Haines, city, southeastern Alaska, U.S. Located at the northern end of North America’s longest fjord, it also lies at the northern end of the Alexander Archipelago on a peninsula between the Chilkoot and Chilkat rivers. Situated near the point where the Taiya Inlet meets the Chilkoot Inlet, Haines

Truce of God, a measure by the medieval Roman Catholic Church to suspend warfare during certain days of the week and during the period of certain church festivals and Lent. It is traceable to at least the Synod of Elne (1027), which suspended all warfare from Saturday night until prime on Monday.

Truce of God, a measure by the medieval Roman Catholic Church to suspend warfare during certain days of the week and during the period of certain church festivals and Lent. It is traceable to at least the Synod of Elne (1027), which suspended all warfare from Saturday night until prime on Monday.

Heracles: …Achelous for the hand of Deianeira. As he was taking her home, the Centaur Nessus tried to violate her, and Heracles shot him with one of his poisoned arrows. The Centaur, dying, told Deianeira to preserve the blood from his wound, for if Heracles wore a garment rubbed with it…

Heracles: …Achelous for the hand of Deianeira. As he was taking her home, the Centaur Nessus tried to violate her, and Heracles shot him with one of his poisoned arrows. The Centaur, dying, told Deianeira to preserve the blood from his wound, for if Heracles wore a garment rubbed with it…

Hamburg: Architecture: …to be found in the Deichstrasse, one side of which backs onto the Nikolai canal. Its tall, narrow houses, resembling those of Amsterdam, were originally built from the 17th through the 19th century. It was in one of them, number 42, now a restaurant, that the devastating fire of 1842…

Eastern Orthodoxy: God and humankind: …rather communion with God and deification (theosis). In the West the church is viewed in terms of mediation (for the bestowing of grace) and authority (for guaranteeing security in doctrine); in the East the church is regarded as a communion in which God and the individual meet once again and…

Len Deighton is an English author, journalist, film producer, and a leading writer of spy stories, his best-known being his first, The Ipcress File (1962), an account of deception and betrayal in an espionage agency. Deighton was educated at the Royal College of Art, London, after service in the

Iceland: Relief: The largest, Deildartunguhver, emits nearly 50 gallons (190 litres) of boiling water per second. The total power output of the Torfajökull (Torfa Glacier) area, the largest of the 19 high-temperature solfatara regions, is estimated to equal about 1,000 megawatts.

Ares: …sons (by Aphrodite) Phobos and Deimos (Panic and Rout). Also associated with him were two lesser war deities: Enyalius, who is virtually identical with Ares himself, and Enyo, a female counterpart.

Deimos, the outer and smaller of Mars’s two moons. It was discovered telescopically with its companion moon, Phobos, by the American astronomer Asaph Hall in 1877 and named for one of the sons of Ares, the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Mars. Deimos is an irregular rocky object having a

Pedro Duque: …was chief executive officer of Deimos Imaging, a European satellite and geospatial imaging company based in Valladolid, Spain. Duque then rejoined the ESA, serving as head of its flight operations office. In 2015 he resumed his astronaut duties. Three years later he was named Spain’s minister of science, innovation, and…

Marie Luise Kaschnitz: …later collections of poems as Dein Schweigen, meine Stimme (1962; “Your Silence, My Voice”) reflect the sorrow and loneliness Kaschnitz experienced upon the death of her husband, and her subsequent search for meaning and stability in her life.

Dinarchus was a professional speech writer at Athens whose work is generally thought to reflect the incipient decline of Attic oratory. As a metic, or resident alien, he could not participate directly in the political life of Athens. Dinarchus came to prominence in the scandal that followed the

deindividuation, phenomenon in which people engage in seemingly impulsive, deviant, and sometimes violent acts in situations in which they believe they cannot be personally identified (e.g., in groups and crowds and on the Internet). The term deindividuation was coined by the American social

life: Radiation and nutrient deprivation: …of nuclear physicists, the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans thrives in the cooling pool of nuclear reactors amid radioactivity levels lethal to mammals. Some life avoids radiation by shielding: algae and some desert plants live under a superficial coating of soil or rock that is more transparent to visible light than to…

Dinocrates was a Greek architect who prospered under Alexander the Great. He tried to captivate the ambitious fancy of that king with a design for carving Mount Athos into a gigantic seated statue. The plan was not carried out, but Dinocrates designed for Alexander the plan of the new city of

dinosaur: Tetanurae: The maniraptorans comprise birds, dromaeosaurs, and troodontids. Dromaeosaurs were medium-size predators with long, grasping arms and hands, moderately long legs, and a specialized stiffened tail that could be used for active balance control. Their feet bore large talons on one toe that were evidently used for…

Deinonychus, (genus Deinonychus), long-clawed carnivorous dinosaurs that flourished in western North America during the Early Cretaceous Period (145.5 million to 99.6 million years ago). A member of the dromaeosaur group, Deinonychus was bipedal, walking on two legs, as did all theropod dinosaurs.

ogre-faced spider, (family Deinopidae), small family of spiders so named for the fact that one of their pairs of eyes is unusually large, producing an ogrelike appearance. The spiders primarily occur throughout the tropics. One genus, Deinopis, the net-casting spider, carries a web that is thrown

crocodile: Size range and diversity of structure: Some fossil forms (such as Deinosuchus and Sarcosuchus) may have been between 10 and 12 meters (33 and 40 feet) long. In comparison, the smallest species, the smooth-fronted caiman (Paleosuchus) and the dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis), reach about 1.7 meters (about 6 feet) in length as adults.

crurotarsan: Deinosuchus riograndensis, a species that lived between about 82 million and 75 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period, grew up to 9.1 to 10.7 metres (30 to 35 feet) long and weighed about 3.6 tonnes (about 8,000 pounds). Sarcosuchus imperator, which lived about 110…

deinstitutionalization, in sociology, movement that advocates the transfer of mentally disabled people from public or private institutions, such as psychiatric hospitals, back to their families or into community-based homes. While concentrated primarily on the mentally ill, deinstitutionalization

Deioces was a petty Median chieftain subject to the kingdom of Mannai in modern Iranian Azerbaijan; later tradition made him the founder of the Median empire. According to the 5th-century-bc Greek historian Herodotus, Deioces was the first king of the Medes. Herodotus claimed that the Median tribes

Deiotarus was the tetrarch of the Tolistobogii (of western Galatia, now in western Turkey), later king of all Galatia, who, as a faithful ally of the Romans, became involved in the struggles between the Roman generals that led to the fall of the republic. At the beginning of the Third Mithradatic

Helen of Troy: …slain, Helen married his brother Deiphobus, whom she betrayed to Menelaus once Troy was captured. Menelaus and Helen then returned to Sparta, where they lived happily until their deaths.

Deiphon, genus of trilobites (extinct arthropods) easily recognized in fossil form in Silurian rocks in North America because of its highly unusual shape (the Silurian Period began 438 million years ago and ended 408 million years ago). The pleural lobes (at the sides of the body axis) are reduced

Athenaeus: …Greek grammarian and author of Deipnosophistai (“The Gastronomers”), a work in the form of an aristocratic symposium, in which a number of learned men, some bearing the names of real persons, such as Galen, meet at a banquet and discuss food and other subjects. In its extant form the work…

Dayr al-Baḥrī, Egyptian archaeological site in the necropolis of Thebes. It is made up of a bay in the cliffs on the west bank of the Nile River east of the Valley of the Kings. Its name (Arabic for “northern monastery”) refers to a monastery built there in the 7th century ce. Of the three ancient

Dayr al-Madīnah, ancient site on the west bank of the Nile River at Thebes in Upper Egypt. It is known primarily as the location of a settlement for craftsmen who laboured on the royal tombs, especially those in the nearby Valley of the Kings. The village, the best-preserved of its type, has

Dayr al-Zawr, town, eastern Syria. The town is situated on the right bank of the Euphrates River; its name, meaning “monastery of the grove” (zawr, “tamarisk”), is probably derived from the ancient city of Auzara, or Azuara, situated nearby. The Ottomans built the present town in 1867 to curb the

Tasian culture: …River at al-Badārī and at Deir Tasa. Tasian remains are somewhat intermingled with the materials of the subsequent Badarian stage, and, although the total absence of metal and the more primitive appearance of its pottery would seem to argue for an earlier date, it is also possible that the Tasian…

Deir Yassin, Palestinian Arab village that was located just west of Jerusalem. On April 9, 1948, on the eve of the Arab-Israeli war of 1948–49, the village was destroyed by Jewish paramilitary forces in an attack that inspired fear and panic throughout the region. Deir Yassin was situated atop a

Deira, a northern Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain which, by the last quarter of the 7th century ad, had been united with its neighbour Bernicia (q.v.) to form the kingdom of Northumbria. Deira stretched from the Humber to the Tees River. There is a tradition that its first recorded king, Aelle,

Deirdre, in early Irish literature, the gentle and fair heroine of The Fate of the Sons of Usnech (Oidheadh Chloinne Uisneach), the great love story of the Ulster cycle. First composed in the 8th or 9th century, the story was revised and combined in the 15th century with The Fate of the Children of

J.M. Synge: His unfinished Deirdre of the Sorrows, a vigorous poetic dramatization of one of the great love stories of Celtic mythology, was performed there in 1910.

Deirdre, in early Irish literature, the gentle and fair heroine of The Fate of the Sons of Usnech (Oidheadh Chloinne Uisneach), the great love story of the Ulster cycle. First composed in the 8th or 9th century, the story was revised and combined in the 15th century with The Fate of the Children of

Lough Derg, lake on the River Shannon, situated at the boundary of Counties Tipperary, Galway, and Clare, in Ireland. Lough Derg is 24 miles (39 km) long and 0.5 to 8 miles (1 to 13 km) wide. It is 37 square miles (96 square km) in area, with a maximum depth of 119 feet (36 m). The lake has many

chicken turtle, (Deirochelys reticularia), edible freshwater turtle (family Emydidae) found in the southeastern United States. The chicken turtle has an exceptionally long neck and a finely grooved upper shell covered with an open network of yellowish lines on a brownish background. Shell length is

DEISA, former European consortium (2002–11) of national supercomputer centres—partially funded by the European Union (EU)—that were networked for high-performance computing, especially to facilitate distributed computing for scientific research. DEISA also maintained a network link with TeraGrid, a

Johann Deisenhofer is a German American biochemist who, along with Hartmut Michel and Robert Huber, received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 for their determination of the structure of certain proteins that are essential to photosynthesis. Deisenhofer earned a doctorate from the Max Planck

Deism, an unorthodox religious attitude that found expression among a group of English writers beginning with Edward Herbert (later 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury) in the first half of the 17th century and ending with Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, in the middle of the 18th century. These

Karl Deisseroth is an American psychiatrist and bioengineer best known for his development of methods that revolutionized the study of the brain and led to major advances in neuroscience and biomedical engineering. Deisseroth earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard

human ear: Organ of Corti: …by a phalangeal cell of Deiters, or supporting cell, which holds the base of the hair cell in a cup-shaped depression. From each Deiters’ cell a projection extends upward to the stiff membrane, the reticular lamina, that covers the organ of Corti. The top of the hair cell is firmly…

deity, a god, goddess, or other supernatural being considered divine. While not all religions involve deities, deities are central to most of the world’s largest religions today. The exact qualities of a deity will vary from one belief system to another, but they generally have powers and knowledge

god and goddess: …generic terms for the many deities of ancient and modern polytheistic religions. Such deities may correspond to earthly and celestial phenomena or to human values, pastimes, and institutions, including love, marriage, hunting, war, and the arts. While some are capable of being killed, many are immortal. Although they are always…

Dievs, in Baltic religion, the sky god. Dievs and Laima, the goddess of human fate, determine human destiny and world order. Dievs is a wooer of Saule, the sun. As pictured by the pre-Christian Balts, he is an Iron Age Baltic king who lives on a farmstead in the sky. Wearing a silver gown,

lauma, in Baltic folklore, a fairy who appears as a beautiful naked maiden with long fair hair. Laumas dwell in the forest near water or stones. Yearning for children but being unable to give birth, they often kidnap babies to raise as their own. Sometimes they marry young men and become excellent

Kathy Reichs: …receive the completed manuscript for Déjà Dead (1997), signed Reichs to a $1.2 million two-book deal. Déjà Dead won the Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel. Other novels in the series included Death du Jour (1999), Bare Bones (2003), Devil Bones (2008), Bones of the Lost (2013), and Speaking…

Neil Young: Harvest, Rust Never Sleeps, and Harvest Moon: …acoustic music—a move forecast by Déjà Vu’s “Helpless,” which depicts him as totally vulnerable, trying to bare his emotional world musically. His confessional singer-songwriter mode became a key part of his multifaceted persona. On his next solo album, After the Gold Rush (1970), Young underlined his stance as a rock-and-roll…

déjà vu, a sense that one has experienced a situation before. The feeling of déjà vu is often fleeting, lasting only a few seconds or minutes, though individuals’ reactions to the sensation may linger for some time. Most people experience déjà vu on occasion, especially young adults. It is often

John Osborne: Osborne’s last play, Déjàvu (1992), a sequel to Look Back in Anger, revisits Jimmy Porter after a 35-year interval.

Victorien Sardou: …he owed to the actress Virginie Déjazet, and several of his 70 works were written for her; others were written for Sarah Bernhardt. In 1877 he was elected to the Académie Française.

astrology: Astrology in the Hellenistic period (3rd century bc to 3rd century ad): …which are their degrees of dejection (low influence). Various arcs of the zodiac, then, are either primarily or secondarily subject to each planet, whose strength and influence in a geniture (nativity) depend partially on its position relative to these arcs and to those of its friends and enemies.

Dejection: An Ode, autobiographical poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published in 1802 in the Morning Post, a London daily newspaper. When he wrote this poem, Coleridge was addicted to opium, was unhappy in his marriage, and had fallen in love with Sara Hutchinson. Intended originally as a letter

Meret Oppenheim: The result, Object, was part of the first Surrealist exhibition held at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), “Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism,” curated by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., in 1936, and it became an overnight art world sensation. MoMA then acquired Object, the museum’s first acquisition…

František Palacký: (1836–67), and Dějiny národu českého (1848–76), the work lucidly presents Palacký’s conception of the nature of Czech history as “the constant contact and conflict between the Slavs on the one hand and Rome and the Germans on the other.” Thus the Hussite period became the central episode…

Donald Trump: Campaigns and litigation: …of a new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a major Trump donor, who immediately implemented service cuts and other operational changes in the U.S. Postal Service that slowed mail delivery throughout the country.

Decembrist, any of the Russian revolutionaries who led an unsuccessful uprising on Dec. 14 (Dec. 26, New Style), 1825, and through their martyrdom provided a source of inspiration to succeeding generations of Russian dissidents. The Decembrists were primarily members of the upper classes who had

Nicholas I: Ascent to the throne of Nicholas I: …in military formation to the Senate Square—now the Decembrist Square—in the heart of the capital. Although the rebellion had failed by nightfall, it meant that Nicholas I ascended the throne over the bodies of some of his subjects and in actual combat with the dreaded revolution.

DeKalb, city, DeKalb county, north-central Illinois, U.S. It lies on the south branch of the Kishwaukee River, about 60 miles (100 km) west of Chicago. Founded in 1837, it was called Buena Vista and then Huntley’s Grove (for city founder Russell Huntley of New York) until the 1850s, when it was

Krzysztof Kieślowski: Kieślowski’s mammoth Dekalog (1988–89; Decalogue), cowritten with Piesiewicz, is a series inspired by the Ten Commandments and made for Polish television. Each of the 10 hour-long episodes explores at least one commandment; as the commandments are not explicitly named, the audience is invited to identify the moral…

Iroquois Confederacy: The origins and growth of the Iroquois Confederacy: …between 1570 and 1600, to Dekanawidah (the Peacemaker), born a Huron, who is said to have persuaded Hiawatha, an Onondaga living among Mohawks, to advance “peace, civil authority, righteousness, and the great law” as sanctions for confederation. Cemented mainly by their desire to stand together against invasion, the tribes united…

Iroquois Confederacy: The origins and growth of the Iroquois Confederacy: …between 1570 and 1600, to Dekanawidah (the Peacemaker), born a Huron, who is said to have persuaded Hiawatha, an Onondaga living among Mohawks, to advance “peace, civil authority, righteousness, and the great law” as sanctions for confederation. Cemented mainly by their desire to stand together against invasion, the tribes united…

brown snake: The brown snake, or Dekay’s brown snake (S. dekayi), is the only North American snake to survive in abundance in densely populated regions.

Dikembe Mutombo was a Congolese-American basketball player who was one of the best defenders in National Basketball Association (NBA) history and was also noted for his philanthropic efforts. The son of a father who worked as a school principal and then in Congo’s department of education, Mutombo

Dhekélia, British military enclave in southeast Cyprus, retained as a “sovereignty base area” by the United Kingdom under the 1959 London Agreement granting independence to Cyprus. It is located northeast of Larnaca on the northern shore of Larnaca Bay, and its northern boundary formed part of the

Aagje Deken was a writer and collaborator with Betje Wolff (q.v.) on the first Dutch novel, De historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart, 2 vol. (1782; “The History of Miss Sara Burgerhart”). Deken had written a little-known volume of devotional poetry by the time she met Betje Wolff in 1776. The

Aagje Deken was a writer and collaborator with Betje Wolff (q.v.) on the first Dutch novel, De historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart, 2 vol. (1782; “The History of Miss Sara Burgerhart”). Deken had written a little-known volume of devotional poetry by the time she met Betje Wolff in 1776. The

ska: …by Prince Buster and by Desmond Dekker and the Aces. In the 1970s ska was a significant influence on British pop culture, and so-called groups (whose name derived from both the suits they wore and their often integrated lineups) such as the Specials, Selector, and Madness brought punk and more…

Multatuli was one of the Netherlands’ greatest writers, whose radical ideas and freshness of style eclipsed the mediocre, self-satisfied Dutch literature of the mid-19th century. In 1838 Multatuli went to the Dutch East Indies, where he held a number of government posts until 1856, when he resigned

Thomas Dekker was an English dramatist and writer of prose pamphlets who is particularly known for his lively depictions of London life. Few facts of Dekker’s life are certain. He may have been born into a family of Dutch immigrants living in London and is first mentioned as a playwright in 1598.

differential operator, In mathematics, any combination of derivatives applied to a function. It takes the form of a polynomial of derivatives, such as D2xx − D2xy · D2yx, where D2 is a second derivative and the subscripts indicate partial derivatives. Special differential operators include the

Piero della Francesca: Last years of Piero della Francesca: Del abaco (“On the Abacus”) is a pamphlet on applied mathematics.

Pablo de Céspedes: …Francisco Pacheco in his treatise Del arte de la pintura (“On the Art of Painting”) in 1649.

Michel del Castillo is a Spanish-born novelist writing in French, who became famous at 24 for a short novel, Tanguy (1957; A Child of Our Time). Though written as fiction, it is the story of his experiences as a political refugee and a prisoner in concentration camps, and, like The Diary of Anne

Scipione Ferro was an Italian mathematician who is believed to have found a solution to the cubic equation x3 + px = q where p and q are positive numbers. Ferro attended the University of Bologna and, in 1496, accepted a position at the university as a lecturer in arithmetic and geometry; he

Italian literature: Fiction at the turn of the 21st century: … and painstaking observer and stylist Daniele Del Giudice—were “discovered” in the early 1980s by Italo Calvino. In novels such as Macno (1984; Eng. trans. Macno) and Yucatan (1986; Eng. trans. Yucatan), De Carlo, a cinematographic recorder of surfaces, deliberately created and manipulated characters without depth, while Del Giudice, in Lo…

Paolo Frisi: …fiumi, e i torrenti (1762; A Treatise on Rivers and Torrents), a summary of the best information in this field, was widely used as an engineering handbook. The commentaries he wrote on the work of such scientists as Galileo Galilei and Sir Isaac Newton were influential in bringing their ideas…

Niccolò Machiavelli: Early life and political career: …Val di Chiana ribellati (On the Way to Deal with the Rebel Subjects of the Valdichiana). Anticipating his later Discourses on Livy, a commentary on the ancient Roman historian, in this work he contrasts the errors of Florence with the wisdom of the Romans and declares that in dealing…

Del Monte Foods, American corporation engaged primarily in processing, canning, and distributing food. It is a major grower and distributor of bananas and pineapples, and it owns subsidiaries engaged in trucking, public warehousing, institutional food service and vending, building maintenance, and

Del Monte Foods, American corporation engaged primarily in processing, canning, and distributing food. It is a major grower and distributor of bananas and pineapples, and it owns subsidiaries engaged in trucking, public warehousing, institutional food service and vending, building maintenance, and

Vincenzo Gioberti: …In his most celebrated work, Del primato morale e civile degli italiani (1843; “On the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italian Race”), he sought to present practical methods of realizing his political ideals. Asserting the value of the unique contribution that federated Italians might make to world civilization, he…

Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla: …marks his best known play, Del rey abajo, ninguno (“Below the King, No One”).

Lana Del Rey is an American singer-songwriter known for pairing glamorously morose musical themes with classic Americana and a nostalgic, cinematic visual style. Del Rey’s songs typically focus on relatable, melancholic experiences wrapped in a cultural pastiche of Hollywood’s golden era. The

Vincenzo Gioberti: His second important political work, Del rinnovamento civile d’Italia (1851; “On the Civil Renewal of Italy”), showed greater approval of total democracy, inspired by popular risings in 1848 in Venice and Milan. Gioberti’s fortunes were then reversed: the papacy turned against him, and his works were placed on its Index…

Del Rio, city, seat (1885) of Val Verde county, southwestern Texas, U.S. It lies along the Rio Grande, there bridged to Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, 145 miles (233 km) west of San Antonio. The original Spanish mission of San Felipe del Rio (c. 1675) on the site was destroyed by Indians, but the name

vanadium: …(1801) by the Spanish mineralogist Andrés Manuel del Río, who named it erythronium but eventually came to believe it was merely impure chromium. The element was rediscovered (1830) by the Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström, who named it after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty and youth, a name suggested…

comic strip: The fact-based comic: historical, didactic, political, narrative: …Gonick and the Mexican cartoonist Rius (Eduardo del Río). These are at once elementary introductions and sophisticated presentations of sometimes difficult material (Gonick, for instance, has produced “cartoon guides” to physics, genetics, and computer science); they mix line drawings and explanations with asides, political observations, touches of satire, and farcical,…

Chita Rivera was an American dancer, singer, and actress best known for her energetic performances in such Broadway musicals as West Side Story, Chicago, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Rivera’s first performances were in shows her brother organized for production in the basement of their home. She

Roy Del Ruth was an American filmmaker who worked with various stars, notably James Cagney, and directed a number of popular musicals in the 1930s. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.) Del Ruth was a newspaperman in Philadelphia before moving to Hollywood in 1915 to

Miguel de Unamuno: …y en los pueblos (1913; The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Peoples), in which he stressed the vital role spiritual anxiety plays in driving man to live the fullest possible life. This and other themes were explored in La agonía del cristianismo (1925; The Agony of Christianity).

Agostino Agazzari: …composer famous for his treatise, Del sonare sopra ’l basso con tutti li stromenti e dell’uso loro nel conserto (1607; “On Playing Upon the Thoroughbass with All the Instruments and Their Use in an Ensemble”), one of the earliest instruction books for performing from the thoroughbass.

Benicio Del Toro is a Puerto Rican-born actor who emerged in the 1990s as a compelling character actor with a flair for oddball roles. While sources are divided as to where Del Toro was born, it is agreed that he spent his early childhood in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He was nine years old when his

Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican director, screenwriter, and producer who is known for imbuing horror and fantasy films with emotional and thematic complexity. Del Toro developed an interest in both film and horror stories as a child. He began making short films while in high school and later

Panama: Ethnic groups: …Western Hemisphere’s first Jewish president, Eric Arturo Delvalle (del Valle), who served in the 1980s.

electronic instrument: Precursors of electronic instruments: …as early as 1761, when J.B. Delaborde of Paris invented an electric harpsichord. Experimental instruments incorporating solenoids, motors, and other electromechanical elements continued to be invented throughout the 19th century. One of the earliest instruments to generate musical tones by purely electric means was William Duddell’s singing arc, in which…

Jean Theodore Delacour was a French-American aviculturist known for discovering and rearing some of the world’s rarest birds. As a boy, Delacour collected more than 1,300 live birds, which were destroyed, along with the area they inhabited, during World War I. He later made expeditions to Asia,

Eugène Delacroix was one of the greatest French Romantic painters, whose use of colour was influential in the development of both Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. His inspiration came chiefly from historical or contemporary events or literature, and a visit to Morocco in 1832 provided

Eugène Delacroix was one of the greatest French Romantic painters, whose use of colour was influential in the development of both Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. His inspiration came chiefly from historical or contemporary events or literature, and a visit to Morocco in 1832 provided