Limpopo River River, South Africa. Rising as the Crocodile (Krokodil) River in the Witwa- tersrand, South Africa, it flows northeast along the border of South Africa and southeast across Mozam¬ bique to empty into the Indian Ocean. Along its middle course it divides South Africa from Botswana and Zimbabwe. It is 1,100 mi (1,800 km) long but is navigable only 130 mi (208 km) from the coast. The first European to visit it was Vasco da Gama, who named its mouth the Espfritu Santo River in 1498.
Lin, Maya (b. Oct. 5, 1959, Athens, Ohio, U.S.) U.S. architect and sculptor. The daughter of intellectuals who had fled China in 1948, she achieved fame in 1981 when her class assignment at Yale University won the nationwide Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition. Lin’s award¬ winning design consisted of a polished black granite V-shaped wall inscribed with the names of the approximately 58,000 men and women who were killed or missing in action; the abstract nature of the design aroused a great deal of controversy. Her subsequent, vastly different
European limpets (Patella vulgata) with acorn barnacles (Balanus balanoides)
NEVILLE FOX-DAVIES—BRUCE COLEMAN INC./EB INC.
designs include the major commissions for the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala. (1989), and the Women’s Table at Yale (1993), as well as an earth sculpture for the University of Michigan (1994) and an extraor¬ dinary translucent clock. Eclipsed Time, installed in the ceiling of New York City’s Pennsylvania Station (1994).
Lin Biao \Tin-be-'au\ or Lin Piao (b. Dec. 5, 1907, Huanggang, Hubei province, China—d. Sept. 13, 1971?, Mongolia?) Chinese military leader and government official who played a prominent role in the Cultural Revo¬ lution. He joined the Socialist Youth League in 1925 and Chiang Kai-shek’s Northern Expedition in 1926. When Chiang turned on the communists in 1927, Lin fled to join Mao. During the Long March Lin became legend¬ ary for never losing a battle, and he prevailed against the Japanese in the 1930s and the Nationalists in the 1940s. In the early 1960s his reforma¬ tion and indoctrination of the army in accordance with Mao’s teachings became a model for the rest of society, and during the Cultural Revolu¬ tion he was designated Mao’s successor. Subsequent events are unclear, but in September 1971 the Chinese government reported that Lin died in a plane crash in Mongolia in an attempt to flee China; his death has remained a mystery.
Lin Yutang or Lin Yu-t'ang (b. Oct. 10, 1895, Longxi, Fujian prov¬ ince, China—d. March 26, 1976, Hong Kong) Chinese writer. The son of a Presbyterian minister, he studied in the U.S. and Europe. In 1932 he established a highly successful Western-style satirical magazine of a type totally new to China; soon he introduced two other publications. A pro¬ lific writer of works in Chinese and English, he produced his first English- language book. My Country and My People, in 1935. From 1936 he lived chiefly in the U.S. His other works include The Wisdom of China and India (1942), books on Chinese history and philosophy, and highly acclaimed English translations of Chinese literary masterpieces.
Lin Zexu Vlin-'dzo-'shiA or Lin Tse-hsu (b. Aug. 30, 1785, Houguan, Fujian province, China—d. Nov. 22, 1850, Chaozhu, Guangdong prov¬ ince) Leading Chinese scholar and official of the Qing dynasty, accepted as a national hero for his stance against the British before the Anglo-Chinese Opium War (1839-42). Lin passed the highest examination in the Chinese examination system and entered the Hanun Academy and government. Having suggested to the emperor ways to suppress the opium trade, Lin found himself appointed imperial commissioner and dispatched to Guang¬ zhou (Canton) to deal with the problem directly. He was so successful that, in retaliation for his destruction of their opium stocks, the British ravaged large parts of southern China, and Lin was quickly dismissed. He served loyally at his post of exile and was soon called back to important service. He died on his way to help suppress the Taping Rebellion.
linac See linear accelerator
Linacre Vli-ni-korV Thomas (b. c. 1460, Canterbury, Kent, Eng.—d. Oct. 20, 1524, London) English physician and classical scholar. Elected a fellow at Oxford in 1484, he became one of the first propagators of the humanist “New Learning” in England; his students included Desiderius Erasmus and St. Thomas More. Many prominent Londoners were his medi¬ cal patients, including Henry VIII, whose approval he obtained in 1518 to found the Royal College of Physicians, which decided who should prac¬ tice medicine in Greater London and which licensed physicians through¬ out the kingdom, ending the indiscriminate practice of medicine by barbers, clergymen, and others.
Lincoln City (pop., 2000: 225,581), capital of Nebraska, U.S. Laid out in 1859 and called Lancaster, it was renamed for Abraham Lincoln when it was chosen as the capital in 1867.
The town was incorporated in 1869 and was the home of the politician William Jennings Bryan from 1887 to 1921. It is a railroad junction and commercial centre serving the sur¬ rounding agricultural region. Its institutions of higher education include the University of Nebraska,
Union College, and Nebraska Wes¬ leyan University.
Lincoln ancient Lindum City and administrative district (pop., 2001:
85,616), administrative and historic
Lincoln cathedral, Lincolnshire
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© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Lincoln ► Lindisfarne I 1117
county of Lincolnshire, eastern England. Under the name Lindum, it served as a Roman fortress, and by ad 7 1 it had become a settlement for retired soldiers. It later came under Danish rule, and in the Middle Ages it was one of England’s major towns. Henry II gave the city its first charter in 1154. It is a market centre for an agricultural region and also possesses some manufacturing. It has many medieval buildings, including the cathe¬ dral (begun c. 1075).
Lincoln, Abraham (b. Feb. 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Ky., U.S.—d. April 15, 1865, Washington, D.C.) 16th president of the U.S. (1861-65). Born in a Kentucky log cabin, he moved to Indiana in 1816 and to Illi¬ nois in 1830. After working as a storekeeper, a rail-splitter, a postmaster, and a surveyor, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Black Hawk War (1832) and was elected captain of his company. He taught himself law and, hav¬ ing passed the bar examination, began practicing in Springfield, Ill., in 1836. As a successful circuit-riding lawyer from 1837, he was noted for his shrewdness, common sense, and honesty (earning the nickname “Hon¬ est Abe”). From 1834 to 1840 he served in the Illinois state legislature, and in 1847 he was elected as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representa¬ tives. In 1856 he joined the Republican Party, which nominated him as its candidate in the 1858 Senate election. In a series of seven debates with Stephen A. Douglas (the Lincoln-Douglas Debates), he argued against the extension of slavery into the territories. Though morally opposed to sla¬ very, he was not an abolitionist; indeed, he attempted to rebut Douglas’s charge that he was a dangerous radical, by reassuring audiences that he did not favour political equality for blacks. Despite his loss in the elec¬ tion, the debates brought him national attention. In the 1860 presidential election, he ran against Douglas again and won by a large margin in the electoral college, though he received only two-fifths of the popular vote. The South opposed his position on slavery in the territories, and before his inauguration seven Southern states had seceeded from the Union. The ensuing American Civil War completely consumed Lincoln’s administra¬ tion. He excelled as a wartime leader, creating a high command for direct¬ ing all the country’s energies and resources toward the war effort and combining statecraft and overall command of the armies with what some have called military genius. However, his abrogation of some civil liber¬ ties, especially the writ of habeas corpus, and the closing of several news¬ papers by his generals disturbed both Democrats and Republicans, including some members of his own cabinet. To unite the North and influence foreign opinion, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1863); his Gettysburg Address (1863) further ennobled the war’s purpose. The continuing war affected some Northerners’ resolve and his reelection was not assured, but strategic battle victories turned the tide, and he easily defeated George B. McClellan in 1864. His platform included passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery (ratified 1865). At his second inaugural, with victory in sight, he spoke of moderation in reconstruct¬ ing the South and building a harmonious Union. On April 14, five days after the war ended, he was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth.