misrepresentation In law, any false or misleading expression of fact, usually with the intent to deceive or defraud. It most commonly occurs in insurance and real-estate contracts. False advertising may also consti¬ tute misrepresentation. Any contract that contains or constitutes a mis¬ representation is usually rendered void, and the injured party may insist that the misrepresentation be made good.
missile RocKET-propelled weapon designed to deliver an explosive war¬ head with great accuracy at high speed. Missiles vary from small tactical weapons effective out to only a few hundred feet to much larger strategic weapons with ranges of several thousand miles. They were not developed in any significant way until after World War II. Almost all contain some form of guidance and control mechanism and are therefore often called guided missiles. An unguided military missile, as well as any launch vehicle used to penetrate the upper atmosphere or place a satellite in space, is usually called a rocket. A propeller-driven underwater missile is called a torpedo, and a guided missile powered along a low, level flight path by an air-breathing jet engine is called a cruise missile. With the development of ICBMs, missiles became central to Cold War strategy. See also anti- balustic missile, Minuteman missile, V-l missile, V-2 missile. See illustration opposite.
Missile Defense Alarm System (Midas) Any of a series of unmanned U.S. military satellites developed to provide warning of sur¬ prise attacks by Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Midas was the first such warning system in the world. Launched in the early 1960s, the reconnaissance satellites were equipped with infrared sensors capable of detecting the heat of a ballistic missile’s rocket exhaust shortly after firing.
mission Organized effort to spread the Christian faith. St. Paul evange¬ lized much of Asia Minor and Greece, and the new religion spread rap¬ idly along the trade routes of the Roman Empire. The advance of Christianity slowed with the disintegration of the Roman Empire after ad 500 and the growth of Arab power in the 7th-8th century, but Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries continued to spread the faith in western and northern Europe, while missionaries of the Greek church in Constantino¬ ple worked in eastern Europe and Russia. Missions to Islamic areas and Asia began in the medieval period, and when Spain, Portugal, and France established overseas empires in the 16th century, the Roman Catholic church sent missionaries to the Americas and the Philippines. A renewed wave of Roman Catholic missionary work in the 19th century focused on Africa and Asia. Protestant churches were slower to undertake foreign missions, but in the 19th and early 20th century there was a great upsurge in Protestant missionary activity. Missionary work continues today, though it is often discouraged by the governments of former European colonies that have won independence.
Mission style or Spanish Mission style Style of the missions established by Spanish Franciscans in Florida, Texas, Arizona, New
1 MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC.
Mexico, and especially California (1769-1823). Their portals were often handsomely ornate, but the overall impression is one of simple geomet¬ ric volumes of white stucco complemented by sharply incised windows and simplified interior details. Mission style also commonly refers to a style largely created in the early 20th century by Gustav Stickley, who marketed a line of plain, heavy oak furnishings inspired by those of the Spanish missions, as well as a series of house designs to suit modest incomes.
Mississauga \ l mi-s3- , so-g9\ City (pop., 2001: 612,925), southeastern Ontario, Canada. Situated at the western end of Lake Ontario, southwest of Toronto, it was settled in the early 19th century on land purchased from the Mississauga Indians. Mississauga became a town in 1968 and a city in 1974. Both a residential suburb of Toronto and an important industrial centre, it is also the site of the Lester B. Pearson International Airport.
Mississippi State (pop., 2000: 2,844,658), south-central U.S. Lying on the Gulf of Mexico, it is bordered by Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas. It covers 47,695 sq mi (123,530 sq km); its capital is Jackson. Its landscape ranges from hills and pine woods to plains and river low¬ lands. Before European settlement, the area was inhabited by several Indian tribes, including the Choctaw, Natchez, and Chickasaw. It became part of French-controlled Louisiana, and Biloxi was settled in 1699. The northern portion was ceded to the U.S. in 1783; the southern portion was included in the Mississippi Territory (created 1798), which expanded in 1804 to include most of the present-day state. Mississippi became the 20th U.S. state in 1817. A plantation-based economy using slave labour devel¬ oped in the 1820s. It seceded from the Union in 1861 and gave the Con¬ federacy its president, Jefferson Davis. The Union capture of Vicksburg in 1863 proved a turning point in the American Civil War. It was readmitted to the Union in 1870 and adopted a constitution aimed at blocking Recon¬ struction in 1890. The state became a battleground in the struggle against
L_
M
N
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1268 I Mississippi River ► Mistral
L_
N
racial segregation in the 1960s: the state’s effort to block the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi triggered riots in 1962; local civil rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963. After 1969, when the federal government ordered the integration of the state’s seg¬ regated school system, Mississippi’s long-standing racial traditions began a gradual change. Today, its economy is based on agricultural products, including cotton and soybeans. Manufactured goods include textiles and electrical equipment.
Mississippi River River, central U.S. It rises at Lake Itasca in Minne¬ sota and flows south, meeting its major tributaries, the Missouri and the Ohio rivers, about halfway along its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. It enters the Gulf southeast of New Orleans, after a course of 2,350 mi (3,780 km). It is the largest river in North America, and with its tributaries it drains an area of 1.2 million sq mi (3.1 million sq km). Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto was the first European to discover the river in 1541. French explor¬ ers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled down it in 1673 as far as the Arkansas River. French explorer La Salle reached the delta in 1682 and claimed the entire Mississippi region for France, as Louisiana. France kept control over the upper river, but the lower portion passed to Spain in 1769. It was designated the western boundary of the U.S. in 1783. France sold it to the U.S. in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. During the American Civil War, Union forces captured Vicksburg, Miss., in 1863, breaking the Confederate hold on the river. As the central river artery of the U.S., it is one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world.
Mississippian culture Last major prehistoric cultural development in North America, c. ad 800-1550. It spread over much of the southeast and the mid-continent, especially in the major river valleys. It was based on intensive cultivation of corn, beans, squash, and other crops. Each large town dominated a group of satellite villages. Each had a central ceremo¬ nial plaza with one or more pyramidal or oval earthen mounds surmounted by a temple, a pattern indicating a connection to Central America. The immense Cahokia Mounds near present-day Collinsville, Ill., U.S., was the culture’s largest urban centre. Craftwork was executed in copper, shell, stone, wood, and clay. The culture had already begun to decline by the time Europeans first penetrated the southeast. See also Southeastern Indian; Woodland culture.
Mississippian Period In North America, an interval of geologic time roughly equivalent to what is internationally designated the Early Car¬ boniferous Period (354-323 million years ago). Because the rocks associ¬ ated with this period are typified by those in the Mississippi valley, some U.S. geologists prefer the designation Mississippian to the European term Early Carboniferous.