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population; there are smaller numbers of Russians, Poles, and Belarusians. Lan¬ guages: Lithuanian (official), Russian, Pol¬ ish, Belarusian. Religion: Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic; also Eastern Orthodox). Currency: litas. The country consists of low-lying plains alternating with hilly uplands, watered by rivers that meander west¬ ward to the Baltic Sea. Manufacturing, including metalworking, wood¬ working, and textile production, is especially important in the east and south. Agriculture focuses on livestock breeding, especially dairy farm¬ ing and pigs, and the cultivation of cereals, flax, sugar beets, potatoes, and fodder crops. Lithuania is a multiparty republic with one legislative house; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. Lithuanian tribes united in the mid-13th century to oppose the Teutonic Knights. Gediminas, one of the grand dukes, expanded Lithuania into an empire that dominated much of eastern Europe in the 14th—16th centuries. In 1386 the Lithuanian grand duke became the king of Poland, and the two countries remained closely associated for the next 400 years. Lithuania was acquired by Russia in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 and joined in the Polish revolt in 1863. Occupied by Ger¬ many during World War I, it declared its independence in 1918. In 1940 the Soviet Red Army gained control of Lithuania, which was soon incor¬ porated into the Soviet Union. Germany occupied Lithuania again from 1941, but the Red Army regained control in 1944. With the breakup of
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1124 I Lithuanian language ► Liturgical movement
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the U.S.S.R., Lithuania declared its independence in 1990 and gained full independence in 1991. In the 1990s and early 21st century it sought eco¬ nomic stability, and in 2004 it became a member of the European Union.
Lithuanian language East Baltic language spoken by more than four million people in the Republic of Lithuania and in diaspora communities, with perhaps 70,000 speakers in North America. Lithuanian is sparsely attested until 1547, when the first book in the language was printed. Efforts to develop a standard language in the late 19th century were dominated by speakers of the West High dialect spoken in German-ruled East Prussia. Among them was Jonas Jablonskis (1860-1930), whose orthography (based on the Latin alphabet with numerous diacritics) and grammar (1901) won official acceptance when Lithuania became independent. Lithuanian is renowned for its archaism among living Indo-European languages.
litmus \Tit-mos\ Mixture of coloured organic compounds obtained from several species of lichens. In the form of a water solution or as litmus paper, it is the oldest and most-used indicator of whether a substance is an acid or a base. It turns red or pink in acid solutions and blue or purple- blue in alkaline solutions.
Little Armenia or Lesser Armenia Ancient kingdom, southeastern coast of Anatolia. After initial struggles with the Byzantine Empire, it was established in Cilicia by the Armenian Rubenid dynasty in the 12th cen¬ tury and developed contacts with the West. It was influenced by cultural contacts with Crusaders and with Venetian and Genoese merchants. It was conquered by the Muslim Mamluk dynasty in 1375.
Little Bighorn, Battle of the or Custer's Last Stand (June 25, 1876) Battle at the Little Bighorn River, Montana Territory, U.S., between federal troops led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and a band of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. The U.S. government had ordered the north¬ ern Plains tribes to return to designated reservations and had sent troops under Gen. Alfred H. Terry to enforce the order. Terry hoped to surround an Indian encampment at the mouth of the Little Bighorn, but a party of some 200 soldiers led by Custer launched an early attack and was slaugh¬ tered. Government troops subsequently flooded into the area and forced the Indians to surrender.
Little Entente \an-'tant\ Mutual defense arrangement formed in 1920-21 between Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania, with French support. It was directed against German and Hungarian domination in the Danube River basin and toward protection of its members’ territorial integrity. It was successful in the 1920s, but after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power (1933) its members adopted increasingly independent foreign poli¬ cies. The entente collapsed after Germany annexed the Czech Sudeten- land (1938).
Little League International baseball organization for children and youth, started in 1939 in Williamsport, Pa., by Carl E. Stotz and brothers Bert and George Bebble. The league originally included boys aged 8-12; girls were admitted in 1974. It now includes two upper divisions for youths aged 13-15 and 16-18. In the junior division the game is played on a field two-thirds the size of a professional baseball diamond. A sea¬ son comprises about 15 games. The organization expanded rapidly after World War II; by the 1990s there were about 2.5 million players in some 30 countries. The Little League World Series is held in Williamsport each year in August.
little magazine Any of various small, usually avant-garde periodicals devoted to serious literary writings. The name signifies most of all a usu¬ ally noncommercial manner of editing, managing, and financing. They were published from c. 1880 through much of the 20th century and flour¬ ished in the U.S. and England, though French and German writers also benefited from them. Foremost among them were two U.S. periodicals, Poetry and the more erratic and often more sensational Little Review (1914-29); the English Egoist (1914-19) and Blast (1914-15); and the French transition (1927-38).
Little Missouri River River, northwestern U.S. It rises in northeast¬ ern Wyoming and flows northeast across the southeastern comer of Mon¬ tana and the northwestern comer of South Dakota. It continues north into North Dakota, turning east to empty into the Missouri River after a course of 560 mi (900 km). The Theodore Roosevelt National Park lies along its shores in North Dakota.
Little Richard orig. Richard Wayne Penniman (b. Dec. 5, 1932, Macon, Ga., U.S.) U.S. rhythm and blues singer and pianist. Born into a
strict religious family, he sang and played piano in church but was later ejected from his home by his father, reportedly for homosexual behav¬ iour. He performed in nightclubs, traveled with a medicine show, and recorded as a blues artist from the early 1950s. His first big hit came with “Tutti Frutti” (1956), an energetic performance that, with his penchant for the outrageous, set a standard for the emerging rock idiom. Similar hits followed, including “Long Tall Sally,” “Lucille,” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly.” In 1957 he underwent a religious conversion and was later ordained a minister. He soon returned to music, becoming a regular attrac¬ tion in Las Vegas, and he continued to tour and appeal - in films with much success. He was an original inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Little Rock City (pop., 2000: 183,133), capital of Arkansas, U.S., located on the Arkansas River. In 1722 Bernard de la Harpe, a French explorer, named the site La Petite Roche for a rock formation on the riverbank. It became the capital of Arkansas in 1821. It was strongly anti- Union at the outbreak of the American Civil War; Federal troops occupied the city in 1863. It grew as the commercial centre of a farming region and as a hub of railway and river transportation. In 1957 federal troops were sent there to prevent state authorities from interfering with desegregation at Central High School. The state’s largest city, it has many institutions of higher learning, including the University of Arkansas at Little Rock