Armenian Secret Army to Liberate Armenia See ASALA
Armistice (Nov. 11, 1918) Agreement between Germany and the Allies ending World War I. Allied representatives met with a German delega¬ tion in a railway carriage at Rethondes, France, to discuss terms. The agreement was signed on Nov. 11, 1918, and the war ended at 11:00 am that day (“the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month”). The prin¬ cipal term was that Germany would evacuate Belgium, France, and Alsace-Lorraine. Negotiations formalizing the armistice were conducted
at the Paris Peace Conference. Later a “stab in the back” legend developed in Germany, asserting that the German military situation had not been hopeless and that traitorous politicians had done the Allies’ bidding by signing the Armistice.
Armory Show formally International Exhibition of Modern
Art Exhibition of painting and sculpture held in 1913 at the 69th Regi¬ ment Armory in New York City. Conceived by its organizers, the Asso¬ ciation of American Painters and Sculptors, as a selection of works exclusively by U.S. artists, it evolved into a comprehensive look at cur¬ rent European art movements, due in part to the advanced vision of asso¬ ciation president Arthur B. Davies. Of the 1,300 works assembled, one- third were European, tracing the evolution of modern art from Francisco de Goya to Marcel Duchamp and Vasily Kandinsky, with works representa¬ tive of Impressionism, Symbolism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism. Perhaps the most controversial work was Duchamp’s nearly abstract Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912). The U.S. artists featured were mainly members of the Ash Can school and The Eight. The show exposed the American public for the first time to advanced European art; Ameri¬ can art suffered by contrast. The exhibition traveled to Chicago and Bos¬ ton, establishing itself as a decisive event in the development of U.S. art and art collecting.
armour or body armour Protective clothing that can shield the wearer from weapons and projectiles. By extension, armour is also pro¬ tective covering for animals, vehicles, and so on. Prehistoric warriors used leather hides and helmets. Chinese warriors used rhinoceros skin in the 11th century bc, and Greek infantry wore thick, multilayered metal-and- linen cuirasses (armour covering the body from neck to waist) in the 5th century bc. Shirts of chain mail were worn throughout the Roman Empire, and mail was the chief armour of western Europe until the 14th century. Ancient Greeks and Romans used armour made of rigid metal plates, which reappeared in Europe around the 13th century. Plate armour domi¬ nated European design until the 17th century, when firearms began to make it obsolete. It began to disappear in the 18th century, but the hel¬ met reappeared in World War I and became standard equipment. Modern body armour (the bulletproof vest) covers the chest and sometimes the groin; it is a flexible garment reinforced with steel plates, fibreglass, boron carbide, or multiple layers of synthetic fabric such as Kevlar.
helmet
MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC.
Armour, Philip Danforth (b. May 16, 1832, Stockbridge, N.Y., U.S.—d. Jan. 6, 1901, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. entrepreneur and innovator. Armour’s first entrepreneurial success was in California mining endeav¬ ours. He vastly expanded his family’s Midwestern grain and meatpack-
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
106 I armoured vehicle ► Arne
ing business in 1875, originating the use of byproducts and the sale of canned meat. When railcar refrigeration was introduced in the 1880s (see Gustavus Franklin Swift), he established distributing plants in eastern states and began exporting Armour meat products to Europe. His Armour & Co. enterprises helped make Chicago the meatpacking capital of the world.
armoured vehicle Motor vehicle with plating for protection against bullets, shells, or other projectiles that moves on wheels or tracks. The tank is the chief armoured vehicle for larger military forces. Other mili¬ tary types include infantry fighting vehicles, amphibious landing vehicles, and mobile weapons platforms such as self-propelled artillery and anti¬ aircraft guns. Infantry fighting vehicles, descended from the armoured personnel carriers of World War II and the Vietnam War, are armoured, tracked vehicles that transport infantry into battle but also serve as plat¬ forms from which soldiers can fight without dismounting. Armoured cars are wheeled civilian vehicles, ranging from commercial trucks to luxury sedans, that generally are equipped with armour and other amenities for securely transporting valuables and individuals over paved roads.
armoury practice Production system for the assembly of finished products, in this case arms. With the adoption of the Model 1842 mus¬ ket, the U.S. military achieved the large-scale assembly of weapons from uniform, interchangeable parts. By the mid-1850s arms makers around the world were beginning to copy this American System of manufacture, which contributed to the creation of the modern military small arm, especially after the introduction of percussion ignition and rifled barrels.
arms control Limitation of the development, testing, production, deployment, proliferation, or use of weapons through international agree¬ ments. Arms control did not arise in international diplomacy until the first Hague Convention (1899). The Washington Conference (1921-22) and the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) were broken without much fear of sanction. U.S.-Soviet treaties to control nuclear weapons during the Cold War were taken more seriously. In 1968 the two superpowers and Britain sponsored the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (signed also by 59 other countries), which committed signatory countries not to promote the spread, or pro¬ liferation, of nuclear weapons to countries that did not already possess them. See also Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty; Strategic Arms Limitation Talks; Stra¬ tegic Arms Reduction Talks.
Armstrong, Edwin H(oward) (b. Dec. 18, 1890, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Jan. 31/Feb. 1, 1954, New York City) U.S. inventor. He studied at Columbia University, where he devised a feedback circuit that brought in signals with a thousandfold amplification (1912). At its highest ampli¬ fication, the circuit shifted from being a receiver to being a primary gen¬ erator of radio waves, and as such it is at the heart of all radio and television broadcasting. It earned him the Franklin Medal, the highest U.S. scientific honour. His 1933 invention of circuits that produced the carrier waves for frequency modulation (FM) made high-fidelity broadcasting possible.
Armstrong, Gillian (b. Dec. 18, 1950, Melbourne, Austl.) Australian film director. She first garnered international acclaim as the director of My Brilliant Career (1979), a feminist film about a young woman aspir¬ ing to be a writer in Victorian-era Australia. Her subsequent works include Australian films such as The Last Days of Chez Nous (1993) and Oscar and Lucinda (1997), as well as U.S. films such as Mrs. Soffel (1984), Little Women (1994), and Charlotte Gray (2001).
Armstrong, Lance (b. Sept. 18, 1971, Plano, Texas, U.S.) American cyclist and the first rider to win seven Tour de France titles (1999-2005). Armstrong began his professional cycling career in 1992 when he joined the Motorola team. He won stages of the Tour de France in 1993 and 1995 but withdrew from three of four Tours he attempted from 1993 to 1996. After the 1996 Tour, Armstrong fell ill, suffering from testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Months of treatments fol¬ lowed before he could attempt his comeback. In 1998 he won the Tour of Luxembourg, and on July 25, 1999, he became the second American to win the Tour de France and the first to win it for an American team (three-time winner Greg LeMond had raced with European teams). In 2003 Armstrong won his fifth consecutive Tour de France, tying a record set by Miguel Indurain, and the following year he broke the record with his sixth consecutive win. After winning his seventh Tour in 2005, Arm¬ strong announced his retirement.