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Grand Army of the Republic (American veteran organization)
patriotic organization of American Civil War veterans who served in the Union forces, one of its purposes being the “defense of the late soldiery of the United States, morally, socially, and politically.” Founded in Springfield, Ill., earl...
Grand Assembly (Afghani government)
Zahir Shah and his advisers instituted an experiment in constitutional monarchy. In 1964 a Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) approved a new constitution, under which the House of the People was to have 216 elected members and the House of the Elders was to have 84 members, one-third elected by the people, one-third appointed by the king, and......
grand assize (English law)
...were introduced, notably the so-called possessory assizes, which determined who had the right to immediate possession of land, not who had the best fundamental right. That could be decided by the grand assize, by means of which a jury of 12 knights would decide the case. The use of standardized forms of writ greatly simplified judicial administration. “Returnable” writs, which had...
Grand Bahama Canyon (Atlantic Ocean)
...Hawaiian Islands and possibly certain other ocean islands. The majority of these V-shaped depressions have steep, rocky walls thousands of metres high. Those of the Grand Bahama Canyon, which are thought to be the highest, rise nearly 5 km (3 miles) from the canyon floor. The walls of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, by comparison, measure about 1.6 km (1......
Grand Bahama Island (island and district, The Bahamas)
island, The Bahamas, lying just west of Great Abaco Island in the Atlantic Ocean and 60 miles (100 km) east of West Palm Beach, Fla., U.S. The island’s e...
Grand Banks (Atlantic Ocean)
portion of the North American continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean, lying southeast of Newfoundland island, Canada. Noted as an international fishing ground, the banks extend for 350 miles (560 km) north to south and for 420 miles (675 km) east to west. They consist of a number of separate banks, chief ...
Grand Bassa (Liberia)
town, Atlantic Ocean port, central Liberia, western Africa. In 1835 Grand Bassa was founded at the mouth of the St. John River (2 miles [3 km] north-northwest) by black Quakers of ...
grand battement (ballet)
...movement. Among representative types are battement tendu (“stretched beating”), in which one leg is extended until the point of the stretched foot barely touches the ground; grand battement (“large beating”), in which the leg is lifted to hip level or higher and held straight; battement frappé (“struck beating”), in which the...
Grand Caledonian Curling Club (British athletic club)
...Low Countries, but it was Scotland that promoted the game worldwide. The Grand Caledonian Curling Club was organized at Edinburgh in 1838 (royal patronage made it the Royal Caledonian Curling Club in 1843) with the announced purpose of becoming an international body. The International Curling Federation was founded there in 1966....
Grand Camée de France (cameo)
...the Gemma Augustea (see photograph), a sardonyx (an onyx with parallel layers of sard) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and the Grand Camée de France, a sardonyx in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, which were probably carved under Caligula and present, respectively, the apotheosis of Augustus and of Tiberius,......
Grand Canal (canal, Venice, Italy)
main waterway of Venice, Italy, following a natural channel that traces a reverse S-course from St. Mark’s Basilica to Santa Chiara Church and divides the city into two parts. Slightly more than 2 miles (3 km) long and between 100 and 225 feet (30 and 70 m) wide, it has an average depth of 17 feet (5 m) and connects at various points with a maze of smaller canals. These w...
Grand Canal (canal, Ireland)
...commissioners circumscribed the growing city with the North and South Circular roads. Synge Street, close to the South Circular Road, was the birthplace of the dramatist George Bernard Shaw. The Grand Canal was constructed to the north and the Royal Canal to the south of these peripheral roads; both canals enter the Liffey at the harbour entrance and both connect with the ......
Grand Canal (canal, China)
series of waterways in eastern and northern China that link Hangzhou in Zhejiang province with Beijing. Some 1,085 miles (1,747 km) in length, it is the world’s longest man-made waterway, though, strictly speaking, not all of it is a canal. It was built to enable successive Chinese regimes to transport surplus grain...
Grand Canal d’Alsace (waterway, France)
waterway along the Rhine River, in eastern France, designed in 1922. The first section, at Kembs, opened in 1932, and three more pairs of locks were built between 1952 and 1959. The canal is now 50 km (30 miles) long and runs between Basel, Switz., and Breisach, Ger. It was built to improve navigation of the Rhine (hindered by shallows and a...
Grand Canary (island, Canary Islands, Spain)
island, Las Palmas provincia (province), in the Canary Islands comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Spain, in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island is the most fertile of the Canaries. It is n...
Grand Canyon (canyon, Arizona, United States)
Extensive canyon system cut by the Colorado River, northwestern Arizona, U.S....
Grand Canyon National Park (park, Arizona, United States)
vast scenic area of northwestern Arizona in the southwestern United States. The park was created in 1919, and its area was greatly enlarged in 1975 by the addition of the former Grand Canyon and Marble Canyon national monuments and by portions of Glen ...
Grand Canyon of the East (gorge, New York, United States)
...Portageville, midway along its course, the river flows into a 17-mile- (27-km-) long postglacial, winding, rocky gorge with sides rising as high as 600 feet (180 metres) above its banks. Called the “Grand Canyon of the East,” this gorge, cut into sedimentary rocks of the Appalachian Upland, is the focal point of Letchworth Sta...
Grand Canyon Series (geology)
major division of rocks in northern Arizona dating from Precambrian time (about 3.8 billion to 540 million years ago). The rocks of the Grand Canyon Series consist of about 3,400 m (about 10,600 feet) of quartz sandstones, shales, and thick sequences of carbonate rocks...
Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument (national monument, Arizona, United States)
large natural area in northwestern Arizona, U.S., north of the Grand Canyon. Covering an area of 1,584 square miles (4,103 square km) of the Colorado Plateau, the monument was created in 2000 to protect the watershed north of the Colorado River. It is jointly operated by two U.S. federal agencies: the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management....
Grand Carnot, Le (French military engineer)
French statesman, general, military engineer, and administrator in successive governments of the French Revolution. As a leading member of the Committee for General Defense and of the Committee of Public Safety (1793–94) and of the Directory (1793–97), he helped mobilize the Revolutionary armed forces and matériel....
Grand Cascade (fountain, Saint Petersburg, Russia)
...of its lateral wings. Built in the Baroque style (1714–28), it was reconstructed and expanded by Rastrelli from the mid-1740s to the mid-1750s. On the north the building commands a view of the Grand Cascade, a grandiose structure including a grotto, 64 fountains, and two cascading staircases, which lead to an enormous semicircular basin that contains a giant statue of Samson wrestling wi...
Grand Catalan Company (Spanish mercenary army)
In 1303, Byzantium employed as mercenaries the Catalan Company, led by Roger de Flor, which soon began attacking and robbing Byzantines and Turks alike. Hoping to get rid of them, Michael arranged the murder of Roger de Flor in the imperial palace in April 1305. The Catalans then rebelled and ravaged the countryside of Thrace for several years before moving on to Thessaly....
Grand Cayman (island, West Indies)
island group and overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the Caribbean Sea, comprising the islands of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac, situated about 180 miles (290 km) northwest of Jamaica. The islands are the outcroppings of a submarine mountain range that extends......
Grand Central Station (railway station, New York City, New York, United States)
Railroad terminal in New York City. It was designed and built (1903–13) by Reed & Stem in collaboration with the firm of Warren & Wetmore; the latter firm is credited with the aesthetics of the huge structure. The concourse, with its 125-ft (43-m) ceiling vault painted with constellations, was one of the...
Grand Central Terminal (railway station, New York City, New York, United States)
Railroad terminal in New York City. It was designed and built (1903–13) by Reed & Stem in collaboration with the firm of Warren & Wetmore; the latter firm is credited with the aesthetics of the huge structure. The concourse, with its 125-ft (43-m) ceiling vault painted with constellations, was one of the...
Grand Challenge Cup (rowing trophy)
...patron and gave the event its “royal” prefix. The regulation distance for the races is 1 mile 550 yards (2,100 m). Probably the most significant of the traditional Henley races are the Grand Challenge Cup, the oldest (established in 1839), which usually attracts the world’s finest eights (crews using eight oars), and the Diamond Challenge Sculls (1844), one of the world...
Grand Chambre (French court)
(French: Chamber of Inquiries), in France under the ancien régime, a chamber of the Parlement, or supreme court, of Paris that was responsible for conducting investigations ordered by the Grand Chambre of the Parlement. The Chambre des Enquêtes grew out of sessions or enquiries that were conducted at the place of the crime or suit....
Grand Châtelet (building, Paris, France)
in Paris, the principal seat of common-law jurisdiction under the French monarchy from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. Located on the right bank of the Seine River, the building was originally a small fort that guarded the northern approach to the Île de la Cité. ...
Grand Chute (Wisconsin, United States)
city, Outagamie, Winnebago, and Calumet counties, seat (1852) of Outagamie county, east-central Wisconsin, U.S. The city lies along the Fox River just north of Lake Winnebago, about 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Green Bay. Menominee, Fox, and Ho-Chunk Nation (Winnebago) Indians originally inhabited the a...
Grand Circuit (horse racing)
oldest continuing harness horse-racing series in the United States. It was begun in 1871 by Colonel Billy Edwards, a businessman from Cleveland, Ohio. The circuit, then known as the Quadrilateral Trotting Combination, held its first meetings in 1873 in...
Grand Company (Italian mercenaries)
...armies in Italy (often called free companies) were made up of foreigners. The earliest (1303) was composed of Catalans who had fought in the dynastic wars of the south. In the mid-14th century the Grand Company, composed mainly of Germans and Hungarians, terrorized the country, devastating Romagna, Umbria, and Tuscany. It was one of the first to have a formal organization and a strict code of.....
Grand Condé, Le (French general and prince)
leader of the last of the series of aristocratic uprisings in France known as the Fronde (1648–53). He later became one of King Louis XIV’s greatest generals....
Grand Conti, Le (French noble)
younger brother of Louis-Armand I de Bourbon....
Grand Coulee Dam (dam, Washington, United States)
gravity dam on the Columbia River in the state of Washington, U.S. It was originally a project of the Federal Bureau of Reclamation. The main structure and power plant were completed in 1941, but not all the generators were installed until 1942. The dam rises 550 feet (...
Grand Council (Chinese history)
...of power to the throne that was part of the Qing political process. Similarly, revisions of the system of bureaucratic communication and the creation in 1729 of a new top decision-making body, the Grand Council, permitted the emperor to control more efficiently the ocean of government memorandums and requests....
Grand Council of Fascism (Italian history)
...out Allied terms, which of course included the removal of Mussolini. In July 1943 the Allies invaded Sicily, and within a few weeks they controlled the island. On July 24–25 the Fascist Grand Council met in Rome for the first time since the beginning of the war and passed a motion asking the king to resume his full constitutional powers—that is, to dismiss Mussolini. In a......
Grand Court (court, Cayman Islands)
There are three levels of courts in the Cayman Islands. Subordinate courts have civil and criminal jurisdiction. Appeals from the subordinate courts go to the Grand Court, which also hears the more serious cases within the criminal, family, common law and civil jurisdictions. Legal actions taken as a result of international offshore banking......
Grand Danois (breed of dog)
breed of working dog developed at least 400 years ago in Germany, where it was used for boar hunting. The Great Dane is typically a swift, alert dog noted for courage, friendliness, and dependability. It has a massive, square-jawed head and body lines that give it an elegant appearance. Its short coat is black, fawn (golden brown), brindle, blue-gray, harlequin (white with black...
Grand Dauphin, Le (French noble)
son of Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse of Austria; his death preceded his father’s (1715), and the French crown went to his own grandson, Louis XV. In 1688 he received nominal command of the French armies in Germany, led by Vauban, but...
Grand Dictionnaire encyclopédique Larousse (French encyclopaedia)
(French: “Larousse Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary”), French encyclopaedia published in Paris (1982–85) by Librairie Larousse and based on earlier editions of Larousse encyclopaedias dating back to the Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle (“Great Universal Dictionary of the 19...
Grand Dictionnaire historique (work by Moréri)
Louis Moréri set an example in his rapid incorporation of new information in each succeeding issue of his widely used Grand Dictionnaire historique (1674; “The Great Historical Dictionary”). When the German publisher Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus first issued his great encyclopaedia, he was forced by an unexpectedly large public demand to issue edition after edition....
Grand Dictionnaire universal du XIXe siècle (French dictionary)
...house specializing in encyclopaedias and dictionaries, founded in 1852 by Augustin Boyer and Pierre Larousse, editor of the Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle (15 vol., 1866–76; 2 supplements, 1878 and 1890). The many reference......
Grand Dixence Dam (dam, Switzerland)
gravity dam on the Dixence River, Switzerland, completed in 1961. It is 935 feet (285 m) high and 2,280 feet (695 m) wide at the crest, has a volume of 7,848,000 cubic yards (6,000,000 cubic m), and impounds a reservoir of 325,000 acre-feet (401,000,000 cubic m)....
Grand Ducal Institut (institution, Luxembourg)
The major cultural institution of Luxembourg is the Grand Ducal Institute, which has sections devoted to history, science, medicine, languages and folklore, arts and literature, and moral and political sciences. It functions as an active promoter of the arts, humanities, and general culture rather than as a conservator. The ......
Grand Ducal Palace (palace, Luxembourg, Luxembourg)
The Grand Ducal Palace is home to the royal family, heirs of William I (1772–1843), king of the Netherlands and grand duke of Luxembourg (1815–40). The palace dates from 1572, and later additions were made in 1895. After renovations were completed in the 1990s, portions of the palace were opened to the public....
grand duchess (European peerage)
title of sovereign princes ranking between kings and dukes and of certain members of the Russian imperial family....
grand duke (European peerage)
title of sovereign princes ranking between kings and dukes and of certain members of the Russian imperial family....
Grand Duke Alexander Island (atoll, Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean)
one of the northern Cook Islands, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. It is a ...
grand écaille (fish)
The Atlantic tarpon (Megalops atlanticus; alternate name Tarpon atlanticus) is found inshore in warm parts of the Atlantic, on the Pacific side of Central America, and sometimes in rivers. Also called silver king, grand écaille, and sabalo real, it habitually breaks......
Grand Embassy (delegation of Peter I)
Having already sent some young nobles abroad to study nautical matters, Peter, in 1697, went with the so-called Grand Embassy to western Europe. The embassy comprised about 250 people, with the “grand ambassadors” Franz Lefort, F.A. Golovin, and P.B. Voznitsyn at its head. Its chief purposes were to examine the international situation and to strengthen the anti-Turkish coalition,......
Grand Empire (French history)
Napoleon now had a free hand to reorganize Europe and numerous relatives to install on the thrones of his satellite kingdoms. The result was known as the Grand Empire. Having annexed Tuscany, Piedmont, Genoa, and the Rhineland directly into France, Napoleon placed the Kingdom of Holland (which until 1806 was the Batavian Commonwealth) under his brother Louis, the Kingdom of Westphalia under his......
grand ensemble (physics)
A grand ensemble is any ensemble for which the restriction of a constant number of particles is abandoned. Such a description is more general and is particularly applicable to systems in which the number of particles varies, e.g., chemically reacting systems. ...
Grand Entry (Native American culture)
...showmanship, known as “fancying it up.” They also developed an opening parade into the arena, made in precise order. This practice is the direct ancestor of the contemporary powwow’s Grand Entry, during which groups of dancers follow a colour guard into the arena in a predetermined sequence. The Grand Entry not only marks the beginning of the event but also motivates dancer...
Grand Etang (lake, Grenada, West Indies)
Several short, swiftly flowing streams supply all towns and most villages with piped clean water. A further source of water is Grand Etang, a lake covering 36 acres in the crater of an extinct volcano at an elevation of 1,740 feet. The fertile soils are chiefly volcanic, with some limestone in the north....
Grand Falls (waterfall, Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada)
part of a series of cataracts and rapids on the Churchill River, southwest of Michikamau Lake in west Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. Lying 250 miles (400 km) from the river’s mouth, the falls drop 245 feet (75 m), forming part of the river’s 1,100-foot (335-metre) descent within a 16-mile (26-kilometre) stretc...
Grand Falls-Windsor (Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada)
town, central Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It lies along the Exploits River and the Trans-Canada Highway, 266 miles (428 km) northwest of St. John’s. Grand Falls developed around a newsprint and pulp mill built in 1909 by the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company. There is a large hydroelectric plant at the falls that gave the town ...
Grand Father Abraham (American minister)
religious sect founded in 1896 by Prophet William S. Crowdy. He passed his mantle of leadership to Bishop William Plummer, who announced himself as “Grand Father Abraham.” This group believes that all Jews were originally black and that modern-day blacks are descendants of the “lost tribes of Israel.” Their beliefs centre on the “Seven Keys,” the “S...
Grand Final (Australian rules football)
The league’s championship, known as the Grand Final, began in 1898 and starting in 1904 was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). It became, after the Melbourne Cup horse race, the most significant sporting and cultural event on Victoria’s annual calendar. The league’s popularity continued to rise, particularly with ...
grand fir (tree)
...of the previous year to some degree (preformers). In these species the number of height growth units for the year is determined to a great extent during the previous year. For example, those of the grand fir (Abies grandis) in the area of Vancouver are preformed in October, so that at spring bud break those height growth units elongate and develop; a new bud is then initiated in....
grand FITA round (archery event)
...FITA rounds. In 1985, to improve archery as a spectator sport, a new championship round known as the grand FITA round, with single-elimination matches, was adopted. The grand FITA round first appeared in the Olympic Games in 1988, when team competition was introduced to the program. The 1992 Olympic......
Grand Forks (North Dakota, United States)
city, seat (1875) of Grand Forks county, eastern North Dakota, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Red River of the North and the Red Lake River, opposite East Grand Forks, Minnesota, about 80 miles (130 km) south of the Canadian border and 75 miles (120 km) north of Fargo....
Grand Guignol (theatrical form)
short plays popular in Parisian cabarets in the 19th century, especially at the Théâtre du Grand Guignol. The plays emphasized violence, horror, and sadism. Although Grand Guignol was introduced into England about 1908, it remained essentially a Parisian theatrical form....
Grand Harbour (inlet, Malta)
picturesque small inlet on the east coast of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated from Marsamxett harbour by Mount Sceberras, a rocky promontory on which Valletta, Malta’s capital, is built. The story of Malta is intimately linked with that of Grand Harbour. With the gr...
Grand Haven (Michigan, United States)
city, seat (1837) of Ottawa county, southwestern Michigan, U.S., located at the mouth of the Grand River, about 15 miles (25 km) south of Muskegon on the shore of Lake Michigan. A fur-trading post was built on the site in 1834; the village of Grand Haven was laid out the next year. With the construction of several sawmills on the river, it s...
grand hazard (dice game)
gambling game with dice from which chuck-a-luck evolved. In the United States the game is sometimes mistakenly called chuck-a-luck. Grand hazard is sometimes known just as hazard (especially in casinos), but it should not be confused with the considerably older European game of ...
Grand Hornu (Belgium)
...from the area since the Middle Ages. The mines are no longer operative; the principal industries are metallurgy (in the town of Jemappes) and glassmaking (at Boussu). The city and workshops of Grand Hornu constitute a remarkable reconstruction (begun c. 1820) of an ancient mine and its attendant industrial complex....
Grand Hotel (work by Baum)
Austrian-born American novelist whose Menschen im Hotel (1929; “People at the Hotel”; Eng. trans. Grand Hotel) became a best-seller and was adapted as a successful play (1930), an Academy Award-winning film (1932), a film musical (1945; renamed Weekend at the Waldorf), and a Broadway stage musical (1989)....
Grand Hotel (film by Goulding [1932])
...which Garbo received an Academy Award nomination. She poignantly portrayed an aging ballerina in the all-star classic Grand Hotel (1932), the film in which she first uttered her signature line of “I want to be alone.” Her stardom was such at this point that she was billed merely......
Grand Illusion (film by Renoir [1937])
...far more than his technique, the basis of his art as a filmmaker. The late 1930s saw such major works as La Grande Illusion (1937; Grand Illusion), a moving story of World War I prisoners of war; La Bête humaine (1938; The Human Beast, or Judas Was a Woman), an admirable free interpretation of......
Grand Island (Nebraska, United States)
city, seat of Hall county, south-central Nebraska, U.S., about 90 miles (145 km) west of Lincoln. The city’s name comes from an island in the nearby Platte River called La Grande Île (French: “Big Island”)...
Grand Island (island, New York, United States)
From its head at Lake Erie, the river flows through a single channel for about 5 miles (8 km). It is then divided into two channels by Strawberry and Grand islands, the eastern, or U.S., channel running for about 15 miles (24 km), the western, or Canadian, for about 12 miles. At the foot of Grand Island the two merge again about 3 miles (5......
Grand Isle (county, Vermont, United States)
county, northwestern Vermont, U.S. It is bordered to the north by Quebec, Can., and to the west by New York state. It consists of a peninsula extending southward into Lake Champlain from Quebec and an archipelago of three larger islands (Isle La Motte and North and South Hero islands) and several smaller islands. The county is linked by bridge to mainland Verm...
Grand, Jens (Danish archbishop)
...unjustly—of killing his father and had been outlawed in 1287. These outlaws, who were aided by the Norwegian king and soon joined by Duke Valdemar of Schleswig and the new archbishop, Jens Grand, raided the Danish coasts. Erik defeated Valdemar and reached an agreement with Norway in 1295, but he continued to feud with Grand, whose imprisonment led to a papal interdict of the king......
grand jeté (ballet movement)
...the other leg in any desired position upon landing. Among the commonly seen forms of this step are the jeté battu, in which the legs are crossed in the air before the descent; the grand jeté, a broad, high leap with one leg stretched forward and the other back like a “split” in the air; and the jeté en tournant, or tour jeté......
grand jour (French law)
An important type of French assize was the grand jour, a meeting in a province of magistrates from the Parlement of Paris. The grands jours often were held at times of civil disruption in the area as a way of making the power and presence of the central government......
Grand Junction (Colorado, United States)
city, seat (1883) of Mesa county, western Colorado, U.S. It lies in the Grand Valley (elevation 4,586 feet [1,398 metres]), at the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers. Settled by ranchers in 1881 after the expulsion of the Ute Indians, it was first called Ute, then West Denver...
grand jury (law)
in Anglo-American law, a group that examines accusations against persons charged with crime and, if the evidence warrants, makes formal charges on which the accused persons are later tried. Through the grand jury, laypersons participate in bringing suspects to trial. Though it holds judicial inquiries, the grand jury does not decide guilt or innocence. Its function is inquisitorial and accusatori...
Grand Lac (reservoir, Cambodia)
natural floodplain reservoir, central Cambodia. The lake is drained during the dry season by the Sab River (Tônlé Sab) across the Véal Pôc plain southeastward to the Mekong River. Called by the French Grand Lac (“Great Lake”), th...
Grand, Le (Russian airplane)
...S-6 series established Sikorsky as a serious competitor for supplying aircraft to the Russian Army. Characteristically, he soon took a giant step: the first four-engined airplane, called “Le Grand,” the precursor of many modern bombers and commercial transports, which he built and flew successfully by 1913. Among its innovative features, not adopted elsewhere until the middle......
Grand Livre de la dette publique (French register)
...He fought inflation by reducing the quantity of assignats (paper currency issued by the Revolutionary government) in circulation, and, on August 24, 1793, he instituted the Grand Livre de la dette publique (“Great Book of the Public Debt”), a register of all the state’s creditors....
Grand Lodge (religious institution)
...in the 17th and 18th centuries, adopted the rites and trappings of ancient religious orders and of chivalric brotherhoods. In 1717 the first Grand Lodge, an association of lodges, was founded in England....
grand logothete (Byzantine official)
By the 11th century an official called the grand logothete headed the entire civil service. In this capacity he sometimes even represented the emperor’s religious interests. In July 1274, at the Second Council of Lyon, the grand logothete George Acropolites accepted Roman Catholic orthodoxy and papal supremacy in the name of Emperor......
Grand Louvre (museum, Paris, France)
national museum and art gallery of France, housed in part of a large palace in Paris that was built on the right-bank site of the 12th-century fortress of Philip Augustus. In 1546 Francis I, who was a great art collector, had this old castle razed and began to build on its site another royal residence, the...
Grand Maigne (castle, Greece)
...shipping. Ruins in the district include the remains of the temple and sanctuary of Poseidon, situated at the tip of Cape Taínaron (Cape Matapan), as well as the Frankish castle (Grand Maigne), built in 1248–50 by William II de Villehardouin to pacify the region. In 1821 an uprising in the region helped trigger the Wa...
grand mal (pathology)
Generalized tonic-clonic seizures, sometimes referred to by the older term grand mal, are commonly known as convulsions. A person undergoing a convulsion loses consciousness and falls to the ground. The fall is sometimes preceded by a shrill scream caused by forcible expiration of air as the respiratory and laryngeal muscles suddenly contract. After the fall, the body stiffens because of......
Grand Manan Island (island, New Brunswick, Canada)
island in the Bay of Fundy, southwestern New Brunswick, Canada. The island lies near the entrance to Passamaquoddy Bay, 23 miles (37 km) southeast of Saint Andrews and 9 miles (14.5 km) off the M...
grand mariage (social custom)
...to pay for the festivities, as well as to provide a dowry for his bride. These events often feed the entire community, and tourists are generally welcome to attend. This custom, called grand mariage on Ngazidja, is so expensive that only the wealthiest can afford it. A man who hosts a grand mariage is thereafter considered to be a grand.....
Grand Master (African ritual)
...secret societies that meet in sacred groves in the forest. The poro, the more important of the organizations, is personified by the Great Masked Figure, or Grand Master, a person who only appears in public disguised by a mask, costume, and falsetto voice. He represents both the ......
Grand Masters, Palace of the (building, Valletta, Malta)
...and is now almost equal in rank to the archbishop’s cathedral at Mdina. Built between 1573 and 1578, it was designed by the Maltese architect Gerolamo Cassar. Other buildings by Cassar include the Palace of the Grand Masters (1574; now the residence of the president of the Republic of Malta, the seat of the House of Representatives, and the site of the armoury of the Hospitallers), the A...
“Grand Meaulnes: The Land of Lost Content, Le” (work by Alain-Fournier)
French writer whose only completed novel, Le Grand Meaulnes (1913; The Wanderer, or The Lost Domain), is a modern classic....
Grand Medicine Society
...popular literature, any of various complex healing societies and rituals of many American Indian tribes. More correctly, the term is used as an alternative name for the Grand Medicine Society, or Midewiwin, of the Ojibwa Indians of North America....
Grand Mesa (mesa, Colorado, United States)
...rapidly in the 1990s, with many new residents having retired and relocated from other parts of the United States. Nearby is the lake-studded Grand Mesa, the Colorado National Monument, and the Grand Mesa and Uncompahgre national......
Grand Metropolitan, P.L.C. (American company)
former American flour miller and food products manufacturer that was acquired by its rival, General Mills, in 2001. Both companies were headquarted in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Through its long history in the baking-goods industry, its cookbooks, and its promotional baking contests—notably the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off—Pillsbury became identified with home baking. One of the company...
Grand Monadnock (mountain, New Hampshire, United States)
solitary mass of rock (3,165 feet [965 metres]) in Monadnock State Park, southeast of Keene, southwestern New Hampshire, U.S. It is a classic example of, and gave its name to, the geologic feature called a monadnock. Mount Monadnock was celebrated by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the long poem Monadnoc...
Grand Mosque (mosque, Djenné, Mali)
...for the mud walls but also creating a type of ladder permitting yearly replastering; inside, a series of wooden columns holds up the roof, which has small openings to allow in some sunlight. The Djenné mosque, the epitome of Sudanese architecture, is the largest mud building in the world. Timbuktu (founded about ad 1100) was a centre of commerce and learning during the time...
Grand Mosque of Tunis (mosque, Tunis, Tunisia)
mosque in Tunis and the seat of an important Muslim university. Dating to the 8th century, the mosque was rebuilt in the 9th century during Aghlabid rule. It subsequently became one of the most important mosques in Tunisia and was the source of the intellectual elite in the early 20th century, in particular the elements of the Desto...
Grand Mosquée du Pasha (mosque, Oran, Algeria)
...Cathedral of Saint-Louis (rebuilt by the French in 1838), the Porte de Canastel (reconstructed in 1734), and the fountain in the Place Emerat (1789). In the Turkish part of the old town is the Great Mosque built in 1796 with money obtained by ransoming Spanish captives. To the east lies the Château Neuf, former residence of the beys of Oran and later a French army headquarters. Near......
Grand National (British horse race)
British horse race held annually over the Aintree course, Liverpool, in late March or early April; it attracts more attention throughout the world than any other steeplechase. The race was instituted in 1839 by William Lynn, a Liverpool innkeeper, and its present name was adopted in 1847....
Grand National (auto racing championship)
After the IRL season, Franchitti switched to Ganassi Dodge stock cars and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Nextel Cup, the richest American series. Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, a former Formula One (F1) world champion, also joined NASCAR. Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet dominated the Nextel season, which devolved into a battle between two Hendrick drivers. In the......

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