- Industry: Library & information science
- Number of terms: 49473
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The ...
Since 1561 the capital of Spain, on the Manzanares, a mere mountain torrent, on an arid plateau in New Castile, the centre of the peninsula; is an insanitary city, and liable to great extremes of temperature; it is regularly built, sometimes picturesque, with great open spaces, such as the Prado, 3 m. long; fine buildings and handsome streets. It contains the royal palace, parliament and law-court houses, a university, magnificent picture-gallery, many charitable institutions, and a bull-ring. The book-publishing, tapestry weaving, and tobacco industries are the most important. It is a growing and prosperous city.
Industry:Language
Small island at the mouth of the Canton River, 100 m. S. of Canton, forming with Colovane and Taipa since 1557 a Portuguese station (50, mostly Chinese); is a very healthy port, though very hot; formerly it was a centre of the Coolie trade, abolished in 1873, but its anchorage is bad, and since the rise of Hong-Kong its commerce has suffered severely; chief import opium, export tea; it is the head-quarters of French missions in China.
Industry:Language
So called after English engineers who surveyed it 1764-67; is the boundary separating Maryland from Pennsylvania and Delaware; during the Civil War it was inaccurately regarded as dividing the slave-holding from the free States, Maryland and Delaware both recognising slavery.
Industry:Language
So called by the ancients as lying in the presumed middle of the earth surrounded by Europe, Asia, and Africa; the largest enclosed sea in the world; its communication with the Atlantic is Gibraltar Strait, 9 m. wide; it communicates with the Black Sea through the Dardanelles, and in 1869 a canal through the isthmus of Suez connected it with the Red Sea, 2200 m. long by 100 to 600 m. broad; its S. shores are regular; the N. has many gulfs, and two great inlets, the Aegean and Adriatic Seas; the Balearic Isles, Corsica, and Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Cyprus, and Crete, the Ionian Isles, and the Archipelago are the chief islands; the Rhone, Po, and Nile the chief rivers that discharge into it; a ridge between Sicily and Cape Bon divides it into two great basins; it is practically tideless, and salter than the Atlantic; its waters too are warm; northerly winds prevail in the E. with certain regular variations; the surrounding territories are the richest in the world, and the greatest movements in civilisation and art have taken place around it in Africa, Phoenicia, Carthage, Greece, and Rome.
Industry:Language
Soldier and statesman, born in Devonshire; joined the Guards as ensign, and served in Tangiers in 1667; sent in command of a company to help Louis XIV. in his Dutch wars, his courage and ability won him a colonelcy; he married Sarah Jennings in 1678, and seven years later became Baron Churchill on James II.'s succession; as general he was employed in putting down Monmouth's rebellion; he seceded to William of Orange in 1688, and received from him the earldom of Marlborough; he was in disfavour from 1694 till the outbreak of the Spanish Succession War, in which he gained his great renown; beginning by driving the Spaniards from the Netherlands in 1702, he won a series of important victories—Blenheim 1704, Ramillies 1706, Oudenard 1708, and Malplaquet 1709, contributed to enhance the military glory of England; Queen Anne loaded him with honors; large sums of money, Woodstock estate, Blenheim Palace, and a dukedom were bestowed on him; his wife was the Queen's closest friend, and the duke and duchess virtually governed the country, till in 1711 the Queen threw off their influence, and charges of misappropriation of funds forced him into retirement; he was restored to many of his offices by George I. in 1714, but for the last six years of his life he sank into imbecility; one of England's greatest generals, he was also one of her meanest men (1650-1722).
Industry:Language
Soldier, born in Perthshire; raised in 1793 the 90th Regiment of Foot, and served with it at Quibéron and Isle Dieu; thereafter distinguished himself in various ways at Minorca 1798, and Malta 1800, in the Peninsular wars, and in Holland; founded the Senior United Service Club in 1817; was created baron and general 1821, and died in London (1748-1843).
Industry:Language
Son of Charles VII., born at Bourges, of a cruel and treacherous nature, took part in two insurrections against his father, by whom he had been pardoned after the first and from whom he had to flee after the second for refuge to Burgundy, where he remained till his father's death in 1461; he signalised the commencement of his reign by severe measures against the great vassals, which provoked a revolt, headed by the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretagne, which he succeeded in subduing more by his crafty policy than force of arms; involved afterwards in a war with Charles the Bold of Burgundy and soliciting an interview, he was discovered by Charles to have been sowing treason among his subjects, taken prisoner, and only released on a solemn protestation of innocence; notwithstanding the sinister and often cruel character of his policy, he did much to develop the resources of the country and advance the cause of good government by the patronage of learning; the crimes he had committed weighed heavily on his mind towards the end of his days, and he died in great fear of death and the judgment (1423-1483).
Industry:Language
Son of Duncan, whom Macbeth slew, succeeded his father in 1040 as king of Cumbria and Lothian, and in 1057, on Macbeth's death, became king of all Scotland; till 1066 his reign was peaceful, but thereafter it was one long conflict with the Normans in England; raids and counter-raids succeeded each other till, in 1091, Malcolm was forced to do homage to William Rufus; next year he lost his possessions S. of the Solway, and in 1093 he was slain in battle at Alnwick; the influence of his second wife, the saintly Margaret, did much to promote the civilisation of Scotland and to bring the Scottish Church into harmony with the rest of Christendom.
Industry:Language
Son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus, who had named him his heir; his decease at 20 was mourned as a public calamity, and inspired Virgil to pen his well-known lament over his death in the sixth book of the "Aeneid."
Industry:Language
Son of Philip Augustus; offered by the barons of England the crown of England, he was crowned at London in 1216, but defeated at Lincoln next year, he was obliged to recross the Channel; became king of France in 1223; he took several towns from the English, and conducted a crusade against the Albigenses (1187-1226).
Industry:Language
