German-bom U.S. film producer.
After immigrating to the U.S. in 1884, he worked at various jobs in Chicago before opening a nickel¬ odeon there in 1906 and becoming a leading film distributor. He founded the Independent Motion Picture Co. in 1909 and induced stars such as Mary Pickford to join his studio. Fighting off monopoly control by the Motion Picture Patents Co., he produced 100 short films by 1910. In 1912 he merged with smaller companies to form Universal Pictures, and in 1915 he opened its 230-acre studio in California. His employees included Irv¬ ing Thalberg and Harry Cohn. He is considered the father of the Holly¬ wood star system. Financial setbacks forced him to sell the company in
Laetoli \lI-'to-le\ footprints Several trails of bipedal footprints, pre¬ sumed to be those of Australopithecus afarensis, preserved in volcanic ash at Laetoli in northern Tanzania and dated to approximately 3.5 million years ago. They were discovered in 1978 by a team led by the Leakey fam¬ ily. The footprints indicate that the mechanism of weight and force trans¬ ference through the early hominin foot was virtually identical to that of modern humans and suggest that two of the individuals, one larger and one smaller, walked together in stride and were close enough to have been touching. See also Lucy.
Laetus Vll-tos\, Julius Pomponius or Giulio Pomponio Leto
(b. 1428, Diano, Kingdom of Naples—d. 1497, Rome) Italian humanist. As a youth he decided to dedicate his life to the study of the ancient world. In Rome he gathered other humanists around him in a semisecret society, the Academia Romana. Their celebration of ancient Roman rites aroused the suspicions of Pope Paul II, who briefly dissolved the Academia and imprisoned Laetus and his associates. Laetus’s lack of rigour and critical spirit have led modem scholars to treat his writings with caution.
Lafayette, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de (b. Sept. 6, 1757, Chavaniac, France—d. May 20, 1834, Paris) French military leader. Born to an ancient noble family of great wealth, he was a courtier at the court of Louis XVI but sought
glory as a soldier. In 1777 he went to America, was appointed a major general, became a close friend of George Washington, and fought with distinction at the Battle of the Brandywine. He returned to France in 1779, persuaded Louis to send a 6,000-man force to aid the colonists, and returned to America in 1780 to command an army in Virginia and help win the Siege of Yorktown. Hailed as “the Hero of Two Worlds,” he returned to France in 1782, became a leader of liberal aristocrats, and was elected to the Estates General in 1789. He presented the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to the National Assembly. Elected com¬ mander of the national guard of Paris, he sought to protect the king, favouring a constitutional monarchy. When his guards fired on a crowd of petitioners in the Champ de Mars (1791), he lost popularity and resigned his position. He commanded the army against Austria (1792), then defected to the Austrians, who held him captive until 1797. Return¬ ing to France, Lafayette became a gentleman farmer. In the Bourbon Res¬ toration, he served in the Chamber of Deputies (1814-24) and commanded the national guard in the July Revolution (1830).
Laffite \l9-'fet\, Jean (b. 1780?, France—d. 1825?) French pirate. He led a band of privateers that preyed on Spanish ships and smuggled goods and slaves through New Orleans, where the group lived on islands south of the city. In the War of 1812 the British offered Laffite $30,000 for his allegiance in their planned attack on the city. He warned Louisiana officials of the attack but was not believed. He then offered his aid to Gen. Andrew Jack- son, who accepted Laffite’s help in the Battle of New Orleans. After the war Laffite returned to privateering against the Spanish.
Laffitte \la-'fet\, Jacques (b. Oct.
24, 1767, Bayonne, France—d. May 26, 1844, Maisons-sur-Seine) French banker and politician. He became a partner in a Perregaux banking house in 1800 and head of the firm in 1804.
As governor of the Bank of France (1814-19), he raised large sums of money for the provisional govern¬ ment in 1814 and for Louis XVIII dur¬ ing the Hundred Days. He saved Paris from a financial crisis in 1818. An early partisan of a constitutional monarchy under Louis-Philippe, he did much to secure Louis-Philippe’s accession to the throne, and he briefly served as premier (1830-31) in the July Monarchy.
LaFontaine \la-f6 n -'tan. Sir
Louis Hippolyte, Baronet (b.
Oct. 4, 1807, Boucherville, Lower Canada—d. Feb. 26, 1864, Mont¬ real) Canadian statesman. Called to the bar in Lower Canada in 1829, he began his political career the follow¬ ing year, when he was elected to the provincial assembly for Terrebonne.
He supported French-Canadian grievances against the British but opposed the rebellions of 1837-38.
After the union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841, he became the leader of Canada East (formerly Lower Canada). Appointed joint prime minister with Robert Baldwin (1842-43, 1848-51), he established respon¬ sible (i.e., representative) government for Canada. His Rebellion Losses Bill to compensate property owners for damages in 1837-38 provoked riots in Montreal but affirmed the strength of the government.
Lagash \'la-,gash\ modern Telloh Vtel-o\ Ancient capital in Sumer. It was located midway between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Babylonia,
Lady's slipper ( Cypripedium )
GRANT HEILMAN
Jean Laffite
THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE
r
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Jacques Laffitte, drawing by A. Deveria; in the Bibliotheque Nationale Paris.
COURTESY OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE, PARIS
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1068 I Lagen River > lake
L_
N
now in southeastern Iraq. Excava¬ tions have uncovered palace and temple ruins as well as cuneiform texts that provide information about Sumer in the 3rd millennium bc.
Founded in the Ubaid period (c.
5200-c. 3500 bc), it came under the control of Sargon of Akkad. It later prospered under Gudea, a governor nominally subject to the Guti. It was occupied as late as the Parthian era (247 bc-ad 224).
Lagen River Vl6-gon\ River, southeastern Norway. Rising in the Hardanger Plateau, it flows south to empty into the Skagerrak, an arm of the North Sea. With a length of 209 mi (337 km), it is the third longest river in the country.
Lagerfeld, Karl (b. Sept. 10,
1938, Hamburg, Ger.) German fash¬ ion designer. After moving to Paris at age 14, he went on to create designs for such established labels as Pierre Balmain, Chloe, Valentino, and Fendi. He is best known as the creative power behind the modern revival of the house of Chanel, which he joined in 1983. Lagerfeld consistently managed to merge the spirit of the times with the chic, time¬ less identity established by the house’s founder, Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, making Chanel one of the most coveted and influential labels in late 20th- century fashion.
Lagerkvist Vla-gor-.kvestV Par (Fabian) (b. May 23, 1891, Vaxjo, Swed.—d. July 11, 1974, Stockholm) Swedish novelist, poet, and dra¬ matist. He was involved early in life with socialism and soon began to support literary and artistic radicalism. Though his early works are char¬ acterized by extreme pessimism, he declared his faith in humanity with his great prose monologue The Triumph over Life (1927). In the 1930s and ’40s his writings protested fascism and brutality. The novel The Dwarf (1944) was his first best-seller and his first undisputed critical success. He won world recognition with the novel Barabbas (1950). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1951.
Lagerlof Vla-gor-.lcefV Selma (Ottiliana Lovisa) (b. Nov. 20, 1858, Marbacka, Swed.—d. March 16, 1940, Marbacka) Swedish novel¬ ist. She was working as a schoolmistress when she wrote her first novel, Gosta Berlings saga (1891), a chronicle of life in her native Varmland. Later works include Jerusalem (1901-02), which established her as Swe¬ den’s foremost novelist, and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and its sequel (1906-07), a geography reader for children in fantasy form. A naturally gifted storyteller, she rooted her work in legend and saga. In 1909 she became the first woman and the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.