Mutesa II, and later abolished all the kingdoms. Obote was overthrown in a 1971 coup led by Amin, but, after Amin was deposed in 1979, Obote returned to Uganda and established a repressive government. He was again ousted in 1985 and eventually settled in Zambia.
Obraztsov V.o-brost-'soA, Sergey Vladimirovich (b. July 5, 1901, Moscow, Russia—d. May 8, 1992, Moscow) Russian puppeteer. While working as an actor in Moscow (1922-31), he gave independent vaudeville-style puppet shows. In 1931 he was chosen to be the first director of Moscow’s State Central Puppet Theatre. There his perfor¬ mances, displaying technical excellence and stylistic discipline, estab¬ lished puppetry as an art form in the Soviet Union, and on worldwide tours he inspired the formation of several rod-puppet theatres. His notable productions included Aladdin’s Magic Lamp (1940), An Unusual Concert (1946), and Don Juan (1976).
Obrecht \'o-,brekt\, Jakob (b. Nov. 22, 1452, Bergen-op-Zoom, Brabant—d. 1505, Ferrara) Flemish composer. Little is known of his ori¬ gins or education, but in 1484 he was appointed instructor of choirboys at Cambrai cathedral and then held a position in Brugge. His composi¬ tional style is notable for its warm, graceful melodies and clear harmo¬ nies. Most outstanding are his 29 masses; he also wrote about 30 motets and some secular music. Despite his contemporary renown, he had little
influence on later composers, since his works were not widely distributed and his intellectual but exuberant music came to seem old-fashioned with the advent of Josquin des Prez.
Obregon \,o-bra-'gon\, Alvaro (b. Feb. 19, 1880, Alamos, Mex.—d. July 17, 1928, Mexico City) President of Mexico (1920-24). A skillful military leader who fought for the moderate presidents Francisco Madero and Venustiano Carranza during the Mexican Revolution, he was largely responsible for the liberal constitution of 1917. In response to Carranza’s increasingly reactionary policies, Obregon took a leading role in the revolt that deposed him and was himself elected president in 1920. He managed to impose relative peace and prosperity on his war-torn country. He was elected again in 1928 but was shot and killed before assuming office.
Obrenovic dynasty \6-'bren-3-,vet y \ Family that provided Serbia with five rulers between 1815 and 1903. Its founding member, Milos (1780-1860), was prince of Serbia (1815-39, 1858-60). His elder son, Milan III, reigned only 26 days before dying in 1839. Milos’s second son, Michael III, was prince on two occasions (1839-42, 1860-68). A cousin, Milan IV (1854-1901), became prince in 1868 and then king of Serbia (1882-89). His son Alexander (1876-1903) succeeded him as king in 1889, but he was assassinated in 1903.
O'Brian, Patrick orig. Richard Patrick Russ (b. Dec. 12, 1914, near London, Eng.—d. Jan. 2, 2000, Dublin, Ire.) British writer. He was the eighth of nine children; an early marriage ended in divorce, and after World War II he married again, changed his name, and moved to a small, secluded coastal town in France near the Spanish border. He received little critical notice until age 54, when he began publishing his 18th-century seafaring series featuring Capt. Jack Aubrey and ship’s surgeon Stephen Maturin; it eventually numbered 20 books (1969-99) and was compared with the works of Herman Melville, Anthony Trollope, and Marcel Proust.
O'Brien, Flann orig. Brian 6 Nuallain (b. Oct. 5, 1911, Strabane, County Tyrone, Ire.—d. April 1, 1966, Dublin) Irish novelist, dramatist, and newspaper columnist. Under the name Myles na gCopaleen, he wrote a column for the Irish Times for 26 years. He is most celebrated for the novel At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), a literary experiment that combines folklore, legend, humour, poetry, and linguistic games. His other novels include The Hard Life (1961) and The Dalkey Archive (1964).
O'Brien, Lawrence in full Lawrence Francis O'Brien, Jr. (b.
July 7, 1917, Springfield, Mass., U.S.—d. Sept. 28, 1990, New York, N.Y.) U.S. political official. He managed John F. Kennedy’s successful campaigns for the U.S. Senate (1952, 1958) and presidency (1960). He later served as Kennedy’s special assistant (1961-65), as U.S. postmas¬ ter general (1965-68), as chairman of the Democratic National Commit¬ tee (1968-69, 1970-73), and as commissioner of the National Basketball Association (1975-84).
O'Brien, William Smith (b. Oct. 17, 1803, Dromoland, County Clare, Ire.—d. June 18, 1864,
Bangor, Caernarvonshire, Wales)
Irish political insurgent. He served in the British House of Commons (1828-48) and initially supported the Anglo-Irish legislative union (see Act of Union). In 1843 he joined the anti-union Repeal Association, and in 1846 he broke with Daniel O'Connell to lead the radical Young Ireland movement. In 1848 he sup¬ ported violent revolution and led an abortive insurrection in County Tip¬ perary. Convicted of high treason, he received a death sentence that was commuted to exile in Tasmania. He was released in 1854 and pardoned in 1856.
obscenity Act, utterance, writing, or illustration that is deemed deeply offensive according to contemporary community standards of morality and decency. Though most societies have placed restrictions on the content of literary and graphic works, it was not until relatively modern times that sexuality became a major focus of societal concern. One of the first systematic efforts to suppress books
Milton Obote.
PETER KEMP/AP
William Smith O'Brien, lithograph by H. O'Neill after a daguerreotype by Glukman, 1848
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM; PHOTOGRAPH, J.R. FREEMAN & CO. LTD.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1394 I observatory ► Occupation
deemed to be immoral or heretical was undertaken by the Roman Catho¬ lic church in the 16th century. Modern obscenity laws can be viewed as direct responses to the social and technological changes (e.g., the creation of the printing press and the development of the Internet) that have per¬ mitted the wide and easy distribution of sexually explicit materials. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that materials are obscene if they appeal predominantly to a prurient interest in sexual conduct, depict or describe sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Material deemed obscene under this definition is not protected in the U.S. by the free-speech guar¬ antee of the 1st Amendment. See also freedom of speech; pornography.
observatory Structure containing telescopes and other instruments for observing celestial objects and phenomena. Observatories can be classi¬ fied by the part of the electromagnetic spectrum they can receive. Most are optical, observing in and near the region of the visible spectrum. Some are equipped to detect radio waves; others (space observatories) are Earth satellites and other spacecraft that carry special telescopes and detectors to study celestial sources of high-energy radiation (e.g., gamma rays, ultra¬ violet radiation, X-rays) from above the atmosphere. Stonehenge may have been an early predecessor of the optical observatory. Perhaps the first observatory that used instruments to accurately measure the positions of celestial objects was built c. 150 bc by Hipparchus. The first notable pre¬ modern European observatory was that at Uraniborg, built for Tycho Brahe in 1576. Observatory House, in Slough, Eng., built and operated by Wil¬ liam Herschel (see Herschel family), was one of the technical wonders of the 18th century. Today the world’s largest groupings of optical telescopes are atop Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, and Cerro Tololo, in Chile. Other major observatories include Arecibo Observatory; Mount Wilson Observatory; Palomar Observatory; and Royal Greenwich Observatory.
obsessive-compulsive disorder Mental disorder in which an indi¬ vidual experiences obsessions or compulsions, either singly or together. An obsession is a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an unreason¬ able idea or feeling (such as of being contaminated through shaking hands with someone). A compulsion is an irresistible impulse to perform an irra¬ tional act (such as repeatedly washing the hands). The two phenomena are usually, but not always, linked in the obsessive-compulsive person. Onset of the illness has been linked to malregulation of the neurotrans¬ mitter serotonin as well as to the ill effects of high stress.