Latin American architecture: The new urban strategy: Checkerboard plans and the Laws of the Indies: …Spain, oversaw the creation of mission establishments. Representing different religious orders, these missions were inspired by the theories of Europeans such as Leon Battista Alberti, Erasmus, and Sir Thomas More. The plan usually included a single nave church, a convent around a patio, a large walled atrium or churchyard with…

Mississauga, city, regional municipality of Peel, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, immediately southwest of Toronto. First settled in the early 19th century on land purchased from the Mississauga Indians, the township of Toronto gave rise to the villages of

Mississippi, constituent state of the United States of America. Its name derives from a Native American word meaning “great waters” or “father of waters.” Mississippi became the 20th state of the union in 1817. Jackson is the state capital. Mississippi is smaller than most of the U.S. states and is

bagatelle: Mississippi is played with a bridge pierced with nine or more arches, according to the size of the table, the arches being numbered from one upward. All nine balls are usually played, though the black is sometimes omitted, each player having a round, the object…

Mississippi College, private, coeducational institution of higher learning, located in Clinton, Mississippi, U.S. Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, it is the second oldest Baptist college in the United States and the oldest and largest private college in Mississippi. The college

American alligator, (Alligator mississippiensis), species of alligator inhabiting freshwater rivers, lakes, and swamps and brackish waters in the Southern U.S. and northeastern Mexico. The alligator’s geographic range extends from the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas

Tennessee: Relief: …stretches westward, terminating in the Mississippi alluvial plain, a narrow strip of swamp and floodplain alongside the Mississippi River.

Mississippi Bubble, a financial scheme in 18th-century France that triggered a speculative frenzy and ended in financial collapse. The scheme was engineered by John Law, a Scottish adventurer, economic theorist, and financial wizard who was a friend of the regent, the Duke d’Orléans. In 1716 Law

Alan Parker: titular rock band’s album; and Mississippi Burning (1988), a drama about the killing of three civil rights workers in 1964. For the latter, Parker received a second Oscar nomination. His later films included The Commitments (1991), Evita (1996), and The Life of David Gale (2003).

Mississippi College, private, coeducational institution of higher learning, located in Clinton, Mississippi, U.S. Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, it is the second oldest Baptist college in the United States and the oldest and largest private college in Mississippi. The college

Nashville Convention: The resulting Mississippi Convention on Oct. 1, 1849, issued a call to all slave-holding states to send delegates to Nashville, Tenn., in order to form a united front against what was viewed as Northern aggression.

Mississippi: Relief and soils: …the great fertile crescent called the Delta is the old floodplain of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers, comprising some 6,250 square miles (16,200 square km) of black alluvial soil several feet deep. Once subject to disastrous floods, the land is now protected by levee and reservoir systems.

Mississippi Delta blues, regional style of early 20th-century American folk music, centred in the Delta region of northwestern Mississippi. The pioneers of the style played a key role in developing the market for traditional blues recordings in the 1920s and ’30s, while the subsequent generation of

United States: The Atlantic Plain: …the Coastal Plain called the Mississippi Embayment.

Mississippi River: Plant and animal life: …seasons, has been called the Mississippi Flyway, an appropriate name for the vast aerial highway that reaches from the delta to the distant summer nesting grounds in northern Canada. An estimated eight million ducks, geese, and swans winter in the lower part of the flyway, and many more birds use…

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), political party formed in 1964 as an alternative to the dominantly white and conservative Democratic Party of Mississippi. After President Lyndon B. Johnson formed a coalition between liberal Democrats and liberal and moderate Republicans to address

Nina Simone: Her 1964 song “Mississippi Goddam” exemplifies this period. Her popularity grew as she added folk and gospel selections as well as songs by the Bee Gees, Bob Dylan, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (“I Put a Spell on You”) to her repertoire. Angered by American racism, she left the…

Mira Nair: Feature films: Nair followed this with Mississippi Masala (1991), which chronicles a love affair between an Indian woman and an African American man. In 1997 she was at the center of controversy as she battled India’s censors—eventually involving the Indian Supreme Court—over the release of the feature film Kama Sutra: A…

Jackson State University, public historically Black university located in Jackson, Mississippi, U.S. It was founded in 1877 as Natchez Seminary in Natchez, Mississippi, by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York for “the moral, religious and intellectual improvement of Christian

University of Southern Mississippi, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, U.S. It offers some 170 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs. Degrees are conferred through colleges of the Arts, Business Administration, Education and Psychology,

paddlefish, (Polyodon spathula), archaic freshwater fish with a paddlelike snout, a wide mouth, smooth skin, and a cartilaginous skeleton. A relative of the sturgeon, the paddlefish makes up the family Polyodontidae in the order Acipenseriformes. A paddlefish feeds with its mouth gaping open and

Jeffersonville: …that time, the 382-foot (116-metre) Mississippi Queen, commissioned in 1976 for luxury overnight cruises. Other manufactures include soap, kitchen cabinets, steel, and electronic components. Jeffersonville is the site of the Howard Steamboat Museum. Inc. town, 1815; city, 1830. Pop. (2000) 27,362; (2010) 44,953.

Mississippi River, the longest river of North America, draining with its major tributaries an area of approximately 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square km), or about one-eighth of the entire continent. The Mississippi River lies entirely within the United States. Rising in Lake Itasca in

Mississippi River: Hydrology: Today the Mississippi River Commission is responsible for river work and considers it worthwhile to maintain a working scale model of the river so that its engineers can test new plans in miniature before embarking on expensive, full-scale projects. Indeed, by the 1920s it was generally believed…

Mississippi River flood of 1927, flooding of the lower Mississippi River valley in April 1927, one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States. More than 23,000 square miles (60,000 square km) of land was submerged, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, and some 250

Mississippi River flood of 2011, flooding of the Mississippi River valley in the central United States from late April to May 2011 on a scale not seen since the floods of 1927 and 1937. Thousands of square miles of agricultural and residential land were submerged by water that had surged over the

Mississippi: Education: …blind and deaf children; the Mississippi School for the Deaf, established by an act of legislature in 1854, continues to operate in Jackson.

University of Southern Mississippi, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, U.S. It offers some 170 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs. Degrees are conferred through colleges of the Arts, Business Administration, Education and Psychology,

Mississippi State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning near Starkville, Mississippi, U.S. It is a land-grant university that is made up of eight colleges and schools. There is also a branch at Meridian. Undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees are awarded in

Mississippi State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning near Starkville, Mississippi, U.S. It is a land-grant university that is made up of eight colleges and schools. There is also a branch at Meridian. Undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees are awarded in

steamboat, any watercraft propelled by steam, but more narrowly, a shallow-draft paddle wheel steamboat widely used on rivers in the 19th century, and particularly on the Mississippi River and its principal tributaries in the United States. Steamboat pioneering began in America in 1787 when John

Battle of Horseshoe Bend: In the southeastern Mississippi Territory (central Alabama today), Creeks known as Red Sticks, fighting for their sovereignty, raided white settlements, which sparked an intratribal war and threatened an alliance with the pro-British Spanish in Florida.

Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan: Facts of the case: in Columbus, Mississippi, in 1884, Mississippi University for Women (MUW) historically limited its enrollment to female students. In 1974 the university instituted a four-year baccalaureate program in nursing. Five years later the plaintiff, Joe Hogan, applied for admission. The plaintiff, a registered nurse in Columbus, Mississippi, did not possess a…

Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5–4), on July 1, 1982, that a publicly funded women’s university, in denying admission to a male applicant on the basis of his gender, violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,

Salmon P. Chase: In Mississippi v. Johnson (1867) and Georgia v. Stanton (1867), Chase spoke for the court in refusing to prohibit Johnson and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from enforcing the Reconstruction Acts. By disavowing the court’s jurisdiction in Ex parte McCardle (1868), Chase sidestepped the question…

Mississippi River: Hydrology: …recorded history of the lower Mississippi valley. More than 23,000 square miles (59,600 square km) of land flooded. Communications, including roads and rail and telephone services, were cut in many places. Farms, factories, and whole towns went temporarily underwater. An immense amount of property was damaged, and at least 250…

Mississippi Valley Campaign, the campaigns and battles of the American Civil War that were fought for control of the Mississippi River. Western waterways were major arteries of communication and commerce for the South, as well as a vital link to the Confederate states of Louisiana and Texas. Early

New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), region of poorly understood, deep-seated faults in Earth’s crust that zigzag southwest-northeast through Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky, U.S. Lying in the central area of the North American Plate, the seismic zone is about 45 miles (70 km) wide and about

Mississippi: Education: …in 1878), in Starkville; and Mississippi Valley State University (opened in 1950), the state’s third HBU, in Itta Bena.

mineral deposit: Mississippi Valley type: The central plains of North America, running from the Appalachian Mountains on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west, are underlain by nearly flat sedimentary rocks that were laid down on a now-covered basement of igneous and metamorphic rocks. The…

Army of Tennessee, primary Confederate army of the Western Theatre during the American Civil War (1861–65). Although the army fought in numerous engagements, it won few victories. In addition to facing some of the Union’s most capable generals, the army was plagued by problems of command, supply,

U.S. state flag consisting of unequal vertical stripes of red, gold, and blue, with a central white and gold magnolia blossom encircled by 20 white stars, one gold star, and the motto “In God We Trust.”Part of what is today the state of Mississippi was included in the West Florida Republic, which

University of Mississippi, public, coeducational institution of higher learning based in Oxford, Mississippi, U.S., with its Medical Center in Jackson and regional campuses at Tupelo and Southaven. Academically divided into one college and eight schools (including the Medical Center), it offers

Mississippian culture, the last major prehistoric cultural development in North America, lasting from about 700 ce to the time of the arrival of the first European explorers. It spread over a great area of the Southeast and the mid-continent, in the river valleys of what are now the states of

Mississippian Subperiod, first major subdivision of the Carboniferous Period, lasting from 358.9 to 323.2 million years ago. The Mississippian is characterized by shallow-water limestone deposits occupying the interiors of continents, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. These limestones exhibit

geochronology: Completion of the Phanerozoic time scale: … in 1839, was subsequently termed Mississippian in 1870 as a result of work conducted by another American geologist, Alexander Winchell, in the upper Mississippi valley area. Eventually the overlying strata, the coal-bearing rocks originally described from Pennsylvania, were formalized as Pennsylvanian in 1891 by the paleontologist and stratigrapher Henry Shaler…

West Memphis Three: ), and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. (b. July 10, 1975).

Aléxandros Mavrokordátos: …of a regional government at Missolonghi, in western Greece. During December 1821–January 1822 he presided over the first National Assembly, at Epidaurus, and led in the drafting of a constitution.

Missoula, city, seat (1866) of Missoula county, western Montana, U.S. It is situated on Clark Fork of the Columbia River, at the mouth of the Bitterroot River, near the Bitterroot Range in a broad valley (elevation 3,223 feet [982 metres]). The first white settler in the area was Father Pierre-Jean

Pacific mountain system: Physiography: …ago, a large lake (Lake Missoula) was impounded by an ice dam in western Montana. On several occasions the dam gave way and released enormous quantities of water, which then rapidly drained to the sea. Those floods deepened and widened the existing Columbia River valley and were largely responsible…

Missouri, North American Indian people of the Chiwere branch of the Siouan language family. In their historic past the Missouri people, together with the Iowa and the Oto, separated from the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) and moved southwest. The Missouri tribe settled at the confluence of the Grand and

Missouri, American battleship, scene of the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, that formally ended World War II. The USS Missouri, one of four Iowa-class battleships that were completed during the war, numbered among the largest warships afloat, being 887 feet (270 metres) long and displacing

Missouri, constituent state of the United States of America. To the north lies Iowa; across the Mississippi River to the east, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee; to the south, Arkansas; and to the west, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. With the exception of Tennessee, Missouri has more neighbouring

Missouri Botanical Garden, botanical garden in St. Louis, Mo., U.S. It is most notable for its Climatron, a geodesic-dome greenhouse in which 1,200 species of plants are grown under computer-controlled conditions simulating a rainforest. The 79-acre (32-hectare) garden also has the largest

Arthur Penn: Films and plays of the 1970s: …returned to film work with The Missouri Breaks (1976), a controversial, eccentric, big-budget western with a screenplay by novelist Thomas McGuane and starring Brando as a hired killer toying with a gang of rustlers whose former leader was played by Jack Nicholson. In 1977 Penn directed Bancroft’s portrayal of Israeli…

Missouri Compromise, (1820), in U.S. history, measure worked out between the North and the South and passed by the U.S. Congress that allowed for admission of Missouri as the 24th state (1821). It marked the beginning of the prolonged sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the

Missouri fox-trotting horse, breed of horse that originated in Missouri and the Ozark Mountains region and is characterized by the “fox trot” gait, a broken gait that occurs when the horse walks briskly with the front feet while trotting with the back feet. Developed from light horses taken to the

Missouri fox-trotting horse, breed of horse that originated in Missouri and the Ozark Mountains region and is characterized by the “fox trot” gait, a broken gait that occurs when the horse walks briskly with the front feet while trotting with the back feet. Developed from light horses taken to the

Missouri fox-trotting horse, breed of horse that originated in Missouri and the Ozark Mountains region and is characterized by the “fox trot” gait, a broken gait that occurs when the horse walks briskly with the front feet while trotting with the back feet. Developed from light horses taken to the

calabazilla, (Cucurbita foetidissima), perennial prostrate vine of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to southwestern North America. Although calabazilla is a fairly unattractive plant with a fetid odour, it is sometimes grown as an ornamental in arid and semiarid areas for its colourful

Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, former American railroad founded to build the first rail line west of the Mississippi River. Ground was broken in 1851 and the first section of track completed in 1852. It was the first railroad to serve Kansas City, Missouri, reached in 1865, after construction

Missouri Plan, method of selecting judges that originated in the state of Missouri and subsequently was adopted by other U.S. jurisdictions. It involves the creation of a nominating commission that screens judicial candidates and submits to the appointing authority (such as the governor) a limited

Missouri: Media and publishing: The Missouri Press Association, founded in 1867, has played an important role in the development of the press in the United States. It was responsible for establishing the country’s first school of journalism, at the University of Missouri, and for founding the State Historical Society of…

Missouri River, longest tributary of the Mississippi River and second longest river in North America. It is formed by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers in the Rocky Mountains area of southwestern Montana (Gallatin county), U.S., about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) above sea

the Rockettes, world-famous American precision dance team that is especially known for its annual Christmas Spectacular. They are the signature act of the Radio City Music Hall within Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan, New York City. The origins of the Rockettes can be traced to 1925, when

University of Missouri: …Mines and Metallurgy (now called Missouri University of Science and Technology), one of the first technological institutions in the United States; it was incorporated into the state university system in 1964. The campus at Kansas City was originally opened in 1933 as the privately owned University of Kansas City; it…

Missouri State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning based in Springfield, Mo., U.S. It has one of the largest undergraduate enrollments in the state. Missouri State offers about 15 undergraduate degrees in more than 110 academic programs and 13 graduate degrees in about

Missouri State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning based in Springfield, Mo., U.S. It has one of the largest undergraduate enrollments in the state. Missouri State offers about 15 undergraduate degrees in more than 110 academic programs and 13 graduate degrees in about

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, conservative Lutheran church in the United States, organized in Chicago in 1847 by German immigrants from Saxony (settled in Missouri) and Bavaria (settled in Michigan and Indiana) as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. C.F.W.

University of Missouri: …Mines and Metallurgy (now called Missouri University of Science and Technology), one of the first technological institutions in the United States; it was incorporated into the state university system in 1964. The campus at Kansas City was originally opened in 1933 as the privately owned University of Kansas City; it…

Big 12 Conference: …had been members of the Missouri Valley Conference (formed in 1907) but split in 1928 to form the Big 6 Conference. It became the Big 7 when the University of Colorado joined the conference in 1948 and the Big 8 when Oklahoma State was added in 1959. The conference expanded…

U.S. state flag consisting of a horizontally striped red-white-blue field (background) with a central coat of arms.The state seal of Missouri, which incorporates the coat of arms, was adopted on January 11, 1822. The coat of arms is encircled by a belt with the inscription “United we stand, divided

Hidatsa, North American Indians of the Plains who once lived in semipermanent villages on the upper Missouri River between the Heart and the Little Missouri rivers in what is now North Dakota. The Hidatsa language is a member of the Siouan language family. Until the reservation period began in the

University of Missouri, state university system of Missouri, U.S., comprising four coeducational campuses as well as an outreach and extension program. It is a land-grant university and one of the largest academic and research institutions in the United States—with some 550 degree programs, a total

dice: Cheating with dice: Loaded dice (called tappers, missouts, passers, floppers, cappers, or spot loaders, depending on how and where extra weight has been applied) may prove to be perfect cubes when measured with calipers, but extra weight just below the surface on some sides will make the opposite…

insurance: Other provisions: …policy was taken out, the misstatement-of-age clause provides that the amount payable is the amount of insurance that would have been purchased for the premium had the correct age been stated. Many life insurance policies, known as participating policies, return dividends to the insured. The dividends, which may amount to…

missus dominicus, officials sent by some Frankish kings and emperors to supervise provincial administration. Used sporadically by Merovingian and early Carolingian rulers, the missi became a normal part of the administrative machinery under Charlemagne (reigned 768–814). From about 802 onward

industrial glass: Strength and fracturing: …have a fine fibrous or misty texture, called the mist. Surrounding the mist are wider and deeper radial ridges, with slivers of glass lifted out. Known as the hackle, these ridges ultimately lead to crack branching. Fracture travels faster in a region that is under tensile stress than in a…

mist, suspension in the atmosphere of very tiny water droplets (50–500 microns in diameter) or wet hygroscopic particles that reduces horizontal visibility to 1 km (0.6 mile) or more; if the visibility is reduced below 1 km, the suspension is called a fog. Mist appears to cover the landscape with a

Marcia Gay Harden: … (2007), and the horror movie The Mist (2007). She also appeared in film adaptations (2015, 2017, and 2018) of the Fifty Shades series of erotic novels by E.L. James.

criminal law: Ignorance and mistake: In most countries the law recognizes that a person who acts in ignorance of the facts of his action should not be held criminally responsible. Thus, one who takes and carries away the goods of another person, believing them to be his own, does…

Nayantara Sahgal: …later novels—Plans for Departure (1985), Mistaken Identity (1988), and Lesser Breeds (2003)—are set in colonial India. When the Moon Shines by Day (2017) is a dystopian satire. In The Fate of Butterflies (2019), Sahgal focused on several people living under a repressive regime. She also wrote Day of Reckoning: Stories…

Mistassini Lake, largest lake in Quebec province, Canada. It is located in Nord-du-Québec region in west-central Quebec and forms the headwaters of the Rupert River, which drains into James Bay. Bisected by a chain of islands, the lake is about 100 miles (160 km) long, 12 miles (19 km) wide, and

Delbert Mann: Feature films: …at an Antarctic compound, and Mister Buddwing (1966) was a pallid drama about an amnesia victim (James Garner) trying to learn about his past life. The lacklustre comedy Fitzwilly (1967) centers on a butler (Dick Van Dyke) who plans to rob a department store on Christmas Eve—for a good cause.

Television in the United States: Escapism: …series as Gilligan’s Island and Mister Ed (CBS, 1961–66), a sitcom about a talking horse.

Delphine Seyrig: …garish beauty in the satire Mister Freedom (1968), as a lesbian vampire in Les Lèvres rouges (1971; Daughters of Darkness), and in Luis Buñuel’s Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972; The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie).

Laurie Anderson: … (1981), Big Science (1982), and Mister Heartbreak (1984) before producing a massive four-part multimedia extravaganza, United States I–IV. It combined music, photography, film, drawings, and animation with text and consisted of 78 segments organized into four sections: Transportation, Politics, Money, and Love. First performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music…

animation: Animation in Europe: …Hubley created the nearsighted character Mister Magoo for the 1949 short Ragtime Bear. He and his wife, Faith, formed their own studio, Storyboard Productions, in 1955, and they collaborated on a series of increasingly poetic narrative films. They won Oscars for Moonbird (1959) and The Hole (1962). The Hubleys also…

Mister Roberts, American comedy film, released in 1955, featuring acclaimed performances by Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, William Powell, and James Cagney. Mister Roberts traces the misadventures of the frustrated crew of the USS Reluctant, a cargo ship operating in the Pacific Ocean during World War

Fred Rogers was an American television host, producer, minister, and writer best known for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968–2001), an educational children’s show that aired on public television. Following graduation (1951) from Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, with a degree in musical

George A. Romero: …Romero filmed short segments for Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, a popular children’s television series produced in Pittsburgh. In 1968 Romero and several friends pooled their money to finance Romero’s first feature, the low-budget zombie film Night of the Living Dead. The movie was not a commercial success at the time of…

E.L. James: In 2019 James published The Mister, about a British aristocrat who falls in love with an undocumented Albanian immigrant who becomes his house cleaner after escaping sex traffickers. She continued the story in The Missus, published in 2023.

mystery religion: Painting: …superb Dionysiac frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries (Villa dei Misteri) at Pompeii show the initiation of a girl into the Bacchic Mysteries: in one fresco she is lifting the cover of a sacred casket; in a second scene three followers of Dionysus are practicing lecanomancy (divination by the…

Vladimir Mayakovsky: …Misteriya buff (first performed 1921; Mystery Bouffe), a drama representing a universal flood and the subsequent joyful triumph of the “Unclean” (the proletarians) over the “Clean” (the bourgeoisie).

Dario Fo: …his solo tour de force Mistero Buffo (1973; “Comic Mystery”), based on medieval mystery plays but so topical that the shows changed with each audience.

George A. Romero: …Romero filmed short segments for Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, a popular children’s television series produced in Pittsburgh. In 1968 Romero and several friends pooled their money to finance Romero’s first feature, the low-budget zombie film Night of the Living Dead. The movie was not a commercial success at the time of…

George A. Romero: …Romero filmed short segments for Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, a popular children’s television series produced in Pittsburgh. In 1968 Romero and several friends pooled their money to finance Romero’s first feature, the low-budget zombie film Night of the Living Dead. The movie was not a commercial success at the time of…

Misti Volcano, volcano of the Andes mountains of southern Peru. It is flanked by Chachani and Pichupichu volcanoes and rises to 19,098 feet (5,821 meters) above sea level, towering over the city of Arequipa. Its perfect, snowcapped cone is thought to have had religious significance for the Incas

Misti Volcano, volcano of the Andes mountains of southern Peru. It is flanked by Chachani and Pichupichu volcanoes and rises to 19,098 feet (5,821 meters) above sea level, towering over the city of Arequipa. Its perfect, snowcapped cone is thought to have had religious significance for the Incas

Pequot: …and Narragansett warriors in an attack on the main fortified Pequot village on the site of modern-day Mystic, Connecticut. The Pequot were surprised but quickly mounted a spirited defense that almost led to an English defeat. Realizing that he could not defeat the Pequot in the close quarters of the…