• Fielding, Henry (English author)

    Henry Fielding was a novelist and playwright, who, with Samuel Richardson, is considered a founder of the English novel. Among his major novels are Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749). Fielding was born of a family that by tradition traced its descent to a branch of the Habsburgs. The 1st

  • Fielding, Sarah (English author)

    Sarah Fielding was an English author and translator whose novels were among the earliest in the English language and the first to examine the interior lives of women and children. Fielding was the younger sister of the novelist Henry Fielding, whom many readers believed to be the author of novels

  • Fielding, Sir John (British police reformer)

    Sir John Fielding was an English police magistrate and the younger half brother of novelist Henry Fielding, noted for his efforts toward the suppression of professional crime and the establishment of reforms in London’s administration of criminal justice. John Fielding was blinded in an accident at

  • Fielding, William Stevens (Canadian journalist and statesman)

    William Stevens Fielding was a journalist and statesman whose 19-year tenure as dominion finance minister was the longest in Canadian history. In 1864 Fielding joined the staff of the Halifax Morning Chronicle, the leading Liberal newspaper in Nova Scotia, where for 20 years he worked in various

  • fieldlark (bird)

    pipit, any of about 50 species of small slender-bodied ground birds in the genera Anthus and Tmetothylacus in the family Motacillidae (order Passeriformes, suborder Passeri [songbirds]). They are found worldwide except in polar regions. Pipits range in size from 12.5 to 23 cm (5 to 9 inches) long.

  • Fields Medal (mathematics award)

    Fields Medal, award granted to between two and four mathematicians for outstanding research and for the potential for future accomplishments. The Fields Medal, which is often considered the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize, is granted every four years and is given, in accordance with the

  • Fields, Dame Gracie (British comedienne)

    Dame Gracie Fields was an English music-hall comedienne. In music halls from childhood, Fields gained fame playing the role of Sally Perkins in a touring revue called Mr. Tower of London (1918–25). She became tremendously popular in Great Britain with an act composed of low-comedy songs, such as

  • Fields, Dorothy (American songwriter)

    Dorothy Fields was an American songwriter who collaborated with a number of Broadway’s top composers during the heyday of American musical theatre, producing the lyrics for many classic shows. Fields was the daughter of Lew M. Fields of the vaudeville comedy team of Weber and Fields. After

  • Fields, Factories, and Workshops (work by Kropotkin)

    anarchism: Russian anarchist thought: In his Fields, Factories, and Workshops (1899) he developed ideas on the decentralization of industry appropriate to a nongovernmental society. In recognition of his scholarship, Kropotkin was invited to write an article on anarchism for the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

  • Fields, James T. (American author and publisher)

    James T. Fields was an American author and leading publisher in the United States. At 14 Fields went to Boston, working as clerk in a bookseller’s shop. While he was employed there, he began to write for the local newspapers. In 1838 he became junior partner in the bookselling firm of Ticknor, Reed

  • Fields, James Thomas (American author and publisher)

    James T. Fields was an American author and leading publisher in the United States. At 14 Fields went to Boston, working as clerk in a bookseller’s shop. While he was employed there, he began to write for the local newspapers. In 1838 he became junior partner in the bookselling firm of Ticknor, Reed

  • Fields, Lew (American comedian)

    Weber and Fields: team that was popular at the turn of the 20th century. Joe Weber (in full Joseph Weber; b. Aug. 11, 1867, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. May 10, 1942, Hollywood, Calif.) and Lew Fields (in full Lewis Maurice Fields; b. Jan. 1, 1867, New York, N.Y.,…

  • Fields, Lewis Maurice (American comedian)

    Weber and Fields: team that was popular at the turn of the 20th century. Joe Weber (in full Joseph Weber; b. Aug. 11, 1867, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. May 10, 1942, Hollywood, Calif.) and Lew Fields (in full Lewis Maurice Fields; b. Jan. 1, 1867, New York, N.Y.,…

  • Fields, Mary (American pioneer)

    Mary Fields was an American pioneer who was the first African American woman to become a U.S. postal service star (contract) route mail carrier. Fields was born into slavery. Little is known of her early life or what she did in the years immediately following the end of the Civil War and her

  • Fields, The (novel by Richter)

    The Fields, novel by Conrad Richter, published in 1946. It was the second novel in a trilogy published collectively as The Awakening Land. The other novels in the trilogy are The Trees and The

  • Fields, W.C. (American actor)

    W.C. Fields was an actor whose flawless timing and humorous cantankerousness made him one of America’s greatest comedians. His real-life and screen personalities were often indistinguishable, and he is remembered for his distinctive nasal voice, his antisocial character, and his fondness for

  • fieldwork (research method)

    anthropology: Fieldwork: The first generation of anthropologists had tended to rely on others—locally based missionaries, colonial administrators, and so on—to collect ethnographic information, often guided by questionnaires that were issued by metropolitan theorists. In the late 19th century, several ethnographic expeditions were organized, often by museums.…

  • Fiennes, Celia (British travel writer)

    Celia Fiennes was an English travel writer who journeyed on horseback all over England at the end of the 17th century, and whose journals are an invaluable source for social and economic historians. The daughter of a colonel and the granddaughter of a parliamentary leader in the English Civil Wars,

  • Fiennes, Henri Leopold de (American director)

    Henry Hathaway was an American film director who worked in a number of genres but was perhaps best known for his film noirs and westerns. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.) Hathaway’s father was a stage manager and his mother an actress. By the age of 10, he was

  • Fiennes, Joseph (British actor)

    Shakespeare in Love: …him by Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter, will bring in enough money to cover the debt. Shakespeare, however, is suffering from writer’s block and has written nothing. Later, in a tavern, another playwright, Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everett, in an uncredited role) offers Shakespeare suggestions…

  • Fiennes, Ralph (English actor)

    Ralph Fiennes is an English actor noted for his elegant, nuanced performances in a wide range of roles. Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Fiennes joined London’s National Theatre in 1987 and the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1989. His television performance in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence

  • Fiennes, Ralph Nathaniel (English actor)

    Ralph Fiennes is an English actor noted for his elegant, nuanced performances in a wide range of roles. Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Fiennes joined London’s National Theatre in 1987 and the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1989. His television performance in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence

  • Fiennes, Ran (British adventurer and writer)

    Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a British adventurer, pioneering polar explorer, and writer, who, among his many exploits, in 1979–82 led the first north-south surface circumnavigation of the world (i.e., along a meridian). Fiennes inherited the baronetcy at birth, as his father, an army officer, had

  • Fiennes, Sir Ranulph (British adventurer and writer)

    Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a British adventurer, pioneering polar explorer, and writer, who, among his many exploits, in 1979–82 led the first north-south surface circumnavigation of the world (i.e., along a meridian). Fiennes inherited the baronetcy at birth, as his father, an army officer, had

  • Fiennes, William (English statesman)

    William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele was an English statesman, a leading opponent of James I and Charles I in the House of Lords and a supporter of Parliament in the English Civil Wars. The only son of Richard Fiennes, 7th Lord Saye and Sele, he was educated at New College, Oxford, and

  • Fiera del Levante (trade fair, Italy)

    Bari: The annual Fiera del Levante, an Occidental-Oriental trade fair, has been held since 1930.

  • fierasfer (fish)

    pearlfish, any of about 32 species of slim, eel-shaped marine fishes of the family Carapidae noted for living in the bodies of sea cucumbers, pearl oysters, starfishes, and other invertebrates. Pearlfishes are primarily tropical and are found around the world, mainly in shallow water. They are

  • fierce (chess)

    chess: Queen: Each player has one queen, which combines the powers of the rook and bishop and is thus the most mobile and powerful piece. The White queen begins at d1, the Black queen at d8.

  • Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (novel by Robbins)

    Tom Robbins: …Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994); Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000), the story of a hedonistic CIA operative who is cursed by a Peruvian shaman to forever keep his feet off the ground lest he die; and Villa Incognito (2003). Wild Ducks Flying Backward (2005) is a collection of…

  • fierce snake (reptile)

    taipan: The fierce snake, which is also called the inland taipan or western taipan (O. microlepidotus), is smaller and can grow up to 1.7 metres (5.5 feet) in length. A third species, the Central Ranges or western desert taipan (O. temporalis), was discovered in the central mountain…

  • fierge (chess)

    chess: Queen: Each player has one queen, which combines the powers of the rook and bishop and is thus the most mobile and powerful piece. The White queen begins at d1, the Black queen at d8.

  • Fierlinger, Zdeněk (Czech statesman)

    Czechoslovak history: World War II: Zdeněk Fierlinger, a former Czechoslovak diplomat and communist ally, became prime minister of a new provisional government, set up at Košice in Slovakia on April 3.

  • Fiero (automobile)

    materials science: Plastics and composites: In 1984, General Motors’ Fiero was placed on the market with the entire body made from composites, and the Camaro/Firebird models followed with doors, roof panels, fenders, and other parts made of composites. Composites were also chosen for exterior panels in the Saturn, which appeared in 1990. In addition,…

  • Fierro, Francisco (Peruvian artist)

    Pancho Fierro was a self-taught Peruvian artist known for his watercolours of everyday life in Lima. Fierro was of mixed Spanish, indigenous, and African descent and was born into humble circumstances. The watercolour paintings he made of life in Lima, however, gave him a certain mobility. Fierro

  • Fierro, Pancho (Peruvian artist)

    Pancho Fierro was a self-taught Peruvian artist known for his watercolours of everyday life in Lima. Fierro was of mixed Spanish, indigenous, and African descent and was born into humble circumstances. The watercolour paintings he made of life in Lima, however, gave him a certain mobility. Fierro

  • Fiersohn, Reba (American singer)

    Alma Gluck was a Romanian-born American singer whose considerable repertoire, performance skills, and presence made her one of the most sought-after recital performers of her day. Fiersohn grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City and then worked as a stenographer until her marriage in 1902

  • Fierstein, Harvey (American actor and playwright)

    Harvey Fierstein is an American comedian, author, and playwright who was best known as the author of The Torch Song Trilogy, which centres on gay families. He often spoke out about gay rights issues. Fierstein was born into a strict Jewish family. He graduated from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn,

  • Fierstein, Harvey Forbes (American actor and playwright)

    Harvey Fierstein is an American comedian, author, and playwright who was best known as the author of The Torch Song Trilogy, which centres on gay families. He often spoke out about gay rights issues. Fierstein was born into a strict Jewish family. He graduated from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn,

  • Fiery Angel, The (opera by Prokofiev)

    opera: Russian opera: …hallucination, Angel of Fire or The Fiery Angel (radio premiere 1954; Ognennïy angel, his own libretto after a story by Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov). Of Prokofiev’s Soviet-period operas, the most winning is the cheerful Betrothal in a Monastery, also known as The Duenna (1946; Obrucheniye v monastïre or Duen’ya, libretto by…

  • Fiery Furnace (geological formation, Utah, United States)

    Arches National Park: The Windows Section, Delicate Arch, Fiery Furnace (so named because it glows in the setting sun), and Devils Garden. Landscape Arch, measuring about 290 feet (88 metres) long from base to base, is one of the longest natural freestanding spans of rock in the world; since 1991 large pieces of…

  • fiery war (Roman history)

    ancient Rome: Roman expansion in the western Mediterranean: Labeled a “fiery war” (really wars), these struggles acquired a reputation for extreme cruelty; they brought destruction to the native population (e.g., 20,000 Vaccaei were killed in 151 after giving themselves up to Lucius Licinius Lucullus) and made recruiting legionaries in Italy difficult. In Further Spain the…

  • fiery-billed aracari (bird)

    toucan: …as the chestnut-mandibled toucan, the fiery-billed aracari, and the yellow-ridged toucan, describe their beaks, which are often brightly coloured in pastel shades of green, red, white, and yellow. This coloration is probably used by the birds for species recognition, as many toucans have similar body patterns and coloration—mainly black with…

  • Fieschi Family (Genoese family)

    Fieschi Family, a noble Genoese family whose members played an important role in Guelf (papal party) politics in medieval Italy. The Fieschi allied with the Angevin kings of Sicily and later with the kings of France; the family produced two popes, 72 cardinals, and many generals, admirals, and

  • Fieschi, Caterina (Italian mystic)

    Saint Catherine of Genoa ; canonized 1737; feast day September 15) was an Italian mystic admired for her work among the sick and the poor. Catherine was born into a distinguished family and received a careful education. Her early aspirations to become a nun were frustrated by an arranged marriage

  • Fieschi, Gian Luigi, Il Giovanne (Italian noble)

    Gian Luigi Fieschi the Younger was a Genoese nobleman whose conspiracy against the Doria family is the subject of much literature. The Fieschi family was one of the greatest families of Liguria. Sinibaldo Fieschi, Gian Luigi’s father, had been a close friend of Andrea Doria and had rendered many

  • Fieschi, Gian Luigi, the Younger (Italian noble)

    Gian Luigi Fieschi the Younger was a Genoese nobleman whose conspiracy against the Doria family is the subject of much literature. The Fieschi family was one of the greatest families of Liguria. Sinibaldo Fieschi, Gian Luigi’s father, had been a close friend of Andrea Doria and had rendered many

  • Fieschi, Giuseppe Maria (French conspirator)

    Giuseppe Maria Fieschi was a French republican conspirator who on July 28, 1835, unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate King Louis-Philippe. As a youth Fieschi served in the Neapolitan army. After returning to Corsica, he was imprisoned for theft for 10 years, from 1816 to 1826. Making his way to

  • Fieschi, Ottobono (pope)

    Adrian V was the pope for about five weeks in 1276. His uncle Pope Innocent IV appointed him cardinal. He was legate to England (1265–68), charged with establishing peace between the English king Henry III and the rebellious barons in 1265. Elected as successor to Innocent V on July 11, he died a

  • Fieschi, Sinibaldo (pope)

    Innocent IV was one of the great pontiffs of the Middle Ages (reigned 1243–54), whose clash with Holy Roman emperor Frederick II formed an important chapter in the conflict between papacy and empire. His belief in universal responsibility of the papacy led him to attempt the evangelization of the

  • Fiesco; or, the Genoese Conspiracy (play by Schiller)

    Friedrich Schiller: Early years and plays: …des Fiesko zu Genua (1783; Fiesco; or, the Genoese Conspiracy), subtitled “a republican tragedy”: the drama of the rise and fall of a would-be dictator, set in 16th-century Genoa, picturing, in Schiller’s own phrase, “ambition in action, and ultimately defeated.”

  • Fieseler Fi 156 Storch (aircraft)

    Gerhard Fieseler: …he became most famous, the Fi 156 Storch. Some 3,000 were manufactured, of which several are still flying.

  • Fieseler, Gerhard (German aviator)

    Gerhard Fieseler was a pioneering German aviator, aerobatic flyer, and aircraft designer. At the outbreak of World War I, Fieseler volunteered for flying duties, which included front-line service in Romania. In July 1917, he transferred to Fighter Squadron 25 for service on the Macedonian front,

  • Fiesole (Italy)

    Fiesole, town and episcopal see of Florence provincia, Tuscany regione, north-central Italy. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Arno and Mugnone valleys just northeast of Florence. A chief city of the Etruscan confederacy, it probably dates from the 9th–8th century bc, but its first record

  • Fiesole, Mino da (Italian sculptor)

    Mino da Fiesole was an early Renaissance sculptor notable for his well-characterized busts, which are among the earliest Renaissance portrait sculptures. Mino was trained in Florence, possibly by Antonio Rossellino. While in Rome, where he was active in 1454 and 1463 and from roughly 1473 to 1480,

  • Fiesta (novel by Hemingway)

    The Sun Also Rises, first major novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1926. Titled Fiesta in England, the novel captures the moods, feelings, and attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast-living group of disillusioned expatriates in postwar France and Spain. The Sun Also Rises follows a group of young

  • fiesta (social and religious event)

    Guam: Cultural life: Fiestas held in commemoration of patron saints were great social and religious events of the year for each village and brought together people from many parts of the island. Fiesta customs are still observed in Guam. However, changes in the social life and institutions of…

  • Fiesta Bowl (football game)

    Fiesta Bowl, annual American college postseason football game held at State Farm Stadium (previously called University of Phoenix Stadium) in Glendale, Arizona, beginning in 2007, after having been played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, for the first 35 years of its existence. It is one of

  • Fiesta de San Fermín (festival, Pamplona, Spain)

    Fiesta de San Fermín, festival held annually in Pamplona, Spain, beginning at noon on July 6 and ending at midnight on July 14, honouring the city’s first bishop and patron saint, Saint Fermín. The festival was originally observed on Saint Fermín’s feast day, September 25, but in 1592 the

  • fiesta del chivo, La (work by Vargas Llosa)

    Latin American literature: Post-boom writers: …La fiesta del chivo (2000; The Feast of the Goat), dealing with Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Both are remarkable not only because of their literary quality but also because their authors ventured beyond their own countries (Mexico and Peru, respectively) to find their historical themes. García Márquez,…

  • Fiesta del Milagro (festival, Salta, Argentina)

    Salta: Salta’s Fiesta del Milagro (“Miracle Fiesta”), which is held each September, commemorates the aftermath of a particularly severe earthquake in 1692 when religious icons were paraded through the streets. A celebration on June 17 honours General Martín Güemes, a gaucho leader who opposed the Spanish in…

  • fièvre boutonneuse (pathology)

    boutonneuse fever, a mild typhuslike fever caused by the bacterium Rickettsia conorii conorii and transmitted by the dog tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus. The disease is endemic to the Mediterranean region. Similar forms of boutonneuse fever occur in Africa, India, and southern Europe but are caused

  • fièvre exanthématique (pathology)

    boutonneuse fever, a mild typhuslike fever caused by the bacterium Rickettsia conorii conorii and transmitted by the dog tick Rhipicephalus sanguineus. The disease is endemic to the Mediterranean region. Similar forms of boutonneuse fever occur in Africa, India, and southern Europe but are caused

  • FIFA (electronic game series)

    FIFA, football (soccer) electronic game series published from 1993 through 2022 by EA Sports, a division of the American gaming company Electronic Arts, and licensed from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. EA Sports began the FIFA series with the purpose of securing a hold on

  • FIFA (sports organization)

    FIFA, world governing body of association football (soccer), founded in Paris in 1904. FIFA is headquartered in Zürich, and its membership includes more than 200 national football associations. As association football’s governing authority, FIFA sets the rules of play, establishes standards for

  • FIFA Women’s World Cup (association football competition)

    Women’s World Cup, international football (soccer) competition that determines the world champion among women’s national teams. Like the men’s World Cup, the Women’s World Cup is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and takes place every four years. The field for

  • FIFA World Cup (football tournament)

    World Cup, in football (soccer), quadrennial tournament of men’s national teams that determines the sport’s world champion. It is likely the most popular sporting event in the world, drawing billions of television viewers every tournament. Countries worldwide compete vigorously, many years in

  • FIFA World Cup Trophy (soccer)

    World Cup: …a new trophy called the FIFA World Cup was put up for competition. Many other sports have organized “World Cup” competitions.

  • fife (musical instrument)

    fife, small transverse (side-blown) flute with six finger holes and a narrow cylindrical bore that produces a high pitch and shrill tone. The modern fife, pitched to the A♭ above middle C, is about 15.5 inches (39 cm) long and often has an added E♭ hole covered by a key. Its compass is about two

  • Fife (council area, Scotland, United Kingdom)

    Fife, council area and historic county of eastern Scotland, covering a peninsula bounded on the north by the Firth of Tay, on the east by the North Sea, on the south by the Firth of Forth, and on the west by Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire council areas. Fife council area covers the same

  • Fife Player, The (painting by Manet)

    Édouard Manet: Mature life and works of Édouard Manet: The following year, The Fife Player (1866), after having been rejected by the Salon jury under the pretext that its modeling was flat, was displayed along with others in Manet’s studio in Paris.

  • Fife, Duncan (American furniture designer)

    Duncan Phyfe was a Scottish-born American furniture designer, a leading exponent of the Neoclassical style, sometimes considered the greatest of all American cabinetmakers. The Fife family went to the United States in 1784, settling in Albany, New York, where Duncan worked as an apprentice

  • Fifi (storm [1974])

    San Pedro Sula: Hurricane Fifi in 1974 badly damaged the agricultural hinterland and certain industries. An industrial free trade zone opened in 1976.

  • Fifine at the Fair (work by Bantock)

    Granville Bantock: …Dante and Beatrice (1910) and Fifine at the Fair (1912); and the massive Omar Khayyam for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra (1906–09).

  • Fifinella (racehorse)

    Fifinella, (foaled 1913), English racehorse (Thoroughbred) who in 1916 won the Derby, and two days later the Oaks; she was the last horse to win both events in one year. Fifinella, sired by Polymelus and foaled by Silver Fowl, was owned by Edward Hulton and trained by Richard Dawson at Newmarket.

  • FIFO (accounting)

    accounting: Cost of goods sold: …main inventory costing methods: (1) first-in, first-out (FIFO), (2) last-in, first-out (LIFO), or (3) average cost. The LIFO method is widely used in the United States, where it is also an acceptable costing method for income tax purposes; companies in most other countries measure inventory cost and the cost of…

  • fifteen (number)

    number symbolism: 15: As the product of two sacred numbers (3 × 5), 15 naturally has religious significance. In ancient Nineveh the goddess Ishtar was served by 15 priests, and the city had 15 gates. The 3 × 3 magic square has 15 as its magic constant,…

  • Fifteen Puzzle (game)

    Fifteen Puzzle, puzzle consisting of 15 squares, numbered 1 through 15, which can be slid horizontally or vertically within a four-by-four grid that has one empty space among its 16 locations. The object of the puzzle is to arrange the squares in numerical sequence using only the extra space in the

  • Fifteen Rebellion (British history)

    Jacobite: Fifteen Rebellion, was a serious affair. In the summer of 1715 John Erskine, 6th earl of Mar, an embittered ex-supporter of the Revolution, raised the Jacobite clans and the Episcopal northeast for “James III and VIII” (James Edward, the Old Pretender). A hesitant leader, Mar…

  • fifteen schoolgirl problem (mathematics)

    combinatorics: BIB (balanced incomplete block) designs: Kirkman as a recreational problem. There are υ girls in a class. Their teacher wants to take the class out for a walk for a number of days, the girls marching abreast in triplets. It is required to arrange the walk so that any two girls march abreast in…

  • Fifteen Years of a Dancer’s Life (work by Fuller)

    Loie Fuller: …published in English translation as Fifteen Years of a Dancer’s Life in 1913. After World War I she danced infrequently, but from her school in Paris she sent out touring dance companies to all parts of Europe. In 1926 she last visited the United States, in company with her friend…

  • Fifteen Years’ War (Hungary-Ottoman history)

    Hungary: Royal Hungary and the rise of Transylvania: In the Fifteen Years’ War, imperial troops entered Transylvania, and their commander, George Basta, behaved there (and in northern Hungary) with such insane cruelty toward the Hungarian Protestants that a Transylvanian general, István Bocskay, formerly a Habsburg supporter, revolted. His army of wild freebooters (hajdúk) drove out…

  • Fifteenth Amendment (United States Constitution)

    Fifteenth Amendment, amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States that guaranteed that the right to vote could not be denied based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The amendment complemented and followed in the wake of the passage of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth

  • fifth (music)

    East Asian arts: Theoretical systems: This cycle of fifths produced 12 pitches that were mathematically correct, but the 13th pitch did not match the 1st pitch. In the West this so-called “Pythagorean comma” became bothersome as Western music oriented toward vertical sounds called harmony in which the distance between pitches in chords needed…

  • Fifth Amendment (United States Constitution)

    Fifth Amendment, amendment (1791) to the Constitution of the United States, part of the Bill of Rights, that articulates procedural safeguards designed to protect the rights of the criminally accused and to secure life, liberty, and property. For the text of the Fifth Amendment, see below. Similar

  • Fifth Book of Peace, The (work by Kingston)

    Maxine Hong Kingston: The Fifth Book of Peace (2003) combines elements of fiction and memoir in the manner of a Chinese talk-story, a tradition in which elements of both the real and imagined worlds become interpolated. I Love a Broad Margin to My Life (2011) is a “memoir-in-verse.”

  • Fifth Business (novel by Davies)

    Fifth Business, first of a series of novels known collectively as the Deptford trilogy by Robertson

  • fifth column (clandestine group or faction)

    fifth column, clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation’s solidarity by any means at their disposal. The term is conventionally credited to Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). As four of his army columns moved on

  • Fifth Column, The (play by Hemingway)

    Ernest Hemingway: The Spanish influence: …he wrote a play called The Fifth Column (1938), which is set in besieged Madrid. As in many of his books, the protagonist of the play is based on the author. Following his last visit to the Spanish war, he purchased Finca Vigía (“Lookout Farm”), an unpretentious estate outside Havana,…

  • Fifth Council of the Lateran ([1512–1517])

    Fifth Lateran Council, (1512–17), the 18th ecumenical council, convoked by Pope Julius II and held in the Lateran Palace in Rome. The council was convened in response to a council summoned at Pisa by a group of cardinals who were hostile to the pope. The pope’s council had reform as its chief

  • fifth cranial nerve (anatomy)

    human nervous system: Trigeminal nerve (CN V or 5): The trigeminal nerve is the largest of the cranial nerves. It has both motor and sensory components, the sensory fibers being general somatic afferent and the motor fibers being special visceral efferent. Most of the cell bodies of sensory…

  • Fifth Crusade (European history)

    Crusades: The Fifth Crusade: The Children’s Crusade revealed that, despite repeated failures, Europeans were still committed to recapturing Jerusalem and rescuing the True Cross. Almost immediately after the Fourth Crusade, Innocent III began planning for another expedition to the East. Although delayed by controversies involving the imperial…

  • fifth degree, equation of the (mathematics)

    Évariste Galois: …impossibility of solving the general quintic equation by radicals. Ruffini’s effort was not wholly successful, but in 1824 the Norwegian mathematician Niels Abel gave a correct proof.

  • Fifth Dimension, the (American musical group)

    Laura Nyro: …songs she had written, notably the Fifth Dimension (“Wedding Bell Blues” and “Stoned Soul Picnic”), Barbra Streisand (“Stoney End”), Three Dog Night (“Eli’s Coming”), and Blood, Sweat and Tears (“And When I Die”). A wayward yet reclusive artist, Nyro resisted pressure to streamline her songs for mass consumption. She

  • Fifth District Normal School (university, Maryville, Missouri, United States)

    Northwest Missouri State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Maryville, Mo., U.S., 90 miles (145 km) north of Kansas City. It comprises colleges of arts and sciences, education and human services, and business and professional studies. In addition to undergraduate

  • Fifth Element, The (film by Besson [1997])

    Jean Paul Gaultier: …Wife, and Her Lover (1989), The Fifth Element (1997), and Bad Education (2004). In 2011 he launched his first international exhibition, “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk,” in Montreal. The exhibition, which made its final North American stop in San Francisco the following…

  • Fifth Estate, The (film by Condon [2013])

    Benedict Cumberbatch: From Star Trek to Alan Turing: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate; a well-intentioned slave owner in 12 Years a Slave, an adaptation of Solomon Northup’s narrative (1853) of his life in captivity; and a hapless young man in August: Osage County, based on the play by Tracy Letts. He also lent his posh…

  • Fifth Generation Cinema (Chinese art)

    China: The arts: China’s “Fifth Generation Cinema,” for example, is known for such outstanding film directors as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, who have highlighted themes of social and political oppression.

  • Fifth Monarchy Men (religious sect)

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  • Fifth of May, The (work by Manzoni)

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