Steve Earle: …folk album) in 2005, and Washington Square Serenade (2007), Earle’s romantic confessional collaboration with his sixth wife, singer Allison Moorer, won a Grammy (best contemporary folk/Americana album) in 2008. His 2009 tribute to Van Zandt, titled Townes, earned him another Grammy Award for best contemporary folk album.

Tuskegee syphilis study: …methods were exposed in the Washington Star. A class-action suit against the federal government was settled out of court for $10 million in 1974. That same year the U.S. Congress passed the National Research Act, requiring institutional review boards to approve all studies involving human subjects. In 1997 President Bill…

Washington State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Pullman, Washington, U.S. It is Washington’s land-grant university under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862. Washington State comprises a graduate school, the Intercollegiate College of Nursing (a

Hiram Boardman Conibear: …distinctive style known as the American stroke (also called the Washington stroke and the Conibear stroke) that revolutionized college rowing and had an effect on the sport that lasted for 30 years.

Washington: Territory and state: In 1853 Congress created the Washington Territory—named for the first president of the United States—and extended it east of the Columbia River to the crest of the Rockies, including parts of present-day Idaho and Montana.

Eleanor Medill Patterson: …editor and publisher of the Washington Times-Herald.

Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty, arms limitation treaty signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Italy on February 6, 1922. The agreement fixed the respective numbers and tonnages of capital ships to be possessed by the navies of each of the contracting nations. It was

Washington University in St. Louis, private, coeducational institution of higher learning in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. It is a comprehensive research and academic institution, and it includes one of the leading research-centred medical schools in the United States. In addition, the university

disparate impact: Evolution of disparate impact theory: …the disparate impact theory was Washington v. Davis (1976), in which the Supreme Court held that the theory could not be used to establish a constitutional claim—in this case, that an employment practice by the District of Columbia violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment—unless plaintiffs could show…

Washington Wizards, American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards (then known as the Washington Bullets) made four trips to the National Basketball Association (NBA) finals in the 1970s and won an NBA championship in the 1977–78 season. Founded in 1961 as the Chicago

Presidents’ Day, in the United States, holiday (third Monday in February) popularly recognized as honouring George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The day is sometimes understood as a celebration of the birthdays and lives of all U.S. presidents. The origin of Presidents’ Day lies in the 1880s,

David Hackett Fischer: Washington’s Crossing (2004) was a study of the American Revolution with special focus on George Washington’s 1776 crossing of the Delaware River to attack British troops at Trenton, New Jersey. It became a popular best seller and won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for history. Fischer…

Booker T. Washington was an educator and reformer, the first president and principal developer of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), and the most influential spokesman for Black Americans between 1895 and 1915. He was born in a slave hut but, after emancipation,

Booker T. Washington was an educator and reformer, the first president and principal developer of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), and the most influential spokesman for Black Americans between 1895 and 1915. He was born in a slave hut but, after emancipation,

Bushrod Washington was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1798 to 1829. A nephew of George Washington, he graduated in 1778 from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he was one of the original members of the Phi Beta Kappa society. He served in

Washington, D.C., city and capital of the United States of America. It is coextensive with the District of Columbia (the city is often referred to as simply D.C.) and is located on the northern shore of the Potomac River at the river’s navigation head—that is, the transshipment point between

Gore Vidal: Washington, D.C. (1967), an ironic examination of political morality in the U.S. capital, was the first of a series of several popular novels known as the Narratives of Empire, which vividly re-created prominent figures and events in American history—Burr (1973), 1876 (1976), Lincoln (1984), Empire…

U.S. federal district flag consisting of a white field with two horizontal red stripes and three red stars above the stripes. The flag’s width-to-length ratio is 1 to 2.Following World War I (1914–18), a number of designs were advanced for a flag for the District of Columbia. Among those submitted

Washington, D.C., International, United States flat horse race attracting leading horses from all over the world. Instituted in 1952, it was the first such event in North America. The race is a 1.5-mile (about 2,400-metre) event for horses three years old and over, held annually in November on a

Denzel Washington is an American actor celebrated for his engaging and powerful performances. Throughout his career he has been regularly praised by critics, and his consistent success at the box office helped to dispel the outdated perception that African American actors could not draw mainstream

Dinah Washington was an American jazz and blues singer noted for her excellent voice control and unique gospel-influenced delivery. Often called the Queen of the Blues, she was a profoundly influential vocal artist, especially on female rock and roll singers. As a child, Ruth Jones moved with her

U.S. state flag consisting of a green field (background) with the state seal in the centre.The 19th-century territorial seal of Washington had a detailed naturalistic scene with sea and mountains and a woman in the foreground epitomizing hope, surrounded by a log cabin, wagon, and fir forest. That

Centralia: Cochran and George Washington; Washington, the son of an African slave and an Englishwoman, had been denied the right to settle, and Cochran, his adoptive father, had filed the claim for him. Washington purchased the claim from his father when the newly created Washington Territory established different…

George Washington was an American general and commander in chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution (1775–83) and subsequently first president of the United States (1789–97). Washington’s father, Augustine Washington, had gone to school in England, tasted seafaring life, and then

Harold Washington was an American politician who gained national prominence as the first African American mayor of Chicago (1983–87). During World War II, Washington joined the army and served as an engineer in the South Pacific. After returning home in 1946, he graduated from Roosevelt University

Margot Robbie: …costarred with Christian Bale and John David Washington in David O. Russell’s Amsterdam, a social satire about a fascist conspiracy to overturn the U.S. government in the 1930s. Also in 2022 she costarred with Brad Pitt in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, a dramedy set in Hollywood during the 1920s. Robbie’s character…

Kenny Washington was one of the first African American college gridiron football stars on the West Coast and one of two black players to reintegrate the National Football League (NFL) in 1946. Washington was a single-wing tailback at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), from 1937

Kenny Washington was one of the first African American college gridiron football stars on the West Coast and one of two black players to reintegrate the National Football League (NFL) in 1946. Washington was a single-wing tailback at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), from 1937

Celeste Ng: …adaptation—produced by Ng and actors Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon, among others—was released in 2020. Ng’s third novel, Our Missing Hearts (2022), was also well received by critics. It reflects contemporary social issues in its dystopian vision of an America where the government censors school curricula, books, and other media…

slave rebellions: …fact—the leader of the uprising, Madison Washington, was a formerly enslaved man who had escaped successfully and fled to Canada. He had returned to Virginia for his wife but was recaptured there and put on a slave ship in Richmond. Aboard the Creole, Washington and nearly 20 others led a…

Martha Washington was an American first lady (1789–97), the wife of George Washington, first president of the United States and commander in chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolutionary War. She set many of the standards and customs for the proper behavior and treatment of the

Mount Washington, mountain in the Presidential Range, the highest (6,288 feet [1,917 metres]) peak of the White Mountains, New Hampshire, U.S. The peak is 23 miles (37 km) north-northwest of Conway. It is noted for its extreme weather conditions, one of the world’s highest wind velocities (231

Hamilton Fish: …the conference that drafted the Treaty of Washington (May 1871), providing for the first major international arbitration of modern history.

University of Washington, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Seattle, Washington, U.S. It includes colleges of architecture and urban planning, arts and sciences, education, engineering, forest resources, and ocean and fishery sciences; schools of business administration,

Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historical Site, historic locality occupying nearly 300 acres (120 hectares) along the Brazos River, some 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Houston, in Washington county, Texas, U.S. Originating in 1821 as a ferry crossing, Washington-on-the-Brazos (also called

Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historical Site, historic locality occupying nearly 300 acres (120 hectares) along the Brazos River, some 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Houston, in Washington county, Texas, U.S. Originating in 1821 as a ferry crossing, Washington-on-the-Brazos (also called

palm: Ecology: …water is present (doum palm, Washingtonia, coconut palm), or in open savanna, grassland, or gallery forest, or restricted to such special habitats as limestone outcrops (Maxburretia rupicola), serpentine soils (Gulubia hombronii), or river margins (Astrocaryum jauari, Leopoldinia pulchra) where competition is limited.

Ouachita River, river rising in the Ouachita Mountains of west-central Arkansas, U.S., and flowing in a generally southeasterly direction to join the Red River in Louisiana after a course of 605 miles (973 km). The lower 57 miles (92 km) of the Ouachita (from its confluence with the Tensas River)

Washita River, river rising in the Texas Panhandle, northwestern Texas, U.S. It flows east across the Oklahoma boundary, then southeast to south-central Oklahoma, and south into Lake Texoma, formed by Denison Dam in the Red River, downstream from the former mouth of the Washita at Woodville,

George Armstrong Custer: America’s top Indian fighter: …Black Kettle’s village on the Washita River. (Black Kettle and his people had already been the target of a controversial surprise attack by the army in 1864 known as the Sand Creek Massacre.) This somewhat dubious success—the majority of the Indians are thought to have been women, children, and older…

Christiaan Barnard: …in replacing the heart of Louis Washkansky, an incurably ill South African grocer, with a heart taken from a fatally injured accident victim. Although the transplant itself was successful, Washkansky died 18 days later from double pneumonia, contracted after destruction of his body’s immunity mechanism by drugs administered to suppress…

Huascar was an Inca chieftain, legitimate heir to the Inca empire, who lost his inheritance and his life in rivalry with his younger half brother Atahuallpa, who in turn was defeated and executed by the Spanish conquerors under Francisco Pizarro. Huascar succeeded his father in 1525 but was given

Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin: Language: The Washoe, whose territory centered on Lake Tahoe, spoke a Hokan language related to those spoken in parts of what are now California, Arizona, and Baja California, Mexico. The remainder of the Great Basin was occupied by speakers of Numic languages. Numic, formerly called Plateau Shoshonean,…

Washoe, North American Indian people of the Great Basin region who made their home around Lake Tahoe in what is now California, U.S. Their peak numerical strength before contact with settlers may have been 1,500. Linguistically isolated from the other Great Basin Indians, they spoke a language of

animal learning: Language learning: Washoe, a female chimpanzee trained by Beatrice and Allan Gardner, learned to use well over 150 signs. Some apparently were used as nouns, standing for people and objects in her daily life, such as the names of her trainers, various kinds of food and drink,…

Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin: Language: The Washoe, whose territory centered on Lake Tahoe, spoke a Hokan language related to those spoken in parts of what are now California, Arizona, and Baja California, Mexico. The remainder of the Great Basin was occupied by speakers of Numic languages. Numic, formerly called Plateau Shoshonean,…

Wassukkani, capital of the Mitannian empire (c. 1500–c. 1340 bc), possibly located near the head of the Khabur River in northern Mesopotamia. Wassukkani was for many years the centre of a powerful threat to the Hittite empire, but it was finally plundered about 1355 by the Hittites under

washstand, from the beginning of the 19th century until well into the 20th, an essential piece of bedroom furniture. The washstand consisted of a wooden structure of varying shape and complexity intended to accommodate a large basin, a pitcher, a toothbrush jar, and various other toilet

Wāṣil ibn ʿAṭāʾ was a Muslim theologian considered the founder of the Muʿtazilah sect. As a young man Wāṣil went to Basra, Iraq, where he studied under the celebrated ascetic Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and met other influential religious figures who lived there. In Wāṣil’s time there began the discussions that

Wāṣil ibn ʿAṭāʾ was a Muslim theologian considered the founder of the Muʿtazilah sect. As a young man Wāṣil went to Basra, Iraq, where he studied under the celebrated ascetic Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and met other influential religious figures who lived there. In Wāṣil’s time there began the discussions that

Arabic literature: Compilations and manuals: …by the late 19th-century work Al-Wasīlah al-adabiyyah ilā al-ʿulūm al-ʿArabiyyah (“The Literary Method for the Arabic Sciences”), in which the Egyptian scholar Ḥusayn al-Marṣafī returned to the classical heritage (and particularly to al-ʿAskarī’s Kitāb al-ṣināʿatayn) in order to provide a study of prosody, the syntactic function of words, and the…

Maria Konopnicka was an author of short stories and one of the representative Positivist poets in Polish literature. (The Positivists espoused a system of philosophy emphasizing in particular the achievements of science.) Konopnicka, a lawyer’s daughter, rebelled against her landowner husband, who

Wāsiṭ, military and commercial city of medieval Iraq, especially important during the Umayyad caliphate (661–750). Wāsiṭ was established as a military encampment in 702 on the Tigris River, between Basra and Kūfah, by al-Ḥajjāj, the Umayyad governor of Iraq. He built a palace and the chief mosque

Waskaganish, village and trading post in Nord-du-Québec region, western Quebec province, Canada, on James Bay, at the mouth of the Rupert River. It was founded in 1668 as the first Hudson’s Bay Company post by the Médart Chouart, sieur de Groseilliers; it was at first called Fort-Charles (or

Lillehammer 1994 Olympic Winter Games: In the Alpine skiing events Markus Wasmeier (Germany) was the male standout, winning the giant slalom and the supergiant slalom. Vreni Schneider (Switzerland) won the slalom, becoming the first female Alpine skier to win three Olympic gold medals. She also won a silver and a bronze medal at Lillehammer. Canadian…

Juan Carlos Wasmosy was a Paraguayan civil engineer and businessman who served as president of Paraguay (1993–98). He was the country’s first civilian president in 39 years. Wasmosy was trained as a civil engineer at the National University of Asunción. A leading cotton exporter, cattle rancher,

Juan Carlos Wasmosy was a Paraguayan civil engineer and businessman who served as president of Paraguay (1993–98). He was the country’s first civilian president in 39 years. Wasmosy was trained as a civil engineer at the National University of Asunción. A leading cotton exporter, cattle rancher,

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), U.S. Army Air Forces program that tasked some 1,100 civilian women with noncombat military flight duties during World War II. The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were the first women to fly U.S. military aircraft. WASP had its origins with a pair of

wasp, any member of a large group of insects in the order Hymenoptera, suborder Apocrita, some of which are stinging. Wasps are distinguished from the ants and bees of Apocrita by various behavioral and physical characteristics, particularly their possession of a slender, smooth body and legs with

coleopteran: Protection: …resemble ants, and the common wasp beetle of Europe (Clytus arietis) closely resembles a wasp in both its movements and coloration.

pollination: Wasps: These insects prefer brownish-purple flowers with easily accessible nectar, such as those of figwort. The flowers of some Mediterranean and Australian orchids mimic the females of certain wasps (of the families Scoliidae and Ichneumonidae) so successfully that the males of these species attempt copulation and receive the pollen masses…

clearwing moth, (family Sesiidae), any of approximately 1,000 species of moths (order Lepidoptera) that are long-legged with a slender, dark body with bright red or yellow markings. The wings frequently lack scales and are transparent. Unlike those of other moths, the front and back wings are

Penélope Cruz: In Wasp Network (2019), Cruz played the unsuspecting wife of a Cuban pilot secretly working against Cuba’s government.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: 27 (January 1962), and the Wasp first appeared in Tales to Astonish no. 44 (June 1963).

corset: By the 1950s the guêpière, also known as a bustier or waspie, became fashionable.

Wasps, comedy by Aristophanes, produced in 422 bce. Wasps satirizes the litigiousness of the Athenians, who are represented by the mean and waspish old man Philocleon (“Love-Cleon”), who has a passion for serving on juries. In the play, Philocleon’s son, Bdelycleon (“Loathe-Cleon”), arranges for

wassail bowl, vessel generally made of wood and often mounted in silver, used on ceremonial occasions for drinking toasts. The word wassail derives from Old Norse ves heill, meaning “be well, and in good health.” The name has come to be generally applied to any bowl from which a toast is drunk, as

Justus of Ghent was a Netherlandish painter who has been identified with Joos van Wassenhove, a master of the painters’ guild at Antwerp in 1460 and at Ghent in 1464. In Justus’s earliest known painting, the Crucifixion triptych (c. 1465), the attenuated, angular figures and the barren landscape

Wasser Mountain, mountain, southeast Hesse Land (state), central Germany, lying just north of Obernhausen and Gersfeld. It is the highest peak (3,117 feet [950 metres]) of the Rhön Mountains, the focal point of the Hessische Rhön Nature Park. The Fulda River rises on its slopes. The area is known

Wasser Mountain, mountain, southeast Hesse Land (state), central Germany, lying just north of Obernhausen and Gersfeld. It is the highest peak (3,117 feet [950 metres]) of the Rhön Mountains, the focal point of the Hessische Rhön Nature Park. The Fulda River rises on its slopes. The area is known

Aalen: …1975 the adjoining city of Wasseralfingen was annexed to Aalen, enlarging it by nearly a third. A communications centre, Aalen also has machinery, optics, textile, and paper industries. Pop. (2005) 67,066.

Wernher von Braun: Early life: …and the supersonic antiaircraft missile Wasserfall were developed. The A-4 was designated by the Propaganda Ministry as V-2, meaning “Vengeance Weapon 2.” By 1944 the level of technology of the rockets and missiles being tested at Peenemünde was many years ahead of that available in any other country.

Heimito von Doderer: Die Wasserfälle von Slunj (1963; The Waterfalls of Slunj) was the first novel in an intended tetralogy spanning life in Vienna from 1880 to 1960 and collectively entitled Roman Nr. 7 (“Novel No. 7”). The second volume, Der Grenzwald (“The Frontier Forest”), unfinished, appeared posthumously in 1967.

Wasser Mountain, mountain, southeast Hesse Land (state), central Germany, lying just north of Obernhausen and Gersfeld. It is the highest peak (3,117 feet [950 metres]) of the Rhön Mountains, the focal point of the Hessische Rhön Nature Park. The Fulda River rises on its slopes. The area is known

Democratic National Committee: …of the scandal, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned before the start of the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

preventive medicine: …typhoid fever (1896) and the Wassermann test for syphilis (1906). An understanding of the principles of immunity led to the development of active immunization to specific diseases. Parallel advances in treatment opened other doors for prevention—in diphtheria by antitoxin and in syphilis by arsphenamine. In 1932 the sulfonamide drugs and…

August von Wassermann was a German bacteriologist whose discovery of a universal blood-serum test for syphilis helped extend the basic tenets of immunology to diagnosis. “The Wassermann reaction,” in combination with other diagnostic procedures, is still employed as a reliable indicator for the

Jakob Wassermann was a German novelist known for his moral fervour and tendency toward sensationalism; his popularity was greatest in the 1920s and ’30s. Early in his career Wassermann, whose father was a merchant, wrote for the satirical weekly Simplicissmus in Munich. He later moved to Vienna

Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright whose work probes, with humour and sensibility, the predicament facing educated women who came of age in the second half of the 20th century. Her drama The Heidi Chronicles (1988) was awarded both a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award in 1989. Wasserstein

Luigi Cherubini: …theme: Les Deux Journées (1800; The Two Days, also known as The Water Carrier from its German title, Der Wasserträger). This opera is considered by many to be Cherubini’s masterpiece.

Arc-en-Ciel: …figure of Arc-en-Ciel was Russian-born Marie Wassilieff, whose restaurant in the Montparnasse section of Paris was frequented by famous Parisian artists. Wassilieff’s African-style puppets and statuettes appeared in many of the company’s performances.

Marcel Breuer: …version is known as the Wassily chair.

20th-century Norwegian literature: After World War II: …and their own emotional desires; Herbjørg Wassmo, whose Tora and Dina trilogies became bestsellers in the 1980s and ’90s; and Cecilie Løveid, a postmodernist poet and playwright, one of the few who successfully challenged the Ibsenite tradition in drama. Løveid’s writing probes the potential for love, family, and close human…

Mali: The arts of Mali: …the southern area known as Wassoulou is very popular. Several Malian musicians are internationally known: Oumou Sangaré, Sali Sidibi, Ali Farka Touré, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia (who perform together as Amadou and Mariam), and Salif Keita, a descendant of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali empire; their music…

Wassukkani, capital of the Mitannian empire (c. 1500–c. 1340 bc), possibly located near the head of the Khabur River in northern Mesopotamia. Wassukkani was for many years the centre of a powerful threat to the Hittite empire, but it was finally plundered about 1355 by the Hittites under

Larry Clark: …in Paradise (1998), Bully (2001), Wassup Rockers (2005), and The Smell of Us (2014). Marfa Girl (2012), which is set in Marfa, Texas, centres on a young woman who is raped; a sequel was released in 2018. Ken Park (2002; codirected with Ed Lachman), a drama about four teens that…

Cairo: City layout: …district, referred to as the Wasṭ al-Balad (“city centre,” or downtown), is flanked by these older quarters. The Wasṭ al-Balad includes the older Al-Azbakiyyah district, Garden City, and, more recently, Jazīrah, the island offshore. The major thoroughfare connecting the city along its north-south axis is the Kūrnīsh al-Nīl (the Corniche),…

Hugo Wast was an Argentine novelist and short-story writer, probably his country’s most popular and most widely translated novelist. Wast, a lawyer by profession, served as a national deputy (1916–20), as director of the National Library in Buenos Aires (1931–54), and as minister of justice and

Baghdad: Architecture and monuments: The Wasṭānī Gate, the only remnant of the medieval wall, has been converted into the Arms Museum.

excretion: Types of waste: metabolic and nonmetabolic: Waste products may be categorized as metabolic or nonmetabolic. The difference lies in whether the substances in question are produced by the chemical processes of a living cell or are merely passed through the digestive tract of an organism without actually entering into its life…

English literature: The Edwardians: … (performed 1905, published 1909) and Waste (performed 1907, published 1909) the hypocrisies and deceit of upper-class and professional life.

excretion, the process by which animals rid themselves of waste products and of the nitrogenous by-products of metabolism. Through excretion organisms control osmotic pressure—the balance between inorganic ions and water—and maintain acid-base balance. The process thus promotes homeostasis, the

waste disposal, the collection, processing, and recycling or deposition of the waste materials of human society. Waste is classified by source and composition. Broadly speaking, waste materials are either liquid or solid in form, and their components may be either hazardous or inert in their

thermal-heat recovery, use of heat energy that is released from some industrial processes and that would otherwise dissipate into the immediate environment unused. Given the prevalence of heat-generating processes in energy systems, such as those found in household heating and cooling systems and

The Waste Land, long poem by American-English poet T.S. Eliot, published in 1922. It was one of the most influential works of the 20th century and a foundational work of Modernism. The Waste Land was published first in London in The Criterion (October 1922), next in New York City in The Dial

pollution control, in environmental engineering, any of a variety of means employed to limit damage done to the environment by the discharge of harmful substances and energies. Specific means of pollution control might include refuse disposal systems such as sanitary landfills, emission control

Arthur Andersen: The Indictment: 43 billion accounting fraud at Waste Management Inc. The cease-and-desist arrived after Andersen had already reached a civil settlement and agreed to pay a $7 million fine for malfeasance with regard to the Waste Management case. Andersen partners were warned that any future violation would result in an extreme penalty…

sculpture: Casting and molding: …the mold—hence the term “waste” mold. The order of reassembling and filling the mold may be reversed; fibreglass and resin, for example, are “laid up” in the mold pieces before they are reassembled.

excretion: Types of waste: metabolic and nonmetabolic: Waste products may be categorized as metabolic or nonmetabolic. The difference lies in whether the substances in question are produced by the chemical processes of a living cell or are merely passed through the digestive tract of an organism without actually entering into its life…

logistics: Salvage scrap disposal: A firm’s waste materials must be positively managed. The firm attempts to both sell them at a profit and follow environmentally sound practices. The key to many recycling efforts is to have scrap and waste materials properly sorted, so that they can be sold to various processors…