• Albizu Campos, Pedro (Puerto Rican attorney, social activist, and nationalist)

    Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican attorney, social activist, and nationalist. Albizu Campos was the son of a mixed-race mother who was the daughter of slaves and a Basque father from a farming and landowning family. The latter not only provided no financial support but also did not legally

  • Albizzi family (Italian family)

    Alberti Family: …growing ascendancy of the rival Albizzi family. A Guelf leader, Benedetto encouraged and participated in a popular insurrection against the oligarchic Florentine government (July 1378). Although briefly successful, this attempt ultimately failed (1382); Benedetto was exiled several years later.

  • Albo, Joseph (Spanish philosopher)

    Joseph Albo was a Jewish philosopher and theologian from Spain who is noted for his classic work of Jewish dogmatics, Sefer ha-ʿiqqarim (1485; “Book of Principles”). Little is known of Albo’s life. He is known to have participated in the Disputation of Tortosa (1413–14), a definitive confrontation

  • Alboacen (Naṣrid ruler)

    Naṣrid dynasty: Then, when the Naṣrid ruler Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī (1466–85) introduced a succession struggle at home, while externally antagonizing Castile by refusing to pay tribute, Naṣrid rule was finally ended by the Christian conquest of Granada (1492).

  • Alboin (king of Lombardy)

    Alboin was the king of the Germanic Lombards whose exceptional military and political skills enabled him to conquer northern Italy. When Alboin succeeded his father, Audoin, about 565, the Lombards occupied Noricum and Pannonia (now in Austria and western Hungary), while their long-standing enemies

  • alboka (musical instrument)

    hornpipe, name of a wind instrument and of several dances supposedly performed to it. The instrument is a single-reed pipe with a cowhorn bell (sometimes two parallel pipes with a common bell) and is often converted into a bagpipe. Known since antiquity, it is today played in Basque Spain (where it

  • Alboni, Maria Anna Marzia (Italian opera singer)

    Marietta Alboni was an Italian operatic contralto known for her classic Italian bel canto. Alboni’s year of birth is uncertain. Many sources give 1826, whereas others list 1823 or 1822. One of her early biographers states that she herself gave her age as 30 when she arrived in the United States on

  • Alboni, Marietta (Italian opera singer)

    Marietta Alboni was an Italian operatic contralto known for her classic Italian bel canto. Alboni’s year of birth is uncertain. Many sources give 1826, whereas others list 1823 or 1822. One of her early biographers states that she herself gave her age as 30 when she arrived in the United States on

  • Alborán Basin (basin, Mediterranean Sea)

    Mediterranean Sea: Natural divisions: The Alborán Basin is east of Gibraltar, between the coasts of Spain and Morocco. The Algerian (sometimes called the Algero-Provençal or Balearic) Basin, east of the Alborán Basin, is west of Sardinia and Corsica, extending from off the coast of Algeria to off the coast of…

  • Alborán Island (island, Spain)

    Alborán Island, islet, belonging to Spain, in the western Mediterranean Sea. About 2 miles (3 km) long, Alborán lies roughly midway between Spain to the north and Morocco to the south. It is a station on the Almeria-Melilla undersea cable and is uninhabited except for lighthouse keepers. Alborán is

  • Alborán, Isla de (island, Spain)

    Alborán Island, islet, belonging to Spain, in the western Mediterranean Sea. About 2 miles (3 km) long, Alborán lies roughly midway between Spain to the north and Morocco to the south. It is a station on the Almeria-Melilla undersea cable and is uninhabited except for lighthouse keepers. Alborán is

  • Ålborg (Denmark)

    Ålborg, city and port, northern Jutland, Denmark, on the south side of Limfjorden. Ålborg has existed since about ad 1000 and is one of the oldest towns in Denmark. Chartered in 1342, it became a bishop’s see in 1554. The town recovered slowly from the Count’s War (a religious civil war, 1533–36)

  • Ålborg akvavit (distilled liquor)

    aquavit: …best known Danish types is Ålborg akvavit, named for a small town in Jutland, on Denmark’s northern coast. The only brand exported from Denmark, it is produced by Danish Distilleries, a private organization granted the sole right to produce alcohol and yeast since 1927 under a monopoly of the Danish…

  • Albornoz, Gil Álvarez Carrillo de (Spanish cardinal)

    Gil Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz was a Spanish cardinal and jurist who paved the way for the papacy’s return to Italy from Avignon, France (where the popes lived from about 1309 to 1377). Albornoz was first a soldier, then entered the church and became archbishop of Toledo in 1338. He supported the

  • Alborz Mountains (mountain range, Iran)

    Elburz Mountains, major mountain range in northern Iran, 560 miles (900 km) long. The range, most broadly defined, extends in an arc eastward from the frontier with Azerbaijan southwest of the Caspian Sea to the Khorāsān region of northeastern Iran, southeast of the Caspian Sea, where the range

  • Albourz Mountains (mountain range, Iran)

    Elburz Mountains, major mountain range in northern Iran, 560 miles (900 km) long. The range, most broadly defined, extends in an arc eastward from the frontier with Azerbaijan southwest of the Caspian Sea to the Khorāsān region of northeastern Iran, southeast of the Caspian Sea, where the range

  • Albrecht der Bär (margrave of Brandenburg)

    Albert I was the first margrave of Brandenburg and founder of the Ascanian dynasties. He was one of the main leaders of 12th-century German expansion into eastern Europe. In 1123 Albert inherited Saxon estates between the Harz Mountains and the middle reaches of the Elbe River from his father, Otto

  • Albrecht der Beherzte (duke of Saxony)

    Albert III was the duke of Saxony, founder of the Albertine branch of the House of Wettin, and marshal of the Holy Roman Empire. Albert was the son of Frederick II, elector of Saxony. When he was 12 years of age, he and his brother Ernest were abducted by their father’s enemy, the Saxon noble Kunz

  • Albrecht Dürer (work by Panofsky)

    Erwin Panofsky: …da Vinci’s Art Theory (1940); Albrecht Dürer, 2 vol. (1943; later published as The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer [1955]); Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and Its Art Treasures (1946); Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (1951); Early Netherlandish Painting, 2 vol. (1953); Meaning in the Visual Arts…

  • Albrecht VII (archduke of Austria)

    Albert VII was a cardinal archduke of Austria who as governor and sovereign prince of the Low Countries (1598–1621) ruled the Spanish Netherlands jointly with his wife, Isabella, infanta of Spain. The son of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian II and Maria, daughter of Charles V, Albert was educated

  • Albrecht von Brandenburg (German cardinal, margrave of Brandenburg, and elector of Mainz)

    Albert was a margrave of Brandenburg, cardinal, and elector of Mainz, a liberal patron of the arts known chiefly as the object of the reformer Martin Luther’s attacks concerning the sale of indulgences. Albert was the younger son of John Cicero, elector of Brandenburg. Albert became archbishop of

  • Albrecht von Hohenzollern (duke of Prussia)

    Albert was the last grand master of the Teutonic Knights from 1510 to 1525, and the first duke of Prussia (from 1525). He was a Protestant German ruler known chiefly for ending the Teutonic Knights’ government of East Prussia and founding a hereditary dukedom in its place. Albert was the third son

  • Albrecht, Bernard (British musician)

    the Smiths: Marr teamed with Bernard Sumner of New Order in the supergroup Electronic. Although Marr and Sumner had initially conceived their partnership to be temporary, the success of the 1989 single “Getting Away with It” inspired the pair to record three well-received dance albums. More than a decade after…

  • Albrecht, Herzog von Teschen, Erzherzog (Austrian field marshal)

    Archduke Albert was an able field marshal who distinguished himself in the suppression of the Italian Revolution of 1848 and in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and whose reforms turned the Austrian Army into a modern fighting force after its rout by Prussia. The son of the archduke Charles, who

  • Albrecht, Ursula (German politician)

    Ursula von der Leyen is a Belgian-born German politician who is the first woman to serve as Germany’s minister of defense (2013–19). In July 2019 she became the first woman to be elected president of the European Commission. Ursula was the daughter of German politician Ernst Albrecht, who had

  • Albrechts Castle (castle, Meissen, Germany)

    Meissen: …Gothic cathedral buildings and by Albrechts Castle (1471–85). Pop. (2011) 27,055; (2022) 28,487.

  • Albrechtsberger, Johann Georg (Austrian composer)

    Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist who was one of the most learned and skillful contrapuntists of his time. His fame attracted many pupils, including Ludwig van Beethoven. Albrechtsberger studied organ and thorough bass with Leopold Pittner and from

  • Albret Family (French family)

    Albret Family, Gascon family celebrated in French history. The lords (sires) of Albret included warriors, cardinals, and kings of Navarre, reaching the height of their power in the 14th to 16th century. Their name derives from Labrit, a small village on the road from Bordeaux to Dax and Bayonne.

  • Albret, Arnaud-Amanieu d’ (French noble)

    Albret Family: In this conflict Arnaud-Amanieu d’Albret (d. 1401) fought for some time for the English but finally changed to the French side and was richly rewarded (1368): King Charles V gave him not only his sister-in-law, Marguerite de Bourbon, but also lands and financial compensation. His son, Charles I…

  • Albret, César-Phébus d’ (marshal of France)

    Albret Family: …Miossans branch of the family, César-Phébus d’Albret (1614–76), was made marshal of France in 1654.

  • Albret, Charlotte d’ (French princess)

    Albret Family: A daughter, Charlotte (1480–1514), was married to Cesare Borgia. Alain’s son, Jean (d. 1516), became king of Navarre through his marriage with Catherine de Foix in 1484. In 1550 the lands of Albret were made a duchy. Jeanne d’Albret (1528–72), Jean’s granddaughter, married Antoine de Bourbon and…

  • Albret, Jeanne d’ (queen of Navarre)

    Albret Family: In 1550 the lands of Albret were made a duchy. Jeanne d’Albret (1528–72), Jean’s granddaughter, married Antoine de Bourbon and left her titles to her son, Henry III of Navarre, who became king of France as Henry IV. A member of the Miossans branch of the family, César-Phébus d’Albret (1614–76),…

  • Albright Art Gallery (museum, Buffalo, New York, United States)

    Buffalo AKG Art Museum, museum in Buffalo, New York, that is noted for its collections of modern and contemporary art from the United States and Europe. Schools such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop and Op arts, and Minimalism are strongly represented. The gallery also has a permanent collection of

  • Albright’s syndrome (pathology)

    bone disease: Congenital bone diseases: Multiple abnormalities occur in polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, in which affected bone is replaced by fibrous connective-tissue matrix. The condition may cause multiple deformities that require surgical correction.

  • Albright, Fuller (American endocrinologist)

    human endocrine system: Other causes of endocrine hypofunction: …1942 by American clinical endocrinologist Fuller Albright. Albright and his colleagues studied a young woman who had signs of parathormone deficiency but who, unlike other patients with parathormone deficiency, did not improve after the injection of an extract prepared from parathyroid glands. Albright termed this disorder pseudohypoparathyroidism and postulated that…

  • Albright, Ivan (American painter)

    Ivan Albright was an American painter noted for his meticulously detailed, exaggeratedly realistic depictions of decay and corruption. Albright was educated at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and the University of Illinois, Urbana, before World War I. After the war he trained at the

  • Albright, Madeleine (United States secretary of state)

    Madeleine Albright was a Czech-born American public official who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1993–97) and who was the first woman to hold the cabinet post of U.S. secretary of state (1997–2001). (Read Madeleine Albright’s Britannica essay on democracy.) Marie Jana Korbel was

  • Albright, Tenley (American figure skater)

    Tenley Albright is an American figure skater and surgeon who was the first American woman to win the world championships (1953) and an Olympic gold medal in figure skating (1956). She was also the first to win the world, North American, and United States titles in a single year (1953). (Read Scott

  • Albright, Tenley Emma (American figure skater)

    Tenley Albright is an American figure skater and surgeon who was the first American woman to win the world championships (1953) and an Olympic gold medal in figure skating (1956). She was also the first to win the world, North American, and United States titles in a single year (1953). (Read Scott

  • Albright, W.F. (American biblical archaeologist)

    W.F. Albright was an American biblical archaeologist and Middle Eastern scholar, noted especially for his excavations of biblical sites. The son of American Methodist missionaries living abroad, Albright came with his family to the United States in 1903. He obtained his doctorate in Semitic

  • Albright, William Foxwell (American biblical archaeologist)

    W.F. Albright was an American biblical archaeologist and Middle Eastern scholar, noted especially for his excavations of biblical sites. The son of American Methodist missionaries living abroad, Albright came with his family to the United States in 1903. He obtained his doctorate in Semitic

  • Albright-Knox Art Gallery (museum, Buffalo, New York, United States)

    Buffalo AKG Art Museum, museum in Buffalo, New York, that is noted for its collections of modern and contemporary art from the United States and Europe. Schools such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop and Op arts, and Minimalism are strongly represented. The gallery also has a permanent collection of

  • Albucasis (Muslim physician and author)

    Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrāwī was a medieval surgeon of Andalusian Spain, whose comprehensive medical text, combining Middle Eastern and Greco-Roman classical teachings, shaped European surgical procedures until the Renaissance. Abū al-Qāsim was court physician to the Andalusian caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III

  • Albula (Algeria)

    Aïn Temouchent, town, northwestern Algeria, on the right bank of the Wadi Sennêne. The town is bounded on the south by the Wadi Temouchent, with the Tessala Mountains in the background. Built on the site of the ruined Roman Albula and the later Arab settlement of Ksar ibn Senar, the town was

  • Albula Alps (mountains, Switzerland)

    Albula Alps, part of the Rhaetian Alps in eastern Switzerland, lying in Graubünden canton to the north of the resort of Saint Moritz. The mountains extend northeastward from the Splügen Pass (6,932 feet [2,113 m]) to the Flüela Pass (7,818 feet [2,383 m]), and they include the Albula Pass (7,585

  • Albula Pass (mountain pass, Switzerland)

    Albula Pass, mountain pass in the Albula Alps of eastern Switzerland that forms the principal route from northeast Graubünden (Swiss canton), southeastward to the Engadin (valley of the Upper Inn River). The Albula River rises nearby, just north of Saint Moritz, and flows northwestward for 22 miles

  • Albula vulpes (fish)

    bonefish, (Albula vulpes), marine game fish of the family Albulidae (order Elopiformes). It inhabits shallow coastal and island waters in tropical seas and is admired by anglers for its speed and strength. Maximum length and weight are about 76 cm (30 inches) and 6.4 kg (14 pounds). The bonefish

  • Albuliformes (fish order)

    fish: Annotated classification: Order Albuliformes (bonefishes, halosaurs, and deep-sea spiny eels) Snout enlarged; mouth small and underslung; crushing teeth on palate; single supramaxillary bone; gular plate small or absent; 6 hypural bones. Length to 70 cm (28 inches), weight to about 6.5 kg (15 pounds). 3 families (Albulidae, Halosauridae,…

  • album (Roman notice board)

    album, in ancient Rome, a whitened board on which public notices were inscribed in black. The annals compiled by the pontifex maximus (chief priest), the annual edicts of the praetor, the lists of senators and jurors, the Acta diurna (an account of daily events), and other notices were placed on

  • Album de vers anciens, 1890–1900 (work by Valéry)

    Paul Valéry: …time was quickly consolidated with Album de vers anciens, 1890–1900 and Charmes ou poèmes, a collection that includes his famous meditation on death in the cemetery at Sète (where he now lies buried).

  • album leaf (art)

    Xia Gui: Life: …Song academy painters was the album leaf, which sometimes took the round or oblate shape that indicates it was originally mounted on a flat fan but more often was square, or nearly square. Most of Xia’s surviving works are album leaves. Two preserved in Japan—a signed landscape in the famous…

  • Album quilt (American soft furnishing)

    quilting: The golden age of American quilts: …as did its contemporary, the signature, or album, quilt, in which each block was made and signed by a different maker and the quilt given as a keepsake, for example, to a bride by her friends, to the minister by the women of the congregation, or to a young man…

  • Album Title Goes Here (album by Deadmau5)

    Deadmau5: …the Grammy-nominated 4x4=12 (2010), and Album Title Goes Here (2012). Album Title Goes Here topped the Billboard dance/electronic albums chart and earned Deadmau5 his second Grammy nomination.

  • Albumasar (Muslim astrologer)

    Albumazar was a leading astrologer of the Muslim world, who is known primarily for his theory that the world, created when the seven planets were in conjunction in the first degree of Aries, will come to an end at a like conjunction in the last degree of Pisces. Albumazar’s reputation as an

  • Albumazar (Muslim astrologer)

    Albumazar was a leading astrologer of the Muslim world, who is known primarily for his theory that the world, created when the seven planets were in conjunction in the first degree of Aries, will come to an end at a like conjunction in the last degree of Pisces. Albumazar’s reputation as an

  • albumen (biology)

    fluid mechanics: Stresses in laminar motion: …in most shampoos, there are long-chain molecules that become entangled with one another, and entanglement may hinder their efforts to respond to changes of environment associated with flow. As a result, the stresses acting in such fluids may reflect the deformations experienced by the fluid in the recent past as…

  • albumen paper (paper)

    albumen paper, light-sensitive paper prepared by coating with albumen, or egg white, and a salt (e.g., ammonium chloride) and sensitized by an aftertreatment with a solution of silver nitrate. The process was introduced by the French photographer Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard in about 1850 and was

  • albumin (protein)

    albumin, a type of protein that is soluble in water and in water half saturated with a salt such as ammonium sulfate. Serum albumin is a component of blood serum; α-lactalbumin is found in milk. Ovalbumin constitutes about 50 percent of the proteins of egg white; conalbumin is also a component.

  • albumin paper (paper)

    albumen paper, light-sensitive paper prepared by coating with albumen, or egg white, and a salt (e.g., ammonium chloride) and sensitized by an aftertreatment with a solution of silver nitrate. The process was introduced by the French photographer Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard in about 1850 and was

  • albuminuria (pathology)

    proteinuria, presence of protein in the urine, usually as albumin. Protein is not normally found in the urine of healthy individuals. When detected, proteinuria may be indicative of illness or underlying disease. However, while proteinuria is a sign of many different conditions and diseases, it

  • Albuquerque (New Mexico, United States)

    Albuquerque, city, seat (1883) of Bernalillo county, west-central New Mexico, U.S., located on the Rio Grande opposite a pass between the Sandia and Manzano mountains to the east. The area was the site of Native American pueblos (villages) when Europeans first arrived in 1540. Founded in 1706 by

  • Albuquerque, Afonso de (Portuguese conqueror)

    Afonso de Albuquerque was a Portuguese soldier, conqueror of Goa (1510) in India and of Melaka (1511) on the Malay Peninsula. His program to gain control of all the main maritime trade routes of the East and to build permanent fortresses with settled populations laid the foundations of Portuguese

  • Albuquerque, Afonso de, the Great (Portuguese conqueror)

    Afonso de Albuquerque was a Portuguese soldier, conqueror of Goa (1510) in India and of Melaka (1511) on the Malay Peninsula. His program to gain control of all the main maritime trade routes of the East and to build permanent fortresses with settled populations laid the foundations of Portuguese

  • alburnum (xylem layer)

    sapwood, outer, living layers of the secondary wood of trees, which engage in transport of water and minerals to the crown of the tree. The cells therefore contain more water and lack the deposits of darkly staining chemical substances commonly found in heartwood. Sapwood is thus paler and softer

  • Alburnus alburnus (fish)

    bleak, (Alburnus alburnus), small, slender fish of the carp family, Cyprinidae, found in rivers and lakes of England and Europe. A silvery-green fish, it grows to a maximum length of about 20 centimetres (8 inches). It lives in schools, usually near the surface, and eats aquatic invertebrates. The

  • Alburquerque (New Mexico, United States)

    Albuquerque, city, seat (1883) of Bernalillo county, west-central New Mexico, U.S., located on the Rio Grande opposite a pass between the Sandia and Manzano mountains to the east. The area was the site of Native American pueblos (villages) when Europeans first arrived in 1540. Founded in 1706 by

  • Alburquerque (novel by Anaya)

    Rudolfo Anaya: …Adventures of Juan Chicaspatas (1985), Alburquerque (1992; the title gives the original spelling of the city’s name), Randy Lopez Goes Home (2011), and the novella The Old Man’s Love Story (2013). His series of mystery novels featuring Chicano private investigator Sonny Baca included Zia Summer (1995), Rio Grande Fall (1996),…

  • Albury-Wadonga (New South Wales-Victoria, Australia)

    Albury-Wodonga, twin cities on opposite sides of the Murray River and the New South Wales–Victoria border, Australia. By rail the region is about 398 miles (640 km) southwest of Sydney and nearly 186 miles (299 km) northeast of Melbourne. In 1973 the Commonwealth and the two state governments

  • Albury-Wodonga (New South Wales-Victoria, Australia)

    Albury-Wodonga, twin cities on opposite sides of the Murray River and the New South Wales–Victoria border, Australia. By rail the region is about 398 miles (640 km) southwest of Sydney and nearly 186 miles (299 km) northeast of Melbourne. In 1973 the Commonwealth and the two state governments

  • Alburz Mountains (mountain range, Iran)

    Elburz Mountains, major mountain range in northern Iran, 560 miles (900 km) long. The range, most broadly defined, extends in an arc eastward from the frontier with Azerbaijan southwest of the Caspian Sea to the Khorāsān region of northeastern Iran, southeast of the Caspian Sea, where the range

  • albus (Roman notice board)

    album, in ancient Rome, a whitened board on which public notices were inscribed in black. The annals compiled by the pontifex maximus (chief priest), the annual edicts of the praetor, the lists of senators and jurors, the Acta diurna (an account of daily events), and other notices were placed on

  • Albyn, Glen (valley, Scotland, United Kingdom)

    Glen Mor, valley in the Highland council area of north-central Scotland, extending about 60 miles (97 km) from the Moray Firth at Inverness to Loch Linnhe at Fort William. It includes Lochs Ness, Oich, and Lochy. The Caledonian Canal runs through the

  • ALC (Nigerian organization)

    Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti: …school, she helped organize the Abeokuta Ladies Club (ALC), initially a civic and charitable group of mostly Western-educated Christian women. The organization gradually became more political and feminist in its orientation, and in 1944 it formally admitted market women (women vendors in Abeokuta’s open-air markets), who were generally impoverished, illiterate,…

  • ALC

    American Lutheran Church (ALC), Lutheran church in North America that in 1988 merged with two other Lutheran churches to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ALC had resulted from the merger of three Lutheran synods in 1960: the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (Danish), the

  • Alca torda (bird)

    razor-billed auk, (Alca torda), black and white seabird of the North Atlantic, bearing a sharp, heavy, compressed beak. About 40 cm (16 inches) long, it is the largest living member of the auk family, Alcidae (order Charadriiformes), and the nearest kin to the extinct great auk. Razor-billed auks

  • Alcáçovas, Treaty of (Portugal [1479])

    Portugal: Independence assured: …he concluded with Castile the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479), abandoning the claims of his wife. Afonso never recovered from his reverse, and during his last years his son John administered the kingdom.

  • Alcae (bird suborder)

    charadriiform: Annotated classification: Suborder Alcae Large supraorbital grooves with intervening space narrowed to ridge; basipterygoid processes absent in adults; occipital fontanelles present; haemapophysis of dorsal vertebrae large; sternum long and narrow with long, rounded metasternum. Anterior toes fully webbed, hind toe absent. Wing bones flattened. Young downy, nidicolous or…

  • Alcaeus (Greek poet)

    Alcaeus was a Greek lyric poet whose work was highly esteemed in the ancient world. He lived at the same time and in the same city as the poet Sappho. A collection of Alcaeus’s surviving poems in 10 books (now lost) was made by scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 2nd century bce, and he was a

  • alcaic (Greek poetry)

    alcaic, classical Greek poetic stanza composed of four lines of varied metrical feet, with five long syllables in the first two lines, four in the third and fourth lines, and an unaccented syllable at the beginning of the first three lines (anacrusis). The Greek alcaic stanza is scanned: Named for

  • Alcalá de Guadaira (Spain)

    Alcalá de Guadaira, city, Sevilla provincia (province), in the Andalusia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), southwestern Spain. It is just southeast of Sevilla city, on the Guadaira River. The town is popularly known as Alcalá de los Panaderos (Alcalá of the Bakers) because of its large

  • Alcalá de Henares (Spain)

    Alcalá de Henares, city, Madrid provincia (province) and comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), central Spain. Known under the Romans as Complutum, the city was destroyed in ad 1000 and rebuilt in 1038 by the Moors, who called it Al-Qalʿah al-Nahr. It was reconquered in 1088 by Alfonso VI and

  • Alcalá de Henares, Ordinances of (Spain [1348])

    Alfonso XI: …and legal reforms in the ordinances of Alcalá de Henares in 1348. Alfonso was assiduously courted by both France and England, who wished for an alliance that would give them the support of his powerful fleet, but he avoided committing himself to either party.

  • Alcalá de Henares, Universidad de (university, Madrid, Spain)

    Complutense University of Madrid, institution of higher learning founded in 1508 in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. Complutense means “native to Complutum,” the ancient Roman settlement at the site of Alcalá de Henares. The university moved in 1836 to Madrid, where it became known as Central University.

  • Alcalá de Henares, University of (university, Madrid, Spain)

    Complutense University of Madrid, institution of higher learning founded in 1508 in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. Complutense means “native to Complutum,” the ancient Roman settlement at the site of Alcalá de Henares. The university moved in 1836 to Madrid, where it became known as Central University.

  • Alcalá de los Panaderos (Spain)

    Alcalá de Guadaira, city, Sevilla provincia (province), in the Andalusia comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), southwestern Spain. It is just southeast of Sevilla city, on the Guadaira River. The town is popularly known as Alcalá de los Panaderos (Alcalá of the Bakers) because of its large

  • Alcalá Zamora, Niceto (president of Spain)

    Niceto Alcalá Zamora was a Spanish statesman, prime minister, and president of the Second Republic (1931–36), whose attempts to moderate the policies of the various factions led eventually to his deposition and exile. Elected to the Cortes (parliament) in 1905, Alcalá Zamora became minister of

  • Alcalá, Calle de (street, Madrid, Spain)

    Calle de Alcalá, one of the main thoroughfares of Madrid. It originates at the eastern edge of the Puerta del Sol (the focal point and principal square of the city) and runs northeast approximately 4 mi (6 km) through the Plaza de la Independencia and the Puerta de Alcalá (a gateway originally

  • Alcalá, Ordenamiento de (Spain [1348])

    Alfonso XI: …and legal reforms in the ordinances of Alcalá de Henares in 1348. Alfonso was assiduously courted by both France and England, who wished for an alliance that would give them the support of his powerful fleet, but he avoided committing himself to either party.

  • Alcalá, Puerta de (gateway, Madrid, Spain)

    Calle de Alcalá: …de la Independencia and the Puerta de Alcalá (a gateway originally built in 1599 and rebuilt in 1778). A broad, tree-lined avenue, it contains government offices and banks and is the location of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (an academy of art and music, founded in…

  • alcalde (Spanish official)

    alcalde, (from Arabic al-qāḍī, “judge”), the administrative and judicial head of a town or village in Spain or in areas under Spanish control or influence. The title was applied to local government officials whose functions were various but always included a judicial element. Types of alcaldes were

  • alcalde de Zalamea, El (play by Calderón)

    Pedro Calderón de la Barca: Secular plays: In the famous El alcalde de Zalamea, the secrecy and the vengeance demanded by the code are rejected. This play also presents a powerful contrast between the aristocracy and the people: the degeneration of the aristocratic ideal is exposed, wealth is associated with manual labour, and honour is…

  • Alcaligenes eutrophus (bacteria)

    bacteria: Autotrophic metabolism: …gas (H2) is oxidized by Alcaligenes eutrophus and, to a lesser degree, by many other bacteria.

  • Alcamenes (Greek sculptor)

    Alcamenes was a sculptor and younger contemporary of Phidias, noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite of the Gardens are noteworthy. A copy of the head of his Hermes Propylaeus at Pergamum has been identified by an inscription, and he is said by the

  • Alcamo (Italy)

    Alcamo, town, northwestern Sicily, Italy, 23 miles (37 km) west-southwest of Palermo. The name comes from that of the nearby Saracen fortress, Alqamah, on Mount Bonifato. The present town was founded by the emperor Frederick II in 1233. Notable churches include the 17th-century Assunta Church and

  • Alcan Aluminium Limited (Canadian company)

    Alcan Aluminium Limited, Canadian multinational company that was incorporated in 1928 (as Aluminium Limited) and, after multiple name changes, was acquired by the mining company Rio Tinto in 2007. Alcan continues to be used in Canada as a brand name for consumer goods. At its height, Alcan was the

  • Alcan Highway (highway, North America)

    Alaska Highway, road (1,387 miles [2,232 km] long) through British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska. It was previously called the Alaskan International Highway, the Alaska Military Highway, and the Alcan (Alaska-Canadian) Highway. Connecting Dawson Creek, British Columbia, with Fairbanks, Alaska, the

  • Alcañices, Treaty of (1297)

    Portugal: The kingdom and the Reconquista: In 1297 the Treaty of Alcañices with Castile confirmed Portugal’s possession of the Algarve and provided for an alliance between Portugal and Castile. The mother of Dinis’s son, the future Afonso IV (1325–57), was Isabel, daughter of Peter III of Aragon. This remarkable woman, later canonized as St.…

  • Alcântara (Brazil)

    Alcântara, seaport, northern Maranhão estado (state), northern Brazil. It is located on the western shore of São Marcos Bay about 12 miles (19 km) northwest of the state capital, São Luís, which lies across the bay on São Luís Island. Alcântara is one of Maranhão’s oldest towns; it flourished

  • Alcántara (Spain)

    Alcántara, town, Cáceres provincia (province), in the Extremadura comunidad autónoma (autonomous community), western Spain, on a rock above the southern bank of the Tagus (Tajo) River just east of the Portuguese frontier. The walled town was named by the Moors after the six-arched Roman bridge

  • Alcántara Bridge (bridge, Toledo, Spain)

    Toledo: …northeast is the bridge of Alcántara, at the foot of the medieval castle of San Servando, parts of which date from Roman and Moorish times; in the northwest is the bridge of San Martín, dating from the late 13th century. Parts of the walls of Toledo are of Visigothic origin,…