to the east that parallel the shoreline. Oakland has a mild, Mediterranean...
Oakland A’s (American baseball team)
American professional baseball team based in Oakland, Calif., that plays in the American League (AL). The Athletics—who are often simply referred to as the “A’s”—have won nine World Series championships and 15 AL pennants....
Oakland Athletics (American baseball team)
American professional baseball team based in Oakland, Calif., that plays in the American League (AL). The Athletics—who are often simply referred to as the “A’s”—have won nine World Series championships and 15 AL pennants....
Oakland Raiders (American football team)
American professional gridiron football team based in Oakland, Calif., that plays in the National Football League (NFL). The Raiders have won three Super Bowl championships (1977, 1981, 1984), one American Football League (AFL) championship (1967), and four American Football Conference (AFC) titles. Viewed by many as the ...
Oakland University (university, Rochester, Michigan, United States)
American professional gridiron football team based in Oakland, Calif., that plays in the National Football League (NFL). The Raiders have won three Super Bowl championships (1977, 1981, 1984), one American Football League (AFL) championship (1967), and four American Football Conference (AFC) titles. Viewed by many as the ....
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (coliseum, Oakland, California, United States)
...perimeter from which two layers of radial cables were tightly stretched to a small tension ring in the middle—the double layer of cables gave the roof stability against vertical movement. The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum (1967), by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, extended this system to 126 metres (420 feet) in diameter, but only a single layer of cables, stiffened by encasi...
oakleaf hydrangea (plant)
...hydrangea (H. paniculata ‘Grandiflora’), growing to a height of 9 m, is a common landscape hydrangea, with tapering flower clusters, opening white and fading to pink, then to bronze. Oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia), up to 2 m high, has white flower clusters and deep wine-red fall foliage. The climbing hydrangea (H. anomala petiolaris, or H. petiolaris...
Oakley, Annie (American markswoman)
American markswoman who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, where she was often called “Little Sure Shot.”...
Oakley, Kenneth Page (English anthropologist, geologist, and paleontologist)
English physical anthropologist, geologist, and paleontologist best known for his work in the relative dating of fossils by fluorine content....
Oakover River (river, Western Australia, Australia)
river in northwestern Western Australia. It rises as the Oakover River in the Robertson Range, 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Marble Bar, and flows north. Midway in its course, it turns northwest to join the Nullagine River and becomes the De Grey. The seasonally intermittent stream, the principal tributaries of which are the Shaw and......
Oaks (English horse race)
one of the English Classic horse races (along with the Derby, Saint Leger, Two Thousand Guineas, and One Thousand Guineas), an event for three-year-old fillies, established in 1...
Oakville (Ontario, Canada)
town, regional municipality of Halton, southeastern Ontario, Canada, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Toronto. Oakville is situated on Lake Ontario at the mouth of Oakville Creek. It was founded in 1830 by Colonel William K. Chisholm, who established shipbuilding yards th...
Oama (emperor of Japan)
...history of Japan in a form biassed in favour of the clan concerned. These family documents were collected at the command of the emperor Temmu (672–686) and were used as basic materials for the compilation of the first national chronicles of Japan, the Koji-ki (712) and the Nihon shoki (720). The myths and legends......
Oamaru (New Zealand)
town and port, southeastern South Island, New Zealand. Its name comes from a Maori term meaning “place of sheltered fire.” It was established as a grazing run in 1853. Situated on a small bay, the town began to improve its harbour in 1872. It is a ...
Oannes (Mesopotamian mythology)
in Mesopotamian mythology, an amphibious being who taught mankind wisdom. Oannes, as described by the Babylonian priest Berosus, had the form of a fish but with the head of a man under his fish’s head and under his fish’s tail the feet of a man. In the daytime he came up to the seashore of th...
OAO (satellites)
any of a series of four unmanned U.S. scientific satellites developed to observe cosmic objects from above the Earth’s atmosphere. OAO-1 was launched on April 8, 1966, but its power supply failed shortly after liftoff. OAO-2, launched Dec. 7, 1968, carried two large telescopes and a complement of spectrometers and other auxiliary device...
OAO-2 (United States satellite)
...cosmic objects from above the Earth’s atmosphere. OAO-1 was launched on April 8, 1966, but its power supply failed shortly after liftoff. OAO-2, launched Dec. 7, 1968, carried two large telescopes and a complement of spectrometers and other auxiliary devices. It weighed more than 4,200 pounds (1,900 kg), the heaviest satellite orbite...
OAO-3 (United States satellite)
...telescopes because ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. OAO-2 remained in operation until January 1973. OAO-B failed to reach orbit after its launch on Nov. 30, 1970. Copernicus (OAO-3) was equipped with more powerful instruments, including a reflecting telescope with a 32-inch (81-cm) mirror. Launched Aug.......
OAPEC (Arab organization)
Arab organization formed in January 1968 to promote international economic cooperation within the petroleum industry. Chairmanship rotates annually; meetings occur twice yearly. Member countries include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, S...
oar
Oars and sails...
oarfish (fish)
(species Regalecus glesne), large, long, sinuous fish of the family Regalecidae (order Lampridiformes), found throughout the tropics and subtropics in rather deep water. A ribbon-shaped fish, very thin from side to side, the oarfish may grow to a length of about ...
Oaristos (work by Castro)
Castro’s best-known collection of poetry, Oaristos (1890; “Intimate Chats”), launched Symbolism in Portugal. His Symbolism maintains the essential doctrines of the French theorists of the movement, in contrast with the nostalgic nationalism that characterized the poetry of his contemporaries in Portugal. Among his numerous published collections, the best known include.....
oarweed (alga species)
Castro’s best-known collection of poetry, Oaristos (1890; “Intimate Chats”), launched Symbolism in Portugal. His Symbolism maintains the essential doctrines of the French theorists of the movement, in contrast with the nostalgic nationalism that characterized the poetry of his contemporaries in Portugal. Among his numerous published collections, the best known include.....
OAS
organization formed to promote economic, military, and cultural cooperation among its members, which include almost all of the independent states of the Western Hemisphere. The OAS’s main goals are to prevent any outside state’s intervention in the Western Hemisphere and to maintain peace between the various states within the hemisphere....
OAS (Algerian-French history)
...officer who sought to prevent Algeria from gaining independence from France. In 1961–62 he led an organization of right-wing extremists, the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète (OAS; Secret Army Organization), in a campaign of terror against the government of Charles de Gaulle in both France and Algeria before being captured, tried, and imprisoned....
Oaş (mountain range, Romania)
...offer some magnificent scenery. This portion of the Carpathians is bounded on the eastern side by a zone of softer flysch. For some 250 miles (400 km) on the western fringe, the volcanic ranges Oaș and Harghita, with a concentration of volcanic necks and cones, some with craters still preserved, lend character to the......
Oasis (British rock group)
...19, 1963Sheffield, Eng.) and had its biggest hit with the single Common People—but it was essentially about Oasis and Blur. What the two bands had in common was a belief in the classic guitar-based pop song with a sing-along chorus—and a love of fashionable s...
oasis (geological feature)
fertile tract of land that occurs in a desert wherever a perennial supply of fresh water is available. Oases vary in size, ranging from about 1 hectare (2.5 acres) around small springs to vast areas of naturally watered or irrigated land. Underground water sources account for most oases; their springs and wells, some of them artesian, are supp...
Oasis Club (casino, Florida, United States)
...he turned to gambling, which became a lifelong passion. Before the turn of the century, he opened a gambling casino in Palm Beach, Fla., the Oasis Club, which became a favourite haunt of celebrities. His Embassy Club, also in Palm Beach, was patronized and respected by social and industrial leaders who wintered in Florida. Advised by his......
oasthouse urine disease (pathology)
...retardation. Other hereditary disorders affecting the transport of specific amino acids include the tryptophan malabsorption syndrome (or “blue diaper syndrome”), and the methionine malabsorption syndrome (or “oasthouse urine disease”). They are characterized by poor absorption of the amino a...
Oastler, Richard (British industrial reformer)
industrial reformer known in the north of England as the “Factory King,” who from 1831 conducted a campaign for shorter working hours that was in part responsible for the Ten Hours Act of 1847....
Oaşului, Munţii (mountain range, Romania)
...offer some magnificent scenery. This portion of the Carpathians is bounded on the eastern side by a zone of softer flysch. For some 250 miles (400 km) on the western fringe, the volcanic ranges Oaș and Harghita, with a concentration of volcanic necks and cones, some with craters still preserved, lend character to the......
oat grass (plant)
any of the perennial plants of two genera of grasses, Arrhenatherum and Danthonia (family Poaceae). Approximately six species of tall grasses, native to temperate Europe and Asia, constitute the genus Arrhenatherum. Tall oat grass (A. elatius), which has been introduced into various countries as a pas...
oat plant (cereal)
edible starchy grain of the oat plant (species Avena sativa), a cereal widely cultivated in the temperate regions of the world. The flowering and fruiting structure, or inflorescence, of the plant is made up of numerous branches bearing florets that produce the caryopsis, or one-seeded fruit....
oat-cell carcinoma (pathology)
Small-cell carcinoma (SCLC), also called oat-cell carcinoma, is rarely found in people who have never smoked. It is characterized by cells that are small and round, oval, or shaped like oat grains. SCLC is the most aggressive type of lung cancer; because it tends to spread quickly before symptoms become apparent, the survival rate is very low....
Oates, Joyce Carol (American author)
American novelist, short-story writer, and essayist noted for her vast literary output in a variety of styles and genres. Particularly effective are her depictions of violence and evil in modern society....
Oates, L. E. G. (British explorer)
...back at Framheim Station at Bay of Whales with little difficulty, Scott’s man-hauling polar party—Scott, E.A. Wilson, H.R. Bowers, L.E.G. Oates, and Edgar Evans—using the Beardmore Glacier route, perished on the Ross Ice Shelf....
Oates, Titus (English priest)
renegade Anglican priest who fabricated the Popish Plot of 1678. Oates’s allegations that Roman Catholics were plotting to seize power caused a reign of terror in London and strengthened the anti-Catholic Whig Party....
oath (religious and secular promise)
sacred or solemn voluntary promise usually involving the penalty of divine retribution for intentional falsity and often used in legal procedures. It is not certain that the oath was always considered a religious act; such ancient peoples as the Germanic tribes, Greeks, Romans, and Scythians swore by their swords or other weapons. These peoples, however, were actually invoking a symbol of the pow...
Oath of the Horatii (painting by David)
...appears to have been originally inspired by a Paris performance of Pierre Corneille’s Horace. The result, finally not based on any of the incidents in the play, was the Oath of the Horatii. The subject is the solemn moment, charged with stoicism and simple courage, when the three Horatii brothers face their father and offer their lives to assure victory...
Oath of the Tennis Court (sketch by David)
...carried out: one of these is the unfinished Joseph Bara, which is a tribute to a drummer boy shot by the royalists, and another is the sketched Oath of the Tennis Court, which was to commemorate the moment in 1789 when the Third Estate (the commoners) swore not to disband until a......
oatmeal (cereal)
Some breakfast cereals require cooking; others are packaged ready-to-eat. Roasted and rolled oatmeal, eaten as porridge, requires brief boiling. Cooking time of these processed cereals has been greatly reduced, and various “instant” forms are available....
oats (grain)
edible starchy grain of the oat plant (species Avena sativa), a cereal widely cultivated in the temperate regions of the world. The flowering and fruiting structure, or inflorescence, of the plant is made up of numerous branches bearing florets that produce the caryopsis, or one-seeded fruit....
OATUU (international labour organization)
labour organization founded in 1973 at Addis Ababa, Eth., on the initiative of the Organization of African Unity and replacing the former All-African Trade Union Federation (AATUF; founded in 1961) and the African Trade Union Confederation (ATUC; founded i...
OAU (intergovernmental organization, Africa)
intergovernmental organization, established in 2002, to promote unity and solidarity of African states, to spur economic development, and to promote international cooperation. The African Union (AUえーゆー) replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The AUえーゆー’s headquarters are in ...
Oaxaca (Mexico)
city, capital of Oaxaca estado (state), southern Mexico, lying in the fertile Oaxaca Valley, 5,085 feet (1,550 metres) above sea level. The city site, which has been inhabited for thousands of years, was important to numerous pre-Columbian civilizations, as evidenced...
Oaxaca (state, Mexico)
estado (state), southern Mexico. It is bounded by the states of Puebla and Veracruz to the north and Chiapas to the east, by the Pacific Ocean to the south, and by the state of Guerrero to th...
Oaxaca Basin (valley, Mexico)
...farmers. Farther northeast is the Mesa del Sur, with numerous stream-eroded ridges and small isolated valleys some 4,000–5,000 feet (1,200–1,500 metres) above sea level. The picturesque Oaxaca Valley is the largest and most densely settled of these, with a predominantly indigenous population. It is one of the poorest areas of Mexico....
Oaxaca, Benito Juárez Autonomous University of (university, Oaxaca, Mexico)
Oaxaca was the home of two of Mexico’s most famous presidents, Porfirio Díaz and Benito Juárez (a Zapotec from the nearby village of Guelatao). The Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca was founded there in 1827 (university status 1955), and the Regional Museum of Oaxaca (1933) exhibits the world-renowned treasures from Tomb No. 7 at Monte Albán. The colo...
Oaxaca de Juárez (Mexico)
city, capital of Oaxaca estado (state), southern Mexico, lying in the fertile Oaxaca Valley, 5,085 feet (1,550 metres) above sea level. The city site, which has been inhabited for thousands of years, was important to numerous pre-Columbian civilizations, as evidenced...
ob (gene)
In the 1990s research with genetically obese laboratory animals led to the discovery of the ob gene in mice and humans. Under the direction of this gene, adipose (fat) tissue cells secrete leptin, a protein hormone. When fat stores increase, leptin sends a signal to the hypothalamus (a regulatory centre in the brain) that......
OB Association (astronomy)
...feature of the members of a stellar association is that the large majority of constituent stars have similar physical characteristics. An OB association consists of many hot, blue giant stars, spectral classes O and B, and a relatively small number of other objects. A ......
Ob, Gulf of (gulf, Russia)
large inlet of the Kara Sea indenting northwestern Siberia, between the peninsulas of Yamal and Gyda, in north-central Russia. The gulf forms the outlet for the Ob River, the delta of which is choked by a huge sandbar. The gulf is about 500 miles (800 ...
Ob man gemach faren soll (work by Carlstadt)
...was promptly expelled from Saxony, but not before he published a series of tracts asserting the belief in the symbolic presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Carlstadt’s work Ob man gemach faren soll (1524; “Shall We Go Slowly?”) was eagerly read by all those for whom reform came too slowly. Luther, nevertheless, provided refuge for Carlstadt in......
Ob River (river, Russia)
River, west-central Russia....
Ob River Basin (river basin, Asia)
western Siberian peoples, living mainly in the Ob River basin of central Russia. They each speak an Ob-Ugric language of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic languages. Together they numbered some 30,000 in the late 20th century. They are descended from people from the south Ural steppe who moved into this region about the middle of the 1st......
Ob River Basin Culture (archaeology)
...on the other. Throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age times, two cultural branches were evident: the middle Ural (or Shigir) and that of the Ob River basin. During the 3rd and 2nd millennia bc the culture of the middle Ural region is famous for its elk and water-bird sculptures portrayed in wood, found in the peat bogs of Gorbu...
Ob-Ugrian (people)
...subsequent Tatar domination in eastern Russia (1236–1552) gave added significance to the Arab–Islāmic tradition. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Volga Finns, the Permians, the Ob Ugrians, and the Nenets finally came under the domination of Moscow; before this, Orthodox missionaries had worked, for example, among the Komi (St. Stephen, 14th century) and the Baltic Finns....
Ob-Ugric languages
division of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, comprising the Mansi (Vogul) and Khanty (Ostyak) languages; they are most closely related to Hungarian, with which they make up the Ugric branch of Finno-Ugric. The Ob-Ugric languages are spoken in the region of the Ob and Irtysh rivers in ...
oba (sacred king)
At the crowning of an oba (king) in Yorubaland, for example, the ruler leads a procession through the town as he dances with upright carriage and dignified step, his gestures dictated by the nature of his kingly role and the insignia he carries. His wives follow, interpreting the rhythms in a style suitable to their rank, inclining forward from the waist with their attention respectfully......
Oba (island, Vanuatu)
volcanic island of Vanuatu, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, 30 miles (50 km) east of Espiritu Santo. With an area of 154 square miles (399 square km), the island is dominated by Manaro, a 4,907-foot (1,496-metre) volcanic peak wit...
Oba Koso (work by Ladipo)
...and for its inauguration his new theatre company performed his first opera, Oba Moro (“Ghost-Catcher King”). He premiered Oba Koso (“The King Did Not Hang”) at the club’s first anniversary in 1963 and a year later introduced Oba Waja (“The King is Dead”). All three operas...
Obadiah (Old Testament prophet)
The Book of Obadiah, the fourth book of the Twelve (Minor) Prophets, contains only 21 verses. Nothing is known about the prophet as a person or about his times. It may have been written before the Exile, though many scholars believe that it was composed either some time after 586 bce or in the mid-5th century, when the Jews returned to the area around Jerusalem. The prophet concentra...
Obadiah, Book of (Old Testament)
the fourth of 12 Old Testament books that bear the names of the Minor Prophets, in the Jewish canon treated as one book, The Twelve. Obadiah, with only one chapter consisting of ...
Obadiah of Bertinoro (Italian rabbi and author)
Italian rabbinic author whose commentary on the Mishnah (the codification of Jewish Oral Law), incorporating literal explanations from the medieval commentator Rashi and citing rulings from the philosopher Moses Maimonides, is a standard work of Jewish literature...
Obafemi Awolowo University (university, Ile-Ife, Nigeria)
Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly the University of Ife) was founded in 1961. One of Nigeria’s major universities, it is located north of the town; it operates a teaching hospital and has a major library. The affiliated Institute of Agricultural Research and Training operates the Moor Plantation for agricultural research and has the country’s largest specialized agricultural libra...
Obaid, Thoraya (Saudi Arabian UN official)
On Jan. 1, 2001, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid became the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the first Saudi national to head a UN agency. The UNFPA, the largest internationally funded source of population assistance, actively promoted equality be...
Obaid, Thoraya Ahmed (Saudi Arabian UN official)
On Jan. 1, 2001, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid became the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the first Saudi national to head a UN agency. The UNFPA, the largest internationally funded source of population assistance, actively promoted equality be...
O’Bail, John (Seneca leader)
Seneca Indian leader who aided white expansion into Indian territory in the eastern United States....
Ōbaku (Zen Buddhism)
one of the three Zen sects in Japan, founded in 1654 by the Chinese priest Yin-yüan (Japanese Ingen); it continues to preserve elements of the Chinese tradition in its architecture, religious ceremonies, and teachings. Although the methods of achieving sudden insight as developed by the Rinzai sect are practiced by Ōbaku monks, invocation of the name of the Buddha Amida (nembutsu...
Obama, Barack (president of United States)
44th president of the United States (2009– ) and the first African American to hold the office. Before winning the presidency, Obama represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate (2005–08). He was the third African American to be elected to that body since the end of Reco...
Obama, Barack Hussein, II (president of United States)
44th president of the United States (2009– ) and the first African American to hold the office. Before winning the presidency, Obama represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate (2005–08). He was the third African American to be elected to that body since the end of Reco...
Obama/Biden (United States government)
On November 4, 2008, after a campaign that lasted nearly two years, Americans elected Illinois senator Barack Obama their 44th president. The result was historic, as Obama, a first-term U.S. senator, became, when he was inaugurated on January 20, 2009, the country’s first African American president. ...
Obama, Michelle (American first lady)
American first lady (2009– ), the wife of Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States. She was the first African American first lady....
Obama, Mount (mountain, Barbuda)
...Dulcina, lies 25 miles (40 km) north of Antigua. A coral island, flat and well-wooded, with highlands rising to 143 feet (44 metres) at Mount Obama (formerly Lindsay Hill) in the northeast, it is 62 square miles (161 square km) in area. Barbuda is without streams or lakes and receives less rainfall than Antigua. Codrington, the only......
Obama vs. McCain (United States government)
On November 4, 2008, after a campaign that lasted nearly two years, Americans elected Illinois senator Barack Obama their 44th president. The result was historic, as Obama, a first-term U.S. senator, became, when he was inaugurated on January 20, 2009, the country’s first African American president. ...
ōban (coin)
...coins. Unlike China, Japan has had a gold and silver coinage since the 16th century. The gold coins are large flat pieces in the shape of rectangles with rounded corners, the largest size being ōban and the smaller koban. Other gold pieces are the small rectangular pieces of one and two bu issued from time to time; round gold is rare and usually of provincial mints.....
Obando, José María (president of Colombia)
Colombian president (1853–54), whose violent character and career were representative of the political and military leaders of 19th-century Colombia....
O’Bannion, Charles Dion (American gangster)
bootlegger of the early 1920s, boss of the most feared Chicago gang next to that of his arch rivals, Johnny Torrio and Al Capone....
O’Bannion, Dion (American gangster)
bootlegger of the early 1920s, boss of the most feared Chicago gang next to that of his arch rivals, Johnny Torrio and Al Capone....
Obasan (work by Kogawa)
Asian Canadian writing has emerged as a powerful and innovative force. Joy Kogawa’s Obasan (1981) is a skillful “docufiction” describing the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II; in Chorus of Mushrooms (1994), Hiromi Goto examines the relations between three generations of women in rural Alberta. Chinese Canadian perspectives are prese...
Obasanjo, Olusegun (president of Nigeria)
Nigerian general, politician, and diplomat, who was the first military leader in Africa to hand over power to civilian rule. He served as ruler of Nigeria (1976–79) and as president (1999–2007)....
Obbern, Guillaume d’ (French noble)
Norman soldier and lord, one of William the Conqueror’s closest supporters....
obbligato (music)
(Italian: “obligatory”), in music, essential but subordinate instrumental part. For example, in an 18th-century aria with trumpet obbligato, the trumpet part, although serving as accompaniment to the voice, may be as brilliant in its writing as that of the voice itself. The term obbligato accompaniment has a more specialized meaning in some 18th-century music (see ac...
“Obchod na korze” (film by Kadár and Klos [1965])
...
Obdorsk (Russia)
city and administrative centre of Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrug (district), Russia. It lies on the Poluy River at its entrance to the Ob River....
obduction (geophysics)
As subduction leads to contraction of an ocean, elevated regions within the ocean basin such as linear island chains, oceanic ridges, and small crustal fragments (such as Madagascar or Japan), known as terranes, are transported toward the subduction zone, where they are scraped off the descending plate and added—accreted—to the continental....
obeah (West African folklore)
in west African folklore, a gigantic animal that steals into villages and kidnaps girls on the behalf of witches. In certain cultures of the Caribbean, the term denotes forms of sorcery and witchcraft, usually overpowering and extremely evil. Potent or bewitched objects buried for the purpose of bringing misfortune upon a particular party are sometimes known as obia, and use of the word itself has...
obedience (religion)
...second of the biblical passages that form the core of this liturgical statement (Deuteronomy 11:13–21). Here, in the language of its agricultural setting, the community is promised reward for obedience and punishment for disobedience. The intention of the passage is clear: obedience is rewarded by the preservation of order, so that the community and its members find wholeness in life;......
obedience plant (plant)
The related false dragonheads, or obedient plants (Physostegia), with 12 species are native to North America. The best known is P. virginiana, which has large, pink, bell-like flowers on slender spikes....
obedient plant (plant)
The related false dragonheads, or obedient plants (Physostegia), with 12 species are native to North America. The best known is P. virginiana, which has large, pink, bell-like flowers on slender spikes....
O’Beel, John (Seneca leader)
Seneca Indian leader who aided white expansion into Indian territory in the eastern United States....
Obeid, el- (The Sudan)
town, central Sudan. It lies on a sandy, scrub-covered plateau at an elevation of 1,869 feet (570 metres). Founded by the Egyptians in 1821, the town was captured and largely destroyed by the Mahdist forces in 1882, but it was rebuilt after Kurdufān was federated with the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1899. Al-Ubayyiḍ is encircled by a ...
Obelerio (doge of Venice)
...strife among various settlements vying for supremacy and between pro- and anti-Byzantine factions; also involved were attempts by church authorities to acquire temporal influence. Finally the doge Obelerio and his brother Beato formed an alliance with the Franks of Italy and placed Venice under the authority of the Italian king Pippin (died 810) in order to free themselves from Byzantine......
Obelia (invertebrate genus)
genus of invertebrate marine animals of the class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria). The genus, widely distributed in all the oceans, is represented by many species. The animal begins life as a polyp—a tentacled, stalklike form resembling a small sea anemone attached to ...
obelisk (pillar)
tapered monolithic pillar, originally erected in pairs at the entrances of ancient Egyptian temples. The Egyptian obelisk was carved from a single piece of stone, usually red granite from the quarries at Aswān. It was designed to be wider at its square or rectangular base than at its pyramidal top, which was often covered with an alloy of gold and silve...
Oberammergau (Germany)
The most famous of the Passion plays to survive into the 20th century is that performed at Oberammergau, in the Bavarian Alps. According to tradition, the play has been presented every 10 years since 1634, in fulfillment of a vow made after the village was spared an epidemic of plague (shifting to decennial years in 1700), except in 1870......
Oberbund (Swiss history)
The Gotteshausbund (“League of the House of God”), founded in 1367 to stem the bishop’s rising power, was followed in 1395 by the Oberbund, or Grauerbund (“Gray League”) of the Upper Rhine Valley. The use of the word gray (German grau, French gris, Romansh grisch) in this context derived from the homespun gray cloth worn by the men and gave r...
oberek (dance)
...in his day. The varsoviana is a 19th-century couple dance that evolved from a simple mazurka step. The smooth kujawiak and the energetic oberek are Polish dances that are closely related to the mazurka....
Oberharz (region, Germany)
...intersected by narrow, deep valleys. The Brocken (3,747 feet [1,142 m]) and Viktorshöhe (1,909 feet [582 m]) are of granite. The northwestern and higher third of the highland is known as the Oberharz; the southeastern and more extensive part is the Unterharz. The Brocken group, dividing the two, is generally considered a part of the Oberharz....

Oct	MAY	Oct
	16
2008	2010	2011

With all of these words
With the exact phrase
With any of these words
Without these words

First Name:		Last Name:
Email:		Password:

A-Z Browse

The Britannica Store

Site Map

Magazines

Quick Facts