110 résultats pour "greatest"

• Duke Ellington Duke Ellington (1899-1974), American jazz composer, orchestrator, bandleader, and pianist, considered the greatest composer in the history of jazz music and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.

• Winston Churchill I INTRODUCTION Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom (1940-1945, 1951-1955), widely regarded as the greatest British leader of the 20th century.

  sufficient tools to break the stalemate on the western front and he worked on developing armored fighting vehicles (tanks) to break the deadlock and end theslaughter. As the lines hardened on the western front, Churchill focused on a campaign to force open the Dardanelles Strait, controlled by the Ottoman Empire, to give the Allies adirect route to Russia through the Black Sea. Such a move would bring much-needed supplies to the Russian armies and eliminate the Ottomans from the war. Whenthe nav...

• Heracles (Herakles; Glory of Hera) Greek The greatest hero of Greek mythology, he was called Hercules by the Romans.

  Amphitryon’s cattle. Heracles killed the lion and ever after wore its pelt (though some say that the pelt worn by Heracles was that of the Nemean lion; see The Twelve Labors of Heracles , right). Heracles then did battle with Erginus, King of Orchomenos, who attacked Thebes. Amphitryon died in this struggle. The victorious Heracles became the idol of Thebes. Creon, the new king of Thebes, gave his daughter Megara (2) to Heracles in marriage. The marriage was not a happy one, and in later years,...

• John Milton I INTRODUCTION John Milton Seventeenth-century writer John Milton ranks as one of the greatest poets in the history of English literature.

  liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” In Of Education (1644) Milton advocated an education combining classical instruction, to prepare the student for government service, with religious training. The third group of pamphlets includes those Milton wrote to justify the execution of Charles I. The first of these, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649), deals with constitutional questions and particularly with the rights of the people a...

• William Shakespeare I INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright and poet, recognized in much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists.

  Shakespeare’s reputation today is, however, based primarily on the 38 plays that he wrote, modified, or collaborated on. Records of Shakespeare’s plays begin toappear in 1594, when the theaters reopened with the passing of the plague that had closed them for 21 months. In December of 1594 his play The Comedy of Errors was performed in London during the Christmas revels at Gray’s Inn, one of the London law schools. In March of the following year he received payment for two playsthat had been per...

• Red Grange's Greatest Game.

• William Shakespeare I INTRODUCTION William Shakespeare English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, who lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s, is regarded as the greatest dramatist in the history of English literature.

  Avon, Warwickshire, a prosperous town in the English Midlands. Based on this record and on the fact that children in Shakespeare’s time were usually baptized two orthree days after birth, April 23 has traditionally been accepted as his date of birth. The third of eight children, William Shakespeare was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a locally prominent glovemaker and wool merchant, and Mary Arden, thedaughter of a well-to-do landowner in the nearby village of Wilmcote. The young Shakespeare...

• The Greatest Runner the World Has Seen.

  Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

• Muhammad Ali I INTRODUCTION Muhammad Ali, born in 1942, American boxer, one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport.

  In 1984 Ali was first diagnosed with Parkinson syndrome, a medical condition closely related to Parkinson disease. Symptoms include body tremors, slurred or difficultspeech, rigid limbs, facial immobilization, and other neurological problems. The disorder sometimes develops in boxers, because of the repeated blows to the head theysuffer over a long career. As the former champion coped with the condition, he became a strong advocate for more research money for Parkinson disease and relatedconditi...

• Joe DiMaggio Joe DiMaggio (1914-1999), American baseball player, who was one of the greatest hitters and center fielders of all time.

• Ludwig van Beethoven I INTRODUCTION Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven is considered possibly the greatest Western composer of all time.

  the other hand, breaks up the opening theme into contrasting segments in different tempi, whereas customary practice called for stating the theme in its entirety at thebeginning of a movement. In the first movement of the Eroica Symphony, one of the major works from Beethoven’s middle period, he again sought ways to expand upon the prevailing musical forms. At that time, composers usually organized movements in three major parts. First, the exposition introduces the musical themes of the pie...

• Johann Sebastian Bach I INTRODUCTION Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), German composer and one of the world's greatest musical geniuses.

  Bach served nine years at the Weimar court, first as organist and then, from 1714, as concertmaster as well. His employer, Wilhelm Ernst, duke of Weimar, was a greatadmirer of the organ, and spurred by the duke’s enthusiasm Bach proceeded to compose a vast number of unprecedented works for the instrument: the Orgelbüchlein (“Little Organ Book”), a collection of small chorale preludes for the church year; the so-called Great Eighteen Chorales of larger size; and a series of dramatic preludes a...

• Rembrandt I INTRODUCTION Rembrandt (1606-1669), Dutch baroque artist, who ranks as one of the greatest painters in the history of Western art.

  of his collection of art and antiquities, taken before an auction to pay his debts, showed the breadth of Rembrandt's interests: ancient sculpture, Flemish and ItalianRenaissance paintings, Far Eastern art, contemporary Dutch works, weapons, and armor. Unfortunately, the results of the auction—including the sale of hishouse—were disappointing. These problems in no way affected Rembrandt's work; if anything, his artistry increased. Some of the great paintings from this period are The Jewish Brid...

• Alexander the Great I INTRODUCTION Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), king of Macedonia, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and one of the greatest military geniuses of all times.

• Italian Literature I INTRODUCTION Italian Literature, literature written in the Italian language from about the 13th century to the present.

  Dante’s Inferno and PurgatoryThis illustration comes from a late Gothic edition of The Divine Comedy by the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Lucifer,the devil, is at the center of Earth, and the mouth of hell, the inferno, opens below him. At the opposite pole is a mountainleading to purgatory. The manuscript is in the National Library in Florence, Italy.Scala/Art Resource, NY Dante is one of the great figures of world literature. He is remarkable for the loftiness of his thought, the vividne...

• english history

  He was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics. Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and the University of Oxford. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy. Smith returned home and spent the ten years writing The Wealth of Nations , publishing it in 1776. He became famous for this book, which had a profound influence on modern economics and concepts of individual free...

• HISTOIRE DE KEYNE BRITISH

  He was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics. Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and the University of Oxford. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy. Smith returned home and spent the ten years writing The Wealth of Nations , publishing it in 1776. He became famous for this book, which had a profound influence on modern economics and concepts of individual free...

• George Frideric Handel I INTRODUCTION Handel's Water Music In addition to his popular operas and oratorios, German-born composer George Frideric Handel wrote music in the 1700s for the church and for royal celebrations.

  During the 1720s and 1730s Handel worked primarily as a composer and producer of operas for the London stage. This extremely productive phase of his career beganwith the opening of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1719. The Royal Academy was founded with the support of the king and aristocratic subscribers for theproduction of Italian operas. Its directors sent Handel to continental Europe to hire some of the world’s greatest singers. Handel was not the only composer writingoperas for Aca...

• The greatest ride in my life

  harvests; their old men bad given them leave tobit the road for a sommer. There were two young city boys from Columbus, Ohio, high school football players, chewing gum, singing in the breeze, and they said they were hitchhiking around the United States for the sommer. "We're going to LA (1)!" they yelled. "What are you going to do there ?" "Hell, we don't know. Who cares ?" ..• 1 was glad when the two Minnesota farmboys who owned the t...

• Japanese Literature I INTRODUCTION Japanese Literature, literature of Japan, in written form from at least the 8th century AD to the present.

  The Man’yō’sh ū contains about 4,500 poems, most of them composed in the Nara period (710-784). Some of the poems are far older, however, and some of the verses date to earlier collections that have not survived. The work demonstrates a gradual change from basic verses on simple subjects to more sophisticated expressions with a broad range of subject matter. This text also shows the development of poetic forms such as the tanka (short poem), a form structured around alternating lines of 5 an...

• Dante Alighieri I INTRODUCTION Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Italian poet, and one of the supreme figures of world literature, who was admired for the depth of his spiritual vision and for the range of his intellectual accomplishment.

  Dante AlighieriOne of the greatest poets in the history of world literature, Italian writer Dante Alighieri composed poetry influenced byclassical and Christian tradition. Dante’s greatest work was the epic poem La divina commedia (1321?; The DivineComedy, 1802). It includes three sections: the Inferno (Hell), in which the great classical poet Virgil leads Dante on a tripthrough hell; the Purgatorio (Purgatory), in which Virgil leads Dante up the mountain of purification; and the Paradiso(Paradi...

• Charles Dickens.

  The Old Curiosity Shop broke hearts across Britain and North America when it first appeared. Later readers, however, have found it excessively sentimental, especially the pathos surrounding the death of its child-heroine Little Nell. Dickens’s next two works proved less popular with the public. Barnaby Rudge, Dickens’s first historical novel, revolves around anti-Catholic riots that broke out in London in 1780. The events in Martin Chuzzlewit become a vehicle for the novel’s theme: selfishne...

• John Macdonald.

  dissolution of the existing Union. The Atlantic colonies, which consisted of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, were considering the question of their own union andplanned to meet at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on September 1, 1864. Macdonald saw his opportunity and secured an invitation for the Canadians to attend.The delegates of the Atlantic colonies put off their own discussion until they had heard the Canadians. Macdonald spoke of the advantages in...

• John Macdonald - Canadian History.

  dissolution of the existing Union. The Atlantic colonies, which consisted of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, were considering the question of their own union andplanned to meet at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on September 1, 1864. Macdonald saw his opportunity and secured an invitation for the Canadians to attend.The delegates of the Atlantic colonies put off their own discussion until they had heard the Canadians. Macdonald spoke of the advantages in...

• John Macdonald - Canadian History.

  dissolution of the existing Union. The Atlantic colonies, which consisted of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, were considering the question of their own union andplanned to meet at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on September 1, 1864. Macdonald saw his opportunity and secured an invitation for the Canadians to attend.The delegates of the Atlantic colonies put off their own discussion until they had heard the Canadians. Macdonald spoke of the advantages in...

• Pittsburgh - geography.

  College of Allegheny County (1966), with branches in the city and suburbs. Pittsburgh has many outstanding cultural institutions. The Oakland district is where Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are located. The CarnegieMuseums of Pittsburgh include The Carnegie Museum of Art (including the Scaife Galleries), which holds a distinguished motion-picture and video collection and a uniquestudy of architecture; the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which displays an extensi...

• American Music I INTRODUCTION American Music, the folk, popular, and classical music of the United States--created by American-born or American-trained composers, or originating in American culture, or written primarily for American audiences.

  The country's first permanent orchestra was the New York Philharmonic Society, founded in 1842. Among the first symphonic and operatic composers the mostprominent was William Henry Fry, who composed the first opera by an American ( Leonora, 1845). Fry is best remembered, however, for four symphonies written in the 1850s and 1860s. George F. Bristow wrote the first opera on an American theme; his Rip Van Winkle was performed in New York City in 1855. Town bands, a popular form of community mu...

• History of Astronomy - astronomy.

  Egypt, the Sun was directly overhead at noon. On the same date and time in Alexandria, Egypt, the Sun was about 7 degrees south of zenith. With simple geometryand knowledge of the distance between the two cities, he estimated the circumference of the Earth to be 250,000 stadia. (The stadium was a unit of length, derivedfrom the length of the racetrack in an ancient Greek stadium. We have an approximate idea of how big an ancient Greek stadium was, and based on that approximationEratosthenes was...

• Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (1915-1959), one of the greatest jazz singers of all time.

• Ludwig van Beethoven I INTRODUCTION Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), German composer, considered one of the greatest musicians of all time.

  dedication after learning that Napoleon had taken the title of emperor. Beethoven’s other instrumental works from the period of the Eroica also tend to expand the formal framework that he inherited from Haydn and Mozart. The Piano Sonata in C major op. 53 ( Waldstein ) and the Piano Sonata in F minor op. 57 ( Appassionata ), completed in 1804 and 1805 respectively, each employ bold contrasts in harmony, and they use a broadened formal plan, in which the meditative slow movements flow directly...

• Mia Hamm Mia Hamm, born in 1972, American soccer player, one of the greatest female players in the history of the sport.

• Wilt Chamberlain I INTRODUCTION Wilt Chamberlain (1936-1999), American professional basketball player, one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

  The Lakers returned to the NBA finals the following year, but they lost to the Knicks. Chamberlain then retired as a player. He coached the San Diego Conquistadores ofthe American Basketball Association (ABA) for the 1973-74 season before leaving basketball for good. Many NBA teams tried to convince Chamberlain to return to thesport, but he refused their offers. In 1978 he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. V LATER YEARS Chamberlain remained active during the remaining years of his lif...

• Larry Bird Larry Bird, born in 1956, American basketball player and coach, one of the greatest all-around performers in the sport's history.

• Michael Jordan I INTRODUCTION Michael Jordan, born in 1963, American professional basketball player, considered by many to be the greatest player in basketball history.

  playoffs the Bulls pushed the Pistons to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals before losing again. As he grew older, Jordan made a concerted effort to help his teammates reach their own potential. The result of his renewed commitment to team-oriented play was theBulls’ first NBA championship title. After the 1990-91 season the Bulls swept the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals and then defeated the Los Angeles Lakers inthe NBA Finals. Jordan won the league MVP award for the second...

• Randy Johnson Randy Johnson, born in 1963, American professional baseball player, a left-handed pitcher who has won five Cy Young Awards and ranks among the greatest strikeout artists ever.

• Barry Bonds Barry Bonds, born in 1964, American professional baseball player, one of the greatest hitters of all time but who was indicted on criminal charges relating to performance-enhancing drugs.

• It's a Wonderful Life It's a Wonderful Life, motion picture about a man who believes he is a failure because he never left the small town where he grew up, based on the story The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern.

  When Uncle Billy leaves George’s house drunk he stumbles over what sounds like trash cans, and says “I’m all right, I’m all right…” In fact, actor Thomas Mitchell wasstumbling over some equipment left by the film crew and he was assuring the crew member he was not hurt. Director Capra left the scene as it was. Quotes Man on Porch: “Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death.”Bailey: “You want me to kiss her, huh?”Man on Porch: “Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people!” Bailey: (rega...

• Romanticism I INTRODUCTION Romanticism, in art, European and American movement extending from about 1800 to 1850.

  and the composition so dynamic that the effect is of chaos engulfing the immobile and indifferent figure of the dying king. IV GERMANY Two Men on a SeashoreTwo Men on a Seashore (1835) by German artist Caspar David Friedrich can be interpreted as a symbolic expression ofthe artist’s Christian faith. The sea is a symbol of death and the rocks on the beach stand for faith and the future. Themoon symbolizes Christ. This drawing in pencil and sepia ink closely resembles in its design a painting by...

• Conservation.

  cancers, Hodgkin’s disease and leukemia. Unfortunately, human activities have greatly reduced biodiversity around the world. The 20th century encompasses one of the greatest waves of extinction, orelimination of species, to occur on the planet. The greatest threat to biodiversity is loss of habitat as humans develop land for agriculture, grazing livestock, industry,and habitation. The most drastic damage has occurred in the tropical rain forests, which cover less than seven percent of the Earth’...

• Winston Churchill.

  sufficient tools to break the stalemate on the western front and he worked on developing armored fighting vehicles (tanks) to break the deadlock and end theslaughter. As the lines hardened on the western front, Churchill focused on a campaign to force open the Dardanelles Strait, controlled by the Ottoman Empire, to give the Allies adirect route to Russia through the Black Sea. Such a move would bring much-needed supplies to the Russian armies and eliminate the Ottomans from the war. Whenthe nav...

• Winston Churchill .

  sufficient tools to break the stalemate on the western front and he worked on developing armored fighting vehicles (tanks) to break the deadlock and end theslaughter. As the lines hardened on the western front, Churchill focused on a campaign to force open the Dardanelles Strait, controlled by the Ottoman Empire, to give the Allies adirect route to Russia through the Black Sea. Such a move would bring much-needed supplies to the Russian armies and eliminate the Ottomans from the war. Whenthe nav...

• German Literature I INTRODUCTION German Literature, literature written in the German language from the 8th century to the present, and including the works of German, Austrian, and Swiss authors.

  Till EulenspiegelThe medieval peasant Till Eulenspiegel appears in many German folktales as a trickster who outwits people in positions ofauthority. In this image his first name is spelled Tyll.Keystone Pressedienst GmbH The rise of the middle class in the 14th and 15th centuries and the struggles of the peasants against the nobility culminated in the great 16th-century religiousrevolution known as the Reformation. This movement was reflected in literature, especially by Martin Luther, whose tra...

• Western Philosophy.

  the popular belief in personal deities, but he failed to explain the way in which the familiar objects of experience could develop out of elements that are totally differentfrom them. Anaxagoras therefore suggested that all things are composed of very small particles, or “seeds,” which exist in infinite variety. To explain the way in whichthese particles combine to form the objects that constitute the familiar world, Anaxagoras developed a theory of cosmic evolution. He maintained that the activ...

• Baroque Art and ArchitectureIINTRODUCTIONGerman Baroque ArchitectureThe baroque style of architecture flourished in Germany in the 18th century.

  C Early baroque styles Conversion of Saint PaulItalian baroque painter Caravaggio painted scenes of realism and drama, often selecting lofty, religious themes anddepicting them with lower-class characters and settings with dramatic spotlighting. With its unidealized characters andfocus on the horse’s body, his Conversion of Saint Paul seems to record a stable accident, not a miraculous conversion byGod. This work was painted in 1601 and is in the Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, It...

• Geographic Exploration.

  The commercial reason for exploration has been a consistent driving force. In 1492 the great navigator Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Oceanseeking a new, shorter, and cheaper route to reach the riches of East Asia, and Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa for much the same reason.Yet similar investigations of the profitable eastern trade had already been made by Arab sailors. Arab trading ships were sailing from the Arabian Sea to southeasternAsia probab...

• Geographic Exploration - explorer.

  The commercial reason for exploration has been a consistent driving force. In 1492 the great navigator Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Oceanseeking a new, shorter, and cheaper route to reach the riches of East Asia, and Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa for much the same reason.Yet similar investigations of the profitable eastern trade had already been made by Arab sailors. Arab trading ships were sailing from the Arabian Sea to southeasternAsia probab...

• Soccer's Big Show Comes to the United States.

  There were many doubters, both overseas and within the United States. Some U.S. sportswriters derided the idea of holding the World Cup in the United States asakin to staging the World Series in India—how could there be any local interest? Foreign critics felt that money was the sole reason for FIFA's decision and that thesport was about to be cheapened to make it acceptable to Americans. The rumors flew: FIFA was going to enlarge the goals, it would allow timeouts (unheard of inthe sport) to ac...

• President of the United States.

  Democrats and Republicans—select delegates to attend their party conventions. Primary voters and caucus participants choose delegates who will support their favoredcandidate at the convention. The party conventions, held in the summer before the November general election, formally nominate the winner of the primaries andcaucuses. Would-be candidates crisscross the states that hold the earliest primaries, especially New Hampshire, which holds the country’s first primary, usually in mid-February....

• George Frideric Handel.

  Handel’s most important contribution to music history undoubtedly lies in his oratorios. Although the genre had existed in the 17th century, Handel seems to haveinvented the special type known as English oratorio, with its dazzling choruses. His influence on later generations can be seen most clearly in the history of the oratorio:Handel’s Messiah is one of only a few 18th-century works to remain in the performance repertory from its composer’s lifetime until today. The oratorios of later comp...

• Charles Dickens I INTRODUCTION Charles Dickens English author Charles Dickens ranks as one of the most popular writers in the history of world literature.

  Papers of the Pickwick Club (1836-1837; 1837); The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1837-1839; 1838); The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839; 1839); The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841; 1841); Barnaby Rudge (1841); The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844; 1844); Dombey and Son (1846-1848; 1848); The Personal History of David Copperfield (1849-1850; 1850); Bleak House (1852-1853; 1853); Hard Times (1854); Little Dorrit (1855-1857; 1857); A Tale of Tw...