Armstrong, Louis (b. Aug. 4, 1901, New Orleans, La., U.S.—d. July 6, 1971, New York, N.Y.) U.S. jazz trumpeter and singer. As a youth in New
Orleans, he participated in marching, riverboat, and cabaret bands. A child¬ hood nickname, Satchelmouth, was shortened to Satchmo and used throughout his life. In 1922 he moved to Chicago to join King Oliver’s Cre¬ ole Jazz Band (see Dixieland). In 1924 he joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York City; the fol¬ lowing year he switched from cornet to trumpet and began recording under his own name with his Hot Five and Hot Seven ensembles. In these recordings the prevailing emphasis on collective improvisation gives way to his developing strength as soloist and vocalist. By the time of his “West End Blues” (1928), Armstrong had established the preeminence of the virtuoso soloist in jazz. His vibrant melodic phrasing, inventive harmonic improvisation, and swinging rhyth¬ mic conception established the vernacular of jazz music. His powerful tone, great range, and dazzling velocity set a new technical standard. He also was one of the first scat singers, improvising nonsense syllables in the manner of a horn. He became something more than a jazz musician: solo attraction, bandleader, film actor, and international star.
Arndt, Ernst Moritz (b. Dec. 26, 1769, Schoritz bei Gartz, Swed.—d. Jan. 29, 1860, Bonn, Ger.) Swedish-born German prose writer, poet, and patriot. He rejected the Lutheran ministry at age 28 and eventually became a professor of history at Greifswald and Bonn. Among his important works is the huge Spirit of the Times, 4 vol. (1806-18), a bold call for political reforms that expressed German national awakening during the Napoleonic era. Not all of Arndt’s poems were inspired by political ideas; Gedichte (1804-18) contains many religious poems of great beauty.
Arne, Thomas Augustine (b. March 12, 1710, London, Eng.—d. March 5, 1778, London) British composer. Son of a London upholsterer, he secretly taught himself instrumental skills and composition with the help of an opera musician. Smitten by the opera, he had an early success with his own first opera, Rosamond (1733), and thereafter concentrated almost exclusively on the theatre. As composer to Drury Lane Theatre and London’s great pleasure gardens, he became Britain’s leading theat¬ rical composer and, after George Frideric Handel, possibly the finest Brit¬ ish composer of the century. Of his approximately 90 theatrical works, the best known are Comus (1738), The Judgment of Paris (1740), and Artaxerxes (1762). His song “Rule, Britannia” became an unofficial national anthem. His sister Susannah (1714-66) was the famous singer and actress known as Mrs. Cibber.
Louis Armstrong.
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
Armstrong, Neil (Alden) (b. Aug. 5, 1930, Wapakoneta, Ohio, U.S.) U.S. astronaut. He became a pilot at 16, studied aeronautical engineering, and won three Air Medals in the Korean War. In 1955 he became a civilian research pilot for the fore¬ runner of NASA. He joined the space program in 1962 with the sec¬ ond group of astronauts. In 1966, as command pilot of Gemini 8, he and David Scott completed the first manual space docking maneuver, with an unmanned Agena rocket. On July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, he became the first per¬ son to step onto the Moon, proclaim¬ ing “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
army Large, organized force armed and trained for war, especially on land. The term may be applied to a large unit organized for independent action or to a nation’s or ruler’s over¬ all military organization for land warfare. The character and organization of armies have varied through history. At various times armies have been built around infantry soldiers or mounted warriors (e.g., cavalry) or men in machines, and have been made up of professionals or amateurs, of merce¬ naries fighting for pay or for plunder, or of patriots fighting for a cause. See also AIR FORCE, CONSCRIPTION, GUERRILLA, MILITARY UNIT, MILITIA, U.S. ARMY.
Neil Armstrong, 1969.
NASA
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Arnhem ► aromatic compound I 107
Arnhem Var-narrA Land Region, northeastern Northern Territory, Aus¬ tralia. It extends south from Van Diemen Gulf to the Gulf of Carpentaria and Groote Eylandt. Never fully explored, it has a total area of about 37,000 sq mi (96,000 sq km) and contains important bauxite and uranium mines. Occupied by Australian Aboriginals since the late Pleistocene, it was visited in 1623 by the Dutch explorer Jan Carstensz, who named it for his ship. The name now primarily refers to its large Aboriginal reserve.
Arnim, Bettina von orig. Elisabeth Katharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano (b. April 4, 1785, Frankfurt am Main
[Germany]—d. Jan. 20, 1859, Ber¬ lin) German writer. Her best-known works are reworked records of her correspondence with Johann Wolf¬ gang von Goethe, Karoline von Gtin- derode, and her brother Clemens Brentano, much of it fictitious but written in a brilliantly vivid, unin¬ hibited style.
Arno River River, central Italy. It is 150 mi (240 km) long, flowing west from the Apennines through Flo¬ rence and into the Ligurian Sea below Pisa. Near Arezzo it is con¬ nected with the Tiber River by its cana¬ lized tributary, the Chiani. Subject to disastrous floods, in 1966 it inun¬ dated Florence and caused extensive damage.
Arnold, Benedict (b. Jan. 14,
1741, Norwich, Conn.—d. June 14,
1801, London, Eng.) American army officer and traitor. He joined the American Revolutionary army in 1775 and contributed to American victories at the Battle of Ticon- deroga, at Fort Stanwix, N.Y., and at the Battle of Saratoga, where he was seriously wounded. He was made a major general and placed in com¬ mand of Philadelphia, where he lived extravagantly and socialized with wealthy loyalist sympathizers, one of whom he married in 1779. Repri¬ manded for fiscal irregularities in his command, he began secret overtures to the British. After receiving com¬ mand of the fort at West Point, N.Y.
(1780), he offered to surrender it to the British for £20,000. The plot was uncovered after his British contact,
John Andre, was captured. Arnold escaped on a British ship to England, where he died penniless.
Arnold, Henry (Harley) known as Hap Arnold (b. June 25, 1886, Gladwyne, Pa., U.S.—d. Jan. 15, 1950, Sonoma, Calif.) U.S. air force officer. He attended West Point and initially served in the infantry. Vol¬ unteering as a flyer, he received instruction from Orville Wright. After World War I, with Billy Mitchell he became an eloquent advocate of an expanded air force. He rose through the ranks of the U.S. Army Air Corps to become its commander in 1938, and he commanded the Army Air Forces worldwide during World War II, overseeing a massive buildup and greatly influencing air bombardment strategy. He was named general of the army in 1944 and, after the National Defense Act of 1947 created an independent Air Force, general of the Air Force.
Arnold, Matthew (b. Dec. 24, 1822, Laleham, Middlesex, Eng.—d. April 15, 1888, Liverpool) English poet and literary and social critic. Son of the educator Thomas Arnold, he attended Oxford and then worked as an inspector of schools for the rest of his life. His verse includes “Dover Beach,” his most celebrated work; “Sohrab and Rustum,” a romantic epic; and “The Scholar Gipsy” and “Thyrsis.” Culture and Anarchy (1869), his central work of criticism, is a masterpiece of ridicule as well as a search¬
ing analysis of Victorian society. In a later essay, “The Study of Poetry,” he argued that, in an age of crumbling creeds, poetry would replace reli¬ gion and that therefore readers would have to understand how to distin¬ guish the best poetry from the inferior.
Arnold, Thomas known as Doctor Arnold (b. June 13, 1795, East Cowes, Isle of Wight, Eng.—d. June 12, 1842, Rugby, Warwickshire)
British educator. A classical scholar, he became headmaster in 1828 of Rugby School, which was in a state of decline. He revived Rugby by reforming its curriculum, athletics program, and social structure (in the prefect system he introduced, older boys served as house monitors to keep discipline among younger boys), becoming in the process the preeminent figure in British educa¬ tion. In 1841 he was named Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford. In addition to several vol¬ umes of sermons, he wrote a three- volume History of Rome (1838—43).