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Grand National (motion-picture company)
...the same size and RKO approximately 25 percent smaller than its peers. At the very bottom of the film industry hierarchy were a score of poorly capitalized studios, such as Republic, Monogram, and Grand National, that produced cheap formulaic hour-long “B movies” for the second half of double bills. The double feature, an attraction introduced in the early 1930s to counter the......
Grand National Archery Society (English organization)
...activities with the bow evolved into the modern sport of archery. In 1844 the first of the Grand National Archery Meetings—the British championships—was held at York, and the Grand National Archery Society became the governing body of the sport in the United Kingdom. International rules were standardized in 1931 with......
Grand National Assembly (Turkish history)
...1920), however, reduced the empire to little but Turkey itself and served to strengthen the nationalist cause. After their defeat of the Greeks, the nationalists were in solid control of Turkey. The Grand National Assembly on Nov. 1, 1922, abolished the sultanate. Sixteen days later Mehmed VI boarded a British warship and fled to Malta. His later attempts to install himself as caliph in the......
Grand National Assembly (Afghani government)
...authorities. A military coup in 1973 overthrew the monarchy, abolished the constitution of 1964, and established the Republic of Afghanistan. The Grand Assembly (Loya Jirga) adopted a new constitution in February 1977, but it was abrogated in 1978 when another coup established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, governed by the Afghan......
Grand National Assembly (Bulgarian government)
In July 1991 the National Assembly adopted a new constitution establishing a parliamentary government and guaranteeing direct presidential elections, separation of powers, and freedom of speech, press, conscience, and religion. New laws allowed for the return of the properties that had......
Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (British history)
...his followers carried on ardent propaganda all over the country, and this effort resulted in the transformation of the new National Operative Builders Union into a guild and the establishment of the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (1834). Although the enthusiasm of the unions and the numbers of labourers joining them were remarkable, determined opposition by employers and severe......
Grand National Curling Club of America (American athletic organization)
In the United States the Grand National Curling Club of America, affiliated with the Royal Caledonian, was formed in 1867. The oldest club in the United States is the Orchard Lake Club near Detroit, Michigan, founded in 1832. The first U.S. championship was held in Chicago in 1957, and in 1958 the United States Curling Association was......
Grand National Handicap Steeplechase (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 Party (political party, South Korea)
conservative political party in South Korea....
Grand Oeuvre (work by Mallarmé)
...an extremely subtle and complex use of all the resources of language, and Mallarmé devoted himself during the rest of his life to putting his theories into practice in what he called his Grand Oeuvre (“Great Work”), or Le Livre (“The Book”). He never came near to completing this work, however, and the few preparatory notes that have survived give...
“Grand Old Lady of the Atlantic” (ship, 1906-1935)
transatlantic passenger liner of the Cunard Line, called the “Grand Old Lady of the Atlantic.” It was launched in 1906 and made its maiden voyage in 1907; thereafter, it held the Atlantic Blue Riband for speed until 1929, challenged only by its sister ship, the Lusitania (sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915). During ...
Grand Old Party (political party, United States, 1854-present)
in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Democratic Party. The Republican Party traditionally has supported laissez-faire capitalism, low taxes, and conservative...
Grand Ole Opry (musical show, Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee, United States)
country music show in Nashville, Tenn., U.S., which began weekly radio broadcasts in December 1925, playing traditional country or hillbilly music. Founded by George Dewey Hay, who had helped organize a similar program, the WLS “National Barn Dance,” in Chicago, the show was originally known as the “WSM ...
Grand Orange, Le (American baseball player)
...(with the San Diego Padres), and the team continued to finish in the lower half of the NL East throughout its first decade. During this time the franchise’s most beloved player was outfielder Rusty Staub (the first Expo to have his number retired), whose red hair earned him the nickname “Le Grand Orange.” In 1979, under the guidance of future Hall of Fame manager Dick......
Grand Orgue (French musical instrument)
...usually of only 8- and 4-foot flutes and 8- and 4-foot trumpets. Only in the largest 18th-century French organs were 16-foot stops included, although there were often as many as three on the Grand Orgue (the manual analogous to the German Hauptwerk and the English Great Organ). When French organs had more than two manuals (Grand Orgue and Positif), the others (Récit and......
Grand Palace (palace, Petrodvorets, Russia)
...After visiting the French court in 1717, he decided to make Peterhof into an imperial residence that would rival Versailles. The Baroque Grand Palace (1714–28) was designed by Domenico Trezzini and the palace’s gardens by Alexandre Le Blond; Bartolomeo Rastrelli enlarged the structure in 1752. Peterhof subsequently became the....
Grand Palais (building, Paris, France)
...of whom were influential teachers at the École des Beaux-Arts. A high point was reached with the Paris Exposition of 1889, for which Henri Deglane and Victor Laloux erected, respectively, the Grand Palais and the Gare d’Orsay (renovated as the Musée d’Orsay, 1979–86). These monumental buildings are in a fr...
grand piano (musical instrument)
...he first came to England, and around 1770 three other workmen in Shudi’s shop, John Broadwood, Robert Stodart, and Americus Backers, devised for grand pianos an adaptation of Zumpe’s action that included an escapement. This important development made London a major centre of piano building and created a characteristic English p...
Grand Place (square, Brussels, Belgium)
...governmental buildings are situated. The commercial quarter extends from the western outer boulevards to a little east of the central boulevards and includes the medieval marketplace known as the Grand Place. This square, with its elaborately decorated 17th-century guildhalls, lies at the heart of the Old Town. It is occupied on its south side by the imposing Town Hall and on its north by the.....
grand plié (ballet movement)
...foot positions, pliés may be shallow, so that the dancer’s heels remain on the floor (demi-plié), or deep, so that in all foot positions except the second the heels rise (grand plié)....
Grand Portage National Monument (historical site, Minnesota, United States)
historic site in the northeastern corner of Minnesota, U.S., on Lake Superior near the Canadian border, 140 miles (225 km) northeast of Duluth. Designated a national historic site in 1951 and a ...
grand prince (European peerage)
title of sovereign princes ranking between kings and dukes and of certain members of the Russian imperial family....
Grand Prix de Dressage (equestrian event)
The Grand Prix de Dressage involves performance of the walk, trot, canter, and collected paces and several conventional dressage figures and movements, as well as the correct rider’s position. Scoring on each item is from a maximum of 10 for excellent down to 1 for very bad....
Grand Prix de Rome (art scholarship)
any of a group of scholarships awarded by the French government between 1663 and 1968 to enable young French artists to study in Rome. It was so named because the students who won the grand, or first, prize in each artistic category went to study at the Académie de France in Rome....
Grand Prix des Nations (cycling race)
...part of most stage races—i.e., series of races at which the riders begin at a new destination each day—on the European continent and are featured as self-contained events in the Grand Prix des Nations, an amateur and professional cycling event. British cycle clubs promote time trials as an amateur spring and summer sport. National men’s championships are held for 25-...
Grand Prix racing
automobile racing on closed highways or other courses somewhat simulating road conditions. Such racing began in 1906 and, in the second half of the 20th century, became the most popular kind of racing internationally....
Grand Rapids (Michigan, United States)
city, seat (1836) of Kent county, western Michigan, U.S. It is situated along the Grand River, 25 miles (40 km) east of Lake Michigan and about 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Muskegon. It was founded in 1826 by Frenchman Louis Campau as a trading post where several important Otta...
Grand Remonstrance (British history)
Meanwhile, Parliament reassembled in London after a recess, and, on Nov. 22, 1641, the Commons passed by 159 to 148 votes the Grand Remonstrance to the King, setting out all that had gone wrong since his accession. At the same time news of a rebellion in Ireland had reached Westminster. Leaders of the Commons, fearing that if any army were raised to repress the Irish rebellion it might be used......
grand rhétoriqueurs (French poets)
any of the principal poets of the school that flourished in 15th- and early 16th-century France (particularly in Burgundy), whose poetry, based on historical and moral themes, employed allegory, dreams, symbols, and mythology for didactic effect....
Grand River (river, South Dakota, United States)
river formed by the confluence of the North and South forks in Perkins county, northern South Dakota, U.S. The Grand River flows southeast and a little south to join the Missouri River near Mobridge after a course of 209 miles (336 km). Shadehill Dam ...
Grand River (river, Iowa and Missouri, United States)
river rising near Creston, Union county, south-central Iowa, U.S., and flowing in a southerly direction into Missouri. It merges with the Thompson River and Shoal, Medicine, and Locust creeks near Chillicothe, Mo., before joining the Missouri River ne...
Grand Secretariat (Chinese history)
...traditional and prestigious Hanlin Academy came to be assigned to the palace as secretarial assistants, and they quickly evolved into a stable Grand Secretariat (Neige) through which emperors guided and responded to the ministries and other central government agencies. Similarly, the need for coordinating provincial-level affairs led to......
grand sergeanty (feudal land tenure)
The sergeants themselves were often divided into two well-defined groups. In England there was a grand sergeanty, a tenure so noble that it ranked socially above knight service, and a petty sergeanty, a tenure so meagre that it ranked with the peasants’ tenure, called socage. In origin there was no distinction between sergeanties, but inevitably those bringing their holders into immediate.....
grand serjeanty (feudal land tenure)
The sergeants themselves were often divided into two well-defined groups. In England there was a grand sergeanty, a tenure so noble that it ranked socially above knight service, and a petty sergeanty, a tenure so meagre that it ranked with the peasants’ tenure, called socage. In origin there was no distinction between sergeanties, but inevitably those bringing their holders into immediate.....
Grand Shrine of Ise (temple, Ise, Japan)
The symbol of the sun goddess Amaterasu, worshipped at the main Shintō shrine at Ise, is a mirror (along with a jewel and a sword), one of the Three Sacred Treasures (Sanshu no Jingi) of Japan. The shintai is usually enclosed in cloth or in a box and kept in the main sanctuary of the shrine within a small room or cupboard whose.....
Grand Shrine of Izumo (shrine, Japan)
Izumo is well known as a Shintō religious centre. At Taisha, 5 miles (8 km) to the northwest, is the Grand Shrine of Izumo (Izumo-taisha), the oldest Shintō shrine in Japan, attracting pilgrims throughout the year. Its present buildings, constructed largely in the late 19th century, cover an area of 40 acres (16 hectares) and are approached through an avenue of pine trees. The......
Grand Shrine of Kasuga (shrine, Nara, Japan)
...concrete buildings) include jewels, musical instruments, masks, paintings, sculpture, samples of calligraphy, and household items. The Grand Shrine of Kasuga is one of Japan’s oldest Shintō shrines. The Tōshōdai and Yakushi temples are also within Nara. The Hōryū Temple, at Ikaruga, southwest of the...
Grand Slam (bomb)
Wallis produced not only the dambuster bombs but also the 12,000-pound “Tallboy” and the 22,000-pound “Grand Slam” bombs. He was also responsible for the bombs that destroyed the German warship Tirpitz, the V-rocket sites, and much of Germany’s railway system. Wallis was chief of aeronautical ......
Grand Slam (golf)
U.S. amateur golfer, the first man to achieve the Grand Slam—winning in a single year the four major tournaments of the time. In 1930 he won the British and U.S. Opens and Amateur championships. From 1923 through 1930 he won 13 championships in those four annual tournaments, a feat unequalled until 1973, when Jack Nicklaus surpassed......
Grand Slam (tennis)
Across the board, on innumerable levels, Roger Federer of Switzerland was the 2009 Player of the Year in tennis, becoming only the sixth man in history to win all four Grand Slam events. The champion whom many experts considered the best player ever set an all-time record for men when he captured the All-England (Wimbledon) title, his 15th major men’s singles championship. He then finished ...
Grand Slam tournament (golf)
U.S. amateur golfer, the first man to achieve the Grand Slam—winning in a single year the four major tournaments of the time. In 1930 he won the British and U.S. Opens and Amateur championships. From 1923 through 1930 he won 13 championships in those four annual tournaments, a feat unequalled until 1973, when Jack Nicklaus surpassed......
Grand Staircase (geological feature, Utah, United States)
The landscape consists of three regions. The Grand Staircase is a series of five “steps” rising about 5,500 feet (1,675 metres) across the southwestern part of the monument; each step encompasses a different coloured expanse of cliffs and a different biome, ranging from nearly barren desert to evergreen forest. The arid......
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (national monument, Utah, United States)
rugged remote region of colourful cliffs and canyons in southern Utah, U.S. It is bounded by Capitol Reef National Park to the northeast, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area to the east and southeast, and Dixie National Forest to the north and northwest. Part of the western border adjoins Bryce Canyon National Park, and part of the southern...
grand strategy (warfare)
...purposes, which is sometimes called campaign planning, and (3) strategy, or the broad comprehensive harmonizing of operations with political purposes. Sometimes a fourth type is cited, known as grand strategy, which encompasses the coordination of all state policy, including economic and diplomatic tools of statecraft, to pursue some national or coalitional ends....
Grand Stupa (temple, Vientiane, Laos)
...area, as well as some Lao officials, expressed their concerns over the Chinese plans to construct a residential, commercial, and industrial complex that would be located in close proximity to That Luang, the Buddhist monument that was the country’s national symbol. Faced with public discontent—relayed and amplified by foreign nongovernmental organizations and media—Deputy.....
grand tactics (warfare)
...but over time each has acquired both a prescriptive and a descriptive meaning. There have also been attempts to distinguish between minor tactics, the art of fighting individuals or small units, and grand tactics, a term coined about 1780 by the French military author Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte de Guibert to describe the conduct of major battles. However, this distinction seems to have been lost...
“Grand Testament, Le” (work by Villon)
Free once more, Villon wrote his longest work, Le Testament (or Le Grand Testament, as it has since been known). It contains 2,023 octosyllabic lines in 185 huitains (eight-line stanzas). These huitains are interspersed with a number of fixed-form poems,......
Grand Teton (mountain, Wyoming, United States)
...the North American Rockies, the Caucasus, Africa’s peaks, and finally the Himalayan vastness. Aconcagua (22,831 feet), the highest peak of the Andes, was first climbed in 1897, and the Grand Teton (13,747 feet) in North America’s Rocky Mountains was ascended in 1898. The Italian duke of the Abruzzi in 1897 made the first ascen...
Grand Teton National Park (mountain region, Wyoming, United States)
spectacular glaciated mountain region in northwestern Wyoming, U.S. It lies just south of Yellowstone National Park (to which it is connected by the John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Memorial Parkway) and north of the city of Jackson; the National Elk Refuge adjoins the park’s far southeastern boundary. In 1950 most of Jackson Hole National Monument (establishe...
Grand Théâtre (theatre, Bordeaux, France)
...are characteristic low, white houses. La Bastide, on the right bank, is reached by a 19th-century bridge. Some gates of the old city wall remain, and there are ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. The Grand Théâtre (1775–80), with its statue-topped colonnade, is one of the finest in France; its imposing double stairway and cupola were later imitated by the architect ......
Grand Theft Auto (video game)
video game created by the American company Rockstar Games and published in 1997 and 1998 by the American Softworks Corporation (ASC Games) for play on video game consoles and personal computers. After an immensely popular debut, Gr...
Grand Theft Auto (film by Howard)
...an interest in directing, however, and after high school he spent two years in the University of Southern California’s film program. In 1977 he made his directorial debut with Grand Theft Auto, and its financial success led to further opportunities. Among his early hits were a series of comedies that included Night Shift (1982), which......
Grand Tour (European history)
In the 18th century the so-called Grand Tour became a rite of passage for aristocratic young men. The journey typically involved three or four years of travel around Europe and included an extensive sojourn in Italy, as Rome was considered the ultimate destination for what might now be characterized as cultural tourism....
grand tourist portrait (portrait painting)
...ranked with Anton Raphael Mengs as a painter of historical subjects. Probably his portraits are now better known, as he invented the type of “grand tourist” portrait, very popular among the English, which shows the sitter at his ease among the ruins of antiquity. Batoni first gained fame as a painter of florid and elaborate......
Grand Traverse Bay (bay, Michigan, United States)
northeastern arm of Lake Michigan, indenting the northwest coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. The bay is 32 miles (51 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide; Old Mission Peninsula, which is just 3 miles (5 km) wide, juts into the bay for 17 miles (27 km), dividing it into an East Arm and a West Arm. Traverse City is located at the pe...
Grand Trunk Canal (canal, England, United Kingdom)
The success of that canal encouraged similar projects: the Grand Trunk Canal, penetrating the central ridge of England by the Harecastle Tunnel, and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire, the Coventry, the Oxford, the old Birmingham, and the Chesterfield canals, all designed and, with one exception, executed by Brindley. In all, he was responsible for a network of canals totaling about 360 miles......
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (Canadian railroad)
...United States. The Grand Trunk was also in competition with the Great Western Railway until the two merged in 1882. Eventually, a western branch, the Grand Trunk Pacific, was constructed, but this new rail network proved so unprofitable that it passed into government receivership in 1919. As a result of the liabilities incurred by its Pacific......
Grand Trunk Railway (Canadian railway)
early Canadian railway line, incorporated in 1852–53 to build a railway connecting the key cities of the Province of Canada (the area now known as Ontario and Quebec) with the American seacoast city of Portland, Maine. By completing its final link in July 1853 between Montreal and Portland, the Grand Trunk became North America’s first internation...
Grand Trunk Road (highway, India)
The Grand Trunk Road, a national highway, is one of the oldest road routes in India. It runs through Howrah to Pakistan and is the main route connecting the city with northern India. National highways also connect Kolkata with the west coast of India, the northern part of West Bengal, and the frontier with Bangladesh....
Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company (Canadian railway)
early Canadian railway line, incorporated in 1852–53 to build a railway connecting the key cities of the Province of Canada (the area now known as Ontario and Quebec) with the American seacoast city of Portland, Maine. By completing its final link in July 1853 between Montreal and Portland, the Grand Trunk became North America’s first internation...
Grand Turk (Turks and Caicos Islands)
town and seat of government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, West Indies. Cockburn Town is on the west coast of Grand Turk Island, about 20 miles (32 km) directly across a channel (Turks Island Passage) from the port of Cockburn Harbour on South Caicos Island....
Grand Turk (island, Turks and Caicos Islands)
chief island of the British overseas territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands, in the West Indies north of Hispaniola. The territorial seat of government is at Cockburn Town, directly across Turks Island Passage from the port of Cockburn Harbour, on South Caicos Island. Traditionally the chief economic ...
grand unification theory (physics)
in particle physics, an attempt to describe all fundamental forces and the relationships between elementary particles in terms of a single theoretical framework. In physics, forces can be described by fields that mediate interactions between separate objects. In the mid-19th century ...
grand unified theory (physics)
in particle physics, an attempt to describe all fundamental forces and the relationships between elementary particles in terms of a single theoretical framework. In physics, forces can be described by fields that mediate interactions between separate objects. In the mid-19th century ...
Grand Union Flag (historical United States flag)
American colonial banner first displayed by George Washington on Jan. 1, 1776. It showed the British Union Flag of 1606 in the canton. Its field consisted of seven red and six white alternated stripes representing the 13 colonies. The Stars and Stripes officially replaced it on June 14, 1777....
Grand United Order of St. Luke (American organization)
...of St. Luke, an African American fraternal and cooperative insurance society. Working her way up through various local and general offices, Walker became executive secretary-treasurer of the renamed Independent Order of St. Luke in 1899. At the time she took office, the order had some 3,400 members in 57 local chapters and was in debt....
Grand Valley (valley, 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, and was finally named for the junction of the......
Grand Valley State University (university, Allendale, Michigan, United States)
...university of national distinction. In the 1960s its campus and physical plant became landmarks in U.S. educational architecture through the designs of the American architect Minoru Yamasaki. Grand Valley State University, an institution with a strong liberal arts curriculum in Allendale, west-central Michigan, has experienced rapid......
Grand Véfour, Le (restaurant, Paris, France)
The Véry was absorbed in 1869 by the neighbouring Le Grand Véfour. This restaurant was still in business in the mid-1990s and was regarded as one of the finest eating places in France. Another outstanding Paris establishment of the 19th century was the Café Foy, later called Chez Bignon, a favourite dining place of the English novelist ......
Grand Victoria (French carriage)
...front axle. The graceful body curved down from the coachman’s seat to the floorboards, and up again like a gently sloping chair. Panel-boot victorias were, confusingly, also known as cabriolets. The Grand Victoria had a rumble seat for two extra passengers, and the Victoria-Hansom was an improved hansom cab with a collapsible hood....
grand vizier (Ottoman official)
...1444–46, 1451–81), the Ottomans assumed the old Islamic practice of giving the title vizier to the office of the chief minister, but they had to use the distinguishing epithet “grand.” A number of viziers, known as the “dome viziers,” were appointed to assist the grand vizier, to replace him when he...
Grand Western Canal (canal, England, United Kingdom)
...to another. The longest plane, about 225 feet, was on the Hobbacott Down plane of the Bude Canal in Cornwall. Vertical lifts counterweighted by water were also used; a set of seven was built on the Grand Western Canal; while at Anderton in Cheshire a lift was later converted to electrical power and was still operating in the 20th century. The most spectacular ......
grand wizard (Ku Klux Klan leader)
...Klan was structured into the “Invisible Empire of the South” at a convention in Nashville, Tenn., attended by delegates from former Confederate states. The group was presided over by a grand wizard (Confederate cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest is believed to have been the first grand wizard) and a descending hierarchy of grand dragons, grand titans, and grand cyclopses.......
Grand-Montrouge, Le (France)
town, Hauts-de-Seine département, Paris région, southern suburb of Paris, in north-central France. The area, recorded as Mons Rubicus (Latin: “Red Mountain”), from the local reddish soil, in ancient charters, was divided in 1860—Le Petit M...
Grand-Popo Lagoon (lagoon, Africa)
...of coconut palms; the lagoons are narrower in the western part of the country, where many have become marshes because of silting, and wider in the east, and some are interconnected. In the west the Grand-Popo Lagoon extends into neighbouring Togo, while in the east the Porto-Novo Lagoon provides a natural waterway to the port of Lagos, Nigeria, although its use is discouraged by the political.....
Grand-Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européene, Le
annual singing contest organized by the European Broadcasting Union. The competition, begun in 1956, gathers performers—selected at the national level by each participating country’s public broadcasting service—from across Europe and representing virtually every genre of popular music....
Grand-Saint-Bernard, Col du (mountain pass, Europe)
one of the highest of the Alpine frontier passes, at 8,100 feet (2,469 metres). It lies on the Italian-Swiss border east of the Mont Blanc group in the southwestern Pennine Alps. The pass connects Martigny-Ville, Switzerland (24 miles [39 km] north-northwest), in the Rhône River valley, with Aosta, Italy (21 miles [34 km] southeast)....
Grandage, Michael (English theatre director)
English theatre director who created critically and commercially successful productions of a diverse variety of plays in the late 20th and early 21st centuries....
Grandbois, Alain (Canadian poet)
French Canadian poet whose use of unconventional verse forms, abstract metaphors of voyage and death, and colourful imagery influenced younger experimental poets....
Grandcamp (ship)
...The city has suffered several major disasters, including a severe hurricane that swept over Galveston Island in 1915; the explosion in the harbour of the French freighter Grandcamp, loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer, in 1947, which killed 576 people and injured some 4,000 others; and a hurricane......
Grandcamp-Maisy (town, France)
resort town and marina, Basse-Normandie région, northwestern France. It is located on the English Channel and is framed by sea cliffs just east of the mouth of the Vire River, and it lies ...
GrandCentral (telecommunications service)
telecommunications service introduced in 2009 by the American search engine company Google Inc....
Grandchamp community (Protestant group)
two associated Protestant religious communities founded in the mid-20th century in Switzerland and France....
grande (Spanish nobility)
a title of honour borne by the highest class of the Spanish nobility. The title appears first to have been assumed during the late Middle Ages by certain of the ricos hombres, or powerful magnates of the realm, who had by then acquired vast influence and considerable privileges, including one—that of wearing a hat in the king’s presence—which later be...
Grande, Ca’ (building, Venice, Italy)
...panel extends across the whole facade and is repeated on two upper stories. In the late 15th century, Renaissance forms began to influence palace architecture, as in the Palazzo Corner, also called Ca’ Grande (c. 1533–c. 1545, designed by Jacopo Sansovino), and the Palazzo Grimani (c. 1556, by Michele Sanmicheli, completed 1575). Buildings such as these introd...
Grande, Canale (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...
Grande Cascade (cataracts, France)
set of cataracts in the Pyrenees range near the head of the Pau Stream in southern France. At 1,450 feet (442 m), it is among the world’s highest waterfalls. Fed by water from Lake Glacé in Spain and by melting snow, its two main falls merge into one in spring and early summer, when the water volume is greatest. The Grande Cascade is in the Pyrénées Occidentales Nation...
Grande Causse (caves, France)
...The Pierre Saint-Martin System, for example, is 1,342 metres deep and drains a large area of the mountain range. Southern France, notably the Grande Causse, has some of the most spectacular karst in Europe, with deep gorges, numerous caves, and much sculptured limestone. In the Alps are massive folded and faulted limestones and dolomites......
Grande Comore (island, Comoros)
...after having seized power in a 2001 coup, unilaterally declared himself president in illegal local elections held in June 2007. In the coup-prone Comoros, each of the three autonomous islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Mohéli had its own president; the federal presidency rotated between the island leaders every four years....
Grande Coupure (paleontology)
...Eocene. The resulting immigration of Eurasian land animals into western Europe, and the consequent changes that occurred in terrestrial vertebrates, is known among vertebrate paleontologists as the Grande Coupure (French: “Big Break”)....
grande cuisine (gastronomy)
the classic cuisine of France as it evolved from its beginnings in the 16th century to its fullest flowering in the lavish banquets of the 19th century. The classic cuisine prizes richness, suavity, balance, and elegant presentation. Unlike a peasant or bourgeois cuisine, in which bold, earthy tastes and textures are allowable and even desirable, grande cuisine aims at a...
Grande de Chiapa, Río (river, Mexico)
river in southeastern Mexico. Its headstreams, the largest of which is the Cuilco, rise in the Sierra Madre of Guatemala and the Sierra de Soconusco of Mexico. The Grijalva flows generally northwestward through Chiapas state, where it is known locally as the Río Grande de Chiapa, or the Río Chiapa. After leavin...
Grande de Chiloé, Isla (island, Chile)
island, southern Chile. It has an area of 3,241 square miles (8,394 square km). The island is the extension of Chile’s coastal mountain range, from which it is separated by the Chacao Strait. The nearest of the myriad islands and archipelagoes to its south are the Guaitecas Islands, which lie across the Guafo Gulf. To...
Grande de Matagalpa, Río (river, Nicaragua)
river in central and eastern Nicaragua. It rises in the central highlands southwest of Matagalpa city and flows alternately northeastward and southeastward, between the highlands of the Darién and Huapí mountains. It then meanders eastward through the lowlands of eastern Nicaragua, picking up its major tributary, the Tuma, and empties into the ...
Grande de Mindanao, Río (river, Philippines)
main river of the Cotabato lowland, central Mindanao, Philippines. It rises in the central highlands of northeastern Mindanao (island) as the Pulangi and then flows south to where it joins the Kabacan to form the Mindanao. It meanders northwest through the Libungan Marsh and Liguasan Swamp, which is the habitat of crocodiles. At Datu Piang the river turns to enter Illana Bay of the Moro Gulf in tw...
Grande de San Miguel, Río (river, Central America)
...navigable for several miles inland prior to the construction of two major hydroelectric installations on its middle reaches in the mid-1950s. The eastern part of the country is drained by the Rio Grande de San Miguel system. A series of short north-south streams drain directly from the central highlands to the Pacific. Flooded volcanic......
Grande de Santiago, Río (river, Mexico)
river in Jalisco and Nayarit states, west-central Mexico. It flows out of Lake Chapala near Ocotlán and is an extension of the Lerma River, which enters the lake near La Barca. The Santiago flows generally northward and westward through the ...
Grande de Tárcoles, Río (river, Costa Rica)
...Central is separated into two parts by the continental divide. The eastern part is drained by the Reventazón River to the Caribbean, and the western sector forms part of the basin of the Grande de Tárcoles River, which flows into the Pacific. Another large structural valley, the Valle del General, lies at the base of the Cordillera de Talamanca in the southern part of the......
Grande Direction des Finances (French political body)
...final judgments. The State Council for Finances (Conseil d’État et Finances) expedited financial matters of secondary importance, while the Financial Arbitration Court (Grande Direction des Finances) was an administrative......
Grande 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)....

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