Wolfenbüttel

City, Lower Saxony Land (state), northwestern Germany. The city lies along the Oker River, just south of Brunswick. First mentioned in 1118, it grew around the castle that became a favourite Welf residence about 1283. Chartered in 1540, it was captured by the Protestant Schmalkaldic League in 1542 and was transferred to Brunswick in 1753–54. The old town has many Renaissance and Baroque half-timbered

Peribsen

Egyptian king of the 2nd dynasty (c. 2775–c. 2650 BC), who promoted the cult of the god Seth over that of Horus, the god favoured by his predecessors. His tomb was located in Seth's district in Upper Egypt, at Abydos. According to some scholars, Peribsen's ascendancy was accompanied by a violent reaction against the supporters of Horus, but the supremacy of Horus was restored after his

Cambridge Critics

Group of critics who were a major influence in English literary studies from the mid-1920s and who established an intellectually rigorous school of critical standards in the field of literature. The leaders were I.A. Richards and F.R. Leavis of the University of Cambridge and Richards' pupil William Empson. In the 1920s the University of Cambridge was distinguished in many

Rousseau, Jean-baptiste

The son of a poor cobbler, Rousseau as a young man showed a talent for satiric verse. He later attempted to produce several of his plays, becoming involved in a series of disputes and exchanges of insults with detractors and critics.

Gnat

Any member of several species of small flies that bite and annoy humans. Several nonbiting insects, such as the midges, which resemble mosquitoes, are also sometimes known as gnats. In North America the name is often applied to the black fly, midge, fungus gnat, biting midge, fruit fly (qq.v.), and other small flies that hover about the eyes of humans and other animals. In Great

Catabolism

Energy is released in three phases. In the first, such large molecules as those of proteins,

Mckinley, Ida

After William was shot in Buffalo, New York, in 1901, he whispered to an aide as he fell, “My wife, be careful how you tell her—Oh be careful.” Although deeply grieved by her husband's death, she apparently suffered no more seizures for the rest of her life, though some believe a seizure caused her death in 1907. She was entombed in the McKinley Memorial Mausoleum in Canton.

European Union

The Maastricht Treaty (formally known as the Treaty on European Union), which was signed on February 7, 1992, created the European Union. The treaty met with substantial resistance in some countries. In Denmark, for example, voters who were worried about infringements upon their country's sovereignty defeated a referendum on the original treaty in June 1992, though a revised

Can Tho

Municipality and provincial seat of Hau Giang tinh (province), Mekong delta region, southeastern Vietnam. Situated on the left bank of the Song (river) Hau Giang, 90 mi (145 km) southwest of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), it is an industrial centre and the largest city of the flat delta region, which includes the Ca Mau Peninsula and the principal rice-growing areas of the country.

Foreign Affairs

Journal of international relations, published in New York City six times a year, one of the most prestigious periodicals of its kind in the world. The organ of the Council on Foreign Relations, by which it was founded in 1922, it provides a window on the U.S. foreign-policy establishment. It has an international reputation for its careful and probing analyses of political,

Gyrfalcon

(Falco rusticolus), Arctic bird of prey of the family Falconidae, the world's largest falcon (q.v.). The gyrfalcon may reach 60 cm (2 feet) in length. Confined as a breeder to the circumpolar region except for isolated populations in Central Asian highlands, it is sometimes seen at lower latitudes in winters when food is scarce. The gyrfalcon varies from pure white with black speckling