Prince orig. Prince Rogers Nelson (b. June 7, 1958, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.) U.S. singer and songwriter. The son of a jazz pianist, he taught himself several instruments and formed his own bands as a teen¬ ager. At age 19 he released his first album, on which he played all the instruments. His second album, Prince (1979), was followed by many others, including the best-selling 1999 (1982), the soundtrack of the film Purple Rain (1983), in which he also starred, and Diamonds and Pearls (1991). In 1993 he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and became known as “the artist formerly known as Prince,” but in 2000 he resumed his previous name. In 2004 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
prince European title of rank, usually denoting a person exercising com¬ plete or almost complete sovereignty or a member of a royal family. The wife of a prince is a princess. In Britain, the title was not used until 1301, when Edward I invested his son, the future Edward II, as prince of Wales. From Edward Ill’s time, the king’s (or queen’s) eldest son and heir has usually been so invested.
Prince, Hal orig. Harold Smith Prince (b. Jan. 30, 1928, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. theatrical producer and director. He worked for the pro¬ ducer George Abbott before coproducing the successful musical The Pajama Game (1954). He went on to produce or coproduce over 30 hit musicals, including Damn Yankees (1955), West Side Story (1957), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), and Fiddler on the Roof( 1964). Frequently working with Stephen Sondheim, he won Tony Awards for his direction of the musicals Cabaret (1966), Company (1970), Follies (1971), Candide (1974), Sweeney Todd (1979), Evita (1979), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), and Show Boat (1995).
Prince Albert National Park Park, central Saskatchewan, Canada. Its main entrance is northwest of the city of Prince Albert. Established in 1927, it has an area of 1,496 sq mi (3,875 sq km) and is mostly wood¬ land and lakes, interlaced with streams and nature trails. It is a sanctuary for birds, moose, elk, caribou, and bears.
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1548 I Prince Edward Island ► Pripet River
Prince Edward Island Province (pop., 2000 est.: 138,900), Canada. One of the Maritime Provinces and Canada’s smallest province, it is an island in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, separated from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by the Northumberland Strait. Its capital is Charlot¬ tetown. Discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1534, it was used by Micmac Indians for fishing and hunting. It was colonized by the French in 1720, then ceded to the British in 1763. Known as the “Cradle of Confedera¬ tion,” it was the site of the Charlottetown Conference of 1864, which led to the federation of Canada. It became a province in 1873. It has good natural harbours on its eastern and southern sides. There has been little industrial development, and more than half of the island is used for agri¬ culture. Fishing and tourism are also of economic importance. In 1997 a bridge opened between Prince Edward Island and the mainland.
Prince of Wales Strait Narrow channel between Banks Island and northwestern Victoria Island in the southwestern Arctic Archipeago of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is about 170 mi (274 km) long and forms part of the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was discovered in 1850 by the Irish explorer Robert McClure.
Prince Rupert's Land See Rupert's Land
Prince William Sound Inlet of the Gulf of Aaska, southern Alaska, U.S. It lies east of the Kenai Peninsula and spans 90-100 mi (145-160 km). It was named by the British captain George Vancouver in 1778 to honour a son of George III. In 1989 one of the most disastrous oil spills in history occurred when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef and lost 10.9 million gallons of crude oil into the sound.
princeps Latin "first one," "leader" Unofficial title used by Roman emperors from Augustus (r. 27 bc-ad 14) to Diocletian (r. 284- 305), a period called the principate. The title originated during the Roman republic, when it was held by the leading member of the Senate. Its use by Augustus strengthened his claim to be the restorer of republican insti¬ tutions and virtues, though he and his successors were in fact autocrats. See also prince.
Princeton, Battles of Trenton and See Battles of Trenton and Prin¬ ceton
Princeton University Private university in Princeton, New Jersey, U.S., a traditional member of the Ivy League. Founded as the College of New Jersey in 1746, it is the fourth oldest university in the U.S. and one of the most prestigious. Woodrow Wilson served as university president (1902-10). In addition to an undergraduate college and a graduate school, Princeton has a school of engineering and applied science and a school of architecture and urban planning. Its Woodrow Wilson School of Pub¬ lic and International Affairs continues a long Princeton tradition of train¬ ing government officials. The university has admitted women since 1969.
Princip Vprent-sep\, Gavrilo (b. July 25, 1894, Obljaj, Bosnia—d. April 28, 1918, Theresienstadt, Austria) Serbian nationalist and assassin of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. A Bosnian Serb, he sought to unite the southern Slavic peoples and destroy Austro-Hungarian rule in the Bal¬ kans and was trained in terrorism by the Back Hand society. When the Austro-Hungarian archduke made an official visit to Sarajevo in June 1914, Princip shot him and his wife, Sophie. The assassinations precipi¬ tated World War I. Princip was sentenced to 20 years in prison, where he died after the amputation of his arm.
Principe See Sao Tome and Principe
Pringle, Sir John (b. April 10,1707, Stitchel, Roxburgh, Scot.—d. Jan. 18, 1782, London, Eng.) British physician. As physician general to the British armed forces (1740-48), he applied his knowledge to hospitals and army camps. In Observations on the Diseases of the Army (1752), he outlined procedures for hospital ventilation and camp sanitation. He rec¬ ognized the various forms of dysentery as one, equated hospital and jail fevers, and coined the term influenza. His suggestion that military hospi¬ tals be respected as sanctuaries by both sides in a conflict led to the estab¬ lishment of the Red Cross.
printed circuit Electrical device in which the wiring and certain com¬ ponents consist of a thin coat of electrically conductive material applied in a pattern on an insulating substrate. Printed circuits replaced conven¬ tional wiring after World War II in much electronic equipment, greatly reducing size and weight while improving reliability and uniformity over the hand-soldered circuits formerly used. They are commonly used to mount integrated circuits on boards for use as plug-in units in computers.
televisions, and other electronic devices. Mass-produced printed circuit boards allow automated assembly of electronic components, considerably reducing their cost.
printer, computer Electronic device that accepts text files or images from a computer and transfers them to a medium such as paper or film. It can be connected directly to the computer or indirectly via a network. Printers are classified as impact printers (in which the print medium is physically struck) and non-impact printers. Most impact printers are dot¬ matrix printers, which have a number of pins on the print head that emerge to form a character. Non-impact printers fall into three main categories: laser printers use a laser beam to attract toner to an area of the paper; ink-jet printers spray a jet of liquid ink; and thermal printers transfer wax- based ink or use heated pins to directly imprint an image on specially treated paper. Important printer characteristics include resolution (in dots per inch), speed (in sheets of paper printed per minute), colour (full-colour or black-and-white), and cache memory (which affects the speed at which a file can be printed).
printing Process for reproducing text and illustrations, traditionally by applying ink to paper under pressure, but today including various other methods. In modern commercial printing, three basic techniques are used. Letterpress printing relies on mechanical pressure to transfer a raised inked image to the surface to be printed. Gravure printing transfers ink from recessed cells of varying depths. In offset printing the printing and non¬ printing areas of the plate differ not in height but in wettability.