brother). At their new base the Communists were able to build up their strength at a safe remove from the Nationalists in preparation for their eventual victory in 1949.
Long Parliament Session of the English Parliament summoned in November 1640 by Charles I, so named to distinguish it from the Short Parliament of April-May 1640. Charles called the session to raise the money needed for his war against the Scots. Resistant to Charles’s demands, the Parliament caused the king’s advisers to resign and passed an act forbidding its own dissolution without its members’ consent. Ten¬ sion between the king and Parliament increased until the English Civil War broke out in 1642. After the king’s defeat (1646), the army, led by Tho¬ mas Pride, exercised political power and in 1648 expelled all but 60 mem¬ bers of the Long Parliament. The remaining group, called the Rump, brought Charles to trial and execution (1649); it was forcibly ejected in 1653. In 1659, after the end of Oliver Cromwell’s protectorate, the Parlia¬ ment was reestablished; those who were excluded in 1648 were restored to membership. The Parliament dissolved itself in 1660.
longbow Leading missile weapon of the English from the 14th century into the 16th century. Probably of Welsh origin, it was usually 6 ft (2 m) tall and shot arrows more than a yard long. The best were made of yew, might require a force of 100 lbs (45 kg) to draw, and had an effective range of 200 yards (180 m). English archers used longbows in the Hun¬ dred Years' War, and the weapon played an important role in the battles of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. See also bow and arrow, crossbow.
(b. Feb. 27, 1807, Portland,
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
Mass., U.S.—d. March 24, 1882,
Cambridge, Mass.) U.S. poet. Long¬ fellow graduated from Bowdoin Col¬ lege and traveled in Europe before joining the modern-language facul¬ ties of Bowdoin (1829-35) and Har¬ vard (1836-54). His Voices of the Night (1839), containing “The Psalm of Life” and “The Light of the Stars,” first won him popularity. Ballads and Other Poems (1841), including “The Wreck of the Hesperus” and “The Village Blacksmith,” swept the nation, as did his long poem Evan¬ geline (1847). With Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), and Tales of a Way- side Inn (1863), including “Paul Revere’s Ride,” he became the best¬ loved American poet of the 19th cen¬ tury. He later translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (1867) and published his intended masterpiece, Christus, a trilogy on Christianity (1872). The hallmarks of his verse are gentle¬ ness, simplicity, and an idealized vision of the world.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
HISTORICAL PICTURES SERVICE, CHICAGO
longhair Generic term for any member of breeds of domestic cats noted for their long, soft, flowing coat. Longhair breeds include Balinese, Bir¬ man, Cymric, Himalayan, Javanese, Norwegian forest cat, Maine coon cat, Persian, Ragdoll, Somali, and Turkish Angora. Though considered more lethargic than shorthair cats, longhairs are, like shorthairs, noted for playfulness, affection, and the ability to defend themselves if necessary.
Long hi \Toq-ge\, Pietro orig. Pietro Fa lea (b. 1702, Venice—d. May 8, 1785, Venice) Italian painter. Son of a Venetian goldsmith, he studied painting in Bologna and thereafter became known for his scenes of every¬ day life among Venice’s upper class and bourgeoisie. Popular for their charm and seeming naivete, his paintings have a Rococo sense of the inti¬ mate and manifest the interest in social observation characteristic of the Enlightenment. He also painted landscapes and portraits.
longhouse Traditional communal dwelling of the Iroquois Indians until the 19th century. The longhouse was a rectangular box built out of poles, with doors at each end and saplings stretched over the top to form the roof, the whole structure being covered with bark. It was about 20 ft (6 m) wide and could be more than 200 ft (60 m) in length, depending on the number of families living in it. Down the middle of the house were fires, which were shared by families on either side. The term is also applied today to an Iroquois building designated as church and meeting hall, though its form is entirely different. See also pole construction.
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longitude ► Loos I 1135
longitude See latitude and longitude
Longmen caves or Lung-men caves Series of Chinese cave temples carved into the rock of a high riverbank south of Luoyang, in Henan province. Construction began late in the Northern Wei dynasty (ad 386-535) and continued sporadically through the 6th century and the Tang dynasty. Delicately crafted to create ethereal effects in stone, the temples contain images of the Buddha clothed as a Chinese scholar. Work at Long- men culminated in 672-675 with the construction of a monumental shrine known as Fengxian Si, which includes a seated Buddha more than 35 ft (10.7 m) high.
Longshan culture or Lung-shan culture (2500-1900 bc) Neolithic culture of China’s Huang He (Yellow River) valley. Large sites with rammed-earth walls have been found. Characteristic Longshan pot¬ tery has thin walls and is well crafted; there are tall-stemmed black cups with eggshell-thin walls as well as polished black beakers. Oracle bones were used for divination. There is evidence of differentiation in social sta¬ tus, and jade artifacts and traces of metallurgy have been found.
longship or Viking ship Sail-and-oar vessel widely used in northern Europe for more than 1,500 years. It was a 45-75-ft (14-23-m) galley with up to 10 oars on a side, a square sail, and a 50-60-man capacity. Double-ended and built with overlapped planks, it was exceptionally sturdy in high seas. Examples have been found from as early as 300 bc. It carried the Vikings on their piratical raids of the 9th century and bore Leif Eriksson to America in 1000. Dutch, French, English, and German merchants and warriors also used it.
Longstreet, James (b. Jan. 8, 1821, Edgefield District, S.C., U.S.—d. Jan. 2, 1904, Gainesville, Ga.) U.S. army officer. He graduated from West Point but resigned from the U.S. Army when South Carolina seceded. Appointed brigadier general in the Confederate army, he fought in the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. He was second in com¬ mand to Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg, where his delay in attacking contributed to the Confederate defeat. He later directed the Con¬ federate attack at Chickamauga. He was badly wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness but later resumed his command. He surrendered with Lee at Appomattox Court House. He later served as U.S. minister to Turkey (1880-81) and commissioner of Pacific railways (1898-1904).
Lonnrot \Tcen-rutV Elias (b. April 9, 1802, Sammatti, Swedish Finland—d. March 19, 1884, Sammatti, Russian Finland) Finnish folk¬ lorist and philologist. While serving as a medical officer for 20 years in a remote part of eastern Finland, Lonnrot collected linguistic information and folk poetry from the region’s inhabitants. Believing that the short poems were fragments of a continuous epic, he added connective mate¬ rial of his own and assembled them into the Kalevala (1835, enlarged 1849), which became the Finnish national epic. He also published Old Songs and Ballads of the Finnish People (1840—41) and other collections.
Lonsdale, Dame Kathleen orig. Kathleen Yardley (b. Jan. 28, 1903, Newbridge, County Kildare, Ire.—d. April 1, 1971, London, Eng.) Irish-born British crystallographer. In 1929 her X-ray crystallography techniques established the regular hexagonal arrangement of carbon atoms in molecules of benzene compounds. She developed a technique with which she measured (to seven figures) the distance between carbon atoms in diamond. She also applied crystallographic techniques to medical prob¬ lems, in particular the study of bladder stones and certain drugs. In 1945 she became the first woman elected to the Royal Society of London, and in 1956 she was created Dame of the British Empire.