Missouri State (pop., 2000: 5,595,211), midwestem U.S. Bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, it covers 69,709 sq mi (180,546 sq km); its capital is Jefferson City. The Missouri River runs from west to east across the state. The area north of it has rolling hills and fertile plains, the area south has deep valleys and swift streams. The region was originally inhabited by various Indian peoples, one of which, the Missouri, gave the state its name. The first per¬ manent European settlement was made in 1735 at Ste. Genevieve by French hunters and lead miners. St. Louis was founded in 1764. The U.S. gained control of the region in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. It was part of Louisiana Territory in 1805 and Missouri Territory in 1812. An influx of U.S. settlers occurred after the War of 181 2. Missouri became the 24th state in 1821, but only after the Missouri Compromise allowed its admis¬ sion as a slave state. It suffered much tension between slaveholders and abolitionists, evidenced in the Dred Scott decision in 1857. Missouri remained in the Union during the American Civil War, though its citizens fought on both sides. After the war, its economic growth expanded and was celebrated in the St. Louis Exhibition of 1904. After World War II, its economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing. It leads the nation in lead production, based mainly in the Ozarks region.
Missouri Compromise (1820) Act passed by the U.S. Congress admitting Missouri to the Union as the 24th state. After the territory requested statehood without slavery restrictions, Northern congressmen tried unsuccessfully to attach amendments restricting further slaveholding. When Maine (originally part of Massachusetts) requested statehood, a compromise led by Henry Clay allowed Missouri admission as a slave state and Maine as a free state, with slavery prohibited from then on in territories north of Missouri’s southern border. Clay’s compromise appeared to settle the slavery-extension issue but highlighted the sectional division.
Missouri Plan Method of selecting judges that originated in the state of Missouri and was later adopted elsewhere. Designed to overcome the weaknesses of the elective system, the plan permits the governor to select a judge from a list of nominees recommended by a special commission, but requires that the judge be approved in a public referendum after serv¬ ing a period of time.
Missouri River River, central U.S. The longest tributary of the Mississippi River, it rises in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana. It flows east to central North Dakota and south across South Dakota, forming sections of the South Dakota-Nebraska boundary, the Nebraska-Iowa boundary, the Nebraska-Missouri boundary, and the Kansas-Missouri boundary. It then meanders east across central Missouri to join the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, after a total course of 2,315 mi (3,726 km). It has been nicknamed “Big Muddy” because of the amount of silt that it carries. The first Euro¬ peans to visit its mouth were French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet in 1673. The first exploration of the river from its mouth to its head¬ waters was made in 1 804—05 by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Since the mid 20th century, programs have been instituted along its banks to check its turbulent flooding and to harness it for irrigation.
Missouri River, Little See Little Missouri River
Misti \'mes-te\ Volcano Spanish Volcan Misti Volcano, Andes Mountains, southern Peru. It is flanked by Chachani and Pichupichu vol¬ canoes and rises to 19,098 ft (5,821 m) above sea level, towering over the city of Arequipa. Its pristine snowcapped cone is thought to have had reli¬ gious significance for the Incas, and it has inspired legends and poetry. Now dormant, it last erupted during an earthquake in 1600.
mistletoe Any of many species of semiparasitic green plants of the families Loranthaceae and Vis- caceae, especially those of the gen¬ era Viscum, Phoradendron, and Arceuthobium , all members of the Viscaceae family. V. album , the tra¬ ditional mistletoe of literature and Christmas celebrations, is found throughout Eurasia. This yellowish evergreen bush (2-3 ft, or 0.6-0.9 m, long) droops on the branch of a host tree. The thickly crowded, forking branches bear small leathery leaves and yellowish flowers, which pro¬ duce waxy-white berries containing poisonous pulp. A modified root pen¬ etrates the bark of the host tree and forms tubes through which water and nutrients pass from the host to the slow-growing but persistent parasite.
The North American counterpart is P. serotinum. Mistletoe was formerly believed to have magical and medicinal powers, and kissing under hanging mistletoe was said to lead inevitably to marriage.
Mistral \me-'stral\, Frederic (b.
Sept. 8, 1830, Maillane, France—-d.
March 25, 1914, Maillane) French poet. A leader of the 19th-century revival of Provencal, Mistral cofounded the Felibrige, an influen¬ tial association for maintaining the customs and language of Provence and later the whole of southern France. He devoted 20 years to cre¬ ating a scholarly dictionary of Provencal. His literary output includes lyrics; short stories; Mem¬ oirs of Mistral (1906), his best- known work; and long narrative poems, including Mireio (1859) and The Song of the Rhone (1897), his two greatest works. He shared the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature with Jose Echegaray.
Leaves and berries of American m istle- toe (Phoradendron serotinum )
JOHN H. GERARD
Frederic Mistral, etching, 1864
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Mistral ► Mitford I 1269
Mistral \mes-'tral\ / Gabriela ori} April 7, 1889, Vicuna, Chile—d. Jan. 10, 1957, Hempstead, N.Y., U.S.) Chilean poet. Mistral combined writ¬ ing with a career as a cultural min¬ ister and diplomat and as a professor in the U.S. Her reputation as a poet was established in 1914 when she won a prize for three “Sonnets of Death.” Her passionate lyrics, with love of children and of the downtrod¬ den as principal themes, are col¬ lected in such volumes as Desolation (1922), Tala (1938), and Lagar (1954). In 1945 she became the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
. Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (b.
MIT See Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Milanni \mi-'ta-ne\ Ancient king- ^ r 'o!co«fEs°wAs™GTON, d.c
dom of upper Mesopotamia. It -
extended from the Euphrates River
nearly to the Tigris River and flourished from about 1500 to 1360 bc. Founded by Indo-Iranians who settled among the Hurrian peoples of the region, it competed with Egypt for control of Syria. Under King Sausta- tar in the 15th century bc, the soldiers of Mitanni looted the Assyrian pal¬ ace in Ashur. In the mid-14th century bc, Wassukkani, its capital, was sacked by the Hittites, and the kingdom became part of the Hittite empire as Hanigalbat. Shortly afterward it was made an Assyrian province.
Mitchell, Arthur (b. March 27, 1934, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. dancer, choreographer, and director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. He studied at the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City. He began dancing in Broadway musicals and worked with several ballet com¬ panies before joining the New York City Ballet in 1956 as its first African American dancer. He created roles in several of George Balanchine’s bal¬ lets, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1962) and Agon (1967), before leaving the company in 1972. In 1968 he cofounded a ballet school, and its company, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, made its debut in 1971. He has continued as its director and choreographer.
Mitchell, Billy orig. William Mitchell (b. Dec. 29, 1879, Nice, France—d. Feb. 19, 1936, New York, N.Y., U.S.) French-born U.S. avia¬ tor. He enlisted in the army and served in the Spanish-American War. He became the top U.S. air commander in World War I, initiating mass¬ bombing formations and leading an attack involving 1,500 planes. An outspoken advocate of a separate air force, he foresaw the replacement of the battleship by the bomber. When a navy dirigible was lost in a storm (1925), he accused the U.S. war and navy departments of incompetence; charged with insubordination, he was court-martialed and suspended from duty. He resigned in 1926 but continued to champion air power and to warn of advances by foreign air forces. In 1948 he was posthumously honoured by the new U.S. Air Force with a special medal.