Asghar Farhadi: Chahārshanbe Sūrī (2006; Fireworks Wednesday) examines the strained marriage of a middle-class Tehrān couple during Chahārshanbe Sūrī, the feast preceding Nowrūz, the Persian New Year festival. In Darbāreye Elī (2009; About Elly), conflicts and emotional revelations arise when a young teacher disappears while vacationing with a group of…

fireworm, any of certain segmented marine worms of the class Polychaeta (phylum Annelida), including species of the genera Hermodice and Eurythoe. Fireworms produce a stinging sensation if touched. The body of H. carunculata, found in the coral reefs of the Caribbean Sea, is covered with fine,

Baaba Maal: …toro (1992) and the pop-tinged Firin’ in Fouta (1994), for which he received a Grammy nomination for best world music album. While 1998’s Nomad Soul continued in the Afropop vein, it was evident that Maal was drifting back toward his Tukulor roots. His 2001 release, Missing You (Mi yeewnii), was…

brick and tile: Firing and cooling: Bricks are fired and cooled in a kiln, an oven-type chamber capable of producing temperatures of 870° to 1,100° C (1,600° to more than 2,000° F), depending on the type of raw material. There are two general types of kilns, periodic and…

explosive: Ignition of black powder: Black powder is relatively insensitive to shock and friction and must be ignited by flame or heat. In the early days such devices as torches, glowing tinder, and heated iron rods were used to ignite the powder and, in most cases,…

Public Broadcasting Service: …Child; the political talk show Firing Line (1966–99), hosted by William F. Buckley, Jr.; and the drama anthology Masterpiece Theatre (begun 1971; later Masterpiece), presided over for many years by Alistair Cooke.

bolt action: The mechanism combines the firing pin, a spring, and an extractor, all housed in a locking breechblock. The spring-loaded firing pin slides back and forth inside the bolt, which itself is the breechblock. The bolt is moved back and forth, and partially rotated, in the receiver by a projecting…

muscle: Acetylcholine-acetylcholine receptor interaction: At a critical point (the firing threshold for the muscle cell) a self-generating action potential is triggered, causing the membrane potential to reverse and become briefly positive. The action potential propagates over the muscle fibre membrane to activate the contractile process.

Firishtah was one of Muslim India’s most famous writers. Very little is known about Firishtah’s life except that he was captain of the guard to Murtazā Niẓām Shāh, Muslim Indian ruler of Ahmadnagar (1565–88). It was during this period that Firishtah conceived his history of Indo-Muslim rulers and

Arthur Conan Doyle: …appear in his semiautobiographical novels, The Firm of Girdlestone (1890) and The Stark Munro Letters (1895), and in the collection of medical short stories Round the Red Lamp (1894). (See also Sherlock Holmes: Pioneer in Forensic Science.) Conan Doyle’s creation of the logical, cold, calculating Holmes, the “world’s first and…

David Rabe: …a Vietnam War drama; and The Firm (1993), a legal thriller based on the John Grisham novel. His other works included the novels Recital of the Dog (1993), a work of black humour; Dinosaurs on the Roof (2008); and Girl by the Road at Night (2009). A Primitive Heart (2005)…

John Grisham: Legal career, A Time to Kill, and The Firm: …fiction” with his next novel, The Firm (1991; film 1993, TV series 2012), about a law school graduate who is seduced into joining a Memphis law firm that turns out to be a front for the Mafia. The selling of the film rights prompted a bidding war for publishing rights,…

caliper: …left are an illustration of firm-joint calipers, which are held in place by friction at the joint. Outside calipers measure thicknesses and outside diameters of objects; inside calipers measure hole diameters and distances between surfaces. To check the dimensions of a machined part, the calipers are first adjusted to the…

wage and salary: Human-capital theory: …by all potential employers) and “firm-specific” human capital (which involves skills and knowledge that have productive value in only one particular company). Formal education produces general human capital, while on-the-job training usually produces both types. To understand investments in human capital by employees and employers, one must pay attention to…

Egypt: Ismāʿīl, 1863–79: …project at Constantinople, and a firman (decree from the sultan) authorizing its construction was granted in March 1866. Work had in fact already been going on for seven years, and in November 1869 the Suez Canal was opened to shipping by the empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III of…

comic strip: Comics in Latin America: …transformation, still unsurpassed, appeared as La Firme (1970–73; “Steadfast”), in Salvador Allende’s Chile. It presented a graphic explanation of Chileans’ need for socialist transformation, and as a result it was banned and existing copies were destroyed as soon as Augusto Pinochet wrested power in 1973. While La Firme was taking…

Chinese parasol tree, (Firmiana simplex), tree of the hibiscus, or mallow, family (Malvaceae; order Malvales), native to Asia. It grows to a height of 12 metres (40 feet). It has alternate, deciduous leaves up to 30 cm (12 inches) across and small greenish white flowers that are borne in clusters.

patristic literature: The post-Nicene Latin Fathers: …the 4th century produced only Julius Firmicus Maternus, author not only of the most complete treatise on astrology bequeathed by antiquity to the modern world but also of a fierce diatribe against paganism that has the added interest of appealing to the state to employ force to repress it and…

William Edmondstoune Aytoun: …to light verse, he published Firmilian, or the Student of Badajoz, a Spasmodic Tragedy, in which the writings of the spasmodic school were brilliantly ridiculed.

Amiens: …in the 4th century by St. Firmin, its first bishop. Its territory became the medieval countship of Amiénois, and its citizens profited from rivalry between bishop and count to gain a charter early in the 12th century. The Peace of Amiens (1802) marked a short pause in the Napoleonic Wars.…

Firminy, town, Loire département, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes région, southeast-central France. It lies on the Ondaine River immediately southwest of Saint-Étienne. The name, originally Firminiaco—signifying “place of Firmin”—was first recorded (971) in a charter given by the king of Burgundy. It is the

Firminy, town, Loire département, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes région, southeast-central France. It lies on the Ondaine River immediately southwest of Saint-Étienne. The name, originally Firminiaco—signifying “place of Firmin”—was first recorded (971) in a charter given by the king of Burgundy. It is the

architecture: Firmitas: Two plausible reasons can be given for according logical primacy in the Vitruvian triad to firmitas. The first is the notion that architecture is essentially the “art of building.” The second is that, since the uses or functions of a building tend to change,…

rock: Stress-strain relationships: In firmoviscous behaviour, the material is essentially solid but the strain is not immediate with application of stress; rather, it is taken up and released exponentially. A plasticoviscous material exhibits elastic behaviour for initial stress (as in plastic behaviour), but after the yield point stress is…

Fermo, town and archiepiscopal see, Marche regione, Italy. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Tenna River, near the Adriatic Sea. An ancient stronghold (Firmum Picenum) of the Picenes (early inhabitants of the coast), it was taken by the Romans in 264 bc and became a colony with full rights

Fermo, town and archiepiscopal see, Marche regione, Italy. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Tenna River, near the Adriatic Sea. An ancient stronghold (Firmum Picenum) of the Picenes (early inhabitants of the coast), it was taken by the Romans in 264 bc and became a colony with full rights

North Africa: Christianity and the Donatist controversy: …revolt of a Mauretanian chieftain, Firmus, and in 377 the first of a series of general laws proscribing Donatism was issued. Nevertheless, these laws were enforced only sporadically, partly because provincial governors and many local magistrates were still pagan and, at a time of growing weakness in the imperial government,…

software: …read-only (ROM) technology are called firmware, or “hard software.”

firn, partially compacted granular snow that is the intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice. Firn is found under the snow that accumulates at the head of a glacier. It is formed under the pressure of overlying snow by the processes of compaction, recrystallization, localized melting, and

Battle of Firoz Shah, (Dec. 21–22, 1845), conflict between the Sikhs and the British at Firoz Shah, on the Punjab Plain, northern India. It was the first of two decisive battles in the First Sikh War, 1845–46. A British force of about 18,000 men under Sir Hugh Gough attacked a Sikh army of 35,000

Firozpur, city, western Punjab state, northwestern India. It is located in the Malwa Plains, about 5 miles (8 km) east of the border with Pakistan. Firozpur was founded by Fīrūz Shah Tughluq in the 14th century. It fell under British rule in 1835 and became a British outpost, and it was involved in

Firozpur Jhirka, town, southeastern Haryana state, northwestern India. It is situated on a small fingerlike projection of land that is surrounded on the east, south, and west by Rajasthan state. The town is said to have been founded by Fīrūz Shah III as a military outpost and was constituted a

Luis Firpo was an Argentine professional boxer. (Read Gene Tunney’s 1929 Britannica essay on boxing.) Firpo moved to the United States in 1922 after having compiled an outstanding record during the first three years of his career in South America. He won his first 10 American matches by knockout

Ahl-e Ḥaqq: …about the sect is the Firqān al-Akhbār, written in the late 19th or early 20th century by a member.

Wassily Kandinsky: Munich period: …and commonly referred to as First Abstract Watercolour. On the basis of research done in the 1950s, however, this work can be dated somewhat later and can be regarded as a study for the 1913 Composition VII; and in any event it must be considered merely an incident—among many for…

South African literature: In Afrikaans: The leader of the so-called First Afrikaans Language Movement was S.J. du Toit, a Dutch Reformed pastor and a versatile and prolific author. The writings of the First Language Movement were propagandist, aiming to break down prejudice against the new language and to prove that it could be an effective…

First Amendment, amendment (1791) to the Constitution of the United States that is part of the Bill of Rights and reads, The clauses of the amendment are often called the establishment clause, the free exercise clause, the free speech clause, the free press clause, the assembly clause, and the

Anglo-Afghan Wars: First Anglo-Afghan War: Following a protracted civil war that began in 1816, the Bārakzay clan became the ruling dynasty of Afghanistan, with its most powerful member, Dōst Moḥammad Khan, ascending the throne in 1826. With Great Britain and Russia maneuvering for influence in Afghanistan, Dōst…

Antarctica: The development of IGY: The First Antarctic Conference was held in Paris in July 1955 to coordinate plans for expeditions, the advance parties of which were soon to set sail for the continent. Early tensions, due in part to overlapping political claims on the continent, were relaxed by the conference…

malacostracan: Size range and diversity of structure: The first antennae (antennules) usually have two branches (three in the subclass Hoplocarida). The outer branch of the second antennae (antennal squame), which is usually flat and bladelike for elevation and swimming balance, has two segments in stomatopods and some mysids and one segment in syncarids and eucarids;…

St. Justin Martyr: Works: …the first part of the First Apology, Justin defends his fellow Christians against the charges of atheism and hostility to the Roman state. He then goes on to express the core of his Christian philosophy: the highest aspiration of both Christianity and Platonic philosophy is a transcendent and unchangeable God;…

decoy: The so-called First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG) consisted of thousands of cardboard and rubber dummy tanks and airplanes, fake troop barracks and supply dumps, and enough humans to give the appearance of great activity. Even after the actual invasion had begun, the Germans were convinced that FUSAG…

Slavoj Žižek: Later writings: …appeals to Marxism, apparent in First as Tragedy, Then as Farce (2009), and the staging of academic “conferences” and other events as a form of political theatre in collaboration with Žižek’s colleague and kindred spirit, the French Maoist philosopher Alain Badiou. An early intimation of their dialogue is to be…

Bank of the United States, central bank chartered in 1791 by the U.S. Congress at the urging of Alexander Hamilton and over the objections of Thomas Jefferson. The extended debate over its constitutionality contributed significantly to the evolution of pro- and antibank factions into the first

First Bank System, Inc., American bank holding company. Its major subsidiary is the First National Bank of Minneapolis. Headquarters for both are in Minneapolis, Minn. The corporation was originally formed as the First Bank Stock Corporation in 1929 and adopted its present name in 1968. The bank

First Barbary War, (1801–05), conflict between the United States and Tripoli (now in Libya), incited by American refusal to continue payment of tribute to the piratical rulers of the North African Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli. This practice had been customary among

Barrier Treaties: By the First Barrier Treaty (Oct. 29, 1709) Great Britain agreed to support the restoration to the United Provinces of the fortresses that it had been granted by the Treaty of Rijswijk (1697), which had been lost to the French in 1701. In return the United Provinces…

Charles Comiskey: …player, Comiskey transformed the way first basemen played when he positioned himself away from the first base bag in order to prevent hits to right field. Comiskey became a player-manager with St. Louis in 1883 and led the team to four league championships during the 1880s. In 1890 he joined…

Kemal Atatürk: The nationalist movement and the war for independence: …10, 1921, at the First Battle of the İnönü.

John Knox: Escape to the Continent: …Predestination as well as his first blast of the trumpet against the monstruous regiment [rule] of women, in which he states with uncurbed vehemence the common belief of his day that the exercise of authority by women is contrary to both natural law and revealed religion. The pamphlet was aimed…

David Caruso: …parts in such films as First Blood (1982), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), and Mad Dog and Glory (1993) before being cast in the television series NYPD Blue. Premiering in 1993, the police drama generated strident condemnations from religious leaders and other conservatives because of its unabashed use of…

Francis Pilkington: The First Booke of Songs or Ayres of 4 Parts (1605) contains 21 songs for four voices or for solo voice and lute, as well as a pavane for lute and bass viol. While showing some influence of English composer John Dowland in their attempts…

John Knox: Shaping the Reformed Church: …before the Scottish Parliament the First Book of Discipline containing proposals for the constitution and finance of the Reformed Church. Worship was to be regulated by the Book of Common Order (also called Knox’s Liturgy), according to which congregations were to be governed by elders elected annually by the people…

Louis-Claude Daquin: …de pièces de clavecin (1735; First Book of Pieces for the Harpsichord), containing his best-known work, Le Coucou, and a successful collection of carols, Noëls pour l’orgue et le clavecin.

Andrew Boorde: …before 1542 had completed his First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge, in prose and “ryme doggerel” (1548), which ranks as the earliest continental guidebook. He also published Dietary of Health (1542?) and Breviary (1547). He probably returned to England in 1542. His imprisonment toward the end of his life…

William Blake: …the Daughters of Albion (1793), The First Book of Urizen (1794), Milton (1804[–?11]), and Jerusalem (1804[–?20]). The dating of Blake’s texts is explained in the Researcher’s Note: Blake publication dates. These works he etched, printed, coloured, stitched, and sold, with the assistance of his devoted wife, Catherine. Among his best…

balletto: …and harmonic dimensions in his First Booke of Balletts (1595). Morley’s style influenced not only the English composers but also the German Hans Leo Hassler and his younger contemporaries who transformed the balletto in the early 17th century into a more instrumental and homophonic (chordal) style. The suites of the…

Dirichlet problem, in mathematics, the problem of formulating and solving certain partial differential equations that arise in studies of the flow of heat, electricity, and fluids. Initially, the problem was to determine the equilibrium temperature distribution on a disk from measurements taken

Bulgaria: The first Bulgarian empire: Asparukh and his successors established their court, which they built of stone, at Pliska, northeast of modern Shumen, and a religious centre at nearby Madara. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Bulgars kept their settlements distinct from those of the Slavs, from whom…

Canada: World War I: …for the creation of the 1st Canadian Division. In April 1915 the Canadians saw their first major action in the Second Battle of Ypres (Belgium), where German forces first used poison gas as a weapon. As more volunteers came forward, Borden increased the authorized force levels. By the spring of…

first cause, in philosophy, the self-created being (i.e., God) to which every chain of causes must ultimately go back. The term was used by Greek thinkers and became an underlying assumption in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Many philosophers and theologians in this tradition have formulated an

Bank One: …through the 1998 merger of First Chicago NBD Corp. and Banc One. Although the 1998 merger created one of the country’s largest banks, it performed poorly until Jamie Dimon, a former Citigroup executive, became chief executive officer and revamped operations. Based in Chicago, Bank One became a leading provider of…

Bank One: …through the 1998 merger of First Chicago NBD Corp. and Banc One. Although the 1998 merger created one of the country’s largest banks, it performed poorly until Jamie Dimon, a former Citigroup executive, became chief executive officer and revamped operations. Based in Chicago, Bank One became a leading provider of…

Henry Van Dyke: …Wise Man” (1896) and “The First Christmas Tree” (1897), were first read aloud to his congregation in New York as sermons. These quickly brought him recognition. Other stories and anecdotal tales were gathered at regular intervals into volumes. Among these collections were The Ruling Passion (1901), The Blue Flower…

Bernard Maybeck: …public buildings are the free-Gothic First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley (1910), and the Neoclassical Palace of Fine Arts for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco (1915). His last large-scale commission was the Principia College campus, Elsah, Ill. (from 1938).

First Church of Christ, Scientist, the Mother Church of Christian Science, established in Boston by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879 and reestablished as an international organization by Eddy in 1892. The church building was constructed in 1895; a domed extension was added later (1903–06). The Mother Church

In the First Circle, novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, titled in RussianV kruge pervom. The original manuscript, reflecting Solzhenitsyn’s own imprisonment, was 96 chapters long when completed in 1958, but, hoping to avoid censorship, the author deleted 9 chapters. Though the modified version was

FirstCity (FCFC), American financial-services company founded in 1950 as the bank holding company First City Bancorporation of Texas, Inc. Headquarters are in Waco, Texas. First City Bancorporation provided managerial direction, financial resource coordination, and advisory services for its various

Academy of Sciences, institution established in Paris in 1666 under the patronage of Louis XIV to advise the French government on scientific matters. This advisory role has been largely taken over by other bodies, but the academy is still an important representative of French science on the

Antigonus I Monophthalmus: Military campaigns: …themselves against him in the first coalition war (315–311) in an attempt to thwart his plan of reuniting Alexander’s empire. Antigonus occupied Syria and proclaimed himself regent. In order to win the support of the Greek city-states, whose resistance to subjugation presented the chief stumbling block to the formation of…

Austria: Conflicts with revolutionary France, 1790–1805: …two wars, that of the First Coalition (1792–97) and that of the Second Coalition (1799–1800), Austrian policy was guided by Franz Maria, Freiherr (baron) von Thugut, the only commoner to reach the rank of minister of foreign affairs in the history of the Habsburg monarchy. Thugut was an experienced diplomat…

Dorothy Arzner: Films of the 1930s and ’40s: Arzner’s last film, First Comes Courage (1943), starred Merle Oberon as a Norwegian spy during the Nazi occupation whose sense of self-reliance leads her to forsake the man she loves.

Vladimir Lenin: Formation of a revolutionary party of Vladimir Lenin: An abortive First Congress, held in 1898 in Minsk, had failed to achieve this objective, for most of the delegates were arrested shortly after the congress. The organizing committee of the Second Congress decided to convene the congress in Brussels in 1903, but police pressure forced it…

Poland: Foreign affairs: …Habsburgs from Moscow through the Vienna accords of 1515. Providing for dynastic marriages, the accords opened the way for Habsburg succession in Bohemia and Hungary should the Jagiellonians die out. Eleven years later Louis II, the Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia, perished at Mohács fighting the Turks. Thus ended…

eclipse: Solar eclipse phenomena: The designation “first contact” refers to the moment when the disk of the Moon, invisible against the bright sky background, first touches the disk of the Sun. The partial phase of the eclipse then begins as a small indentation in the western rim of the Sun becomes…

Continental Congress, in the period of the American Revolution, the body of delegates who spoke and acted collectively for the people of the colony-states that later became the United States of America. The term most specifically refers to the bodies that met in 1774 and 1775–81 and respectively

human nervous system: Olfactory nerve (CN I or 1): Bipolar cells in the nasal mucosa give rise to axons that enter the cranial cavity through foramina in the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone. These cells and their axons, totaling about 20 to 24 in number, make up…

skiing: Skiing grows in popularity: …developed after the publication of The First Crossing of Greenland (Paa ski over Grønland; 1890), Fridtjof Nansen’s account of his 1888–89 trans-Greenland expedition on skis.

William Martin Conway, Baron Conway: …End to End (1895), and The First Crossing of Spitsbergen (1897) records his exploration of the island in 1896–97. During expeditions in the Central and Southern Andes in 1898, Conway climbed Mount Aconcagua (22,831 feet [6,959 m]), the highest summit in the Western Hemisphere; Mount Illimani (20,741 feet [6,322 m]);…

Crusades: The First Crusade and the establishment of the Latin states: Although still backward when compared with the other civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, western Europe had become a significant power by the end of the 11th century. It was composed of several kingdoms…

Rod Stewart: Solo career: …version of Cat Stevens’s “The First Cut Is the Deepest,” both from the album A Night on the Town (1976); however, the critical success that Stewart had enjoyed was fast approaching an end.

Forest Whitaker: McMillan; Hope Floats (1998); and First Daughter (2004). In addition, he played Erie in a brief 2016 Broadway revival of the short Eugene O’Neill play Hughie.

Prague: The Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War: …incident known as the first Defenestration of Prague. The next year Hussite peasant rebels, led by the great military leader Jan Žižka, joined forces with the Hussites of Prague to win a decisive victory over the Roman Catholic king (later emperor) Sigismund at nearby Vítkov Hill.

criminal law: Degrees of participation: …his own hand” is a principal in the first degree. His counterpart in French law is the auteur (literally, “author”), or coauteur when two or more persons are directly engaged. A principal in the second degree is one who intentionally aids or abets the principal in the first degree, being…

Georgia Southern University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Statesboro, Georgia, U.S., about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Savannah. It is part of the University System of Georgia. The university consists of six colleges and offers more than 85 bachelor’s degree programs

Truman State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Kirksville, Mo., U.S. It is designated the state’s public liberal arts and sciences institution. The university comprises 10 divisions and offers a range of undergraduate studies and master’s degree programs. Students

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: …as the Primero sueño (1692; First Dream, published in A Sor Juana Anthology, 1988), is both personal and universal. The date of its writing is unknown. It employs the convoluted poetic forms of the Baroque to recount the torturous quest of the soul for knowledge. In the poem’s opening, as…

Duma: The first two Dumas were elected indirectly (except in five large cities) by a system that gave undue representation to the peasantry, which the government expected to be conservative. The Dumas were, nevertheless, dominated by liberal and socialist opposition groups that demanded extensive reforms. Both Dumas…

A.J.A. Symons: …and later director of the First Edition Club of London, he became a skilled bibliographer, an occupation he considered dreary and uncongenial to his personal literary and cultural aspirations.

Ha Jin: Literary works: …the libretto for Tan’s opera The First Emperor (2006), about Qin dynasty ruler Shihuangdi.

France: The Grand Empire: Napoleon now had a free hand to reorganize Europe and numerous relatives to install on the thrones of his satellite kingdoms. The result was known as the Grand Empire. Having annexed Tuscany, Piedmont, Genoa, and the Rhineland directly into France, Napoleon placed the…

English Civil Wars: The first English Civil War (1642–46): The first major battle fought on English soil—the Battle of Edgehill (October 1642)—quickly demonstrated that a clear advantage was enjoyed by neither the Royalists (also known as the Cavaliers) nor the Parliamentarians (also known as the Roundheads for their

British Surrealism: …Lewis Carroll—he penned the “First English Surrealist Manifesto” (1935) in French in Paris, and it was published in the French review Cahiers d’art. Gascoyne had been drawn to Paris after having read Decadent, Symbolist, and Surrealist French poetry. In the early 1930s he aimed to liaise between London-centred artists…

Bob Newhart: …performance in the political farce First Family (1980). In addition, he supplied the voice of Bernard the mouse in the animated film The Rescuers (1977) and its 1990 sequel. Newhart received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2002. A memoir, I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This!, was published…

Australopithecus: Australopithecus afarensis and Au. garhi: …the same time (the “First Family”). The animal fossils found in association with Au. afarensis imply a habitat of woodland with patches of grassland.

history of logic: Theophrastus of Eresus: …to have added to the first figure of the syllogism the five moods that others later classified under a fourth figure. These moods were then called indirect moods of the first figure. In order to accommodate them, he had in effect to redefine the first figure as that in which…

Caterpillar Inc.: …Union to facilitate that country’s first Five-Year Plan (1929–33). In 1931 Caterpillar perfected a tractor driven by a diesel engine rather than a gasoline one, and diesel engines soon became standard for all types of heavy-duty vehicles. During World War II, Caterpillar made the diesel engines that powered the Sherman…

Anshan: Under the First Five-Year Plan (1953–57) Anshan was built up again into the major iron and steel complex in China and was restocked with the latest equipment, much of it from the Soviet Union. By 1957 it was producing a wide variety of steel products (such as…

Australia: European settlement: The First Fleet sailed on May 13, 1787, with 11 vessels, including 6 transports, aboard which were about 730 convicts (570 men and 160 women). More than 250 free persons accompanied the convicts, chiefly marines of various rank. The fleet reached Botany Bay on January 19–20,…

Alfred von Tirpitz: Early career and rise to power: In 1898 Tirpitz introduced the First Fleet Act, for the reorganization of Germany’s sea power. This law provided for an active navy consisting of 1 flagship, 16 battleships, 8 armoured coastal ships, and a force of 9 large and 26 small cruisers to be ready by 1904. Such a navy…